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Star Trek: The Original Series Season Two set
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Episode Title: "AMOK TIME"
Production Number: 34
Original Air Date: 09-15-67
Stardates: 3372.7

Synopsis: Under orders from Admiral Komack at Starfleet Command, Sector Nine, the U.S.S. Enterprise is headed for Altair Six for the inauguration ceremony of its new president after a long interplanetary conflict.

Commander Spock has been behaving erratically and has not eaten in three days, and Dr. McCoy is concerned about his behavior. Spock demands that Captain Kirk allow him to take a leave on his home planet, Vulcan, but Spock is reluctant to explain the urgency. When the inauguration ceremony on Altair Six is moved up by a week, there is no time for the Enterprise to divert to Vulcan, but Dr. McCoy says Spock's condition is getting worse and the pressure building in his system will kill him in eight days.

Spock reveals to Kirk that Vulcans have an ancient mating ritual, called the Pon farr, that requires that they take a mate at a specified time or they will die. The subject is seldom discussed with outsiders.

Knowing that Spock's life is at stake, Kirk disobeys orders and takes him to Vulcan for his arranged marriage to his wife, T'Pring. But when they arrive for the ceremony, T'Pring claims a ritual challenge, and chooses Kirk as her champion to fight Spock to the death for the right to marry her. Spock is in the Plaktau -- blood fever -- and cannot refuse to fight. McCoy gives Kirk a triox injection to compensate for Vulcan's hot, thin atmosphere. Spock fights Kirk until Kirk is strangled, and McCoy declares him dead.

With the challenge over, T'Pring explains that she wanted Stonn to be her consort -- since Spock has become a well-known legend among Vulcans -- and knew that if Kirk won the challenge, he would not want her as his wife, and if Spock won, he would leave Vulcan anyways, so it was logical for her to choose Kirk. With Spock's Plaktau over, he returns to the Enterprise, where he learns that Kirk is alive, only temporarily knocked out by a neuroparalyzer in Dr. McCoy's injection.

Starfleet Command approves of the Enterprise's diversion to Vulcan, based on the request from T'Pau, a respected Vulcan official. The Enterprise resumes a course for Altair Six.

  • Factoid: Plomik soup is a Vulcan food.

  • Factoid: Altair Six has excellent shore facilities, according to Captain Kirk.

  • Factoid: An Aldebaran shellmouth is known for its tight-lipped nature, like Spock.

  • Factoid: Once each 11 years, the giant eel birds of Regulus Five must return to the caverns where they hatched.

  • Factoid: Vulcan Space Central coordinates starship traffic in the Vulcan system.

  • Factoid: T'Pau is the only person ever to turn down a seat at the Federation Council.

  • Factoid: The lirpa is a Vulcan bladed staff weapon.

  • Captain Kirk: "You keep saying that. Are you a doctor or aren't you?"

  • Dr. McCoy: "It's finished. ... He's dead."

  • Guest Characters: Nurse Christine Chapel, *Ensign Pavel Chekov, *Admiral Komack, *T'Pau, *T'Pring
    Alien Races: Vulcans
    Starships:

    KEY: [brackets]=illusions   *star=first appearance

     
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