TOS - 2.16 - A Private Little War

Kirk returns to a primitive planet that he last visited 13 years ago and is surprised to find that one of the native tribes has developed primitive fire-arms in this time. Kirk suspects that the Klingons are helping these Hill People, despite both the Klingon Empire and the Federation being forbidden from interfering in the affairs of the planet. Kirk’s previous visit resulted in him becoming friends with Tyree, who is fortunately now the leader of the tribe that is now being oppressed and a useful ally in Kirk’s investigations.

We are clearly back in allegory territory with this episode, with the events on this “primitive” planet being a direct analogue for the events of the Vietnam War, which was of course taking place when the episode was made. It’s a clever idea, but it is a shame that the script thinks it necessary to make things explicit but having Kirk directly reference the then present day events (well, he refers to “20th Century Brush Wars” involving two super-powers but it is still pretty clear what this means). It also leads to things being somewhat predictable – Kirk suspects that the Klingons are supplying weapons to the Hill People, and this is exactly what is happening. The drama ultimately comes from Kirk’s reaction to this and his reluctant decision that the only solution is for the Federation to arm Tyree’s people – maintaining the balance of power but potentially leading to years of conflict and many deaths. It is an unusually downbeat ending for The Original Series, albeit one that doesn’t make much sense if you think about it (why doesn’t Kirk just report back to Starfleet Command to tell them that the Klingons have violated the treaty, and let the Federation deal with the consequences?).

Spock is unusually sidelined in the episode – he gets shot in the teaser and is then stuck on the Enterprise fighting for his life. It’s not the most successful use of the character since it doesn’t really lead to any drama since the viewer is never in any doubt that he will pull through – there isn’t eve much in the way of treatment - after a very brief operation, Spock is just left in a coma in order to heal himself, leading to lots of inert scenes of Leonard Nimoy lying in a bed as various people look worried.. There’s ultimately some nice humour in Scotty walking in on Nurse Chappel slapping Spock to wake him up from his coma, but there is a lot of screen time to get to this pay-off.

Alongside a fairly straightforward and serious plot, the episode does attempt to introduce some colour and interest. We meet a Monster of the Week, the Mugato. Unfortunately, it is not at all convincing as a fearsome beast and a classic example of a man in a monster suit. It is not also helped by it being shot in bright sunlight on location, rather than in a studio when it could perhaps have been shot more sympathetically. This all makes it difficult to take it seriously as a threat whose venom is supposedly threatening Kirk’s life (and this is further undermined by William Shatner’s somewhat over the top acting at this point).

A more significant attempt to do something different is with the character of Nona, the wife of Tyree and a member of a tribe of witch people. She is is an usually strong female character with her own agenda. She is able to cure Kirk in a bizarre ceremony which she says will give her power over him, which I expected to be important especially given her interest in the phasers that Kirk and McCoy have, but this goes absolutely nowhere. Instead, she is seen to use another plant to induce lust in men and give them power over them that way. We first see this in an oddly erotic scene in which she seduces Tyree and ultimately Kirk. However, Nona’s motivations then become really unclear. It appeared that here interest in Kirk’s phaser was to help her tribe to fight back against the Hill People and thus cement her position but, when she finally gets the weapon, the first thing she does is try and take it to the Hill People. I don’t quite understand this and it does lead to a rather disturbing sequence in which we are left in no doubt as to what the Hill People intend to do with her. Fortunately, Kirk and Tyree and some others turn up, and the finally fight is quite impressive – it’s nice to see a mass brawl going on, rather than Kirk just facing off with a single villain as usual.

Planetary Gazetteer

The planet on which the episode is set is not named on screen, but is referred to as Neural in the script (presumably derived from the word “neutral”). Kirk was a lieutenant when he previously visited the planet – this was his first planetary survey.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode – 4211.4 and 4211.8. The second of these is given in McCoy’s Medical Log.
• George Takei is still absent. Majel Barrett makes her 8th appearance as Nurse Chappel, Again, she doesn’t do a lot but she gets some nice scenes showing her concern for Spock. We also meet another member of the Enterprise medical team, Dr M’Benga who is knowledgeable about the physiology of Vulcans having interned on their homeworld. It’s a shame that he wasn’t around in the previous episode... 
• Vulcan’s have a different anatomy to humans, with their hearts being where a human liver is. A Vulcan also enter a self-induced hypnosis in order to attempt to heal themselves.
• The treaty that prevents the Federation and the Klingons from interfering in the development of the planet is presumably the Organian Peace Treaty arising from the events of “Errand Of Mercy” and referred to in “The Trouble With Tribbles”. This clearly goes beyond the Prime Directive since the Enterprise crew aren’t even supposed to use their phasers there.
• This is the fourth episode to feature the Klingons (after “Errand Of Mercy”, “Friday’s Child” and “The Trouble With Tribbles”), although they aren’t in it that much – we meet a single individual (named as Krell in the credits) and the CGI version of the episode adds a D-7 class Bird of Prey (yet to have been designed in terms of the original production of the show). It is actually unclear exactly what the Klingons want to achieve by helping the Hill People. Yes, they want the planet to ultimately become part of the Empire, but it seems odd that they are risking war over what appears to be a fairly insignificant planet – there is no reference to Neural being strategically important in the way that Organia was.

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TOS - 2.15 - Journey To Babel

“Journey To Babel” is an episode with a lot going on, both in terms of its plotting but also its contributions to the mythology of Star Trek.

The Enterprise is transporting a number of delegates to a Federation council meeting that will decide whether the Coridan System should be admitted to the organisation. This is a controversial subject and so tensions are running high between the delegates which means that Kirk has a peacekeeping job on his hands. It is quickly revealed that the Vulcan ambassador is actually Spock’s father, something that comes as a surprise to Kirk. Spock’s parents had been mentioned a number of times in the first series so it is actually quite a good idea for them to be finally introduced and named as Sarek and Amanda. We learn that Spock and Sarek have been estranged for 18 years due to Sarek disagreeing with Spock’s decision to joint Starfleet.  This is an obvious but effective way of introducing some drama between the characters.

It is not long before there is trouble and there is a murder. The victim is another Ambassador with whom Sarek has disagreed and Spock’s father quickly becomes the main suspect. However, just as soon as we think that this is going to be an episode about an investigation into Sarek’s supposed guilt, perhaps dividing Spock’s loyalty, it very quickly changes direction as Sarek falls ill with a heart condition and only Spock can save him with a blood transfusion. With more human characters, this in itself would be enough to introduce some character conflict, but here there is no question as to Spock helping since it is logical. The script therefore needs to jump through some more hoops to make Spock reluctant, but it does at least do this effectively through having Kirk incapacitated and Spock therefore needing to take command, thus preventing him from helping his father.

Sarek is played by Mark Lenard, who had previously made such an impression as the Romulan Commander in “Balance Of Terror”. This seems to be unlikely casting since Lenard was only seven years older than Leonard Nimoy. Lenard is good here, but he doesn’t get a lot to do (what with Sarek spending a lot of the episode unconscious) and he is almost hampered by the emotionless nature of the Vulcan that he is playing who doesn’t even have the half-human conflicts of Spock. It is actually Jane Wyatt who has the showier part as Amanda who is caught in the middle in the conflict between her husband and son. Indeed, her performance actually makes Amanda’s relationship with Sarek credible as we see the deep bond that the characters have, despite Sarek’s inability to show emotion. They have a very simple but effective finger touching gesture that was apparently developed by Lenard and Wyatt themselves. This does at least make some balance against Sarek’s immense sexism in the early part of the episode where he just orders Amanda around – an attitude that seems somewhat odd given that “Amok Time” showed Vulcan to be something of a matriarchal society given the importance of T’Pau.

Despite its obvious focus on Spock, the script for “Journey To Babel” is also effective in giving Kirk plenty to do and presumably also therefore keeping William Shatner happy. There is intrigue on the bridge as the Enterprise is buzzed by a mysterious scout ship, and then he gets a big fight sequence. This starts somewhat suddenly, with no precursor and explanation, but it is shot much better than many previous Big Kirk Fights, avoiding obvious shots of Shatner’s stuntman. It is also Kirk who essentially saves Sarek, by pretending that his injury is not as serious as it really is so that Spock is free to take the time to do what is necessary.

“Journey To Babel” also introduces two other races within the Federation, although they are portrayed with somewhat mixed results. The appearance if the Andorians, with their blue skin, white hair and antennae, had the potential to be somewhat comical, but is actually quite well done (at least if you ignore the fight sequence where you can see bits the of the stuntman that are not painted blue). Unfortunately, Reggie Nalder gives a really odd and mannered performance as Shrav, the Andorian ambassador, which doesn’t really work. The other race to feature are the Tellerites and the make-up effects here are less effective, appearing very artificial and a bit too much like a pig…

 The episode packs so much in, that we get very close to the end and there has been no reveal as to who is behind the plot to disrupt the Babel conference. It has been revealed that one of the Andorians is not actually an Andorian, but is actually a surgically altered spy (an immediate re-use of this idea straight after “The Trouble With Tribbles”), but he and the scout ship crew all commit suicide without explaining anything. In a more modern show, it would appear that this would be setting up a story arc but that is clearly not the case in the 1960s. We therefore get a final scene in which Spock has suddenly remembers something that enables him to develop a theory as to what has been going on. It’s not that satisfying, but I suppose its better than the question being left open.

Planetary Gazetteer

Vulcan: The Enterprise returns to Spock’s homeworld in order to collect Sarek and Amanda, although there aren't any scenes on the planet itself.

Babel: A neutral planetoid that will host the Federation council meeting. It is named after the tower mentioned in the Bible that the human race attempted to build to Heaven which God then frustrated by introducing multiple languages; this is a very deliberate reference in DC Fontana;s script given that the storyline is very much about the importance of communication.

The Coridan System: A group of planets which wish to join the Federation. It is rich in dilithium crystals, but has previously been claimed by certain planets that are already within the Federation and this is therefore a controversial subject.

Rigel V: The planet on which medical trials have been conducted on the drug which McCoy uses to speed up Spock’s blood production. Rigelians have a physiology that is very similar to Vulcans. This is yet another planet in the Rigel system after Rigel II (mentioned in “Shore Leave”), Rigel VI (mentioned in “Wolf In The Fold”), Rigel VII (the location of Pike’s defeat in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie, Part I”) and Rigel XII (visited in “Mudd’s Women”).

Starship Spotting

Sarek and Amanda travel to the Enterprise in a shuttlecraft that is clearly named as Galileo. This is presumably a replacement for the shuttlecraft of the same name that was destroyed in “The Galileo Seven”. The CGI version of the episode shows a second shuttlecraft in the shuttle bay that is called Columbus. It does seem odd in the narrative of the episode that Sarek and Amanda use a shuttlecraft rather than just beam aboard the Enterprise, but this is apparently because this was a budget saving measure to eliminate the need for a transporter effect.

The scout ship that attacks the Enterprise is not named nor explicitly identified. It has a hull that is composed of high density trititanium that cannot be penetrated by the Enterprises sensors and it can operate at close to Warp 10. Spock theorises that it is being operated by Orion smugglers, presumably the same green race that provides the slave girls as featured in “The Cage” and “The Menagerie”.

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode – 3842.3, 3842.4 and 3843.3.
• George Takei is still absent due to his commitments filming “The Green Berets”. James Doohan also does not appear, although Scotty is mentioned. Majel Barrett makes her 7th appearance as Nurse Chappel, although she doesn’t really do much. We meet a new security officer called Lt Joseph who, remarkably, survives the episode.
• Sarek has officially retired as an ambassador. He is 102 years old, which is relatively young for a Vulcan to take retirement. Sarek’s blood type is “T-negative”, which is apparently quite unusual for Vulcans. Spock does share this blood type; his blood has “human elements” but this can be filtered out to allow him to donate blood to his father.
• The Romulans and Klingons are both mentioned when Kirk and Spock are trying to identify the scout ship.
• Jane Wyatt, who plays Amanda, is rather strangely credited as “Miss Jane Wyatt”
• The episode mentions Starfleet Intelligence, a division of the organisation that will come to be important in the future, not least in Picard...

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TOS - 2.14 - Bread and Circuses

The search for the crew of a lost survey ship takes Kirk, Spock and McCoy to a planet that is identical to Earth in the 20th Century apart from the fact that the Roman Empire had never fallen. This is certainly a fascinating premise for an episode, which it attempts to justify the similarities through a throw-away reference to “Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development”, presumably in an attempt to avoid introducing another parallel universe so soon after “Mirror, Mirror” (since this would have been an obvious means of showing Earth developing in a different way), but it does take a somewhat large suspension of belief as to how very similar things have developed on this alien planet, even more so than the identical Earth featured in “Miri”, since we have even have identical cultures and religion, as well as technology, as well as identical English having evolved again (which is interesting since of course English would not have been spoken in Earth’s Roman Empire).

Unfortunately, even if one can accept the existence of this unlikely planet, the episode isn’t that successful since it pretty much wastes the concept, treating us mainly to a lot of Roman clichés. Aside from a few shots of Roman soldiers with machine guns, the only way in which it actually exploits the idea of a 20th Century Roman Empire is by having the gladiator matches taking place in a television studio, complete with commentator. This is indeed a lovely, incongruous image (and it allows for some nice digs about the primitive nature of television) but even the sequences here get tiresome, as they go on for ever and feature rather too many shots of dials activating canned cheering/booing/clapping.

The episode does throw in a nice early twist when it is revealed that the leader of this civilisation is actually Merrick, the captain of the lost survey ship. Unfortunately, we never get much an understanding of Merrick’s character and his motivation – it is not explained how he got into this position, and the script can’t really decide whether he is a true villain or not. He does ultimately save the lives of Kirk and his crew, but this very much comes out of nowhere and therefore isn’t really satisfying in terms of character development. Indeed, it’s unclear how much power Merrick actually has – the real power appears to lie with Proconsul Claudius Marcus, a character nicely played by Logan Ramsey who manages to be both charming but also dangerous, especially since he knows much about the Federation thanks to Merrick and is able to use the Prime Directive to his advantage – a nice example where a pre-existing element of the series prevents the Enterprise from using its superior technology.

“Bread and Circuses” is very much about the central trio of Spock, Kirk and McCoy, with Scotty, Chekov and Uhura only appearing briefly. The script features lots of banter between McCoy and Spock which does soon become somewhat wearisome. I was suspecting this was leading up to them having to face each other in the gladiator arena, but the episode avoids this (presumably due to similarities with “Amok Time”) and they end up fighting alongside each other. This pays off in a nice scene in which McCoy attempts to thank Spock for saving his life and the Vulcan’s reaction leads to the doctor theorising that Spock is too frightened to embrace any of his human side.

One initially surprising element of the episode is that, whilst Merrick is killed, Claudius Marcus is apparently unpunished and still in power as Kirk and his crew escape. This is of course consistent with the Prime Directive which would of course prevent Kirk from over-throwing him, but has the potential to be less than satisfying. However, the script does attempt to deflect this in its final scenes as Uhura reveals that she has been listening in to the radio transmissions from the planet and has established that Christianity is rising. This is a nice explanation of the new religion referred to by the escaped slaves featured previously (who we thought were talking about the Sun, not the Son) and does at least provide an indication that Marcus’s days are numbered and this Roman Empire will soon fall…

Planetary Gazetteer

The planet on which the episode is set is not named – it is just referred to as the fourth planet in the 892 system. It is an M-class planet that is very similar to Earth, with an identical atmosphere but differing land masses and is slightly different in size. Unlike Earth, it appears to have two moons (at least in the remastered version of the episode).

Starship Spotting

SS Beagle: A Class IV survey ship with a crew of 47 that disappeared six years previously. Kirk discovers that it suffered meteor damage and so the crew went ashore on planet 892-IV in order to obtain iridium ore for repairs. However, the crew never left, with most dying there and the Beagle was destroyed with the Enterprise ultimately finding its wreckage. The Beagle was named after the Royal Navy sailing ship on which Charles Darwin travelled the world in the 1830s.

General Observations

• Four Stardates are given in the episode – 4040.7, 4040.9, 4041.2 and 4041.7.
• George Takei is again absent as Sulu due to his continuing commitments filming “The Green Berets”.
• This episode is not exactly overburdened with female characters. Aside from Uhura and some non-speaking background artists, there is only Drusilla, a slave girl who is sent by Claudius Marcus to entertain Kirk for no apparent reason other than the fact that the captain hasn’t kissed anyone yet this week. Kirk is initially resistant to take advantage, suspecting some sort of trap but it isn’t long before he changes his mind for no apparent reason. This scene, which doesn’t add anything to the episode, does have a troubling morality since Drusilla is a slave who has been instructed to be with Kirk and is therefore unable to truly consent.
• It is mentioned that Earth has had a total of three world wars, building on the reference to World War III in “Space Seed”.
• The cave that provides the home of the escaped slaves is in Griffith Park in Hollywood and is probably better known as the entrance to the Batcave from the 1960s Batman series.

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