Wolf in the Fold
| "Wolf in the Fold" | |
|---|---|
| Star Trek: The Original Series episode | |
| Episode no. | Season 2 Episode 14 |
| Directed by | Joseph Pevney |
| Written by | Robert Bloch |
| Featured music | Gerald Fried |
| Cinematography by | Jerry Finnerman |
| Production code | 036 |
| Original air date | December 22, 1967 |
| Guest actors | |
|
John Winston - Lt. Kyle |
|
"Wolf in the Fold" is a second season episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. It is episode #43, production #36, and was broadcast on December 22, 1967. It was written by Robert Bloch, and directed by Joseph Pevney.
In the episode, a series of horrific murders of women, on a world where such things never happen, points to Mr. Scott as the prime suspect.
Contents
Plot
On stardate 3614.9, the Federation starship USS Enterprise arrives at Argelius II, a planet with a Middle-Eastern cultural influence primarily dedicated to peaceful hedonism. Ship's Captain James T. Kirk, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott beam down for some therapeutic shore leave focused on Mr. Scott, who is recovering from a concussion caused by an explosion in the Engine Room. Scotty picks up / is picked up by Kara, an attractive Argelian dancer, and leaves the club with her. As Kirk and McCoy make their way through a fog-filled evening to another club, they hear a scream, grope their way through the fog to find the dancer dead on the ground and Scotty standing in a state of shock against a nearby wall, clutching a bloody knife.
Scott is detained and interrogated by Mr. Hengist, an administrator from Rigel IV and head of Argelius's police operations, who informs the Captain that the outlook for Scotty is grim. Jaris, the Prefect of the planet, intervenes and bids his wife, Sybo, employ the Argelian empathic contact to determine the truth. Descended from the ancient priestesses of Argelius, Sybo has telepathic skills. While she prepares for the ritual, with the consent of the Prefect, Lieutenant Karen Tracy, an Enterprise medical specialist, beams down with a psycho-tricorder, interviews Scott, and is murdered. The evidence again points to Scott, though he is found unconscious at the scene.
Sybo proceeds with the empathic contact ritual. Similar to a seance, the participants hold hands and Sybo begins her search for the truth. As the light from the altar fire fades and the room darkens. Sybo states that "There is evil here, monstrous, terrible evil ... hater of all that lives...hatred of women... a hunger that never dies ... It has a name ... Kesla, Beratis! A hunger that never dies! Redjac! Redjac!" The room becomes totally dark, and Sybo screams. When the lights come back on, Scott is holding Sybo's dead body.
Understandably, the Prefect is upset by his wife's murder, but agrees to have everyone present during the ritual, including Hengist, himself, Kara's father, and Morla (her fiancé) beamed aboard the Enterprise where the ship's computer can be used to determine if Scott is guilty. However, he warns Mr. Scott that the Argelian penalty for murder is death by slow torture, and if the ship's computer proves his guilt he will be subjected to it.
Kirk has everyone beamed back to the Enterprise so that the ship's computer can analyze Mr. Scott's testimony of innocence. The computer confirms that both Scotty and Morla know nothing about the murders. Scott insists, however, that he felt the presence of a cold, evil being during Sybo's empathic contact ritual. The computer verifies he is telling the truth.
Kirk decides to run the names spoken by Sybo through the computer. The machine returns information that Beratis (of Rigel IV), and Kesla (of Deneb II), are names given to a serial killer of women on those worlds. It also identifies Redjac as "Red Jack", one name given to the elusive 19th Century Earth serial killer better known as Jack the Ripper. Gradually, suspicion shifts from Scott to Hengist, not least because the murder weapon was made by the hill people of the Argus River region of Rigel IV, and Hengist took up his post on Argelius shortly after the last murder took place on Rigel IV.
Hengist attempts to flee, but Captain Kirk subdues him with a single punch. Dr. McCoy examines him and announces: "He's dead, Jim." However, the Ripper-entity jumps from Hengist's body into the Enterprise's central computer, from which it can control the ship.
The Ripper-entity gets onto the ship's computer system and begins threatening the crew (via its public address system) to generate the fear it feeds on. Kirk fights the attempt of the Ripper to terrify his crew by ordering Doctor McCoy to administer tranquilizers to everyone. Spock drives the entity out of the computer by ordering it to compute Pi to its last decimal place (which locks the computer into an endless loop, since that mathematical ratio is unbounded). The entity then jumps back into the apparently dead body of Mr. Hengist in the briefing room where Scott's interrogation had taken place, but Kirk subdues Hengist and Spock hits him with a dose of tranquilizer, rendering the Ripper-entity helpless. Kirk carries Hengist to the Transporter Room and Spock uses the transporter to beam the entity into space at maximum dispersion.
Spock notes that even if Redjac survived the dispersion beaming, each individual part of it will drift helplessly through space until the creature finally perishes. The threat from Jack the Ripper is ended for good. With the entire crew on tranquilizers with the exception of himself and Mr. Spock, Captain Kirk has to defer continuing his shore leave for awhile.
See also
References
External links
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Wikiquote has quotations related to: "Wolf in the Fold" |
- "Wolf in the Fold" at StarTrek.com
- "Wolf in the Fold" at IMDbLua error in Module:WikidataCheck at line 28: attempt to index field 'wikibase' (a nil value).
- "Wolf in the Fold" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
- "Wolf in the Fold" at TV.com
- "Wolf in the Fold" Remastered version at TrekMovie.com
