Post by magicmuggle01 on Dec 6, 2018 10:06:31 GMT
While the Enterprise searches for the rare cure to a deadly disease, the landing party is confronted by a reclusive man who is willing to kill to preserve his privacy.
Summary
Its crew suffering from the deadly Rigelian fever, the USS Enterprise pays an emergency call on a supposedly barren planet, Holberg 917G, to gather ryetalyn, a rare element that is the key ingredient of the antidote. Beaming down to the planet, Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are attacked by a hovering robot called M-4. An old man, Flint, arrives to halt the robot's attack, but insists to Kirk that the landing party leave at once or die.
Act One
Flint's impressive home.
Kirk asks Flint to reconsider but Flint still refuses. As a result, Kirk flips open his communicator orders that Scott have the Enterprise lock phasers onto their coordinates. When the situation seems completely hopeless, Flint relents and gives Kirk two hours to obtain the ryetalyn. Flint orders M-4 to gather the ryetalyn. In the meantime, Flint invites the landing party to his impressive home.
At Flint's home, the landing party find what appears to be authentic but undiscovered specimens of Earth art, such as a score by Brahms and paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. They also come across a Gutenberg Bible and several works of Reginald Pollack. When M-4 returns with the ryetalyn, Kirk prepares to beam back up to the ship but ultimately accepts Flint's offer to process the rare element. It was at this time that Flint introduces his beautiful, highly intelligent, but ultimately enigmatic ward named Rayna, whose beauty immediately attracts Kirk's attention.
Act Two
Flint introduces Rayna to McCoy and Spock. Her first time encountering a Vulcan, she wishes to discuss field density with him at a later time. Flint explains that Rayna's parents were in his employ and died in an accident. They placed her in his custody and has been with him ever since. She explains that the landing party are the only men she has ever seen, which McCoy replies, "the misfortune of men everywhere and our privilege." Flint seems to encourage encounters between Kirk and Rayna, such as having them play billiards or having them dance while Spock plays his piano.
Kirk recalls to Flint that he had said something earlier about savagery and wonders when was the last time Flint had visited Earth. Flint tells him that Kirk will probably say that it is no longer cruel but he notes that the Enterprise itself is "bristling" with weapons and its mission is to colonize, exploit, and destroy if necessary. Kirk replies that their missions are peaceful and their weapons are used strictly for defense. He notes that if they were truly barbarians, they would not have asked for the ryetalyn, they would have simply taken it. He recalls that Flint's own introduction to the landing party lacked a certain benevolence when they arrived.
Kirk is becoming closer to Rayna while they play a game of billiards, and while she teaches him some pointers on the game, Kirk tells Flint that to be Human is to be complex, the species cannot avoid ugliness from within or without. Meanwhile, McCoy returns with the report while Kirk and Rayna are dancing. He reports that the ryetalyn contains irillium in quantities sufficient enough to render the antidote useless. Flint offers to go with M-4 and collect more samples and to screen them himself. He offers to let McCoy join him.
Later, Kirk enters Flint's laboratory. He is looking around when Rayna enters. He walks over to her and notes that the room became lonely without her. She tells him that loneliness is "a thirst. A flower dying in the desert," something Flint had said to her earlier. Kirk does not understand what she is talking about and asks what is behind a closed door in the lab. Rayna does not know, as Flint has told her she is never to enter it. Kirk asks why she is here then, and she tells him she often comes to this place when she is troubled. Kirk asks why she is troubled and also if she is happy here with Flint. She says Flint is the kindest man in the galaxy, but if so, Kirk wonders, why is she troubled? As Kirk leans in to give her a kiss, M-4 arrives and prepares to attack him.
Act Three
Rayna orders the mechanism to stop, but it does not. Just as it prepares to fire on Kirk, Spock enters and vaporizes it with his phaser. Later, Flint tells Kirk that the robot was programmed to defend the house and its occupants; it did not anticipate Kirk looking around in the lab. However, another M-4 unit arrives in Flint's living room. He states that it is too useful a device to be without. Flint notes that Kirk should be thankful that he did not attack him, as he has twice the captain's strength.but Kirk remarks that, as Flint had said earlier, it would be an interesting test of power. Rayna is pleased that Kirk did not die in the incident and Flint states that death, when unnecessary, is tragic. He orders that Kirk wait in his study, "patiently, safely," while McCoy analyzes the quality of the ryetalyn in the lab. He reminds Kirk that his defense systems operate automatically and not always in accordance with his wishes.
As Flint and Rayna leave, Kirk and Spock realize Flint loves Rayna and is exhibiting jealousy towards Kirk. However, Kirk points out that Flint seemed to want Rayna and Kirk to participate in activities together, which Spock notes seems to defy male logic as he understands it. Kirk contacts the Enterprise and asks for a status on the progression of the Rigelian fever. Scott tells him that the fever has infected nearly everyone on board and they are now operating with a skeleton crew. Kirk also asks for the report on a computer search on both Flint and Rayna. Uhura informs him that there is absolutely no past records of Flint, and later, of Rayna.
Kirk and Spock realize that Flint wishes for them to linger for reasons unknown. In another room, Rayna and Flint are watching Kirk and Spock. Rayna tells him that she could not have summoned M-4, as she was not frightened. She believes Flint had sent the robot there to kill Kirk, which he vehemently denies. He asks her to say her farewells before Kirk leaves. Rayna sees Kirk again, and the captain tells Spock he will see him in the lab later. She tells Kirk that she has come to say goodbye, but he does not want to. He kisses her, asks her to leave with him and leave Flint. Shortly after, Rayna runs away when Kirk tells her she loves him, not Flint.
Later, in Flint's lab, Kirk meets up with McCoy and Spock. They discover Flint has been hiding the processed ryetalyn behind a closed door. In their search for the antidote, they enter a room containing earlier versions of Rayna; she is an android.
Act Four
Flint then arrives and reveals his other secret; he is an ancient immortal, born almost four millennia before Christ, in 3834 BC. Over the course of his long lifetime, Flint has taken on many names, such as Brahms and da Vinci. Eventually, he acquired enough wealth to purchase Holberg 917G and work on a perfect, ultimate – and equally immortal – woman. Kirk had provided the final step in her creation, stirring her emotions to life. Now, Flint prepares to put Kirk and the Enterprise in suspension for a thousand years or more, as Rayna's emotions turn to him. Despite Flint's intent to keep her creation a secret, Rayna enters the room and learns the truth, forcing Flint to release the ship.
"Forget".
Flint and Kirk fight over Rayna, stopped only by the emergence of Rayna's emotions. However, her new feelings and suddenly having to choose between Flint and Kirk overwhelm her, and she shuts down. Back aboard ship, the plague is stopped and Kirk finally falls asleep in his quarters after ruefully reflecting on what had happened. McCoy enters and informs Spock that the full tricorder readings on Flint indicate he is aging and will eventually die of natural causes. By leaving Earth, he had sacrificed his immortality. After commenting about love and Spock's eschewing of that emotion, the doctor looks at Kirk and wishes he could forget Rayna. As McCoy leaves, Spock moves over to his sleeping captain, places one hand on Kirk's temple, and whispers, "Forget".
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.7. The Enterprise is in the grip of a raging epidemic. Three crewmen have died and twenty-three others have been struck down by Rigelian fever. In order to combat the illness, Dr. McCoy needs large quantities of ryetalyn, which is the only known antidote for the fever. Our sensors have picked up sufficient quantities of pure ryetalyn on a small planet in the Omega system. We are beaming down to secure this urgently needed material."
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.75. Have I committed a grave error in accepting Flint's word that he would deliver the antidote to us? The precious time I have let pass may result in disaster for the Enterprise and her crew."
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.8. We have accomplished our mission and have the ryetalyn ready to combat the epidemic aboard the Enterprise. But we have also discovered our benefactor's secret. He has created the perfect woman. Her only flaw… she's not Human."
Memorable quotes.
"If you do not leave voluntarily, I have the power to force you to leave – or kill you where you stand."
- Flint, to Kirk
"Are you a student of history, sir?"
"I am."
- Spock and Flint, as Flint recalls the bubonic plague
"What is loneliness?"
"It is thirst. It is a flower dying in the desert."
- Rayna and Flint
"Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan?"
- McCoy to Kirk, after pouring some Saurian brandy
"Flint is my teacher. You are the only other men I've ever seen."
"The misfortune of men everywhere. And our privilege."
- Rayna and McCoy, after they meet
"To be Human is to be complex. You can't avoid a little ugliness from within and from without."
- Kirk, to Flint
"I have married a hundred times, Captain. Selected, loved, cherished. Caressed a smoothness, inhaled a brief fragrance. Then age, death, the taste of dust."
- Flint, on why he created Rayna
"At her age, I rather enjoyed errors with no noticeable damage."
- McCoy, countering Flint musings that Rayna's intellectual cultivation is a priority to avoid errors and wasting time in unprofitable pursuits.
"I know death better than any man. I have tossed enemies into his grasp. And I know mercy. Your crew is not dead, but suspended."
- Flint, to Kirk
"Stay out of this! We're fighting over a woman!"
"No, you're not. For she is not."
- Kirk and Spock, during Kirk's fight with Flint
"She's Human. Down to the last blood cell, she's Human. Down to the last thought, hope, aspiration, emotion, she's Human. The Human spirit is free."
- Kirk, after Rayna stops the fight
"I was not Human. Now I love. I love."
- Rayna's last words
"The joys of love made her Human. And the agonies of love destroyed her."
- Spock, on Rayna's death
"A very old and lonely man. And a young and lonely man. We put on a pretty poor show, didn't we?"
- Kirk to Spock, lamenting Rayna's death
"You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures, the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know simply because the word love isn't written into your book."
- McCoy, to Spock
"Forget."
- Spock, using a mind meld to ease Kirk's pain
Summary
Its crew suffering from the deadly Rigelian fever, the USS Enterprise pays an emergency call on a supposedly barren planet, Holberg 917G, to gather ryetalyn, a rare element that is the key ingredient of the antidote. Beaming down to the planet, Kirk, McCoy, and Spock are attacked by a hovering robot called M-4. An old man, Flint, arrives to halt the robot's attack, but insists to Kirk that the landing party leave at once or die.
Act One
Flint's impressive home.
Kirk asks Flint to reconsider but Flint still refuses. As a result, Kirk flips open his communicator orders that Scott have the Enterprise lock phasers onto their coordinates. When the situation seems completely hopeless, Flint relents and gives Kirk two hours to obtain the ryetalyn. Flint orders M-4 to gather the ryetalyn. In the meantime, Flint invites the landing party to his impressive home.
At Flint's home, the landing party find what appears to be authentic but undiscovered specimens of Earth art, such as a score by Brahms and paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. They also come across a Gutenberg Bible and several works of Reginald Pollack. When M-4 returns with the ryetalyn, Kirk prepares to beam back up to the ship but ultimately accepts Flint's offer to process the rare element. It was at this time that Flint introduces his beautiful, highly intelligent, but ultimately enigmatic ward named Rayna, whose beauty immediately attracts Kirk's attention.
Act Two
Flint introduces Rayna to McCoy and Spock. Her first time encountering a Vulcan, she wishes to discuss field density with him at a later time. Flint explains that Rayna's parents were in his employ and died in an accident. They placed her in his custody and has been with him ever since. She explains that the landing party are the only men she has ever seen, which McCoy replies, "the misfortune of men everywhere and our privilege." Flint seems to encourage encounters between Kirk and Rayna, such as having them play billiards or having them dance while Spock plays his piano.
Kirk recalls to Flint that he had said something earlier about savagery and wonders when was the last time Flint had visited Earth. Flint tells him that Kirk will probably say that it is no longer cruel but he notes that the Enterprise itself is "bristling" with weapons and its mission is to colonize, exploit, and destroy if necessary. Kirk replies that their missions are peaceful and their weapons are used strictly for defense. He notes that if they were truly barbarians, they would not have asked for the ryetalyn, they would have simply taken it. He recalls that Flint's own introduction to the landing party lacked a certain benevolence when they arrived.
Kirk is becoming closer to Rayna while they play a game of billiards, and while she teaches him some pointers on the game, Kirk tells Flint that to be Human is to be complex, the species cannot avoid ugliness from within or without. Meanwhile, McCoy returns with the report while Kirk and Rayna are dancing. He reports that the ryetalyn contains irillium in quantities sufficient enough to render the antidote useless. Flint offers to go with M-4 and collect more samples and to screen them himself. He offers to let McCoy join him.
Later, Kirk enters Flint's laboratory. He is looking around when Rayna enters. He walks over to her and notes that the room became lonely without her. She tells him that loneliness is "a thirst. A flower dying in the desert," something Flint had said to her earlier. Kirk does not understand what she is talking about and asks what is behind a closed door in the lab. Rayna does not know, as Flint has told her she is never to enter it. Kirk asks why she is here then, and she tells him she often comes to this place when she is troubled. Kirk asks why she is troubled and also if she is happy here with Flint. She says Flint is the kindest man in the galaxy, but if so, Kirk wonders, why is she troubled? As Kirk leans in to give her a kiss, M-4 arrives and prepares to attack him.
Act Three
Rayna orders the mechanism to stop, but it does not. Just as it prepares to fire on Kirk, Spock enters and vaporizes it with his phaser. Later, Flint tells Kirk that the robot was programmed to defend the house and its occupants; it did not anticipate Kirk looking around in the lab. However, another M-4 unit arrives in Flint's living room. He states that it is too useful a device to be without. Flint notes that Kirk should be thankful that he did not attack him, as he has twice the captain's strength.but Kirk remarks that, as Flint had said earlier, it would be an interesting test of power. Rayna is pleased that Kirk did not die in the incident and Flint states that death, when unnecessary, is tragic. He orders that Kirk wait in his study, "patiently, safely," while McCoy analyzes the quality of the ryetalyn in the lab. He reminds Kirk that his defense systems operate automatically and not always in accordance with his wishes.
As Flint and Rayna leave, Kirk and Spock realize Flint loves Rayna and is exhibiting jealousy towards Kirk. However, Kirk points out that Flint seemed to want Rayna and Kirk to participate in activities together, which Spock notes seems to defy male logic as he understands it. Kirk contacts the Enterprise and asks for a status on the progression of the Rigelian fever. Scott tells him that the fever has infected nearly everyone on board and they are now operating with a skeleton crew. Kirk also asks for the report on a computer search on both Flint and Rayna. Uhura informs him that there is absolutely no past records of Flint, and later, of Rayna.
Kirk and Spock realize that Flint wishes for them to linger for reasons unknown. In another room, Rayna and Flint are watching Kirk and Spock. Rayna tells him that she could not have summoned M-4, as she was not frightened. She believes Flint had sent the robot there to kill Kirk, which he vehemently denies. He asks her to say her farewells before Kirk leaves. Rayna sees Kirk again, and the captain tells Spock he will see him in the lab later. She tells Kirk that she has come to say goodbye, but he does not want to. He kisses her, asks her to leave with him and leave Flint. Shortly after, Rayna runs away when Kirk tells her she loves him, not Flint.
Later, in Flint's lab, Kirk meets up with McCoy and Spock. They discover Flint has been hiding the processed ryetalyn behind a closed door. In their search for the antidote, they enter a room containing earlier versions of Rayna; she is an android.
Act Four
Flint then arrives and reveals his other secret; he is an ancient immortal, born almost four millennia before Christ, in 3834 BC. Over the course of his long lifetime, Flint has taken on many names, such as Brahms and da Vinci. Eventually, he acquired enough wealth to purchase Holberg 917G and work on a perfect, ultimate – and equally immortal – woman. Kirk had provided the final step in her creation, stirring her emotions to life. Now, Flint prepares to put Kirk and the Enterprise in suspension for a thousand years or more, as Rayna's emotions turn to him. Despite Flint's intent to keep her creation a secret, Rayna enters the room and learns the truth, forcing Flint to release the ship.
"Forget".
Flint and Kirk fight over Rayna, stopped only by the emergence of Rayna's emotions. However, her new feelings and suddenly having to choose between Flint and Kirk overwhelm her, and she shuts down. Back aboard ship, the plague is stopped and Kirk finally falls asleep in his quarters after ruefully reflecting on what had happened. McCoy enters and informs Spock that the full tricorder readings on Flint indicate he is aging and will eventually die of natural causes. By leaving Earth, he had sacrificed his immortality. After commenting about love and Spock's eschewing of that emotion, the doctor looks at Kirk and wishes he could forget Rayna. As McCoy leaves, Spock moves over to his sleeping captain, places one hand on Kirk's temple, and whispers, "Forget".
Log entries
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.7. The Enterprise is in the grip of a raging epidemic. Three crewmen have died and twenty-three others have been struck down by Rigelian fever. In order to combat the illness, Dr. McCoy needs large quantities of ryetalyn, which is the only known antidote for the fever. Our sensors have picked up sufficient quantities of pure ryetalyn on a small planet in the Omega system. We are beaming down to secure this urgently needed material."
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.75. Have I committed a grave error in accepting Flint's word that he would deliver the antidote to us? The precious time I have let pass may result in disaster for the Enterprise and her crew."
"Captain's log, stardate 5843.8. We have accomplished our mission and have the ryetalyn ready to combat the epidemic aboard the Enterprise. But we have also discovered our benefactor's secret. He has created the perfect woman. Her only flaw… she's not Human."
Memorable quotes.
"If you do not leave voluntarily, I have the power to force you to leave – or kill you where you stand."
- Flint, to Kirk
"Are you a student of history, sir?"
"I am."
- Spock and Flint, as Flint recalls the bubonic plague
"What is loneliness?"
"It is thirst. It is a flower dying in the desert."
- Rayna and Flint
"Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan?"
- McCoy to Kirk, after pouring some Saurian brandy
"Flint is my teacher. You are the only other men I've ever seen."
"The misfortune of men everywhere. And our privilege."
- Rayna and McCoy, after they meet
"To be Human is to be complex. You can't avoid a little ugliness from within and from without."
- Kirk, to Flint
"I have married a hundred times, Captain. Selected, loved, cherished. Caressed a smoothness, inhaled a brief fragrance. Then age, death, the taste of dust."
- Flint, on why he created Rayna
"At her age, I rather enjoyed errors with no noticeable damage."
- McCoy, countering Flint musings that Rayna's intellectual cultivation is a priority to avoid errors and wasting time in unprofitable pursuits.
"I know death better than any man. I have tossed enemies into his grasp. And I know mercy. Your crew is not dead, but suspended."
- Flint, to Kirk
"Stay out of this! We're fighting over a woman!"
"No, you're not. For she is not."
- Kirk and Spock, during Kirk's fight with Flint
"She's Human. Down to the last blood cell, she's Human. Down to the last thought, hope, aspiration, emotion, she's Human. The Human spirit is free."
- Kirk, after Rayna stops the fight
"I was not Human. Now I love. I love."
- Rayna's last words
"The joys of love made her Human. And the agonies of love destroyed her."
- Spock, on Rayna's death
"A very old and lonely man. And a young and lonely man. We put on a pretty poor show, didn't we?"
- Kirk to Spock, lamenting Rayna's death
"You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to. The ecstasies, the miseries, the broken rules, the desperate chances, the glorious failures, the glorious victories. All of these things you'll never know simply because the word love isn't written into your book."
- McCoy, to Spock
"Forget."
- Spock, using a mind meld to ease Kirk's pain
