******STARSHIP-SIZED SPOILERS!******

This month marks the season for my favorite holiday; Halloween. Even now, some decades since I’ve last trick or treated, I still look forward to the costumes, handing out candy to the kids, and of course, enjoying all the scary movies/TV shows that are trotted out this time of year. Even the Original Series (TOS) of Star Trek dabbled in horror, with no less than three episodes written by famed horror novelist/scriptwriter Robert Bloch (1917-1994), the author of 1959’s “Psycho,” which spawned the classic Alfred Hitchcock movie (which yielded its own offshoots as well). Bloch is credited with writing first season’s “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”, as well as season 2’s Halloween homage “Catspaw,” (loosely based on his short story “Broomstick Ride”) and a Jack the Ripper-themed murder mystery called “Wolf in the Fold,” which aired in December of 1967 (meh…close enough; even “The Exorcist” debuted on Boxing Day, 1973).

Loosely adapted from Bloch’s 1943 short story “Yours Truly, Jack the Ripper” (which was filmed for the Boris Karloff anthology series “Thriller” in 1961), the episode sees Scotty (James Doohan) accused of murdering three women on the peaceful planet of Argelius while on shore leave, following a traumatic head injury. Given the difficulty of writing within Star Trek’s then unique series parameters, I’d be surprised if Bloch’s story wasn’t significantly rewritten by a TOS staffer, like writer/script editor Dorothy Fontana (1939-2019). At any rate, the result is an often overlooked episode that used to be a favorite of mine as a kid, but doesn’t quite hold up to modern scrutiny. On the plus side, it offers some uniquely eerie moments, and a rare spotlight for the late James Doohan (1920-2005), whose character of “Scotty” is accused of murder and faces an Argelian death penalty.

So turn down the lights, and “let us begin. Let the circle not be broken…“

“Wolf in the Fold.”

Note: The music ‘played’ by the musicians during Kara’s dance is the same music played for Vina (Susan Oliver) during her green-skinned Orion dance number in the TOS pilot “The Cage,” which was later incorporated into the two-part episode, “The Menagerie.” The song is credited to original series composer Alexander Courage (who also composed the famed main title) while composer Gerald Fried is credited for the music in the remainder of the episode. On a medical note, McCoy mentions Scotty harbored a strong ‘resentment’ towards women following his head injury, since a female crew member caused the explosion which threw him to the bulkhead. So was it really such a good idea to recommend night-clubbing and drinking for a patient recovering from a personality-altering head injury?

Note: Love the atmosphere of this scene. It’s like a color version of the old black & white Universal horror monster movies, with a foggy street scene right out of “The Wolf-Man” or “Dracula.” Kudos to the late TOS cinematographer Gerald Finnerman, 1931-2011 (“The Night Gallery” “Planet of the Apes” TV series), who worked on the show’s first two seasons. James Doohan deserves applause as well, for the eerie subvocal moans of a nearly catatonic Scotty.

Note: Character actor John Fiedler (1925-2005), who plays Rigellian investigator Mr. Hengist, was a staple of movies and television when I was a kid. Despite many memorable appearances in high-profile movies/TV shows like “12 Angry Men” (1957) “The Odd Couple” (1968 movie & TV series) and “The Bob Newhart Show” (1972-1978), Fiedler is perhaps best known to kids of my generation (and others) as the voice of “Piglet” from the “Winnie the Pooh” cartoons (1968-2005).

Note: Curious that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) is uncertain of Argelian empathic abilities, though he and his species are renowned for their own touch telepathy mind-melds. The Argelians and Vulcans have some similarities, in fact (beyond their empathic/telepathic senses). Both underwent a dramatic cultural shift towards pacifism centuries earlier, though their outcomes were dramatically different. Vulcans blamed emotion for their world’s issues and rigorously suppressed it. The Argelians, however, embraced sexual liberty and pleasure to the point where they let go of jealousy and possessiveness in personal relationships. In fact, jealously amongst Argelians seems downright taboo in this episode. In some ways, Argelians are almost a precursor to the hairless Deltans of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979), who were also sexually advanced and possessed a healing empathic touch (see: deleted/extended scenes of the movie).

Note: The actor playing Prefect Jaris, the closest thing to an authority figure on Argelius, is Charles Mccaulay, who also played the electronic version of ‘Landru,’ the computer-generated Vladimir Lenin-like figurehead of Beta III from season 1’s “Return of the Archons.” Mccaulay also played Count Dracula in the horror-blaxploitation film “Blacula” (1972), which starred William Marshall in the titular role. Marshall also played Dr. Richard Daystrom in TOS’ “The Ultimate Computer.”

Note: Several Argelian locals are rounded up for questioning by Hengist, including cafe musician Tark (Joseph Bernard) and the brooding Morla (Charles Dierkop). Joseph Bernard once played a terrified suburbanite seeking “The Shelter” (1961) in Rod Serling’s “The Twilight Zone.” Charles Dierkop was perhaps best known as Detective Pete Royster in Angie Dickinson’s TV series “Police Woman” (1974-1978).

Note: The episode does a hell of a job stacking the deck against Scotty, who struggles with a strong mix of fear, guilt and grief after he regains consciousness. However, we don’t see much grief for the women murdered in this episode. Lt. Karen Tracy (Virginia Aldridge), who beams down to do a psycho-tricorder scan on Scotty (an instrument never referenced again in later Star Treks), is subsequently stabbed, and forgotten almost immediately afterward. There could’ve been, at the very least, a moment with Kirk somberly signaling the ship to beam her body aboard.

Note: The séance-by-any-other-name sequence is genuinely unnerving, and all of the credit goes to a surprisingly stunning performance from petite guest star Pilar Seurat (“The Alfred Hitchcock Hour,” “Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea”), who plays Jaris’ ill-fated empathic wife, Sybo. Even when she’s preparing for her psychic ritual we see her standing by the flames, with an unblinking gaze and her arms motionless–a small, but curiously odd gesture that helps to sell her otherworldly abilities. The Filipino-born actress is also the mother of movie producer Dean Devlin (“Independence Day” “Stargate”). Once again, Sybo’s death, like the two other women, is treated a bit too nonchalantly by the other characters, including Kirk–who seems myopically focused on clearing his chief engineer.

Note: A hand double was clearly used for James Doohan during closeups on the witness chair’s palm-scanning truth-seeking device, since Doohan was missing a middle finger on his own right hand, which he lost in World War 2 to friendly fire on D-Day on the Normandy coast of France.

Note: This is where the episode’s pacing nearly grinds to a halt. This act of the episode takes place entirely in the briefing room, which is not really a visually interesting set like the bridge, or even engineering. While the questioning of the witnesses is somewhat compelling, this part of the episode is a bit claustrophobic. The legal proceedings (with Scotty under ‘technical arrest’) aren’t particularly disciplined or tightly scripted either, as Kirk goes all over the map with out-of-the-box conjecture about non-corporeal beings that’d make a self-respecting judge advocate general blush.

Note: In typical courtroom melodrama fashion, it’s revealed that Morla, the nervous club patron who left early, was her fiancé who reacted in jealousy; a emotion that is taboo on the sexually-liberated Argelius. The Argelian costumes are also reminiscent of the gypsies from the aforementioned Universal horror movies.

Note: Like the Vulcans, some Argelians, like Morla, apparently struggle with their culture’s ‘enlightened’ attitudes. In this case, the Argelian revulsion towards jealously. Expressing his jealousy with Kara’s flirtations during his cross-examination, Morla is immediately apologetic to Jaris for even feeling jealousy, let alone expressing it. Once again, a curious parallel to Vulcans, yet different enough.

Note: As a kid watching TOS in reruns, I was vaguely creeped out by the image on the monitor of the faceless pair of hands holding the murder weapon, wearing what appears to be a long-sleeve black shirt. I realized as I got older that the hands must’ve belonged to the ship’s forensics examiner, or metallurgy expert, or whomever. But as a kid, I just saw these disembodied hands holding a knife…

Note: The pace of the otherwise dull briefing room act begins to pick up as Kirk conjectures wildly about a non-corporeal creature with the ability to leap from body-to-body in order to commit random murders. Spock connects the dots with similar mass murder incidents in 1932 Shanghai, 1974 Kiev, the Martian colony and on the planet Alpha Majoris One; all of which form a direct line to Argelius. For a more compelling story about body-leaping serial killers, try the 1983 novel “Legion,” from the original author of “The Exorcist,” William Peter Blatty (1928-2017). “Legion” became the basis for Blatty’s underrated horror sequel, “Exorcist III” (1990), which he also directed.

Note: A bit of unintentional hilarity as the stunt double for Mr. Hengist tries to flee the ship; the much more muscular stuntman looks nearly a foot taller than actor John Fiedler, and is wearing a sloppy skull cap. In fairness, Star Trek TOS was made when a ‘big screen’ TV was only about 25″/64 cm, and maximum broadcast resolution was around 525 scan lines as opposed to today’s 1080p or 4K monitors.

Note: After “Redjac” invades the Enterprise computer, the entity is still voiced by actor John Fiedler, though his voice is pitched up and down to sound deeper, unstable and dangerous. A similar effect was added to the voice of actor Brad Dourif in the aforementioned “Exorcist III,” as well. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear that Redjac’s ‘echoes’ arrive just before his spoken dialogue, adding a unique element to this invading spirit (a ‘non-corporeal energy-based entity’ that invades human hosts is a spirit by any other name).

Note: I still remember reading the James Blish (1921-1975) novelization of this episode (“Star Trek 8”), which was fairly faithful to the episode. In it, Kirk said (and I’m paraphrasing) that the briefing room monitor image was Redjac showing the crew the hell from which it came. The swirling smoke and cloud tank optical effects in the episode still hold up today, 58 years later.

Note: After taking control of the ship, Redjac begins playing with the turbolifts and sabotaging life-support systems in order to create a climate of fear among the crew. Fortunately, these largely invisible poltergeist shenanigans were cost-effective for the production as well. This idea of the Enterprise computer going berserk was revisited in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episode, “The Practical Joker” (1974).

Nice: Always nice to see additional bits of business given to supporting charactors Mr. Sulu, who gets to play his character stoned out of his mind. As a kid, George Takei‘s laid back line deliveries in this episode always got laughs. Unfortunately, neither Nichelle Nichols (“Uhura”) nor Walter Koenig (“Chekov”) appear in this episode.

Note: When I was younger–and even as an adult–I wondered how Spock was able to give a “Class-A compulsory directorate” to the computer when it was under Redjac’s control (?).

Note: As a fan of the late Leonard Nimoy (1931-2015), I used to wonder what it would’ve been like if Redjac had entered Spock’s body, if only for a short while. It would’ve made an interesting acting opportunity for Nimoy to play a half-crazed, murderous version of Spock.

Note: Once the resurrected, knife-wielding Hengist grabs the yeoman and is immediately pumped full of happy drugs, the episode rapidly nosedives into its knee-slapper of a finale–and it’s where the episode falls apart a bit. Granted, the seemingly inappropriate humor might’ve been consciously designed as a stress relief valve, but it also undermines the horror of the three murdered women, whose losses are barely acknowledged, let alone mourned. On the upside, the sound of John Fiedler giggling his ass off as Kirk throws him over his shoulder to beam him off the ship is genuinely hilarious, however bizarre.

Note: This is a jarringly comical ending to an episode that just saw three women violently murdered, including a member of the Enterprise crew; for whom the un-sedated, fully sober Kirk and Spock offer not a single word of condolence. Such seeming insensitivity was an issue in the second season, as we saw in other episodes, including the “The Changeling,” “Patterns of Force” and “The Ultimate Computer”; all of which featured high body counts, yet we see the Kirk/Spock/McCoy triumvirate laughing it up in their final scenes without a shred of grief.

The End.

Summing It Up

Robert Bloch’s “Wolf in the Fold” offers a unique showcase for series regular James Doohan, as his affable engineer from Aberdeen is tried for the murder of three women, including a shipmate. We see Scotty struggle with amnesia and grief as he falters on the witness stand. Doohan is quite solid as the subject of this episode, especially during Scotty’s more vulnerable moments. He even gets to flex his comic chops for the episode’s somewhat incongruously silly ending. Scotty wouldn’t get another strong focus like this until season 3’s “The Lights of Zetar” where, unfortunately, he was reduced to an overprotective simp after falling for a visiting Starfleet archivist possessed by alien entities. Until Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “Relics” came along in 1992, this was arguably Doohan’s meatiest performance as the character.

The episode’s planet of Argelius is a mishmash of architectural and cultural styles from Hollywood-ized versions of Morocco mixed with foggy streets right out of Universal horror’s Transylvania (c. 1940). The peaceful, hedonistic people of Argelius are an interesting culture, despite their disparaging characterization as “sheep” living under the hungry watch of the Redjac entity. Like the Vulcans, the now-pacifist Argelians also had a ‘great awakening’ centuries earlier that changed their culture forever. However, instead of shunning emotions, the Argelians placed the pursuit of pleasure above all else; including obsolete notions, such as sexual monogamy. Jealousy is strongly disapproved of by Argelians, even for instances of infidelity. As noted above, the Argelians are almost forerunners to the sexually liberated Deltans of “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” (1979).

Watching decades later, what’s aged worst is the episode’s incongruously ‘funny’ ending with the ship’s crew and guests all high as kites (or starships) and not grieving one bit for the three women who were gruesomely stabbed to death. Not one solemn word from Kirk lamenting the loss of medical technician Lt. Karen Tracy (Virginia Aldridge). There should’ve been some acknowledgment from Kirk or even Spock–neither of whom were intoxicated, unlike the rest of the crew. Even in “Catspaw” (another Bloch episode) Kirk reminded McCoy of the loss of Crewman Jackson. All we see in the ending is Kirk further objectifying the women of Argelius (“Mr. Spock, this cafe has women that are so…”) as he mulls returning to the planet (despite all that’s happened). At least, to Kirk’s credit, he remains aboard.

Despite the episode’s weaknesses, such as its “Mad Men”-era misogyny (“women are more easily and more deeply terrified”), a very talky middle act set entirely in the briefing room, and an incongruously slaphappy ending, it offers a few treats for its tricks, too. Rare focus on a supporting character, excellent performance from guest villain John Fiedler, an eerie séance scene, and visual homages to Universal classic horror movies, aided by Gerald Finnerman‘s shadowy cinematography and foggy streets.

A darker alternative to Bloch’s campier “Catspaw,” “Wolf in the Fold” makes for an admittedly flawed yet enjoyable Halloween watch.

Where to Watch

“Star Trek” can be streamed on Paramount+ (along with most other Star Trek series). Individual episodes or seasons can also be purchased on Prime Video or YouTube. The series can also be purchased on physical media (DVD/Blu-Ray) from CBS Home Video (the Blu-Ray sets offer a choice between original and remastered FX as well).