Trekette: Brain And Brain! What Is Brain?!

Meet Kara. She is an Eymorg from a glaciated Class M planet in the Sigma Draconis system, and the star of the episode Spock’s Brain. Luckily, she lives beneath the surface of the ice-aged planet, enabling her to wear a backless minidress and gartered thigh-high boots. To the men of her species- Morgs- Kara is one of the “Others,” or a “Giver of Pain and Delight.” She comes with a handy bracelet which she can use to inflict pain by pressing a button, enabling her to control and enslave the males of her species.

Oh, and she needs a brain, because their underground complex certainly cannot function without their “controller.” Painted into a corner, Kara does what all brainless, helpless females would do if they were in her shoes and shiny purple thigh-highs. I mean – she gets in her spaceship and finds herself a man! First, however, she has to put her thinking cap on. Yes, there literally is a thinking cap. It’s called the “Great Teacher.” The Great Teacher was left by the Eymorg’s highly advanced ancestors, the builders, who intended the Eymorgs to only use it at predetermined intervals. After all, they couldn’t have Eymorgs getting any book learning, could they?

Kara steals Spock's brain

So, every few thousand years, the priestess of the Eymorgs, in this case Kara, dons the Great Teacher and departs with enough knowledge to run a spaceship, locate a nice Science Officer, and surgically remove his brain. Three hours later, the knowledge simply wears off like cheap lipstick, leaving Kara a mere brainless Eymorg again. It seems strange to me that such advanced ancestors decided to leave the females of the species with nothing but high-tech bracelets allowing them to enslave the Morgs and a series of color-coded identical outfits. Apparently the only skills and knowledge the Eymores are able to retain are makeup application and filling caves with food to lure the Morgs into servitude. Well, there is that saying about the fastest way into a man’s heart… unless you have a pain bracelet!

This is one of the few episodes of the Original Series in which the acting outshines the plotline. McCoy especially has some great lines in this episode- I personally enjoyed his “Jim, it’s no use. You’ll get nothing out of that one. Hers is the mind of a child.” Gee, thanks, Bones! In Kara’s defense, I don’t think that any of the Morgs would have been a better conversationalist.

Apparently, Kara’s planet was once extraordinarily advanced, but fell into an ice age which forced them to build an underground complex for the women of their species to take shelter in while the men toiled on the planet’s surface. Centuries later, Morgs lived on the frozen surface with no female presence, took no mates and knew nothing of the other gender except that they were the “givers of pain and delight.”

This really makes me wonder how the species continued to propagate. Obviously there was some breeding going on to keep the species alive, if sufficient generations had passed that each gender forgot its traditional role and the brains of the species were able to atrophy from long disuse. So, was there a class of breeder-Morgs tempted out of their frozen Eden by evil, witless females wearing magic pain bracelets? Since the Morg that Kirk and the rest of the away team spoke to seemed so horrified at the thought of anyone actually seeking an audience with the Eymorgs, I can only assume there was no foreplay button on those gold bracelets. Then, after the “delightful aspects” are done with, the Morgs are forced into servitude. by the magnetic belts they wear which can be used to inflict pain by a simple press of a button on an Eymorg’s wrist.

Naturally, before the hour is up, Spock’s brain is recovered, and we can all rest easily knowing another episode is ending with the sounds of hearty, fake Kirk laughter.

But what is to become of Kara and the Eymorgs?

Well, apparently the Prime Directive does not apply to cultures run by witless females, especially when the Enterprise’s First Officer’s brain is involved. Since the Eymorgs needed Spock’s brain to keep their habitat functioning, I suppose that upon the away team’s departure they simply starved and went without life support systems until Starfleet got there to liberate them. As Kirk assured a panicked Kara- “You’ll be fine!” After all, the Morgs and the Eymorgs can “control together.”

KARA: We will die.

KIRK: No, you’ll live and develop as you should have. All this shouldn’t have been done for you. Now the women here below and the men here above will control together.

KIRK: No, you won’t. You’ll learn to build houses, to keep warm, to work. We’ll help you for a while. Humans have survived under worse conditions. It’s a matter of evolution. You’ll be fine.

And that’s all, folks! Another new life and new civilization sought out. I just hope they got more Starfleet assistance than the Botany Bay crew!

Trekette Out!

 
“Trekette” is an ongoing series by Victoria Wright looking at Star Trek through a female perspective.