The Naked Time
4th episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series
"The Naked Time" is the fourth episode of the first season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by John D. F. Black and directed by Marc Daniels, it first aired on September 29, 1966.
In the episode, a strange, intoxicating infection, which lowers the crew's inhibitions, spreads throughout the Enterprise. As the madness spreads, the entire ship is endangered.
This was the first episode in which the audience saw the Vulcan nerve pinch (the nerve pinch was actually filmed first in "The Enemy Within", but the latter was broadcast a week after "The Naked Time").
The story has a sequel in Star Trek: The Next Generation, the 1987 episode "The Naked Now".
Plot
The USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Kirk arrives at the dying planet Psi 2000. Their mission is to observe and document the planet's breakup, and to retrieve a research team stationed on the planet. Mr. Spock and Lt (junior grade) Joe Tormolen beam down and find the researchers' life support system shut down and the team frozen—one fully clothed in a shower, one seated at a control console as if nothing was wrong, and the attractive woman member strangled (pictured).
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “The Naked Time” is 4th episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Naked, Time and episode, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “4th episode of the first season of Star Trek: The Original Series” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 15, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2984478. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1966, 1987 and 2000.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “The Naked Time” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.