TITLE BOUT

Episode Title:  Arena

Air Date: 1/19/1967

Written by Fredric Brown and Gene L. Coon

Directed by Joseph Pevney

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Sean Kenney as  Lieutenant DePaul            James Farley as Lieutenant Lang      Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn, Bobby Clark, and Gary Combs  as The Gorn Captain    Ted Cassidy as voice of Gorn Captain        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Jerry Ayres  as Lieutenant O'Herlihy             Grant Woods as Lieutenant Commander Kelowitz              Tom Troupe as Lt. Harold            Ron Veto as  Crewman      Carole Shelyne as the Metron       Vic Perrin as the voice of the Metron

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701,  Unseen and Unnamed Gorn vessel

Planets:  Cestus III and Metros

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with an away team consisting of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and a number of supporting cast are getting ready to transport the surface of the colony for some easy-going times.  The commanding officer there is known for having the best table the galaxy.  As their mouths are salivating for some unprocessed food they are transported the surface.  When they arrive they find that the colony has been completely destroyed!  Not only was it destroyed but the attack appears to have begun days ago making the communication that they been getting false.  The unseen enemy had a plan to lure their starship into this system to so they can destroy it.  Explosions let them immediately know that the attack still ongoing.  They run for cover and find a survivor.  While the attack is continuing on the surface, a Gorn ship comes into orbit and attacks the Enterprise.  Having to raise their shields, the Enterprise cannot beam the away team back.

No Thanksgiving dinner for us!

With a communicator in one hand and a phaser in the other Captain Kirk directs both the defense on the ground and the space battle above.  Resisting the advice of Mr. Spock to let Mr. Sulu handle the Enterprise’s engagement, Kirk insisted it’s his ship and he should be there.  Through his communicator the Captain tells his Helmsman what weapons to fire, when the fire them, and when to retreat.  Lt. Sulu follows his orders firing the phasers and photon torpedoes as commanded.  When the Gorn vessel’s shields hold Sulu pilots the Enterprise out of orbit.

Fighting two battles at once. 

On the ground Captain Kirk having organized their defense strategically places his men in the best place to fire their phasers for maximum effectiveness.  He then heads to the colony’s weapon supply to grab a photon grenade launcher.  The Captain with one of his crewman then launch it destroying their opponents.

With their ground forces annihilated the Gorn ship flees, the Enterprise returns to pick up the away team.   Captain Kirk leaves a medical crew behind to help with survivors and then engages the Enterprise in a chase of their enemies.  The whole event is reminiscent of “The Balance of Terror” where an enemy ship has attack colonies and is heading home to report on the Federation’s weakness.   It then becomes the duty of their starship to prevent that from occurring. Mr. Spock initially agrees, like he did the aforementioned episode, then he becomes reluctant to become is a voice to urge caution on the part of Captain Kirk.  Where the Captain is more determined if they don’t stop that ship it could mean war.   Spock's hesitance and attempts to calm the Captain down seem rather awkward giving his rather hawkish nature in “The Balance of Terror.”  The situation they face is similar.  It seems that Mr. Spock is given a different opinion in this episode is just for the narrative purpose of vocalizing the episode's ultimate moral.

 As the Enterprise continues to pursue the Gorn vessel, Captain Kirk brings his ship up to maximum warp to catch their prey.   Then as they pass this unchartered solar system the Gorn ship drops out of warp and shuts down.  At this point Captain Kirk should really expect that something is up as he is too smart of a tactician not to suspect at the very least they are playing possum.   He doesn’t and the Enterprise falls into the same trap as the Gorn vessel and are dead in space.

The Enterprise receives communications from a group called the Metrons.  The Metrons accuse both sides of violating their space with intentions of violence.  To show them that violence is wrong they intend to destroy one or both ships.  That part doesn't make a lot of sense.  How they will determine this is the captain of each ship shall be transported to the surface where there will be weapons. The two will battle the captain who prevails will be allowed to return to his ship and allowed to leave.  The captain who fails will be killed by his opponent and his ship destroyed by the Metrons.  With that Captain Kirk disappears from the bridge.

The meanest reptile in the galaxy!

Kirk is teleported to the surface of Metros (that resembles some deserts you’d see in the Southwest United States or Spain) and beside him is the captain of the Gorn ship.  The Gorn are race of reptiles and the Gorn Captain is a mean looking one at that.  Kirk decides that now is good time to enter one of his famous Captains Logs, in which he details that he has a natural revulsion towards reptiles.  He challenges himself to overcome this bigotry and remind himself that his opponent is a starship captain just like him.  He is cunning and dangerous.  As they each reach for a club it becomes clear the Gorn can carry a bigger club. 

At the start the battle Captain Kirk unleashes an attack using martial arts skills are famed throughout the universe for his debilitating strikes, speed of attack, and precision. The attack Kirk lays out would’ve put down any other man.  But Kirk wasn’t fighting a human, he was fighting a Gorn.  The Gorn thick reptilian hide made all of Kirk’s strikes as useless as if you were punching a rubber suit.  Fortunately for Kirk what the Gorn had in toughness he lacks in speed.  The Gorn Captain could only strike at the speed of glue allowing for Kirk to make an easy escape. 

After escaping the Gorn Kirk decides to use recording device provided to him by their captors, as opposed to his non-existent Captain's Log.  He says he records for whatever might receive this and he lets them know that he is looking for the weapons that were promised but he can’t find any the only thing he sees is loose materials.  While Captain Kirk is recording his frustrations of looking at rocks the Gorn is busy building a number of Kirk-traps.

Kirk returns to see the Gorn building one of the traps for him and notices above head a large rock.  At this point the episode seems to have turned into a Roadrunner and the Coyote cartoon.  Kirk climbs the mountain and pushes the rock off to land right on top of the Gorn.  Kirk is happy and victory skips down to see what he hopes to be the dead Gorn but to his surprise it turns out the Gorn’s hide is tougher than he thought and the Gorn easily pushes off the rock.

Looking to get the drop on him. 

Kirk then decides to make a run for it but ends up running into one of those Kirk-traps, and it looks like the good Captain is done for.  However the Gorn made a miscalculation, just as Kirk forgot how tough the Gorn were the Gorn Captain forgot how fast Captain Kirk was.  As he moves the object pinning Kirk the Starfleet officer scurries away.

Not looking good!

Kirk continues to give a blow-by-blow description in his recording device and in the one of the most funny moments of the episode we learn the entire time Kirk’s been recording he’s actually been transmitting to his opponent with a translation.  The Gorn Captain allows Kirk to know this, he communicates back to him and to tell Kirk that he’s been beaten and there is nothing that he could do about it.  However the Gorn has grown tired of chasing him around and wants Captain Kirk to accept the inevitable and just wait for him.  The Gorn Captain promises a swift and easy death for Captain Kirk if he is good enough to cooperate.  The Captain doesn’t think this is a good idea, but he does stop recording or to prevent the Gorn Captain from knowing everything is going to do.  During their disagreement the Gorn Captain revealed that the colony they attacked was in space that had already been claimed by the Gorn.  They felt they were defending themselves.

The funniest moment in the episode.

As the battle went on the Metrons decide to give the crew of the Enterprise bad news.  They are informed there Captain is losing and they should begin whatever religious rites they have to prepare for death.  The Metrons decide to allow the crew of the Enterprise to see the battle on their viewscreen.  Since Kirk is no longer giving commentary the audience gets to have it from Mr. Spock who described was going through the Captain’s mind.  Kirk has been surrounded the entire time with materials for gunpowder which he eventually figures out.  He built himself a makeshift cannon and uses it to defeat the Gorn.  With the Gorn at his mercy Kirk refuses to kill him for the satisfaction of the Metrons.  This impresses the Metrons, whose leader appears before Kirk and agrees to allow both ships to leave.   Kirk hopes there can be negotiations with the Gorn, and also have negotiations with the Metrons in the few thousand years that the Metrons thought it might take for us to catch up with them. 

The power of gunpowder

Additional thoughts: Interesting story about how this episode was written: Gene L. Coon had written the story independently but it was discovered to be very similar to a story written in a science fiction magazine in the 1940s.  Coon was afraid that he had plagiarized subconsciously so he contacted the author, Frederic Brown and bought the rights to the story from him. 

The episode is brilliant I love the way Captain Kirk was portrayed in the first act: commanding both the ground and space forces against the enemy.   I also love the similarities with “The Balance of Terror” which lead to a great misdirection to where the audience thinks the episode is going.  The end of the episode we see Kirk’s brain prevail over the enemy’s brawn. 

I didn’t really particularly care for the way Spock was written of this episode is seemed his sole purpose was to act as a sounding board for Kirk or as a general narrator.

Crew looking in on their Captain!

Some notable returning guests stars Ted Cassidy who played the fake voice of Balok in “The Corbomite Maneuver” and the android Ruk in “What Are Little Girls Made of?” is featured in this episode as the voice of the Gorn Captain.  Sean Kenney who played the disabled Fleet Captain Pike in “The Menagerie” is here playing Lieutenant DePaul, whose just as talkative as Pike even with a healthy set of lungs.              

Another strange Captain's Log entry made even stranger that Kirk started to use the recording device given.  Is the Captain's Log recorded post adventure? Why does Kirk use the present tense?  Is he hoping to publish them into his written memoirs someday?  I openly laughed when we find that Kirk recording into the Metrons' device was actually broadcasting to the Gorn. It is really funny. 

 

The photo next to the word "hypocrite" in the dictionary. 

Metrons are some of the biggest hypocritical characters we’ve ever seen in on this series.  The Gorn attack because they were afraid the Federation was encroaching on their territory and they felt threatened.  Kirk wanted to destroy the Gorn ship because of their ruthless attack on the colony.  The Metrons denounce both sides for violence and because of it they threaten violence.  Now I can understand the Metrons not caring for the Gorn and the Federation for bringing their fight into Metron territory.  Unfortunately for the Metrons that would morally put them on the same space as a Gorn and the Federation.  But their poop doesn’t stink.  They have the morally lecture everyone about their problem with violence and enforce their decision with violence.  They don’t let the Federation vessel in the Gorn vessel to battle each other with one ship being destroyed.  They would rather have the captains fight it out and they destroyed the losing ship for them.  I am failing to see how they are moral in any way superior to anyone else.  They said that human race would not be ready to deal with them for at least thousands of more years, and I say good riddance.

(FINAL GRADE 5 of 5)

CAPTAIN KIRK FIGHTS ANOTHER BOY GOD THIS ONE FAR MORE POWERFUL

Episode Title:  The Squire of Gothos

Air Date: 1/12/1967

Written by Paul Schneider

Directed by Don McDougall

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Michael Barrier as  Lieutenant DeSalle            Richard Carlyle as Lieutenant Jaeger       Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Venita Wolf as Yeoman Second Class Teresa Ross      William Campbell as Trelane     Barbara Babcock as Trelane's Mother      Bart La Rue as Trelane's Father

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Gothos

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the USS Enterprise traveling across a “space desert” this causes Kirk and McCoy to muse about planetary deserts to which Spock find strange. However what is even stranger is they appear to come across a random planet that should not be there.  Kirk decides to spend a moment to chart its location so they can come back after they’ve delivered the supplies to a nearby colony. All of a sudden Lt. Sulu freezes and disappears. Kirk goes over to try to see what happened to his officer and he disappears as well.  Spock then starts a search throughout the ship for the missing crewmembers.  When Scotty reports that they can’t be found anywhere they decide to consider the possibility that they may be on the planet below.  Unfortunately all their readings suggest that the plan is uninhabitable for humanoid life and if the Captain and Mr. Sulu were down there they probably were dead already. It is at this point for the Enterprise receives a strange communication with the surface.  It reads “hip hip hurrah, tally Ho.”

This was unexpected!

The good news is this means there is something at the surface and perhaps the Captain and the Chief Helmsman may be all right.  Spock sends away team lead by the navigator-of- the-week Lt. DeSalle, Dr. McCoy and Lt. Jaeger, who is a geologist. When they transport down to the planet they’re pleasantly surprised to find that the atmosphere is beautiful and Earth-like.  The downside however is they seem to of lost communication with their ship.   They look around and Lt. DeSalle discovers a giant mansion.

Kirk and Sulu on display!

They enter the mansion where they noticed that it is full of old fashions and objects on the history of Earth. To McCoy’s shock he sees on un-Earth-like thing: a salt vampire on display. It appears still, dead, and possibly stuffed.  Considering his history with those creatures it is understandable why McCoy would react in the way that he did.  In fact I felt he was rather restrained.  Then in another display they find Captain Kirk and Mr. Sulu frozen in the position that they disappeared in.  

General Trelane, retired, the Squire of Gothos

The away team then hears a harpsichord playing and they come face to face with an unusual gentleman. The gentleman unfreezes both Kirk and Sulu.  He introduces himself as General Trelane, retired, who is the Squire of Gothos.  He explains that he is quite a fan of Earth is very excited that they’ve come to visit him.  He was surprised however because in his observations he did not think they were capable of faster-than-light travel. Trelane goes on to say that he wants to hear all about their stories of conquest and war.  When Kirk objects to state their missions are peaceful, the Squire sarcastically remarks “that that always is the ‘official’ story.”  Trelane shows off his battle flags, he talks about how exciting he finds the concept of war, and then tries to speak to some of the away team by appealing to their national ancestries.  When he realizes that DeSalle is French he tries to talk with him about Napoleon in French, he tries to speak German to Yeager.  Yeager responds that he’s not a military man but a scientist to which Trelane says “we’re all military men under the skin.”

Proud of his flags!

When Kirk tries to inquire into how Trelane does all the things he could do, the Squire explains that his people—that he does not name—have perfected a process where he can change matter to energy and then back into matter again.  When Kirk makes an analogy of the transporter Trelane calls that device crude and explains that he doesn’t just transport things he can alter the matter to any shape he wants as a matter of will. 

Fun with phasers!

While this is going on back on the Enterprise, Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott have figured out a way to boost the sensors so they can detect a part of the planet this actually habitable.  They can't explain why it exists but Mr. Spock comes up with a plan to have the Chief Engineer transport whatever lifeforms the sensors pick up and hope it’s their missing crewmen.

Back on the planet the scientist Yeager, notices some holes in Trelane’s set up.  It seems that he had been observing Earth through some sort a powerful telescope but because of light speed he’s observing the Earth centuries past.   Yeager also notices that although the fire in Trelane’s fireplace burns it does not give off any heat.  DeSalle decides to attempt to take out the Squire with his phaser, as Trelane continued to play his harpsichord.  Trelane sees him in the mirror and freezes the Lieutenant in place.  He then takes the phaser from DeSalle’s hand, switches it to the highest setting and then starts randomly disintegrating things with it.  The destruction excites him for he openly wonders how many people the weapon could kill.  Kirk is angry at this alleged threat, fortunately for him Mr. Spock comes through they're able to communicate with the Enterprise again, and they to Trelane’s annoyance beam away.

As the away team returns the Enterprise, Captain Kirk heads to the bridge with every intention of getting his ship out of there and as far as way from Trelane as possible.   However as they try to leave Trelane appears on bridge.  He demands that Mr. Spock be punished for angering him for which Kirk of course refuses.  Their escape was short-lived however as Trelane easily brings them back.  In less than a moment they are in the Squire’s mansion.  He treats them to a feast with food and wine that have little to no taste.  The Squire flirts with the female crewmembers Lt. Uhura and the Janice Rand-replacement-for-the-week, Yeoman Ross.  He asks Lt. Uhura to play the harpsichord and when she insists she can’t he instantly gives her the ability and she starts to play.  With Uhura playing beautifully he then dances with the Yeoman and changes her uniform into a formal dress.

Trelane on the bridge!

Kirk and Spock notice that Trelane likes to get close to the mirror and rarely leaves it.  Kirk comes to the conclusion that the mirror is attached to a machine which the source of Trelane’s power.  Kirk begins to mock the Squire.  This at first confuses Trelane. When Kirk slaps him with the gloves that Trelane made for the Yeoman, the Squire realizes he’s being challenged to a duel.  This excites Trelane and he gathers some pistols that he tells Kirk were modeled after the firearms that killed Alexander Hamilton.  Kirk then thinks this is a great time to make an entry in the Captain’s Log.  After the Captain is done logging, their duel begins and Trelane tells Kirk that he gets to fire first as he was the one who was challenged and when Kirk tries to object he points his pistol at Spock.  Kirk agrees and Trelane fires first intentionally missing.  He then eagerly waits to see what Kirk will do and Kirk also intentionally misses, but Kirk’s shot hits the mirror and sparks start flying! The machine has been destroyed!  Trelane is outraged as the Enterprise crew makes their escape with their transporter technology one more time.

Kirk would like it for Trelane to leave his Yeoman alone!

Now back on the bridge Kirk orders the ship to turn around 180° so they can go back the way they came.  However as they begin the speed away the planet Gothos appears right in front of them again.  Every direction the Enterprise turns it sees the planet Gothos directly in its path.  The horrible truth is realized: Trelane wasn’t empowered by the machine, the Squire was powerful for real and his machine was powered by him!  Kirk decides the only thing he can do is to confront Trelane head on.  He decides to beam down but he doesn’t have to, as he enters the turbo lift he finds that he is now for the third time a prisoner of Trelane.

Judge Trelane

Trelane puts him on trial for treason, to which Kirk really should’ve responded by telling the Squire that he never swore any allegiance to him that he could betray him from.  It probably wouldn't have mattered because Trelane isn't dictated by any logic and he already had the verdict in mind.  Trelane finds Kirk guilty and sentences him to death by hanging , telling him he will hang until he is “DEAD, DEAD, DEAD!” To which Kirk missed an opportunity here to use the Billy the Kid line and say, “you can go to HELL, HELL, HELL!”

Kirk has something better in mind he challenges Trelane to be more creative. Kirk managed to convince Trelane to hunt him instead.  Trelane excitedly agrees and frees Kirk in his forest so he can chase him.  Every time the Squire confronts Kirk on seemingly even ground Kirk hands him his head, and every time it happens Trelane needs to use powers to wiggle out.  He finally grows frustrated and boxes the Captain in.  It looks like Kirk is doomed but at this moment we learn the truth about Trelane.  Despite his adult appearance the Squire is actually a child.  His parents show up in their species' true energy forms and chastise their son for being cruel to his pets.  Trelane cries and whines so much that his father tells him to shut up and if he continues to cry he won’t be allowed to make any more planets.   Trelane is taken away and his mother apologizes to Kirk.

Kirk cornered! Time for Mom and Dad to show up!

As the Enterprise resumes it's supply run Spock asks Kirk for help trying to classify Trelane.  Kirk suggests he be classified as the God of War or as a naughty schoolboy.  Spock thinks that entry will be interesting.   

Additional thoughts: One of the most entertaining episodes of the series, William Campbell’s portrayal of the powerful boy god is one of the most remembered.  The character is absolutely amazing.  You’re never quite sure what he’s going to do next.  Although he would be irritating to deal with, watching him cross the crew of the Enterprise is a lot of fun.

So let’s talk about the Captain’s Log for second.  I thought Kirk’s timing for his log entry was rather bizarre.  I understand these episodes were made before the coming of VHS much less on demand, the audience who got home late didn’t have the opportunity to go back and see the early part of the episode so the logs would help catch them up.  Now back in “The Man Trap” we had Kirk note his Captain’s Log in the past tense.  His reporting of adventures after they happen explains how he knows certain things for the log entry and is able to explain it to the audience.  The drawback to log entries made after the adventure was already over is it acts as a type spoiler: we know the Captain gets out okay.  Granted it might not be much of a spoiler since we know the star of the show isn’t going anywhere but still if you want to add drama to the episode's scenes Kirk telling the story from the future might drain that.  However, the spoiler at least makes some sense unlike the one from this episode where everything is told present tense.  Here we get the powerful Trelane pulling out his firearms modeled after the very weapons that slew Alexander Hamilton, and Kirk’s immediate response is: “Okay, I’ll take that one.  Now you stand over there why I enter my Captain’s Log then I’ll join you in our fight to the death.”

I’m sorry didn’t Yeager seem to be a little too old for a Starfleet lieutenant?  Did he join Starfleet later in life?  Or did he just choose a career path with a very slow advancement in rank?  If you want to make Captain you better be eager to join the line but if you’re the science departments, particularly in in geology, you’re going to be looking at some very slow advancement.  It’s interesting in the real life military if you don’t get a promotion after certain particular amount of time that officer is usually retired.  Starfleet seems to honor the Peter Principle allowing people to get stuck in the same job for decades.

Another element about this episode that I truly enjoyed was Captain Kirk caught in a reasonable error.  One of the traits that Kirk is often shown to have is his skill as a military tactician, he often clearly sees his enemies’ weakness and how to exploit it.  Despite his intelligence, Mr. Spock often loses at chess to Captain Kirk.  In “The Balance of Terror” Kirk quickly picks up that the Romulan Bird of Prey decloaks before it fires because it has to.  One of my favorite examples is in “Charlie X.” In that episode Kirk realizes the powerful Charlie Evans often makes people disappear when he’s angry with them, however he also notices that Charlie stops doing this when he takes over the ship.  Kirk concludes, correctly as it turns out, that Charlie’s power is limited in that if he activates all his ship’s systems he may be able to overload him.  Kirk defeats Charlie just in time for the Thasians to pick him up.  In this episode, Kirk notices Trelane’s obsession with his mirror.  Kirk correctly assumes that is connected to a machine that he built but incorrectly assumes is the source of his power.  When Kirk destroys the machine he thinks he won then Trelane reveals his true abilities.  Kirk’s logic was spot on and he acted with utmost correctness.  He didn’t make a mistake but he still lost.  This would be a theme that will be repeated later throughout the series and franchise.

Next I want talk about the obvious continuity error.  It was ingenious to create a character who is powerful enough to see Earth from his distance but failing to take light speed into consideration was viewing Earth only from the past.  The issue of course is in the episode they say that he was 900 light-years from Earth so the latest he would be able to see would be the end of the Wars of the Roses.  He should not be able to see anything about Napoleon Bonaparte or Alexander Hamilton.  There is of course an easy way to explain this discrepancy.  We saw Trelane move his planet, he may have chosen to move it hundreds of light-years at a time observing the Earth from different angles, perhaps he thought he was getting a better look at it and thus picked up later time periods.  His father also said that he wouldn’t be allowed to create more planets maybe he has is already created some it was on those worlds where he observed the Earth and he was able to see the French Emperor.

 What is Trelane? When reviewing these episodes I try to stick to the episode reviewed for my information on it.  Even if something is addressed later in the series I don’t want to mention it when discussing the initial episode, because I want to appreciate each episode in the context for which they are made.  So when I reviewed “Mudd’s Women” I didn’t make any mention of the character’s later appearance in “I, Mudd.”  Now when I get to “I, Mudd” I will mention the former episode but that’s because when the later episode was written it was done so with the earlier episode in mind.  Coincidentally when it gets time for me to review “The Trouble with Tribbles” I won’t be mentioning the little furry creatures appearances in The Animated Series, Deep Space Nine, or Discovery.  Although, I will mention the classic episode when discussing its successors.  With that said who and what Trelane is, is in itself a very interesting Question.  His parents say that their child can and has made planets leading me to Question what type of life form is capable of such a feat?  Trelane said that he and others of his kind have the ability to take matter changed into energy and then change it back to matter again in any form that they want at will.  It is good to ask Questions about what type species that could possibly be and if we may ever see them again? Questions, Questions, Questions.

(FINAL GRADE 5 of 5)

THE MOST ENTERTAINING PLANET IN THE UNIVERSE

Episode Title:  Shore Leave

Air Date: 12/29/1966

Written by Theodore Sturgeon

Directed by Gerald Fried

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”             George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu    Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura             Perry Lopez as Lieutenant Rodriguez              Stephen Mines as Lieutenant Robert Tomlinson    Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie              Bill Blackburn as White Rabbit                    Barbara Baldavin as Ensign Angela Martine          Emily Banks as Yeoman First Class Tonia Barrows          Frank da Vinci as Lt. Brent       John Carr as unnamed guard          Jeannie Malone as Yeoman        Anthony Larry Paul as Crewman              Ron Veto as  Crewman           Bruce Mars as Cadet Finnegan              Marcia Brown as Alice                       Sebastian Tom as Warrior                            Shirley Bonne as Ruth          Paul Baxley as Black Knight           Jim Gruzal as Don Juan         Oliver McGowan as Caretaker

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Unnamed Planet in Omicron Delta

My Spoiler filled summary and review: A tried weary Enterprise crew is in need for some serious shore leave as the ship orbits an unexplored planet.  Even Captain Kirk is feeling the strain and there is a funny scene when he complains about a pain in his back.  When he feels a hand against his back he thinks Mr. Spock is providing him relief.  Then Spock steps forward Kirk realizes to his shock that the person massaging his lower back is actually his Yeoman. On the planet, which apparently has neither intelligent life nor animal life and is a planet only of plants, is being explored by Dr. McCoy and Lt. Sulu.  As a botanist Lt. Sulu must be really excited to study plants that don’t operate with insects.   All of a sudden Dr. McCoy literally sees scene right out of the classic literary story Alice in Wonderland, when a giant rabbit wearing a waistcoat pulls out a pocket watch and exclaims he’s late.  Moments later a little blonde girl in the blue dress shows up and asked the doctor if he had seen the rabbit to which McCoy points in the general direction of the girl takes off.

Make McCoy think he is insane.

McCoy checks with Sulu and when he can’t confirm same thing McCoy calls up the ship to report that something is really strange or he’s losing his mind. Kirk at first things McCoy’s joking.  When Kirk sees that McCoy isn't joking he decides an investigation is in order.  He wants to get it wrapped up quick so he can authorize the shore leave parties for his weary crew.  At this point Mr. Spock points out that there is one member the crew who desperately needs shore leave because his performance is way down he’s resisting, Kirk says no crew member has no right to the endanger the ship so if they need to go on a rest leave they should go.  Spock then reports that the Captain is the crew member that is in need of the leave, a clever trick for Mr. Spock.

Mr. Spock isn't helping its that Yeoman with a crush

   Kirk beams down to the planet with his Yeoman and runs in to Lt. Rodriguez and Ensign Martine.  We last saw Martine when she lost her intended on the day of their wedding in “The Balance of Terror.” I guess she must be beginning to get over the loss as she seems quite flirtatious with the lieutenant.  Kirk asks them how they find the planet, they give a positive report and give the Captain directions to wear he can find Dr. McCoy.  McCoy shows Kirk the giant rabbit tracks and Kirk orders an investigation cancels the shore leave parties until this is resolved. 

Trigger Happy Sulu

A number of strange things start to occur.  Yeoman Barrows is attacked by a fictional character that she was thinking about moments ago.  Kirk and McCoy hear gun fire and run to see Lt. Sulu firing a gun that he just found on the ground. Kirk ends up taking the gun away from Sulu for he is a little too trigger happy.  As they continue investigating Kirk while carrying on a conversation with McCoy confides to him that he been bullied at the Academy by a senior cadet named Finnegan.  Sure enough Cadet Finnegan appears to torment Kirk.  Finnegan attacks and runs off with Kirk following him.  Finnegan disappears and Kirk runs into Ruth, a long lost love.  Throughout the incidents the camera often shows a strange metal object in front of the characters: a hint at what might be responsible.

Kirk's bully

 While Kirk is with Ruth he receives communication from the ship but notices that the voices are breaking up on his communicator.  With great reluctance he leaves Ruth to continue his investigation.  Mr. Spock, with some difficulty, is able to beam down but giving his rough trip they don’t dare try it again with anyone else.  He informs the Captain that the ship's systems are starting to fail and they need to get a resolution to this crisis quickly.

Yeoman Barrows has strange fantasies 

While this is going on Rodriguez and Martine are chased by a tiger and Lt. Sulu is chased by samurai.  I have to wonder when the two who encountered by the tiger, didn’t bother to fire their phaser however we later learn the phasers are inoperable anyway.   McCoy seems to be having a good time with Yeoman Barrows, who found some medieval clothing it is now dressed up like a lady out of a fairy-tale.  She and McCoy seem to be having a bit of a romance when out of nowhere a knight for the same period that Barrows is dressed up as shows up to attack them.  This happened after Barrows announced she was now lady to be fought for.  McCoy stands in to defend Barrows and is killed by the knight!  Lt. Rodriguez and Ensign Martine see a World War II aircraft in the sky.  These were the type that Rodriguez had a hobby for and he explained to Martine what it would look like if the plane were to attack them.  Then the plane proceeds to do that and kills the Ensign!

Here's another one!

 Kirk and Spock respond to Barrows’s screaming and Kirk kills the knight that slayed McCoy with the gun that was found by Sulu.  Upon discovering that McCoy was killed, Kirk grows angry for this is no longer fun and games.  They also discover that the knight isn't real it's body looks like a mannequin.  As he continues to his investigation Kirk is confronted by Finnegan one last time.  This time they fight and Kirk on leashes on him a fierce attack using his famed fighting skills that are unparalleled throughout the galaxy.  This allows Captain Kirk to lay the beating on Cadet Finnegan that he always wanted to.  Spock sees Kirk right after he’s defeated Finnegan and asked him how he feels. Kirk thinks about Spock’s question and reports he feels great as beating Finnegan was something he always wanted to do.  With that in mind Kirk realizes the secret to this planet:  whatever they want comes to life.

Kirk's lost love, one of them

Armed with this new knowledge Kirk assembles his remaining away team.  He commands everyone to clear their mind to think of nothing so the planet can’t bring anything to life on them.  It’s moments like these that makes me think, as much as I may wish to be, it is good thing I’m not part of Captain Kirk’s crew.  For this moment if I was part of the away team we would be attacked by the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. For when anyone tells me to clear my head that’s the first thing that pops in there.  I would hate to have to tell Captain Kirk what Ray had to tell his fellow Ghostbusters, “I couldn’t help it.”

Charging a McCoy

However the away team from the Enterprise was made of better people than me and they clear their heads just fine.  At this point they meet the Caretaker.  He explains that this planet was made for the amusement of his kind who were now long gone.  However, the Caretaker offers that if they would like the planet can now be used as their own personal amusement park.  It is what the planet was originally for. The drain on the Enterprise’s power was an unfortunate side effect and has now been corrected. When Kirk asks about his dead crew members, McCoy and Ensign Martine show up alive and well.  McCoy even has couple of lovely ladies about his side to the annoyance of Yeoman Barrows. They never really died it was all part of the fantasy planet.

 

I'm dead, Jim!

Now they know the truth Captain Kirk tells the Caretaker that the power of illusion that this planet has is so great that they will have the quarantine it and anyone who goes there will have to face the death penalty, unless they go there for a really good reason.   Oh wait!  That is not what happens.  What actually happens is Kirk authorizes the remaining shore leave parties to come down and lets the Caretaker know that with the right precautions this would become a great planet for people to come for vacation.  Kirk then runs off with his fantasy girlfriend Ruth.    

Additional thoughts: This was a really fun episode; it was full of surprises and was driven by characters.  It can be quite a problem when whatever you think about comes to life particularly when you’re Yeoman Barrows and you have these really strange sexual fetishes that involves a Don John appearing out of nowhere to rip your dress off.

 

Caretaker, after minds are clear

How come someone with intelligence of Sulu not question a random firearm he found on unexplored planet?  I guess is a strong love of antique weapons overrode his common sense.  No wonder Kirk had to confiscate the weapon from him the man was a little too trigger happy, although the gun did coming use when fighting the knight.

I didn’t really think anything about Ruth, Kirk has so many women his past that whenever we meet them they rarely interest me.  I don’t view Ruth as this great love just because she was the one he imagined on the fantasy planet.  I just think he was she was on his mind.  Probably before the mission he encountered something that reminded him of her so she entered his thoughts, or maybe she protected him from Finnegan when he was a cadet.

 

Speaking of Cadet Finnegan, what happened to the real one?  We know Kirk never got any real resolution with him.  Is he still Starfleet?  Given Kirk’s fast rise up the ranks he may outrank Finnegan now.  If so the Captain should avoid temptation to transfer them to the Enterprise just for the purpose of bossing him around.  If they encounter an ion storm and it’s Finnegan’s turn to play Russian roulette with a pod, everyone will blame Kirk if he dies.

McCoy is a man with right ideas!

Watching this episode one has to wonder what they would doing the fantasy planet.  It is better than a holodeck seeing as you don’t have to program it. (“No bloody A, B,C, or D.”) Anything your mind could dream could become a reality.  I would take a page of Dr. McCoy’s book, and re-create the strip club Platinum Plus in Portland Maine as it existed from 2003 to 2009.  Where all my favorite dancers would still be there especially the Russians and the dancers I went to high school with; who are now all retired, married, and with children.  Of course I would have infinite amounts of money.   

FINAL GRADE: 4 of 5

KIRK, SPOCK, AND PIKE CONTINUE TO WATCH “THE CAGE” AND CREATE A COMMENTARY EDITION

Episode Title:  The Menagerie Part 2

Air Date: 11/24/1966

Written by Gene Roddenberry

Directed by Robert Butler

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Hagan Beggs as Lieutenant  Hansen                   Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Sean Kenney as Fleet Captain Christopher Pike (disabled)         Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Guard                    Malachi Throne as Commodore José Mendez           James Holt as Starfleet Officer              Jeffrey Hunter as young and healthy Captain Christopher Pike          Majel Barrett as Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley         John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce       Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José Tyler        Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Second Class J. M. Colt       Clegg Hoyt as Transporter Chief Pitcairn          Ed Madden as Enterprise Geologist            Adam Roarke as C.P.O. Garrison              Susan Oliver as Vina             Meg Wyllie as The Keeper           Malachi Throne as The Keeper (voice)         Georgia Schmidt as the First Talosian            Robert C. Johnson as the First Talosian (voice)         Serena Sande as the Second Talosian         Jon Lormer as  Dr. Theodore Haskins            Leonard Mudie as the Second Survivor            Anthony Jochim as the Third Survivor               Michael Dugan as The Kaylar                 Robert Phillips as Space Officer (Orion)              Joseph Mell as Earth Trader

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Talos IV

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode starts with a quick recap reminding the audience of everything that happened in the previous episode, even showing a bonus scene of Spock pleading guilty to all the charges put to him.  At the conclusion of the previous episode Commodore Mendez, having received confirmation that the images were indeed coming from Talos IV, took command of the Enterprise and ended their viewing of “The Cage.” Spock now tells the Commodore tough, they still don’t have physical control of the ship and the Keeper is now in control of the viewscreen.  So they will continue to watch and I will quote from my own review of “The Cage.”

You don't want to continue to watch, well logically explain to me why I should care.

        “When Pike wakes up he finds himself in a cage in what appears to be a zoo.  The Talosians come out to examine him and they communicate using thought patterns that even Pike can here.  Despite Pike being able to understand their form of communication the Talosians seem to be talking more at him than with him as they regard him as some sort of creature for their entertainment.  Pike demands to know what is going on and what their plans are and the Talosians think that is funny.   The one known as “the Keeper” shows off his telepathic skills by predicting what Pike will do before he does it.  They leave and Pike is placed in an illusion putting him back on Rigel VII where he had been weeks before.   It was in this place that he had his disastrous mission and members of his crew died.  Here Vina, the same woman from before but with a new dress and longer hair, is acting as the damsel in distress who Pike must protect.  Pike defeats the Rigelian warrior just like he did in real life, then he is back in the cage with Vina.  He tries to get information out of Vina but she speaks to him in riddles.

                “Back on the Enterprise Number One takes command with the determination that would terrify studio executives and test audiences alike.  A woman in command of men?!?  Even women in test audiences wondered why she wasn’t allowing one of the boys to take charge.  While the senior staff discusses options Boyce tries to continually warn them what they are facing beings that can read their minds and create illusions so powerful they are like reality.  He echoes what Vina told Pike, even if it is not real they will still feel it.

                “Number One ultimately decided on the old US Grant belief that doing something was always better than doing nothing.  And a giant laser cannon powered by a starship’s engines is an awful lot of something.   However as they continue to blast the top of the hill nothing happens, or as the Doctor says maybe something did happen but they aren’t able to notice.

                “While his crew was blasting a big rock with lasers, Captain Pike continued his adventure in his cage of make believe.  The one consistent thing in each fantasy is the beautiful Vina who Pike comes to believe must also be real and prisoner like him.  She advises him on how to deal with their captors but also begs him to comply warning they can be punished with their own nightmares brought to life.  The Talosians are pleased as Pike becomes protective of Vina.

                “They are given different fantasies to try out.  In one fantasy the couple is put in an ideal domestic situation where they are husband and wife, who live on Earth, and ride out on Pike’s horses for daily picnic lunches.   When Pike starts calling it out for not being real it causes Vina to think she has figured out what is bothering Pike.  She rationalizes why none of the previous fantasizes worked for him.  Everything before was pulled from his memories places he has been to before, where a person’s fantasy is about what they cannot or should not have.   With that the world transforms and Pike is now a wealthy merchant trader and Vina is dancing Orion slave girl.  This works for a moment but Pike then tries to leave with Vina following him.”

             

Vina a damsel for Pike to save!

Vina a wife for Pike to love!

Vina a sexy slave girl for Pike to do what ever he wants with.

                       There are breaks from the viewing for the tribunal to ask questions about Talosian motivations, discuss their thoughts on Orion Slave Girls, and at one point Captain Pike faints.  There is also a point where the Talosians stop broadcasting for some unknown reason that is never really explained but is just used as an excuse to show a unanimous guilty verdict by the tribunal (which I don’t understand the point of at all seeing as we all saw Mr. Spock pleading guilty in the beginning at the recap.)  However the tape roles again and we all forget everything that has just happened.

              “ In his conversations with Vina, Pike starts to learn something about his captors.  At first he thought they captured him for their entertainment purposes to live experiences through him.   Vina tells him that the Talosians use to live on the surface but a horrible war brought them underground.  Pike reasoned the found physical life limited so instead they concentrated on their mental power.  Over time they become the big-headed masters of illusions.   Vina says it’s a trap that they are stuck living the experiences of others and have forgotten how to work the machines of their ancestors.   Then Pike learns the actual reason he was captured: they don’t want him to entertain them they want to rebuild their civilization with Vina.

                “Vina tries to explain that they are to be like Adam and Eve.  With that knowledge Pike has discovered an undeniable truth.  For all their telepathy and illusion making powers, the Talosians are an exceptionally stupid people.  They are so dumb that it is arguable that in the first episode Star Trek introduced us to the stupidest creature they would ever create.  As one later Star Trek character would say 'How can you be so dumb with heads like that?'  

               “It is really hard to conceive how stupid the Talosians, as a group, would have to be in order to believe that they could create and entire planetary population with just two people.  Why did they believe this?  Because Vina told them the story of Adam and Eve?  Did they find a copy of the Bible on the ship she crashed in?  Did they read the rest of it?  I assuming not since they didn’t try steal one of Pike’s ribs to grow a woman.

                “With the Vina not winning Pike over the Talosians grow more desperate.   As the crew of the Enterprise attempts another landing party the Talosians arrange that only Number One and Yeoman Colt are transported down right into Pike’s cage.  This actually is a better idea in terms of creating a world population.  If Pike reproduces with three women at least the next generation will only be required to marry half-siblings and not full ones.  However the Talosians are not thinking this way they expect Pike to choose between them.

               “Vina understands and is angered by Talosians bringing in the new women.  She berates both of them leading Number One to mention that she went over Vina’s ship manifest and the only Vina in there was an adult.  As she begins to do the math the Keeper and his agents show up.  He demands Pike makes a choice and he begins to compare the new arrivals.  The Keeper points to Number One’s intelligence as good reason to choose her because she will provide intelligent offspring.  The Keeper also points out Number One often has him as the object of her fantasies.  He then mentions that the Yeoman also fantasizes about him and that she has ‘usually strong female drives.’

               “Number One and Yeoman Rand had hand lasers that were set aside for being drained of power.  As Pike and his trio of women sleep however the Keeper himself sneaks in the cage and tries to steal them.  Pike however catches him, the Keeper tries make himself appear as a creature but Pike isn’t buying it.  Pike then tries one of the lasers on his cage.  When it doesn’t work he points it at the Keeper’s head explaining he thinks the lasers are working but they are keeping them from seeing it.   The Keeper gives in but it is all just a ruse to the prisoners to the surface so the baby making and world building can begin.  This scene once more demonstrates the Talosians intelligence and stupidity, they are smart enough to lure their prisoners to the surface but dumb enough that they still think Pike can choose one of the females and start a civilization.

 

More women, right idea

              “Number One startles the Talosians by setting her laser to self-destruct that and when they scanned the Enterprise’s data base they also found the humans incompatible with captivity.  With this the Talosians give up and decided to let Pike and humans go.  Vina, however, tells Pike that she cannot leave with them.  As the two other women beam back up to the ship, the Talosians show Pike why Vina couldn’t go.  Now if you thought the Talosians were dumbest creatures in the galaxy going into this you discover that there is a level of stupidity in the Star Trek universe that you didn’t even know was possible.  Vina isn’t young and beautiful.  She was a young woman when her ship crashed and she had barely survived the Talosians helped as best they could but as they had never seen another human, and weren’t too particularly bright to begin with, all they ended up with was a mutilated Frankenstein type woman.

“So the Talosians thought they could create an entire planetary population with one healthy man and one horrible disfigured and mutilated middle aged woman!  "Everything works" according to Vina but with all due respect how can she know?  She hasn’t had much of an opportunity to become pregnant and I wouldn’t trust the word of Talosians.  Not because I thought they were lying but because they are not smart meaning they are probably just wrong.”

               

The Talosians were betting their future on this woman's reproductive capabilities. 

                   Upon seeing the secret of Vina, Captain Kirk instantly knows why it is Mr. Spock had risked so much to bring his former captain here.   If Captain Pike were to go to Talos IV the Talosians could probably do for the injured Captain that they were already doing for Vina.  With that in mind Captain Kirk turns the Commodore only to see him vanish.  The Keeper, directly communicating with Captain Kirk, tells him that the Commodore ever since the shuttlecraft was there only as an illusion, and Captain Pike is free to come to their planet where he can live a life as if the injuries that befell on him never happened at all.

Kirk speaks with his predecessor one last time

                With that we get word from Starfleet that they too have seen the Talosian transmission, and in a one-off exemption have chosen to pardon Spock and give Captain Kirk free reign to what he sees as best.  Kirk confirms with Pike that he wants to go and Spock takes him away to the transporter room.  Kirk gives a passing jab about Spock’s giving into emotion.  To which Spock replies he has been logical about the entire affair.  On the viewscreen Captain Kirk gets to watch Captain Pike have his reunion with Vina.

Happy ever after!

 Additional Thoughts: The first part of this story contained mostly new material with a few clips from “The Cage,” this part however is really just “The Cage commentary track.”  We get to basically learn Captain Kirk’s opinions on the only episode of the series that he was not present for.  Come to think of it that is a good commentary track idea: having an actor play their character while commenting on an episode.  I don’t know if anyone has ever done that.

                There are some noted differences from the unedited The Cage. Here are some of the changes that I noticed in part two:

·         Vina’s comments about her headaches in the domestic fantasy have been removed.

·         The comments from Pike’s illusion trader friends about the nature of Orion slave women have been removed and replaced by comments from Commodore Mendez.

·         The final scene on the bridge we get neither Dr. Boyce’s sarcastic remarks nor Yeoman Colts inquiring about who would have been “Eve.”

·         The most important change is instead of Vina running off with a fictional version of Captain Pike for herself, that scene is shown as the real Pike joining Vina in the land of illusion where they were young and healthy.

           Now about that last part, given that scene is so dramatically changed in what it is supposed to represent to us we must ask: which one of these is canon?  I would say probably the second one as that one was actually broadcast on TV the first one wasn’t.  However, can they both be canon?  Did Vina have her own fictional Captain Pike to hang out with these 13 years the real Captain Pike was off living his life in the real world?  If so how’s the real Captain Pike going to compete with a fictional version of himself created out of what Vina considers to be ideal?  Does the relationship not work out and instead they both get a fictional Pike any fictional Vina instead of the people they both really are?  No, no, no!  They lived happily ever after that’s my ending and I’m sticking with it!

           Of course the true losers here are the Talosians.  As previously stated my belief in their stupidity increased by a factor of ten upon learning the truth of Vina.  They really thought that she was going to be a mother of a new generation to continue on their civilization with her age and deformed body.  I imagine the arrival Captain Pike must grant them excitement they probably think they can start getting their civilization back on track with their Adam returning to join their Eve to be parents of a new generation of surface dwellers committed to continuing the Talosian culture.  They are going to be so disappointed.

           So why again is there a death penalty for going this place?  I think were supposed to believe it is something to do with their power of illusion, but in all honesty I think the reason they prohibit any starship from going there is they believe at Starfleet Command that there is a chance the extreme stupidity of the Talosians could potentially be contagious.  And not wanting to see their collective average  IQ drop 30 or 40 points Starfleet Command  have instead chosen to protect their people by imposing such drastic measures.

          Despite its flaws “The Menagerie” was a creative and clever way to include the original rejected pilot into the early canon of Star Trek.  It gave the relatively young show a bit of a history.  Captain Kirk not being the original captain and having predecessors was one of the things I thought was really cool about the original Star Trek when I was first watching it. Granted when I started watching it The Next Generation was on, but being able to name a captain other than Kirk and Picard was something that could be used to impress the casual viewer.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5