Sixties City: Is There In Truth No Beauty?

Dr. Miranda Jones
Diana Muldaur

Dr. Lawrence Marvick
David Frankham

The Enterprise has been assigned to take the Medusan ambassador, Kollos, back to the Medusan home planet. The species have no physical form and need to be transported in a special container, as their appearance to humans is so hideous that any sight of it is enough to cause insanity. The transporter room is cleared except for Spock, who is wearing a special visor which has proved to be effective in protecting against the effects of the Medusan appearance when used by Vulcans.

The ambassador's container is beamed aboard, accompanied by his beautiful, telepathically gifted assistant, Dr. Miranda Jones, and one of the designers of the Enterprise, a man called Marvick. Dr. Jones is suited to her position by being completely blind and, therefore, unaffected by the Medusan's appearance. She acts as aide and interpreter to the ambassador and moves easily around the room with the help of a sensor net that she wears as an attractive decoration over her clothes.

That evening, at a dinner held in their honour, Miranda sees Spock's ceremonial Vulcan IDIC medal and jealously concludes that, with his abilities, he could mind-meld with the Medusan far more effectively than she could ever hope to do. Suddenly, her expression changes as she becomes telepathically aware of someone around the table harbouring murderous thoughts against Kollos. Drained by the experience she makes her apologies to the others and leaves. Unknown to her, Marvick is in love with her and is extremely jealous of her close relationship with the Medusan, to the point where he has decided to kill Kollos.

Later that evening he takes a phaser and quietly enters the Medusan's quarters, but the ambassador senses him and the container opens. Marvick sees the Medusan in all his glory and is immediately driven completely insane. He rushes out of the room and finds his way to engineering where he changes the ship's speed to Warp 9, throwing the Enterprise through a time-space continuum to a point outside of the known galaxy. His condition deteriorates rapidly and he soon dies, leaving the Enterprise stranded in space with no points of navigational reference.

The Medusans have an ability that enables them to navigate themselves through subspace and the only hope that the ship has of returning to 'normal' space is for Spock to mind-meld with Kollos. Miranda jealously objects to this but, in the end, has to concede as her abilities do not include being able to pilot a starship as Spock can. The exercise proves to be successful and the Enterprise manages to make its way back to 'normal' space but, on breaking the mind-meld, Spock forgets to replace his protective visor and is affected by the Medusan's appearance so much that Kirk has to stun him with a phaser. Spock's mind retreats in on itself and the only chance he has of surviving is with the help of Dr. Jones.

When her assistance is requested she initially refuses, being very jealous of Spock's abilities and the fact that he was able to directly join minds with the ambassador, but Kirk persuades her to recognise and face her jealousy and change her mind. She joins with Spock telepathically, guiding him and helping him back to awareness and sanity. In the process, she receives all the sensations of the mind-meld that Spock had shared with the Medusan, allowing her to achieve her ambitions.