One episode of Star Trek showed us an aspect of Captain Kerk unprecedented before

“Star Trek: The Original Series” “Assession” is one of the most disturbed episodes in the show. It is actually one of the strongest episodes of Captain Kerk, allowing the character to face some recognized personal weaknesses, and in overcoming it, grows as a character.

Kirk (William Shatner) was suffering from defects, of course, but he was often photographed on “Star Trek” as he controlled his full college (most of the time), using his leadership instincts and his desire to bear the calculated risks to take advantage of any crisis. It can have a mood, but it usually caught itself before doing anything. In pop culture, Kirk has a good reputation for being reckless cowboy Who broke the basic guidance on the regular (often playing some quickly with Starfleet regulations), but reconsidering the old “Star Trek” episodes revealed that it was actually strict and wise. He even had a reputation for being a bookworm. Lieutenant Gary Mitchell (Gary Lukwood) described him as a “pile of legs with legs” in the episode, where no man has come before.

The “obsession” was a little different. It is an episode that Kirk was allowed to lose his wonderful loss – and for personal reasons, no less. It is one of the only times in the “Star Trek” that we see Kirk is made externally bad Driving decisions, to the point of criticizing his crew. The “obsession” explains that Kirk is still a guilt document due to a previous failure, and that it is still vulnerable to the unique payment. The “obsession” shows a strict and capable character under pressure, but in a way we can attach us to it. The episode makes Kirk more humane.

The “obsession” begins on the planet Argus X, where Kirk and many members of the Foundation crew perform a planetary survey. Unexpectedly, strange fog begins to leak from the rocks and appears to attack Starfleet officers. Kirk orders the crew to shoot their birds, but one of them hesitates, allowing the cloud to obtain it. It will be explained that the cloud is in fact a living smart creature that feeds iron with human blood. Dikronium cloud, because it is illogical, apparently cannot be stopped.

Kirk knows exactly what it is. He reveals that when he was lie on board USS Farragut, who served during the reign of Captain Garrovick, the monster that resembles the same cloud and his colleagues attacked him. Kirk saw something that absorbs blood from his citizens and kills his leader. Kirk tried to shoot it, but fear became better than him, and he hesitated. Finally, I fear existence, but not before he killed half of the Farajut crew. Since then, Kirk has carried a great deal of guilt with him, believing that his cheese costs his life. His meeting with the Dikonium cloud may be one of the reasons he suffered to be very brave.

But now, this feeling of guilt raises his ugly head. The cloud returned, and Kirk becomes obsessed with its extermination. Unusual, it’s panic. It controls the ship when Chicov (Walter Conig) It does not act quickly enough. Kirk is convinced that if he was shooting quickly enough, he can kill the cloud. Vibrant, Kirk orders the institution to remain in the region to exterminate the creature after he got an urgent mission to another planet to provide important viruses. This is very different, unlike Kirk.

Usually, when Kirk behaves largely from the character, his colleagues begin to doubt that he was replaced by Doppelgängr (an amazingly common event on “Star Trek”). He orders the survivors to their quarters, and relieves them of duty when they fail to launch their weapons on a cloud.

The fact that the beast is definitely symbolic. Feeling the guilt we carry with us is not applicable. We cannot attack it, because it has no body. It only floats around us like fog. Although the cloud is not very exciting visually – It is not a large -scale “Star Trek” monster Its inappropriate nature makes it an ideal metaphor for Kirk’s emotional condition. When we are guilty, our vision is cloudy.

Kirk ultimately learns, in its various attacks, that Phasers has no effect on the cloud creature. Kirk does not need guilty to not shoot quickly enough during his previous confrontation on Farragut, because he could not do anything. He was unable when facing the creature, and his actions have nothing to do with the feeding cycle. In fact, the creature can pass through shields, infiltrate into a tightly closed institution, and to continue chaos unabated.

Fortunately, Spok (Leonard Nimoy) is able to face the cloud, because his blood Vulkan has no iron. Kirk invites a comfortable officer to serve, and he seems to be forgiven. The only way to go out was knowledge, and a recognition that we could not always control the world around us. This is a real and useful lesson for life that viewers can take away with them.

Unfortunately, this is not a satisfactory cancellation of a science fiction series with a monster in it, so the scenario authors also dealt with a more useful end where Kirk and the son of his old captain, Lieutenant Garrovik (Stephen Brooks), detonated the creature with a special bomb. It is the end of Brusque for an emotionally smart episode. Trekkies tend to overlook the “obsession”, but it is actually vital to developing Kirk as a character. Sometimes, even the most powerful characters should face their demons.