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The Vulcan-born first officer of The Enterprise, Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), generally smiles about as often as Greta Garbo. But in "This Side of Paradise," Spock not only smiles but laughs, dangles from a tree, kisses a good-looking blonde woman, and gets into a fight with his best friend. It all starts when Spock, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), Sulu (George Takei), and a couple of crew members beam down to Omicron Ceti III to find out what happened to a group of scientists who built a research colony on the planet. What they discover is a little spooky. The colonists claim they've created a true paradise where everyone is part of a collective mind bent on positivity. Kirk, naturally, argues that paradise robs people of their need to suffer and crawl toward progress.Meanwhile, Spock is zapped by an exotic flower that is the real source of all this community goodwill, and he instantly gets happy, acting like a kid, renewing a romance with a comely biologist (an angelic Jill Ireland), and giving the sputtering Kirk an earful of entertaining insubordination. Story editor D.C. Fontana's script contains some obvious parallels between a chemically induced "paradise" and a drug-induced high in the 1960s. But the real draw here is Spock's uncharacteristic joy and the drama behind Kirk's shattering decision to break his friend's heart. "Devil in the Dark" opens with an emergency on Janus VI, a planet rich in raw materials crucial to the running of Federation operations. There's a lot of money to be made by the mining contractor involved, but a swift, unseen monster is roaming the snaky tunnels of Janus's interior, turning miners into acid-drenched goo. It's up to the Enterprise crew to find the alien culprit and defuse the lynch-mob mentality spreading among the paranoid working stiffs there. Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley) beam down to initiate the detective work, leading Spock to quickly conclude that the thousands of silicone balls mysteriously strewn about the planet's deepest level might have something to do with the reasons behind the atrocities. Written by series guru Gene L. Coon and directed by mainstay Joseph Pevney (who alternated directorial chores with Marc Daniels during the show's second season), "The Devil in the Dark" is a breathlessly paced episode reflecting a delightful variety of cross-genre influences--Westerns, creature-features, gritty noir. Add one of the most effective and moving instances of the Enterprise's search for new life on Star Trek (plus McCoy's infamous complaint, "I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!"), and this is a memorable program indeed. --Tom Keogh
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  Nimoy in the Spotlight, 2002-08-04
Both these episodes do a stellar job of spotlighting Leonard Nimoy at his best, and Shatner and DeForest Kelley do pretty well in them too."This Side of Paradise" finds Spock possessed by alien spores, which - as they have for the human settlers of Omicron Ceti III - give him immortality and a remarkably sunny disposition. As he and the rest of the Enterprise crew succumb to the spores, they lose all ambition and seek nothing more than to become happy stargazers lolling in the fields. Kirk, of course - the ultimate Type A personality - will have none of that, and has to snap his wayward crew out of their lollygagging by inducing violent emotions in them to kill the symbiotically parasitical spores. And that starts with getting Spock really, really mad... Nicely produced, clever story. Nimoy is great, playing against his usual strait-laced character as the laughing, lovesick fool, with the beautiful and charming Jill Ireland. DeForest Kelley gets to put on his natural, down-home Southern drawl, and jus' be a good ol' boy for a while. The confrontation between Kirk and Spock is terrific, and Spock's painful transformation brought on by the spores is very well-handled. "Devil in the Dark" is not as great as most people seem to think it is, its script actually pretty derivative and trite. It is, however, excellently produced and acted, with believable sets and matte shots suggesting a massive, underground mining complex, and great performances from Shatner and (especially) Nimoy. Nimoy had great emotional range and rarely got to show it, but he makes up for it in spades here by mind-melding with a highly lethal alien being that turns out to be more sinned against than sinning.
Spores & Aliens, 2003-06-15
"This Side of Paradise" A planet laced with plants that shoot out spores which make everyone happy & content infects the crew of the Enterprise. How will they break free? "Devil in the Dark" An underground monster is killing a bunch of miners. Why? Watch & find out.
Mmmm... Meat Loaf..., 2002-09-25
REVIEWED ITEM: Star Trek® Original Series DVD Volume 13: This Side of Paradise© / The Devil In The Dark© THIS SIDE OF PARADISE© PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: "Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than what he is"- Captain Kirk Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: None REVIEW/COMMENTARY: All I can say is, it's about time Spock be mackin' the-mad hottie-of-the-week instead of the charming Captain Kirk! Especially entertaining is the setup to this little romantic romp: the official Star Trek love theme starts up, followed by alternating reaction shots of guest-star Jill Ireland (as the crush-ridden Leila Kalomi) and Mr. Spock as they stare at each other in "that way"! Well, actually she stares in "that way"; Spock looks a bit confused by it all. But don't worry, he'll come around! A nice touch to this initial scene is the gentle glowing aura surrounding the love-struck lady! Kudos to the show's lighting department for getting this effect just right! The real fun begins when Spock cops a whiff of some intoxicating flower spores, which cause him to become a way-too-cheerful ball of sickly-sweet happiness who is now deeply in love with Charles Bronson's future wife. He also acquires a penchant for literally hanging out on tree limbs like he was some kinda monkey! Ironically, for a man who's no longer afraid to show his emotions, Nimoy didn't put much feeling into his character's dialogue here. Fortunately, Jimmers finds out how to relieve Spock's (and subsequently everyone else exposed to the spores, including the entire ship's crew) newfound dorkiness by making insulting remarks to his face regarding his mom and dad, with a few racial slurs thrown in for good measure! But before Jimmers can bring the Spockster around, he has to snap outta his own little trip to La-La-Land. He manages this with his angered utterance of "I... Can't... LEAVE!", spoken in that distinctive manner that has become a staple of many a second-rate standup act! Adding to this scene's funkiness, our beloved captain's face is illuminated in a spooky quasi-fluorescent, light-blue hue! Needless to say, the dramatic lighting department was in rare form for this eppie! Another memorable lowlight to goof on here: Dr. McCoy breaking into a way-too-overdone Deep South accent after his exposure to the happy-spores. I am aware that DeForest Kelley hails from Georgia, but never the less his character's drawl was a bit too much, even for a native southerner! Adding to the overdone good-ol'-boy charm is his concoction of a mint julep! Sheesh, why doesn't he just break out the grits and pickled pigs' feet while he's at it! THE DEVIL IN THE DARK© PRELIMINARY BRIEFS: Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject(s) Driven Into The Ground: Don't mess with Mom! Historical Milestone: Spock's first mind-meld with a non-humanoid life form Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt') Confirmed Casualty List: 1 Dead, 3 Incapacitated REVIEW/COMMENTARY: `Devil' features one of the most entertaining cheeseball moments in Star Trek history: Spock's mind-meld with the rock-creature-thingy! His anguished utterances of pain and sorrow are very similar to Counselor Troi's little trances whenever she uses her empathic abilities to check out the entity-of-the-week's emotional state on NextGen. Speakin' of emotional states, am I the only person who gets a hankerin' for meat loaf (no, not the singer, silly!) whenever I grab a glimpse of the creature-thingy? I can't be the only one... Another especially goofy scene-well, several scenes, actually-- are the reaction shots of the doomed miners and/or red-shirts right before they get toasted by the vengeful creature. Most of `em seem to have enough time to get off a phaser shot or two before they start to feel the burn, but instead they spend their last two seconds of life all petrified and screaming like the total sissies they are (were?)! These amusing moments reminded me of the death-by-steam-roller scene in `Austin Powers'! Actually, a better parallel would be the death of Darth Maul in `Star Wars Episode I'! In any case, it appears the average human's reflexes in the face of certain doom ain't gonna improve all that much in the next three hundred years... `Late
Spock Emotes! Morals Galore!, 2006-08-28
Overall, these are not 2 of the stronger eps from Season 1 however they do allow for telling insights into the characters of both Spock and Kirk. In the first, weaker ep, strange spores on an otherwise inhospitable planet allows settlers to survive in blissful existence without any ill effects from deadly radiation that is constantly bombarding the planet; in fact, even preexisting medical conditions are righted giving the inhabitants perfect health. Now as you can expect, Kirk has to spoil things and 'rescue' the settlers from their brand of Eden. The plot is rather weak as we are never told why Kirk isn't affected to the degree of the others to the effects of the spores or how easily he is able to counter the effects but we do get to see a softer, 'human' side of Spock as he actually admits loving someone here and you can feel his regret at having to leave this moment behind at the end.
The stronger second ep has a strong moral encouraging communication rather than revenge and retribution to settle differences. Spock again gets to emote as he mind melds with the alien which is the subject of persecution as miners of a mineral-laden planet misunderstand the reasons behind the creature's animosity towards them. A great advertisement for diplomacy over brute force if you can get over the low tech special effects.
If you are picking and choosing which volumes to collect and keep, put this under the "good to have" category, the others being: "must have" and "give it a miss".
Pure 60�s cheese, as you like it, 2003-09-15
"This Side of Paradise" - 3.865 stars (a.k.a., "James T. Kirk: Wet Blanket") "For the first time in my life, I was happy" - so says Mr. Spock, when asked to comment upon his experience on Omicron Ceti III. Of course, the duty-bound Joe Friday of space, Captain Kirk, would have none of this nonsense. Perfect health? Bah! Peace? Hooey! Love? He'd rather fight than switch. What a creep. "Man was meant to struggle" Kirk/Friday somberly intones, perfectly embodying the hair shirt anti-pleasure ethic. Living in harmony with nature and one another bad; tearing up the landscape to "accomplish" (i.e., build more starships to endlessly repeat the process) good. Don't ever invite this guy to a party, unless you want it to end. "The Devil in the Dark"- 2.135 stars (a.k.a., "Super Smackdown with The Rock") Our heroes are summoned to a Federation mining operation on Janus VI that is being troubled by one man-eating monster, and quite a few bad actors. Well, they've got quotas to meet, mister, and production is suffering. Who cares about environmental rape - hey, that's what other planets are for! Shoes for industry! The creature looks like a heapin' helpin' of Hamburger Helper dumped on a chenille rug, and man is it ticked off. Good thing Spock can connect because, unlike most of the other aliens in the Star Trek universe, it's English-speaking skills are lacking. It's writing skills, however, are surprisingly good.
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