THE CREW OF THE USS ENTERPRISE RUN INTO SOME 20TH CENTURY ROMANS ON A FAKE EARTH

 

Episode Title:  Bread and Circuses 

Air Date: 3/15/1967

Written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley    Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman  and unnamed slave girl             Bob Orrison as unnamed Policeman                     Gil Perkins as unarmed  slave           Tom Steele as unnamed slave        Logan Ramsey as Proconsul Claudius Marcus   William Bramley as unnamed Policeman                     William Smithers as Captain R.M. Merik                   Ian Wolfe as Septimus                         Rhodes Reason as Flavius Maximus      Bart La Rue as unnamed Announcer                     Jack Perkins as unnamed Master of Games                             Max Kleven as Maximus           Lois Jewell as  Drusilla              Paul Baxley as unnamed Policeman                Shep Houghton as unnamed cameramen   

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, S.S Beagle

Planets:  892-IV (fake Earth)

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The Enterprise comes across the wreckage of the SS Beagle.  The wrecked ship was a merchant vessel that was commanded by a friend of Kirk’s from the Academy, Captain R.M. Merik.  Captain Merik dropped out of Starfleet Academy his final year and then entered the merchant service.  They are able to trace the wreckage to a nearby planet.  

The Enterprise heads over to this planet.  When they get there the crew was surprised to discover that the planet they found is very earthlike.  There scanners reveal evidence of a sophisticated civilization on the surface.  Lt. Uhura is able to tap into their television signals and at Captain Kirk’s request displays the images on the viewscreen.  When the images come up they see a car commercial for a vehicle called the Jupiter 8.  Kirk and crew observed some news broadcasts featuring stories of runaway slaves and gladiator matches.  The broadcaster even gives the name of one of the slain gladiators:  William Harrison.  That also coincidently enough happens to be the name of the ninth US president; however that doesn’t become relevant in the story.  What is relevant to the story is William Harrison was the name of one of the Beagle’s crew.  Kirk feels that he is looking at, and it turns out he is correct, an Earth where the Roman Empire has survived into the 20^th century.

What to do with three strange prisoners? 

             The funny thing is they are neither shocked by the 20^th century Rome nor that they have run into another Earth again.  This is the second duplicate Earth they have discovered for certain, and there may have been a third.  In this episode we are given an explanation for that called “Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development.”  Basically the theory says that planets that evolve under certain conditions would have almost similar results with only slight variation. 

Kirk beams down to the planet with Spock and McCoy, because you always want to bring your most important offices with you on any away mission.  The three officers go over the Prime Directive discussing both its importance and what it takes to remain in compliance with it.  When they’re done discussing the Prime Directive and their commitment to comply McCoy does make a small joke about wishing he can proclaim himself to be the arch angel Gabriel.  McCoy’s joke annoys Spock before they can really get into it they’re suddenly surrounded by men with firearms.

"We're on your side!"

The group who is captured them consist of a number of runaway slaves.  Some of them have been slaves for life while others had is recently become slaves for converting to the wrong religion.  The entire group of runaways referred to themselves as “The Children of Sun.”  McCoy finds this odd because of his mistaken belief that Romans did not have sun worshipers.  Their leader is a man named Septimus, and his primary lieutenant is named Flavius Maximus.   Flavius Maximus is the more militant of the two and he wants to kill the Starfleet trio.  Fortunately Kirk convinces Septimus that they’re from overseas and he has technology from his ship that proves he is not a Roman.  Flavius is still suspicious but Septimus accepts them into their sanctuary.

While hanging out with the “Children of the Sun” Kirk learns a horrible truth: that his old friend that they came to rescue does not need to be rescued.  He needs to be stopped.  For the merchant captain has violated their most important law.  Merik has ignored the Prime Directive and installed himself as the “First Citizen.”

In the hands of modern Romans!

Kirk lets Septimus know that what Merik has done is in violation of their law and it is his intention to correct it.  Septimus agrees and allows Flavius Maximus to company the three men to the city in an attempt to capture Merik and return him to where he belongs.   While traveling Starfleet trio learns that Flavius Maximus was at one point one of the Empire’s greatest gladiators.  He gave all that up when he became attracted to the concept of universal brotherhood that was offered by the Children of the Sun.

Unfortunately the three of them don’t get very far and are captured by the Roman police.  After one failed escape attempt they finally come face-to-face with Captain Merik.  In Merik’s view he has not betrayed the Prime Directive at all.  In fact he’s was recruited by the Proconsul Claudius Marcus to prevent any interference by preventing any knowledge of their planet to the greater galaxy.  Merik agreed that he and all of his crew stay on this planet for the rest of their lives.  They now wanted Kirk to agree to the same with the Enterprise.  

A renegade captain and his boss

During this time they're trying to persuade Kirk there is some discussion about the parallels between this Earth and our Earth.  We had earlier learned from Flavius Maximus that although slavery still existed in this Roman Empire it had taken on a very different form than the slavery that we were used to.  Slaves in this world actually had recognized rights.  They were entitled to old-age pension and they were protected from extreme forms of abuse.  So long as they were not caught breaking the law or joining a group of religious renegades they were mostly okay.  However slavery still slavery in Dr. McCoy’s very much against what he sees in this Rome.  Mr. Spock, playing the devil’s advocate, points out that this modern world wide Roman Empire had ended war across the globe over four centuries ago.  While the real Earth at this point is development has suffered from a series of world wars leaving millions of people dead. 

Kirk refuses to cooperate.  At first he tries to threaten Marcus by saying he might beam a security team armed with phasers.  However Marcus calls Kirk’s bluff, he acknowledges that the security team could defeat the armies of their empire but he knows through his other guest limits of the Prime Directive.  The Proconsul even suggests that Kirk wouldn’t even need to call down a security team he could attack from space with phasers if the Prime Directive did not prevent him from doing so. He has guards bring Kirk’s communicator and with weapons surrounding demand Kirk bring down the crew.  Kirk calls Scotty on the Enterprise and tells him “condition green.”  This lets the crew know that the away team is in trouble, but prevents them from acting on it.  The whole subplot for the remaining of the episode is Scotty trying to figure out a way around this. Marcus is annoyed but he already broke one ship captain and he will find a way to break another.

Explaining how it is

Marcus decides his best bet is to force Spock and McCoy to fight as gladiators.  The 20^th century Romans don’t watch their gladiators from the Colosseum anymore but from the comfort of home.  All the fights take place in studio.  Forcing a captain to watch his own crewmen die this way is apparently how Marcus turned Merik.  Two gladiators come in to fight the two Starfleet officers.  One is Flavius Maximus who was captured with them earlier.  Now Maximus must fight or be made into a TV special, an inside joke the writers put in there about television production.  Spock is handing himself well but McCoy needs assistance with his opponent.  A hilarious scene occurs when Spock asks McCoy how he is doing and if he needs help.  McCoy responds by pointing out what ridiculous question that is. 

Submit or die

Marcus grows frustrated with Kirk not breaking, Merik points out that Kirk is a starship captain and that is quite a different thing from a regular spaceship captain.  Marcus doesn’t see a difference.  He does however notice the result of the gladiator match.  Spock knocks out his opponent with his shield and then performs a Vulcan nerve pinch on McCoy’s adversary.  Marcus orders them to be brought back to their cells and starts to make plans for Kirk’s execution. 

Scotty trying to figure out what to do!

In their prison cell Spock and McCoy continue to trade insults and bond over Kirk’s predicament.  It turns out Kirk is actually in a pretty good place.  He is brought to a room with a woman named Drusilla.  Drusilla tells Kirk she is going to be his slave tonight. Kirk refuses this, walks around, and demands to know where Marcus is.  Drusilla tries to tell him that it is no trick she is not trying to hurt him she just wants to make him happy.  The camera cut back to Spock and McCoy talking about their feelings or that Spock doesn’t have any.  Then we are back with Kirk and Drusilla and she has now worked her magic and successfully seduced him. 

She knows what to do!

When Kirk wakes up the lovely Drusilla was gone and Kirk was left with the Proconsul.  Marcus, despite his earlier comment, does see Kirk as a different man than Merik.  Marcus actually likes Kirk and wishes he was a Roman like him.  Unfortunately, this was precisely the reason Kirk was going to have to die.  Kirk was never going to knuckle under like Merik.   He wanted Kirk to have a fitting end that is why he set him up with Drusilla so he could experience “one last night as a man.” Kirk is stoic throughout his interview with Marcus.

Kirk continues to be stoic right up to the moment he is about to be executed with the execution being broadcast on live TV.   Kirk is saved by two things.  The first thing is Flavius Maximus rushes out and attacks the executioner.  A fight ensues in which Flavius is killed.  The second thing is Scotty on the Enterprise has Mr. Chekov cause a power outage in the city.  This allows Kirk to escape the artificial Colosseum and head to the prison where he can help Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy. 

Romans with guns

After Kirk helps Spock and McCoy get out of their cell they are surrounded by Roman guards led by Marcus.  Feeling like being a sport Marcus orders the guards to use not firearms but their swords.  The trio— should I have been calling the trio the triumvirate—hold their own and Merik has an attack of conscience and uses a communicator that they took from one of the Starfleet officers  to call the Enterprise to beam them up.  Marcus kills Merik for this effort but to no avail the Enterprise’s transporter gets the three men out of there.

Backup on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk enters into his Captain’s log a formal accommodation for Mr. Montgomery Scott for aiding the landing party without violating the Prime Directive.  Since the planet did not want the greater universe to know of their existence they leave without a problem.  They do however wonder about that religious group they ran into as they falsely believe that Rome had no sun worshipers.  That is when Uhura speaks up.  The Lieutenant had been monitoring the communications of the planet and discovered the truth of the religion.  They were not worshiping the sun they were worshiping the Son.   The religious group they ran in to was this planet’s early Christians.  This pleases McCoy because that meant this world would learn of universal brotherhood and Mr. Spock predicted that it would in time help bring down the Imperial system.   

Additional thoughts: When I was reviewing “Catspaw” I pointed out since it was set to air on Halloween it was the only episode of Star Trek that had a theme which was set for a particular air date.  Well I was wrong and I do think the air date for this episode, March 15, was a nice touch.

Romans with cameras

It is a good thing that both Spock and McCoy are good at their respective occupations because if they were living in a capitalist society and they were trying to be historians they would starve.  Both of them were going on about how our Rome had no sun worshipers.  This is incorrect and embarrassing considering they themselves had run into Apollo earlier this year.  Mr. Spock when giving his casualty numbers for the world wars was factually wrong by millions on the first two and even fictionally wrong on the last one.   The numbers he gives are six million in Earth's World War I, eleven million in the World War II, and thirty seven million in the World War III.   The actual numbers are much higher World War I was fifteen million while World War II was fifty million.  The fictional World War III was supposed to have killed over six hundred million.  Also the presence of Christianity in Rome does not mean the Empire will fall in fact in real life Christianity had been the official religion of the Roman Empire for the last century and a half before Rome fell in the West and thousands of years before it fell in the east. 

Kirk is not one to break

The Roman Empire is my favorite ancient civilization, I enjoy reading about it, talking about it, and teaching about it.  So this is an episode that would naturally draw my interest but it also causes me to nit-pick it.  For example I found it odd that Merik’s title was that of “First Citizen.” First Citizen is a title that the Emperors called themselves.  However it is clear that Merik is not Emperor. In this episode the man who holds the power is Claudius Marcus, who holds the title of proconsul.  Proconsuls however did not have a lot of power during the Roman Imperial period.  Their heyday was more of the late Republic, when they govern territories with near absolute authority.  The Imperial system sets up the emperors to  send officials, who held the military rank of legate, to govern the provinces that had the largest percentage of the standing army in them.  Proconsuls were allowed to govern the provinces that were much quieter and did not require a large military force.  Now granted this was an fictional empire that for the previous 400 years had known absolute peace.  So the government structure might have evolved a little differently. 

Spock and McCoy get ready to fight

                If you have ever read Chester W Starr’s work on Rome you would know that although the most famous question about Roman history is “why did Rome fall” the more accurate question is “why did it last so long?”  The Roman Empire was extremely large and the fastest way anyone could communicate was by letters carried by horseback rider traveling along Imperial roads.  They had no locomotives nor had gunpowder so every inch of territory to be defended with swords, with shields, and with catapults.  During the winter time because the Mediterranean Sea was right in the middle of it the size of the Empire would seem to double.  When presented with an alternate Earth with a different history your first question is “why was this different” and “what changed?”  Did Commodus not follow his father Marcus Aurelius to the throne and did this lead to a stable succession preventing the crisis of the third century?  Who knows?  It is never explored and that is my biggest let down.

I'm a doctor not a gladiator 

               Lt. Uhura’s claim that people could not legitimately criticize Christianity is weird since people do it all the time.  There is a lot you can criticize about Christianity:  the doctrine of original sin, infinite punishment for finite crimes, by way of human/deity sacrifice, and much more.  Christianity is pretty good at criticizing itself which is why is been broken up to so many dominations.  Each domination can tell you exactly what is wrong with all the other dominations.

What is cooler than Spock with a sword?

Then there is how slavery is depicted in the episode.  In the real world slavery in the early 1600s became racialized, a way for white people to exploit people of color.  It was finally abolished in the Western Hemisphere by the late 1800s.  In this fictitious Earth however slavery never became racialized it seems to have evolved into a type of social class.  Slaves are still said to be owned but there is a clear limit on what that ownership means and the slaves have gotten some human rights and labor rights.  This would have been interesting to explore as we think of slavery ending is the natural evolution of things but that might not have been the case.  Slavery had existed in human society for thousands of years it is certainly possible that history could take another turn in a might have evolved along different forms and may have preserved into later time periods.  They talk about it in the episode and it would’ve been interesting to explore but they didn’t have the time to do that.

So not good at fighting!

Lastly, “English”?  They’re speaking English and Spock calls it a perfect equivalent?  How?  English was not a romance language; there was no Battle of Hastings on this Earth so how the hell did English develop?  I know story wise they needed it to be English to pull the whole sun/son line.  That would not have worked with Latin or French.  It was a low moment however.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5