The leader of the farming colony on Omicron Ceti III, where spores give the settlers health and contentment at the cost of ambition.
Elias Sandoval heads the colony of Earth settlers on Omicron Ceti III, a world bathed in Berthold rays that should have killed them all. In This Side of Paradise the Enterprise expects to find no survivors, but Sandoval and his people are alive, healthy and serene.
The secret is a plant whose spores protect the colonists and fill them with peace and happiness, but also leave them without drive. Sandoval welcomes the crew into the same state. Once Kirk breaks the spores' hold, Sandoval sees how little his colony has achieved and agrees to relocate. He was played by Frank Overton.