The Enterprise responds to a distress call from the mining colony on the planet Janus VI, where a mysterious creature is lurking in the shadows and killing its people. In a desperate attempt to get the essential operation up and running again, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock must track down the alien life form through a sprawling maze of subterranean tunnels, where they soon come face to face with it and learn its true motives. Written by producer Gene Coon, "The Devil in the Dark" is widely hailed as one of the finest episodes of "Star Trek" of all time, if for no other reason because it represents the truest form of what the series was all out. The creature that was initially seen as something to be feared turns into an object of our compassion, thanks to the willingness of Kirk and Spock to communicate with it -- or, rather, her. We fear what we do not understand, and when we take the time to understand and learn from the experience, we realize there is actually nothing to fear at all. It is a lesson that "The Devil in the Dark" taught effectively in 1967, and it is one that we can all still learn from in the 21st Century.

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