In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider The Enemy Within, which aired on October 6, 1966, Star Date 1672.1.
While gathering specimens on planet Alpha 177 (whose night temperature reaches -120 degrees), the transporter malfunctions, stranding the remaining 4-man landing party (including Sulu) on the planet; Kirk beams up. Kirk is split into two alter-egos, the evil one (hostility, lust, violence), which arrives unnoticed a few minutes after the good Kirk (compassion, love, tenderness) after the crew has left the transporter room.
The evil Kirk enters Yeoman Janice Rand’s quarters and lies in wait for her. She scratches him when he attacks her. She fights him off, and soon after that, the good Kirk shows signs of losing both his decisiveness and ability to command. This leads to a gut-wrenching scene where Spock and McCoy interview Rand about the attack.
Spock and Scotty rig the transporter to run off the impulse engines and successfully fix the transporter. He is overpowered when the good Kirk tries to bring the evil Kirk to the transporter. The evil Kirk goes to the bridge and orders the Enterprise to leave orbit, but the good Kirk follows him there. Kirk eventually returns to normal when the transporter is modified and used to fuse his two parts back together. The landing party is also beamed back up, suffering from frostbite, but nothing worse.
Compliance Takeaways:
- A leader must make decisions and then be decisive about them after they are made.
- Does your speak-up culture include training on how to listen?
- #MeToo means that if, as a bystander, you see something, it is your responsibility to report it.
