Star Trek: The Tholian Web

Episode: "The Tholian Web"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 9
Original Air Date: November 15, 1968

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The heart of Star Trek is the relationship between the three principal characters: First Officer Spock, Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk, representing logic, emotion and judgment respectively.  "The Tholian Web" explores a pertinent quandary: what happens when Kirk and his stabilizing influence are removed?  With no one to weigh their frequently opposing viewpoints, can Spock and the Doc lead the crew and its mission effectively?

The story opens with the Enterprise in search of her sister ship, the USS Defiant.  Eventually, the ship is found but its entire crew is dead and the entire vessel seems to be winking in and out of existence.   Kirk is lost in a transporter malfunction and presumed dead.  Spock assumes command of the Enterprise, as is his duty, but not without abrupt and significant challenges from McCoy at every turn.  As if all of this weren't troubling enough, beings called the Tholians show up, demanding that our friends hightail it out of their territory.  Spock would be only happy to oblige if not for the slim hope that the captain might be saved.  He pleads with the Tholians to allow them more time but when the extension expires, the Tholians weave a lasery web around the Enterprise.

Fortunately, Kirk had planned for the possibility of his own untimely demise.  He left a recording for his two confidants to watch in which he advises each of the other's strengths and their need for each other.  His message is a fair summation of the moral/ethical landscape upon which the entire series is built.  Even more fortunate, Kirk is ultimately rescued from the parallel universe to which the transporter had sent him and the future of the franchise is saved.

*****

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The voice of Loskene, the commander of the Tholians, was performed by Barbara Babcock, highly distorted.  Babcock was born February 27, 1937 in Fort Riley, Kansas.  Her father was an army general and, as a result, she spent much of her childhood in Tokyo while he was stationed in Japan.

Babcock has had a highly distinguished television career.  In 1981, she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series as Grace Gardner on Hill Street Blues.  In 1993, she was nominated for another, this time for her supporting role on Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman.  There have been big screen credits, too, including Day of the Devil Gun, Bang the Drum Slowly and Chosen Survivors.  She had six appearances on Trek's original series, four for voice work, two on camera.  She appeared on both "A Taste of Armageddon" and "Plato's Stepchildren."