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<     Episode 1.25: The Devil in the Dark     >

Episode 1.25: The Devil in the Dark

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There's a whole sequence I couldn't fit into the comic, in which Scotty beams down with a crew of engineers to rig up a makeshift cooling pump on the reactor. It doesn't work. Apparently not only does the colony not have any spare parts for their nuclear reactor, but Scotty and the full resources of the Enterprise—who are capable of jury-rigging a warp engine while being attacked by Klingons or building a functional particle accelerator from coconuts and bamboo—can't rig up something as simple as a pump.

In another scene, Spock recalibrates his tricorder to register silicon. He then detects a faint trace of something far ahead in the tunnel... the tunnel which is made entirely of silicon rocks.

Transcript

1
Captain's log, Stardate 3196.1. Called to Janus 6 to deal with a "monster" terrorising the pergium mining colony.
Vanderberg: It's killed 50 men! One of them on-screen just now!
2
McCoy: I examined what was left of him. He's been dissolved by acid.
Vanderberg: Our machinery's been dissolved by acid too! It's the same monster!
Kirk: Let's not jump to conclusions.
3
Spock: What is this?
Vanderberg: Silicon nodule. Millions of them in the mines.
Spock: I foresee a young Ensign named Chekov in our future...
Kirk: The pergium must flow! Man the guns!
4
Spock: The creature has dissolved this door and stolen a cooling pump.
Vanderberg: We have no spare parts at all for this vital component of our nuclear reactor! We'll have to evacuate the planet in 48 hours!
5
Spock: The creature may be silicon-based.
McCoy: Don't be ridiculous, Spock!
Spock: Life, but not as we know it...
McCoy: It's a scientific fact that all life is basically humanoid.
6
Kirk: {to security team of redshirts} Contact with the creature is instantly and horribly fatal, so be careful! Stay in pairs for safety.
7
Caption: Kirk and Spock find the creature and slice off a chunk with phasers:
Kirk: It feels like rock. Silicon-based life.
Spock: Did you just pick up that piece of the creature that kills on contact?
Kirk: C'mon. Two tunnels. Let's split up.
8
Kirk: I'm in a chamber with lots of those nodules. They're eggs! The creature is here, wounded, but not attacking.
Spock: {over communicator} I'll attempt a Vulcan mind meld to communicate with it when I get there.
9
Spock: Pain! Pain! Pain!
Spock: Millions of children!
Spock: To raise and put through college! Unbearable pain!
10
Spock: She calls herself a Horta. She is the last surviving guardian of the next generation, only trying to protect her children.
Kirk: Maybe she'll work with the miners?
Spock: If they'll baby sit.
11
Kirk: Heal its wound, Bones.
McCoy: I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!
McCoy: {into communicator} Enterprise, beam down some concrete. And bricks.
12
Vanderberg: {over communicator} Thanks, Kirk! The Hortas are tunnelling and opening up huge new mineral deposits.
Spock: A good outcome for all.
Kirk: Except I didn't punch anyone or kiss anyone!


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