Maybe Commodore Wesley sat behind a desk at a starbase a little too long. A little rusty in the big chair.
Star Trek TOS Re-Watch
- Thread starter Commander Troi
- Start date
And he had a BIG big chair.
EDIT: I actually loved Doohan's performance as Governor Wesley in One of Our Planets is Missing.
"Bread and Circuses" by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon
This is one I'm honestly not sure I've ever seen.
Enterprise finds the wreckage of the Beagle, a survey vessel, but no bodies. They also find another just-like-Earth planet, one with slaves on TV fighting gladiatorial games. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down and are captured by escaped slaves, the "children of the sun" (cue Billy Thorpe). They meet Septimus (Mr. Atoz!) and Flavius, a former gladiator. Kirk mentions he's looking for Merik, the captain of the Beagle, and the slaves think he could be First Citizen Mericus.
The entire society is mid-20th century earth if the Roman Empire never fell. The slaves have even managed to get concessions like medical care and old age pensions over the years. Old Roman Gods are still worshipped. (McCoy is wrong btw. The Romans worshipped Apollo as the Sun God.)
Flavius leads them to the city. They get captured on the way and taken before Mericus/Merik and his disgusting and odious patron, Proconsul Claudius Marcus (played to perfection by character actor Logan Ramsey). Merik explains his people either assimilated or died. Marcus tries to get Kirk to have the Enterprise crew beam down so he'll have more gladiators for his games. Kirk instead signals to Scotty, in code, that the landing party is in trouble, but that no rescue attempt should be made. On the ship, Scotty has Chekov spot the planet's power plants so he can give them a scare.
Trying to pressure Kirk, Marcus has Spock and McCoy sent into the arena against two gladiators, one of whom is (luckily) Flavius. McCoy doesn't do very well. Spock overpowers one of the gladiators and uses a nerve pinch on Flavius. All audience boos and cheers are pre-recorded and used manipulatively.
Spock and McCoy are taken back to their cell and have a terrific scene together, a real highlight and very well done by Kelley and Nimoy. Kirk is taken to Marcus' quarters, where a hot blonde named Drusilla is Kirk's slave for the night. Marcus has learned to respect Kirk and thinks he's earned a last night "as a man." Marcus dismisses Merik, as he doesn't respect him as a man. One of the communicators the Proconsul took is missing and Marcus suspects Kirk had Drusilla take it. He has Merik search Kirk, but he comes up empty.
They take Kirk to the arena where he's to be executed live on TV. However, Flavius runs in and fights the executioner. Flavius is shot and killed. Kirk kills a few guards and grabs a gun and goes to the cells to free Spock and McCoy. Scotty causes a temporary blackout. Merik has the stolen communicator (I'm guessing he took it from Kirk) and calls the Enterprise, causing Marcus to kill him. Our Heroes beam back to the ship.
Uhura has been monitoring radio communications and tells the guys that they weren't talking about the "sun", but the "Son". They had both Caesar and Christ.
KIRK: Wouldn't it be something to watch, to be a part of? To see it happen all over again? (He obviously isn't thinking about the Crusades or other religious wars here.)
It's heavy-handed as hell, but it was telegraphed when they first meet the Children of the Son - Spock shows Kirk a magazine with ads for things named for Roman Gods and Septimus calls them false gods. Also:
SEPTIMUS: Oh? Are you Children of the Sun?
MCCOY: Well, if you're speaking of worships of sorts, we represent many beliefs.
FLAVIUS: There is only one true belief!
Much like "Who Mourns for Adonais?" this episode has a Christian/monotheist bent. Not my thing, but I was caught up in the story and the characters nonetheless. A good, basic episode.
This is one I'm honestly not sure I've ever seen.
Enterprise finds the wreckage of the Beagle, a survey vessel, but no bodies. They also find another just-like-Earth planet, one with slaves on TV fighting gladiatorial games. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down and are captured by escaped slaves, the "children of the sun" (cue Billy Thorpe). They meet Septimus (Mr. Atoz!) and Flavius, a former gladiator. Kirk mentions he's looking for Merik, the captain of the Beagle, and the slaves think he could be First Citizen Mericus.
The entire society is mid-20th century earth if the Roman Empire never fell. The slaves have even managed to get concessions like medical care and old age pensions over the years. Old Roman Gods are still worshipped. (McCoy is wrong btw. The Romans worshipped Apollo as the Sun God.)
Flavius leads them to the city. They get captured on the way and taken before Mericus/Merik and his disgusting and odious patron, Proconsul Claudius Marcus (played to perfection by character actor Logan Ramsey). Merik explains his people either assimilated or died. Marcus tries to get Kirk to have the Enterprise crew beam down so he'll have more gladiators for his games. Kirk instead signals to Scotty, in code, that the landing party is in trouble, but that no rescue attempt should be made. On the ship, Scotty has Chekov spot the planet's power plants so he can give them a scare.
Trying to pressure Kirk, Marcus has Spock and McCoy sent into the arena against two gladiators, one of whom is (luckily) Flavius. McCoy doesn't do very well. Spock overpowers one of the gladiators and uses a nerve pinch on Flavius. All audience boos and cheers are pre-recorded and used manipulatively.
Spock and McCoy are taken back to their cell and have a terrific scene together, a real highlight and very well done by Kelley and Nimoy. Kirk is taken to Marcus' quarters, where a hot blonde named Drusilla is Kirk's slave for the night. Marcus has learned to respect Kirk and thinks he's earned a last night "as a man." Marcus dismisses Merik, as he doesn't respect him as a man. One of the communicators the Proconsul took is missing and Marcus suspects Kirk had Drusilla take it. He has Merik search Kirk, but he comes up empty.
They take Kirk to the arena where he's to be executed live on TV. However, Flavius runs in and fights the executioner. Flavius is shot and killed. Kirk kills a few guards and grabs a gun and goes to the cells to free Spock and McCoy. Scotty causes a temporary blackout. Merik has the stolen communicator (I'm guessing he took it from Kirk) and calls the Enterprise, causing Marcus to kill him. Our Heroes beam back to the ship.
Uhura has been monitoring radio communications and tells the guys that they weren't talking about the "sun", but the "Son". They had both Caesar and Christ.
KIRK: Wouldn't it be something to watch, to be a part of? To see it happen all over again? (He obviously isn't thinking about the Crusades or other religious wars here.)
It's heavy-handed as hell, but it was telegraphed when they first meet the Children of the Son - Spock shows Kirk a magazine with ads for things named for Roman Gods and Septimus calls them false gods. Also:
SEPTIMUS: Oh? Are you Children of the Sun?
MCCOY: Well, if you're speaking of worships of sorts, we represent many beliefs.
FLAVIUS: There is only one true belief!
Much like "Who Mourns for Adonais?" this episode has a Christian/monotheist bent. Not my thing, but I was caught up in the story and the characters nonetheless. A good, basic episode.
One of my favorite scenes between Spock and McCoy is here, in the cell after Kirk is taken and McCoy thanjs Spock for saving him in the arena. Brilliant scene, and while there are other aspects of "BREAD AND CIRCUSES" I really like that make it a good one for me, that alone makes it a good episode.
"Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis...." is probably my favorite Kirk speech.
I agree about Wesley's judgment there.
But as a thought-exercise, if I try to look at it from Wesley's point of view, what can I see? Maybe Wesley's cock-sure that the M-5 couldn't be lethal without Kirk allowing it. There's information we know that Wesley doesn't, which is that the M-5 has gone rogue and overridden the command chair lock-out device. Maybe Wesley believes that that's simply not possible for the M-5 to do.
Also, Wesley's recently humiliated Kirk with his "Captain Dunsel" jab. Maybe Wesley knows things we don't. We know starship commanders have cracked: Decker, Tracey. Finney wasn't a captain, but he cracked, and hard. Maybe Wesley's seen the stats and figures, and it shows that the possibility of starship captains cracking is worse than we know. Maybe that's one of the reasons for the M-5 program. In light of his belief that the M-5 could not take over the Enterprise without Kirk's permission, maybe Wesley thinks that the only possible explanation is that Kirk's cracked too, perhaps in light of the possibility of M-5s taking over as starship captains.
Ultimately Wesley was the one to call for all ships to hold fire when the shields dropped- and Spock was right in that such a trap could have been something the M-5 could/should have done; but Wesley took the chance when he didn't have to, so he already redeemed himself.
Everything else in the episode shows Wesley to be a level headed and competent commander. Spock even admires him. Even the Captain Dunsel remark could be seen as leveled not only at Kirk but also at himself and his kind.
So his outrage at Kirk seems... Hasty?
To be fair, Commodore Wesley saw the USS Excalibur hulled and it's entire crew complment killed.
I'd say his initial outrage is justified.
Ha! Nice Billy Thorpe reference.
I actually think McCoy is a real dick to Spock in the cell there.
MCCOY: Do you know why you're not afraid to die, Spock? You're more afraid of living. Each day you stay alive is just one more day you might slip and let your human half peek out. That's it, isn't it? Insecurity. Why, you wouldn't know what to do with a genuine, warm, decent feeling.
Damn.
MCCOY: Do you know why you're not afraid to die, Spock? You're more afraid of living. Each day you stay alive is just one more day you might slip and let your human half peek out. That's it, isn't it? Insecurity. Why, you wouldn't know what to do with a genuine, warm, decent feeling.
Damn.
When I did a rewatch in production order I found that this scene was the result of several episodesworth of build up, with their exchanges getting nastier on both sides!
Only because Spock was a real asshole to him before:
SPOCK: Oh, yes. You humans have that emotional need to express gratitude. You're welcome, I believe, is the correct response. However, Doctor, you must remember I am entirely motivated by logic. The loss of our ship's surgeon, whatever I think of his skill, would mean a reduction in the efficiency of the Enterprise.
Saying this to someone that's trying to honestly thank you isn't very nice. Implying that he's just a tool for the ship, and at the same time highlighting that he's not even a very useful tool anyway.
People tend to forget that Spock gave as good as he got, and often with Spock being the instigator.
It's an old rivalry for sure, but with some emphasis added:
NORMAN: Good morning, sir, Doctor.
(McCoy turns to Spock as Norman walks off the set)
SPOCK: Something wrong?
MCCOY: Yes. There's something odd about that man, and I can't quite pinpoint it.
SPOCK: Perhaps you're making a rather hasty judgment. Mister Norman has only been aboard seventy-two hours.
MCCOY: I know when something doesn't strike me right, and he doesn't.
SPOCK: Specifics, Doctor. Labels do not make arguments.
So far, so good, very good indeed, but that's just the setup. But wait, there's more:MCCOY: All right. There's something wrong about a man who never smiles, whose conversation never varies from the routine of the job, and who won't talk about his background.
SPOCK: I see.
So, basically, people like Barclay wouldn't have had a chance in this 23rd century. All we know at this point is that Norman* was hyper-focused on his job and even my guessing that he's like Barclay is just as inconclusive. Case in point, we see later on in the story that Norman is an android, so books by covers and all that reminds me to get that high school book cover for Star Trek TNG, slap it on the algebra book, and confuse the teacher by saying it's all of season 1 scripts and not the Pythagorean or Quadratic theorem**.
MCCOY: Spock, I mean that it's odd for a non-Vulcan. The ears make all the difference.
SPOCK: I find your argument strewn with gaping defects in logic.
Spock rightly addresses the issue (McCoy's intuition alone means zilch***) while avoiding the baiting, which is contentious - even by McCoy's standards - and shows either these two having a deep friendship where they will dig at each other no matter what and somehow think nothing of it, or how humans merely stopped treating other humans as subhuman and now project that onto other species, which might explain why (spoiler alert) Spock finally reduced to McCoy's level, I'd guess. No wonder Azetbur got upset when discussing the "inalienable" issue at dinner in "The Undiscovered Country"! (We know the Federation isn't entirely like that, see "Day of the Dove" for more, but she's not exactly wrong.) But I think this is a rare case where McCoy instigated it, as...and here comes the punchline that follows is where it gets juicer than a grapefruit patch after King Kong ran around stomping on it
MCCOY: Maybe, but you can't evaluate a man by logic alone. Besides, he has avoided two appointments that I've made for his physical exam without reason.
SPOCK: That's not at all surprising, Doctor. He's probably terrified of your beads and rattles.
Spock's human half finally peeked out that time and he's surely hiding a very calm and collected snarky 4-year-old inside****, only because McCoy did the 4-year-old thing first, and all when Spock should have asked, after pointing out McCoy had a point about the dude avoiding multiple appointments, "Perhaps he had forgotten as he is still new? The computer only tells people in their quarters, it doesn't tell them regardless where they are on the ship." But it's from "I, Mudd", an episode that already starts out at 11 on the "Silly Scale" where its range is from 1 to 5.
* Amazed that nobody ever called him "Normy", but speaking of 1967, here's a missed opportunity for a crossover since people dig those like real groovy and things:
Well, a temporally incompatible one since that gag came out in 1980... based on a show that started in 1965 but whose biggest heyday was 1967, so it still works.
** hey cool, the plural of "theorem" is "theorems" and not "theorii", happy Monday! 
*** And speaking of zilch as my post is full of it today thanks to mistaking "Jolt" for "Decaf",
I have no idea what any of that means, but the word crossed my mind what with it being 1967 and all...
**** It'd be more fun to have an Intel inside, or AMD, but it's alllllllllll good 
The script?
That, too.
I think it builds up until The Tholian Web where they seem to come to an understanding. It doesn't seem as bad between them after that.
When Spock didn't respond as McCoy wanted, McCoy called him a pointed-eared hobgoblin. I don't think anything Spock said there is deserving of McCoy's response.
I think underneath it all, McCoy really cares about Spock, and he really thinks it would be in Spock's best interest to embrace his emotions. I can see here that he might be using tough love to try to jolt Spock in that direction, but I think McCoy can be pretty brutal about it sometimes, and I sometimes think it's none of McCoy's damn business. Who appointed McCoy the decider of how Spock should feel and behave?
Yes, of course there's affection behind their arguments, and they're no real enemies. But I think that Spock gets away as "blameless" far too many times.
His response here is absolutely unprovoked, and just because he's being passive-agressive instead of more direct doesn't make it any better. And often Spock uses the excuse of logic to be offensive without needing to apologize, and to shield himself from criticism in turn. In fact, I'd say that most of the times is Spock who starts the arguments, not just with McCoy but with other people too.
McCoy appointed himself to watch over Spock's behavior because he knows that unfeeling facade is fake deep down, and because mantaining it at all times is hurting Spock and those around him.
Kirk is the Captain, so he deals with Spock in a more professional way, which helps to keep discipline. But it's not particularly helpful for Spock to grow as a person.
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