In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode That Which Survives, which aired on January 24, 1969, and occurred on Star Date Unknown.
McCoy, Sulu, Kirk, and senior geologist D’Amato beam down to investigate a strange planet the size of the Moon but with the mass of the Earth. The planet has no magnetic field but a well-developed atmosphere and plant life—despite the fact that the planet appears to be only 1000 years old. As the landing party is beaming down, a strange woman appears, says, “wait, you must not go,” and kills the transporter operator.
Meanwhile, aboard the Enterprise, Engineer grade 4 John B. Watkins is killed by the woman when he checks the bypass circuit, but not before he warns Scott that a strange woman is aboard. On the Enterprise, the woman rigs the engines to explode by fusing the emergency bypass circuit on the matter/antimatter integrator. The Enterprise begins accelerating out of control, and Spock estimates that the Enterprise will explode in 14.87 minutes, with no way to stop it. Scotty saves the Enterprise from exploding by reversing polarity on the magnetic probe and returning the magnetic flow to normal.
Spock rescues the landing party at this juncture when he beams down and destroys the computer which was projecting the image of the woman Losira. When a recorded tape is automatically played, they find out that the planet they are on is a space outpost built by the Calandans, who were all killed by a disease they created while building the planet. The outpost was left on automatic, with the computer attempting to fend off all explorers but the expected Calandan ship. As Kirk prepares to return to the Enterprise, he comments in response to a statement by Spock that beauty such as Losira’s is transitory, that “beauty survives.”
Compliance Takeaways:
1. What is your risk tolerance?
2. How do you manage sales risk?
3. How does your Board look at risk?
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