The Young Naturalist #2

The Horta from "The Devil in the Dark" 

I thought that the Horta from "The Devil in the Dark" would make a great entry for my "Vintage Zoological Illustrations From Star Trek" series. If you don't know what the Horta is, or, if you haven't seen the episode, you ought to go check it out.

I remember being a very young kid, watching this episode and it making a huge impact on me. The Spock/Kirk/McCoy stuff is great but, even more than that, this episode shows so much of what Star Trek set out to do, and what they did so well. That is--to show us a difficult, controversial topic in a simple, succinct way with tons of heart and a really sweet, childlike innocence. They might not have had much budget for this creature but as you watch, you forget that it's made out of foam rubber and trash bags. You just fall into the story. You let yourself learn the lessons you first learned as a child: everyone has feelings, not everything is what it seems, different doesn't equal bad.