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The Man Trap is the first episode of Star Trek to air on NBC, featuring a space vampire that drains salt from the crew. IMDb provides cast and crew information, plot summary, trivia, quotes, and user and critic reviews for this classic sci-fi adventure.
- (5.9K)
- Action, Adventure, Sci-Fi
- Marc Daniels
- 1966-09-08
The Man Trap. " The Man Trap " is the first episode of season one of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by George Clayton Johnson and directed by Marc Daniels, it featured design work by Wah Chang and first aired in the United States on September 8, 1966.
- Overview
- Summary
- Log entries
- Memorable quotes
- Background information
- Links and references
A shape-shifting, salt-craving creature terrorizes the crew of Enterprise. (Series premiere)
Teaser
"Captain's log, Stardate 1513.1. Our position, orbiting planet M-113. On board the Enterprise, Mr. Spock temporarily in command. On the planet the ruins of an ancient and long-dead civilization. Ship's surgeon McCoy and myself are now beaming down to the planet's surface. Our mission, routine medical examination of archaeologist Robert Crater and his wife Nancy. Routine but for the fact that Nancy Crater is that one woman in Doctor McCoy's past." In 2266, the USS Enterprise, in the service of Starfleet of the United Federation of Planets, arrives at the planet M-113 to provide supplies and routine medical exams to Doctor Robert Crater and his wife, Nancy, with whom their Crewman Doctor Leonard McCoy was once romantically involved. M-113 has supposedly been home to the Craters for five years, during which time they have conducted an archaeological survey of the planet's ruins. They are the only known inhabitants of the planet. Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Darnell beam down to the planet and meet Dr. Crater and, apparently, Nancy Crater, but each of the landing party sees a different woman. McCoy, who says he is amazed at how little Nancy has changed since the last time he last saw her, sees the Nancy he knew twelve years before. Kirk sees a woman similar to the woman McCoy sees, but more appropriately aged. Darnell sees a completely different, younger blond woman who looks exactly like someone he met before on Wrigley's pleasure planet. When he mentions this, "Nancy" doesn't seem to mind, but Kirk and (especially) McCoy find this an offensive remark and ask the crewman to step outside. Minutes later, "Nancy" leaves and still looks (to Darnell) like a beautiful blonde woman, and he is lured away by this seductive version of Nancy Crater.
Act One
Dr. Crater then arrives, treating Kirk and McCoy with hostility, telling Kirk that the only thing they need are salt tablets. Otherwise, he and his wife want to be left alone. Kirk debates this, insisting they must need other supplies and that regulations require that McCoy give them physicals at a yearly interval. After Crater realizes that McCoy is the same man he heard his wife mention, his demeanor takes a turn for the better. During the physical, a woman's scream is heard from outside. When Kirk goes to investigate, he finds Darnell dead, with "Nancy" standing over him. Darnell's face is scarred with circular marks. "Nancy", appearing very distraught, claims she saw him put a poisonous plant called a borgia in his mouth, but was unable to rescue him in time. On the bridge, a bored and somewhat flirty Communications Officer Lieutenant Uhura is attempting to engage Commander Spock in conversation while he sits in the Enterprise's command chair, to no avail, due to Spock's half-Vulcan heritage causing a lack of a sense of humor. Kirk and McCoy beam back up. When the transporter room reports that one of the party is dead, Spock, who is still talking to Uhura, unemotionally responds, "Bridge acknowledging." This causes Uhura to express wonder that Spock did not even ask who among the party had died, as it could have been Captain Kirk, whom Uhura notes is the closest thing he has to a friend. Spock replies that showing concern would not change the outcome of the event and implies that therefore doing so would be meaningless. Aboard the Enterprise, McCoy determines that Darnell was not poisoned, and in fact McCoy can find nothing wrong with him at all. When McCoy recalls that Nancy looked younger to him and notes that he could have been looking at her through a romantic haze, Kirk snaps, "How your lost love affects your vision, Doctor, doesn't interest me. I've lost a man. I want to know what killed him."
Act Two
Later, McCoy discovers that Darnell's body has been completely drained of salt. Kirk, McCoy, and two crewmen beam back down to the planet to investigate further, and Kirk insists that Dr. Crater and his wife beam up to the Enterprise until the investigation is complete. Abruptly Dr. Crater runs off to find "Nancy". Sturgeon, one of the crewmen who beamed down with Kirk and McCoy, is found dead. The other, Green, is also killed by "Nancy" and then "Nancy" transforms into Green. Kirk and McCoy question "Green", and then the three beam up to the Enterprise. The being Kirk and McCoy saw as Nancy Crater, and later Green, is a shape-shifting creature, the last surviving native of M-113, and can literally appear as a different being to each person it meets. By reaching into their minds and drawing on their memories, the creature can lull potential victims into a false sense of security, and hypnotize them, before killing them. Still in the image of Green, the creature follows Yeoman Janice Rand (who is carrying a tray of food, including a salt shaker) into a botanical laboratory where Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu greets Green by name. "Green" says nothing, which Rand finds curious. Eventually, "Green" exits without harming anyone, revealing the deception, or getting any salt. Loose aboard the Enterprise, the M-113 creature still disguised as Green, bites his knuckle nervously, an idiosyncratic gesture "Nancy" had done earlier. When Uhura appears, the creature assumes a new form, one Uhura regards with curiosity and a sense of familiarity. When "he" begins speaking in Swahili, Uhura is delighted and responds in the same language. But then her smile fades as the creature apparently causes her to "freeze", to the point which she is unable to respond to hails for her to return to the bridge. It is only the appearance of Sulu and Rand leaving the botanical laboratory that saves Uhura from being the next victim. She comes to her senses and acknowledges through an intercom panel that she is on her way to the bridge. But soon another victim, Crewman Barnhart, is found dead by Sulu and Rand on the Enterprise, with the same distinctive markings on his face. Kirk now knows that whatever killed Darnell and Sturgeon on the surface has now killed again – on board the Enterprise.
•Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2266
- Crater and McCoy, on the routine medical examination required by Starfleet
"Mr. Spock, sometimes I think if I hear that word frequency once more, I'll cry."
- Uhura, starting a conversation with Spock
"Tell me how your planet Vulcan looks on a lazy evening when the moon is full."
"Vulcan has no moon, Miss Uhura."
"I'm not surprised, Mr. Spock."
Production timeline
•Story outline "The Man Trap" by Lee Erwin: 7 April 1966 •Revised story outline by Erwin: 15 April 1966 •First draft teleplay "Damsel with a Dulcimer" by George Clayton Johnson: 23 May 1966 •Second draft teleplay: 31 May 1966 •Revised second draft teleplay "The Man Trap": 8 June 1966 •Revised teleplay by John D.F. Black: 13 June 1966 •Final draft teleplay by Gene Roddenberry: 16 June 1966 •Additional revisions: 17 June 1966, 20 June 1966, 21 June 1966 •Filmed: 22 June 1966 – 30 June 1966 •Day 1 – 22 June 1966, Wednesday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge •Day 2 – 23 June 1966, Thursday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge •Day 3 – 24 June 1966, Friday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Corridors, McCoy's quarters •Day 4 – 27 June 1966, Monday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Botany section (redress of Sickbay), Briefing room, Sickbay •Day 5 – 28 June 1966, Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10: Int. Craters' dwelling •Day 6 – 29 June 1966, Wednesday – Desilu Stage 10: Ext. M-113 surface •Day 7 – 30 June 1966, Thursday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 10: Ext. M-113 surface •Score recording: 19 August 1966 •Original airdate: 6 September 1966, by Canadian network CTV, and actually constitutes the worldwide premiere of •First US airdate: 8 September 1966 •First UK airdate (on BBC1): 4 October 1969 •First UK airdate (on ITV): 6 September 1981
Script and story
•The first draft of this episode's script was completed on 13 June 1966, and the final draft three days later. In The Star Trek Interview Book, p. 136-137, author George Clayton Johnson recalled that story editor John D.F. Black's only major objection to his first draft was that the M-113 creature did not arrive aboard the Enterprise until the third act. Black argued that the crew had to be put in jeopardy sooner, and so Johnson revised the script accordingly. •An early title for this episode was "Damsel with a Dulcimer." In the original story outline, Professor Crater was, at one point, supposed to drive a futuristic tractor around the archaeological site. •In Johnson and Black's script version of 13 June 1966, the moral dilemma of killing 'the last of its kind' had been more pronounced, with the creature, disguised as McCoy, trying to reason with the crew. Also in that version, Professor Crater lives in the end, mourning the loss of the creature. Gene Roddenberry's rewrite for the final draft toned down the emotional aspects of the McCoy relationship in favor of a more straightforward plot: as a cornered animal, the salt creature panics and actually kills its longtime companion, Professor Crater. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st. ed., pp. 169-170) •Johnson's original draft lacked much of a presence of Spock; actually, it was Scotty who accompanied Kirk to catch Crater – which was also changed by Roddenberry. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed., p. 170) •Sulu's botanical collection was much more lavish in Johnson's original script, including a plant resembling the face of a Chinese dog, etc. This was eliminated for budgetary reasons, Beauregard remaining the only moving "exotic plant". (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed., p. 168) •It was Roddenberry's idea to have the creature, in its illusory form, speak Swahili to Uhura. Kellam de Forest supplied him with the translation. In English, the illusory crewman says "How are you, friend? I think of you, beautiful lady. You should never know loneliness." (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed., p. 170) •The episode was novelized by James Blish under the original scripted name "The Unreal McCoy" in the first Star Trek adaptation collection, released in the US by Bantam Books in January 1967. •Blish changed some of the names in his novelization, possibly working from an earlier script draft. The planet is called Regulus VIII, and the archaeologists are Robert and Nancy Bierce. •"The Man Trap" was the first Star Trek episode to air, on 8 September 1966. As Robert H. Justman and Herbert F. Solow recount in their book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (pp. 163-164), the decision to broadcast this entry before any other of the few completed episodes was, largely, a process of elimination. Although it had good special effects and demonstrated the series' intelligent approach to alien life forms, "The Corbomite Maneuver" was not chosen because its completion was delayed by the post-production process. Moreover, virtually all of its action took place aboard the Enterprise. The latter drawback also weighed against "Charlie X", which was further deemed "too gentle" a tale because it dealt with the problems of an adolescent. "Mudd's Women" was out of the running because it was questionable to lead off the Star Trek franchise with a risqué story about selling women to miners in space. The second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", was considered too "expository" in terms of its background to be broadcast so early. Justman actually favored "The Naked Time" because he thought it would provide an ideal introduction to the different characters' personalities. "The Man Trap" won out because its straightforward action plot was not considered too exotic, it had the advantage of a monster to thrill the viewers, and it fulfilled the series' "strange new worlds" concept. •As the very first episode aired by NBC on 8 September 1966, "The Man Trap" was also the premiere for Star Trek as a whole. Yet, it was not NBC who could boast the world premiere of Star Trek, but rather the Canadian network CTV, which had actually aired "The Man Trap" two days earlier.
Credits
•As the first episode actually telecast, the opening credits are slightly different from most other first season shows. Gene Roddenberry has "created by" credits and there is no "starring" before William Shatner's name. This version of the credits was used only once more, in "Charlie X". •In this episode, Garrison True and Larry Anthony both speak several on-screen lines, yet are not listed in the closing credits. •In the first season, directors and writers were not credited until the very end of each episode, while they are credited right after the title of each episode beginning in season two.
Starring
•William Shatner as Kirk •Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Co-starring
•Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater
Guest star
•Alfred Ryder as Robert Crater
Sep 8, 2016 · The first episode of Star Trek to air on TV features a planet of shape-shifting aliens and a tragic love story. How has the show aged in color, effects and storytelling?
- Darren Franich
Watch the first episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, where a deadly alien seduces and kills crew members.
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Kirk, Spock and McCoy investigate the deaths of Enterprise crew members on a planet where McCoy's old flame is a shape-shifting creature. The creature needs salt to survive and kills anyone who threatens it.
Sep 8, 2016 · Star Trek turns 50 years old this week, in the USA the first episode, “The Man Trap” aired today, September 8, at 8:30PM in 1966. Our friends to north in Canada got to see “The Man...
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