The Man Trap

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Star Trek: TOS episode
"The Man Trap"

The M-113 Creature, disguised as Nancy, attacks Kirk
Episode no. 1
Prod. code 006
Remastered no. 43
Airdate September 8, 1966
Writer(s) George Clayton Johnson
Director Marc Daniels
Guest star(s) Jeanne Bal
Sharon Gimpel
Alfred Ryder
Michael Zaslow
Bruce Watson (actor)
John Arndt (actor)
Larry Anthony (actor)
Vince Howard
Francine Pyne
Sharon Gimpel
Eddie Paskey
William Blackburn
Frank da Vinci
Garrison True
Bob Baker (actor)
Budd Albright
Jeannie Shepard
Year 2266
Stardate 1513.1
Episode chronology
Previous "The Cage"
Next "Charlie X"

"The Man Trap" is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It originally aired on Thursday, September 8, 1966, and was the first episode to be shown on NBC. It is episode #1, production #6, and was written by George Clayton Johnson, and directed by Marc Daniels.

Although it was first aired, it was not the first produced (the pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and several regular episodes had been produced before it). The current official timeline considers "Where No Man Has Gone Before" to be set first.

Overview: An illusory, shapeshifting, salt-hungry creature terrorizes the crew of the Enterprise.

Contents

[edit] Plot

On stardate 1513.1, the Federation Starship USS Enterprise, commanded by Captain James T. Kirk, arrives at the planet M113 and sends down a landing party to check up on scientist Dr. Bob Crater and his wife Nancy (Dr. McCoy's old flame), who have been living alone on the planet for five years.

Without realizing it, each member of the landing party sees Nancy according to the power she exercises over their imaginations. For Crewman Darnell, Nancy resembles a voluptuous blonde he had met on Wrigley's Pleasure Planet. For McCoy, she presents herself as she was 10 years earlier, and to Captain Kirk she appears to be the same woman McCoy sees, albeit with more mature qualities.

The couple appears to be in good health, however, Dr. Crater wants to cut the visit short and appears to rush things along to get rid of the landing party as soon as possible. Before their departure, he also requests that they provide to him additional supplies of salt.

Soon thereafter, Nancy, in the guise of the voluptuous blonde, lures Crewman Darnell away from the others to a secluded place amid the rocks. When Darnell fails to respond to Kirk's call, Kirk leads the landing party in search of him. They soon come upon Darnell's lifeless body, his face mottled with strange annular blotches. In the dead man's mouth Dr. McCoy discovers a plant-like substance which Nancy calls a "Borgia" plant containing a substance similar to deadly nightshade, an alkaloid poison. Under questioning, Nancy claims to have warned Darnell when she saw him tasting the plant, but was too late. McCoy remarks upon the oddity of there being no trace of poisoning in Darnell's body, which, astonishingly, lacks all trace of salt.

Kirk orders an additional security team to come down to the planet and begin an investigation. Shortly after their arrival, the creature kills off Crewmen Sturgeon and Green. Assuming Green's appearance, it joins Kirk and McCoy who soon discover Sturgeon's lifeless, salt-depleted corpse. Kirk, McCoy, and "Green" return to the Enterprise.

Once aboard, "Green" makes his rounds first entering Lt. Sulu's botanical laboratory after observing a salt shaker on the lunch tray brought to him by Yeoman Rand. "Green" hovers silently near the tray until startled by the shrieking of Sulu's pet plant. Catching sight of Lt. Uhura, the creature then transforms itself into a handsome black man and attempts to lure the lieutenant into its grasp, addressing her in Swahili, but a call from the bridge dispels the enchantment in which Uhura finds herself held.

Later, while scanning planet M113, Mr. Spock discovers no other life-forms save for Dr. Crater's. Surmising that Nancy must have somehow beamed aboard the Enterprise, Kirk orders a search for her. With the search underway, the creature manages to kill another crew member, then pays a visit to Dr. McCoy, appearing once again as Nancy. After the doctor falls asleep, the creature assumes McCoy's appearance.

Once again on the planet, Kirk and Spock discover Crewman Green's body and question Dr. Crater. Under pressure of their interrogation, Crater confesses that years before, the last member of a race of beings indigenous to the planet killed his wife. The being not only has illusion powers that allow it to appear in the minds of the viewer as something other than it really is, but it also an insatiable appetite for salt which it will kill to appease.

Kirk returns to the Enterprise along with Dr. Crater. Crater immediately recognizes the creature under McCoy's appearance, but does not alert Kirk. The two leave the room together, supposedly for McCoy to apply truth serum, but Mr. Spock accompanies them. The creature attacks them both, killing Dr. Crater, but Spock survives unharmed due to his unpalatable Vulcan physiology.

Awake, McCoy finds Nancy before him begging for his help, though to others she appears in her true form — a monstrous, misshapen and bulky creature with green flaky skin and a large, elliptical mouth. Still seeing her as Nancy, McCoy prevents Captain Kirk from trying to kill the creature. He then watches as it begins to suck the salt from Kirk's body. Spock returns and manages to free Kirk from the creature's clutches and tries to convince McCoy that he is not seeing Nancy. Spock punches the creature solidly, but it knocks him across the room turning once again to the helpless Kirk. The creature reverts to its true form as it begins to feast on Kirk, but freed from the illusion, McCoy kills it with a shot from a phaser.

[edit] 40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered and aired September 29, 2007 as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered version of "The Conscience of the King" and followed a week later by the remastered version of "What Are Little Girls Made Of?". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

  • The planet M-113 has been given a more realistic appearance.
  • The opening scene showing a slow pan of the live action M-113 surface set has been replaced by a panning CGI matte painting with more detail given to the ruined structures and landscape.

[edit] Notes

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Mr. Spock says his home planet of Vulcan has no moon.
  • NBC originally planned to begin Star Trek, which it scheduled to air on Thursdays at 8pm EST, on September 15, 1966 with the pilot episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Sometime before the beginning of the 1966 Fall season, the network decided to air a special preview of the series a week early. It is believed that "The Man Trap" was chosen to air first because it offered the best glimpse into several of the main characters (e.g., McCoy's past, Spock's home planet, Sulu's interest in botany) of any of the episodes filmed at that time (or, more skeptically, that it was chosen as the least "cerebral" episode, with a "conventional" plot about hunting down a hideous murdering monster).
  • The episode received an unauthorised Turkish remake called Turist Ömer in Star Trek. [1]
  • The Salt Monster costume later appeared in Trelane's castle in "The Squire of Gothos." It is in an alcove near the front door.

[edit] External links

Last produced:
"The Enemy Within"		 Star Trek: TOS episodes
Season 1		 Next produced:
"The Naked Time"
Last transmitted:
first episode transmitted		 Next transmitted:
"Charlie X"