'The Tholian Web'
Interphase, energy webs and Spock v. McCoy? Brilliant. (The Bus 3.46)
Welcome aboard The Bus!
The Stop
First broadcast on 15 November 1968, ‘The Tholian Web’ is the ninth episode of the third and final season of what is known now as Star Trek: The Original Series. Directed by Herb Wallerstein from a screenplay by Judy Burns and Chet Richards, the episode is considered one of the best of those focussing on Spock. In the episode Kirk gets trapped in interphase - a place between dimensions - and while the crew of the Enterprise works to save him, the hostile Tholians weave an energy web around the ship to capture it for entering their space.1
Synopsis
Searching for a missing Federation starship - the Defiant - the Enterprise discovers it adrift in an unexplored region of space. Spock’s instruments show odd space fractures in this area, and strange rolling power losses begin to affect the ship’s systems. Beaming aboard the Defiant in protective spacesuits, Captain Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Chekov find the entire crew dead after having gone insane and killed each other. The boarding party also discovers the Defiant is slowly fading out of the universe, entering a parallel dimension and becoming nonexistent in this one. Kirk decides they must return to the Enterprise immediately, but issues with the transporter means he orders the others to return first while he remains behind. Transportation takes longer than usual, and just as Kirk is about to beam aboard the Defiant vanishes - with Kirk aboard.
Spock calculates when and where the Defiant will reappear, and determines they will be able to rescue Kirk as long as his oxygen supply lasts. As he explains the situation, Chekov suddenly lashes out in anger. McCoy believes this is due to their close proximity to the Defiant, but Spock refuses to move the Enterprise as he fears disrupting the fragile local space and possibly losing the Captain. Unfortunately, the two-hour wait proves to be hazardous. The strange properties of the dissolving space-time causes more of the ship’s crew to attack each other, and to make matters worse the Enterprise is approached by a small ship which introduces itself as part of the Tholian Assembly. The Tholian Captain - Loskene - insists the Enterprise has violated Tholian space and must leave or be destroyed. Spock convinces Loskene to wait until the Defiant reappears. Loskene agrees and the allotted time passes, but Kirk does not reappear. Spock decides the arrival of the Tholian ship affected the interphase and asks for more time, but the Loskene is not interested.
The Tholians attack the Enterprise and McCoy urges Spock to leave the area, believing Kirk dead. Instead Spock returns fire, disabling the Tholian ship. But the Enterprise is damaged in the process, and Scott warns Spock that without repairs they can neither leave nor hold their position. Suddenly, a second Tholian ship joins the first, and together they begin weaving an enormous energy web around the Enterprise. Spock realises that if the Tholians complete the web before repairs are done, they will be unable to escape.
Spock holds a memorial service for Kirk, during which another crew member goes insane and his already fractious relationship with McCoy worsens. Together they go to Kirk’s cabin to view a tape left by him to be played in the event of his death. On it, Kirk wisely knew they would be locked in battle at this point in an emergency and begs them to put aside their differences and work together for the benefit of the Enterprise. Meanwhile, both Lieutenant Uhura and Scott report seeing ghostly manifestations of Kirk and finally one appears on the bridge - Kirk is still in his spacesuit and urges Spock to ‘hurry.’
Just before the Tholian web is complete, McCoy discovers an antidote to the various effects of the locally dissolving space. Spock - convinced Kirk is still alive - calculates the time of his next appearance, and at the last moment they lock the repaired transporter onto his disembodied coordinates. Spock orders the activation of the ship’s engines and the Enterprise is carried through the tear in space to a point 2.72 parsecs away.2 Brought along by the transporter lock, Kirk is beamed aboard just as his oxygen runs out. Later, on the bridge, Kirk asks Spock and McCoy about how they dealt with the incident, and is particularly interested in what they thought about the tape with his final orders. McCoy claims they were too busy to watch it, and Spock agrees that they just did not have the time. Though he’s genuinely surprised by this, Kirk accepts their answers.
The Detour
Today’s Detour is to a short (3:06) montage of spoof movie trailers and title sequences ranging across genres, from action films and westerns to police procedurals. It is the video to the song Obsession, by Rochester, NY band Joywave, whose members appear in the spoof footage. Personally, I want to see Black Mamba/White Mamba - just too bad it doesn’t exist!
The Recommendation
Today’s Recommendation is Aliens (1986). The sequel to 1979’s Alien, this film - directed by James Cameron and starring Sigourney Weaver, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen, Jenette Goldstein, Michael Biehn and Paul Reiser - tells the story of Ellen Ripley (Weaver) who accompanies a group of Colonial Marines to investigate a human colony with which communication has been lost. Arriving, they find a horror scene - and slowly they get picked off one by one until the ultimate showdown between Ripley and the alien queen. Released to critical and commercial success, Aliens is considered one of the best films of the 1980s and one of the best sci-fi/action sequels ever made. It’s also rather intense.
Aliens streams on multiple platforms.
The Sounds
Today’s playlist is composed of five tracks I’ve pulled from some recent playlists that I thought served as a decent soundtrack to this Star Trek episode: ‘Satellite’ (quickly, quickly, 2023), ‘A Piper for Janet’ (Cosmo Pyke, 2020), ‘Fuck Em’ (Proper Pet, 2023), ‘Repeat Myself’ (Cautious Clay, 2023) and ‘I Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know’ (Blood, Sweat & Tears, 1968).3 Enjoy!
The Thought
Today’s Thought is from ‘The Tholian Web.’ At this point, Spock and McCoy - who have watched Kirk’s video and have joined forces - hear from Uhura and Scott that they’ve seen the Captain. Spock is doubtful of their sightings - and McCoy suggests an explanation:
Spock: ‘In critical moments, men sometimes see exactly what they wish to see.’
McCoy: ‘Do you suppose they're seeing Jim because they've lost confidence in you?’
If you have a thought on this Thought - or any part of today’s issue - please leave a comment below:
And that’s the end of this Stop - I hope you enjoyed the diversion!
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Until the next Stop …
Since I was a very young child, this has been one of my favourite episodes. It has everything you could want in a Star Trek episode: a great story with thought-provoking ideas about time and space, it’s a bit creepy, there are some cool aliens who almost get the upper hand, and - most importantly - there is the battle of wits and wills between McCoy and Spock. For this reason alone, it’s certainly one to watch. Sources for today’s Stop include ‘The Tholian Web’ (Netflix), 'The Tholian Web' (Trekipedia), 'The Tholian Web' (Memory Alpha) and 'The Tholian Web' (Wikipedia). This is also the third OST episode at which The Bus has stopped: see also issues 1.4 (18 April 2022) ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’ and 2.17 (20 November 2022) ‘Requiem for Methuselah.’ Both paywalled.
For more about parsecs, see The Bus 2.49 (20 March 2023) ‘Parsecs’. Not yet paywalled …
At least, it worked as a soundtrack in my headphones as I wrote this issue!