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#35: Star Trek: The Original Series, season 2, episode 12 "The Deadly Years"
Written by David P. Harmon, directed by Joseph Pevney.
Stardates 3478.2 through 3479.4 (December 2267)
"The heart is not a logical organ." - Dr. Janet Wallace
The Enterprise arrives at Gamma Hydra IV for a routine check-in of a Federation outpost and are met with silence. Investigating where everyone went, Ensign Chekov startles himself by stumbling upon the body of a very old man in a darkened room. As the landing party questions why such an old person would even be on the planet, they are greeted by two other elderly humans who insist they are only in their late 20s. When they return to the ship, issues with those who went down to the planet lead to a realization that they are all suddenly aging rapidly. All except for Chekov.
Originally released: 8 December 1967
"The Deadly Years" on Memory Alpha
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What did you think?
I thought it was a pretty fun episode and successful script experiment that additionally highlighted how various Starfleet personages could be completely useless in command, like Commodore Stocker, who took command due to Kirk being too decrepit.
Interestingly, this general concept got used at least twice in later ST series episodes. Yes, TAS and TNG had episodes in which characters were de-aged, altho in very different ways.
I just watched an episode yesterday (doomsday machine) where another commodore took command of the enterprise for spurious reasons (Kirk was on another ship).
I guess technically a commodore can command an individual ship but that is not usually their function....
why does this theme come up so often in TOS? it happens in TNG but under extremely limited circumstances and it's usually an extraordinary order to be received.
Commodore Decker had basically lost his mind at that point, so I don't think it's nece-celery a case of Commodores not necessarily making good captains. Other captains (Garth and Tracey) also went partially insane, and they were otherwise above-average.
So it may moreso be highlighting the idea that captaincy on star ships requires a strong collection of talents and character, and may in fact be hard on such folks, over time.
I guess I'm forgetting, but what other episodes are you thinking of?