The episode "The Original Series" Original Series "can be one of the most underestimated episodes of the show. It is actually one of the strongest episodes of Captain Kirk, allowing the character to oppose some of his recognized personal weaknesses and, in overcoming them, to grow as a character.

Kirk (William Shatner) had flaws, of course, but he was often shown at Star Trek as complete control over his faculties (most of the time), using his leadership instincts and willingness to take calculated risks to be used by any crisis. He could have a temper, but he usually caught before doing something rash. In pop culture, Kirk has a reputation that is something of a careless cowboy Who broke the main directive of the regular (and he often played a little quickly and slopes with Star Trek's regulations), but revising the old episodes of Star Trek reveals that he was actually quite strict and reasonable. He even had a reputation for being the letter storm; Lieutenant Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) described him as "a warehouse with books with legs" in the episode "where no one has passed before".

"Obsession" was a little different. It is an episode when Kirk was allowed to lose his cool - and for personal reasons, no less. It's one of the only times of "Star Trek" we see Kirk as making it outwardly bad Command decisions, to the point that he criticized his team. "Obsession" shows that Kirk is still supplemented by guilt due to the previous perceived failure years earlier and that it is still vulnerable to unwanted impulses. The "obsession" shows usually a strict and capable character that shoots under pressure, but in a way we can refer to us, viewers. The episode makes Kirk much more human.

"Obsession" begins on the planet Argus X, where Kirk and several crew members conduct planetary research. Unexpectedly, the eerie fog begins to move away from the rocks and seems to attack Starflit officers. Kirk orders the crew to release their stages, but one of them is hesitant, allowing the cloud to get it. Being explained that the cloud is actually an intelligent, living being that feeds iron in human blood. The cloudy cloud, because it is incompatible, is seemingly unstoppable.

Kirk knows exactly what it is. He discovers that when he was a lieutenant of the USS Sharagut ship, serving under Captain Gararov, the same cloud -shaped monster attacked him and his colleagues. Kirk saw that something sucked blood from his compatriots and kills his captain. Kirk tried to release his facet, but the fear was better than him and hesitated. He was finally scared to be off, but not before killing half of Faragut's crew. Since then, Kirk has carried with him great guilt, thinking that his coward seemed lives. His encounter with the Dypronium cloud may be one of the reasons that he is determined to be so brave.

But now, she has grown the ugly head. The cloud is back, and Kirk becomes obsessed with extinction. Non -characteristic, he panicks. He takes control of the ship when Chekov (Walter Koenig) Do not act fast enough. Kirk is convinced that if he only shoots phasers fast enough, he can kill the cloud. Vital, Kirk orders the company to stay in the area to exterminate the creature after being given an emergency mission to another planet to deliver an important antivirus. This is very, much unlike Kirk.

Usually, when Kirk acts of character, his teams begin to suspect that he was planted by Dopelganger (surprisingly common appearance of "Star Trek"). He orders survivors in their quarters, releasing them to their duty when they fail to shoot their weapons in the cloud.

The fact that the monster is a cloud is certainly symbolic. The blame we carry with us is unusual and inexpressible. We cannot attack it because there is no body. It just hovers around us like a fog. Although the cloud is not very exciting - It is not very widely celebrated monster "Star Trek" - His non -physical nature makes it a perfect metaphor for Kirk's emotional state. When we are wrapped in guilt, our vision is wrapped.

Kirk eventually learns, in his various attacks, that the phasers actually have no effect on the cloudy creature. Kirk should not feel guilty that he does not shoot fast enough during the previous meeting of Faragut because he would do nothing. He was powerless when he faced the creature, and his actions had nothing to do with his feeding cycle. Indeed, the creature can pass through shields, infiltrate into the airtight company and continue its crippling without effort.

Fortunately, Spack (Leonard Nimoy) is able to face the cloud, as his blood on the volcano has no iron in it. Kirk calls on a facilitated officer to return to duty, and he seems to have been forgiven himself. The only way out was the knowledge and recognition that we cannot always control the world around us. This is a healthy, useful lesson in real life that viewers can take away.

Unfortunately, it is not a satisfying humiliation of the science series with a monster in it, so the screenwriters also attacked a more cadartic end, where Kirk and his old captain's son, Ensin Garovik (Steven Brooks), blew the creature with a special bomb. It is Bruce, who ends up in an otherwise emotionally intelligent episode. Treates tend to neglect the "obsession", but it is actually vital for Kirk's development as a character. Sometimes even the strongest characters have to face their demons.