The Man Trap (episode)

A mysterious creature stalks the Enterprise, murdering crew members. (Series Premiere)

Teaser
The Enterprise arrives at planet M-113 to provide supplies and routine medical exams to Doctor Robert Crater and his wife, Nancy, with whom Dr. Leonard McCoy was once romantically involved. M-113 has been home to the Craters for five years, during which time they have conducted an archaeological survey of the planet's ruins. They are the only known inhabitants of the planet.

Kirk, McCoy, and crewman Darnell beam down to the planet and meet Dr. Crater and, apparently, Nancy Crater, but each of the landing party sees a different woman. McCoy, who says he is amazed at how little Nancy has changed since he last saw her, sees Nancy as he knew her 12 years ago. Darnell sees a completely different, younger blond woman who looks exactly like someone he met before. Kirk sees a woman similar to the woman McCoy sees, but more appropriately aged. At the end of the first scene, crewman Darnell is lured away by the seductive version of Nancy Crater that he sees.

Act One
Dr. Crater then arrives. Crater tells Kirk that the only thing they need are salt tablets. Otherwise, they want to be left alone. Kirk debates this, insisting they must need other supplies and must at least allow McCoy to give them physicals. During the physical, a woman's scream is heard from outside.

When Kirk goes to investigate, he finds Darnell dead, with Nancy standing over him. His face is scarred with circular marks. Nancy claims she saw him put a poisonous plant in his mouth.

Kirk and McCoy and the dead crewman beam back up. When the transporter room reports that one of the party is dead, Spock, who is in command, merely responds, "Bridge acknowledging," causing Uhura to express wonder that Spock did not even ask who among the party had died.

Aboard the Enterprise, McCoy and Spock determine that Darnell was not poisoned, and in fact nothing is wrong with him at all.

Act Two
Later, McCoy discovers that Darnell's body has been drained of salt.

Kirk, McCoy and two crewmen beam back down to the planet to investigate further, and Kirk insists that Dr. Crater and his wife beam up to the Enterprise until the investigation is complete. Abruptly Dr. Crater runs off to find Nancy. Sturgeon, one of the crewmen who beamed down with Kirk and McCoy, is found dead. The other, Green, is also killed by Nancy and then we see Nancy transform into Green.

Kirk and McCoy question Nancy/Green, and then the three beam up to the Enterprise.

The woman Kirk and McCoy saw as Nancy Crater, and later Green, is a shape-shifting creature, the last survivor of M-113, and can literally appear as a different being to each person "she" meets. By reaching into their minds and drawing on their memories, the creature can lull her potential victims into a false sense of security, and apparently hypnotize them, before killing them.

Loose aboard the Enterprise, the M-113 creature begins killing members of the crew, first by posing as someone they know and trust, and then draining their bodies of salt.

Act Three
Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet to capture Professor Crater. Crater does not want to be captured and fires a laser pistol at Kirk and Spock, hitting and destroying one of the ancient planetary structures. Kirk and Spock then set their phasers for stun. Spock then distracts Crater and Kirk fires a red bolt from his phaser and stuns Crater. Kirk and Spock then question Crater about the creature. After Kirk inquires about Nancy, Crater says that she has been dead for years. He also describes the M-113 creature. The problem facing the M-113 creature is the need for sodium chloride – salt. The creature will die without salt. The rest of its race died due to this shortage.

Act Four
In the briefing room, Kirk holds a conference with department heads and Professor Crater. The M-113 creature appears at this meeting as McCoy. It is during this meeting that Crater informs everyone that he and the last surviving creature have formed a symbiotic relationship. Crater provided the M-113 creature with the needed salt and, in turn, the creature gave the professor companionship ... something Crater craved since the creature murdered his wife, the real Nancy Crater, for her salt.

Finally, the creature kills Crater and changes into Nancy Crater to beg McCoy to defend it (her) from Kirk and Spock, who have figured out the creature's secret. They then rush to the doctor's quarters and convince him that this is not the real Nancy. In an emotionally painful move, McCoy kills the creature, saving himself and the Enterprise crew.

Log Entries

 * "Captain's log, stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. Onboard the Enterprise, Mr. Spock, temporarily in command. On the planet, the ruins of an ancient and long dead civilization. Ship's surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater, and his wife, Nancy. Routine, but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Dr. McCoy's past."


 * "Captain's log, additional entry. Since our mission was routine, we had beamed down to the planet without suspicion. We were totally unaware that each member of the landing party was seeing a different woman, a different Nancy Crater."


 * "Captain's log, stardate 1513.4. In orbit around planet M-113. One crewman, member of the landing party, dead by violence... cause unknown. We are certain the cause of death was not poison."


 * "Captain's log, stardate 1513.8. I am now certain that the violent death of my crewman was caused by some strange lifeform."


 * "Captain's log, additional. Armed and able-bodied crewmen are not attacked and slaughtered this easily. Apparently, the killer can immobilize them as it approaches, perhaps with some hypnotic or paralyzing power. The answer lies with Professor Crater."


 * "Captain's log, continuing. The Enterprise has been invaded by a creature capable of assuming any form and with the capacity to paralyze and draw the life from any one of us."

Memorable Quotes
"Go away. We don't want you."

"''What you want is unimportant right now. What you will get is what is required by the book."


 * - Crater and McCoy, on the routine medical examination required by Starfleet

"Mister Spock, sometimes I think if I hear that word frequency once more, I'll cry."
 * - Uhura, starting a conversation with Spock

"Tell me how your planet Vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full."

"Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura."

"I'm not surprised, Mister Spock."
 * - Uhura and Spock

"This man shouldn't be dead. I can't find anything wrong with him. According to all the tests, he should get up and just walk away from here."
 * - McCoy, on the death of Darnell

"Message, Captain. Starship Base on Corinth IV requests explanation of our delay here, sir. Base Commander Dominguez says we have supplies he urgently needs."

"Tell José he'll get his chilli peppers when we get there. Tell him the're prime Mexican Reds, I hand picked them myself. But he won't die if he goes a few more days without them."
 * - Uhura and Kirk

"But it's a mystery. And I don't like mysteries. They give me a bellyache. And I've got a beauty right now."
 * - Kirk, on Crater's need for salt tablets

"You could learn something from Mister Spock, Doctor. Stop thinking with your glands!"
 * - Kirk to McCoy, on the search for Nancy

"Why don't you go chase an asteroid?"
 * - Rand, to "Green"

"Yeah, how'd you like to have her as your own personal yeoman?"
 * - Crewman, admiring Yeoman Rand walk down the corridor

"May the Great Bird of the Galaxy bless your planet."
 * - Sulu to Rand, as she brings him a food tray

"Why do people have to call inanimate objects she?"
 * - Sulu, to Rand

"You been nipping Saurian brandy or something?"
 * - Rand, to "Green" in the botany room

"Keep a tight fix on us. If we let out a yell, I want an armed party down there before the echo dies."
 * - Kirk to Uhura, just before he beams down to the planet

"This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend, wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn't a bad life to have everyone in the universe at your beck and call! And you win all the arguments!"
 * - Kirk to Crater, on the M-113 creature

"Fortunately, my ancestors spawned in another ocean than yours did. My blood cells are quite different."
 * - Spock, on surviving the creature's attack

"It's killing the captain! Shoot it, Doctor, quickly!"

"No! No!"

"It's killing the captain! Shoot, quick!!"

"I won't shoot Nancy!"

"This is not Nancy! If she were Nancy, could she take this?!"


 * - Spock and McCoy, as Spock begins to punch the creature in the face

"Lord, forgive me."
 * - McCoy, before killing the creature

"Something wrong, Captain?"

"I was thinking about the buffalo, Mister Spock."
 * - Spock and Kirk, on the death of the creature

Background

 * "The Man Trap" was the first Star Trek episode to air, on . As Robert H. Justman and Herbert F. Solow recount in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, the decision to broadcast it before any of the other limited number of completed episodes was largely a process of elimination. Although it had good special effects and demonstrated the series' intelligent approach to alien life forms, was not chosen because virtually all the action took place aboard the Enterprise. This drawback also weighed against, which was further deemed "too gentle" a tale because it dealt with the problems of an adolescent.  was out of the running because no one wanted to lead off the series with a risqué story about selling women in space. The second pilot, , was considered too "expository" in terms of its background to be broadcast so early. Justman himself favored  because he thought it would provide an ideal introduction to the different characters' personalities. In the end, "The Man Trap" won out because its straightforward action plot was not considered too exotic, it had the advantage of a monster to thrill the viewers, and it fulfilled the series' "strange new worlds" concept.

Script and Story

 * The first draft of this episode's script was completed on, with the final draft being completed three days later. In The Star Trek Interview Book, author George Clayton Johnson recalled that story editor John D.F. Black's only major objection to his first draft was that the M-113 creature did not arrive aboard the Enterprise until the third act. Black argued that the crew had to be put in jeopardy sooner, and so Johnson revised the script accordingly.
 * An early title for this episode was "Damsel With a Dulcimer". Professor Crater was supposed to drive a tractor around the archaeological site in the original story outline.
 * This episode bears a resemblance to an earlier George Clayton Johnson story called "All of Us Are Dying," later adapted by for  episode "", first aired on January 1, 1960.  That show also involved a person who could make himself into whomever he chose.  The episode featured actors Harry Townes, Phillip Pine, Peter Brocco and a score written by Jerry Goldsmith.
 * The episode was novelized by James Blish under the original scripted name, "The Unreal McCoy," in the first Star Trek adaptation collection, released in the US by Bantam Books in.
 * Blish changed some of the names in his novelization, possibly working from an earlier script draft. The planet is called Regulus VIII, and the archeologists are Robert and Nancy Bierce.

Credits

 * As the first episode actually telecast, the opening credits are slightly different from most other first season shows. Gene Roddenberry has "created by" credits and there is no "starring" before William Shatner's name. This version of the credits was used only once more, in.
 * In this episode, Garrison True and Larry Anthony both speak several on-screen lines, yet are not listed in the closing credits.
 * In the first season, directors and writers were not even credited until the very end of each episode, while they are credited right after the title of each episode beginning in season two.

Cast

 * The very first Enterprise crew members whom the television audience saw in this premiere episode were Spock, Uhura, and Leslie, sitting in the command module on the bridge. (Which is, in fact, a recycled shot from .)
 * James Doohan (Scotty) does not appear in this episode, but he is briefly heard on Kirk's communicator in dialog lifted from another episode.
 * William Shatner has severe problems to this day with persistent ringing in his ears, a condition known as . He says it was caused by explosions going off near him during his television work. In both this episode and, explosions occur very close to Shatner. Leonard Nimoy also has tinnitus due to this occurrence, but not as severe as Shatner's.
 * Guest stars Jeanne Bal and Vince Howard were both regular performers playing faculty members on the 1963–65 public high school drama Mr. Novak, a program on which many future Trek performers guested (including George Takei and Walter Koenig).

Costumes

 * The costume of the M-113 creature was designed by Wah Chang. Chang obviously used a modified gas mask as the creature's mouth. The costume later appeared, displayed on the wall of Trelane's castle in . Later, the "creature" found a new home in Robert Justman's office, along with the two Gorn suits from and the "frozen" mannequin from . (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story)
 * The suit worn by Barnhart bears a strong resemblance to the radiation suits seen in The Outer Limits episode "The Production and Decay of Strange Particles" (guest-starring Leonard Nimoy), even down to the numbers seen on the suit. There were several other holdovers from The Outer Limits in Star Trek, notably creatures created by Janos Prohaska that were modified to create creatures seen in the Talos zoo in and, of course, the Horta in.
 * For the first time, Uhura wears a red uniform instead of a gold one.
 * A female crewmember wearing pants can be seen on a corridor. "Charlie X" is the last episode featuring a crew woman wearing pants.
 * In one of the red alert scenes on an Enterprise corridor, the crewmen are wearing turtleneck uniforms. It is a recycled (originally unused) shot from . (It can be seen at the beginning of Act One, in the original, pre-broadcast version of the second pilot.)

Visual and Sound Effects

 * The visual of the planet M-113 from orbit is reused footage previously representing Alfa 177 in (although that segment ended up airing after this one). This planet effect was reused again many times during the series, as Tantalus V in, Planet Q and Benecia in , the iron-silica planet in , Beta III in , Janus VI in , Organia in , Mudd's planet in , Argus X in  and Ardana in.
 * A ricochet sound effect is used when Crater is stunned by the phaser shot, the only time this effect is used in the series. Thereafter, Alfred Ryder's voice is slowed down to indicate the stun effect.
 * In early episodes like this one, there are up and down indicators that light up outside the turbolifts. Although they are seen in subsequent episodes, only in the earliest ones do they actually light up to indicate direction of travel. Elevator indicator lights later show up in engineering above one of the consoles.
 * The bridge sound effects still retain sounds from the two pilots. By the time Roddenberry left as producer, those original sounds were not heard again, with the brief exceptions of being heard while on the bridges of the Exeter and the Lexington. The DVD releases, however, have overlaid these older sound effects in every episode. They are presented as "rear channel" sounds which gives the episodes a "surround sound" effect.
 * When Nancy Crater first walks into the dig headquarters, Nichelle Nichols' singing from "Charlie X" is briefly dubbed in. Curiously, Nancy's mouth does not appear to move as she is singing.

Production

 * Just prior to filming, Alfred Ryder (Robert Crater) suffered a severe arm injury which prevented him from using that arm. Despite the pain, he performed the role without complaint. (Star Trek Encyclopedia 2nd ed., p . 90)
 * Although this episode was filmed before, stock footage from that episode is used for the bridge scene at the very beginning. Kirk's run down the corridor to the sickbay is also pulled from "The Naked Time" as is a reaction shot of Kirk when Spock is telling him about the Borgia plant on the sickbay viewscreen.
 * Also, a recycled shot from, showing Spock in the captain's chair is used for the same bridge scene at the beginning.
 * The shot of the computer monitor in sickbay, then in McCoy's quarters is the same shot, is recycled from (with the close-ups of Kirk and Spock matted in during post-production).
 * This is the only segment of Star Trek in which we see McCoy's quarters. A pan and jump cut along a blank wall allowed two McCoys to appear in the same room. The three cylindrical containers on the shelf in McCoy's room were previously seen on Ben Childress's table in . They later appear in the large lighted panel in McCoy's lab.
 * The ship's arboretum is a redress of the sickbay set. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 96)
 * At two points in this episode, the doors can be heard opening and closing without the dubbed sound effect: once when the-creature-as-Green leaves the botany lab and again during the final scene on the bridge.
 * Kirk's communicator flops open as he is crawling along the ground during the shoot-out with Crater. When Kirk opens his communicator to respond to Spock during the scene, there is no sound effect.
 * One aspect of the first season episodes is that the crew are not just walking in the corridors – they are often engaged in maintenance work, checking out equipment in the corridors and so on. This is evident in "The Man Trap" and, especially. Minor crew members also carried on casual conversations and a feeling of the ship as a real community was created, as when Uhura asks Bobby to fix her rattling door or when two crewmen admire Janice Rand. These details about everyday life on a starship largely faded away as the series progressed.
 * As one of the first episodes of Star Trek ever produced, the production effects had yet to be fully "ironed out", which is evident on the surface of the planet when Kirk and company are calling out "Crewman Green, report!" While the characters are supposed to be outside on an open plain, the way their voices sound makes it very obvious that the actors are calling out on an enclosed indoors stage.
 * Professor Crater's phaser is a reused laser pistol from.
 * The statue near the entrance of the Crater home can later be seen in Spock's quarters in and subsequent episodes. In a blooper shot, a man's arm can be seen putting a cigar into the statue's mouth.

Reception

 * Variety published a very negative review of Star Trek in its 14 September, issue based on this episode, stating the series "won't work". The reviewer called the show "dreary and confusing", and that it would be "better suited to the Saturday morning kidvid bloc", surprised on how Star Trek made it to television. However, the critic conceded that the leading performers were trying very hard to appear credible. (The Star Trek Compendium, p. 31)
 * TV Guide also printed a negative review of the series in it's 10 September Fall Premiere issue, stating that "the sky's not the limit for this Trek". (The Star Trek Compendium, p. 31)
 * This was the first Star Trek episode that David Gerrold viewed. Watching it upon its first airing, Gerrold was thrilled by what he saw, later reminiscing, "I watched it eagerly. I was amazed that something this imaginative had made it to television."
 * Actress Grace Lee Whitney considers the arboretum scene of Rand and Sulu as one of her favorite scenes of the series. She recalled that shooting the scene was very funny, and the entire cast and crew were in a light-hearted atmosphere. Some dirty jokes were told in connection with Beauregard and her, and even the puppeteer below the table (Bob Baker) tried to reach for her short skirt with the puppet. (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 96)
 * Whitney described this episode as "filled with plenty of horrific and suspenseful moments. It was a great debut episode for the series." (The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy, p. 96)

Other Information

 * In the Leonard Nimoy-hosted 1983 documentary Star Trek Memories, Nimoy mentioned the fact that NBC chose to air this episode first, since (at least to the network) it was "proper" science fiction with a "proper" alien menace. Nimoy also stated that of the episodes the cast and crew had already completed, this was their least favorite.
 * The preview trailer for this episode has the stardate as 1324.1.
 * The sickbay is called the dispensary in this episode.
 * Kirk tempts the creature with six salt tablets.

Production Timeline

 * Script by George Clayton Johnson:
 * Filmed: –
 * Score recording:
 * Original airdate:
 * First UK airdate:

Video and DVD Releases

 * Original US Betamax/VHS release:.
 * Original UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 4, catalogue number VHR 2247, release date unknown.
 * US VHS release:.
 * UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.2,.
 * Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 3,.
 * As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection.
 * As part of the TOS Season 1 HD DVD collection.
 * As part of the TOS Season 1 Blu-ray collection.

Starring

 * William Shatner as Kirk
 * Leonard Nimoy as Spock

Co-Starring

 * Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater

Guest Star

 * Alfred Ryder as Robert Crater

Featuring

 * DeForest Kelley as McCoy
 * Grace Lee Whitney as Rand
 * George Takei as Sulu
 * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
 * Bruce Watson as Green
 * Michael Zaslow as Darnell
 * Vince Howard as a Crewman
 * Francine Pyne as Nancy III

Uncredited Co-Stars

 * Budd Albright as Barnhart and Navigator
 * Larry Anthony as Berkeley
 * John Arndt as Sturgeon
 * Bob Baker as Beauregard Puppeteer
 * William Blackburn as Hadley
 * Frank da Vinci as Vinci
 * Sharon Gimpel as M-113 creature (salt vampire)
 * Eddie Paskey as Leslie
 * Jeannie Malone as Yeoman
 * Garrison True as Security Guard #1
 * Unknown actor as Bobby

Stand-ins

 * William Blackburn as the stand-in for DeForest Kelley
 * Frank da Vinci as the stand-in for Leonard Nimoy
 * Jeannie Malone as the stand-in for Grace Lee Whitney and Jeanne Bal
 * Eddie Paskey as the stand-in for William Shatner

External link


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