Star Trek: Is There In Truth No Beauty? Rewatch

September 12, 2015 12:03 PM - Season 3, Episode 5

The Enterprise serves as escort to Medusan ambassador Kollos and Vulcan-trained human Dr. Miranda Jones, who intend to attempt an unprecedented interspecies mind link so that Medusan technology might be adapted for Starfleet.

"Is There in Truth No Beauty?" was first broadcast October 18, 1968. It is episode No. 60, production No. 62, written by Jean Lisette Aroeste, and directed by Ralph Senensky.

Memory Alpha Link

AV Club Review

The episode can be viewed on Netflix

posted by Benway (3 comments total)

This one is a huge box of weirdness.

There are some of Star Trek's biggest ideas here – the possible danger to us of a non-humanoid species, how true telepaths would cope with too much knowledge, how a ship could navigate outside the galaxy – mixed with some of its weirdest ideas about women. One of the series' most dramatic soundtracks, with heavily accompanied almost expressionistic fight scenes, but with the "romantic" interludes used at weird moments – why do we hear a swell of strings when Spock first meets Miranda Jones?

And then there's the incompehensible low comedy – why, if the dangerously beautiful/ugly Medusan alien is concealed in a box, does everyone have to clear the hallways and does Spock have to wear a silly orange eye visor? They seem to have completely bollixed up the notion of a being of almost Lovecraftian crawling horror with the simple danger of a too-bright light. It's left unclear why Jones has to wear the visor at all, given that we find out she's blind (and anyway we found out in an earlier episode that Spock copes quite well with bright lights).

There's an entire feminist screed percolating in my mind about Jones – that terrible dinner where Kirk and Bones both flirt heavily with her, how she's literally a femme fatale to Larry Marvick, Kirk referring to her as "the girl" (!) (he'll do that a lot more about Mira Romaine when we get to "The Lights of Zetar"), the whole bit about Jones being envious of Spock's telepathic skills, Kirk trying to kiss her in the arboretum and convince her she needs human love.

The reveal of Jones' blindness is also weirdly handled: Spock, in an atypically crude moment, reaches out and pushes his hand in front of her face as if to prove something (he doesn't, because she flinches away). And then the climactic scene in sickbay where Kirk throws her around the room as he "tells her the truth" about her envy of Spock.

On the upside, the episode's noted for Nimoy's excellent moments as Spock-plus-the-Medusan and his ensuing madness and recovery. On the downside, the attempt by Gene Roddenberry to market the IDIC. Memorable performances also from Diana Muldaur as Jones and David Frankham as the obsessed, unrequited engineer.
posted by zadcat at 4:39 PM on September 12, 2015 [1 favorite]

Also, if that's an antigrav unit, why do they have to carry the box?
posted by zadcat at 4:51 PM on September 12, 2015

Lovecraftian crawling horror with the simple danger of a too-bright light. It's left unclear why Jones has to wear the visor at all, given that we find out she's blind (and anyway we found out in an earlier episode that Spock copes quite well with bright lights).


I found this episode a mess all around, and the visors were a distraction.

The title is a bit strange, and every time I try to read it, I want to correct it to Is there no Truth in Beauty?

Weird episode.
posted by Benway at 5:39 PM on September 12, 2015