The Immunity Syndrome - episode #48

THE IMMUNITY SYNDROME (2nd season; episode #48)
Directed by Joseph Pevney        writer: Robert Sabaroff


A cosmic threat to the galaxy is faced down by our intrepid Enterprise crew in this episode; this features an unusual invader, to say the least (see the episode Operation--Annihilate! from the first season for another far-out invader). Speaking of the Intrepid, that's another Constellation-class starship which is manned only by Vulcans. We don't see it here, but it was mentioned in a previous episode, Court Martial. As the story begins, it's too late to save this ship and a solar system, both of which have fallen victim to the invader: a one-celled organism which fluctuates in size between 11,000 miles wide and 18,000 miles long, surrounded by a black nega-field. Yes, it's big - about the size of a planet such as Earth. And, it's alive. Yikes. Most familiar with this episode refer to the menace as the 'space amoeba.'
RIGHT: Spock senses the death of Vulcans >

Episodes like this cause me to think that the crew should be drawing hazard pay or serious bonuses at certain times. Of course, this is about duty and heroism, 23rd-century style. And, this episode gains some points with me and others for the almost mind-blowing observation, voiced by Kirk & McCoy, that mankind's sole destiny may be in repelling such invaders of our galaxy; our species may, in this theory, act like antibodies of the galaxy-body, fending off invading cosmic viruses. On a less metaphysical, less philosophical level, the Enterprise and crew seem to be the only ones between this gigantic invader, this huge cosmic germ, and the rest of the galaxy's inhabitants. Conceivably, were this creature to reproduce, as the crew discovers it is about to, it would eventually fill the entire galaxy. That's pretty wild.
Much of the tension in the story stems from the rather strange competition developing between Spock and McCoy. Both seem a little too eager to be the one to pilot a shuttlecraft into the gelatinous mass of the creature and conduct analysis, even though this little mission is regarded as a one-way trip, a suicide mission. Kirk has to pick one of them for the trip. Spock accuses McCoy of having a martyr complex, but they both hint to Kirk, 'pick me! pick me to die!'  This episode takes the often-volatile Spock-McCoy relationship to another level, binding them together in an odd death wish syndrome. Whether they're attempting to discover new scientific concepts or have other motives, their efforts to outdo each other is taken to ludicrous levels here, as it boils down to: which one wants to die more?
I also got the uneasy impression that certain men join a service such as Starfleet to escape normal life, with the goal of giving up their own in a glorious pursuit of the fantastical, such as walking barefoot into a live volcano on the chance they'd learn something no one else knows. Spock & McCoy have more similarities psychologically than it would first appear, it seems.
This lengthy amateur psycho-analysis is probably a by-product of what I perceive as some weak and clumsy motivations for the main characters in this episode - a few things just seem a bit off and not quite right concerning key crew members, as if to artificially add some edginess (which also makes this similar to Operation--Annihilate!). Also, the pace is a bit slow in this episode, sort of reflecting the lethargy the crew becomes afflicted with - the space creature drains energy, including the life functions of human beings. Some fans think this episode is similar to first season episodes, but I think its weaknesses are similar to some 3rd season episodes. I found this one to be very dull when I was a kid. These days, it's passable. BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

Extra Trek Trivia: that can't be the same Galileo shuttlecraft here as seen in the older episode, The Galileo Seven, since the craft was destroyed in that first season episode. Rather than an error, let's chalk it up to a replacement craft from Starfleet. The black nega-field or black space first encountered in the first act has some similarity to how the TNG crew encountered black space in  the much later TNG episode Where Silence Has Lease, though the nature of the black space in the TNG episode was very different.