It’s not a Star Trek: The Orginal Series episode without a little misogyny, and boy ol’ boy did they double down on it. The first scene (and basically every scene after it) was predicated on Scotty and eventually the rest of the crew talking down and marginalizing a female character of the crew.
They often referred to her as a “girl” instead of the more relevant “scientist”, and Scotty never really acknowledges her as an actual crewman.
Synopsis of “The Lights of Zetar”:
At planetoid Memory Alpha, an Enterprise crew member’s body is taken over by mysterious energy lifeforms.
Yet another smoke monster molests the crew of the Enterprise. It’s unclear to these podcasters if they encounter this type of phenomenon often or if our random episode generator is having a little fun with us. You see, the generator knows how mad we still are at ABC’s “Lost” and all our Lost time waiting for answers that materialized. Nevertheless, the Enterprise is faced with another one.
One characteristic of The Original Series unique to all the other series is its one-plot structure. The writers either hadn’t yet conceived of the A-B plot structure or just chose to ignore it. In the course of The Measure of an Episode, we’ve tried to perhaps force-fit certain minor plot elements into the A-B paradigm, but, admittedly, those efforts are tenuous at best.
This episode of TOS specifically could have greatly benefited from a B-plot for a couple of reasons. One: the plot is a bit dilute and really didn’t justify its fifty-minute runtime. And B: the writers had concocted the “Memory Alpha Station” which is worthy of an episode in and of itself.
Why not ping-pong between the Zetarian monster cloud plot and some intrigue happening at Memory Alpha?
Another element that is neglected is Spock correcting Kirk’s mischaracterization of the smoke monster as a “storm”, which is then ignored by Kirk and the rest of the crew. We kept waiting for more information to resurface about the origin and nature of the cloud which never comes.
Even as the crew was resecting the Zetarians consciousness from the lady scientist (whose name, at the time of publication, this podcaster cannot remember), Kirk was obstinate about his terminology. Thanks a lot, writers.
And then we have a little trouble with our Picard impression. But we figure it out. You’ll see. Or hear.
