Star Trek episode "This Side of Paradise"

"This Side of Paradise"

Season 1, episode 24.

They travel to Omicron Seti III, an agricultural colony that is supposed to be dead from something called Berthold rays.

Then this episode becomes a space version of that segment in The Odyssey entitled "The Lotus-Eaters."

The colony is staying alive and drugged by plant spores.

Spock knows one of the colonists, a girl named Layla, apparently a previous love interest. Spock is overtaken by emotion after ingesting the spores of the flower. Everyone becomes infected, all 430 of the ship's complement. Kirk is the only one immune, and if he had become infected, it would have been all over.

Fascinating debate on whether ot take paradise or struggle. Kirk says,"Man stagnates if he has no ambition, no desire to be more than he is."

Sandoval of the colony says, "We have what we need."

Kirk replies, "Except the challenge!"

Is it better to live in oblivious bliss if all your needs are met or struggle with independence?

That DeSalle character is there.