For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky

McCoy is dying. He has but a year to live. Of course, he will not allow Kirk to divulge this to the crew. After a thwarted missile attack, the Enterprise locates the source. It is an asteroid/planet where people live inside, unaware of the grandness of space. They are part of a civilization that built a huge ship when their sun went nova and have been traveling the galaxy for thousands of years. The usual trio beams down to the planet and is taken hostage by a group of soldiers wearing really weird hats and colorful robes. They are also met by a beautiful priestess. It turns out that there is a creator in their past who has been looking out for them, but they must don a kind of implant that forces their obedience to an oracle. Since McCoy and his illness are center stage here, he becomes the focus of this episode. The priestess is so taken with him that she proposes marriage and he accepts. The other, more critical plot element is that this asteroid is on a collision course with a very populous planet; the resulting impact would be devastating. As with the American Indian episode, they must find a way to get things to change course. The twosome must work their way to adjust a force that could destroy them. This is a pretty typical ST episode, neither good nor bad.