Melkot The Melkot ( or Melkotians ) were a telepathic and xenophobic civilization . The Melkot used their telepathic powers to punish alien s who encroached upon their space without permission ( which , prior to 2268 , they never extended ) . A typical Melkotian physically floated aboveground without a body . It had a bulbous head and a pair of very bright , circular eyes . The Federation made first contact with the Melkotians in 2268 , when the encountered an orbiting warning buoy . When " Enterprise " Captain James T . Kirk ignored the Melkot warning to leave their territory and instead assumed orbit and beam ed down a landing party , the Melkotians passed harsh judgment on the landing party , describing them as " aliens " and " disease " and condemning them to death for their trespass . The form of execution was to be by telepathic projection of illusions that would be indistinguishable from reality and incorporate into them a believable lethality . This illusion took the form of the famous gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone , Arizona , on October 26 , 1881 , between the Earps and the Clantons , a fight that the Clantons lost . Kirk and the members of the " Enterprise " crew were to fill the part of the Clantons , but managed to avoid death by having their psyches hijacked by Spock , who used the Vulcan mind meld to alter their perception of reality . Faced with the opportunity to kill the recreation of Wyatt Earp , Kirk instead discarded his weapon . At that point , the illusion dissolved and the Melkotian buoy exploded . The Melkot appeared on screen , intrigued by Kirk ' s display of mercy towards Earp , and suggested that the " Enterprise " visit Melkot , where a delegation would come out to meet them . ( ) Background information . Even though the Melkotian was conceived as a form of floating and disembodied non - corporeal entity , it still had to be physically represented in a way more substantial than merely using some flickering lights . Edward K . Milkis therefore invited Mike Minor to design the alien being , after Minor managed to secure an active role in the production of . " " He called me back during " Star Trek " ( the TV show ) , " " recalled Minor , " " and said , ' We need a critter . Would you be interested in doing it ? ' I said that I ' d love to and it turned out [ . . . ] they needed the Melkotian [ . . . ] I came up with a miniature head which was a brain case , two eyes set deep into skull sockets , no nose and no mouth because I reasoned that they ' d have evolved away from mandibles or having to eat , since there was no body . It was simply done for the effect of the moment . " " ( " Enterprise Incidents " , issue # 14 , p . 44 ) Although Mike Minor had accepted the task of representing the Melkotian without ever having done foam castings or latex pulls from molds , he firstly cast the alien in foam . ( ' , issue 25 , p . 36 ; " Enterprise Incidents " , issue # 14 , p . 44 ) After buying his first can of latex from Verne Langdon at Don Post Studios and receiving some instructions from him , Minor returned to working on the Melkotian . ( ' , issue 25 , p . 36 ) He recollected , " " I sculpted it in clay , made a negative female plaster mold and developed the latex into a half - inch thick mass , which is flexible . " " ( " Enterprise Incidents " , issue # 14 , p . 44 ) The Melkotian underwent some last - minute changes before being filmed . " " It was shot over at one of the optical houses which worked on the show ( there were three or four ) , " " Mike Minor remembered . " " We shot it against black and put pingpong balls in the eyes , cut cat - like slit pupils and put high intensity tensor beams behind it , put a star filter over the lens . This was shot , and this image was literally double - exposed over a cloud effect on the stage . It made about three appearances in the show . So that was the first on - screen effect that I did anywhere . " " ( " Enterprise Incidents " , issue # 14 , p . 44 ) Minor concluded , " " That job turned out very well . " " ( " " , issue 25 , p . 36 ) In the episode ' s novelization , the Melkotian is described as a tall , thin humanoid wearing a robe .