The Enemy Within

   This episode made me smile for so many different reasons. For one, look at this dog:

 

   It has a ridiculous tale, a horn, antennae, and I'm really not sure if it has actual dog feet. That's probably why it's angry. No, it's not the fact that this particular alien dog is a doppelganger. No, I think it's mad because of the ridiculous costume they had to cram this animal in. 

   This dog isn't the only doppelganger to appear during the episode. Apparently there is an issue with the teleporter and whoever or whatever passes through is split between a good and a bad personality. That puppy/alien thing above is the negative personality of the split. Captain Kirk also goes through...and his bad personality is AWESOME! The facial expressions that Shatner makes while playing evil Kirk are just A-MAZING!

   I really enjoy this episode because we really get to see William Shatner's acting skills. The way he portrays doppelganger Kirk with all his wild facial expressions, showing Kirk's underlying demons, and his lust for Yeoman Rand, Wonderful. But also the way he does the normal Kirk. Brilliant. The longer good Kirk is separated from bad Kirk, the longer good Kirk loses the ability to make decisions. One of my all time favorite moments in this episode is when Spock, McCoy, and Good Kirk are in the Sick Bay. Spock is trying to convince Good Kirk to use the teleporter again with Bad Kirk, knowing full well it could kill him. McCoy wants to do some tests on the dead alien/dog to figure out if it was the teleporter that killed the dog or something else. Kirk has to decide who to choose, it's almost a classic "angel/demon on my shoulder" scenario. Kirk is quickly losing his ability to decide and frustrated goes "Help me decide." Spock asks if he's giving up his captain position and when Kirk says no then McCoy responds that they can't help him. And I just wanted to give Kirk a hug and go "AWWWWWWW!"

  Now it should be mentioned that while Spock, Kirk, and McCoy are dealing with two Kirks, a landing crew is on a planet with a increasingly dropping temperature and they cannot be brought up until they know if the teleporter is fixed. After this almost cool but extremely cheesy battle between the two Kirks  the evil Kirk is knocked out and they are able to try out the teleporter. It works and Sulu and the landing team are saved and everything is happily every after. 

     Except the now slight awkward tension between Yeoman Rand and Kirk and the fact Spock knows why there's awkward tension.....

"The impostor had some pretty interesting qualities, wouldn't you say Yeoman?"