Review of This Side of Paradise

When the Enterprise investigates a remote colony the landing party are surprised to find the inhabitants alive and well; they should have died years ago because of Berthold radiation, a danger not known about at the time of settlement. Medical checks reveal that not only are they well old ailments have gone; the leader has even regrown the appendix he had had removed! Whatever the cause Kirk is ordered to evacuate the colonists. Surprisingly objections come from a surprising quarter… Spock states that he is staying with the colonists! It turns out that people are effected by spores from a local plant that leaves people feeling mellow with a strong desire to remain near the flowers. Kirk is naturally angered and only gets more frustrated as more and more members of the landing party are effected. When Dr McCoy beams some of the plants to the Enterprise Kirk becomes the only crew member unaffected. If he is to keep his crew together he will have to figure out why he was unaffected so he can 'cure' them.

This episode is a classic thanks to the way we get to see the emotional side of the usually emotionless Mr Spock. Leonard Nimoy does a fine job showing how the character reacts to gaining emotions and poignantly losing them again; as he observes that for the first time he'd felt happiness. It was nice to see Spock not only happy but in love with one of the colonists, played by Jill Ireland. The plants are clearly a metaphor for psychotropic drugs with the colonists feeling happy till they are free of the plants' effects when they realise the meaninglessness of the lives they've lived… although given they were happy and healthy it didn't seem so bad!