  "the devil in the dark" is a first-season episode of the original science fiction television series star trek, first airing on march 9, 1967 and repeating on june 15, 1967. it was written by gene l. coon and directed by joseph pevney. william shatner wrote in his memoirs that "the devil in the dark" was his favorite original star trek episode. he thought it was "exciting, thought-provoking and intelligent, it contained all of the ingredients that made up our very best star treks." in this episode, captain kirk and spock face off with a deadly subterranean creature. ==plot== on stardate 3196.1, the federation starship uss enterprise, under the command of captain james t. kirk, is sent to the pergium mining colony on planet janus vi to investigate reports of a strange creature which recently killed 50 miners with a strong corrosive substance and is destroying equipment. a landing party consisting of kirk, spock, and mccoy beam down to meet with the mine supervisor, chief engineer vanderberg. vanderberg introduces them to another engineer, appel, who describes having seen the monster and gives a basic description. he also states that he shot it with his phaser, which had no effect. spock's curiosity is aroused by a spherical object on vanderberg's desk; vanderberg explains that it is one of thousands of silicon nodules found on recently opened levels of the mine, but 
1967_television_episodes Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series_episodes