The Tholian Web

"The Tholian Web" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #64, first broadcast on November 15, 1968. It is written by Judy Burns and Chet Richards, and directed by Herb Wallerstein.

It is the episode that introduced the rarely seen but widely talked about aliens known as the Tholians.

Quick Overview: Captain Kirk is caught between dimensions while the Enterprise is trapped by an energy draining web spun by mysterious aliens.

On stardate 5693.2, the starship USS Enterprise arrives in an uncharted region of space, to answer a distress call from her sister ship, the USS Defiant (NCC 1764). Nearing the location, the Enterprise's engines begin to lose power, and sensors detect a nearby dimensional fracture in space that seems to be the cause of the energy drain.

The Defiant appears on the monitor, adrift, with a strange green glow surrounding the hull. Strangely enough, sensors show no indication the vessel is there. No lifeforms are detected or communications made with the ship, so Captain Kirk assembles a boarding party consisting of himself, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Spock, and Mr. Chekov to beam over and investigate. Before they go, the team dons environmental suits.

They arrive on the Defiant's bridge finding the crew all dead, having killed each other in what appears to have been some kind of bizarre mutiny. McCoy makes his way down to the ship's sickbay, but can find no real explanation for the crew's deaths. He goes to look at a deceased crewman lying on the examination table and suddenly discovers his hands can pass right through the body. In fact the whole ship's physical structure seems to be dissolving.

As other members of the team notice the Defiant's structure is fading, Kirk orders them to return to the Enterprise. Mr. Scott informs the team that due to the power loss, he can only retrieve three of them at once. Kirk decides to remain behind allowing Spock, McCoy and Chekov to return, however his delay causes him to phase away with the Defiant. Kirk now finds himself stuck between two dimensions floating helplessly in nothingness. Spock rushes to analyze the situation, and determines that the Defiant's phasing effect should reoccur again within a few hours, when it does they may be able to retrieve the Captain, if he is still alive.

Meanwhile, the same dimensional interphase begins to affect the Enterprise and her crew. Chekov suddenly goes berserk and attacks Spock on the bridge, and then more violent outbursts occur between crewmembers. McCoy and his personnel rush to find the cause, and they can only assume that the phasing and violent behavior are connected. The same murderous hostilities that affected the Defiant's crew have begun on the Enterprise. McCoy strongly suggests that they put some distance between themselves and the Defiant, but Spock refuses, believing any movement from their position could disrupt the Defiant's position and jeopardize finding the Captain again.

An hour passes, and unexpectedly, a tiny metallic vessel, of unknown configuration, approaches the Enterprise. A crystalline being appears on the bridge monitor, that seems to be surrounded by a radiant energy screen. The being identifies himself as Loskene of the Tholians, and demands that the Enterprise leave their territory immediately. Spock apologizes for their intrusion and explains their situation to the alien, asking they be given time to retrieve their Captain. The alien agrees to give the Enterprise two hours, and no more.

The moment happens when the Defiant should phase in again, and Spock attempts to locate the Captain, however the ship is not where it is supposed to be. Spock believes the arrival of the Tholian vessel has somehow disturbed the Defiant's position and they have lost Captain Kirk for good.

Then McCoy and Spock conduct a little makeshift funeral in the Captain's quarters, where McCoy plays a recording Kirk had made for them just in case he was ever killed on a mission. The somber recording gives the officers their final orders and some words of advice for their future missions without him, especially when he exhorts them to use their constant arguments and different points of view to support and help each other.

After the message is heard, Spock orders the Enterprise to leave the area, however Lt. Uhura notices a ghostly image of Captain Kirk, still in his space suit, floating inside the ship. Spock thinks Uhura is seeing things, and suggests she report to Dr. McCoy, but then Scotty reports catching a glimps of Kirk in engineering, and confirms that Uhura isn't hallucinating.

Spock rushes to locate the Captain but Kirk phases out again before he can get a lock. If indeed the Captain is still alive, his pressure suit's life support would be dangerously low, and his time running out.

By now the Tholian's time limit has already passed, and right on the dime the aliens return and demand an explanation of why the Enterprise has not left. Spock explains their delay but the aliens think Spock is lying and quickly attack. Spock returns fire managing to drive off the Tholian ship, but the maneuver leaves the Enterprise critically low on power, and Scotty cannot guarantee survival from another bombardment.

A second Tholian ship arrives on the scene, sure to finish the Enterprise off, but instead the two alien ships curiously link up and begin to extend an energy thread between themselves. Like spiders, they begin to weave the strange energy strands, in a sphere, around the crippled Enterprise.

Spock quickly analyses the "web" filaments, and announces that if the Tholians complete their trap, they will not survive. More reports of Kirk's "ghost" come in from around the ship, and Spock tries to lock a tractor beam on him when he appears again. In the meantime, Dr. McCoy has discovered an antidote for the phasing effect, by using a diluted form of the Klingon nerve gas, Theragen.

As the Tholian's web is nearing completion, Kirk's ghost is spotted once more, and Spock locks onto him with the tractor beam. At that moment, Spock uses all remaining warp energy in the ship's engines to break free of the Tholian's web. The burst of energy not only releases them but throws the Enterprise a parsec away, well out of range of the enemy ships. Kirk miraculously remains held in the tractor beam and he is quickly transported aboard, where McCoy stands ready to inject him with the serum.

Kirk makes a full recovery, and is keen on learning what transpired aboard his ship while he was "away". He was surprised to learn McCoy and Spock worked well together, and a little disappointed when McCoy claims they didn't have time to open their Captain's "last orders" and his words of wisdom had gone unheard.

Sequel episode

A two-part episode set of Star Trek: Enterprise called "In a Mirror, Darkly", scheduled to air on April 22 and 29, 2005, is a sequel to this episode as it reveals what happened to the Defiant after it disappeared: it found itself in the Mirror Universe, where the local version of the Tholians had hoped to lure the ship. We learn that the mirror Tholians intentionally caused the interphase to form, with the hope of capturing the Defiant from the other universe and using it as the vanguard of an invasion force.

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