By Any Other Name

"By Any Other Name"

For other uses, see By Any Other Name (disambiguation).

"By Any Other Name" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast February 23, 1968 and repeated May 31, 1968. It is episode #51, production #50, written by D.C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby, and directed by Marc Daniels. The title is taken from a line spoken by Juliet in Shakespeare's play Romeo and Juliet: "that which we call a rose / By any other name would smell as sweet."

Overview: Beings from another galaxy steal the Enterprise in an attempt to return home.

Plot

On stardate 4657.5, the starship USS Enterprise responds to a distress call from an uncharted planet. A landing party beams down to locate the source, and finds a humanoid man and a woman who approach them. The man orders Captain Kirk to surrender the Enterprise to him. Kirk, of course, refuses, and then the man and woman operate strange control boxes on their belts which paralyze the landing party.

The couple identify themselves as Rojan and Kelinda of the Kelvan Empire, located in the distant Andromeda Galaxy. Rojan tells Kirk that he is now in control and any attempts at resistance will be severely dealt with. He also informs them that they will soon be leaving the galaxy and that they will face the "end of their existence", as they know it.

The landing team is released after Kelinda removes their weapons, and Rojan continues to explain that their purpose was to find planets suitable for conquest in this galaxy. However, their own ship was destroyed as it passed through the Galactic Barrier surrounding the galaxy and now they need the Enterprise to make the 300-year return journey home. They plan to modify the ship's engines to enable them to make the return trip.

cuboctahedron

While Rojan is talking, three other Kelvans secretly transport aboard the Enterprise, and quickly gain control of the ship. One of them, Hanar, beams back down to report to Rojan. Rojan then orders the landing party to a holding cell. Mr. Spock uses his telepathy to lure Kelinda over to him, where they grab her and remove her control belt. The party escapes, but encounters Rojan who activates his belt and reduces two of the landing team members to small cuboctahedral blocks of a chalk-like substance. The landing party gasps, and Rojan explains that the blocks are what is left over after a human is reduced to his basic elements.

Rojan picks up the blocks and crushes one to dust. Hanar then returns the other block back into human form, but the crushed block, which was Yeoman Thompson, cannot be revitalized. The landing party is returned to their cell, where Spock analyses the mental images he received while in contact with Kelinda's mind. He informs Kirk that he had seen images of a large creature, with hundreds of tentacles, and believes it to be the Kelvan's true form. He believes the Kelvans have adopted their human forms in order to make use of the Enterprise.

Spock places himself into a deep trance, and Dr. McCoy requests that the Kelvans allow him to take Spock to sick bay for treatment. The Kelvans agree and transport the entire landing party and themselves to the ship. Kirk meets up with McCoy and Spock in sick bay, where Spock reveals he may have found a way to disrupt the Kelvan control belts.

The three make their way to engineering with Mr. Scott, and they find that they cannot get to the Kelvans' modification equipment. Instead, Mr. Scott opens the control valves to the matter/antimatter system and informs Kirk he can destroy the Enterprise if needed. Kirk opts out of the scheme and instead decides to wait until they penetrate the Galactic Barrier.

After the ship reaches the edge of the galaxy, the Kelvans activate their belts, reducing all non-essential personnel into chalk blocks to keep them out of the way. They keep Kirk, Scotty, Spock and McCoy to help maintain essential ship functions. One of the Kelvans, Tomar, requests to sample human cuisine which he ends up enjoying. Spock surmises from his mental contact with Kelinda that the Kelvans, who normally sacrifice distractions such as perceptive senses and emotions to achieve their superior intelligence, are increasingly experiencing human reactions as they continue to assume their human forms. Through the Kelvans' uneasiness and verbal complaints, the Enterprise crew deduce that the Kelvans are not used to their human bodies, and decide to exploit that fact.

Scotty gets friendly with Tomar, and takes him to his quarters where he gets him intoxicated with powerful Saurian brandy, something "green," and a dusty old bottle of scotch. McCoy prescribes a course of injections for Hanar after telling him that his human body looks unwell, and Kirk turns his attentions toward Kelinda. He apologizes to her for his previous behavior and demonstrates the "human" way of saying "sorry" by kissing her.

Rojan then walks in on them, and Kirk slinks out of the room. Later, Rojan plays 3D chess and loses to Spock. Spock points out Rojan's poor performance may be due to jealousy, which Rojan hotly denies. Rojan then goes to confront Kelinda, demanding that she stop fraternizing with Kirk and the other humans. He grabs her arm violently when she refuses to obey. Later, Kelinda sneaks off and finds Kirk, requesting to experience his kissing again.

Back on the bridge, Hanar begins to be affected by McCoy's injections and belligerently refuses Rojan's orders. Rojan dismisses Hanar to his quarters. By this time, heavy drinking has caused Tomar to pass out, but Scotty also finds he is too drunk to leave his own quarters.

Rojan finds Kirk and Kelinda together again and angrily confronts them. Kirk goads him into starting a fight, one on one, and the two go at it. Kirk, being stronger and faster, easily pins Rojan to the floor. Kirk tells Rojan that his people are already becoming human. Soon, they will become so alien to the other Kelvans that in 300 years (when the Kelvans are due to return home) their descendants won't be able to live among their own kind.

Rojan thinks for a moment and agrees with Kirk, knowing it will be impossible to return home again. Rojan relinquishes control of the ship back to Kirk and restores the crew. Kirk turns the Enterprise around and heads back through the Galactic Barrier. Rojan accepts Kirk's offer of being a liaison for the Federation if the Kelvans should ever return. A suitable home world is located (the world they were marooned on) so that Rojan and his people can live in peace. Spock suggests that an unmanned robot ship could be sent to Andromeda with this proposal.

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired March 8, 2008 as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered version of "The Apple" and followed a week later by the remastered version of "That Which Survives". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

• The visited planet has been given a more realistic Earth-like appearance.
• There is a new wider establishing shot of the surface of the planet rather than a close up of the landing party as they beam down.
• The travel scenes through "The Galactic Barrier" have been revised, with the footage similar to imagery from the remastered version of "Where No Man Has Gone Before".
• Travel scenes toward the Andromeda Galaxy have been revised. Instead of a static telescope picture of the galaxy, it now has an animated spin.

Cultural Reference

• In the Good Eats episode "Pantry Raid 6: Lentils" Alton Brown relates the scene in this episode when the redshirts are transformed into cuboctahedrals. He relates this scene to the basic components of the human body, as he uses a toy ray-gun to zap his assistant Chuck. They also comment on how attractive Julie Cobb is.

• Gene Roddenberry and Warren Stevens (Rojan) crossed paths once before in the 1957 "Have Gun, Will Travel" 1st season episode "The Yuma Treasure", which Roddenberry penned and Warren Stevens guest starred.

External links

• Template:StarTrek.com link
• By Any Other Name at IMDb
• Template:TV.com episode
• Review of the remastered version of "By Any Other Name" at Trekmovie.com
• "By Any Other Name" at Memory Alpha