Star Trek TOS S1E25: The Devil in the Dark

The colonizers are the only monsters here.

See the Star Trek TOS Rewatch Index page for links to all the episodes covered so far.

“THE DEVIL IN THE DARK” Rating: 10/10

“Pain! Pain!”

The original series episode “The Devil in the Dark” gives the Vulcan Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) one of his all-time great freak-out soliloquys. Face clenched in agony, hands raised, he howls in agony and chews all the scenery in sight.

Not coincidentally, the episode is also perhaps Trek’s most sympathetic treatment of otherness. It’s the moment where the series comes closest to embracing an anti-colonial perspective, and even to endorsing anti-colonial violence and revolution. The Viet-Cong are portrayed metaphorically as shaggy silicon acid-spewing murderers—but it’s the people invading their country who are the devils in the dark.