ST:TOS The Naked Time

I don't know who came up with the title for this episode, but I can't think of any other episode off the top of my head that has a more misleading title than The Naked Time, or a funnier one when taken out of context. Sure, at one point Sulu takes his shirt off and chases men around with a sword, but it doesn't get as bad as the title would suggest. In reality, the title refers to the crew's inhibitions being stripped rather than their clothes, but let's move on, shall we?

The Enterprise approaches the planet that sounds like a bad sci-fi movie, 'Psi 2000', and the crew takes note of its impending disintegration. Spock takes an away team to the planet's surface, and discovers some frozen scientists who bear evidence of killing each other. Unknown to himself or the rest of the team, Tormolen catches supposedly what is some sort of virus in classic TOS fashion and brings it aboard the ship.

From there, we see the disease spread from person to person, as noted by suspenseful sounding music and the infected crew members furiously rubbing their hands. After feeling intense dread about the Enterprise's mission and saying things like "we shouldn't be out here", Tormolen falls ill and soon dies. McCoy is confused about the whole ordeal, and can only conclude that he has gone the way of Padme Amadala and simply lost the will to live.

What makes this scene even weirder is that this is supposedly Takei's favorite episode

But before anybody thinks of washing their hands, the disease gets out of control, and soon all heck breaks lose on the ship. This begins the most entertaining part of the episode, as we see crewman after crewman falling to the disease and Kirk trying to remain in control of the situation. After Sulu and Riley struggle to maintain orbit and are shoved off the bridge, they begin to create problems of their own. Their inhibitions have been lowered, so naturally Sulu appears topless in the corridor with a sword and starts chasing people around, and Riley locks himself in Engineering and starts singing an annoying tune over and over again. I half expected Kirk to insert a statement in his captain's log saying, "Note to self, remove all alcoholic beverages from the mess hall."

The Enterprise begins to fall closer to the planet, and after some time Scotty is able to retake engineering. A cold restart of the engines is the only possible way to escape in time, but it requires Spock, whom is now incapacitated, to perform some calculations. Kirk manages to make him regain control of his emotions, and by now Sulu has been cured by McCoy, so they barely manage to escape, as Kirk himself begins to fall victim to the disease and longs for a woman in his life.

As if we haven't had enough crazy things going on in this episode, the cold reboot actually goes better than expected, so much so that it actually knocks them three days back in time. I'm still trying to figure out how that one works, but at least they didn't evolve into salamanders.

"Dang, this is not looking anything like Nevada."

The thing I like the most about this episode is that it doesn't need a guest star villain or a subtle political statement to be full of value. It's just a simple story about the crew getting infected by an alien pathogen, and yet we see some classic character moments here. McCoy facing something he doesn't quite understand, Scotty running out of time and power, Spock struggling with his human half, Kirk trying to maintain command and save his ship, Uhura...monitoring stuff. There's so much going on here without the episode losing integrity that I have to give this one a high score.

Score: 9

Best Quote: "It is like nothing we've dealt with before."

Best Moment: Sulu chasing crew members with a sword.

Red Shirt Death Count: 1 (+0)