“Operation – Annihilate!” is a remarkably entertaining episode, despite some questionable props and a contrived element of “drama” toward the end of the episode. Written in the same vein as “The Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” the episode successfully creates fairly strong levels of tension and suspense as the crew seeks to uncover how and why civilization after civilization suddenly goes mad and destroys itself. The planet Deneva, home to Kirk’s brother and nephew is the next location of the madness, and the race is on for Kirk to not only save his family, to stop the madness from spreading to the rest of the galaxy.

The madness is due to an enjoyable “monster” – a being with disparate, but obviously connected, brain cells which infect humanoid hosts, take over their minds, and use them to build ships that will help them spread from one planet to the next. The only problem is one that could threaten the whole episode in terms of plausibility: the look of the monsters. They are admittedly very cheesy and fake looking, right down to the visible wires used for making them “fly” through the air. It is understandable to see how the look of these creatures is a detriment, however, they’re appearance isn’t nearly as important to the episode as that of the Horta in “The Devil In The Dark.” As a result, the cheesy monsters aren’t quite as big a detriment.

One of the episode’s strengths is its pacing, creating and deepening the mysteries of the madness, beginning with Spock’s brief history lesson and continuing through the suicidal run of a ship from Deneva into the planet’s sun, to the tragedy befalling the rest of the inhabitants of Deneva. Narratively, the destruction of the ship will provide the key to the episode’s final (and successful) conclusion to the conflict – but what’s worth of praise is in how the solution is so obvious, it happens to be easily overlooked: the key is the light of the sun, not any of its more “destructive” properties.

Once on Deneva, Kirk discovers that the entire planet is infected with madness, including his sister-in-law and his nephew. Sadly, Kirk’s Brother Sam is dead. Later, Sam’s wife will die, leaving Kirk’s nephew an orphan. Another strong element of the episode is Kirk’s ability to convey the various emotions he feels as he experiences personal tragedy. This is further illustrated when Spock himself becomes infected. And in fact, the acting all around is particularly well-done, from Kirk to McCoy to Spock himself as he struggles to overcome the pain inflicted by his infection. Spock’s performance is, for the most part, muted – and yet it conveys a man in great pain who is exerting every possible effort to maintain control.

Also enjoyable is how plausibly the crew acts and reacts to the crisis at hand – including Scotty holding Spock at phaserpoint when Spock is presumed mad and under orders to remain in Sick Bay. About the only decision that doesn’t work as it should is the one to use Spock as a human test subject for eradicating the infection. It certainly makes sense that Spock would be part of the test. But McCoy was already having Nurse Chapel conduct some preliminary tests on the cell which they had previously destroyed by way of light. Wouldn’t it have been better simply to wait for the test results? Instead, they simply rush into Spock’s test, resulting in him being blinded.

The whole Spock-is-blind angle does allow for some more very powerful acting moments from Kirk, McCoy and Spock himself. But because it was superfluous and contrived – Spock regains his sight by way of a plot device called a “Vulcan inner eyelid” – the sequence causes the episode to stumble mightily just before its conclusion.

Also, unlike most Trek, there’s little to this episode by way of commentary or message. I suppose one could read into Kirk’s determination and willingness to sacrifice the entire planet to prevent the infection from spreading. But it proves such a minor point in the episode that whatever message the moment was intended to convey is very minimal.

“Operation – Annihilate!” is a very entertaining, if ultimately hollow and empty episode. The real benefits to watching it are the performances of the principle cast members of Spock, McCoy and Kirk. True, the props for the aliens are a detriment. But hey, what is a Star Trek episode without cheesy props? At least as far as this one is concerned, the suspense and danger don’t come from the aliens’ physicality, but rather from the madness they inflict on those around them.

Filed under: Original Series