The Lights of Zetar is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast January 31, 1969. It is episode #73, written by Jeremy Tarcher and Shari Lewis, and directed by Herb Kenwith.

Quick Overview: Strange incorporeal aliens threaten the Memory Alpha station and the Enterprise

On stardate 5725.3, the Enterprise heads for Memory Alpha, a planetoid where the Federation has set up a storehouse of computer databases, containing all cultural history and scientific data it has acquired. While in route, the ship detects a strange energy storm, tracking its speed at warp factor 2.6, on a course to the planetoid. Due to the storm's speed, it is believed that it cannot be a natural phenomena.

The Enterprise intercepts the storm which bypasses the ship's shields and penetrates the hull. The exposure to the storm begins to affect crew member's nervous systems differently; Lt. Uhura is unable to move her hands, Mr. Chekov is unable to control his eyes, and Mr. Sulu is unable to speak.

Lieutenant Mira Romaine, aboard to oversee the transmission of newly acquired data from the Enterprise to the Memory Alpha station, faints from the effects of the storm. Mr. Scott, who is also madly in love with Mira, carries her down to sickbay where Dr. McCoy examines her. Mira seems paralyzed and unresponsive. She makes strange grunting sounds as she lays on the medical bed. Once the storm passes through the ship and leaves, Mira soon recovers and refuses to be examined any further.

The storm continues straight for Memory Alpha and the Enterprise gives chase. The storm manages to penetrate the station and destroys the main computer core, wiping out the crucial stores of data. Captain Kirk, along with Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy, beam down to the station to inspect the damage. Meanwhile, Mira has a strange premonition of a dead technician.

The landing party finds the staff technicians have been killed, except for one, a woman, who lies unconscious on the floor. She makes the strange guttural noises as Mira did and her skin seems to charged with a mysterious colored energy. As the energy fades, she quickly dies from what McCoy determines as a brain hemorrhage.

Mira then beams to the station and warns that the storm is returning. Sensors scans confirm this and the landing party returns to the ship. Scans of the storm determine that it may be a lifeform, and Kirk tries to communicate with it through the Universal Translator, but gets no response. He then fires phaser warning shots but the storm still approaches. Kirk then orders a full attack, blasting phaser streams through the core of the storm.

This action seems to cause Mira considerable pain and she wrenches to the floor. Mr. Scott believes Mira and the storm are connected and begs Kirk to stop his attack. Kirk backs off and Mira is taken back to sickbay for a full medical analysis. Her medical records show that she has an extremely flexible ability to assimilate new knowledge and experiences. A neural scan shows her mental pathways have been adjusted to match those of the intelligence pattern of the storm. It appears the beings are trying to possess her body and completely take over her mind. Lying weak on the examining table, Mira manages to confess her latest vision to Scotty; seeing him die.

Making an attempt to rid her of the alien influence, Mira is placed in gravity pressure chamber. The alien force however, enters the ship and finishes its invasion of Mira's mind. They have now completely taken over her body. The aliens speak through Mira, identifying themselves as survivors from the long dead planet of Zetar. The creatures have evolved to shed their physical bodies and now seek one as tuned to their mental capacity, as Mira, to live out their remaining existence.

Scotty refuses to allow the aliens to fulfill their plan and places Mira in the chamber, exposing her body to conditions that drive out and kill the aliens before they can completely wipe her mind.

External Links