166: Star Trek TOS Season 1, “Devil in the Dark”

Matt and Sean talk about wanting to rock! … on this episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. Who doesn’t want to see Spock mind melding with a sentient rock?

Silicone life forms: https://youtu.be/469chceiiUQ?si=EaZXssD3noE7wopz&t=1

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In this episode of Trek in Time, we’re going to talk about what you do when you want to rock, but your grammar is bad, right? We’re talking about the devil in the dark. Star Trek original series, episode 26, but 25 in broadcast order. Welcome everybody to Trek in Time, where we’re taking a look at every episode of Star Trek in chronological stardate order, but we’re also taking a look at the world at the time of original broadcast.

So we’re talking about 1967. We’re talking about the original series. We’re talking about Star Trek. Welcome everybody. With me, as always, I am Sean Ferrell. I’m a writer, I write some sci fi, I write some stuff for kids. And with me, as always, is my brother, Matt. He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact on our lives.

And Matt, how are you doing today? I’m doing pretty well. This morning, Sean, I was updating the website, TrekinTime.Show ’cause we have a list. I put together a database of all the episodes we have to watch and the order we have to watch them in. Mm-Hmm. And I was linking our pod latest podcast to the episode in the database so that you can go there and see exactly where we are.

And I first thought was, I have to automate this. And then the second thought was. Oh man, I’ve been watching the most recent season of Lower Decks. I have to add the most recent season of Lower Decks to this list. I thought, but that’s like 800 episodes down on this list. There’s clearly no rush for me to add them to the list.

Yeah, my partner yesterday was like, so you’re watching, she mentioned something like Voyager. And she’s like, you’re going to talk about Voyager. And I said, eventually, yes. And she’s like, but isn’t there like a lot between where you are right now and there? And I was like, Oh yes. And then she said, are you going to do the movies?

And I said, yes. And she was just like, the movies too? And I was like, there are only technically a handful of movies compared to the number of episodes that we’re talking about. Hundreds of episodes. So it’s like, we’re talking about hundreds of episodes of TV series, 10 or 12 movies ain’t that big a deal.

So it was just. It was a very funny conversation, but, uh, this doesn’t have to stay in the episode. If it stays in the episode, that’s fine. But we do need to visit because you have a couple of the animated episodes that we’re supposed to talk about at the end of season one of the original series. But they’re in, like, The wrong place.

They’re like at number five in the second season. I think it was just a copying and pasting from the original spreadsheet that we had. They weren’t in there. They were off to the side and then the wrong lines. And I think you put them in where they were, but they don’t belong. So we’ll have to take a look at those.

Anyway, we are, as I mentioned before, talking about the devil in the dark, but first we always like to revisit the mailbag and see what you had to say about our previous episode. So Matt, what did you find for us this week? We have some good comments, some funny comments. First one, this is about the This Side of Paradise episode.

Mm hmm. PaleGhost69 wrote, in quotes from something I think we said in the episode, Gardening is dumb, and he responded in all caps, How dare you, good sir, prepare to be belted with beans, peas, and pumpkins, to which AJ Chan responded, And other space seeds. So thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, gentlemen. Well done.

One of you apparently has a garden and the other one knows how to build a great pun. And as always, Mark Loveless had something to add, which was, while I agreed to a point regarding saying that this was a comment on the counterculture movement, there’s also a reference to the idea of more primitive, in quotes, cultures, or basically third world countries not adapting to newer technologies and advancements that the USA has.

Yes, this was anti communism and anti hippie, but also against countries and cultures that won’t evolve. To, quote, evolve, meant they’d become capitalistic and therefore not communists. That’s right. Yes. 100%. Yep. Then we also had one from PaleGhost69 again. I appreciate that while the episode was based on a, quote, evil plant, it showed Spock regretful and leaving its influence, about leaving its influence because it made him happy where nothing else did.

I had the same experience with cannabis. It saved me from irrevocable actions multiple times throughout my life. And a few times it was the only thing that made me happy. One, sorry to hear that. It sounds very sad. I’m sorry about that. And two, it’s also kind of tragic for Spock, because it’s like, Yeah, he’s, he kind of recognizes, you know, having an outlet like this is actually a good thing for him.

Yeah. It’s, I don’t, there’s no intention by the writers to talk about like, this is about mental health. Yeah. But it is a huge metaphor for mental health. You have a character saying like, I’ve never been happy. Like, what? Whoa. Holy cow. Yeah. It’s like, it’s one of those, I want to give you a hug. Yeah. Yeah. In that moment, if Kirk had just turned to him and been like my friend and hugged him, it would have been within the, it would have made sense within the confines of the, the episode.

It’s really, it really is tragic and does, you know, like, like you mentioned for anybody out there who uses whatever. You know, it doesn’t have to just be cannabis. There are people who exercise fanatically because the endorphins are what they need to keep themselves buoyed. Like, it is a real thing. And this episode inadvertently, I think, steps into that terrain, which is really quite an interesting angle to look at the episode from.

And as always, Mark comes through with the wrong answers only. Plot of Devil in the Dark. Here we go. As you might expect, whenever some of the crew form a band and come up with music, it either causes or solves problems. In this episode, Chekhov and Uhura form a black metal hair band called Devil in the Dark, and at their first show, accidentally summon an interdimensional demon.

Fortunately, this demon has pointed ears and views Spock as brethren. So Spock mind melts with it and talks it into going back to its own dimension. Kirk punishes Chekov and Uhura by putting them on space latrine duty for a month, saying, you stir shit up, you have to clean up your mess. Thank you, Mark. As always, a remarkable contribution to the program.

And somehow that reminded me, and again, I keep saying like Mark effectively creates synopses for an alternate reality of the show, because what’s weird is that reminded me of the episode of Next Generation. Where the Enterprise visits a planet that believes that the world is going to end according to religious doctrine because a devil has now shown up.

There’s a woman who shows up and is like, time to pay the piper. Here I am. And I mean, come on.

Thank you everybody for the comments. Uh, we love, love, love reading them. But, that noise in the background, well, what could that be? If my ears don’t deceive me, it can only be one thing. It’s the read alert. That’s right, it’s time for Matt to tackle the Wikipedia description. Matt, how about it? Dispatched to the mining colony on Janus 6.

The Enterprise is to investigate rumors of a strange subterranean creature responsible for destruction of equipment and the deaths of 50 miners. Kirk and Spock discover a silicon based life form, a Horta, which lives in the surrounding rock. After Kirk and Spock find the strange creature, Spock performs a mind meld.

You know, as you do. Discovering the reason behind the Horta’s attacks. There you go. Just to be clear, that’s 50 minors with an E. Oh my god. Oh my god.

I also, like, some of the wikipedia descriptions can be Get a little funky. They get a little weird. They leave things out. They put stuff in, like sometimes it gets a little weird. This one, the one thing that stood out to me was that the enterprise is to investigate rumors. Uh huh. Rumors. Yes. They’re not investigating rumors.

They’re investigating the deaths of these miners. Of 50 people. Yeah. These 50 people have died. It’s not like, like, well, sure. I’m sure they’re dead, but is something killing them? I don’t know. That’s a rumor. This episode directed by Joseph Pevney and written and produced by Gene L. Coon. We have our usual , crew assortment, William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan. As we have mentioned in a recent episode, James Doohan started to get people’s attention and there was a edict from the network, more Scotty. And here we get some great scotty. So we get some great Scotty. We get some great McCoy.

It gets some great, well, Kirk and Spock as well. We also have quite the assortment of guest stars because we have a good assortment of crewmen who come down to help find the Horta. And we also have a good assortment of miners with an E on the planet who are being attacked. So we have Ken Lynch. Janos Prohaska, Barry Russo, Brad Weston, Biff Elliott, George E. Allen, Robert Hoy, Eddie Paskey, Frank Da Vinci, John Cavett, Ron Veto, and Bill Blackburn playing the assortment of miners and crewmen who are helping on the chase. This episode originally 9th, 1967. Matt, I’m happy to report that we don’t have something by the Monkees or the Buckinghams this week. That’s right, you get to sing a different tune.

Take it away, Matt. It’s Ruby Tuesday by The Rolling Stones. Great! And the image that you see of The Rolling Stones is of course them at their retirement home in 2015.

Bad news, Matt. It’s back. And it’s better than ever. That’s right. In week 23 of its release, we cannot escape it. It’s the Bible, in the beginning. Oh God. It’s back at number one in the box office. I feel like I’m gonna be talking about the same three movies for the next two years.

And on television, we, as you all should know by now, are looking at the Nielsen ratings and comparing number one shows like Bonanza, which earned a 29, to Star Trek’s 12 in its first season to get a sense of what the shows that might have been more popular than Star Trek were. And we’ve talked about a lot of classics, everything from The Smothers Brothers, to Hogan’s Heroes, to Dragnet.

And this week we’re referring to, yes Matt, it’s one of your favorites. No, I’m joking. This is a show that I did not know existed yet again. We talked about Rat Patrol last week, and this week we’re going to talk about Daniel Boone. Matt, that face says it all. Daniel Boone earned a 20 in the Nielsen’s, and it’s an American action adventure television series starring Fess Parker.

Quick, Matt, what’s your favorite Fess Parker project? That’s what I thought. He was frontiersman Daniel Boone. It aired from September 1964 to May of 1970, had 165 episodes, And it was produced by 20th Century Fox. It starred not only Mr. Parker, it also starred, and this is going to tell you a lot about maybe why the show doesn’t air a lot anymore?

Ed Ames co starred as Mingo, Boone’s Cherokee friend. Oh no. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. We’ll just leave that. We’ll just leave that there. That explains a lot. We’ll just leave that there and people can do with that what they will. And in the news on this day in March, 1967, we have a continuing story from last week, in which a congressperson, one Adam Clayton Powell, had been ejected from Congress as a result of a corruption scandal, which would turn out to be after Mr. Powell would sue in the Supreme Court, he would regain his seat through an election in a couple of years. So for the time being, he’s been ejected, but I thought what was interesting here, we have an assortment of headlines. Some of them have to do with, as usual, Vietnam is lurking in the background, former Kennedy Administration official Schlesinger was talking about how in his assessment, the Johnson administration was not interested in negotiating for peace at this time.

There were talks about, uh, the GOP and trying to push their proposals forward and finding it difficult to do so. But the story that stood out was related to the Powell scandal in that there was an attempt by the GOP to get baseball star Jackie Robinson to publicly denounce Powell. I found that to be an interesting and weird turn of events of trying to use a civil rights figure and, and in that way to give them effectively cover in ousting The congressperson from the Harlem district.

On now to our discussion about this week’s episode. We are of course talking about the devil in the dark and I will get a couple of things out of the way right at the top. In my mind this is one of the best Star Trek episodes. I love this episode. This episode is one of those that for me has so many moments that I look back on and just absolutely adore.

So Matt, what are your feelings about this episode? I can’t believe you hold this up as one of the best episodes because I would, I disagree with that. This is not one of the best episodes. It’s a good episode. It’s not one of the best. Part of the reason for that, though, I think we can blame on our father, Sean.

Because this is the episode he would relentlessly make fun of whenever Star Trek came out. The undulating piece of carpet on the floor. The carpet that’s attacking them, yes, yes. I remember being teased by him every time this would be on, or we’d be watching anything really. He’d walk in and say, is this the one where the carpet kills them?

All right. All right, dad, enough. Yeah. In our family, our mom is the sci fi geek. My, our dad is not at all. So this, this episode to me is full of good ideas and really interesting concepts and has great character development and character dynamics with Bones. You know, I’m not a, I’m a doctor, not a bricklayer.

Uh, there’s all those kinds of things in this episode like what you’re saying. Classic Trek. Like when you think a classic Trek of how the characters interact, it’s in this episode. You want to talk about dealing with morality and like what it means for what is life, all those kinds of things. It’s in this episode.

The problem though, Sean, and this is 2024, soon to be 2025, Matt, talking about a show from 1967. It’s very Doctor Who. Like, the sets are crap. The special effects are crap. The execution looks like a, you know, community theater, you know, set that they’re doing things on. Like, this cavern, with a perfectly flat concrete floor.

Or this tunnel was just made and it is really smooth even though the rest of the caverns are look like a cavern. It’s like, oh, come on. Okay. You gotta, you gotta, there’s a whole bunch of suspension of disbelief that you as the viewer have to unlock to really get into the story. So, for me, this is classic Trek.

This is a great episode, writing wise, what they’re doing. The problem, the only problem in my mind, is it’s that the, the time, it was like they’re, they’re, what is the phrase? It’s like your, your ambition is like outstripping your, your reach, like they’re trying to do something really kind of cool. But they can’t quite execute it on the way that they need to, so it’s a little laughable at points because of the poor execution.

Um, but again, that’s 2024 me criticizing a show from 1967. Yeah. But overall, story wise, I thought this one was great. Yeah, I, I, I hear what you’re saying and I understand it, but it really, really does. That is such a personal standing. And as you, and you own up to that, I mean, I know you’re saying like, this is 2024, Matt.

Because for me, that’s part of the fun of the episode. Like it’s all, it’s like watching a stage play. And you go to a stage play, and you know these people are not actually on an arctic ice floe, they’re standing on the floor in front of you, and it’s a flat stage, and it doesn’t matter because you let yourself fall into the, that’s not the point.

And for me, I, Well, I let go of all of that and I love it for the cardboard paper mache walls and in this remastered version, which is the version that I watched, uh, the additional little special effects gimmicks of like watching the wall dissolve away and the Horta comes out. You can tell it’s been CGI’d to do a certain thing that it wouldn’t have done originally.

And I thought it works. And I even like, um, what they managed to do with, you know, tiny, tiny touches of the underground cover cavern and the huge machinery and the little CGI people walking around at the base. And I’m like, I really like the fun of this. And so for me, the gap in years, and I, and I do wonder, you’ve mentioned this before, I’ve mentioned this before, the number of times I have watched this, I think outstrips you.

And I feel like there’s a part of me that is, I mean, it’s a little bit like a vaccination. I’m more inured to those gaps in special effects and the decades between us and it, so that I don’t, it doesn’t even occur to me. Like when I’m watching the episode, I’m not watching it and thinking anything other than like, Oh, here comes one of my favorite moments.

And it’s like, I’m fed with this nostalgia that bridges that gap for me. So I will say the one thing that did pop to my mind was the story of this is, is literally lifted and redone in Next Generation. Yeah. They like, It’s straight up the one with Data and it’s the mining colony and they’re, he discovers that life form at the bottom of those tubes.

And like, it’s this story just all over again. Yep. That one to me, I’ve seen a lot, like you’ve seen this one a lot. I’ve seen this one a bunch of times too, but it’s like, That one, to me, works better because it’s aged better. Do you know what I mean? Because the special effects don’t trip it up the way the sets do in this one.

And I’m kind of looking at it from the point of view of like, if you have a new Star Trek fan that’s just getting into Star Trek and let’s say they’re re watching this with us. I think these are the episodes that are going to have a harder time getting through. It’s like me watching the original Doctor Who.

I have a hard time getting through it, even though there’s some amazing episodes because it’s soap opera acting. It’s the filmmaking style. It’s like you really have to get into a mindset and disconnect. From that, just get engrossed in the story. Yeah. And the story of this one is really good. So you could get engrossed into this one.

Yeah, I think it’s just, it’s like, it’s like a, it’s like a time piece to me. It’s like, you have to be in the right mindset. It absolutely is. And it’s, I mean, we joke about the other shows that we’re naming. That were also on the air at the time that we have no recollection of and it’s because like not everything ages well.

So it’s like, you know, Daniel Boone with a character named Mingo, who’s supposed to be a Cherokee, like, Oh my God. And, and you know, the other end of that same spectrum is, Oh, it’s a guy wearing a costume scuttling about on the floor. And, yeah, so it’s like, does everything age well? And I, we have talked about it in previous episodes.

In the comments, some of our viewers are having trouble with the original series. For all of these reasons, I see it all the time in, uh, I, I enjoy going through the Reddit sci fi community and I sometimes see people show up and say, how do people manage old Star Trek? Because I wanted to watch it, but I find it completely ridiculous. So your point of new fans are going to have trouble getting into this style of TV making. Yes. I completely understand it. But again, to go back, as you’ve said to the concepts, this is like huge Trek terrain. This is a huge part of the, the concretizing of what it is to say it’s Star Trek and it’s interesting that it’s at end of the first season.

They really are figuring it out. This is Gene L Coon having produced and written this episode. He is a main producer on the show, taking over as showrunner so that Roddenberry’s Like the delays that were coming out of Roddenberry trying to do everything were alleviated. And I find it interesting, Gene Coon writes this episode.

So a little bit of the distillation, the creator has this vision. What is it? It’s hard to put into words. And then somebody else comes along and says, I think I’ve got it. And kind of distills it into this nugget. You end up with, as you mentioned, I’m a doctor. It’s the first time that that comes up in Star Trek.

This is the first moment. You have another mind meld. We’ve seen mind melds before, but as came up previously where Matt had a problem with one of the episodes, the mind meld through the wall, not touching the person. Here we see Spock again, mind meld to a certain degree at a distance. He has to touch in order to have direct contact.

Mind to mind contact, but when he’s just able to sense the pain, it is so overwhelming for him. So it’s another evolution. It’s another demonstration of the mind meld technique. For me, I think it’s interesting that this is one of Nimoy’s favorites and it was in his memoir Shatner said this was his favorite episode in part because of the concepts that were being talked about.

And in part because his father had just passed away, he insisted on working, and he felt tremendous support from the cast and crew of the show in supporting him through his griefing process. I think that’s amazing too, because if you watch this episode, you get a sense of emotional depth from Shatner. I think his acting in this is excellent, but you don’t get a sense that he’s dealing with personal trauma.

It’s very well rendered. We see a lot of the Spock that is the ending in particular where he is taking offense at being called human. And earlier in the episode, you see Spock walking through a tunnel and hearing the cave in and thinking that Kirk might be injured or dead. And he breaks into a run. And clearly is emotionally responding to the tension of the moment.

He’s yelling. I love this depiction of Spock where he’s not fully even aware of himself that these things are breaking through. His friendship with Jim is changing the dynamic. So he is running and he’s yelling Jim, not Captain, not Kirk, but Jim. And as soon as he hears his voice, he stops. And re assesses himself and reclaims himself.

I love the directorial touch and Nimoy’s performance post mind meld when the miners, with an E, show up in an attempt to say like, we’re going to kill this Horta and Kirk and Spock stop them. Nimoy’s performance from that point forward while they’re in the cave, he is glowering at these miners, he is angry and he looks pissed.

And I love that performance, that nuance to the performance in that moment because he’s just ended a mind meld in which he’s like, the children have been murdered and he is doing everything he can. He’s the first one to pull his phaser up when they first approach and he’s the last one to put it away.

And in that moment, that simmering anger comes through the glowering. And as he’s explaining, you’ve killed thousands of their children. They, uh, this is a, this is a race that dies off and then has to come back and she is the mother to them all. And the, the look on his face is just murderous rage. I love that.

Some of the best McCoy for me when he shows up. Oh my God, Sean. Yeah. You want to talk a little bit about that? His, the best line in the entire episode for me is when he comes out, he’s got concrete on his hands. Yeah. He goes. By God, I think I can heal anything! This is like the way he comes out, just like, I’m beginning to think I could heal a rainy day.

Yeah, exactly. I just, I just love that. Yeah. It’s like, it is so, like I said, this episode is the episode where it’s like, every phrase that’s uttered by these characters is the type of phrasing that you see in the memes that people reference. I’m a doctor, not a blank, you know, those kinds of things. It’s all here and McCoy to me is just so charming in this episode with the, he’s got him talking to the ship saying, just beam it down.

I don’t want to explain what I need this for, just do it. It’s like, he’s clearly just asking for concrete and they’re like, why the hell would a doctor need concrete? So it’s like, it’s, it’s hysterical. It’s got funny moments, some levity, some, some heaviness. So I just, I love that. Like you mentioned the, the Spock’s performance.

I thought Nimoy was. Chef’s kiss. Yeah. With the nuance and his performance and the directing. And then you have McCoy. I thought he had his moments of just absolute brilliance. Um, talk about Scotty. Not, I like the way you just said, talk about Scotty. Like he just put a gun at my head. I just, I just love his performance in this one and what they give him to do.

And I just, I know you appreciate his, his, uh, character development as much as I do. So what did you think about how they present him in this one? Oh, he’s great. He’s like the machine that’s broken the Horta steals the machinery, and he’s the guy that’s trying to keep it running, and he’s basically got this jerry rigged system up.

It’s Scotty. It is pure Scotty. It’s like he’s got the still from M. A. S. H. Is what it looks like. And he’s just sitting there with this thing. It’s like the pocket, the pocket, the pocket, the pocket. And he’s just like, when he, when he calls him on the communicator and says, my brilliant device is broken and it will no longer work.

It’s also when Spock references him like when the captain, that’s the other scene that really hit me was when Spock and the captain are having a back and forth because the captain is trying to send him out of there because the captain realizes that Spock is kind of compromised and wants to get him out.

And Spock is arguing back with logic of your logic of sending me over there doesn’t make sense. Scotty is way better at this stuff than I am. Like, I love how, here’s this brilliant Vulcan saying, you know, Scotty is like, way above me on this stuff. So it’s like, I can’t help him there. And the way he logics his way out of it, and Kirk’s smirk that he gets by the end of that conversation of like, okay, he’s got me.

I can’t, I can’t just. Take them out of this. It was a wonderful, wonderful scene. The, the bond that they illustrated between Spock and Kirk in this episode is the best, is the best they’ve done so far in the series. Yeah. Of showing that these two gentlemen are really close friends. Yeah. Comes through as crystal clear in this episode.

Can I just pivot to one thing about like the message? Like last week we talked about how the episode was kind of like a counterculture statement. Yeah. This episode clearly, to me, feels like an environmental message coming across. Earth Day hasn’t, doesn’t exist yet, but Earth Day, I think it was 1970, became a thing.

So it’s only a few years away. So the environmental movement is clearly picking up steam at this point. And this episode feels like it’s tapping into that of concern around the environment and that we’re just drilling for oil with carefree abandon. We’re kind of, you know, Pillaging the earth without care about what we’re doing to the environment around us.

So it feels like a very clear message for that. And again, like that last episode, I don’t think they beat you over the head with it, which is really nice. It’s, it’s a very tastefully done message around environmentalism. It’s like, yeah, we do need to mine for this stuff, but we can do it in a more careful way.

Yeah. Um, it was a very nice message that came out of it. I also think there’s an angle which ties into Mark’s, Mark Lovelace’s comment that you shared at the beginning of the episode about, well, these underdeveloped countries will be fine once they’re like us. And I think there’s a hint of that as well.

I do think there is an environmentalism here, but there is also a pro capitalist. I mean, these, these miners with an E are constantly talking about like their profit motive. By the time we get to next generation, they’re talking about stuff like money doesn’t mean anything. And it’s never quite explained in next generation or beyond.

What does, how does this function? Right now in the original series, they’re still like, Oh, you guys are going to be rich men. It’s like, uh, really? Like, that’s, that’s what’s going on here. And effectively saying like, Oh, the Horta won’t mind if you profit and they’ll happily help. Like, Oh, okay. But what’s, but what’s interesting about the way that the original series is grappling that right now where you’re right in.

Next generation and beyond, it’s we’ve moved beyond money. Yeah. In this, they’re still toying with that because the captain doesn’t care about money. Starfleet doesn’t care about money. Yeah. But here’s a group of miners. It’s like, yeah, you guys do trading. You do your own thing. And yeah, money’s important to you.

And so that makes sense. So you guys can do what you want to do. Yeah. That’s the kind of, it seems to be the attitude in the original series for this, but that We’ve moved beyond money. It’s still there. It’s just not worn on its sleeve like it is in later seasons of the new shows. Yeah. The last point I want to, I want to bring up is the hard sci fi of this episode.

And it’s not typical that Trek goes into really hard sci fi territory, but the idea of a silicone life form is a real scientific principle. And in the show notes, Matt, I’ve included a link to a YouTube video from a PBS science show. It’s a very interesting episode. Taking a look and we’ll include it in the, in the con, the comments at the, at the bottom of the, Episode.

Um, I encourage you to watch it. It’s about 15 or 20 minutes long, and it’s an examination of the how of silicone life forms and the why of we haven’t found it yet. Uh, effectively taking the approach of as carbon based life forms, what is happening in us is chemical reactions that are taking place in and around the carbon, and Similar things can happen with silicone, but the conditions have to be very different and the availability is different.

So it’s raising those points of it’s entirely possible it does exist somewhere in the universe. We just haven’t seen it yet because of the predominance of carbon versus silicone, but the conditions being right in the right place could make it happen. So Fascinating. Fascinating uh, hard sci fi concept finding its way into Star Trek, a show that very often sets up soft sci fi so that the moral dilemmas can take center stage.

This one, a very interesting balance between the moral dilemma and the hard sci fi of it. So viewers and listeners, what did you think about this episode? Jump into the comments. We can’t wait to hear what you have to say. And don’t forget, we will be talking about the episode Errand of Mercy next week.

Please. Share your wrong answers only. What is that episode about? And let us know anything else that you’re picking up in the episodes and what you’d like to talk about. We look forward to sharing that with our viewers and listeners in the future. Matt, before we sign off, do you have anything you want to share with our audience about what you have coming up on your main channel?

Well, this week on Undecided, I’m, I published an episode about, it’s the second part of my house series where it’s wrapping up the one year later, how the solar worked out, the battery worked out, how the whole thing cost wise workout. And to say that I went nuts on spreadsheets, Sean, to calculate data, I had a, I had a call with some of my producer patrons yesterday, and I screen shared the spreadsheet and the response was, okay, yeah, you went really deep on the numbers here. Like I, I went, I went way deep on calculating everything, um, and figuring out, was it actually worth it? Not just for, uh, comfort and quality of life, but like, what does the money look like?

Uh, it’s a, it’s a very deep episode. Very, very funny. As for me, if you’re interested in finding out more about my books, you can visit my website, seanferrell. com. You can also go wherever it is you buy your books and ask for them there. They’re available everywhere. That includes large and small bookstores or your public library.

Thank you so much, everybody, for taking the time to watch or listen. If you’d like to support us, you can, of course, leave a comment, like, subscribe, share with your friends, very easy ways for you to support us. And if you’d like to support us more directly, you can click the Join button at trekintime. show.

That allows you to throw some coins at our heads. We appreciate the welts and it also makes you an ensign, which means you will be signed up for our spinoff show, Out of Time, in which we talk about things that don’t fit within the confines of this program. Thank you so much, everybody, for taking the time to watch or listen, and we’ll talk to you next time.

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