After a brief hiatus due to travel, work, and moving, the TrekQuesters are back this week to discuss the episode that originally introduced America to Star Trek: The Man Trap. The first Star Trek episode ever broadcast, The Man Trap features a hairy, suction cup-laden, shape-shifting creature that wreaks havoc with the minds (and hearts) of the Enterprise crew.
There’s a whole lotta lovin’ in this show, folks. Bones loves Nancy. Crater loves Nancy. Green loves a galactic go-go dancer. Uhura gives some love to Spock, then gets some back from a Swahili-speaking crewman. Rand gets love, or at least attention, from Green, a pink plant, and a gaggle of demeaning crewmen, and gives some love to Sulu by bringing him his dinner. It seems the only person to get absolutely no love in this episode is Kirk. Strange, huh?
This episode provides also some intriguing insights into the supporting characters of the show, informing us that McCoy, AKA Bones, is also AKA “Plum,” that Uhura is a self-described “illogical woman,” and that Sulu loves plants, particularly the five-fingered variety.
But at it’s core, this episode is about loneliness and desperation — a much more serious episode than most of the others we’ve seen so far. There are still a few humorous/ridiculous moments, of course, but as a whole The Man Trap is a darker form of Star Trek, even somewhat sad, and it left the TrekQuesters looking forward to some comic relief in the coming weeks.
Could you suck 40 teaspoons of salt? Have you ever visited Wrigley’s Pleasure Planet? Would Kirk call your ex-girlfriends “handsome”? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or send us an email at StarTrekQuest@gmail.com.
Listen to this episode now:
Or you can download the MP3 file here.
