By 
Title: Is There No Truth In Beauty?
Airdate: 10/18/1968
Plot Summary
Is There No Truth In Beauty starts with the Enterprise being assigned to transport Medusan Ambassador Kollos whose form is so terrible that anyone who looks at him will go insane. Spock can look with the aid of a visor but even that won’t work on humans.
Kollos is accompanied by Miranda Jones. She is a beautiful but cold telepath. Her associate, Lawrence Marvick, is in love with her and attempts to kill Kollos so Miranda will be free to love him but the sight of Kollos drives him insane.
He manages to get to Engineering and take control, sending the Enterprise so far out of the galaxy that they will need a miracle to get home. The Medusans are expert navigators, but how to get him to pilot the ship when he cannot leave his containment unit?
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk has a formal dinner with Miranda and the crew reminiscent of the dinner he will do with the Klingons in Star Trek VI. Of course, he makes a mess of that one.
Logical
Spock goes bugnuts insane because Kollos couldn’t be bothered to remember the goddamn visor.
He’s Dead Jim
McCoy is pretty much a hillbilly in this. Speaking of ugliness the way he does is pretty damn crappy. Miranda rightly hits him back by asking why he would want to look upon disease and injury as a vocation, given how ugly that is.
I will give him credit for not mentioning her blindness until he really had no choice. He respected her privacy, good on him.
He also gets a good and proper “He’s dead, Jim.”
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu gives up the helm to Kollos/Spock. He also gets beat up by nutSpock.
Nuclear Wessels
Chekov wryly remarks that madman got them lost, only a madman can get them home. Much to Spock’s annoyance.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Uhura does very little this episode.
My Wee Bairns
Scotty tries to fight Marvick but nearly gets choked out by the insane nutbag.
Canon Maker
Medusans are introduced as incredibly ugly, but with beautiful minds. They are also exceptional navigators.
The Vulcan IDIC symbol is introduced which is “Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations.” It would become a staple of Vulcan lore, even though it was introduced to sell merch. No joke.
Marvik was one of the principle designers of the Constitution class vessels, specifically the Enterprise herself.
Canon Breaker
The Enterprise exits the galaxy through the galactic barrier. Didn’t really hurt the Enterprise and no one got God-like powers. Must’ve forgot to do that this time?
At the beginning everyone has to vacate the transporter room and Spock has to wear a visor when beaming up Kollos. But at the end when beaming him and Dr. Jones back down, Kirk just hangs in the transporter room.
And no, I don’t buy it was because they were leaving the Enterprise, Spock still put on his visor during the beaming process.
Man It Feels Bad To Be A Red Shirt
No deaths!
Technobabble
Miranda wears a sensor net to compensate for her blindness. I wonder if they thought about this with Geordi LaForge later on but probably figured he would’ve looked pretty silly in a dress for the entire show.
I Know That Guy:
Diana Muldaur makes her second appearance in Trek. It will not be her last.
David Frankham plays Larry Marivk. You might remember him in One Hundred And One Dalmatians as the voice of Sergeant Tibbs and Scottie. He was British but hid his accent quite well in the episode. He’s still around and kicking at the ripe old age of 99.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Is There No Truth In Beauty is a bit of a head scratcher.
Is it trying to say all women should be in love? Is it trying to say don’t judge a book by it’s cover? Is it a warning to always wear protective eyewear? It’s really all over the place.
Everyone seems to be just totally in love with Miranda Jones who I gotta say doesn’t really look all that awesome.
Muldaur was far more fetching in her previous appearance. The hairstyle is not great. But mostly she’s a real cold fish and I have no idea why everyone is in love with her. Maybe her telepathy has some unfortunate after effects on men? It would at least be something.
Then there’s Kollos. The idea that you can look at something so ugly it would drive you insane really doesn’t work for me. If there was some sort of forced telepathy that comes into play, that would work better. Maybe the dog carrier they transport him around in shields people from his thoughts?
But that’s not what they say in this episode so I gotta take the whole “too ugly to look upon” at face value. Bullshit, clearly the show runners have never seen the women on The View.
Then there’s the whole idea of Spock/Kollos becoming one being to save the ship. That would’ve been interesting, maybe they didn’t want to separate. But no, it’s just there to get them back to the galaxy again so Spock could forget the visor.
Which is done so Kirk could yell at Miranda that she’s more human and jealous than she lets on in order to spur her to save Spock. I’m not sure what her problem was with Spock though?
He wasn’t joining her on the Medusan homeworld, he was just someone who could talk to Kollos. Yeah, I know there was a mention of him being offered the assignment but he turned it down so what’s her problem?
Finally, I got to say it. As based as I am and anti-feminist as I am, this show really makes me a little squeamish on the men’s attitudes towards Miranda. “Why don’t yu got a man honey, hurk hurk!”
Sure, Kirk does have a point, that maybe being away from her own kind to live with a bunch of Cthulu monsters or whatever they look like may have its drawbacks. But they really take it a bit a far, even for 1968.
I never said that women BELONG in a place other than where they choose to be. I just believe that we’ve brainwashed too many to believe that they should NEVER choose to be a wife and a mother. Doesn’t mean all of them should be. Clearly Miranda has a purpose and her telepathy is damn near a handicap in dealing with people so how about they back off a little?
Marvick just walks into the room to kill Kollos knowing damn well how little it takes for the Medusans to go insane. But he just walks up, no visor even and oh damn he’s insane. Saw that coming.
When it’s all said and done, the moral of the story is… fuck I don’t know. I will say though I did like the direction of this episode. Odd camera angles, camera placement in different areas of the bridge, some handheld camera work, it makes it interesting to watch compared to the workmanlike direction the show usually takes.
I don’t hate Is There No Truth In Beauty by any means. We do get the Vulcan IDIC and unless I’m mistaken, this was really the first time we got a “Peace and long life” followed up by Spock replying “Live long, and prosper.” I believe we’ve heard variants in the show here and there but not like this which would become a staple in Trek moving forward.
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