" He'll live out the remainder of a normal life span..."

Or not.

Maybe he faked his mortality because once the word got out, he knew someone would be coming for his head.

 

Evading the villagers and their pitchforks, mallets and wooden stakes would be a constant theme in his life, certainly. Dodging a guy or gal with a sharp longsword wouldn't be much different; faking a death may have saved his neck a thousand times already, literally and literally.

Timo Saloniemi

 

The film Highlander postulated a fairly believable method by which an immortal might continue to exist in modern times, by periodically switching his identity from one dead person to the next...

 

Yeah, this is just begging for a Highlander crossover in space, complete with Queen soundtrack.

As far as Flint's aging goes, Flint did say that he would stay in one place for a while and pretend to age, before moving on. He doesn't say if he did this with makeup, or if he had some biological ability to look like he was aging.

Kor

 

That was the least of "Requiem for Methusalah" problems. That idiotic episode was nothing but a glorified love triangle and Kirk's behavior throughout was irrational, petulant, completely out of character for him.

 

Flint almost certainly made himself look older over time, perfecting it over centuries.

 

Possibly because Flint secretly gave Kirk a love potion so Kirk would teach Rayna about love and then Flint could take her from Kirk..

 

Possibly because Flint secretly gave Kirk a love potion so Kirk would teach Rayna about love and then Flint could take her from Kirk.

 

My earlier take on it was that Rayna has pheromone emitters which were set too high. Kirk's reaction was biochemical and beyond his control. Spock was not chemically compatible, and McCoy was separated too far from the action. Maybe Flint was also affected and didn't realize it. Flint almost achieved success; bring on Rayna 18.

 

Hm, I like the pheromone concept, though I'm not sure it has to be biochemical. But something like that.
One problem the episode has is that this fatal disease is raging on the ship and Kirk gets involved in a serious romance. Maybe one more rewrite (or a specific nod to the hormone issue, perhaps in the final scene between Spock and McCoy) could have addressed this. It's still one of those dark, deep, underrated S3 gems.

 

They put Kirk under the influence of love pheromones in "Elaan of Troyius." It wouldn't look good if they did it again, because really, how often does that happen to starship captains? I prefer to think that Rayna just struck a subconscious chord with Kirk and it was love at first sight.

I'm a big fan of these third season episodes, btw. Every season had its own feel, and all three years were great.

 

Definitely. S3 is great. I prefer it to S1, particularly if you take out the very late S1 episodes. S2 is my favorite but the huh-huh endings do occasionally grate, particularly if they follow tons of death and mayhem (e.g., The Apple, which I otherwise like and is my choice for "the most generic Star Trek episode").

 

Let's see about influencing Kirk's thinking/emotions: water molecules, salt vampire hallucinations, remove good half, neural brain washing, spores, ...and I'm still in Season 1. Season 3 was a doozy year. The universe really messes with your brain.

 

I like Jerome Bixby's ideas, including in this episode. I feel that this is one of the stronger episodes of S3.

Kor

 

Shatner was very much aroused in real life by Louise Sorel who played Rayna in the episode!
JB

 

To the contrary, Kirk was the only one making any headway in obtaining the medicine from Flint, while his two friends just milled around irrationally and uncharacteristically. McCoy was happy to be put on infinite hold outside a medical lab; perhaps a symptom of his Rigelian fever? Spock was content to play games arranged by their host, say, the piano; was he ill, too?

Being petulant was what worked in the end: Kirk struck at the one weakness in Flint's armor, his daughter-analogue, and tore that armor open.

Serendipity, that is, fate having pity on a captain driven by his hormones? Or yet another devious master plan of manipulation performed to the hilt by our bluebeard hero, famed for using his charms as a weapon and promoting gender equality in his choice of victims?

The ending works both ways, which is nice in allowing us to view Kirk as less than callous and cold. But here I must again remind the audience that Kirk in his closing lament never makes even a passing reference to the fembot. That lament is exclusively about Kirk and Flint, two men of great power and perceived eternal youth falling short of the divine standards they have set to themselves - of Kirk's regret in bringing down another great man, and facing his own mortality in the process.

In that sense, the writer bringing Flint down from his pedestal of immortality is extra fitting, making the comparison to Kirk all the closer.

Timo Saloniemi

 

There's an old saying in politics: "No matter how cynical you get, you can't keep up."
Certainly, none of TOS's script writers could keep up with Timo. Although, feigning attraction was Kirk's confessed M.O. in "The Conscience of the King" (like Requiem, another favorite of mine that gets picked on a lot).

 

Isn't this the episode where Spock mind-wipes Kirk at the end because Kirk can't deal with a broken heart?

Blech.

The rest of the episode notwithstanding.

 

I wouldn't say mind wipes but puts the suggestion to forget about Rayna just a little bit...
JB