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Plenty of powerful villains appeared in Star Trek: The Original Series. The Q-like Trelane, the godlike Gary Mitchell, and the Hulk-like Khan Noonien Singh all rank among Star Trek's strongest enemies. Many of these villains have continued to play a role in the franchise as the decades rolled by.
Trelane showed up in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, but also served as the spiritual predecessor to The Next Generation's Q. Two separate incarnations of Khan have appeared on the big screen since "Space Seed," and the villain also inspired an entire chapter in Star Trek's fictional timeline.
Still, it's strange that the most powerful monster that debuted in Star Trek: The Original Series has never once returned, and barely even received a mention... so far, at least.
That Space Amoeba In Star Trek: The Original Series Season 2 Was Ridiculously Powerful
The space amoeba from Star Trek Original Series episode "Immunity Syndrome"
Star Trek: The Original Series season 2 episode "The Immunity Syndrome" saw a fatigued Enterprise crew redirected to investigate the disappearance of fellow Federation vessel the Intrepid, but arriving at the scene revealed the missing ship was part of a much larger problem. Somehow, an entire star system, Intrepid included, had been killed with virtually no warning or buildup.
Kirk and his crew deduced that something in space had drained all energy from both the Intrepid and the Gamma 7A star system, but the Enterprise quickly fell into the same trap, finding itself pulled helplessly toward whatever mysterious culprit was causing the problem.
As they drew closer to the source, the thing responsible could finally be identified as a giant amoeba floating through space. This organism was mindlessly draining energy from wherever it could find some - individuals, ships, planets, stars - and leaving nothing in its wake. This ability to drain all forms of power by encompassing itself in a huge bubble of negative energy made the amoeba almost impossible to destroy, as nothing could get close without being affected.
Only by meeting a very specific set of criteria was the Enterprise crew able to vanquish the cell - a tricky combination of having the right skills, the right people, and a bucket load of good fortune. Being in the right place at the right time undoubtedly saved the galaxy here. Had Kirk's Enterprise crew not acted in time, the space amoeba would have reproduced exponentially, becoming impossible to eradicate and potentially triggering the destruction of everything in the galaxy.
For its sheer destructive power and near-invulnerability, the space amoeba must be considered Star Trek: The Original Series' most powerful villain. Trelane was strong, but bound by the limits and rules of his people. Even Gary Mitchell still possessed certain physical and emotional weaknesses from his original human self. The space amoeba had no logic, reasoning, or empathy, and not even any malice, anger, or intelligence to exploit. It was essentially a natural phenomenon of immense power, like a solar flare, and that quality made it extremely dangerous.
The Space Amoeba Could Return In Future Star Trek Projects
While the Enterprise did enough to figure out what the space amoeba was capable of, destroying the organism took precedence over discovering its origin. As such, Star Trek: The Original Series gave no indication of how the amoeba came into existence.
As a single cell drifting across the cosmos, the space amoeba was most likely a naturally-occurring event, and if it happened once, it could easily happen again. Kirk's crew dealt with the symptom, but not the root cause. Future Star Trek episodes could show what happens when the space amoeba does successfully multiply, or perhaps even what such a big amoeba might evolve into given enough time.
The more intriguing proposition would be if the space amoeba was created by some sentient race - either one never seen before in Star Trek, or a familiar enemy like the Borg. If Starfleet Academy or Strange New Worlds revisited Star Trek: The Original Series' space amoeba and pulled a little harder on that thread, it might find a much juicier story hiding in the shadows waiting to be told.
Release Date 1966 - 1969-00-00
Showrunner Gene Roddenberry
Directors Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O'Herlihy, Murray Golden
Writers D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison
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