The landing party is forced into a re-creation of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
Under orders to contact the Melkotians, Kirk ignores a warning buoy telling the Enterprise to keep away. As punishment, the Melkotians place Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov in a fragmentary version of Tombstone, Arizona, casting them as the Clanton gang who are fated to die at the O.K. Corral.
The deliberately unfinished sets give the town a dreamlike look. Spock reasons that the danger is real only because they believe in it, and he uses a mind meld to convince the others that the bullets cannot harm them. When Kirk refuses to kill the Earps, the Melkotians agree to open contact.