Monster of the Man Trap: The Beginning of Star Trek's Morality

     “The Man Trap” is the first episode after the pilot of the original Star Trek series, and right from the start, it demonstrates that Star Trek will be a series beyond simple shoot ‘em up cowboys in space as they explore the final frontier. The original series of star trek first aired in 1966 in a time of hope and rebellion coupled with fear and oppression. Star Trek was a hopeful vision of the future in the 2360s. This version of the future was one where men and women of all races and nationalities (and even alien species) worked together. However, even in this largely perfect version of humanity’s future where pollution is gone and all nations are working in harmony on earth, there are still enemies and monsters, often in the form of unknown aliens. In this episode, their adversary is the creature of M-113, often called a salt monster or salt vampire, and their struggle to survive is reminiscent of other vampire or monster stories such as Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The salt vampire is the first alien creature to air on Star Trek, aside from the pilot episode, and it is also the first alien killed. The nuanced portrayal of the salt creature and the complicated nature of its death sets the complex and thoughtful tone for Star Trek: the Original Series and all the reboots to follow.

             The salt vampire is an alien version of the blood sucking vampire in hundreds of earth stories such as Dracula, but this version does not portray the creature as a purely monstrous, evil entity. The creature has many similarities to the various versions of vampires. It needs to drain something that is essential to humans in order for it to survive, in this case salt instead sucking salt instead of blood. The creature is stronger and hardier than the other people on the ship, and it is willing to kill in order to satisfy its hunger and continue to survive. It poses a real danger to the crew of the Enterprise, but it does not have the monstrous, evil motives as other classic monsters do. For example, Dracula was soulless, an evil creature bent on crippling humanity and creating a following off vampires. Another monstrous creature is Frankenstein’s creation who, though more complicated as a character, still causes destruction and death out of anger, frustration, and the desire to see his creator suffer. There is no malevolence or evil attached to the salt vampire’s actions. Despite its alien and somewhat monstrous appearance, its actions are purely a matter of survival. Even when the creature assumes the form of Nancy, Dr. McCoy’s friend from his past, she does so as a survival technique, just as an octopus takes on different skins to fool predators or trick prey. She does not do so to toy with McCoy’s heart out of cruelty, but instead tries to use her identity as Nancy to help her survive. From the very beginning, Star Trek proposes that monstrosity, in creatures and people alike, is more complicated than the storybook pictures so often created with monsters and heroes.

      Just as the creature is not portrayed as a malicious monster, its death is not portrayed as a heroic or glorious act. McCoy shoots the creature not out of vengeance or honor, but instead to keep it from killing Kirk. Just before it is killed, the creature transforms back into the image of Nancy, making it seems as if it is a human in distress, not a dangerous alien creature. As McCoy fires the killing shot, he whispers, “Lord forgive me,” acknowledging that however monstrous and dangerous the creature was to the human crew, the act of its destruction is regrettable, even monstrous in itself. This creature is the last of its kind, so when it is killed, there is the overtone of that race’s extinction. Kirk makes this point unmistakable at the end of the episode when he says, “I was thinking about the Buffalo.” Kirk reflects that they have just destroyed an entire race, just as the Buffalo were almost wiped out by humans in the 19^th century, and the salt vampires were a race that had as much right to live as they do. Unlike the destruction of vampires like Dracula in old stories, the death of the creature was not carried out to save humanity as a whole but instead a regrettable act of personal self-defense. The creature was monstrous looking, and it murdered many people in order to survive. Though it is monstrous to the crew of the Enterprise that it puts in danger, the salt vampire is still depicted as a creature that should have just as much right to survive as any other lifeform. 

The salt vampire was just one of the many complicated adversaries to come up against the crew of the enterprise. During the original series and the number of series to follow, there were dozens more opponents, adversaries, and enemies. Some were individual enemies, while others were entire races such as the Klingons, Ferengi, and Cardassians. As the shows progressed, each enemy and race progressively became more complicated, and as their stories grew more complex, it became impossible to label entire races as the enemy. For lack of a better term, they were humanized and became more real. Races of people began transform from an entire race of likeminded enemies into individuals with complicated thoughts and feelings and motives.  Klingons eventually became the federation’s ally, and when Commander Worf joined the picture as a crew member on the USS Enterprise D, Klingon culture and ideologies were explored and validated. In Deep Space 9, both Ferengi and Cardassians are fleshed out and expanded through the characters of Quark, Nog, Garrick, and the other Ferengi and Cardassians that various episodes explored. Every race and person becomes more than just a simple enemy that can be destroyed without question. Star Trek stresses the importance of all life, not just human life (though humans do seem to possess a note of distinction, likely because it was written by humans who are egocentric). Though this humanization and exploration of morals is a much bigger picture throughout the entirety of Star Trek series, the complicated portrayal of the enemy for Star Trek all began with the monster of the man trap, a simple creature from M-113 in the very first episode.