From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: jphalt@gmail.com   
   Subject: Amok Time: my review   
      
   AMOK TIME   
      
   Spock gets space-horny, but feels much better after tearing Kirk's   
   shirt open and wrestling around in the dirt with him for a while.   
      
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   Less facetiously...   
      
   The Enterprise is ordered to Altair VI for the new President's   
   coronation. But there is a conflict: Spock has begun behaving   
   erratically, and has requested leave on Vulcan. Kirk puts in a request   
   with Starfleet to divert to Vulcan, but it is denied. Then McCoy drops   
   a bombshell: Spock's body is undergoing massive internal stress, and   
   if he is not brought to Vulcan, then he will die!   
      
   Spock finally informs the captain of the reason for this sudden change   
   in him. He is undergoing the pon-farr, the Vulcan mating ritual which   
   occurs once every seven years. Kirk agrees to divert the ship, against   
   orders, to deliver Spock to his bride - T'Pring (Arlene Martel). But   
   when they reach Vulcan, there is a further complication. T'Pring   
   refuses the match, leading to a ritual challenge: a fight to the   
   death. And the champion T'Pring chooses to fight Spock is none other   
   than James T. Kirk!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   Capt. Beefcake: Kirk being Kirk, he cannot possibly get through the   
   battle with Spock without having his shirt cut open, revealing that   
   Kirk appears to have a mascara fetish, as he has drawn a neat makeup   
   line across his own chest. Guffaws aside, though, Kirk has an   
   excellent episode here, and Shatner returns to his "A" game for   
   probably the first time this season. The different parts of Kirk's   
   personality are put into direct conflict.   
      
   No matter what the later Trek films would insist, TOS Kirk is actually   
   quite a stickler for following orders. Having Spock's welfare put into   
   conflict with his orders creates a significant dilemma for him.   
   However, he is both a good captain and a good friend to his first   
   officer. He stays with following orders right up to the point at which   
   McCoy informs him that Spock will die... and then he breaks orders,   
   putting Spock's welfare above a directive whose value is purely   
   ceremonial. Kirk's more intellectual side (rarely referenced, but   
   established as early as Where No Man Has Gone Before) also is seen,   
   once they arrive on Vulcan. He cannot resist meeting the famous T'Pau   
   (Celia Lovsky), and his desire to impress her and to participate in a   
   Vulcan ritual ends up putting him right in the middle of the climactic   
   battle.   
      
      
   Spock: Almost certainly the most significant Spock episode of the   
   series. This is the episode where we find out about the Vulcan mating   
   process. We also learn that, while Spock has strongly identified   
   himself as Vulcan, he nevertheless hoped that his human blood would   
   save him from having to go through this process. The level of both his   
   self-discipline and his friendship for Kirk are displayed when he   
   manages to break through the burning in his blood to plead with T'Pau   
   to excuse Kirk from combat. Finally, Nimoy manages to convey the grief   
   Spock feels at the outcome of this fight, all within the utter self-   
   control of Spock once he is returned to normal. It is a standout   
   performance by Nimoy, very probably his best of the series.   
      
      
   McCoy: His friendship with Spock is explicitly stated in this episode,   
   when Spock invites him down to the surface along with Kirk, and his   
   response is to be genuinely honored at the invitation. When he sees   
   that the ceremony has taken a deadly turn, and that the rules are far   
   from fair to Kirk, McCoy intercedes. When his first attempt is   
   blocked, with a threat of deadly force, he finds another tactic, and   
   uses his medical knowledge to save both Kirk and Spock. Finally, being   
   McCoy, he cannot resist needling Spock about a brief emotional   
   outburst. As with Shatner and Nimoy, DeForest Kelly rises to the   
   quality of the material and delivers his best performance of the   
   season thus far.   
      
      
   Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Arlene Martel is T'Pring, Spock's   
   intended bride. T'Pring (and, to an extent, T'Pau) serve as prime   
   rebuttals of some fans' insistence that the Enterprise Vulcans are too   
   shady, when the original series' Vulcans were always honorable.   
   T'Pring is as devious as any of the Enterprise Vulcans, manipulating   
   the ceremonial rules, Kirk, and Spock to achieve her desired result.   
   As she explains at the end, no matter what outcome had resulted, she   
   would have gotten what she wanted. Her cold calculations make her one   
   of the frostiest characters the series has seen yet.   
      
      
   Alien Space Beauracrat of the Week: This role is effectively filled by   
   T'Pau, who also comes across as a bit devious. She seems irritated -   
   as irritated as a Vulcan might seem, in any case - that Spock has   
   brought "offworlders" to this ceremony. When describing the combat to   
   Kirk, she deliberately does not explain that the battle would be to   
   the death, even when Spock pleads with her that Kirk "doesn't know."   
   It's a rather glaring omission, a bit too glaring to simply be an   
   oversight. She didn't want "offworlders" present, and finds a way to   
   exact a price for Spock's insistence on bringing Kirk and McCoy to a   
   Vulcan ceremony. At least, that's how I read it.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   Theodore Sturgeon's previous Trek script was Shore Leave, a vaguely   
   surreal, pleasantly jaunty Season One romp that remains rather a   
   favorite of mine. Even if I hadn't been aware of Amok Time's   
   reputation as an iconic episode, the simple fact of another Sturgeon   
   script would have been enough to have me looking forward to revisiting   
   this one. This episode doesn't disappoint. Sturgeon has gone for the   
   opposite extreme of Shore Leave, following up a romp with one of the   
   most intense episodes of the entire series. All three of the main   
   characters get some excellent material here, and Kirk and Spock are   
   both put through the wringer, both emotionally and physically.   
      
   Nimoy always excels at Spock, but he seems to particularly relish   
   those episodes that allow him to cut loose and show some actual   
   emotion. For obvious reasons - the hardest role for an actor to play   
   is an unemotional one. Nimoy gets to rant, scream, and growl here -   
   all the things that the very nature of the role regularly deny him. He   
   really does convey the unleashing of seven years' worth of suppressed   
   emotion, barking and gritting out virtually every line. Even when he   
   is relatively calm, describing why he must return to Vulcan to Kirk,   
   there is a different pitch to his voice than is usual. He is mindful   
   throughout the episode that this is a different Spock, and does not   
   give us "normal Spock" even once until the ship actually reaches   
   Vulcan. It's a fine performance, but also a careful one, very   
   evidently thought through in advance of shooting.   
      
   The Remastered version of this episode does see a slight departure   
   from the norm, in terms of new effects. When Kirk, Spock, and McCoy   
   beam down to Vulcan, they now cross a CGI land bridge to reach the   
   ceremony. I have mixed feelings about this. The CGI is impressive, and   
   it does mirror the Vulcan seen in the movies. On the other hand, the   
   sequence jars when cut between two shots of the regulars in 1960's   
   studio sets. It's a lovely shot, and I'm glad to have seen it... but   
   it does take me out of the episode, if only for a second or two, and I   
   suspect whenever I rewatch, I will choose to rewatch the original   
   version because of that.   
      
      
   Rating: 10/10. Possibly the best episode I've yet reviewed. Definitely   
   one of the Top Three.   
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