Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 65: For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

"For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky" is in my opinion an underrated episode of Star Trek. Dr. McCoy has been diagnosed with a deadly illness, but insists to accompany Captain Kirk and Spock to a planet. Shortly after reaching the planet, the Enterprise crew learns of a group of people who don't even know about any world other than the closed-in ship that they live on. Oh yeah, Dr. McCoy also falls for a woman on the planet.

"For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky" has a few more plot elements to it, but I'll let you watch the episode on your own in order to find out what they are. If you like other episodes of Star Trek The Original Series such as "Return of The Archons," I would recommend purchasing "For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky." It's an interesting and entertaining episode. It also has good special effects (for the time) and a great performance from everybody.

The Enterprise crew land on a moving asteroid that is in the form of a planet on the interior and find it to be ruled by a computer, similar to "The Apple". At the same time, Dr. McCoy finds he has succumed to an incurable disease with less than a year to live. This is one of the few episodes shown with McCoy in love. Kate Woodville, who played the high priestess Natira, never had a very illustrious career and apparently quit the movie business long ago. A shame for such a beautiful and talented actress. She also co-starred with Kirk Douglas in Posse.

At the same time McCoy discovers that he has a year to live, the U.S.S. Enterprise encounters the asteroid Yonada which is determined to be artificially propelled. Its center is occupied by humanoids, whose ancestors built the asteroid "vessel" in an effort to escape the destruction of their solar system. However, the controls have become defective and Yonada is heading for collision with a Federation planet. The people are ruled by Natira, a priestess who takes her orders from the central computer. While Kirk and Spock search for the central controls that will redirect the ship, McCoy and Natira fall in love. Kirk and Spock return to the U.S.S. Enterprise but McCoy, wishing to spend what little time he has left with the woman he's come to love, stays behind, marries Natira and accepts the "Instrument of Obedience" which punishes wrong thinking. Soon after the marriage, McCoy calls Kirk, telling him that he may have found the controls for the asteroid. However, he is struck down by the "Instrument of Obedience" before he can tell them where. Kirk and Spock beam back to Yonada, remove the sensor from McCoy, and locate the controls. They manage to put Yonada back on course. In deciphering the computer's library, Spock finds a cure for McCoy's disease, and the doctor returns to the U.S.S. Enterprise. Natira must stay on Yonada to guide her people and so bids McCoy good-bye.

They go to a world that is run by an evil computer. Actually this world is some kind of space ship, but the computer tells the people on it that they are on a planet. So there is fake sky. There is an attractive lady there who falls in love with McCoy. It's a good show.

Screw the amazon review-this episode is never given the credit it deserves. I think McCoy succeeds on a higher level than Kirk as a lover because he is not a seducer-he's a gentleman but still quite passionate. Anyone who thinks on the surface McCoy is no chick magnet should look at his eyes-that's where the passion is. I like the love-at-first sight scenario too-it seems like a McCoy kind of relationship starter. I especially like the scene in which they chat and eventually admit their feelings to each other-this is something McCoy never gets to do and DeForest Kelley handled it wonderfully-it is not a seduction as with the Kirk liasons, but the doctor sees a chance to retire in love.

This episode is average for the original series and barely rates 4 stars. But it would be extraordinary in any other series.

On the surface, this is yet another episode in which Kirk must straighten out a computer-controlled culture. For once it is McCoy who gets to fall in love with the high priestess, a refreshing change, although McCoy seems uncomfortable -- or perhaps just unpracticed -- kissing a girl on camera. Kirk got more practice.

But watch this episode for the religious references. The computer is "the Oracle." There is a Holy Book. There are religious rites, prophecies, and a promised Millienium in which the faithful will be delivered. In the meantime, the minds of the people must be carefully controlled. Like a vengeful God, the Oracle zaps anyone who dares question the literal truth of the prophecies.

What's really going on is that the people are travelling in a spaceship carefully designed to look like an asteroid, or small planet. It was created by their ancestors for a benign purpose. But (due to a computer malfunction?) the metaphor has become mistaken for reality, the computer has come to think that it's God, and the inflexibility of religion threatens the survival of society. You see, the "spaceship" has gotten off course and is about to collide with a planet. Kirk and company have to straighten things out before it's too late. But the Oracle computer zaps them when they come aboard and question the computer's infallibilty.

This thinly veiled criticism of religion could never have gotten on the air in 1960s TV if done directly. The genius of Star Trek is that it could make such a statement by clothing it in sci-fi terms. To be fair, the series occasionally made a mildly pro-Christian statement (Bread and Circuses, The Empath) as well. And it is only inflexible religion that is criticized, not necessarily all religion. But the message is clear: maybe you should think twice before interpreting your prophets and holy books too literally and dogmatically.

(Note: Microsoft employees might find it amusing today that an "Oracle computer" could be the source of such error and arrogance!)

This one is pretty weak overall. The ultra-aggressive high priestess gets McCoy to marry her within a few days, but hours later, she encourages him to leave. The oracle has the ability to "zap" the boys, but when they go for the book at the end, it only yells at them, "NO! STOP!" Pretty decent idea, rather poorly executed, McCoy utterly passionless as the man "in love".

A set of missiles armed with nuclear warheads is launched at the Enterprise from a large asteroid. The asteroid turns out to be hollow and is inhabited by a people called the Yonadans. They are unaware that they are onboard a spaceship and a computer that they call the Oracle enforces rigid rules of thought, knowledge and behavior. Dr. McCoy is also suffering from an incurable disease that will kill him in approximately one year.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam over to the surface of the asteroid and are taken prisoner. They are brought before the Oracle and are given a severe shock, which was meant to be a warning from the Oracle. After the warning, they are treated well, with the high priestess of the Yonadans falling in love with McCoy. He returns the affection and agrees to stay on the asteroid, even though he knows that it is on a collision course with a planet. Once Kirk and Spock return to the Enterprise, they are relieved of all responsibility by Star Fleet Command, as the plan is to destroy the asteroid if the course cannot be altered.
McCoy then learns of a book of knowledge and informs Captain Kirk about it. McCoy is punished, but Kirk and Spock arrive in time to save him. They move to the Oracle room and after consulting the book, Kirk and Spock are able to gain entry to the control room, where they make the appropriate repairs to the drive system. The asteroid is then placed back on course, but when they are leaving the control room, Spock discovers a repository of knowledge amassed by the ancestors of the Yonadans. A great deal of that knowledge is medical in nature, including a cure for the disease afflicting Dr. McCoy. He is then cured and stays aboard the Enterprise.
The good part of this episode is that Dr. McCoy is given an opportunity for romance. Unfortunately, it takes an incurable disease that is easily cured and the leader of a doomed world falling for him at first sight. The "psychotic" computer plot device was used several times in the original series and by the time this episode was made it was stale. McCoy finds it so easy to leave the Enterprise, but in fact goes right back the first chance he gets. There was no emotional angst or trauma to his decision to return. Where only a few hours earlier, for love, he left the Enterprise and had the instrument of obedience installed, he then abandons that love as if it was nothing. It just doesn't seem believable. Also, Kirk Spock and McCoy beam to the surface of the asteroid, where there is a breathable atmosphere and daylight. Both of these are of course nearly impossible. An advanced society would not place an atmosphere on an asteroid where only the interior was to be inhabited and even if they did, it would not stay there for 10,000 years. The likelihood that the asteroid was near enough to a star to be illuminated is also nonexistent.
This is a weak episode, typical of the third year of the series. From the first time I saw the episode, I have wondered why they included the "incurable" disease feature. It was in no way essential to the plot, and in my opinion, the story would have been stronger if McCoy had just demonstrated some remorse over loving and leaving so quickly.

This is similar in some ways to "Return of the Archons" or "The Apple" in that a humanoid society is under the control of a computer. Where this story diverges from those is with the asteroid ship and the back story of the Fabrini.

In addition, we get a rare treat in this episode: McCoy, not Kirk, falls in love!

One of the better episodes of Star Trek's third season.