The Immunity Syndrome

DVD, Star Trek S2 (The Immunity Syndrome)

Sulu's missing once again (we had a little game where if he was in it, I would get the Malteser, and if he wasn't, the other viewer would. He didn't seem to be in it, until there was a scene in the briefing room, and there was an asian man sitting with his back to the screen. Finally the briefing ended and he got up to reveal... it wasn't Sulu, the Malteser lost!). Mr. Kyle was sitting in Sulu's position (I liked the bit where Chekov takes over Spock's station, and who should replace him, but the guy that always used to sit in that seat in S1. It always amazes me how quick these crewmen appear immediately the main character vacates their usual position, and zip out of the chair if they come back, as if they know they've done something cheeky!).

But back to the point, I was sure Kirk kept calling him Mr. Cowl, but in the credits it definitely says Kyle. On the subject of minor crewmen, Mr. Leslie's in the background looking good for a dead guy. When McCoy tells Kirk they're all dying, I wanted to shout out "what about Mr. Leslie? You put him back together!"Maybe it was his twin?

A slow episode, that reminded me of the first film - a long, dangerous, slightly ponderous journey, with lots of looking at the screen or writing logs, or explaining what's happening, as they voyage into a giant creature. The concept that all life in our galaxy could become merely a virus to this huge creature as it's cells multiply was fascinating. There were also Star Trek II parallels, with Spock sacrificing himself to save the ship, only this time he survived. Spock and McCoy's feud is great, the best line ever being "Thank you Captain McCoy". The best moments of the episode come from their banter.

Kirk is again not himself, like last week's episode, but this time it is due to tiredness after they come from an exhausting mission. Chapel is in the background giving crewmembers jabs, another little nod to continuity, something that extends the series and its believability rather more. Perhaps more should have been made of the fact they were all slowly dying, as it's mentioned, then seemingly forgotten, and would have been a source of fear and unease, if people could be collapsing at their posts, at any moment. And the actual virus creature was very creative, the Enterprise really looked like it was there, where sometimes the ship isn't believably there, or there are mistakes (such as the scenery blending into the ship in 'Tomorrow is Yesterday'). Very eerie to have no stars out there, and a relief when they got back to the little points of light.

Interesting to hear of a fully Vulcan starship, crewed by 400 of them, and brings up some points, such as how come they get to be Vulcans alone. 'Enterprise' later explained this - to sensitive Vulcan noses, humans stink. You can get away with putting one Vulcan on a human ship, but the other way round... think of the chaos to their ordered lives. You sort of imagine that life on an all Vulcan ship would be perfectly courteous, completely disciplined, strictly silent, except for logical and necessary speech, and extremely efficient. Wouldn't mind a TV series or even an episode set aboard a ship like that!

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