2.14 Wolf in the Fold

While on shore leave on Argelius II, Montgomery Scott is accused of murder.

Plot Summary
Stardate: 3614.9 Kara's dance Kara's dance

Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, and Mr. Scott are in a club on Argelius II taking mandatory R-and-R, which has been prescribed by McCoy for Scott, following head trauma, caused by a female crew member.

Following a belly dance performance, Mr. Scott invites the dancer, Kara to take a walk with him down the foggy streets. A scream is heard, and Kara is found stabbed to death and Mr. Scott is holding the murder weapon. Scotty is a murder suspect Scotty is a murder suspect

Though his fingerprints are the only ones on the knife, he has no recollection of the event. Kirk and McCoy believe in his innocence, but are subject to Argelian law, and McCoy must admit that Scotty has developed a certain degree of resentment towards women as the result of his injury, and that distrust could, in theory, lead to murder. Chief Administrator Hengist Chief Administrator Hengist

Argelius II is governed by Rigelian Administrators. Hengist, the Chief Administrator of Argelius II, demands that Scott be tried under Argelian authority, rather than Starfleet authority. It has been a long time since Argelius II has had a murder, so Prefect Jaris suggests that they consult his wife Sybo who is an Argelian empath. In the meantime, Kirk orders Mr. Scott to be analyzed by Lt. Karen Tracy's psycho-tricorder.

Kara's father, a musician from the club suggests another suspect may be Morla, Kara's former fiancé who was jealous (a disdainful trait on Argelius) and frequently fought with Kara. When Morla is brought in for questioning he admits leaving the club shortly before the murder, jealous of the attention Kara was giving to Mr. Scott, but he denies any involvement in the killing.

During Lt. Tracy's testing of Mr. Scott, she too is murdered, and once again, Mr. Scott is the only person found at the scene - though there is a second locked entrance which may or may not have been picked. Traditional Argelian inquiry resembles a seance Traditional Argelian inquiry resembles a seance

Sybo enters a trance and senses a great evil. She cries out some mysterious words: "Redjac", "Kesla" and "Beratis". The lights go out, Sybo screams, and when the lights come back on, Sybo has been stabbed to death, with the bloody knife in Scott's hands. After Sybo is murdered, the investigation is moved to the USS Enterprise After Sybo is murdered, the investigation is moved to the USS Enterprise

Over Hengist's protestations, Captain Kirk convinces the Prefect to allow him to beam everyone involved to the Enterprise where the computers can analyze testimonies and detect any lies. Both Scott and Morla's testimony regarding lack of knowledge about the murders is verified. It is agreed, however, that lack of knowledge does not preclude them as suspects, especially given Scott's recent medical history. Mr. Scott reveals that during Sybo's murder, he felt the presence of a cold, evil creature between him and Sybo.

Computer records confirm the possible existence of such beings. Life forms on Alpha Carina V are cited as an example. Mr. Spock hypothesizes such a being could derive sustenance from instilling fear in its victims.

Kirk searches the computer's database for references to the words "Redjac", "Kesla" and "Beratis". Initially the words turn up no matches, but upon comparison to known proper nouns, all three are matched to entities responsible for serial murders, "Red Jack" being most familiar to the Earth men as an alternate name for 'Jack the Ripper'.

A pattern of similar murders is found in a direct line of inhabited planets from Earth to Argelius II, and Kirk theorizes that the evil presence, once known as Jack the Ripper, has followed mankind into space.

A further revelation is that the most recent previous murders occurred on Rigel IV less than a solar year ago, and that the knife used in the Argelius II stabbings was crafted by indigenous Hill People of Rigel IV's Argus River valley. Suspicion then turns toward Hengist, who is from Rigel IV. Hengist tires to escape, but Kirk knocks him flat with a punch. Dr. McCoy pronounces Hengist dead from the blow.

Redjac, however, has transferred its essence into the ship's computer and attempts to instill fear into the entire Enterprise crew, in order to feed off the crew's fear. Kirk orders McCoy to distribute tranquilizers to everyone on board Spock counters Redjac's control of the ship by ordering the ship's computer's to expend all available power to compute Pi to the final digit.

As Kirk attempts to tranquilize Prefect Jarvis, Jarvis resists, revealing that Redjac now occupies his body as its new host. Jarvis is knocked unconscious, and the entity returns to Hengist's body. Hengist, however, is quickly tranquilized and Kirk carries it to the the transporter room, and has Spock beam it to deep space, with the transporter set to largest possible dispersion.

Production Notes
The episode was written by Robert Bloch, the Edgar Award winning writer of Psycho; Jack the Ripper and similar knife wielding killers were frequent subjects of Bloch's stories.

This episode recycles music and other elements from previous episodes. The extras in the club scene at the beginning are wearing quite a few costumes that were seen in previous episodes. The music is also reused from the dance sequence in the episode 'The Cage'. And, Kara's scream is Nancy Crater's scream originally recorded for the episode 'The Man Trap'. The Enterprise in orbit around Argelius II - note city lights in lower right The Enterprise in orbit around Argelius II - note city lights in lower right

The 40th Anniversary remastered version includes cleaned up audio and video, and a CGI version of USS Enterprise like all the other remastered episodes. Very few other changes were made to this episode. One notable change is Argelius II which was originally depicted as a blue planet, now appears grey with the lights of a city visible from space.