TOS Rewind #72: The Way to Eden

Groovy!  It's time for The Way to Eden.

Our swingin' podcast for this episode:



So let's get this out of the way now:  this is by no means the worst episode of the series. I may have placed the episode near the bottom when I was growing up (the honor for my least favorite during those years goes to this one) but today it seems to have slightly more to recommend it.

The outrageously campy outfits and songs are entertaining in of themselves which elevates the episode to at least the level of Spock's Brain. However, it's better than that, but first let's get the bad stuff out of the way.

Star Trek often made commentary on the issues of its time but it did this best when it was not quite so literal. By having the people portraying the youth counterculture be so much like real 1960s hippies (well, at least Hollywood's idea of them), it comes off as tone-deaf as a 1969 episode of Dragnet where the cops have to deal with LSD-using kids. 

The characters are dressed in super-groovy costumes and one of them even plays pseudo-folk music on his space-guitar. The whole thing is amusing, at least until the songs wear out their welcome, but extremely hard to take seriously. The flip side to this is the way the episode has most of the usual cast being so stiff and humorless. Kirk's "inflexibility" is a cheap way to garner sympathy for the seekers of Eden. This gets to a problem: the episode doesn't really want us to take the characters very seriously. Their leader, Dr. Sevrin, is morally compromised, if not actually insane and the others follow him without challenge. Only Irina, Chekov's love interest, seems to question him and does nothing even when it becomes obvious that he will kill to achieve his goals. The others are painted as childish, to the point of having one of the characters be the son of an important Federation official, and only interested in having a good time. Maybe you shouldn't put your idealistic dreams in the hands of a Nazi!

The saving grace of the script is the way life in the Federation is questioned. The characters are skeptical of modernity, as it appears to work in the 23rd Century. People seem to spend a lot of time in artificial environments and eat replicated food. It seems only fitting that some portion of the population might question or outright reject this life. The way this subject is approached is fairly weak but at least it's being brought up. This angle is helped by Spock voicing this point of view; he is apparently at least understanding if not sympathetic to this idea. Of course Spock is way too cool to be lumped in with the Squares like Kirk and Scotty. The plot point of having "Eden" being located within the Romulan Neutral Zone seems like an unnecessary story driver. Having the space hippies commandeer the Enterprise wasn't enough?

The acting is mostly fine, considering the way the characters are written but the songs are pretty bad and seem there partially to pad out the running time. This may be one of the only times where the syndication cuts of the series might actually improve the episode. The actor playing Irina has this horrible Russian accent that makes Natasha from the Bullwinkle cartoons seem authentic but I suspect she was directed to read her lines this way. Beyond being just stiff and uncool, Kirk and the others seem oddly ineffectual; Sevrin seems to gain control of the ship way too easily. Skip_Homeier, who plays Sevrin also played Melakon on the episode Patterns of Force, does well with what he's given to do. It's no surprise that he had a long career as a character actor. He manages to appear serious even with those bizarre ears.

Sometimes you just have to laugh and go with the flow, brothers and sisters.

---

Eric's turn:

I'm taaaaalkin 'bout... “The Way to Eden,” possibly the cheesiest episode of Star Trek ever produced. The closest contender, at least in original Trek, is “Spock's Brain,” but I find “The Way to Eden” to be more fun. Maybe it's the music...

Seriously, I see this episode as a follow-up to the first season's “This Side of Paradise,” where Kirk proposes that humans “...can't stroll to the music of the lute. We must march to the sound of drums.” In “The Way to Eden,” however, we see a group of people determined to defy that way of life. Unfortunately, the treatment of the “space hippies” is grossly uneven. They are portrayed as fatuous, even puerile, but under Dr. Sevrin, they manage to knock out the Enterprise crew and effect an escape from the ship. I suppose my gripe is the disparity between the hippies' trappings and their intent.

As is typical of third season episodes, the idea being explored is interesting, but the execution is lousy. Apparently, the producers were unaware of the nature of the 60s counter-culture. I wasn't there for it, but everything I've seen and heard leads me to believe the flower children didn't dress and wear tattoos that look like a 6-year old girl's pastel dream house. And their music, although kinda fun in a laughable way, bears no resemblance to the music of the counter-culture. At first, I thought the reason for these errors was contempt on the part of the producers, but after further pondering, I think it was more ignorance and a profound lack of creativity and imagination. They (Fred Freiberger and co.) simply thought that those kids would dig the crazy costumes and hair. Sigh...

Setting aside that egregious blunder, our intrepid, 23^rd century flower children actually have an understandable, not unreasonable, goal: to free themselves from the complexity and artificiality of life in the highly technological Federation. And Spock understands this, he even supports it (with the caveat that they really shouldn't follow their resident nut job, Dr. Sevrin). In fact, the strongest validation of their purpose comes from Spock at the end of the episode when he tells Irina “I have no doubt but that you will find [Eden], or make it yourselves.”

Next time: “The Cloud Minders”

TOS Rewind #72: "Requiem for Methuselah"

Well look what folks in 1969 got to watch on Valentine's Day:

Requiem for Methuselah (2/14/1969)

Our podcast discussion:


Those few who tuned in that night didn't exactly get a happy romance, though I suppose if you're home watching Star Trek on a Friday night Valentine's Day, then maybe the bummer of a love story works somehow; or doesn't work, but I'll get into that below.

I have to say that the premise of an immortal person who has lived throughout the ages, a witness to history, alone with himself, is an intriguing one. It's as if the people who came up with the Highlander films wanted to take this idea a step further, where the main character becomes almost a superhero. Instead of a bad-ass sword fighter, we get an old man who's been many of history's great figures and artists. That part gets a bit silly, "yeah, if there's any art you liked, it was probably done by me". The more credible, as far as it goes, idea is that of the immortal person who really is just the witness, not the subject. The character becomes slightly more plausible if he makes more of an attempt to not be noticed as the centuries go on. I also had to question how this guy would have such immense power. He is still a human being, right? He's not a Q or other omnipotent being. Flint may have lots of wealth (it's mentioned that the planet he's on was "purchased") and access to any of humanity's technology, but the things he's able to do seem way out of whack with anything anyone in the Federation can do. Also, at the end of the episode, McCoy says that Flint is going to age and die at a normal age, having left the Earth. Isn't it funny that Flint doesn't know this?

Having said all of this about Flint, I mostly liked the character. Part of the reason for this is the way that James Daley does the role; he really sells the "been there/seen that" business. Flint also seems to have gotten all the best dialogue lines of the episode. Sure, Flint's robot seems to be made from an old kitchen colander and spare parts from Nomad, but he sure has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, including a convincing android companion.

The romance angle of this episode is the real problem for me. I just don't buy the way that Kirk falls totally in love with Rayna within a few hours time. Maybe in a different story with different characters, this might be believable, but not with Kirk. There's also a somewhat creepy, underdeveloped father-daughter thing between Flint and Rayna. At first, we think she's been created to be a platonic companion or child figure. Sure, this sounds like the problematic relationship between Morbius and Altaira in Forbidden Planet, a film that Star Trek owes much to, but there is later on,  a definite romantic angle when it becomes clear that Flint, who eventually gets jealous,  wants Kirk to "show her the ropes," in a manner of speaking. Kirk can always be counted on to take care of this of course but it's unlike him to get emotionally attached, especially once it's been revealed that Rayna is an android. The final scene where Spock melds with Kirk to make him forget her is touching, mainly due to the affection the main characters have for each other, but rings hollow for me as Kirk's emotional state doesn't feel right.

Star Trek often explores ideas within its stories. There are two main concepts presented in this episode:  the nature of a man who does not age and artificial life. Either one of these ideas would have been more than enough material for a single episode but within this one, both are shortchanged, particularly when it comes to an android attempting to grapple with emotions. This issue was dealt with more effectively elsewhere in Trek; What Are Little Girls Made Of, for example and multiple Next Generation episodes.

The only comment I have about the remastering for this episode is that the imagery they used to depict Flint's castle seems way too over the top. It's nice to see something other than the reused painting from "The Cage", but this seems to have gone a bit far.

---

Eric?

As I write this, I am still saddened by the loss of Leonard Nimoy on February 27^th. Science fiction has been an important part of my life for as long as I can remember, and that love affair began with Star Trek and its most vital element, Spock. He was the mirror that was held up to humanity, and he came to embody all that is best in Star Trek. As a literary character, Spock's only rival is, perhaps, the redoubtable Sherlock Holmes. And while Gene Roddenberry created Spock, Leonard Nimoy brought him so endearingly to life. For that, Mr. Nimoy has my undying gratitude. He was 83 when he passed, and in addition to acting, directing, and producing, he was also an accomplished poet and photographer. More importantly, by all accounts, he was a genuinely decent, loving person. Indeed, he lived long and prospered.

And appropriately, “Requiem for Methuselah” has an excellent example of why Spock is a great character. In our podcast for this episode, I was fairly harsh. Since then, however, I rewatched it a second time and found some themes I previously missed. Consequently, my opinion of it has improved. 

“Requiem for Methuselah” was written by noted science fiction author, the late Jerome Bixby, who also penned the classic episode “Mirror, Mirror” and the not-quite-so-classic, but still excellent, “By Any Other Name” and “Day of the Dove.” (As a side note, Bixby's last screenplay was for the 2007 film, “The Man From Earth,” which deals with themes and characters similar to those in “Requiem for Methuselah.” I highly recommend it.)

Initially, I found it rather ridiculous that Kirk could fall so deeply in love with Rayna in such a short time. After my second rewatching, though, it made more sense. Kirk and Flint are alike in many ways: they are both strong, authoritative, charismatic, masculine, and very lonely. And since Flint designed Rayna to be his perfect companion, it's not unreasonable that Kirk would quickly find her to be an ideal match as well.

More importantly, however, I found an interesting theme that is closely related to what Mary Shelley examined in her classic novel “Frankenstein.” Flint, like Shelley's Doctor Frankenstein, successfully creates human life in a laboratory using non-living material. Unlike Frankenstein, however, Flint's creation, Rayna, ultimately fails. And the way she fails is actually poignant; she can't live with the intensity of her newly awakened emotions for both Kirk and Flint. Interestingly, both Flint and Frankenstein ultimately suffer Rayna's fate, except where Rayna is guilty of nothing, their crime is hubris. It doesn't matter that one succeeded where the other failed.

Finally, in our podcast I was unduly harsh in my assessment of the closing scene where Spock, in an act of touching compassion, removes Rayna from Kirks memory in order to ease his friend's pain. This is actually a good example of what I noted in my opening comments: Leonard Nimoy's portrayal of Spock lends such a beautifully endearing quality to the character. I have a new appreciation for both.

Next time: “The Way to Eden”

TOS Rewind #71: The Lights of Zetar

Today, let's take a look at The Lights of Zetar (1/31/1969)

Here's the podcast:


Eric gets the first crack at this one:

The term, “mehpisode,” which I coined in my last review, fortunately doesn't apply to “The Lights of Zetar.” It definitely has some problems, such as Scotty's patronizing sexism, but the basic idea behind the episode is decent science fiction, and the story is reasonably well told.

The theme of aliens inhabiting and/or taking over a human's body is hardly new. (You don't have to go any farther than “Return to Tomorrow in the second season.) But the idea was presented in an interesting, if unnerving, way in “The Lights of Zetar.” When I was much younger, I was disturbed by how the Zetarians use Mira Romaine to communicate, and the way the woman on Memory Alpha dies is still a bit unsettling. One aspect of this episode that is not disturbing, however, is that the tension mounts in a measured way that doesn't seem contrived. And the idea of Memory Alpha is really cool, so the drama connected with it being destroyed is genuine. It reminds me of the ancient Library of Alexandria that was burned in the first century BC.

But now we come to the problems. First, it is established early on that Mira Romaine is being ferried to Memory Alpha, so why do they act like she's a permanent crew member. Is it a big deal that she has trouble adjusting to deep space starship duty? She won't be doing it for long. Further, at the end of the episode, the Zetarians are driven out by pressure. No basis for this is offered. Some sort of scientific explanation is badly needed, even if it's pseudo-science or techno-babble. Finally, the worst part of this episode is the way Scotty behaves.

Don't get me wrong, Scotty is one of my favorite characters, but they have him acting wildly out of character in this episode. To begin with, he is shown fawning over Mira Romaine in Sickbay when he should've been in Engineering. Seriously?! One thing that was crystal clear in the original series is that Scotty would never abandon his post in Engineering, especially in an emergency. It is a gross bastardization to suggest otherwise. But what is much worse is that the writers and producers portray him acting like a condescending, sexist douchebag to Romaine. In the other episode where he is smitten (“Who Mourns for Adonais”), he is overly protective of Lt. Palamas, but he is also respectful. When watching “The Lights of Zetar,” however, it's hard to imagine any woman putting up with the demeaning sexism Scotty shows Mira Romaine, cooing at her like a child and dismissing her concerns without taking her seriously. But she does accept this treatment without complaint, which just ratchets up the glaring misogyny. And the fact that it's a show from the 1960s is no excuse.

So the overt and offensive sexism is a serious black mark on this episode, but the strength of the story and the way it's told are better than many third season installments. As I've mentioned in other reviews, this smacks of damning with faint praise.

---

Today's episode actually has a decent idea or two behind it. The concept of a group of aliens who have been reduced to energy beings is a solid science fiction story foundation. Unfortunately the concept isn't really, ahem, fleshed out nearly enough to make the idea really compelling as a science fiction story. The details behind the Zetar beings are mostly left out until some rushed explanation near the end of the episode. The episode already used its budget to depict the aliens, why not devote some of the running time to exploring what the Zetarians are about? Well, they had to make space for the awful Scotty/Romaine romance!

Okay, look,  I love the Scotty character, as I've said before. More Scotty isn't usually a bad thing. However, in this episode, I wanted his scenes all left on the cutting room floor. I would be the last to deny Scotty some character development in the form of a relationship with someone who's not the Enterprise engines, but this goes so far overboard that we never want more Scotty scenes. And that's a shame. Scotty was overdue to get some romance, but not at the expense of his integrity as a character. It all goes back to the old problem of Third Season character writing. Spock shouldn't be played like a total asshole and Scotty shouldn't be a pandering,  unprofessional, love-sick schoolboy.  The Mira Romaine character is fine, really. She's obviously a professional who has her own life and all that but the way she's treated by everyone on the Enterprise is so sexist. It's as if we have to rely on Scotty's feelings for her to take her seriously as a person in the episode. There's the Enterprise patriarchy for you. 

As I said before, the basic idea here is good but isn't developed well enough. This isn't helped by the way the the main characters, until they happen to think of throwing Romaine into a pressure chamber, seem so ineffectual. Because so little is explained, this becomes another episode where Kirk and the rest are just along for the ride, waiting for things to be revealed. We the audience are often a step ahead of the main characters. It's back to the problem of the story following some sort of rules. Another thing that bothered me is that the aliens story didn't seem to know whether it was trying to be science fiction or a ghost story in space. The way that the half-baked "premonition" scenes were done makes us think this is being done by spooky ghosts. Which is it? It's fine to have horror movie-style atmosphere and other elements in science fiction--that can be very effective--but the writer just didn't seem to want to figure out what this one was all about, which is also a shame. Some of the scenes with the Zetarians and the aftermath of their attacks are well done while creating suspense. Plus, the idea of Memory Alpha, the galaxy's great library, is pretty cool. Maybe they should rethink the whole "no-defenses" thing. Heck, even the smallest town library in America has a lock on its front door. 

In the end, they had all the components of an at least good episode of Star Trek. The show runners just couldn't be bothered to make the effort to give it to us. And that's a cryin' shame.

Next time: “Requiem for Methuselah”

TOS Rewind #70: "That Which Survives"

Greetings!

Today's fun is That Which Survives (1/24/1969).

Our podcast for this one was doubled up with the previous episode.


As we near the end of the series I find it difficult to avoid repeating my opinions and observations. The main reason for this is that the flaws in these late episodes become all too familiar.

• Decent, if not amazing ideas; often retreads of earlier stories.
• Questionable writing regarding the regular characters. 
• A general sloppiness and lack of consistency with the pacing and flow of the shows.
• Lower budgets which sometimes result in more so-called "bottle shows" (stories that rely only on the existing shipboard sets)

This time around, we have an episode that seems like more of a throwaway story. The one chance this  episode had at being interesting was the exploration of the people that made this what I assume is an artificial planet. The mystery of this and the obviously immense power of this civilization is mostly summed up at the tail-end of the episode with a few unsatisfying lines of dialogue. A shame, as this might have slightly salvaged the episode or at least softened the blow of how flawed this one is.

The biggest issue is the way the characters behave. Spock and, to a lesser extent, Kirk are dismissive and occasionally sarcastic towards their fellow crew. Spock stands out in this regard; he's really an asshole. There have always been times where Spock would be dismissive or contrary towards others, especially McCoy (this was of course part of the two characters' dynamic) but it appears that the writer here just decided to go whole hog and blow it out of proportion to create additional "drama". Like some other Third Season episodes, when Spock is in command, the other bridge officers feel free to question his commands and decisions. We'd like to think that by this time they'd have a bit more respect for the guy. However, even taking this into account, Spock's dialogue is really a stretch and just feels wrong. 

The scenes back on the planet start out well but the situation quickly becomes ridiculous. While it's nice to have Sulu doing more than sitting at the helm, he's wasted here and becomes a target for Kirk's dismissive putdowns. The whole story begs the obvious question:  if the computer running this outpost has the power to transport the Enterprise light years away, why does it need to resort to sending slow-moving replicas of the last inhabitant to pick off the landing party one by one? The idea of these things being "matched" to the cell structure of each victim is, by itself, a somewhat interesting but is pretty dim when looked at within the story as a whole. The computer goes to similar trouble to get the Enterprise to overload its engines and explode. Why? Did the alien computer need to make someone think this was an accident? As we're given no real explanation or story "rules" by which the people and things of the episode operate, we're left with a head-scratcher. Or the conclusion that the story just wasn't thought through very well. Shows like Star Trek don't need to be 100% realistic (or even close) but to be successful, the stories need to at least make some sort of sense within their own rules. 

My old friend Lee maintains that this is the worst Original Series episode. I am withholding final judgment until we get to the tail-end but I don't anticipate that this one will be on the bottom. Lee's main gripe, if memory serves, is the character issues I addressed above. This is a huge problem for the episode but I will probably spare this one from last place if for no other reason that I enjoy the scenes with Scotty doing his usual "fixing". This line by Scotty, "I'm so close to the flow now it feels like ants crawling all over my body" which was a favorite of my Dad's, saves it for me just a tiny bit: . Oh, and the visual effect of Losira disappearing is still kind of cool.

---

Eric gets his shot now:

This is going to be another short review. “That Which Survives” may be the king of meh episodes. In fact, I'm going to coin a new term, “mehpisode,” which, unfortunately, could be applied to many of the third season installments.

So what is there to say? The basic idea, a planetoid that can't exist but does, is reasonable enough, if lackluster. But after the teaser, there are about ten minutes of uninteresting story and forty minutes of annoying filler. The only marginally good things about this episode are the Spock-Scotty interaction (Scotty has some good lines) and the end of the episode where the plight of the Kalandans is revealed. I also will admit that the way Losira kills is effectively creepy and unsettling.

In addition, there was apparently an effort to introduce some elements of mystery by way of the nature of Losira's killing spree and the molecular transport of the Enterprise. And the producers clearly tried to insert tension via the ship being on the verge of exploding. In both cases, however, it comes across as contrived. And lazy.

We talk about this, and other aspects of the episode, in a bit more depth in our podcast, so if you're interested, give it a listen. Otherwise, that's all I have, except that my overall feeling at the end of this episode (besides meh), is the same as my feeling after most of the first through third season episodes of “Enterprise:” So what.

Next time: “The Lights of Zetar”

TOS Rewind #69: "The Mark of Gideon"

Today we tackle The Mark of Gideon (01/17/1969)

We recorded podcast reviews for this episode and the following episode on one recording.


I am going to add this episode to the pile of ones that worked better when I was 12 than it does today. Well, perhaps a little better. I chalk this up to the somewhat effective first act where Kirk has to figure out why he's on an empty Enterprise and that the weird people in body stockings were showing up on the view screen. That and the weird sounds, supposedly of all those people pushing against the walls of the "ship", added up to some decently spooky atmosphere. It's a shame that the rest of the episode doesn't hold up.

The basic idea being explored here is of course quite legitimate. Overpopulation and the sanctity of life are debates we are still having today and I would normally welcome an episode of Trek that addressed this within its universe. Alas, the way this episode plays out is so ridiculous that it's hard to take the concept very seriously. There are far too many plot holes to list here; the main aim of the situation seems to have been to get Kirk alone with Odona mess with his mind. The fact that the planet is advanced enough to recreate the Enterprise enough to fool Kirk makes the whole thing seem even more goofy.

Despite this, I did somewhat enjoy the interactions between Spock and the Gideon leader. The verbal sparring and Spock's obvious irritation at the leader's stonewalling was entertaining. Unfortunately this is somewhat undone by the fact that Spock and the crew come off as somewhat dim when they are so easily fooled by those transporter coordinates. Wait, they don't match!!!!

As Rob has mentioned on our podcasts, this show often loses its way when Kirk and Spock are separated. This episode is a good example of this problem. The usual energy of the Kirk/Spock/McCoy interaction is sorely missing for 90% of the episode's running time. This seemed to happen far too often during this disappointing season. The Odona character doesn't come off as very convincing, partially due to the way she's played. She is so hippy-dippy that we don't really see what Kirk would see in her other than a one night stand...or something like that. We never really get the impression that Kirk would even entertain the idea of staying with her while she takes one for the team.

In the end this episode is pretty dumb even if we see glimmers of something that could have been good if not great. The Season 3 curse continues.

---

Eric's turn:

Ah, the first Trek review of 2015. Too bad it has to be for such an awful episode. I never appreciated how stupidly absurd “The Mark of Gideon” is until we did our podcast. Like many other third season episodes, it has a worthwhile message: overpopulation is bad and must be controlled, but the multitude of glaring, ludicrous plot bunders makes it impossible to appreciate that message. It seems like the producers must have been incredibly stupid and/or lazy to let so many blatant errors get through, but Fred Freiberger (third season Executive Producer) is reported to have been satisfied with the end result. I find this incomprehensible. And sad. But I'm not going to waste time pondering the imponderable, so here are what I consider the worst blunders:

• At one point, Ambassador Hodin tells Kirk that the Gideonite sent to negotiate with the Federation learned of Kirk having had Vegan Choriomeningitis. (As opposed to Carnivorous Choriomeningitis?) Seriously? Are we to believe that Starfleet Medical would share the confidential medical files of a starship captain with an applicant for Federation membership?
  
  
• Similarly, the Gideonites would need the construction plans for a Constitution Class starship in order to build an exact replica of the Enterprise. How would they get those plans? It seems like Starfleet would be a bit touchy about keeping such things classified.
  
  
• Assuming the Gideonites could get the plans for a Constitution Class starship, how would they build a convincing replica? They would need the tools, specialized technology, and materials available to the Federation. Given Gideon's plight with overpopulation and extreme lack of space, it seems wildly improbable.
  
  
• Kirk knows every inch of the Enterprise. There is no way the Gideonites could accurately replicate it in the minute, excruciating detail it would take to fool Kirk. He would instantly spot it as a fake.
  
  
• The Gideonites have the scientific expertise to create a detailed replica of the Enterprise, but they can't solve their overpopulation problems?
  
  
• What's with trying to get Kirk and Odonna together. Once they had the pathogen from Kirk's blood, he wasn't needed. What the Kirk-Odonna tryst smacks of is filler. They didn't have enough real story to fill 52 minutes, so they contrived a pathetic sub-plot.
  
  
• Regardless of whether “every organ renews itself” in all Gideonites, they still would have to have food (protein, fats, carbohydrates) as the raw materials for that renewal to happen. If, as Odonna says, every square inch of dry land is occupied, how did they grow and raise food? The oceans? Maybe, but it wouldn't last long. Here on Earth, we're well on our way to depleting the food available from the ocean, and our overpopulation isn't even close to the severity depicted on Gideon.
  
  
• Finally, what may be the worst offense is that the plot (such as it is) hinges on no one noticing the discrepancy between the two sets of coordinates. To begin with, this is the only time in the entire series that coordinates are transmitted verbally, so it's a glaring error in consistency. But what is beyond ludicrous is that nobody (not even Scotty or Spock) notices that there is a difference! 

Anyway, I did find an interesting blurb on the Memory Alpha wiki about Stanley Adams, the actor who co-wrote this episode and played Cyrano Jones in “The Trouble with Tribbles:”

Reportedly, Adams was deeply concerned about the issue of overpopulation and had some casual discussions with Gene Roddenberry, during the production of “The Trouble with Tribbles,” in which he suggested that Star Trek do an episode reflecting that subject matter. This episode is the evident result of those conversations. Adams' writing this episode was influenced by advice from his son. Explained the writer, “My son says, 'Dad, you're in a position to really say something about the overpopulation problem.' He stood over my shoulder while I wrote around the beehive society.”

Both Adams and his son were not, however, pleased with the episode's final form. In hindsight, Adams commented, “[My son] sees the TV version. He says, 'What did they do?!' But they do it to you. When you write for TV, there's an old expression: 'Take the money and run.'”

So there we are. His is probably more commentary than “The Mark of Gideon” deserves.

Next time: “That Which Survives”

TOS Rewind #68: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

Today we reach "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" (01/10/1969)

Here's the podcast:



Eric gets the first shot:

I've always been amazed and disgusted that “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” seems to be the most recognized Star Trek episode among non-fans. This is, as we discussed in the podcast, probably because Lokai and Bele are so striking visually. In any case, I'm sure this episode was a well-intentioned effort to make a statement about slavery and racism, but being so blatant and campy, it is very difficult to take seriously.

I suppose an argument could be made that racism based on the side on which a person is white or black is no more ridiculous than racism based on overall skin color. But was it necessary to have a sharp dividing line running vertically down the middle of the Cheronians' bodies? It's this kind of crap that has earned the third season such contempt. Apparently, no effort was made to be the least bit subtle or metaphorical, including naming Lokai, the dissident, after Loki, the troublemaker in Norse mythology.

To be fair, though, I did like is the end of the episode when Lokai and Bele return to Cheron and find it a radioactive wasteland. The footage of the burning cities was from World War II, which seems apropos and a bit poignant.

One point of interest is that the destruct sequence shown in “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” was reused (a gratifying nod to consistency) in Star Trek III. Also of interest is that while two key producers, Bob Justman and Gene Coon, left the series after this episode, Fred Frieberger (Executive Producer for the third season) said that it was one of the episodes he was most proud of working on. 

Go figure.

I'm inclined to say that “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” could have been a really good episode if it had been done with a deft hand, but even if that had been the case, the racism/slavery theme may have been overused by this point in the series.

So to quote Forrest Gump: “That's all I have to say about that.”

---

Here we have yet another Third Season episode where something decent and perhaps even thought provoking could have been produced but it just wasn't in the cards. Between the lack of new original stories and inevitable "short timer" syndrome that surely must have set in by this time in the show's run, the lack of well-developed stories and production values isn't that surprising.

As usual, there are bits and pieces of the episode that are compelling. We want to hear more about how things got to where they were with Lokai and Bele's home world. Perhaps there was no budget for this, just like Bele's invisible space craft. Ahem. Also good is the scene where Kirk bluffs Bele by setting the ship to self destruct, something that is repeated of course in the third feature film. The scene is good, if a bit too drawn out. The problem for me is that later on, Bele just burns out the computer that does the destruct function. People just shrug and the show goes on. The ending is somewhat compelling where the two just continue to fight on a dead world, complete with stock burning building footage from WWII.

Besides the totally sledge-hammered approach to racism, the other part that bothered me in this episode is the way that the main characters of the Enterprise crew just seem ineffectual. Like I mentioned before, after Kirk gets Bele to back down following a tense scene where the ship is nearly blown up, Bele comes back later and uses his powers to break the computer. Kirk and the others barely react. Spock seems more interested in giving a speech about how superior his people are in the area of, uh, human rights than Bele's is. The subplot, if you can even call it that, is this mission to decontaminate a planet. Kirk's dialogue makes it sound as if this is a life or death situation. When the job is done, we are left with the impression that the Enterprise is just a galactic garbage truck and taxi service. "All right Captain, we've picked up the toxic waste on this forgettable planet, NOW can we get moving?" Mono colored trash indeed.

Eric covered the issue of having the two characters with the SO obvious faces and its symbolism. I also love the way we get to overhear Lokai ranting to some of the crew and the reactions are just dumb-sounding. Kirk makes it sound like their part of the galaxy has no interplanetary strife at all when clearly it's not the case. No wonder Lokai and Bele seem unimpressed with humans.

The new effects help by re-doing the shuttle craft footage so it isn't so obviously recycled from a previous episode.

And I just can't bring myself to quote anything from Forrest Gump.


Next time: “The Mark of Gideon”

TOS Rewind #67: "Whom Gods Destroy"

Today we take a look at: Whom Gods Destroy (1/3/1969)

Our podcast, full of amazing insights as always, is here:


As I mentioned to Eric and Rob while we were recording, I appreciated this one slightly more this time around than I did when I watched these on TV growing up. I remember feeling a basic "meh" when I discovered this episode was next on the local TV station's seemingly random rotation. As the years went by, the station showed Trek more or less on either production or original airdate order but in the early years of syndication they weren't so organized. Who knows, maybe they were still running 16MM film prints (yes, they used to do this and yes I am old) of this series and whatever Viacom mailed them is what they had to put on the air. Truly a mystery for the ages. I do distinctly remember a jump in picture quality at some point where I assume there was a changeover from those old prints to video copies more closely transferred from the original materials. The 16mm prints were heavily duplicated and were printed on film stock that tended to fade severely. I've seem some of these that are quite pink today. We do have it good today where what we can cue up on Netflix or Blu-Ray far surpasses what was ever seen in the 1960s on television.

The story for this episode is fairly ridiculous and there are plenty of opportunities to poke holes. The idea that this miracle drug the Enterprise is carrying will "cure all mental illness" is a convenient, if laughable way to establish some high stakes. But these stakes are never really mentioned again other than the drug being there to cure Garth. The story also seems somewhat padded out; there are stretches where nothing much happens other than some of the characters acting "crazy".While I enjoyed watching Steve Ihnat chew the scenery is amusing and Shatner has to mostly sit there and take it. What was disappointing about the Garth character is the lack of background. We get a couple of details about his past as a fleet captain but not enough of the dots are connected between his "glorious" past and his current madness. Unfortunately a flaw of the teleplay. The character of Marta, while having no real background at all is at least a somewhat interesting character. As female characters go, she's pretty awful but at least she has something to do and is a little bit unpredictable in her batshit crazy ways. Yvonne Craig plays well with what she's given and sells the performance. Again, this is all relative but this part could have been far worse. The rest of the "patients" at the Trek equivalent of a super-max asylum are complete non-entities. We really have no idea why they're locked up other than to be used as henchmen for Garth and become fellow "Masters of the Universe".

It's said that Nimoy had misgivings about this episode and he was right to. Spock, while having a few good zinger lines of dialogue, acts uncharacteristically dense when the showdown between Garth and Kirk occurs. In the end, I have to chalk up with episode as another lost opportunity. The show could have made some sort of statement about mental illness, our treatment of it, and perhaps even the pressures of a starfleet captain like Kirk and Garth. That may sound like a tall order but Trek has often been at its best when it has something to say. That something unfortunately didn't make the final draft.

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And now Eric gets his shot:

With “Whom Gods Destroy,” we are two thirds of the way through the third and final season of original Star Trek. And while this episode isn't awful, there is a pall over it from a great opportunity lost.

The plot, that Kirk and Spock get trapped in an insane asylum (Elba II in this case), is a blatant rip-off of “Dagger of the Mind” from the first season, right down to reusing the prop chair with the whirly lights. But in spite of this, I found an interesting question that the episode brings up: What is the psychological toll of being in command? The question is raised by the fact that the former Fleet Captain of Starfleet, Garth of Izar, is one of the few incurably insane inmates of Elba II. (The Fleet Captain, by the way, is in charge of the entire fleet and is equivalent to the rank of Admiral.) As Garth notes in the episode, being Fleet Captain was a weighty responsibility, and he was one of the first starship commanders before that. In fact, as was also noted, he was so exceptional as a starship captain that he became the model for all of those who came after. It is reasonable to assume, then, that his stress load was quite high, enough that some kind of psychotic break would be within the realm of possibility.

Unfortunately, the writers and producers chose to attribute Garth's breakdown to being taught by the inhabitants of Antos to heal an injury through “cellular metamorphosis.” This isn't an absurd proposition, but the episode would be much more interesting and resonant (and believable) if Garth's insanity was caused by a mental weakness. If this were the case, how would it affect Kirk? He clearly admires Garth, so how would he react upon learning that his hero is just as flawed and susceptible to breakdowns as anyone else? Wouldn't Kirk then start to question his own stability? We could have had a really engaging look at how command is psychologically demanding and perhaps damaging, and it would have been a great opportunity for developing Kirk's character. Alas, it was not to be.So, while “Whom Gods Destroy” is not among the worst episodes of original Trek, I do regret that its potential was wasted.

Next time: “Let That be Your Last Battlefield”