With a Pinch of Salt

Protect your precious salt, boys. That seems to be the message of "The Man Trap", the first episode of the first season of Star Trek from 1966. It's an odd way to start a show about space exploration, I think. Though it wasn't the first episode shot of the series.

"The Man Trap" sees the crew encountering a creature who poses as the man or woman of their desires--despite the title, it tries to trap Uhura, too--so that it can suck all the salt from their bodies, instantly killing them. I couldn't help thinking of Sterling Hayden in Doctor Strangelove and his anxieties about his bodily fluids being stolen.

The first part of the episode suggests a slightly different story, one closer to the episode's original concept. Kirk, Bones, and a random crewman land on a planet where an old professor lives alone with his wife. The wife, Nancy, happens to be an old flame of Doctor McCoy's. Different point of view shots show the woman has a different appearance to each man. McCoy sees her as young as he remembers her, Kirk sees an old woman, and the random crewman sees a girl he partied with on a pleasure planet.

Why would she do this if she were really trying to seduce them for their salt? It seems more designed to sew discord.

As the episode continues, and she gets aboard the Enterprise, her power just becomes a simple, straightforward transformation. I like how Kirk is the only one who wants to kill her while everyone else is concerned about the fact that she's the last of her species. But Kirk has a point, she is a serial killer. It's a little absurd how hard it is to get her some salt tablets, though.

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X Sonnet #1787

In wire snares the hapless pheasants stopped.
A poacher's eye was veiled by brittle leaves.
Refreshment stales as bowls of milk are dropped.
Before the stifling breads the baby grieves.
'Tis teeth what make the smile keen and bright.
And never's time to grin but solemn wakes.
Afar on lonesome hill's a gloomy sight.
Yon band's a parcel 'prised of brazen rakes.
For after plunder, nights in lights can please.
No harbour safe would grant a captive grace.
A doctor's tools could break a crook's valise.
A dawn beyond the days could save a face.
Canals deprived of fish could lose their salt.
But something seeps beneath the jagged fault.