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The Tholian Web

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"The Tholian Web"

"The Tholian Web" was a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #64, production #64, first broadcast on November 15, 1968 and repeated August 19, 1969. It was written by Judy Burns and Chet Richards and directed by Herb Wallerstein.

Overview: Captain Kirk is caught between dimensions while the crew of the Enterprise works to retrieve him. All the while, the Tholians demand that the Enterprise leave their space.

Plot

On stardate 5693.2, the starship USS Enterprise enters an uncharted region of space to search for her sister ship, the USS Defiant, which disappeared three weeks previously. The Enterprise's warp engines begin to slowly lose power for no apparent cause, yet sensors detect nearby dimensional fractures in space.

They visually find the Defiant, adrift and glowing eerily, despite sensors reporting the vessel is not really there. Captain Kirk assembles a boarding party consisting of himself, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock and Mr. Chekov in environmental suits, as the conditions of the Defiant are unknown. They discover the entire crew dead, having apparently killed each other. What's worse, the ship appears to be dissolving as McCoy is able to put his hand through a corpse and a table.

The dematerialising of the Defiant is causing the Enterprise's transporter frequencies to be blocked; only three are working and even these are dubious. Kirk orders the landing party back whilst he remains. But before Kirk himself can be beamed off, the Defiant disappears altogether, taking the Captain with it.

Spock determines that due to the Enterprise's transporter lock, Kirk has been left in the interdimensional rift when the Defiant phased out, and they can recover him again during the next period of spatial interphase. Spock notes that the Captain has just over three hours of oxygen left in his environmental suit.

Meanwhile, Chekov suddenly goes berserk and attacks the bridge personnel. McCoy surmises that the spatial interphase causes psychotic effects in the human brain, and the same murderous hostilities that affected the Defiant's crew will eventually overcome the Enterprise. McCoy strongly suggests that they put some distance between themselves and the Defiant but Spock refuses, believing any movement from their position could disrupt the delicate fabric of space in their region and jeopardize their chances of finding the Captain.

A small vessel of unknown configuration approaches the Enterprise. A crystalline being initiates contact and identifies itself as Commander Loskene of the Tholian Assembly, and demands that the Enterprise leave their territory immediately. Spock apologizes for their intrusion and explains their situation to Loskene, asking they be given time to retrieve the Captain. Loskene agrees to give the Enterprise precisely 1 hour and 53 minutes until the next spatial interphase period.

The moment comes when the Defiant should phase in again, and Spock attempts to lock onto the Captain; however the ship is not where she is supposed to be. Spock believes the arrival of the Tholian vessel has somehow disturbed the Defiant's position and they have lost Captain Kirk for good. Before any other action can be taken, the Tholians open fire on the Enterprise and refuse any attempts at communication. Spock returns fire and disables the Tholian vessel. Scotty reports that the Enterprise's damage coupled with the lack of power means he cannot hold the Enterprise purely stationary and she might even drift through the rift herself. Meanwhile, another Tholian vessel arrives and begins to form a filament structure between itself and the other ship. This filament thread is spun by either ship around the Enterprise in a web-like pattern. Spock explains that it is an energy field that, if activated before the Enterprise is repaired, means they "will not see home again."

McCoy and Spock conduct a makeshift funeral in the Captain's quarters where McCoy plays a recording Kirk made for them just in case he was ever killed on a mission. The somber recording gives the officers their final orders and some words of advice for their future missions without him; especially when he exhorts them to use their constant arguments and different points of view to support and help each other.

After the message is heard, Spock orders the Enterprise to leave the area. However, in the midst of her private memorial for Kirk in her quarters, Lt. Uhura notices a ghostly image of the Captain, still in his space suit, and floating inside the ship, beckoning for help. Spock thinks Uhura is seeing things and suggests she report to Dr. McCoy, but then Scotty reports catching a glimpse of Kirk in engineering and confirms that Uhura isn't hallucinating.

Spock rushes to locate the Captain, but Kirk phases out again before he can get a lock. If indeed the Captain is still alive, his pressure suit's life support would be dangerously low and his time is running out.

More reports of Kirk's "ghost" come in from around the ship and Spock tries to lock a tractor beam on him when he appears again. In the meantime, Doctor McCoy has discovered an antidote for the phasing effect by using a diluted form of the Klingon nerve agent, Theragen.

As the Tholian web is nearing completion, Kirk's image is spotted once more and Spock locks onto him with the tractor beam.

Just before the Tholians were able to complete the web, Spock takes a gamble and activates the ship's engines. The Enterprise briefly drops into the rift, and is hurled 2.72 parsecs away, enabling it to escape the Tholian web. At this time, it was possible to retrieve Captain Kirk from the rift, barely in time, for his oxygen supply was exhausted.

Kirk makes a full recovery and is keen on learning what happened aboard his ship while he was "away". He was surprised to learn McCoy and Spock worked well together, and a little disappointed when McCoy claims they didn't have time to open their Captain's "last orders" and his words of wisdom had gone unheard.

40th anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and first aired on March 31, 2007 as part of the remastered 40th Anniversary original series. It was preceded three weeks earlier by "Wolf in the Fold" and was followed a week later by "The Immunity Syndrome". Film and audio were digitally restored, and the episode featured the all-CGI USS Enterprise, standard among the revisions.

Other changes to this episode include:

  • The USS Defiant has been replaced as a digital model and its dimensional phasing effects have been cleaned up.
  • The Tholian ships have been redesigned and their "web" has been given animated energy pulses.

Sequel

The completed Tholian Web around the alternate universe ISS Enterprise (NX-01) from Star Trek: Enterprise.

A two-part episode set of Star Trek: Enterprise called "In a Mirror, Darkly", followed up the story and revealed what happened to the Defiant after it disappeared: it materialized in the Mirror Universe of the past (before Mirror Kirk's time) and was taken as a prize by the Terran Empire. For the sequel, the Defiant bridge (as seen in this episode) was recreated in precise detail; even the positions of the dead crewmen were identical.

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