Air Date: September 15th, 1967
Spock with emotional outburst, hands shaking, memory loss, erratic behavior. It can be only one thing, Pon Farr, a condition that occurs to an adult Vulcan male every seven years . I had never seen this episode before but a similar episode occurred in Voyager where Lt. Tuvoc experiences the Pon Farr and he needed to have a telepathic experience with another Vulcan. Effectively he needs to have sex every seven years or he dies.
The Pon Farr is a very private matter among vulcans. Spock asks Kirk to immediately change course to Vulcan but he doesn't explain why. The Enterprise is on a tight schedule and Kirk refuses until McCoy discovers that Spock will die if he doesn't resolve whatever it is he needs to resolve. Kirk finally gets Spock to confide in him and disobeys orders and goes to Vulcan. When they arrive they learn that Spock has a wife, kind of.
They transport down and perform a marriage ceremony, Spock wife T'Pring doesn't want to marry Spock and challenges Spock in a fight where she chooses champion. She chooses Kirk. Midway through the fight, Kirk is winded due to the thin air and heat so McCoy says he will give a shot to help. The fight continues and Spock wins and kills Kirk. Spock tells T'Pring that he doesn't want her and returns to the Enterprise. He then discovered that Kirk was alive and briefly shows joy before regaining his composure. Turns out McCoy gave Kirk a paralytic instead of a steroid.
This episode has a few of Star Trek firsts. Other then the Pon Farr we finally we get Pavel Chekov in the navigator chair and we see the vulcan hand symbol for "Live long and prosper" as well as the phrase used.
"The birds and the bees are not vulcans Captain." - Mr. Spock
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