"Everybody hop in! We'll find the Macguffin faster this way."
Kirk and Spock are summoned on a top-secret mission surrounding the Soul of Alar, an important artifact.
This episode provides examples of:
- Bird People: The Skorr are a race of humanoid avians.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Tchar is part of the party, but turns out to be a Blood Knight of the highest order, wanting his people to wage a jihad against everyone else.
- Convection, Schmonvection: The rover used by Kirk, Spock, and the others is very close to the lava flow of an in-progress eruption, but the fact that they're not touching the lava seems to mean they're just fine.
- Doomed Defeatist: Subverted with Em/3/Green, who despite calling their mission "mad" and saying "We're all going to die", makes it to the end alive.
- Explosive Breeder: The Skorr can breed an army of hundreds of billions in only two years; they currently don't choose to (their fertility is tied to their aggression, so they reproduce faster in times of conflict).
- Fantastic Racism: Lara explicitly says that she isn't too fond of Vulcans. She bonds with Kirk since he's the only other human in the group.
- Getting Crap Past the Radar: Lara outright suggests Kirk and she make some "green memories" during the mission. Kirk turns her down.
- Ghost Planet: The planet the Soul of Alar has been stashed has no living life forms on it. The thieves have left a lot of mechanical sentries to kill anyone who gets close.
- God's Hands Are Tied: The Vedala are the oldest space-faring race still around, wiser and more powerful than most. They know where the Soul of Alar is, but can't get it themselves because the planet it's on is certain death for them.
- The Greatest Story Never Told: Not only is the mission top-secret, but the Vedala aliens who organized the mission takes Kirk and Spock's memories of it at the episode's end, for the good of the Skorr.
- Heel–Face Brainwashing: After Tchar is captured at the end, the Vedala announce that they will heal him of his "madness," while leaving him as "proud" and "brave" as he was before.
- Humans Are Special: This episode is the antithesis of this trope; each member of the party is a different species, and each makes crucial contributions to the success of the mission.
- Insectoid Aliens: Em/3/Green is like a giant caterpillar or grub. He serves as the team's Master of Unlocking, and shares Smart Guy duties with Mr. Spock.
- Just Between You and Me: After Tchar is revealed as The Mole, he reveals his plan to start a holy war between his people, the Skorr, and the rest of the galaxy.
- Lizard Folk: Sord is a big reptilian humanoid, who acts as an understated Boisterous Bruiser for the team.
- MacGuffin: The hunt is for a vaguely-described object called the Soul of Alar, which Tchar also calls "the soul of the Skorr". The novelization describes it as a 'memory' containing the soul/essence/etc of the peaceful Skorr who brought their race its vaunted peace.
- Ms. Fanservice: Lara is an overtly sexual Nubile Savage that hits on Kirk throughout the episode.
- No Guy Wants to Be Chased: While Kirk diplomatically admits he finds Lara "fascinating," he consistently rejects her advances throughout the episode. His main excuse is that they're all busy with the mission.
- No One Gets Left Behind: While escaping a lava flow, Spock is thrown from the vehicle and Captain Kirk goes back to save him. Spock tells him to go and Kirk says "Not without you", along with "We're all getting away."
- Nubile Savage: Lara certainly dresses this way with a cleavage-bearing fur outfit that leaves her legs exposed. She also has the ability of being The Navigator, able to infallibly remember the direction to the Soul of Alar after the sensor in the team's vehicle explodes.
- Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Skorr used to be warriors, but they have since embraced peaceful coexistence; the main threat in the episode is them losing their cool and starting a war with everyone at once. Tchar's motivation is to lead his people back to the Good Old Ways and glory — even if billions of his people will die in the attempt.
- Race-Name Basis: At least two of the aliens address Spock by his race name.
- First, Lara does it to Spock:Em/3/Green: We'll all die here.
Spock: A statistical probability.
Lara: You ever quote anything besides statistics, Vulcan?
Spock Yes. But philosophy and poetry are not appropriate here. - And then Sord does it as well.Spock: Sord, what did you think you saw back there?
Sord: Don't know, Vulcan. A shape, couldn't really make it out. Probably seeing things, like Kirk figures.
- First, Lara does it to Spock:
- Sci-Fi Writers Have No Sense of Scale: The planet is described as having temperatures between 20 and 204 Kelvin - Equivalent to a temperature between -423.67 Fahrenheit/-253.15 Celsius and -92.47 Fahrenheit/-69.15 Celsius. This temperature is described as non-survivable by the furred, wolf-like Vedala, but as survivable by a scantily-clad human.
- Spotting the Thread: As they find the Soul of Alar, Kirk finally catches onto something; the Vedala had sent three expeditions to the planet already, but the planet has no native lifeforms and the Vedala gave their parties equipment to deal with the terrain. Kirk then realizes the only way they could've failed is if someone on the inside sabotaged the plans.
- Winged Humanoid: The Skorr are a race of bird people.
- Worthy Opponent: When Tchar has the others trapped in the temple building hosting the Soul of Alar, he acknowledges that they fought well making it this far, and activates an antigravity device so they can all fight him like Skorr.
