- Capt. Kirk: They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings, but he did fly. He discovered he had to. Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great grandfather used to. I'm in command. I could order this, but I'm not because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this, but I must point out that the possibilities - the potential for knowledge and advancement - is equally great. Risk! Risk is our business. That's what this starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her. You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?
- Scott: [in astonished disbelief] You're going to WHAT? Are they all right in the head, Doctor?
- Dr. McCoy: [boldly] No comment.
- Capt. Kirk: A simple transference. Their minds and ours.
- Dr. McCoy: [sarcastically] Quite simple. Happens every day.
- Henoch: [in Spock's body] This is an excellent body, Doctor. I seem to have received the best of the three. Strength, hearing, eyesight, all far above your human norms. I'm surprised the Vulcans never conquered your race.
- Dr. McCoy: Vulcans worship peace above all, Henoch.
- Henoch: [in Spock's body] Yes, of course, of course. Just as we do, Doctor.
- Capt. Kirk: Well?
- Mr. Spock: Someone or something is attempting to attract our attention.
- Capt. Kirk: Someone or something has succeeded.
- Capt. Kirk: The planet is dead. There's no possibility of life there as we understand life.
- Sargon: And I am as dead as my planet.
- Henoch: [in Spock's body] Hello. Oh, you are a lovely female. A pleasant sight to wake up to after half a million years.
- Nurse Christine Chapel: [obviously flattered] Thank you.
- Henoch: [in Spock's body] You're welcome.
- Thalassa: Doctor, would you like to save your Captain Kirk?
- Dr. McCoy: But you said that was impossible.
- Thalassa: We have many powers Sargon did not permit us to use. He thought them too tempting to us. This body pleases me; I intend to keep it.
- Dr. McCoy: I see. And Henoch intends to keep Spock's body, of course.
- Thalassa: Henoch's plans are his own affair. I wish only to exist in peace as a living woman.
- Dr. McCoy: If you're asking my approval...
- Thalassa: I require only your silence. Now only you and I will know that Dr. Mulhall has not returned to her body. Isn't that worth your captain's life? Doctor, we can take what we wish: Neither you nor this ship nor all your worlds have the power to stop us.
- Dr. McCoy: Neither Jim nor I can trade a body we don't own. It happens to belong to a young woman...
- Thalassa: Who you hardly know - almost a stranger to you.
- Dr. McCoy: I will not peddle flesh. I'm a physician.
- Thalassa: A physician? In contrast to what we are you are a prancing, savage medicine man. You dare defy one you should be on your knees worshiping? I could destroy you with a single thought.
- [Painful energy field engulfs the doctor, then stops]
- Thalassa: Stop. Sargon was right, the temptations within a living body are too great. Forgive me.
- Dr. McCoy: [narrating] Medical log, Stardate 4770.3. Do I list one death or two? When Kirk's body died, Sargon was too far distant from his receptacle to transfer back. Sargon is dead. But is Captain Kirk dead? His body is, but his consciousness is still in the receptacle into which it was transferred earlier.
- Mr. Spock: Captain, I do wish to inspect whatever this is that lived that long ago.
- Capt. Kirk: And I would like to have my science officer with me on something as unusual as this, but it is full of unknowns, and we can't risk both of us being off the ship.
- [all ship's controls suddenly shut down]
- Sulu: All power gone, sir.
- Capt. Kirk: On the other hand, perhaps this Sargon would like you to come with us.
- [all power suddenly returns]
- Mr. Spock: Fascinating.
- Capt. Kirk: When Sargon and I exchanged, as we passed each other, for an instant, we were one. I know him now. I know what he is and what he wants, and I don't fear him.
- Dr. McCoy: That's the most ridiculous statement I've ever heard. An alien practically hijacks your body and then corks you into a bottle, and you...
- Ann Mulhall: [interrupting] I'm afraid that I must agree with Dr. McCoy. You could be suffering from a form of... of false euphoria.
- Scott: It's a fancy name, but how will something that looks like a drop of jelly make this thing work? You'll need microgears and some form of pulley that does what a muscle does.
- Capt. Kirk: That's twice you referred to us as "my children."
- Sargon: Because it is possible you are our descendants, Captain Kirk. Six thousand centuries ago, our vessels were colonizing this galaxy, just as your own starships have now begun to explore that vastness. As you now leave your own seed on distant planets, so we left our seed behind us. Perhaps your own legends of an Adam and an Eve were two of our travelers.
- Ann Mulhall: Our beliefs and our studies indicate that life on our planet Earth evolved independently.
- Mr. Spock: That would tend, however, to explain certain elements of Vulcan prehistory.
- Henoch: [in Spock's body] Just think how much we can do for Mankind. Are these bodies too much to ask for in return?
- Sulu: The reading's growing stronger, Captain. Coming from a star system directly ahead.
- Uhura: It's not a signal, sir. It does not seem to even exist, and yet it's affecting all my channels.
- Capt. Kirk: [addressing Mr. Spock] Well?
- Mr. Spock: Someone - or some *thing* - is attempting to attract our attention.
- Capt. Kirk: "Someone or something" has succeeded. Our distress signal relays have been activated. We've been given a direction to follow, but how? What's causing it?
- Mr. Spock: I do not know. Not even a Vulcan can know the unknown, Captain. We are hundreds of light years past where any Earth ship has ever explored.
- Mr. Spock: Class "M" planet, Captain.
- Capt. Kirk: Close to Earth conditions.
- Mr. Spock: With two very important exceptions. It's much older than Earth, and about a half million years ago, its atmosphere was totally ripped away by some sort of cataclysm.