Enterprise approaching the space amoeba
space amoeba was a large, space-dwelling, single-celled organism of unknown origin, surrounded by a field of negative energy.
USS encountered the Enterprise space amoeba in 2268 while en route to Starbase 6, after diverting to investigate the destruction of an inhabited planet in the Gamma 7A system and the all- Vulcan starship USS .
The organism made a zone of darkness in space trying to destroy all life in it.
The discovered that the negative Enterprise crew energy field was toxic to humanoid life. When unmanned probes only gave little information, Dr. Leonard McCoy suggested sending a shuttlecraft out to study the organism despite the risks of a man not coming back. Kirk agrees in defeat to send Spock out. They also found that the organism would soon reproduce by cell division. In view of the nightmarish danger posed by the organism and its multiplication across the galaxy, the Enterprise crew used an antimatter warhead to destroy it. ( : " TOS ")
The Immunity Syndrome
The space amoeba was created by Frank Van der veer of Van der Veer Photo Effects. It was made by placing a colored liquid of several layers between two closely spaced sheets of glass, and by moving the two glasses, making the liquid undulate a little - to look like the "creature" is alive. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 236)
As evidenced by the first draft script of
", the space amoeba was originally to have been referenced in that outing, with
Geordi La Forge
near the end of the episode, "Someday I'll have to tell you about the time we ran into a giant amoeba.
" However, all mention of the lifeform was eliminated from that installment by the time the final draft of the script was issued.