‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘Wolf in the Fold’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

Sometimes, television shows tend to slide into a particular pattern as a respective season rolls along. That’s not a bad thing by any means, because even storytellers enjoy a sense of comfort when they can. But it is always fascinating to spot these patterns when they occur, and it just so happens that I’ve spotted one when it comes to season two of Star Trek. Because the show is clearly working to tell better stories in year two, but someone, somewhere along the line decided that once in a while the more intelligent stories needed to be broken up with something unique and different. And unfortunately for the series, those particular breaks are well… awful in nature, because the stories that are being told in this vein are just outlandish and not worth the audience’s time and for proof, well look no further than the next tale in this storied series.
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Because ‘Wolf in the Fold’ is an episode that clearly wanted to give us a break from more cerebral concepts by offering up a wild murder mystery on the pleasure planet of Argelius II. And while there is nothing wrong with indulging in a little genre crossover from time to time, the execution of said mashup is key to the story’s success. Which means that a couple of important things had to happen in this tale in order to make it worth our while, such as the fact that everything here needed to feel natural and organic, so that you’re invested in the story and nothing feels out of place or silly, and that includes having the characters stay true to themselves. Because having them react to the unique events surrounding them in natural fashion lends credence to the story in question and it helps the audience enjoy familiarity and sadly, this episode fails when it comes to both of those elements.

Take for example the character aspect we just discussed. For Scotty is simply not himself in this tale, and he’s a bumbling buffoon who cannot remember a single thing, nor can he put any logic into how he’s always present when someone is murdered on this planet and that’s just dumb. Because Montgomery Scott is one of the finest and smartest engineers in the fleet, and nothing misses his attention in the slightest, and the excuse that he’s suffering from the side effects of a concussion don’t fly either since we know that Federation technology can heal that kind of injury post haste. So already, this element pulls you out of the story since it doesn’t work in the slightest and sadly, it only gets worse from here since the story portion of what we just discussed fails the viewer as well.

I mean, come on, an evil entity that feeds off of fear and was responsible for Jack the Ripper is behind all of this? That just seems outlandish and silly in a series that has outright featured powerful beings that can bend time and space to their will with a mere gesture, and I think what makes this so goofy, is the sheer fact that this creature, which has been established as a being that only operates within the confines of a humanoid; is able to take over the Enterprise computer system. So, yeah. That’s how this story goes and if that isn’t strange or off-putting enough for you, have no fear, there are other problems present within this tale as well. Such as the fact that it features a lot of violence toward women, which is quite uncomfortable to watch within the framework of a show about unity and peace and honestly, the story would have been fine without that particular plot point.

Plus, there’s the whole matter of the Psycho-Tricorder. A device that can somehow re-assemble memories, which is a huge deal since that offers the Federation some serious power, and the issue with this device, is that it is a waste of the audience’s time. Because there’s a giant buildup to its use, but it never gets used and it is never mentioned again in the history of the franchise. If anything, this is just a bad episode, and the irony is that this is another one written by Robert Bloch and well, this just goes to show that Mister Bloch was not a fit for Star Trek in the slightest and that’s okay, because this is his last credited episode on the series. Which means these strange mashups that he loved to do are over and that’s great, because this was a weird episode, one that I simply do not care to revisit ever again. And thankfully, I’ll be able to wipe this wild tale from my memory post haste, since the next voyage in the five-year mission is an outright classic, one involving… the tribble. Until next time.  

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