"The Devil in the Dark" twists a murderous monster tale into an emotional expression of motherly love. The episode begins from a unique planetside point of view (the Janus VI colony) and barely utilizes Enterprise yet remains one of the more memorable Trek episodes. Inspired by a costume from veteran "monster" Janos Prohaska, the impact of author Gene Coon's poignant script rises above the otherwise simple, timid effects. (The killings are sanitized by any standards, particularly something as lurid as "burned to a crisp." Even the cracked silicon nodules don't have baby Horta bits stuck inside.)

The guest stars provide capable performances. Ken Lynch shows the pressure on Chief Vanderberg to keep his pergium quota up and staff losses down. (That phasers and tricorders can be adjusted for silicon yields insight into both devices, yet why wasn't at least one phaser II available to Vanderberg for his colony?) Barry "better as a Commodore" Russo makes an incongruous appearance as security chief Lt. Commander Giotto who gets painfully brained by a wicked club (better than poor Eddie Paskey, bludgeoned several times!) wielded by Brad Weston as the disgruntled miner Ed Appel. But the real performance is "the devil herself," the Horta.

"NO KILL I" eloquently inscribes a poetic first contact with a shaggy corrosive rock with a fondness for pointed ears. How intelligent (not to mention dexterous!) must the Horta be to remove the reactor pump anyway? Everything known about this strange "animal" comes from the gripping mind-meld scene, as a weeping Spock conveys her thrumming anguish (even if his callous "Kill it Captain, quickly!" leaves a decidedly sour taste) about what little history we learn. "And you've killed thousands of her children" disarms viewers and Vanderberg's men alike before Kirk is forced to kill them.

The crew earns their meager screentime even NCC-1701. (Despite the miners' spite that Kirk can't get his starship down into tunnels, in the end she manages the job beaming thermal concrete twenty-three levels underground!) Scotty conjures a plumber's nightmare reactor pump. Kirk pours coffee and commands the situation, succumbing to a mercy refused to his science officer and forcing McCoy into his most unusual housecall ("You're a healer, there's a patient, that's an order"). Though TOS occasionally dips into mindless annihilation of "horrible things" this episode upends that format as a frame in which mutual respect and understanding are realized. But is it too much to ask for a glimpse of the "little devils" tunneling away with the glee of well, baby rock?