This episode starts out with miners talking while waiting in a cave. They seem to be very worried, but the reason is yet unknown. The group talks one of the members down from his worried frenzy saying the Enterprise will be there shortly then everyone but the previously frenzied man leave. I don't know why frenzied man is left alone, especially if he is so obviously scared of something but he is. Apparently his frenzy was for good reason because not long after everyone leaves he looks at the camera and screams. The rest of the group rushes back to find him apparently burnt to a crisp though we don't actually get to see it. This is not new though, because the leader of the group makes a comment stating that he was burnt like a few others which makes me wonder if this is a common thing why would you leave someone alone? THAT'S HOW PEOPLE DIE!
After the opening sequence we see Kirk, Spock, and McCoy have beamed down to check things out and they learn a creature has been killing the miners, just burning them to dust leaving nothing but a few bones and some teeth. The leader of the miners, Vanderburg, tells Spock and Kirk that miners have been dying on the lower levels of the mines but now the deaths have also been happening on some of the higher levels as well. A silver rock catches Spock's eye to which Vanderburg blows it off and tells him that it's just some silly rock they found.
As everyone's checking things out the creature steals a piece of equipment from the air duct. This means unless patched everyone on the planet could die of asphyxiation. Kirk calls Scotty about the problem to which Scotty tells him he can make a temporary fix but it won't last forever.
As Scotty fixes the air duct(or at least tries to) Kirk, Spock, and a line of red shirts explore the lower levels of the planet to find and kill the creature. I don't know about anyone else but as soon as I saw that line of red shirts all I could think was "One or all of you will die today." And sure enough not even five minutes later one of the poor red shirts is screaming out.
With a few readings Spock discovers a tunnel. Kirk and Spock follow it and it leads to a crossroad. They split up and Kirk's path leads him to the creature. The creature doesn't make a move at Kirk and seems alltogether frightened by him. Spock once again meets up with Kirk only to discover Kirk trying to connect with the creature. Spock does the Vulcan mind meld and learns the creature known as the Horta is in terrible pain, probably from the last time Kirk and Spock shot at it. To learn more about it, Spock goes up and touches it and mind melds again. As he does that Kirk has McCoy come down to treat the Horta's wounds.
Spock's mind meld tells Kirk where the missing piece to the equipment is. Kirk follows the tunnel to retrieve the piece and learns that those silly rocks Vanderburg blew off where actually the Horta's eggs which would explain why she was going all serial killer on everyone. She was protecting her eggs. The miners decide to help the red shirts be extra security but instead just beat them up and try to kill the Horta. Kirk stops them and berates them. After Kirk explains that the Horta is actually peaceful and that the miners were actually the murderers first they use Spock to make a deal between the miners and the Horta to better the efficiency of the mining planet.
Later back on the Enterprise Kirk receives a call from Vanderburg saying the Horta have actually increased production a great deal. He mentions that the Horta were hard to adjust looking at but they were alright in the end. Spock makes a comment that the Horta make the same comment about humans. McCoy makes a snide comment about Spock's ears to which Spock says the Horta thought Spock's ears were the only good feature of humans, not knowing Spock was not a human. Spock mentions something about humility to which Kirk tells him he's slowly becoming more human. Spock looks flustered and says, "No need to insult me, Captain."
And another great moment brought to you by Spock.
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