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Context Recap / StarTrekS1E4TheNakedTime

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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/thenakedtime.png]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Fanservice}} Ohhh myyyy.]]]]
3
4->''"I'll never lose you. Never."''
5-->-- '''Kirk''', revealing his... ''[[CargoShip fondness]]''... for the ''Enterprise''
6
7'''Original air date:''' September 29, 1966
8
9The ''Enterprise'' has arrived at the ice planet Psi 2000 to document its impending collapse. Spock and [[RedShirt a red shirt]] beam down in environmental suits to investigate why a laboratory on the planet shows no life signs: turns out, everybody froze to death because someone left the door open and nobody cared enough to correct that. While Spock is investigating the corpses, his companion [[TooDumbToLive unwisely]] removes his glove to scratch his nose, allowing a strange red fluid to drip onto his hand.
10
11Back on board the ''Enterprise,'' the RedShirt starts acting strangely, in turns belligerent and depressed. He gets into a fight with Sulu and a guy named Lt. Kevin Thomas Riley, brandishes a dinner knife at them, and mildly injures himself. However, when [=McCoy=] operates on him, he dies, seemingly losing his will to live. [=McCoy=] is perplexed, as the victim was in good health and was previously known as a strong-willed individual. The reason for his odd behavior soon becomes apparent: he carried a disease that removes inhibitions (and makes one extremely sweaty, incidentally).
12
13Chaos engulfs the ship as the disease spreads: crew members act carelessly, laughing maniacs run around the halls painting creepy messages in red paint, Sulu menaces passersby with a fencing sword, and Spock enters a crippling depression. Worst of all, Riley has locked himself in the engine room, hijacking the PA system to make bizarre announcements and advise women on hair and makeup styles, stranding the ship just as the planet is breaking up, threatening the ''Enterprise.'' Kirk and Scotty try to break into the engine room while [=McCoy=] cooks up an antidote. However, by the time Scotty gets the door open, it's revealed that the engines were stopped completely and that restarting them would take more time than they have. Desperate, Kirk orders Scotty to... [[{{Technobabble}} do something involving matter/antimatter annihilation]] to get the Enterprise out of the way. Scotty cries that it only has a [[MillionToOneChance 1-in-10,000 chance]] of not blowing them to smithereens (so, naturally, it will work perfectly), but he needs Spock's help. Kirk tries to [[GetAHoldOfYourSelfMan slap Spock out of his funk]], but Spock only recovers when Kirk empathizes with him under the disease's influence and reveals the heavy burden of being Captain of the ''Enterprise''--contrary to popular belief, ''you can never get laid'', at least not with crew members. [=McCoy=] cures the crew and the ship escapes, but with a strange side-effect: it travels about three days backwards in time, in the series' first instance of time travel.
14
15[[Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration TNG]] [[strike: ripped off]] simply ''[[SarcasmMode revisited]]'' this scenario in "[[Recap/StarTrekTheNextGenerationS1E2TheNakedNow The Naked Now]]." ...'''[[RecycledScript just]]''' revisited.
16
17----
18!!The Naked Tropes:
19* AnguishedDeclarationOfLove
20-->'''Chapel:''' I'm in love with you, Mister Spock! ''(Spock turns to stare at her)'' You, the human Mister Spock...the Vulcan Mister Spock...
21-->'''Spock:''' Nurse, you should--
22-->'''Chapel:''' Christine, please. I see things, how honest you are. ''([[HoldingHands takes his hands in hers]])'' I know how you feel. You hide it, but you do have feeling. ''(Spock turns his head away but doesn't let go of her hands)'' Oh, how we must hurt you, torture you...
23-->'''Spock:''' I'm in control of my emotions.
24-->'''Chapel:''' The others believe that, but I don't. ''([[AffectionateGestureToTheHead puts her hands on Spock's face]])'' I love you. I don't know why, but I love you. I do love you just as you are. Oh, I love you. ''(IKissYourHand)''
25-->'''Spock:''' I'm sorry...I am sorry.
26* ArtisticLicenseSpace: Why would a planet break up due to its sun going dark? Also, the universe isn't old enough for white dwarves or any other star to go dark, either, if it is meant that the star turned into a black dwarf. However, a 'dark star' was an early name for a black hole, so it's possible that's what they're referring to, with the planet breaking up and then compressing as it falls into the black hole's gravity well.
27* BizarreAlienBiology:
28-->'''[=McCoy=]:''' Mister Spock? Your pulse is 242, your blood pressure is practically nonexistent, assuming you call that [[AlienBlood green stuff in your veins blood]].
29-->'''Spock:''' The readings are perfectly normal for me, Doctor, thank you, and as for my anatomy being different from yours, [[SnarkToSnarkCombat I am delighted.]]
30* BottleEpisode: This episode is considered a bottle show, as it contains no villain and mostly regular characters, and takes place almost entirely aboard the ''Enterprise''.
31* BrokenTears: Spock loses all control over his emotions.
32* TheChainsOfCommanding: There's a gorgeous blonde right under Kirk's nose but TheCaptain can't get involved with a subordinate, and he vents over how he just wants a few days of Me Time on a beach with her.
33* ClothingDamage: A bizarre instance; it's already been established that hyposprays can be used to inject people through their clothing, and even if they did need to be used on bare skin, [=McCoy=] could have just injected Kirk on the neck (which isn't covered by his uniform), or have him roll up his sleeve. Instead, for absolutely no explicable reason, [=McCoy=] tears open Kirk's uniform at the shoulder in order to inject him.
34** Interestingly, it kind of looks like it was accidental. [=McCoy=] seems to only lightly tug at Kirk's collar and suddenly the entire sleeve comes off. Likely a good example of the low costume budget.
35* CurtainClothing: The environmental suits were made from Art Deco shower curtains.
36* CuteButCacophonic: Lt. Riley. "I'll take you hoooome Kathleeeeeeen!"
37* DeadpanSnarker: Spock, of all people, gets in one when he tells two bridge crewmen to "Take [[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers D'Artagnan]] here to Sickbay."
38* DeathByDespair: A RedShirt tries to commit suicide, is stopped before he seriously hurts himself, then dies anyway because he can't summon the will to fight off the minor infection of the wound.
39* DecontaminationChamber: The transporter room is shown to have the ability to decontaminate the outside of isolation suits with some sort(s) of radiation. Of course the sort of radiation that would do that would also, at the least, damage the skin of the people in the suits unless the suits blocked the rays...and unfortunately the idiot who beamed down with Spock had taken off a glove, been contaminated, and then put the glove back on-- thereby making sure the rays would do nothing (not that they'd have done anything against an infection within someone's body anyway).
40* DeniedFoodAsPunishment: Riley tells Uhura she can't have ice cream because she interrupted his song.
41* DrivenToSuicide: Joe Tormolen, who laments that humanity doesn't belong in space, stabs himself, and then despite receiving prompt medical attention, [[DeathByDespair loses the will to live.]]
42* DrunkenSong: Riley [[DreadfulMusician sings]] an "ancient Irish favorite."
43* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
44** {{Lampshaded}}. Lt. Riley claims that Sulu's interest in botany in [[Recap/StarTrekS1E1TheManTrap "The Man Trap"]] was one of his FleetingPassionateHobbies. This week it's fencing.
45** They're still working through Spock's mannerisms by this time. When he nerve pinches Sulu, he says to the security guards, "Take D'Artagnan here to Sickbay."
46** The opening CaptainsLog doesn't include a Stardate, though the subsequent log after the opening credits does.
47** Tormolen's rant about how "we don't belong out here" and "we're polluting space" seems to suggest that the sort of long-range space travel they've been doing is relatively new, and still has its critics. Later episodes and series would show Starfleet having been around for over a century already, and warp drive having existed in some form since the late 21st Century. It would be sort of akin to someone in the 21st century thinking of the telephone as a new and dangerous device.
48* TheEndIsNigh: Kirk enters the bridge turbolift, off to carry out a thousand-to-one chance that will save the ship or get them all killed, and sees the laughing graffiti artist has painted SINNER REPENT on the turbolift doors.
49* FailedASpotCheck
50** After removing his glove, Tormolen fails to look where he's placing his hand and gets infected by a bloodstain.
51** No-one on the Bridge notices that the helmsman has wandered off until an alarm sounds because the ''Enterprise'' is falling towards the planet below.
52* FailsafeFailure: After decades of viral outbreak movies, the NoBudget nature of the HazmatSuit sticks out when Tormolen is able to casually raise his hood to scratch his nose, revealing that his suit has no independent air supply. It's possible it was only meant to be a thermal suit, as the planet is covered in ice [[AlwaysNight after its sun went dark.]]
53* {{Fanservice}}: Sulu [[WalkingShirtlessScene naked to the waist]] and covered in sweat.
54* FirstNameBasis: Spock calling Kirk "Jim", not only when he's under the influence, but [[FriendshipMoment after they've both been given the antidote]] Spock enters the Bridge and asks, "Are you alright, Jim?"
55* {{Foreshadowing}}: When Spock says they've accidentally invented TimeTravel, Kirk muses that they may [[Recap/StarTrekS1E19TomorrowIsYesterday risk it again someday]].
56* AFriendInNeed: An infected Spock talks of the shame he feels whenever he feels friendship towards Kirk. When Kirk himself starts to break down and pleads for help, it's only then that Spock pulls himself together.
57* FTLTestBlunder: "The Naked Time" has Spock and Scotty performing a DangerousForbiddenTechnique to restart the ''Enterprise's'' warp engines after they'd been shut down. It was an untried technique, with the possible consequence of blowing up the ship, but not doing it would guarantee crashing on a collapsing planet. Fortunately, the only consequence of the forced restart was that the ''Enterprise'' was flung three days back in time, introducing the idea of using the warp drive for time travel to the series, which would feature in other episodes and the franchise as a whole.
58* GetAHoldOfYourselfMan: Kirk attempts to slap Spock back into a steady state of mind. All it does is get Spock mad enough to slap him back, with enough force that he goes flying across the table.
59* GracefulLoser: Riley has made a number of announcements over the ship's PA system, including a formal dance in the ship's bowling alley. After going through considerable effort to force their way into Engineering, Kirk leads the charge with Scotty and a pair of Security crewmen. Riley looks up from the chair and dryly observes, "No dance tonight."
60* GravitySucks: The gravity appears to surge at unpredictable times as the planet breaks up.
61* HesDeadJim: Though Tormolen is on a biobed that monitors his lifesigns at the time.
62-->'''Chapel:''' He's dead, Doctor.
63* HollywoodToneDeaf: Kirk might not mind Riley's singing so much if it had somewhat less enthusiasm and a little more musical talent.
64* TheHyena: The disease turns a few people into this.
65* InelegantBlubbering: Spock breaks into sobs when he gets affected.
66* IncomingHam: A naked-to-the-waist Sulu charging out of the turbolift door, wielding an epee and reenacting ''Literature/TheThreeMusketeers''.
67* InternalizedCategorism
68-->'''Spock:''' I respected my father, our customs... I was ashamed of my Earth blood... ''([[GetAHoldOfYourselfMan Kirk slaps him]])'' Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed!
69* IntoxicationEnsues: A disease makes everyone get progressively drunker.
70* ItsTheOnlyWay:
71** The only way to cold start the warp engines is through a theoretical method of combining matter/antimatter to create an implosion instead of an explosion.
72--->'''Spock:''' It's never been done.
73--->'''Kirk:''' Don't tell me that again, Science Officer! It's a theory. It's possible. We may go up into the biggest ball of fire since the last sun in these parts exploded, but we've got to take that one in ten thousand chance!
74** When Scotty tells Spock they still need four minutes to get things right, Spock tells Kirk that they're ready because they've run out of time and will just have to risk it.
75* KatanasAreJustBetter: AvertedTrope; Sulu was originally supposed to go on his rampage with a samurai sword, but at Takei's request to do something less stereotypical, it was switched to an epee.
76* KnifeStruggle: When Tormolen goes to stab himself with a dinner knife, Sulu and Riley wrestle the knife off him, only to find he's been stabbed anyway in the struggle. Worse, Sulu and Riley are themselves infected in the process.
77* LaughingMad: Spock encounters a crewman laughing maniacally after painting LOVE MANKIND on the wall.
78* LossOfInhibitions: The crew begins experiencing strange feelings and behaviors after being the search team for a mysterious disaster. Dr. [=McCoy=] ultimately realizes the water on the planet had mutated, causing it to affect the brain like alcohol. While some effects more resemble delusions (e.g. Sulu calling Kirk "[[Literature/TheThreeMusketeers Richelieu]]"), a lot of them (Sulu leaving his station early to fence at the gym, Christine Chapel making an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to Spock, Spock crying and Kirk confessing how stressed he feels because of his position) fall under the lack of inhibitions that alcohol typically causes.
79* LoveIsAWeakness:
80** Spock had to hide his love for his mother, who was the [[AloneInACrowd sole human on an alien world]] where the expression of love was disdained. While he refers to it more specifically as "friendship", his affection for Kirk likewise messes up his efforts to act as a reputable Vulcan.
81** Kirk vents about how his love for the ''Enterprise'' is AllTakeAndNoGive.
82* LoveIsInTheAir: The disease makes people lose their inhibitions, so many of the afflicted find themselves acting more amorous than usual.
83* MadnessMantra: Spock tries to ward off the effects of the disease by repeating [[BlatantLies "I am in control of my emotions!"]] and reciting multiplication tables.
84* MagicAntidote: Sulu is shown screaming as Bones injects him, then is [[SuddenlySober abruptly restored to normal]], confused as to [[UnPaused why he's not on the Bridge]].
85* MeaningfulEcho: Kirk angsts that he can't act on his feelings towards Yeoman Rand, asking only for a few days with a real woman to touch, a beach to walk on, and [[TheChainsOfCommanding no braid on his shoulders.]] Later on the Bridge he's giving Rand a LongingLook and reaches out to touch her, only to pull his hand back.
86-->'''Kirk:''' No beach to walk on...
87-->'''Rand:''' Sir?
88-->''[[AnchoredShip Kirk turns his head away.]]''
89* MillionToOneChance: Scotty gives the odds of successfully cold-starting the engines without blowing themselves up as 1 in 10,000-- and that's ''with'' a supercomputer and weeks to calculate the formula. Fortunately, Spock is better than a supercomputer, if they can get him to stop crying long enough to focus.
90* MundaneUtility: Scotty's tool of choice for cutting through a bulkhead is a standard phaser.
91* MurderWater: When the first crewman is infected, the bloodstain somehow moves ''upwards'' towards his hand of its own accord. Bones eventually works out that the water on the planet has turned into a complex chain of molecules (a reference to the [[ScienceMarchesOn now discredited theory]] of polywater, a kind of high-viscosity, low-freezing point water that would tend to make other water into its own type). It's not actually ''sentient,'' but it is extremely dangerous, can move in ways that should be impossible, and is (a type of) water.
92--> '''[=McCoy=]'''. It's water! Somehow on this planet, water's changed to a complex chain of molecules. That's how we missed it. It passed from man to man through perspiration. Once in the bloodstream, it acts like alcohol... depresses the centers of judgment, self-control.
93* NeverGiveTheCaptainAStraightAnswer: [=McCoy=] calls the Captain to Sickbay when Tormolen dies. Justified as he wouldn't want to announce that news to all and sundry.
94* ObliviousGuiltSlinging: Chapel tells Spock that "the men from Vulcan treat their women strangely. At least, people say that, but you're part human too. I know you don't... you couldn't hurt me, would you?" Her words clearly affect Spock, not only because he's become infected but because they strike a chord-- he's later shown crying over how he could never express affection for his human mother because he was ashamed of his human side and [[WellDoneSonGuy wanted to show he respected the Vulcan traditions of his father]].
95* OhNoNotAgain:
96** Kirk's reaction to Lt. Riley's announcement that he is going to sing another [[HollywoodToneDeaf rendition]] of "I'll Take You Home Kathleen."
97--->'''Riley:''' And now, crew, I will render "Kathleen"... ooonnne moooore tiiiimme!
98--->'''Kirk:''' ''[muttered]'' Please, not again.
99** When Spock tells Kirk that they've travelled back in time three days that they'll have to relive, Kirk has the same reaction. (While it does not mean the same events, the idea is still troubling.)
100* {{Oireland}}: Riley goes über-Irish while drunk.
101--> '''Riley.''' You know what Joe's mistake was? He wasn't born an Irishman.
102* OpenSaysMe: Downplayed; Scotty has to burn through the bulkhead next to the door, a slow task if you don't want to cut the wrong circuit.
103* ThePlague: The disease is apparently non-fatal, but is highly contagious and, in both episodes, adversely affects the crew in the midst of a disaster which could destroy the ship.
104* PlotHole: Dr. [=McCoy=], a front-line medical worker, never succumbs to the disease-- pretty impressive considering that it manages to afflict much of his medical staff. Though, given that the stuff affects human physiology "just like alcohol", maybe he can just [[NeverGetsDrunk hold his liquor]] better than most of the crew.
105* RaceAgainstTheClock: Starting from twenty minutes to impact and counting down. When they're eight minutes from crashing, they're suddenly confronted with having to restart the engines, an operation that would normally take half an hour.
106* RedAlert: Alert Condition Baker Two puts the ship into LockDown. Or it would if Riley hadn't taken over the Engine Room where he can override any command.
107* ReadingsAreOffTheScale: And when Sulu does check the readings for elapsed time, [[TimeTravel he finds out why.]]
108* RunningAwayToCry: Spock locks himself away when the disease breaks down his emotional control.
109* SchmuckBait: What exactly did Kirk expect to happen when he touched the end of Sulu's sword?. (There are no euphemisms in the previous sentence, but don't let that stop your imagination.) To be fair, foils used in sport fencing have dull tips for safety.
110* ScottyTime:
111** Averted when Scotty says, "[[MemeticMutation I cannae change the laws of physics!]] I've got to have thirty minutes!" In this case, it's actually not an inflation, but the faster alternative of trying to cold-start the ''Enterprise's'' engines is way too risky for Scotty's skill level.
112** Scotty says he can't cut through the bulkhead any faster, not without compromising safety. Spock replies that IfMyCalculationsAreCorrect he'll be a minute and a half too late, whereupon safety will be a moot point.
113* ScreenShake: Which gets worse as the Enterprise's orbit decays. Bones actually calls the Bridge demanding they hold her steady as he's trying to treat Sulu.
114* SequelHook: Spock accidentally invents time travel, with Kirk noting that it could be pretty interesting to try again some day. The original plan was for this episode to lead directly into ''[[Recap/StarTrekS1E19TomorrowIsYesterday Tomorrow is Yesterday]]'', but scheduling didn't work out.
115* ShipTease
116** Nurse Chapel gives an AnguishedDeclarationOfLove to Spock.
117** Captain Kirk and Yeoman Rand
118--->'''Kirk:''' I have a beautiful yeoman. Have you noticed her, Mister Spock? You're allowed to notice her. [[TheChainsOfCommanding The Captain's not permitted...]]
119* ShirtlessScene: Sulu gets one. [[Creator/GeorgeTakei Oh,]] [[CatchPhrase my!]]
120* SnipeHunt: Riley tells the Engineering personnel that the Captain wants them urgently on the Bridge, then locks himself inside.
121* SpaceMadness: Downplayed, as Spock points out that space madness would still have to be caused by something specific.
122* StockFootage: A closeup of Kirk at the beginning of Act One is a recycled shot from "[[{{Recap/StarTrekS1E1TheManTrap}} The Man Trap]]".
123* {{Technobabble}}: Noticeably averted when Spock just refers to a 'formula' that will fix the problem. Pity later spin-offs didn't learn from this.
124* TemptingFate:
125** Scotty assures Kirk that their warp engines can get them away from the disintegrating planet [[HyperspeedEscape in an instant.]]
126** When Kirk does order a HyperspeedEscape, he's asked for a direction and replies, [[TimeTravel "Back the way we came."]]
127* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Averted when Riley sculls his coffee on being called to the Bridge. Tormolen never starts his meal, however, what with being [[KnifeStruggle stabbed with his own knife]].
128* TooDumbToLive: Joe Tormolen, the RedShirt who accompanied Spock down to the planet. He takes his protective glove off, puts his hand down on the surface of a planet where six people have died with no explanation, and scratches his nose with the same hand. Before he stabbed himself, he claimed that humanity didn't belong in space. Given his horrific failure to follow basic hazmat procedures on a space station where everyone has died for no evident cause, perhaps it was just that ''he'' did not belong in space.
129* TheTriple: Riley asks Sulu why he's learning fencing. "Self-defense, mayhem, shish kebab?"
130* TunelessSongOfMadness: Kevin Riley, having been affected by the problem of the week, holes up in engineering, pronouncing himself the captain. As further evidence of his loopiness, he drives the crew nuts with his continual and badly sung renditions of "I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen."
131* UnknownPhenomenon: When Kirk calls Spock to ask what happened, Spock replies, "Unknown, Captain. It's like nothing we've dealt with before." He later points out to Scotty that the fact that their sensors couldn't find a cause means nothing, because the possibilities where No Man Has Gone Before are infinite.
132* WhamLine: Kirk and Scotty cut their way into the Engine Room and hand Riley over to Security. Just then, Uhura calls to let them know the ''Enterprise'' has entered the upper atmosphere of the planet.
133-->'''Scott:''' Captain.
134-->'''Kirk:''' What is it?
135-->'''Scott:''' ''He's turned the engines off.'' Completely cold. It will take thirty minutes to regenerate them.
136-->'''Uhura:''' [on comm] Ship's outer skin is beginning to heat, Captain. Orbit plot shows we have about eight minutes left.
137-->'''Kirk:''' Scotty!
138-->'''Scott:''' I can't change the laws of physics. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis I've-got-to-have-thirty minutes.]]
139* WorldOfHam: Everybody under the influence of the disease starts gobbling up the scenery, nobody better than Riley, though.

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