This Side of Paradise
- This is about an episode of Star Trek. For a document on the work of the same name by F. Scott Fitzgerald, please see This Side Of Paradise (novel).
This Side Of Paradise is a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It was first broadcast on March 2, 1967; it is written by D.C. Fontana and Nathan Butler, and directed by Ralph Senensky.
The show begins as the Starship Enterprise approaches planet Omicron Ceti III. Colonists arrived here years ago, but this planet is being showered by Berthold rays which were poorly understood then but have since been found to be deadly to animal tissue within a few weeks of exposure. The Enterprise’s sad mission is to recover the remains and personal effects of the unfortunate colonists.
Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock, with a few other crewmen, beam down to the planet’s surface and make the startling discovery that the colonists are still very much alive. The crew is greeted warmly by Elias Sandoval (played by Frank Overton) who assures them that there have been no problems other than a faulty communications system. Another colonist is Leila Kalomi (Jill Ireland) who was in love with Mr. Spock six years earlier back on Earth. At a loss to explain why these people are still alive, Dr. McCoy arranges to do medical exams on a number of the colonists while other crewmembers search the vicinity for answers.
The puzzle deepens as McCoy finds all colonists in flawless, textbook perfect health, and although medical records indicate that Sandoval had his appendix removed, it is discovered he now has a fully functional appendix. Another discovery is that there is no animal life present, no livestock, no birds and no insects. Sandoval explains simply “We’re vegetarians.”
As Spock is searching the surrounding area for clues, the lovely Leila Kalomi meets up with him and agrees to show him how the colonists have survived. She takes him to a place where there are strange flowers that shoot a puff of spores at him. In previous episodes, Mr. Spock (half human, half Vulcan) has been established as a character who bases his life in logic and does not express emotions, but moments after exposure to these spores, the formerly logical Spock is able to tell Leila, “I love you.” Spock soon exhibits other emotional behaviors such as laughing, enjoying cloud formations, and later, ignoring Captain Kirk’s orders.
Spock shows the strange flowers to Kirk and other crewmen, but somehow only Captain Kirk remains unaffected by them. When Kirk returns to his ship, it is full of the flowers and their spores. The whole ship’s crew, in open (but peaceful) mutiny, begins to beam down to the planet. Lieutenant Uhura sabotages the interstellar communications system. Soon Kirk is the only person remaining aboard the ship. Eventually, the spores overcome Kirk’s resistance; he begins to feel peaceful and makes plans to beam down to the colony. But as he is about to leave the Enterprise, he feels a wave of violent emotions, which overwhelms and destroys the spores within him.
Kirk now realizes the spores cannot survive the presence of strong needs and feelings. He asks Spock to come up to the ship then starts a fight with him; fortunately Spock’s rationality returns to him before he seriously injures the Captain. Together they rig a device to send a subsonic frequency through the communicators that will irritate everyone in the colony. Fights break out all over, quickly leading to the end of the spores’ influence.
As the Enterprise (with the colonists) prepares to exit the planetary system, Spock comments “For the first time in my life, I was happy.”