What happens when you encounter an apparently advanced alien race, hell bent on survival out in deep space. They naturally go for someones brain. Not the whole person mind you, just the brain. And not just anyone’s brain either.

That is basically the premise for what could be considered one of the worse episodes in the original Star Trek series. It opened the third season and was almost wholeheartedly rubbished by fans.

The Plot?

The story starts with the Enterprise encountering an alien ship, at which point a woman appears on the bridge. She quickly stuns the whole crew and examines them for something making note of Spock in particular.

After a time, the crew awake only to find Spock in sickbay with McCoy. On close inspection, McCoy finds Spock’s brain is missing, presumed taken by the alien. McCoy gives Kirk 24 hours to find Spock’s brain as it seems Vulcans can last that long without it. Naturally Kirk gives chase to the planet Sigma Draconis where he discovers the alien race. But, there is a twist. The alien woman can’t remember what she did and the males are sort of slaves. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty and a robot controlled Spock are taken prisoner. 

After a few attempts, they question the female alien, Luma who tells them of a ‘teacher’. The ‘teacher’ turns out to hold the knowledge of how to remove and insert Spock’s brain. Spock meanwhile is being used to keep the planet systems alive and so removing his brain would kill them. Not removing would kill Spock’s body. 

Of course Kirk wins and McCoy uses the ‘teacher’ to help him restore the brain. But, there is another twist. As the operation goes ahead, McCoy starts to forget what he knows. Spock however is on hand to help him and guides McCoy to finish the job. McCoy hates that Spock tells him what he has to do. 

Dare we Review?

Where do you start with this episode? In some ways I would liken this to Young Frankenstein by Mel Brooks. You have a body, the computer system, you have a dead body, almost the computer system and well you guess the rest. As with many plots on television, writers often ignored, forgot or just could not care about what had gone before. My basic questions here would be as follows;

Why did the Enterprise not raise shields ?

If they did, how can the aliens beam through them?

Do Vulcans have two brains? (See the film The Man with Two Brains – very funny)

How the hell did McCoy build a remote control device so quick that worked so well? (Had he been planning to take over Spock’s body)

How the hell did the alien take the brain without leaving a scar?

What sort of headache did Spock have after?

The idea of using someone else’s brain to control a planet was not new, far from it. It was the method and to be honest, rubbish writing that got them there which was the problem. If for example, they had taken Spock completely body, mind and brain, then hooked him into a computer that might have been better.

You could then have argued linking and the subsequent unlinking would have made sense. Next Generation did just that with Barclay in the episode The Nth Degree. Now that episode is very well written, well thought-out and entertaining, Spock’s Brain is completely the opposite. Another clearly badly thought-out plot point is the landing party. Why, when you have 300 odd crew members, beam down with no security. I would have stormed the place with 10 or 20 red shirts, stunned everyone in sight and then asked questions. Difficult when stunned but you know what I mean. In fact, that same point can be argued in numerous episodes. Even in Next Generation when they admit to multiple transporters, they just don’t use them. 

In Conclusion

Spock’s Brain ends with Spock’s brain back in his head. No scar, no injury or no time off to recover. Of course the plot won’t allow any of that nor a simple 20 seconds to explain it all. The episode is the worse of the original and according to many in the top three out of all the various seasons. For me, it was poor writing very lazy and just not the episode opener you have have expected. Unlike other Star Trek shows, the third season declined rather than improved. There were some good stories but lets face it, if the start and end are to go by it was not the best. Some do say the endings of DS9, Voyager and Enterprise are certainly contenders for the top slot. What this story shows is even if you have a good idea it can become rubbish if the writing is bad. 

Spock’s Brain roughly translated to – What plot?