"Arena" Line-by-Line

Spock: No, sir. An unidentifiable power.

 

METRON: We are the Metrons. You are one of two crafts which have come into our space on a mission of violence. This is not permissible. Yet we have analyzed you and have learned that your violent tendencies are inherent. So be it. We will control them. We will resolve your conflict in the way most suited to your limited mentalities. Captain James Kirk.

 

KIRK: This is Kirk.

 

Metron: We have prepared a planet with a suitable atmosphere. You will be taken there, as will the Captain of the Gorn ship which you have been pursuing. There you will settle your dispute.

 

KIRK: I don't understand.

 

Metron: You will be provided with a recording-translating device, in hopes that a chronicle of this contest will serve to dissuade others of your kind from entering our system, but you will not be permitted to communicate with your ship. You will each be totally alone.

 

KIRK: What makes you think you can interfere with-

 

Metron: It is you who are interfering. We are simply putting a stop to it. The place we have prepared for you contains sufficient elements for either of you to construct weapons lethal enough to destroy the other, which seems to be your intention. The winner of the contest will be permitted to go his way unharmed. The loser, along with his ship, shall be destroyed in the interests of peace. The contest will be one of ingenuity against ingenuity, brute strength against brute strength. The results will be final.

 

KIRK: Just a minute-

 

METRON: There will be no discussion. It is done.

 

(Kirk vanishes, and Uhura screams)

SULU: He's gone.

 

[Planet]

KIRK: The Enterprise is dead in space, stopped cold during her pursuit of an alien raider by mysterious forces, and I have been somehow whisked off the bridge and placed on the surface of an asteroid, facing the Captain of the alien ship. Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn. Large, reptilian. Like most humans, I seem to have an instinctive revulsion to reptiles. I must fight to remember that this is an intelligent, highly advanced individual, the Captain of a starship, like myself; undoubtedly a dangerously clever opponent.

 

(The Gorn breaks a branch of a tree with great ease. Kirk struggles to break off a twig. Their first physical engagement is uneven. Kirk is more agile than the reptile but nowhere near as strong. He boxes the Gorn's ears to get out of a bear-hug and runs up into the rocks looking for weapons. He throws a heavy rock at the Gorn, but it just bounces off his chest. When a boulder gets flung at him in return, Kirk retreats. Quickly.)

[Bridge]

(Spock goes over to the Engineering Station)

Spock: Have you tried overload?

 

SCOTTY: Aye, sir. It does no good.

 

SPOCK: How about bypassing the transformer banks? Feed the impulse engines directly.

 

SCOTTY: I tried that, sir. Nothing.

 

SPOCK: Lieutenant Uhura, have sensors learned anything about the nature of the force which holds us here?

 

Uhura: No, sir. They report they definitely emanate from that solar system ahead.

 

SPOCK: No indication of its composition? Gravimetric, magnetic, electronic?

 

UHURA: Nothing, sir.