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Production Number: 16 Original Air Date: 11-17-66 Stardates: 3012.4, 3012.6 Synopsis: Commander Spock tells Captain Kirk that they have been summoned to Starbase Eleven by Fleet Captain Christopher Pike, the former commander of the U.S.S. Enterprise, but when they arrive at the starbase, Commodore Mendez tells them that no message has been sent from there -- especially by Pike, who is unable to talk. During an inspection tour of a cadet vessel -- an old Class-J starship -- one of the baffle plates ruptured, and Pike was disfigured by delta rays while bringing out the surviving cadets. He now cannot move or speak; he is kept alive artificially in a mechanical chair, able to communicate only with a blinking light on the chair. While Captain Kirk talks to Commodore Mendez, Spock takes command of the Enterprise and leaves orbit under falsified orders, heading for Talos Four. General Order 7 states that no vessel under any condition, emergency or otherwise, is to visit Talos Four. To do so is the only death penalty left on the books. (The only starship to visit the world was the Enterprise under Captain Pike.) Kirk and Mendez takes a shuttle in pursuit of the Enterprise, and when they reach the ship, Spock is arrested, but he has placed the ship's course under computer control, locked on a course for Talos Four. Spock requests an immediate court martial, during which he presents as evidence a detailed video record of an Enterprise mission 13 years ago, during which Spock served as science officer under Captain Pike. After a fight on Rigel Seven -- where Captain Pike's yeoman and two others were killed, and seven injured, while Pike was trapped in a fortress and attacked by an armored warrior -- the United Space Ship Enterprise was heading to the Vega Colony to take care of its sick and injured, when it received a distress signal from the S.S. Valiant, which disappeared near the Talos star group 18 years earlier. The fourth of 11 planets in the Talos system was Class-M, with an oxygen atmosphere. When the Enterprise arrived at Talos Four, Captain Pike led a landing party to the planet, where they found a group of survivors from the Valiant, but Pike was soon captured and taken to an underground complex, and the landing party learned that the survivors were an illusion. When he learns that the video display that they are watching is a transmission from Talos Four, Commodore Mendez calls a recess in the court martial, but the ship is still locked on course for the forbidden planet. Alien Races: *[Talosians] Starships: |
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