This week, April 13th we’re celebrating the premiere broadcast anniversary of Operation: Annihilate!  This episode originally aired during Season 1
on Thursday, April 13th, 1967.




Picture
Deleted "tag scene" with Craig Hundley (from startrekhistory.com and startrekpropauthority.com)

The Story:

The USS Enterprise attempts to stem an epidemic of mass insanity that has already destroyed several planet colonies. 
Arriving on the planet Deneva, which appears to be in the path of the spreading malady, Kirk and Spock find Kirk’s sister-in-law, Aurelan, and his nephew, Peter, in a near-crazed condition and that Kirk’s brother has already died.  When Mr. Spock contracts the disease, Kirk appears to have no alternative but to annihilate the entire colony to prevent infection of the galaxy.
Interesting facts about this episode:
  • In the story treatment for this episode, writer Stephen Carabatsos had Kirk take drastic action to stop the “epidemic.”   After reading the treatment, Associate Producer Robert Justman wrote to Gene Coon: “Well, here I am at the end of the Story Treatment and I have discovered that Kirk has made the one and only decision he could possibly make.  He destroys the whole furschluggener planet.  Has NBC read this Story Treatment yet?”
  • We meet Captain Kirk’s brother, Sam Kirk, in this episode – although too late.  He is dead. William Shatner played the corpse of Sam Kirk.
  • In a scene filmed for this episode, but cut before it aired, Kirk’s nephew, Peter, makes a full recovery, is fitted with a Star Fleet uniform, and gets a chance to sit in his Uncle Jim’s command chair on the bridge.  Only a passage from the script and a still photograph remain of the lost scene. 
In honor of its broadcast anniversary, watch the original episode (try amazon.com, Netflix or hulu plus) in a whole new way by reading all of the great behind-the-scenes details in Marc Cushman’s These are the Voyages: TOS, Season One.  Get your copy today!