TOS S2E12 "The Deadly Years" Review By AnswerMan

Horrible:Meh:Adequate:Good:Fantastic

I'm not quite sure if this episode had a point other than Kirk is badass and nearly "irreplaceable." After a beam down to check on a station on a planet with a numerical name, the gang finds out that the crew there have either all died or are dying from old age, even though they are quite young. When they return to the ship, they slowly realize that they are now afflicted with the same phenomenon themselves. Except Chekov, who is comically treated to multiple pokes and prods to figure out why he is immune. He is even subjected to that weird stair-stepper in the air thing. That's rough.



Cognitive faculties go quickly as they age, and Kirk shows signs of losing his mind even before he goes grey. Bones seems to deal with the aging the most gracefully of the group, while Scotty for some reason first goes grey, but then blonde. Why?

Also visiting endocrinologist Dr Janet Wallace is on the case. When they first introduced her, for a split second I thought we might have a female character that is not sexualized or just there to be a love interest for Kirk, but then when the meeting was over this happened, and I rolled my eyes:

Yep, they used to bang. Also she's into older men, so she only wants Kirk more and more as he ages. I thought that maybe this was relevant to the plot in some way, like perhaps she was the one causing the aging or something, but no. She's merely just another bimbo-of-the-week, and her predilection for old balls is shared with us for no reason other than to make sure that we know she's still into Kirk even though he's older than your grandpa now.

So Commodore Douche-Nozzle figures this is a great time to have a space trial to relieve Kirk of command, even though by far the more pressing issue is that the captain, first officer, doctor, and chief engineer will all be dead in a few hours. Oh and that lady with the short hair, too. But hey, who doesn't love a dramatic trial?

So Kirk is relieved of command, and Commodore Moron immediately marches the crew straight to certain annihilation at the Romulan's hands. But by then they've already found a cure, and Kirk steps onto the bridge like Superman and in 20 seconds fixes everything.

"The Deadly Years" is an Adequate episode of Trek. Honestly, the make up aging effects were really good, especially for the time (although knowing what all these men actually look like in old age kind of spoils it). The acting was also well done, even by Shatner, who did a great job of playing an embarrassing old codger that thinks he knows everything. But the episode lacks a greater purpose. Was this a commentary on agism in the modern workplace? No, it was not. Wallace was just there for filler, Commodore Smarty-Pants was a lame character, and the Chekov comedy routine missed the mark. But still, it's a fun watch. If anyone is interested, radiation from the comet caused the aging, and adrenaline from being scared shitless reverses it, and causes some embarrassing pelvic thrusts of which we were subjected to a close-up of.

Published June 20, 2020