Star Trek The Original Series
Episode: Requiem for Methuselah
Season 3, Episode 19

Captain's log : Star date 5843.7.
The Enterprise is in the grip of a raging epidemic.
Three crewmen have died and 23 others have been struck down by Rigelian fever.
In order to combat the illness,
Dr. McCoy needs large quantities of ryetalyn,
which is the only known antidote for the fever.
Our sensors have picked up sufficient quantities of pure ryetalyn...
on a small planet in the Omega system.
We are beaming down to secure this urgently needed material.
Report.
Jim, there's a large deposit bearing 273 four kilometers away.
[McCoy] I've got four hours to process that stuff.
Otherwise the epidemic will be irreversible.
Everybody on board the Enterprise will--
Strange. Readings indicate a life-form in the vicinity, apparently human.
Yet ship's sensors indicated this planet was uninhabited.
Let's get that ryetalyn.
Inoperative.
[Man] Do not kill.
- I'm Captain James Kirk of-- - I know who you are.
I have monitored your ship since it entered this system.
Then if you know who we are, you know why we're here, Mister--
Flint. You will leave my planet.
Did you say your planet, sir?
My retreat from the unpleasantness of life on earth,
and the company of people.
Mr. Flint, I have a sick crew up there.
We can't possibly reach another planet in time.
- You can't refuse us the ryetalyn. - You're trespassing, Captain.
We're in need! We'll pay for it, work for it, trade for it.
You have nothing I want.
But you have the ryetalyn that we need! lf necessary, we'll take it.
If you do not leave voluntarily, I have the power to force you to leave...
or kill you where you stand.
[Kirk] Space -- the final frontier.
These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise.
Its five-year mission, to explore strange new worlds,
to seek out new life and new civilizations,
to boldly go where no man has gone before.
Kirk to Enterprise. Mr. Scott,
lock phasers onto our coordinates.
Aye, Captain, all phasers locked on.
Mr. Flint, if anything happens to us,
four deaths.
And then my crew comes down and takes that ryetalyn.
An interesting test of power: your enormous forces against mine.
Who would win?
Mr. Flint, unless you are certain,
I would suggest you refrain from a most useless experiment.
We need only a few hours.
Have you ever seen a victim of Rigelian fever?
They die in one day. The effects are like bubonic plague.
Constantinople, summer 1 334.
It marched through the streets, the sewers.
It left the city by ox cart, by sea, to kill half of Europe:
the rats, rustling and squealing in the night as they, too, died.
- The rats. - Are you a student of history, sir?
I am.
The Enterprise, a plague ship.
You have two hours, at the end of which time you will leave.
With all due gratitude.
M-4 will gather the ryetalyn which you need.
Permit me to offer you more comfortable surroundings.
Come in, gentlemen.
Our ship's sensors did not reveal your presence here, Mr. Flint.
My planet is surrounded by screens which create the impression of lifelessness:
a protection against the curious, the uninvited.
Then you live here alone?
Except for M-4, which serves as butler, housekeeper, gardener...
and, uh, guardian.
A most impressive home, Mr. Flint.
Yes, a Shakespeare first folio. A Gutenberg Bible.
The Creation lithographs by Taranullus of Centauri Seven.
That's one of the rarest book collections in the galaxy,
spanning centuries.
Be comfortable, gentlemen.
Help yourselves to brandy.
Do we trust him?
It would seem logical to do so for the moment.
Well, I'll need two hours to process that ryetalyn into antitoxin.
If that ryetalyn isn't here in one hour,
we'll go prospecting, right over Mr. Flint if necessary.
This is the most splendid private collection of art I've ever seen,
and the most unique:
the majority are the works of Leonardo da Vinci, Renaissance period:
some of the works of Reginald Pollack, 20th century,
and even a sten from Marcus Two.
- At last I have seen other humans. - Other men.
- One is not human. - The Vulcan.
Oh, so that is a Vulcan.
I would like to discuss sub-dimensional physics with him.
You've taught me all you know in the area and you say Vulcan’s know more.
Even he is not your intellectual equal, nor mine.
- Let me meet them. - They are selfish, brutal,
a part of the human community which I rejected...
and from which I've shielded you.
Soon they will be gone. Let me meet them!
Rayna.
Have you been lonely?
What is loneliness?
It is thirst.
It is a flower dying in the desert.
Flint, don't take this opportunity away from me.
It's so exciting.
Exciting? You have never made a demand of me before.
I'm sorry.
Do not be sorry.
It might be interesting.
Saurian brandy, 1 00 years old.
-Jim? - Please.
Mr. Spock, I know you won't have one.
Heaven forbid those mathematically perfect brain waves...
be corrupted by this all-too-human vice.
Thank you, Doctor. I will have a brandy.
Do you think the two of us can handle a drunk Vulcan?
Once alcohol hits that green blood--
If I appear distracted, it is because of what I have seen.
I am close to experiencing an unaccustomed emotion.
I'll drink to that.
- What emotion? - Envy.
None of these da Vinci paintings has ever been catalogued or reproduced.
They are unknown works, all apparently authentic...
to the last brush stroke and use of materials.
As undiscovered da Vinci’s, they would be priceless.
Would be? You mean you think they're fakes?
Most strange. A man of Flint's obvious wealth and impeccable taste...
scarcely needs to hang fakes.
Yet my tricorder analysis indicates...
that the canvas and pigments used...
are of contemporary origin.
Well, this could be what it seems to be,
or it could be a cover, a setup, or even an illusion.
Well, that could explain the paintings: similar to the real thing.
Spock, at your earliest opportunity,
take a full tricorder reading of our host.
See if he's human.
- Kirk to Enterprise. Mr. Scott? -Aye, Captain.
Mr. Scott, run a full computer check...
on Mr. Flint and on this planet, Holberg 91 7G.
Stand by with your results. I'll contact.
-Aye, sir. - Kirk out.
Well, let's enjoy this brandy. It tastes real.
Easy.
Bones.
Ryetalyn, ready to be processed into antitoxin.
[Kirk]Beam up to the ship and start processing.
That will not be necessary, Captain.
M-4 can prepare the ryetalyn for inoculation...
more quickly in my laboratory than you could aboard your ship.
I would like to supervise that.
And when you are satisfied as to procedures,
I hope you will do me the honor of being my guests at dinner.
Thank you, Mr. Flint. I don't think we have the time.
I regret my earlier inhospitality.
Let me make amends.
Gentlemen, may I present Rayna.
I thought you lived alone.
I meant there are no others besides my family.
Dr. McCoy.
Mr. Spock.
Mr. Spock, I do hope we can find a moment...
to discuss field density and its relationship to gravity phenomena.
Indeed.
I would appreciate such a talk. It is an interest of mine.
Captain Kirk.
- Captain Kirk. - Rayna.
Her parents were killed in an accident while in my employ.
Before dying, they placed their infant, Rayna Kapec, in my custody.
I have raised and educated her.
With most impressive results, sir.
What else interests you besides gravity phenomena, Rayna?
Everything. Less than that is betrayal of the intellect.
The totality of the universe? All knowledge?
Rayna possesses the equivalent...
of 1 7 university degrees in the sciences and arts.
She is aware that the intellect is not all.
But its cultivation must come first or the individual makes errors,
wastes time in unprofitable pursuits.
At her age, I rather enjoyed errors with no noticeable damage,
but I must admit you're the farthest thing from a bookworm I've ever seen.
Flint is my teacher.
You are the only other men I've ever seen.
The misfortune of men everywhere and our privilege.
If you would accompany my robot to the laboratory, Doctor,
you can rest assured that the ryetalyn is being processed.
Thank you, sir.
Your pleasure, gentlemen.
Chess, billiards, conversation?
Why not all three?
- Did you teach her that? - We play often.
May I show you, Captain?
You said something about savagery, Mr. Flint.
When was the last time you visited earth?
[Flint] You would tell me that it is no longer cruel.
But it is, Captain. Look at your starship, bristling with weapons.
Its mission to colonize, exploit,
destroy, if necessary, to advance Federation causes.
Yeah. Thank you.
Our missions are peaceful, our weapons defensive.
If we were barbarians, we would not have asked for ryetalyn.
Indeed, your greeting, not ours, lacked a certain benevolence.
The result of pressures which are...
not your concern.
Yes. Well, those pressures are everywhere in everyone,
urging him to what you call savagery:
the private hells, the inner needs and mysteries,
the beast of instinct.
As human beings, that is the way it is.
To be human is to be complex. You can't avoid a little ugliness...
from within and from without.
"[Piano]
Why don't you play the waltz, Mr. Spock?
To be human is also to seek pleasure, to laugh, to dance.
Rayna is a most accomplished dancer.
Oh.
May I have the pleasure?
Thank you.
- Is something wrong? - Yes, there's something wrong.
The ryetalyn is no good. It contains irillium, nearly one part per thousand.
Irillium will render the antitoxin inert and useless.
Most unfortunate that it was not detected.
I shall go with M-4 to gather more ryetalyn...
and screen it myself.
- You're welcome to join me, Doctor. - Thank you.
- Time factor, Bones? Epidemic. - Nearly two and a half hours.
I guess we got time to get in under the wire.
[McCoy]I’ve never seen anything like the speed of that robot.
It'd take us twice as long to process that stuff.
[Kirk] Would we have made the error?
Jim, what if all the ryetalyn on this planet contains irillium?
Go with Flint. Keep an eye on procedures.
- Like a hawk. - Captain.
Something else which is rather extraordinary.
This waltz I just played is by Johannes Brahms.
- Later, Spock. - Captain, it is written in manuscript--
In original manuscript, in Brahms' own hand, which I recognize.
It is totally unknown,
definitely the work of Brahms,
and yet unknown.
I think I will go to the laboratory. There may be a way of reversing...
the irillium's effect and saving the existing antitoxin.
Stay here.
Let me know when Flint and McCoy return.
Captain 's log : star date 5843. 75.
Have I committed a grave error in accepting Flint's word...
that he would deliver the antidote to us?
The precious time I have let pass...
may result in disaster for the Enterprise and her crew.
You left us. The room became lonely.
It is a thirst, a flower dying in the desert.
What?
- What's in there? - I do not know.
Flint told me never to enter. He denies me nothing else.
Then why are you here?
I do not know.
I come here when I am troubled,
when I would search myself.
Are you troubled now?
Yes.
By what?
Are you...
happy here with Flint?
He is the greatest, kindest, wisest man in the galaxy.
Then why are you afraid?
Rayna.
Don't be afraid.
Stop command!
Stop!
Thank you, Mr. Spock.
Fortunately, the robot did not detect my presence and deactivate my phaser.
M-4 was programmed to defend this household and its members.
No doubt I should have altered its instructions...
to allow for unauthorized but predictable actions on your part.
It thought you were attacking Rayna. A misinterpretation.
If it were around right now, it would correct--
Too useful a device to be without, really. I created another.
It will now go to the laboratory and join Dr. McCoy.
Fascinating.
Be thankful that you did not attack me, Captain.
I might have accepted battle, and I have twice your physical strength.
In your own words, it would be "an interesting test of power."
How childish he is, Rayna.
Would you call him brave or a fool?
I'm glad he did not die.
Of course!
Death, when unnecessary, is a tragic thing.
[Flint]Dr. McCoy's in the laboratory with the new ryetalyn.
He's satisfied as to its quality.
May I suggest that you wait here patiently, safely.
You have seen that my defense systems operate automatically...
and not always in accordance with my wishes.
Come, Rayna.
Rayna!
Come.
I don't like the way he orders her around.
Since we are dependent on Mr. Flint for the ryetalyn, Captain,
may I respectfully suggest that you pay less attention to the young lady...
if you should encounter her again.
Our host's interests do not appear to be confined to art and science.
He loves her?
- Strongly indicated. -Jealousy!
Yes, that would explain the attack,
but he seemed to want us together.
The billiard game.
He suggested we dance.
It does appear to defy the male logic as I understand it.
- Kirk to Enterprise. Mr. Scott. -Aye, Captain.
Report on the Rigelian fever.
Nearly everybody aboard has got it, Captain.
We're working a skeleton crew and waiting for the ryetalyn.
[Kirk] Just a little while longer, Scotty.
Report on the computer search.
There is no report on Mr. Flint.
He doesn't seem to have any past.
The planet was purchased 30 years ago by a Mr. Brack,
a wealthy financier and recluse.
Run a computer check on Rayna Kapec.
Status: legal ward after the death of her parents.
Aye, sir.
Kirk out, Mr. Scott.
We have still a greater mystery, Captain.
I was able to run a tricorder scan on Mr. Flint.
He is human, but there are certain biophysical peculiarities.
Some body-function readings are disproportionate.
For one thing, extreme age is indicated...
on the order of 6,000 years.
- Can you confirm that, Mr. Spock? - I shall program the readings...
through Dr. McCoy's medical computer when we return to the ship.
-Time factor. -We must commence ryetalyn injections...
within 2 hours and 1 8 minutes or the epidemic will prove fatal to us all.
What's keeping the processing this time?
The delay may be deliberate.
So he's keeping us here for some reason.
[Spock]Most interesting. Our host appears to wish us to linger,
yet he is apprehensive.
It is logical to assume that we are being monitored...
and that he is aware of our every move.
You sent the robot to kill him.
It came to protect you.
My mind could not have summoned it. I was not frightened.
It was defective, then. I would have destroyed it myself.
- Have I lied to you? - Never.
Believe what I say. I would not want Captain Kirk dead.
What did you feel?
- You will let them have the ryetalyn? - Yes.
Go to them, if you wish. Say your farewells.
- Kirk here. - Mr. Scott, sir.
There’s no record of a Rayna Kapec in Federation legal banks.
No award of custody?
No background at all in any computer banks, like Flint.
Kirk out.
Like Flint, people without a past.
What hold does he have over her?
Captain, I would suggest that our immediate concern is the ryetalyn.
Let's find McCoy.
[Rayna] Captain?
I'll meet you in the lab.
I've come to say good-bye.
I don't want to say good-bye.
A last tender encounter, Captain Kirk,
to end your usefulness.
I tell you, Spock, I was waiting for the robot to finish the processing,
and the next thing I knew it was gone and so was the ryetalyn.
Interesting. Obviously, Mr. Flint is not yet ready for us to depart.
Well, I think we'd better tell Jim.
The captain wanted us to wait here.
Come with me. I--
I offer you happiness.
I've known security here.
Childhood must end. You love me, not Flint.
Flint lied. The ryetalyn isn't here.
Picking up tricorder readings, Captain.
Apparently the ryetalyn is behind this door.
Why is Flint playing tricks on us?
Apparently we're supposed to go in and get it...
if we can.
Well, let's not disappoint the chess master.
Phasers on full.
Captain, I shall get the ryetalyn.
- Why you? - There may be dangers within.
- Let's find out. - Let me go alone, Captain.
[McCoy] Why?
Get to the point, Spock, if there is one.
We'll all go.
The ryetalyn.
Captain 's log : star date 5843.8.
We have accomplished our mission and have the ryetalyn...
ready to combat the epidemic aboard the Enterprise.
But we have also discovered our benefactor's secret.
He has created the perfect woman.
Her only flaw, She’s not human.
Physically human but not human.
These are earlier versions of Rayna, Jim.
She's an android.
[Flint] Created here by my hand.
Here, the centuries of loneliness were to end.
Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mr. Flint,
they appear to have been recently painted...
on contemporary canvas with contemporary materials.
And on your piano, a waltz by Johannes Brahms,
an unknown work in manuscript, written in modern ink...
yet absolutely authentic, as are your paintings.
I am Brahms.
- And da Vinci? - Yes.
How many other names shall we call you?
Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Methuselah, Merlin, Abramson.
- A hundred other names you do not know. - You were born?
In that region of earth later called Mesopotamia,
in the year 3834 B.C., as the millennia are reckoned.
I was Akharin,
a soldier, a bully and a fool.
I fell in battle, pierced to the heart...
and did not die.
Instant tissue regeneration coupled with some perfect form of biological renewal.
You learned that you were immortal and--
And to conceal it, to live some portion of a life,
to pretend to age and then move on before my nature was suspected.
Your wealth and your intellect...
are the product of centuries of acquisition.
You knew the greatest minds in history:
Galileo, Socrates, Moses.
I have married a hundred times, Captain.
Selected, loved, cherished.
Caressed a smoothness, inhaled a brief fragrance.
Then age, death, the taste of dust.
Do you understand?
[Spock] You wanted a perfect, ultimate woman,
as brilliant, as immortal as yourself.
Your mate for all time.
Designed by my heart. I could not love her more.
- Spock, you knew? - I had hoped I was wrong.
You cannot love an android, Captain. I love her.
She is my handiwork, my property. She is what I desire.
You brought me here to learn this?
- Does she know? - She will never know.
- Let's go. - You will stay.
-Why? -We have discovered what he is, Captain.
If you leave, the curious would follow:
the foolish, the meddlers, the officials, the seekers.
My privacy was my own. Its invasion be on your head!
We can remain silent.
The disaster of intervention, Spock. I've known it. I will not risk it.
Kirk to Enterprise.
Clear out of the area. Inform Starfleet Command.
Enterprise! Scotty!
They cannot answer, Captain.
My crew!
The test of power. You had no chance.
It is time for you to join your crew.
You'd wipe out 400 lives? Why?
I have seen a hundred billion fall. I know death better than any man.
I have tossed enemies into his grasp.
And, I know mercy.
Your crew is not dead, but suspended.
Worse than dead! Restore them. Restore my ship!
In time: a thousand, two thousand years.
-You will know the future, Captain Kirk. -You have been such men!
You've known and created such beauty.
You've watched your race evolve from cruelty and barbarism...
throughout your enormous life, and yet now you would do this to us?
The flowers of my past. I hold the nettles of the present!
- I am Flint now, with my needs. - What needs?
Tonight I have seen something wondrous,
something I've waited for, labored for.
Nothing must endanger it. At last, Rayna's emotions have stirred to life.
Now they will turn to me in this solitude which I preserve.
[Rayna] No.
- Rayna! - You must not do this to them.
I must.
What will you feel for him after we are gone?
All emotions are in play, Mr. Flint.
You harm us, she hates you.
Give me back my ship. Your secret is safe with us.
That's why you delayed the processing of the ryetalyn.
You realized what was happening. You kept us together, Rayna and me,
because you knew I could bring her emotions alive.
And now you’re just going to take over!
I shall take what is mine when she comes to me.
We are mated, Captain, alike, immortal.
You must forget your feelings in this matter,
which is quite impossible for you.
Impossible! Impossible from the beginning.
You used me.
I can't love her,
but I do love her.
- And she loves me. - No!
Captain, your primitive impulses will not alter the circumstances.
Stay out of this. We're fighting over a woman.
No, you're not, for she is not.
I c-c-cannot be the cause of this.
I will not be the cause of this!
Please, stop!
Stop! I choose...
where I want to go,
what I want to do.
I choose!
I choose.
- Rayna! - No.
Do not order me.
No one can order me!
She's human.
Down to the last blood cell, she's human.
Down to the last thought, hope, aspiration, emotion, she’s human!
For the human spirit is free.
You have no power of ownership. She's free to do as she wishes.
Gentlemen, I urge you to stop. There is a danger.
No man beats me.
I don't want to beat you.
This is no test of power.
Rayna belongs to herself...
and she claims the human right of choice...
to be as she wills,
to do as she wills, to think as she wills.
That's what I've worked for.
Rayna, come with me.
Stay.
I...
was not human.
Now...
I love.
I love.
You can't die!
- What happened? - She loved you, Captain.
And you, too, Mr. Flint,
as a mentor, even as a father.
There was not enough time for her to adjust...
to the awful power and contradictions of her newfound emotions.
She could not bear to hurt either of you.
The joys of love made her human,
and the agonies of love destroyed her.
Spock.
The epidemic is reduced and no longer a threat.
The Enterprise is on course 513 mark 7, as you ordered.
A very old and lonely man,
and a young and lonely man.
We put on a pretty poor show, didn't we?
If only I could forget.
Jim.
Oh, thank heaven, sleeping at last.
Your report, Doctor.
Oh, those, uh, tricorder readings on Mr. Flint...
are finally correlated: He's dying.
You see, Flint, in leaving earth...
with all of its complex fields within which he was formed,
sacrificed immortality.
He'll live the remainder of a normal life span, then die.
On that day, I shall mourn. Does he know?
Yes, I told him myself. He intends to devote the remainder of his years...
and great abilities to the improvement of the human condition.
And who knows what he might come up with.
Indeed.
Well, I guess that's all. I can tell Jim later or you can.
Considering his opponent's longevity,
truly an eternal triangle.
You wouldn't understand that, would you, Spock?
You see, I feel sorrier for you than I do for him...
because you'll never know the things that love can drive a man to :
the ecstasies, the miseries,
the broken rules, the desperate chances,
the glorious failures, the glorious victories.
All of these things you'll never know...
simply because the word "love" isn't written into your book.
- Good night, Spock. - Good night, Doctor.
I do wish he could forget her.
Forget.