Airdate: September 8, 1973
4 of 22 produced
1 of 22 aired
Synopsis
On a mission beyond the galaxy fringe to investigate mysterious radio emissions and chart new stars, the Enterprise encounters a mysterious derelict in orbit of a dead star. This pod ship, a piece of highly advanced technology apparently left by an ancient insectoid race, has been cold and silent for 300 million years. Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty discover that the ancient crew deliberately destroyed their vessel to contain a malevolent intelligence on the star below. When the same intelligence commandeers the Enterprise, they face the same decision. Do they fight, or do they self-destruct, in order to prevent this intelligence from taking over every starship and computer network across the inhabited galaxy? In the end, Kirk and crew bluff the entity off the ship, leading it to believe that they will crash land into the star husk while instead, they use the slingshot effect to surmount its gravitational pull. With the creature safely off the ship, the Enterprise resumes its mission of charting the reaches of extra-galactic space.
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But not before Kirk got his animated butt zapped by the entity!
