The Man Trap (episode)

On the wiki, the TOS episode "Where No Man Has Gone Before" is listed as the first episode of the shows 1st season, but on Paramount+ "The Man Trap" is listed as the first episode, which one is actually the first episode?

I did not like this episode. There were moments that I enjoyed, but overall, I just disliked the outcome of the episode.

I enjoyed seeing Sulu and Uhura in the episode, if only just briefly. I also enjoyed watching the shapeshifter's first moments on the Enterprise as it tried to figure out how to blend in and survive without getting caught. Additionally, the technical aspects of the episode were completely fine, as well as the initial hook; that being Nancy appearing different to each person who saw her on the surface (which seemed to be forgotten later, or at least never utilized outside of allowing for some... rude commentary from Kirk har har har).

All in all, though, I feel like the shapeshifter as a creature was just not characterised very well. At some level, the creature must have an intelligence, as that guy from the planet said. And he was vouching for the creature hard. He seemed to want to genuinely defend the creature. I found it strange that the shapeshifter immediately killed him after that - I got confused by what the show was trying to say about the alien and about their conscience.

It felt clear that the shapeshifter had some real intelligence (after all, while impersonating McCoy, it was trying to say that it just wanted to survive), that is, until the final showdown when the creature was attracted to the salt tablets like a puppy to treats. It felt disconnected, as the creature was talking about simply wanting to survive when it had initiated the entire situation by killing a crewman to begin with. Maybe it was dying at that very moment, or maybe it felt threatened by McCoy's check-up, thinking that maybe its secret would be uncovered.

I just don't know what I'm more confused by. The lack of sympathy that any of the crew had for the last member of a species (that I've come to expect from the Enterprise crews) or the creature's flip-flopping motivations and actions that just didn't align with anything that they said.

I'm reminded of that TNG episode, "Skin of Evil". When I watched that, I was wholly expecting the Enterprise to take the very obviously sentient creature from the planet to be tried for its actions, but no! The Enterprise just leaves it there, to continue suffering after having killed a very valuable crew member. It bugs me when very sentient creatures that aren't human are treated like animals. It's like if someone started treating a 300-year-old Trill symbiont like a guinea pig. (edit: accidentally used equals symbols instead of hyphens...)

In any case, I realise this show was made in the 60s, but I don't think that murder should call for a death sentence. And, yes, I know that it was a self-defence action, but it's not as if the situation couldn't have been avoided had the Enterprise just given the creature the salt it needed to live. Had they just made it clear that they were willing to support "new life and new civilisations". Apparently not.

Frankly, it feels like the episode was too busy worrying about McCoy's attraction to someone he hadn't talked to in like, a decade as opposed to the right of some worthless alien to live. It makes me question the morality of the Enterprise crew, and I don't like that Kirk's strong feelings took the crew on a total manhunt. It seems completely out of line.

And maybe that's the point! I haven't watched enough of TOS to know if I'm meant to dislike Kirk. But after seeing Picard, and Sisko, and Janeway, and even Archer (to a lesser extent, acknowledging that he's still a long way before any real interstellar regulations exist) with their higher standards made Kirk's actions seem terrible in comparison.

Is the moral that once you start lying, you can't stop until it consumes you? Is it that murder is the worst crime one can commit? Is it that all things must pass? I have no clue! Please, tell me if you know. (Genuinely, I'd like to hear other opinions about this. This bugged me so much, having watched just about every other Trek show before TOS.)

I'm still going to keep watching TOS but this was really not a good start for me. I was surprised to look up reviews and find that they were majorly positive with the greatest gripe I found being that it was "weird".

I just hope that this is the good ol' season-one-undeveloped-character syndrome instead of a sign of things to come.