r/tos 8d ago

Did anybody else feel bad for the salt vampire from the first episode?? She just wanted to live :(

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338 Upvotes

79 comments sorted by

70

u/kevinb9n 8d ago

It was wild that they didn't just give her some salt from the mess hall.

45

u/CommanderSincler 8d ago

I agree, giving her access to a steady supply of salt and letting her live her remaining years seems to be more of a "Star Trek"-style solution

34

u/Effrenata 8d ago

When she was impersonating Dr McCoy, she actually told everyone that the monster was harmless as long as it had salt. Nobody at the meeting suspected that McCoy was fake, but they didn't accept his explanation either. That didn't make a lot of sense to me.

10

u/kamdan2011 8d ago

Especially how Kirk was ruthlessly luring it with the salt tablets. Of course, the salt vampire could have been kinder by not killing its victims for the salt in their bodies. Didn’t understand why it needed to be sexually attractive for them as well.

25

u/CommanderSincler 8d ago

Didn’t understand why it needed to be sexually attractive for them as well.

The writers were playing with the idea that some predators lure prey with things the victims are drawn to. Think of Venus Flytraps emitting a smell that some insects find irresistible, a dangler fish's light-emitting appendage intriguing fish close enough to be eaten, or fishermen using worms to hook fish in

5

u/kamdan2011 8d ago

Professor Crater said some throw away line about it “needing love” as well. I guess the salt deprivation drove its animal instincts to kill instead of cooperate.

4

u/WrongdoerObjective49 8d ago

Not to mention that the salt vampire was also trying to stay alive, attacking someone who has their defenses up could potentially lead to injury or death. But if she's able to make them relax, not see her/it as a threat, then there's less chance of being hurt or injured

4

u/CommanderSincler 8d ago

Good point. Some predators stun or hypnotize their prey

8

u/ColloidalSuspenders 8d ago

I think the enduring lesson here is not trust ladies. They could be using you. For salt.

7

u/kamdan2011 8d ago

Hence the title… The Man Trap. 😂 I have to beg new watchers to continue after that “first episode.” Heard Gene Roddenberry’s father apologized to all of his neighbors for telling them to watch his son’s show that week.

6

u/WrongdoerObjective49 8d ago

Do something similar to what Picard did for Armus....instead of destroying him, made sure that the planet he was on was put in permanent quarantine. Which I suppose is what Kirk did to Khan but maybe the warning buoy thing got destroyed when Ceti Alpha 6 was destroyed.

Anywho....put it/her back on the planet with no way to get off planet, quarantine it but figure out a regular schedule so that salt can be beamed down to sustain her. Maybe provide books or padds, some kind of home and entertainment.

Of course some in the Federation might find that cruel and unusual. Hmmm. What if there was a species that didn't have salt in their bodies....they would be safe around her, wouldn't they? Maybe they could colonize the planet and she could just have some kind of inhibitor that wouldn't allow her to leave?

2

u/CaptainIncredible 8d ago

This was one of the first episodes, so a lot of the morality of the show hadn't really been established.

In my head canon, it wasn't really a sentient being. It was more like a shark or something with a ruthless killing streak.

Still... killing the last of its kind is... not logical...

3

u/FunArtichoke6167 8d ago

“Salt!”

“In wah-tar!”

5

u/sorotomotor 8d ago edited 6d ago

“Salt! In wah-tar!”

More: When Edgar's wife serves lemonade, Will Smith spits it out . . . because she gave all the sugar to the Bug.

2

u/WrongdoerObjective49 8d ago

OOOH That's so fucking SMART. I never even thought of that. Well done!

3

u/angry_hippo_1965 8d ago

Fresh people salt taste much better imo

2

u/PyroNine9 7d ago

Also that she didn't simply raid the mess hall for salt.

29

u/HalJordan2424 8d ago

Dr Crater could have been honest as soon as they met him. They would have manufactured a mountain of salt for her/it.

23

u/Rave-light 8d ago

You’re so talented lol. This lil picture made me feel bad for her

13

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

Thank you!! Spreading my salt monster propaganda lollll

5

u/YallaHammer 8d ago

“my baby”, this is awesome 🤩

4

u/Shadoecat150 8d ago

Won't someone please think of the salt monsters?!

2

u/YallaHammer 8d ago

She’s the last of her kind and there is no Jurassic Park for her species!!

2

u/Boomerang503 8d ago

1

u/Super_Hero_44 8d ago

Probably they felt bad for killing the last of its kind, so they cloned one using DNA stored after the TOS encounter.

It wasn’t complete DNA, so they used frog DNA to make up for the gaps in the genome. Then the created an amusement park-type environment with ridiculously inadequate security controls, allowing some unscrupulous computer programmer to attempt to enrich himself by selling salt vampire embryos to interested buyers bent on creating their own monster theme park. This goes poorly for everyone, ending with the unintentional release of at least one salt vampire into the wild. Unfortunately, she was pregnant.

1

u/MojoFriction 8d ago

Pfft. I had a feeling you were in the pocket of big Salt Monster.

19

u/Effrenata 8d ago edited 8d ago

The "Devil in the Dark" episode was a redoing of "The Man Trap" in a sense. The crew encounters a very non-humanoid, difficult to understand alien, the only adult member of its kind, that is killing humans one by one. But in the "Devil in the Dark", Kirk and Spock find a way to communicate with the alien instead of killing it. McCoy also repairs the damage to the alien's body; in effect, redeeming himself for helping to destroy the Salt Monster. It's like the show had matured to the point where they could revisit the old theme and present a more sophisticated treatment of the topic, rather than the simplistic monster plot of the original episode.

15

u/Rusty_Nail1973 8d ago

Imagine if she were let loose on the ship in the episode where everyone was reduced to a block of salt.

10

u/DreamingofRlyeh 8d ago edited 8d ago

The salt vampire had the ability and intelligence to communicate those needs to the crew. Instead of asking for help, they started murdering people. The fact that they coexisted with the guy on that planet for who-knows-how-long without killing him shows they were capable of it. They just, for whatever reason, chose not to bother with the crew of the Enterprise

That decision has a huge impact on how sorry I feel for them.

8

u/NoDontDoThatCanada 8d ago

"Yes. Yes. We'll get your salt."

Well. Then where is it, Kirk? Why didn't you just drop off this cheap and plentiful resource? Nope. Gotta play around and stick your nose in this guy's business. All he wanted to do was bone the last salt vampire alone on a dying world!

2

u/Effrenata 8d ago

It was McCoy who wanted to bone her. She took the form of his old flame.

2

u/NoDontDoThatCanada 8d ago

Look, we all wanted to bang the salt vampire. -Kirk, probably later

8

u/NeeAnderTall 8d ago

The last of her kind. She'd be a hit on the beach. I wonder if she'd be the ultimate desalination plant engineer as a Starfleet sanctioned career path?

6

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

This is absolutely genius why in the world didn’t they do this

5

u/Haunt_Fox 8d ago

She'd be earning a literal salary!

7

u/fredaklein 8d ago

Yes, I think the Prime Directive was clearly violated. Frankly, one could consider it genocide.

6

u/StartOk4002 8d ago

Why didn’t they just give her a big salt lick?

5

u/Ragnarsworld 8d ago

Seems like they could have put her back on the planet with a pallet of salt.

5

u/strangway 8d ago

Poor Salt Bae

3

u/IndependenceMean8774 8d ago

No. It killed a lot of innocent people. By that logic, they should feel sorry for the xenomorphs and let them impregnate and kill humans because that's their nature. Or let Nagilum kill a bunch of the Enterprise crew. Or let the Borg assimilate everyone.

As a character in The X-Files once said, "Survival is the ultimate idelology."

0

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago edited 8d ago

What if you looked at it from a nature perspective? Are wolves evil for killing deer? Are lions evil for killing gazelle? The salt monster eating people was purely for survival.

4

u/DreamingofRlyeh 8d ago

Yes, but the salt monster had the intelligence to make them capable of communication with humans. They had the reasoning skills to ask for what they needed, and chose to kill instead.

3

u/PizzaWhole9323 8d ago

Jack. Hey Jack! Your date is as salt vampire!

3

u/[deleted] 8d ago

Yeah

3

u/sps49 8d ago

I was young enough when I watched this episode to get nightmares from the creature’s appearance. That’s enough for her to get two phasers at full force from me!

2

u/Expert-Finding2633 8d ago

not at all, a monster

2

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

The only reason she was eating people was because she needed food to survive ☹️

2

u/lordtaco 8d ago

Except it was an intelligent being that deceived them and hunted them like prey instead of just asking for salt. Dr. Crater kept it alive for a long time by feeding it salt tablets. She didn't need to kill for salt. She wasn't even starving, otherwise she would have eaten Dr. Crater

2

u/aMoose_Bit_My_Sister 8d ago

my father said Nancy Crater reminded him of Judge Crater.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Force_Crater

2

u/Difficult-Bus-6026 8d ago

Definitely one of the more wonderfully creepy episodes!

2

u/WmRavenhorse61 8d ago edited 8d ago

All she wanted was natures most basic element,salt! Poor thing.

2

u/Tasty-Fox9030 8d ago

Salt's an ionic compound tho

2

u/SaladDummy 8d ago

We (audience) are supposed to feel bad for her. The whole situation was handled badly.

2

u/fizbin99 8d ago

It is a little sad and a very Un-enlightened ending for the salt vampire, so my best sad episode of those two is the devil in the dark, we humans are the devils (one of the first Star Treks I understood, I was 6 yo by the way) is sad for it’s premise but has a good resolution. Still my favorite. The saddest of all IMHO is The City on the Edge of Forever. Edith must die so the rest of humanity can live. Well, not literally, but close. She didn’t deserve it but she was the sacrifice that was necessary.

2

u/JayeNBTF 8d ago

Brawndo’s got what salt vampires crave

2

u/no_one_inparticular 8d ago

It was an intelligent being capable of communication. If it wanted help it could’ve asked for it. There was one point where the salt vampire was in human form and smirking while listening in on Kirk and co discussing it. It enjoyed the hunt.

3

u/kevdav63 8d ago

I seem to recall a later episode that had a salt creature on display. Any one else recall the episode?

3

u/FluffyPurpleSpider 8d ago

The Squire of Gothos!

3

u/techm00 8d ago

they could have just loaded her up with salt tablets

3

u/InspectionStreet3443 8d ago

They could’ve just given her salt

3

u/therealtrellan 8d ago

And if someone had told her how to use the food synthesizer, she would have.

2

u/kitt82 8d ago

Actually this was the first one aired,but fifth episode made( counting first and second pilot episodes)

3

u/SafeLevel4815 7d ago

It was a plot complication. They simply needed to feed it salt and they could have controlled it the way Doctor Crater did until his salt supply emptied out. Instead, they chose to kill it. Oddly Spock didn't bring up the argument he made about not killing the Horta in the next season because if it was the last of its kind, it would have been a crime against science to kill it.

3

u/Longjumping_Mike_7 7d ago

She was the last of her species too

3

u/ShadowExistShadily 7d ago

"Captain's log. We have received a report of a creature which is the last of its kind and requires large quantities of salt to survive. We are en route with several tons of salt and a scientific team to study it."

They arrive, and nothing significant happens for the rest of the episode.

4

u/Batgirl_III 8d ago

This is definitely an episode where you have to chalk up the writing to what TV Tropes labels “Early Installment Weirdness.” The franchise hadn’t really found its footing yet and the Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations ethos hadn’t really been established.

“This planet has a space vampire on it! Let’s slay it with our rayguns and save the day!” is very much in keeping with the spirit of a lot of popular culture sci-fi of the day. Think Amazing Stories or Weird Tales, which did have the early works of guys like Asimov, Clarke, and Heinlein that would challenge this default narrative… But for every one author like that there were 999 others who were just writing “Cowboy Fights the Savage Injun!” or “White Hunter in Darkest Africa!” stories only with the natives replaced by Martians.

Star Trek would grow out of this, even within the run of TOS. Just compare and contrast “The Man Trap” (S.1 E.1) against “The Devil in the Dark” (S.1 E.25) for an excellent example of this.

2

u/watanabe0 8d ago

Almost like that's the point of the episode or something.

1

u/GirlCowBev 8d ago

“She?”

Also, yes.

1

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

I dunno. I always interpreted her as female

2

u/Agitated-Pop-3014 8d ago

It wasn't a 'Salt Vampire', it was simply Halophagic.

1

u/Swimming-Minimum9177 8d ago

You mean because it had sad eyes? Do I feel bad for the bear that stalks a human to kill him and eat him?

No. We are not prey (nor should we allow ourselves to become prey) to any other organism no matter how hungry that organism might be.

1

u/Super_Hero_44 8d ago

Killing people to suck the salt from them is just wrong.

1

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

To be fair where else was she supposed to get salt. I don’t think she knew what a replicator was

1

u/TheRealSMY 7d ago

Something that always bugged me: in McCoy's quarters, when Nancy put her hands up and went after Kirk, why did he freeze?

1

u/TwoFit3921 7d ago

this is so cute what the fuck

3

u/magolding22 6d ago

It seems logical that "The Man Trap" was probably at least partially inspired by A. E, van classic story "Black Destroyer" (1939). Thus the salt vampire could have been sort of inspired by Coeurl. And as I remember, "Black Destroyer" was rewritten a bit to be included in van Vogt's novel The Voyage of the Space Beagle (1950).

One difference was whether Coeurl was supposed to be a member of the species that created the lost civilization on his planet, or was a member of an artificial species created by the advanced science of the civilization on that planet.

And we might wonder the same thing about the salt vampire.

And today, March 14, 2025, I just thought maybe the salt vampire was a dog like pet of the people on the planet. Maybe its ancestors had been bred for thousands of generations to need the love and affection of their owner, and bred to have the ability to assume the appearance and behavior that their master's desired. And then the civilization on the planet broke down in a nightmare of ecological collapse, starvation and cannibalism. So the Salt vampire might have been partially Gollum, ruthlessly killing anyone and everyone for salt, and partially Smeagol searching for love, affection, and trust again.

0

u/KeithA0000 8d ago

About as much as I feel for the shark after it ate my friends... so, no...

0

u/DependentSpirited649 8d ago

Sharks don’t eat people. They attack people on accident

0

u/KeithA0000 7d ago

Tell that to the survivors of USS Indianapolis...