The Man Trap

written by: George Clayton Johnson
Watch online on CBS.com (limited by region) 

The fifth episode of the series proper to be produced, NBC selected ‘The Man Trap’ as the first to air. This decision was based on the story being set on a distant world rather than just on the Enterprise herself, and because it featured a monster that tested well in audience research.[1] As Leonard Nimoy recounted, ‘it was “proper” science fiction with a “proper” monster.’[2]

And so, at 8:30PM on Thursday, 8 September 1966, the public was introduced to Star Trek for the first time.

The story shares some vague, basic similarities with a premise of the same name that Gene Roddenberry included in his original 1964 pitch for Star Trek: a desert planet on which the crew are subjected to deadly illusions.[3] The finished product bears a much stronger resemblance to a short story, ‘All of Us Are Dying’ that writer George Clayton Johnson had sold to The Twilight Zone in 1959. Rod Serling used the story as the basis for his teleplay for the episode ‘The Four of Us Are Dying’.

Premise

The Enterprise visits planet M-113 to conduct routine medical check-ups on a husband–wife archaeological team working on the planet. Not long after the landing party beams down, a series of bizarre deaths begins, first on the planet then aboard the ship. It soon become apparent that these deaths are being caused by a creature that can disguise its physical appearance and which is preying on the crew, draining the salt from their bodies.

Themes

‘The Man Trap’ is indeed a run-of-the-mill monster-movie plot. There really is very little here that’s recognisable as what Star Trek would become. In particular, there is no trace of Star Trek’s respect for life or valuing diversity.  The suitably hideous creature is simply a monster to be dealt with, in spite of a few surprising indicators to the contrary:

1. The creature is the last of its kind

As far as Kirk and Spock know, this individual is the last survivor out of millions of its species that once inhabited the planet. They learn this when they interrogate Crater:

CRATER: She was the last of her kind.

KIRK: The last of her kind?

CRATER: The last of its kind. Earth history, remember? Like the passenger pigeon or buffalo. [...]

[...]

SPOCK: The Earth buffalo. What about it?

CRATER: Once there were millions of them prairies black with them. One herd covered three whole states, and when they moved they were like thunder.

SPOCK: And now they're gone. Is that what you mean?

CRATER: Like the creatures here. Once there were millions of them. Now there's one left. Nancy understood.

[...]

CRATER: The creature was trying to survive. It has that right, doesn't it?

[...]

CRATER: They needed salt to stay alive. There was no more salt. It's the last one. The buffalo. There is no difference.

2. The creature is (probably) intelligent

When the landing party first beams down, we see Crater at work in a large stone structure, clearly the work of intelligent life, and strongly suggestive of a social life form. It is not clear whether this building and the ruins around it are the work of the creature’s own civilization though. It could just as easily be that the creature’s kind preyed on the builders, even to the point of wiping them out. Nevertheless, it’s at least possible that the creature’s species were the intelligent, social builders of this structure.

A second clue is that as the creature assumes a variety of forms, it interacts with the humans from the Enterprise in an almost perfectly plausible way. At face value, the creature displays intelligence indistinguishable from humans in conversation—it passes the ‘Total Turing Test’. The only complication here is that the creature’s ability to disguise itself appears to be a telepathic ability rather than a physical transformation. When Kirk and McCoy converse with the creature (in the form of Nancy Crater) at the start of the episode, they perceive her very differently, as does Darnell, even though all three men see her simultaneously. If the creature can alter visual perceptions in this way, perhaps it also alters auditory perceptions and makes people think that they’ve had a perfectly normal conversation with the person as whom the creature has disguised itself. The effect isn’t perfect: its version of Green is a bit too creepy and its McCoy is a bit too vague; but it’s certainly very, very close.

The most compelling evidence for the creature’s intelligence comes from its actions. It deliberately places a borgia plant with a bite taken out of it in Darnell’s hand, and fragments of the plant in his mouth, to make it appear that he was poisoned by it. It also chooses to impersonate Crewman Green as a way of getting beamed up to the Enterprise. It avoids the salt that’s been set up as bait during the hunt.

Finally, in its natural state, the creature is seen to be wearing some kind of crude clothing. Assuming that this isn’t a little something that Crater made for it, clothing indicates intelligence and culture.

3. The creature (probably) isn’t that dangerous

Crater seems to have cohabited successfully with the creature for a year. During questioning, he insists that ‘The creature is not dangerous when fed.’ Of course, he was also strongly motivated so say anything that he thought might save its life. Nevertheless, when Kirk baits the creature in McCoy’s quarters, it immediately chooses the salt tablets over attacking any of the people present. Salt, even in large quantities, is (presumably) a very cheap commodity for the Enterprise. There doesn’t seem to be any immediate problem with supplying the creature with all the salt it could ever want. Instead, they shoot it.

What it means to be human: Work

There’s one brief note here of Star Trek’s general disdain for paradise. When Kirk challenges Crater about his motives for protecting the creature, he puts it:

‘You bleed too much, Crater. You're too pure and noble. Are you saving the last of its kind or has this become Crater's private heaven, here on this planet? This thing becomes wife, lover, best friend, wise man, fool, idol, slave. It isn't a bad life to have everyone in the universe at your beck and call, and you win all the arguments.’

Arguably, the context makes it unclear as to whether Kirk would have a problem with Crater living in his ‘private heaven’ if ‘this thing’ were not killing his crew. Nevertheless, it is on this specific basis that Kirk attacks Crater.

This slender thread might be the most Star Trek element of this episode. 

As science fiction

The plot is essentially that of a thriller, not far from: a serial killer operates by disguising themself as a police officer, thereby gaining the trust of prospective victims and passing unnoticed through the police investigations of the murders. The police eventually recognise the killer’s peculiar MO and successfully bait them into revealing themselves.

That in this case the killer is an inhuman monster now makes this speculative fiction; but there’s nothing really in this story that requires a scientific or technological approach; it may as well all be magic.

‘Dangerous, savage child-race’

Q would have to damn humanity on this one. At no point in the episode do Kirk or any of his crew entertain any option other than hunting down and killing the creature. Even Spock expressly rejects a non-violent solution during the briefing:

CREATURE (AS MCCOY): Oh. Well, we could offer it salt without tricks. There's no reason for it to attack us.

SPOCK: Your attitude is laudable, Doctor, but your reasoning is reckless.

CRATER: The creature is not dangerous when fed.

CREATURE (AS MCCOY): No, it's simply trying to survive by using its natural ability to take other forms.

[...]

CREATURE (AS MCCOY): And like us, it's an intelligent animal. There's no need to hunt it down.

SPOCK: A very interesting hypothesis, Doctor.

Admittedly, in their final confrontation with the creature, McCoy kills it even as it is attempting to kill Kirk. Taken in isolation, his action is defensible. However, there’s just no reason for the situation to have deteriorated to this point. They have made absolutely no attempt to communicate with it or to offer it the nutrient that they already know it needs and wants.

And as tragic as the death of any individual is, the death of the last member of an entire species is even more so. As the show finishes, Kirk looks pensive and says he is ‘thinking about the buffalo’, but it’s really a bit late to be worrying about that now.

Other notes

A nice touch: Uhura speaks Swahili; speaking an African language is portrayed positively on 1960s American TV.

A not-so-nice touch: the sexual harassment of Yeoman Rand continues in this episode, with male crewmembers (one of them an officer) openly leering at her and making suggestive comments:

BLUESHIRT: How about that?

REDSHIRT: Yeah, how’d you like to have her as your personal yeoman?

Mission objectives

M-113 is not a new world to explore: Crater has been working there for nearly five years by the time the Enterprise arrives and has been shipping back reports and artefacts. However, the ‘salt vampire’ is new life to everybody but Crater, so I’m counting it. 

Objective	This episode	Series so far
To explore strange, new worlds	0	2 (33%)
To seek out new life and new civilizations	1	4 (67%)
To boldly go where none has gone before	0	3 (50%)

Previous episode: ‘The Enemy Within’
Next episode: ‘The Naked Time’

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Footnotes

[1] Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman. (1996). Inside Star Trek: The Real Story. Pocket Books: New York. pp.163–64.

[2] Leonard Nimoy: Star Trek Memories. (1983). TV special. Paramount Pictures: Los Angeles.

[3] ‘THE MAN TRAP. A desert trek story, taking members of our band from one point on a planet to another. But what appears to be a pleasant totally earthlike and harmless world, rapidly develops into a hundred miles of fear and suspicions as Captain April and crew begin to encounter strange apparitions. Actually more than apparitions, these are wish-fulfillment traps which become as real as flesh and blood. Whatever a man wants most will appear before him, i.e., water, food, a female, a long-dead parent, gold, or even a way to power. The traps become increasingly subtle to the point where our crew nearly destroys itself out of a total inability to separate the reality they must have from the apparitions which will destroy them.’

At one point in its development, Johnson’s script was titled ‘The Unreal McCoy’, a name still used by James Blish for his novelisation of the episode.