In 1966, I was 9 years old. My parents would not let me watch this new, risque science fiction TV show and sent me to bed when it came on. I did not become a Sci Fi fan until I was in my early 20s. At that time, late 70s, Star Trek was a classic and we could watch the re-runs on TV. However, I never watched the series in order — until now.

Earlier, I wrote a post about The Cage, the pilot. Before this year, I had not watched the actual pilot and only saw what had been included in The Menagerie. I thought the Menagerie was the first episode shown. Imagine my surprise to find out it was The Man Trap. Ok, I should turn in my Trekie card now. But instead, will continue on, watching each episode with new eyes in order of how they were aired.

Even though I do consider myself a Trek fan, I don’t have all the star dates memorized, nor have I read all the lore about the series. I simply enjoyed the show and if there were re-runs on TV, they would be my go-to.

The Plot

The TV audience would not have seen The Cage; The Man Trap becomes their first impression of Star Trek. They would not have known that the first officer had originally been Number One, played by Majel Barrett. Nor would they know that William Shatner was not the original captain of the Enterprise.

The audience sees the bridge, with Mr Spock, Leonard Nimoy, in command and William Shatner’s voice explaining their mission is to perform routine medical exams of archaeologists on M-113. He adds the sub-plot that Nancy Crater is the woman who “got away”, the lost love of Dr. McCoy. Kirk, McCoy, and Darnell comprise the landing party.

They enter a house that reminds me of a mix between Roman architecture and Native American Pueblos, only a bit more technology. Nancy appears. McCoy sees a young woman. Kirk sees an older woman. Darnell sees a girl from a “pleasure planet”. Kirk tells the young officer to wait outside for his impropriety. Maybe this is what my parent’s thought was too risque?

Nancy leaves to find her husband. She appears as the pleasure planet girl outside and with a swing of her hips as she walks away, lures the young Darnell to his death.

Professor Crater appears in the house. He tells Kirk and McCoy of their need for salt and is very adamant they don’t need the Federation messing in their business. They hear Nancy screaming and find her standing over Darnell. Kirk decides to transport up to the ship to conduct the investigation. Nancy asks for salt.

Ok, we’re getting the idea the Craters want salt. We have this woman who appears differently to each of the landing party. One of the landing party is dead. The Plot Thickens!

Cut to the bridge and we are introduced to Uhura. We also get introduced to the Vulcan culture. Remember, no one watching knows Spock is a Vulcan or anything about their culture. Spock tells Uhura that Vulcan has no lazy evenings when the moon is full; Vulcan has no moon.

After this interchange, they are notified the landing party is beaming up with one dead. Spock acknowledges the notification. Uhura admonishes Spock for his lack of feeling. “For all you know it could be the Captain. He’s the closest person you have to a friend.”

Krik, McCoy, and Darnell are transported up. McCoy performs his investigation on what killed him. Spock researches the Borga plant. In the medical facilities, McCoy explains to Kirk that Darnell should not be dead. Spock calls in from the bridge. We see an ear piece, some new space age technology in his ear, and a video conference where Spock explains the borga plant is deadly, but does not have the red-ring affect seen on Darnell.

McCoy begins to reminisce about Nancy and Kirk fires off for him to figure out what happened to Darnell. He brisk and abrupt. McCoy gets back to work and figures out Darnell was killed by an extraction of all the salt in his body. Kirk goes back down with McCoy, Sturgeon, and Green to get some answers. Sturgeon is told to get a plant sample and Green is told to find Nancy. Kirk and McCoy confront Crater who does not want to leave the planet. When Kirk turns his back on Crater, he runs off.

McCoy and Kirk chase after Crater and find Sturgeon dead with the same red rings. They call out for Green. We see Nancy standing over Green’s dead body. Green has the same red rings. We see Nancy change shape to appear as Green. She then walks up to Kirk and McCoy telling them she had been searching the ruins. They beam up to the ship to perform a search using their equipment, which is more efficient than searching by foot.

The creature, in the form of Green, is now on the ship and able to hunt for salt. Enter Yeoman Janice Rand. He follows her sniffing at the salt on her tray. We see an interesting exchange between Yeoman Rand and some male crew members who ask if the tray is for them. She quips back and walks on. They ogle after her and make comments about “Wouldn’t you like to have that as your personal Yeoman?”

Green follows her into Sulu’s quarters, spooks one of Sulu’s plants and runs out. He encounters Uhura who is alone in the corridor. He changes shape and approaches her. They exchange words and he begins to hypnotize her. We see the prey paralysis before the salt extraction. Even the call for her to report to the bridge does not break the spell. Yet when Yoeman Rand and Sulu leave his quarters the spell is broken and she hears the call, then reports to the bridge.

Meanwhile on the bridge, Kirk is eating the same colored cubes for dinner that Sulu had. I guess 23rd century dinners are not meatloaf and mashed potatoes. Spock informs Kirk there is only one person on the planet within 100 miles. Kirk and Spock beam down.

We have a couple of story lines going now… on the ship and on the planet. On the ship, Yeoman Rand and Sulu find a crewman dead, red rings on his face. Kirk and Spock are on the planet and find Carter, who does not want to talk to them. Krik gets a call from the ship about the dead crewman. Spock has moved off and finds Green. Kirk puts 2 and 2 together, calls the ship for General Quarters Security Condition 3, Intruder Alert.

The alert spooks the creature, who finds itself at McCoy’s quarters. It changes to Nancy’s shape and enters McCoy’s quarters. McCoy still enamored with Nancy does not question what she is doing on the ship. He’s been trying to sleep, she tells him to take the sleeping pill. He does. She changes to his shape. A Medical Alert is called, she changes to McCoy’s image and joins the search on the bridge.

Down on the planet, Kirk and Spock flank Crater. Spock distracts. Kirk stuns. They get the truth from Crater. Nancy is dead. The person they see as Nancy is the creature, the last of it’s kind.

With the truth out, Crater has been transported to the Enterprise. In a conference room, Kirk, Spock, Rand, Uhura, Crater, and the Creature as McCoy are discussing the strategy. Kirk pushes Crater to help them. He refuses. They contemplate truth serum. McCoy agrees. Spock accompanies McCoy and Crater to Sick bay.

Captain Kirk to the dispensary. Captain Kirk to the dispensary. Kirk running through the corridors. In Sick Bay, Spock is on the table. The creature as McCoy had attacked them. Spock suspected McCoy was the creature. Yeoman Rand sees Crater, dead. Killed by the creature. At this point, the body count is 5 (Darnell, Sturgeon, Green, the Crewman in the corridor, and Crater). We also learn that Spok’s blood is different from humans. The ears were a give away, but we are certain now, he’s not human.

The creature runs back to McCoy’s quarters, changes to Nancy and wakes him up. Hysterical, she tells him they are trying to kill her. Enter Kirk. He tells McCoy she is the creature. McCoy refuses to move aside. Kirk holds out salt tablets, taunting her like calling an animal to dinner. McCoy grabs Kirk’s phaser. She grabs the salt. McCoy stares in disbelief as Nancy hypnotizes Kirk to extract the salt from his body. Spock runs in. Shoot it!

Spock shoves the creature away from Kirk and double fists it back and forth. “if this were Nancy, could she take this?” The creature backhands Spock across the room. Kirk is still in a hypnotic state. Nancy moves to Kirk and changes to her true form. Only when Kirk howls in pain does McCoy shoot it. It takes a second phaser shot to kill it.

The ship is safe from the salt craving creature. They move on to their next adventure.

Thoughts and Themes

The Man Trap was aired Sept 6, 1966. Re-watching in the context of the first episode people saw and the year of 1966, I see a few interesting themes.

What was going on in 1966? Protests over Vietnam, Miranda Rights became the official warning to people being arrested, US Department of Transportation created, Gemini 8 had technical difficulties and was aborted, color television was becoming popular, Black Panthers were formed.

In 1966, the TV execs thought a black woman on the bridge of a star ship was more believable than a woman in charge of the bridge of a star ship. At least women were on the ship. Yet, when a black woman flirts with man on the bridge, that could be considered risque. Today, we think nothing about the beautiful Uhura wanting to have a flirtatious conversation, “tell me I’m a beautiful young lady.” She appears confident and alluring. But in 1966, it was daring!

In 1966, it was acceptable for the male crew members to ogle Yeoman Rand as she walks by, even making innuendos about her relationship with the Captain. Today, their behavior would be considered rude and inappropriate, bordering on sexual harrassment.

I’ve always loved Yeoman Rand’s hair. But thinking back on 1966, the bee-hive was all the rage. Her hair style is the futuristic bee-hive. Below is how women were wearing their hair in 1966. Yeoman Rand’s hair is a lot more stylish!

Hair styles and mini skirts aside, women were not at the helm. They took trays of food to male co-workers and managed the phones. It was easier to believe a male alien in command than a human female. The only thing identifying the male as alien was a set of oddly shaped ears. We are not given any hint of who Spock is and his character and culture are merely alluded to. We are not given specific information about the Vulcan culture.

The audience does not know the pilot had aliens with mind control powers. But the Man Trap also has an alien with mind control powers. Once again we are seeing the theme of mind control powers being evil, something to fear.

Until 2020, I would never have wondered about the psychological affects of living alone on a planet only to be visited yearly by a star ship. Yet, in 1966, this was the living condition for Professor Crater and his wife. There are scientists today who live in conditions similar, such as the arctic. These scientists provide us with insight on how to survive isolation. The article by nature is very interesting.

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-01457-8

Trek Lore

NBC executives had quite a few episodes to choose from for the first episode to air. The Man Trap was not the first episode filmed, but they chose it for the first episode to show to the public. Apparently, the public didn’t quite know what to make of Star Trek. In 1966, the popular films were

• Thunderball, the fourth James Bond film staring Sean Connery
• Dr. Zhivago, an epic romantic drama set in Russia prior to WWI
• Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, a dark comedy-drama staring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton
• A Man for all Seasons, a biographical drama of the story of Sr Thomas More

Popular songs were I’m a Believer by the Monkeys, Good Vibrations by the Beach Boys, and Monday Monday by the Mamas and the Papas. Top television shows in 1966 were Bonanza, The Red Skelton Hour, Andy Griffith Show, The Lucy Show, and The Jackie Gleason Show.

The public was not quite ready for Star Trek. The popular sci fi shows in the 60s included The Jetsons, My Favorite Martian, and Lost in Space. The Man Trap was a dark, psychological, murder mystery compared to the light-hearted entertainment the public enjoyed. The reviews in 1966 did not rave about the new TV series. Yet somehow, the ratings continued sufficient to keep the series on the air for three seasons! Someone must have liked it back then. I know my parents watched it every night — sending me to bed so I would not be exposed to the racy space cowboys.