Television Review: The Deadly Years (Star Trek, S2X11, 1967)

The Deadly Years (S02E11)

Airdate: December 8th 1967

Written by: David P. Harmon
Directed by: Joseph Pevney

Running Time: 50 minutes

The inexorable march of time, with its toll on both mind and body, has long served as a haunting motif in speculative fiction—a testament to humanity’s universal fear of decay and oblivion. Star Trek: The Original Series, despite its optimistic veneer, occasionally grappled with such existential dread, and Season 2 episode The Deadly Years stands as one of its more audacious attempts. This episode leverages the premise of accelerated aging to weave a blend of body horror, morbid comedy, and melodramatic stakes, though its execution remains uneven. While the concept is compelling, the narrative stumbles under the weight of predictable pacing, contrived subplots, and a reliance on character archetypes that dilute its initial promise. Yet, its bold visual effects and a gripping finale ensure it endures as a curious footnote in the franchise’s history.

The plot unfolds when the USS Enterprise arrives at the remote Gamma Hydra IV colony, a scientific outpost where four researchers have died under mysterious circumstances. Captain Kirk’s landing party discovers the remaining survivors—Mr. and Mrs. Johnson (Felix Locher and Laura Wood)—visibly aged to frail, geriatric states, despite their chronological ages being in their late 20s. The corpses of their deceased colleagues mirror this grotesque transformation, and upon boarding the Enterprise, the Johnsons succumb to their accelerated decay mere hours later. Soon, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Lieutenant Arlene Galway (Beverly Washburn) begin exhibiting identical symptoms, their bodies rapidly deteriorating. Chekov, inexplicably spared, becomes the sole unaffected crew member. As the crew scrambles for a cure, Commodore Stocker (Richard Drake) exploits Kirk’s declining mental acuity to strip him of command, replacing him with his own inept leadership. This decision leads the Enterprise into the Romulan Neutral Zone, where Stocker’s incompetence nearly triggers a potentially catastrophic confrontation with Romulan warships.

Written by David P. Harmon, The Deadly Years opens with a gripping mystery, the eerie stillness of Gamma Hydra IV and the Johnsons’ hollow-eyed despair setting a sombre tone. However, once the action shifts to the Enterprise, the narrative stumbles. The audience quickly deduces the colonists’ fate and the crew’s impending doom, rendering the gradual deterioration of Kirk and his officers repetitive and emotionally numbing. To compensate for this predictability, Harmon introduces melodramatic elements that strain credulity. Most notably, the inclusion of Janet Wallace (Sarah Marshall)—a former lover of Kirk and widow of a man 26 years her senior—adds an unnecessary subplot centred on her romantic overtures to the ailing captain. Her character, framed as both “eye candy” and a vehicle for Kirk’s emotional turmoil, underscores the episode’s tendency to prioritise soap-opera dynamics over thematic depth. Her gerontophilic advances, while meant to humanise Kirk’s plight, instead feel tacked-on, distracting from the more urgent stakes of survival.

The episode thus balances a race against time for the antidote with a political drama about authority and trust, though these threads often clash awkwardly. Its saving grace arrives in its finale, where a rejuvenated Kirk reclaims command and outsmarts the Romulans using a tactic first deployed in the iconic Season 1 episode The Corbomite Maneuver. This callback to the show’s roots injects a much-needed surge of confidence, allowing Kirk to reassert his authority through wit rather than brute force. The confrontation with the Romulans, though hurried, provides a thrilling climax that elevates the episode’s tension, if not its cohesion. Yet, the rushed resolution leaves lingering questions about the episode’s handling of its central metaphor: while the physical decay is visually arresting, the psychological toll on characters like Spock or McCoy is underexplored, reducing their suffering to mere plot devices.

Director Joseph Pevney’s work is functional but unremarkable, with little stylistic flair to elevate the material. The episode’s enduring legacy instead hinges on its groundbreaking makeup effects, which transformed William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, and James Doohan into convincing older versions of themselves. The prosthetics and makeup remain striking, even by modern standards, and offer a morbidly fascinating comparisons with how the actors later aged in their real lives. For fans, these visuals became a morbid curiosity, sparking endless debates about whether the effects aligned with how the characters actually appeared in later life (e.g., Nimoy, who lived until 2015, bore little resemblance to his “aged” portrayal). Meanwhile, the cast reportedly relished the chance to play versions of themselves stripped of vitality and agency, their performances—particularly Shatner’s portrayal of a defiant yet frail Kirk—adding a poignant edge to the absurdity of their predicament. The episode is also notable for being among those providing fan service in form of early scene featuring shirtless Kirk in his prime, although, in this particular case, this detail is justified due to its ironic context.

Beyond its narrative merits, The Deadly Years holds a peculiar place in Star Trek lore due to its inclusion of Felix Locher, a Swiss inventor and part-time actor born in 1882, who played Mr. Johnson. At 85 years old during filming, Locher became the earliest born actor to appear in a Trek episode, his withered frame embodying the episode’s central horror. His wife in the episode, Laura Wood, was not only seven years his junior but had already appeared in Season 1 episode Charlie X as USS Entreprise crew member aged due to a whim of god-like antagonist—a meta-touch that underscores the series’ recurring fascination with time’s tyranny.

The Deadly Years is a flawed yet intriguing episode that dares to confront mortality with unflinching visual audacity, even as its script falters under the weight of its ambition. Its strengths lie in its bold aesthetic choices and a climactic return to form for its protagonist, but its reliance on predictable pacing and melodramatic sidelines undermines its potential.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com
Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/
InLeo blog https://inleo.io/@drax.leo

LeoDex: https://leodex.io/?ref=drax
InLeo: https://inleo.io/signup?referral=drax.leo
Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax
Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax
1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e

BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG
ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
BCH donations: qpvxw0jax79lhmvlgcldkzpqanf03r9cjv8y6gtmk9