Going to Eden ... Yea brother
- Thread starter PCz911
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To borrow a phrase from Spock, "Most kind."
Heading out to Eden
Yea brother
Heading out to Eden
No more trouble in my body or my mind
Gonna live like a king on whatever I find
Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind
Yea brother, yea.
Deborah Downey was an actress who played Mavig in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "The Way to Eden". Along with episode writer Arthur Heinemann, who contributed the lyrics, and co-star Charles Napier, she wrote the music featured in the episode. She provided her own vocals as well.
Hope this helps...
Far Out!!!
"Spock's practically One now!"
It is hilarious to see Charles Napier in this episode now, considering all the tough guys and badasses he would play later in his career.
It is hilarious to see Charles Napier in this episode now, considering all the tough guys and badasses he would play later in his career.
Remember Spock's explanation:
So "how good" life is in the 23rd century is not necessarily good for the soul. Spock's statement predicted the reality we live in now, where cloned, perfectly manicured housing developments (using materials that are by no means "green") surrounded by the shallow glitz of Apple stores (eyeroll x 10,000), Starbucks, trendy clothing stores and of course, the usual Super Target or Pavilions.
As much of a phony "perfection" as that is today, it is easy to imagine it being worse in the 23rd century---and that's not the natural, green life sought by TWTE castaways. On that note, they are very much like the hippies of the episode's production era.
To borrow a phrase from Spock, "Most kind."
Well, as I've gotten older and seen the episodes I love 11'ty billion times, I start to appreciate some single examples of acting in the bad eps. Skip Homeier (now out of his Nazi togs), does a nice job, I think, as the obsessed and maddened Dr. Sevrin. I especially like his conversation with Spock when he's (Sevrin) in the brig:
"Because this is poison to me. This stuff you breathe, this stuff you live in, the shields of artificial atmosphere that we have layered about every planet. The programs in those computers that run your ship and your lives for you, they bred what my body carries. That's what your science have done to me. You've infected me. Only the primitives can cleanse me. I cannot purge myself until I am among them. Only their way of living is right. I must go to them. "
You, with a mentally unbalanced William Windom as your avatar
, can surely appreciate a scenery-chewer, even if it's in a bottom-tier ep.
Perfect post.
Hm, the sad thing about the script is that it goes for the "all those stinkin' hippies..." viewpoint, with Spock being one of the only regular characters to truly conceed that their lifestyle is a valid one. (Btw, I do love that it's Spock who jams with them, a man truly understanding 'counter culture', or at least appreciating it to some degree). The likes of Captain Kirk and Mister Scott come across very pooly, both being painted as overly authoritarian, and bizarrely lacking in understanding (even if Kirk himself conceeds he "used to get in trouble" when he was the hippies' own age). This is all largely because the script represents them as being "the man". But again, the script goes on to prove "the man" right, because the so-called Hippies are portrayed as just being naive and are ultimately led to their deaths by a mad-man with belief systems that are displayed to be irrational, at least in terms of the script.
To be honest the whole script has got this tonal problem I mention, unable to decide whether it wants to celebrate counter-culture ("infitinite diversity" and all that), or whether it wants to decry it as a threat to rational society. I think the former position is more in keeping with the Star Trek 'message', but the script ultimately ends with a bad taste in the mouth, because it reaffirms the latter position that these "dirty stinkin' hippies" need to "get a haircut and a real job". Which I think is unfortunate.
It's a little confusing, because STAR TREK tries to embody, it seems, this sense of idealism that's shown by the Space Hippies. And yet, because they were still followers who could be led, they are branded as blind fools for following someone mentally unstable. This show could've transcended the sixties and the hippy movement if it had been more about how lasting change truly takes place. Instead it's pretty straightforward and easily concluded, which is a shame. As for the music, I do fast forward through that crap, when I rarely put it on.
I love this episode, it is a box of happy candy. Music is hilarious, storyline is touching (yes) to see how earnest and deluded people can still be in the future. Many amusing moments 
You described the episode's faults to a tee. It isn't the hippies that are the problem but the hopelessly mundane approach. Kirk may as well sat in his chair yelling at them to get hair cuts and jobs. The episode could have been any average 'kids need to grow up parochialism'. It's a shame they didn't use it to show validity to their counter culture approach to the Federation norm instead of them being just deluded and following a mad man.
The original writer of "A Private Little War" had a similar complaint about Gene Roddenberry's re-write. The final episode seems to come out in favor of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, a very "Establishment" position at the time and not what the writer expected from GR.
This episode is at, or next to the bottom, of my TOS favourites listing but there have been some very interesting comments here for me to think about. I'll be interested to see how this episode's process progressed from start to finish when the third "These Are the Voyages" book comes out. I am hoping there are some valuable insights/memos etc to show what happened. Perhaps we'll see a few concrete examples of script changes from first write to the filmed product.
It'll be interesting to hear what Cushman's book has to say about this, but all my research suggests this isn't true.
Spock:
"They regard themselves as aliens in their own worlds, a condition with which I am somewhat familiar."
That line either speaks directly to you, or its just the dumb hippy episode.
"They regard themselves as aliens in their own worlds, a condition with which I am somewhat familiar."
That line either speaks directly to you, or its just the dumb hippy episode.
Eden's counterpart on Lost in Space was called "Collision of Planets," which aired about 16 months earlier. Daniel J. Travanti (Hill Street Blues) and Linda Gaye Scott (Little Fauss and Big Halsy) are excellent in their guest-hippy roles, but Jonanthan Harris steals the show as usual when he contracts a Samson-like condition that gives him super strength. Scott using her sex appeal to manipulate (and later emasculate) Harris as Dr. Smith was, for that show, some pretty hot stuff.
Since both episodes ended up (or were bound to be) ridiculous, I would argue that LIS took the wiser course and made their version a comedy on purpose.
Gerald Fried ("Amok Time", "Friday's Child") wrote the music for "Collision of Planets", and you can hear faint strains in common with his score to "The Paradise Syndrome." I remember knowing it was him in the LIS episode before reading the credits.
Since both episodes ended up (or were bound to be) ridiculous, I would argue that LIS took the wiser course and made their version a comedy on purpose.
Gerald Fried ("Amok Time", "Friday's Child") wrote the music for "Collision of Planets", and you can hear faint strains in common with his score to "The Paradise Syndrome." I remember knowing it was him in the LIS episode before reading the credits.
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