Stardate 1513.1 The Man Trap

Air Date Sept 8 1966
Director: Marc Daniels
The Lowdown: The Enterprise is dispatched to the remote planet M-113 to resupply Professor Robert Crater with supplies. Crater lives alone with his wife Nancy among the ruins of a long dead race. Nancy happens to be an ex-girlfriend Dr. McCoy. Crater is surly and wishes them to leave immediately while getting a medical exam from McCoy. Soon after two crewmen end up dead with all the salt leeched from their bodies. Nancy is not who she appears to be, assuming the identity of one of the dead men to get aboard the ship. After a brief armed stand off with Crater on the surface he reveals that dear Nancy is dead and that the creature that took her form is salt vampire. The last of it's kind. While trying to take the captains' salt, the doctor must kill this illusion of his lost love in order to save his friend.

DVD: I own the HD DVD combo set so I reviewed the season in glorious high definition uncut and commercial free! What a beautiful restoration! After years of watching this episode on standard def television and vhs tapes the colors and the details are amazing. The velour uniform shirts have never looked better. The remastered visuals are minimal in this episode, some nice space shots of the enterprise nice detail on the ship hull plate segments etc. Some nice new angles of the enterprise orbiting the planet were remenicent of the shots from TNG. The matte shot of the surface with the building in the distance really integrated well with the live action footage. Cbs digital did not go overboard with the effects and just added to the story not taking way from it.
Notes: The first crew death in the series was a blue shirt not a red shirt interesting. A small gripe: when Crater is stunned by the phaser the sound effect is a bullet riccochet. Great character moments for the supporting cast Uhura, Sulu and even Rand, love the beehive and mini skirt.

Overall :4 out of 5 Great work from the team at cbs digital to homage the original episodes' effects this was a good first adventure for the crew even though this was the sixth episode filmed the chemistry between the big three was already beginning to gel, giving its basic "monster terrorizes "the ship story more weight and feeling.