The second season of Star Trek: The Original Series is filled with action, adventure, our first glimpse of the planet Vulcan, and the introduction of a new character, a young Russian navigator named Pavel Chekov. This season kicked off with one of the series' most famous episodes, "Amok Time," where Mr. Spock's wife-to-be, T'Pring, reminds us that even though some aliens may not appear dangerous, there may be nefarious intentions behind a smile and gracious hospitality. Now, here are some of the most dangerous aliens from TOS season 2.
1. Apollo ("Who Mourns for Adonais?")
When Captain Kirk takes a landing party down to the planet Pollux IV to discover what's behind a giant green mass of energy that looks like a giant hand, the being who greets them claims he's Apollo. Yes, the Greco-Roman god of the arts, prophecy, healing, and god of the sun (Chekov's zinging comeback of, "And I am the czar of all the Russias!" always slays me!) At first, Apollo is benevolent and wants to care for his "children," who he believes have come home to worship him.
Apollo's benign manner hides many dangers, though, especially when he notices Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas and is besotted by her beauty, much to the chagrin of Mr. Scott. Scotty's protests and temper seem to bring out the worst in Apollo, as the god sends the Enterprise's engineer flying off his feet like a Mike Tyson opponent in a pay-per-view match. While Apollo's powers are finite, as the landing party discovers, the being can crush the Enterprise with his energy hand and zap people with sizzling bolts of lightning. Whether or not he was truly Apollo, the power he wielded was extremely dangerous.
2. The Capellans ("Friday's Child")
This is one of my favorite episodes for so many reasons: the way Julie Newmar steals the episode, the Klingon warrior, Kras, who looks like your Uncle Jack in Klingon cosplay, Scotty's 'eh' command style, and the way Bones and the heavily-pregnant Eleen argue and slap their way up and down the mountain trails of Capella IV. It's all hilarious, but there are terrible dangers there as well.
Dr. McCoy, who had visited the planet in the past, tells the landing party that Capellan men are dangerous and will put you on permanent ghost mode if you offend them. Security officer Lt. Grant doesn't get the memo, and one of the men kill him with a weapon called a kleegat, a kind of throwing star, after he draws his phaser on Kras. It's a good thing the Capellans brought the menace because Kras is the least-threatening Klingon I've ever seen.
The Capellans show a dark side to their people when one faction of the Ten Tribes camp, led by the warrior Maab, stage a coup and murder their current leader. Their ambition and struggle for power, along with Kras whispering in their ears that Earth men cannot be trusted, bring out their dangerous aggression.
3. The dikironium vampire cloud ("Obsession")
While Captain Kirk and his crew dealt with nutrient-sucking aliens in past, like the salt-sucking vampire in "The Man Trap," the creature Kirk and a handful of redshirts encounter on Argus X brings a different type of danger to the Enterprise.
This alien, a dikironium cloud, is both sentient and clever. It proves itself extremely difficult to trap or evade, and lives on the red corpuscles of living beings. It's also a silent predator, with its honey-like scent the only warning, and by then it's usually too late — and redshirt is back on the menu.
This creature is not only dangerous, it brings out dangerous habits in others, too. After the first attack, Kirk starts to obsess over the creature, which he believes is the same one who killed the captain of the USS Farragut, to which Kirk was assigned 11 years earlier. Now, Kirk's growing obsession with killing the creature and avenging those who died on the Farragut, especially Captain Garrovick, puts the Enterprise crew in danger.
It's only when Kirk realizes his actions 11 years ago wouldn't have stopped the dikironium cloud from attacking the Farragut that he comes to his senses, and he and Captain Garrovick's son, now a lieutenant serving aboard the Enterprise, destroy it with an antimatter bomb.
There are more dangerous aliens to come! Which do you hope make the final Star Trek: The Original Series season 2 list? Share your thoughts and comments with us on the Redshirts Always Die Facebook and X pages. Until then, avoid sweet-smelling clouds and amorous, toga-clad nice guys!