Trivia / Star Trek S1 E29 "Operation: Annihilate!"

• Acting for Two: William Shatner does this a lot, but his brief appearance as the corpse of Sam Kirk marks the only time that he plays a character who is not either James T. Kirk or someone (or something) mimicking or inhabiting the body of James T. Kirk.
• Deleted Scene:
  • Peter Kirk visits the bridge after his recovery from the alien parasites, wearing a child-sized version of a command division Starfleet uniform with lieutenant stripes, and sitting in the captain's chair. It is also revealed that, instead of moving back to Earth to live with his grandparents^note It is not specified whether or not this refers to his paternal grandparents - and therefore Kirk's parents, Peter is going to be adopted, by a colleague of his father, and stay on Deneva. After Peter leaves, Scotty tells Kirk that his nephew shall go to Starfleet Academy. Kirk replies that he hopes he won't, not wanting him to face a similar decision like he just had to make. Stills of this scene actually survive, although the footage is lost.
  • Kirk reprimands Spock, via communicator, for the lateness in reporting in, a delay accounted for by the attack and a spasm of pain then caused Spock to realize that the parasite within him might be in contact with the others of its species.
• Promoted Fanboy: Kirk's yeoman in the episode is portrayed by Maurishka Taliaferro, who was a popular and sought-after model in the 1960s. As she was also a fan of the show, she was able to talk the producers into giving her a part.
• What Could Have Been: The first draft script did not feature Kirk's brother and his family. In that version, a Denevan woman named Aurelan was in love with a young man named Kartan, who was brought aboard by Spock so they could study the organisms further. Aurelan's brother Noban was the one who flew his ship into the Sun to destroy the creatures. Aurelan and her father were not infected, and helped the Enterprise crew in their research.
  • In the novelization, they find the parasite's home planet and destroy it rather than using ultraviolet light. This was based on an earlier script draft that had The Enterprise destroy Deneva and all of its inhabitants.
• Working Title: Operation: Destroy.

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