Is There in Truth no Beauty? - episode #62
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Is There in Truth no Beauty? - episode #62
IS THERE IN TRUTH NO BEAUTY? (3rd season; episode #62)
Directed by Ralph Senensky // writer: Jean Lisette Aroeste
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Here is another episode, rather typical of the 3rd season when some pretentiousness began to creep into a few episodes, with a long fancy title but little actual inspiration. I've always had a problem figuring out the point of this one. Does the point involve that age-old adage about not judging a book by its cover? That surface appearance usually hides something else within? Tell us something new, please. We are introduced to a new kind of alien in this one, a Medusan (refer to the myth of Medusa for this transparent inspiration), a member of a race evolved into a formless type of energy that a person can carry around in a box. The alien, an ambassador, arrives with a human female companion, Miranda (Diana Muldaur, who played another character in the 2nd season episode, Return to Tomorrow).Also, as with many 3rd season episodes, this one is afflicted by a slow pace in spots, i.e. it's deadly dull in places. Case in point: one scene has Kirk trying to distract Miranda, the Medusan's human associate, while Spock proceeds to the alien's cabin; we see Spock walking down the ship's corridor; then we're back to Kirk & Miranda; then back to Spock, still walking in that corridor. Suspenseful? No, just slow. All the male crew members seem really taken with this Miranda character (especially Larry Marvick, played by guest David Frankham), even though she's presented as a real cold fish - ah, yes, she hides an ugliness within her, despite her surface beauty. Well, I never really felt there was this great ugliness in her, just an uninteresting self-absorbed personality.
The action stuff is well done: the p.o.v. of a crazed person is shot with a disorienting fish-eye camera lens, lending a suitably warped flavor to the scenes. But, when Spock's body is once again appropriated by an alien, you get the uneasy sense that Star Trek in its 3rd season is running out of ideas: it was done better in Return to Tomorrow (strange coincidence that actress Muldaur is in both episodes). The ending, after the Enterprise journeys into some unknown region of space, is somewhat anti-climactic. And, it's very vague as to where the ship journeyed to, in its unscheduled trip; this has similarities to the TNG episode, Where No One Has Gone Before (from first season of TNG). BoG's Score: 5.5 out of 10.
Extra Trek Trivia: note that Spock wears the IDIC symbol on his uniform in this episode (that's 'Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations') - a revered symbol in Vulcan culture, representing tolerance. The writer of this episode, Jean Aroeste, was a lifelong academic librarian whose only two sales to TV were to TOS - this and the episode All Our Yesterdays.
Remastered FX Reel
Last edited by BoG on Fri Feb 06, 2015 4:11 pm; edited 2 times in total
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