Stardate:1704.2 The Naked Time

Original Air Date: Sept. 29 1966
Dir: Marc Daniels

The Lowdown: The Enterprise has arrived at the ice planet PSI2000 to retrieve a lost science team. The planet is breaking up and the scientist were recording the event. Spock beams down with crewman Joe to investigate. When they arrive they find the team dead frozen to death. As they conduct their search the crewman exposes his hand to scratch an itchy nose and comes into contact with contaminated blood. Shaken by the gruesome death chamber, Joe fails to report the breach of protocol to Mr. Spock and upon return to the ship begins to act strangely. Despite being checked out by Dr. McCoy Joe continues to act bizarrely and attempts suicide in the mess room. Sulu and Riley try to stop their friend but are infected as well.
Sulu begins sweating profusely and abandons his post to go chase crewmen with a sword. Joe meanwhile is dying from his wound which was not fatal but the doctor believes he is willing himself to die. Riley commandeers engineering and shuts down the engines and takes control of the ship. The virus spreads by touch and more of the crew begin to act uncontrollably almost drunk. As the Captain tries to regain control, and Scotty attempt to retake the engine room Spock is infected by the amorous nurse Chapel.
He weeps for his human mother and his suppressed human feelings, Kirk finds his first officer smacks him around a bit, gets infected, wants to walk on a beach calls the Enterprise a woman. Mc Coy finds a cure and then they attempt to jump start the engines. They are successful and the ship is sent back in time 3 days to relieve events all over again.

The DVD: The addition of the science station was a nice touch, great establishing shot. The new chronometers look natural, retro without looking intrusive as with adding the laser beam to Scotty's phaser as he's cutting through the bulkhead. The planet shots are vibrant and standout in HD. Solid work CBS-D. One nitpick, digitally remove the dummy in the science station it looks weird.
The episode was written by John DF Black who also co-wrote Shaft. He also wrote 2 episodes of TNG. Director Marc Daniels directed some of Treks biggest episodes: Space Seed, The Menagerie, Court Martial, Mirror Mirror and several others. Great character moments for most of the main cast, Spock weeping, Sulu being a swashbuckler, Kirk lamenting the burden of command. Guest star Bruce Hyde(Riley) steals the show with his rendition of the ballad "I'll take you home Kathleen." Hyde would return later in the season for Conscience of the King. Some fun dialog set against a dire situation, this episode had a little of everything even a bit of sixties techno babble.
Overall: 4 out of 5 Some nice visual effects additions that blend seamlessly with live action combined with a good story make a classic trek episode. A early season standout. The weakness here is the plot device of Joe getting infected is a little weak, the shop dummy corpse is silly but doesn't derail the episode.