Bread and Circuses: General Order 24

[JimZipCode]

My wife & I were looking for a palate cleanser after tonight's VP debate, and our DVR had recorded "Bread and Circuses" off of MeTV. So we watched it.

There's a scene where Kirk-Spock-McCoy are sitting around with Merik and the Proconsul, and the Proconsul gives Kirk his communicator, to order the crew down in small groups. As Kirk is speaking, the Proconsul signals for a troop to come in with machine guns and surround Kirk. Kirk breaks off what he had been about to say, having to do with beaming them up, and instead gives his "Condition Green" update.

I found myself frustrated with this. In similar circumstances back in season 1's "A Taste of Armageddon," Kirk lunges over the table to give Scotty General Order 24, 12 hours. Of course, TOS never really concerned itself with continuity, so maybe it's a bit much to expect a tactic from a prior season's episode to reappear. But man. The whole rest of this episode would have gone entirely differently, if the dialogue in that scene had gone like this:

Kirk: "Scotty, General Order 24, 12 hours. No personnel to beam down under any circumstances. Acknowledge." (Troops surround Kirk.)
Scot: "Acknowledged sir, but...."
Kirk: "Kirk out." (Tosses communicator to Proconsul.)
Merik: "You can't do that!"
Proconsul: "What is General Order 24?"
Kirk: (chuckling) "Proconsul, if you want to see us in the arena, you'd better get us there quick. There isn't going to be an arena in 12 hours."​

Kirk's bargaining position is that the Proconsul will let Kirk take his guys, alive and unharmed, and Merik, and all of Merik's surviving crew, and leave; or else the Enterprise will destroy all life on the planet in 12 hours. Your move, Proconsul.

Claudius: "What about your Prime Directive?"
Kirk: (laughing) "What are you going to do? File a complaint with my superiors?"​

I feel like this would have led to a more enjoyable second-half of the episode, than what we got, which is basically Kirk sitting around impotently, waiting for Merik to rescue him.

 

[UnknownSample]

The circumstances were NOT similar. Kirk isn't in the habit of holding entire planets hostage to guarantee his personal safety and freedom. In AToA, there was the extraordinary situation of a war going on that he was already thinking about trying to put a stop to, somehow. The entire ship had been condemned to death and was under attack. In BaC, the crew was only in danger if Kirk chose to save the landing party by tricking his crew into beaming down.

General Order 24 was so wildly over-the-top a tactic, far more violent than any world war, that Kirk was only using it as a last ditch gamble to save not only the whole crew, but stop an insane permanent war. It was crazy enough to try once in those circumstances. If he pulled that option out again the next time he's a prisoner someplace, I'd hate Kirk for it...

General Order 24 shouldn't be enjoyable. We should wonder if Kirk's f'ing nuts. It worked, though.

 

[Captain Rob]

Scotty should have done what was done in an episode of Enterprise.
Have Chekov scan for Vulcan lifesigns. And when they can scan and see that Spock and the other two are alone. Beam down a communicator. And maybe a few phasers.
The Prime Directive went out the window the minute it was revealed that the Proconsul knew exactly who and what they were. Plus he knew about Starfleet, the Federation, and alien life on other planets.

 

[UnknownSample]

Scotty should have done what was done in an episode of Enterprise.
Have Chekov scan for Vulcan lifesigns. And when they can scan and see that Spock and the other two are alone. Beam down a communicator. And maybe a few phasers.
The Prime Directive went out the window the minute it was revealed that the Proconsul knew exactly who and what they were. Plus he knew about Starfleet, the Federation, and alien life on other planets.

After they don't check in, a communicator would be good. Kirk should get a chance to okay phasers first.

The Prime Directive still applies, since the Proconsul kept his knowledge to himself.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Bread & Circuses has its share of problems, but I'm a fan of it. I like the Spartacus energy and Christian themes that run throughout. For the longest time, I thought that the Proconsul was the Architect from "Matrix Reloaded," they looked so alike, to me. But, they're not the same actor, surprisingly ...

 

[johnnybear]

And it is one of only four episodes to have the Vulcan challenge music!
JB

 

[JimZipCode]

And it is one of only four episodes to have the Vulcan challenge music!

Really! Only 4? I would have guessed more.
Amok Time, this one, Gamesters of Triskelion – what's the fourth?

 

[johnnybear]

Amok Time, Bread And Circuses, Gamesters of Triskellion and The Omega Glory!
JB

 

[JimZipCode]

The circumstances were NOT similar. ... In BaC, the crew was only in danger if Kirk chose to save the landing party by tricking his crew into beaming down.
...
General Order 24 shouldn't be enjoyable. We should wonder if Kirk's f'ing nuts. It worked, though.

I disagree that GO 24 shouldn't be enjoyable. Watching the Romans in the episode last night, I found myself thinking "fuck these guys". I would have taken some grim enjoyment out of seeing Kirk flex some muscle. :-)

Your other point, I totally agree with. The circumstances that made GO 24 a valid gambit in "Taste of Armageddon", aren't really in play here, for two reasons. First, as you point out, Eminiar 7 was a danger to ships around it – had already taken out the Valiant – where the planet in "Bread & Circuses" really was not. The Beagle was a victim of meteor damage, not an attack from the planet.

The second reason is a part of the subtext of "Armageddon" that I really enjoy. In that episode, when Kirk lunges for the communicator, he had already spent enough time on the planet to have a handle on its people. He knew that they had principled leadership, dedicated to the greater good of society. And he knew that he was the most savage man on the planet. General Order 24 was a threat they would take seriously, and they would come to the negotiating table.

That's not the case in "Bread & Circuses". The Proconsul is a vicious little opportunist. The society is one of conquer and subjugation. As the Proconsul said, they were accustomed to death; and the Proconsul had already taken the measure of Capt Merik, finding him weak, and assuming Kirk was the same way. Issuing General Order 24 here could very easily backfire – Kirk could wind up being responsible for the decimation of a planet. Not in any way warranted, not even close, esp since only Kirk-Spock-McCoy were in any danger.

I still wish this episode had gone differently. That Proconsul was a slimy bastard; I wanted to see him get beat.

Oh, here was a fun tidbit: Mr Atoz was in this episode! I didn't expect to see him.

 

[2takesfrakes]

The Proconsul never struck me as actually being evil. He was simply the product of his time, of his culture. Compare him to anyone else who wasn't a slave on the show and he fit right in. He wasn't a big teddybear, nor should he have been. But you knew where you stood with him and I found him to be likeable. He was impressed with Kirk, you could see that from the start. He had respect for him.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Claudius Marcus is evil because his society made him that way.

Captain Merik, on the other hand, is evil simply because of his own personal idiosyncracies. Why else would he have willingly condemned his entire crew to death on Magna Roma? He sent each and every one of them to their deaths, and knew exactly what he was doing.

And, unlike Claudius Marcus, Merik was raised in the society of the Federation - and thus he should have known better.

 

[2takesfrakes]

Merik wasn't evil, he was just afraid to die, so he compromised his principles to avoid it. Ironically, the situation that he put himself into, that of a privileged employee, basically, to save himself ... is the most precarious.

But Merik had also made a deal with the devil, as it were, which means that the deal is ever-changing, ever-worsening, until all pretense of having a choice has completely vanished. In that sense, Merik's remaining value was as an ornament in the Proconsul's court - a constant reminder of David Vs. Goliath. Beyond that, though, whatever useful knowledge Merik might've had was already used up long before Kirk caught up with him.

 

[FormerLurker]

And Merik knew it, which was why when he knew there was no other way, he chose to sacrifice himself so that Kirk and company could get away. A cruel irony, that. Merik finally earned that Starfleet posting by getting killed, and never being able to enjoy it. And he knew that, too.

 

[UnknownSample]

This is one I hadn't seen in a LONG time, until seeing all the remastered DVDs recently. I was looking forward to it. I wonder if even remastered ep's are cut shorter than the original 51 minutes, because it went by so fast, with so little there. This has to be a cost-cutting episode. It was at the end of the season... What do we see of this Roman world? A cramped TV studio, a couple rooms, stock footage? I had no sense of any of it being real. I saw the "Roman" TV studio and could not help seeing it as what it was, a 1968 TV studio. And of course, they'd done duplicate Earths to death.

Seeing people talk about it here, though, I remember what was so interesting about it, though I didn't get it from the ep itself this last time. Merik's position mainly, obviously a classic position many people have probably found themselves in throughout history, with a great futuristic twist to it. So mainly, the focus is Merik. K, S, and M are secondary.

The thing I always remembered as great from BaC was McCoy's confronting of Spock over his Vulcan nature, perhaps accusing him of cowardice or something, for putting on a mask (internally as well as externally I guess) to avoid dealing with life. I love TOS for how far they take the Spock-McCoy debates, how strained the relationship gets, how these two people aren't kidding. It gets harsh and bitter sometimes. And they both are right.

 

[Captain Rob]

When they all first find out what happened to Merrik and his crew. He and the proconsul mention not wanting their precious planet contaminated by the outside galactic community. I wonder how it would have developed if Kirk had told them that a report had been already sent to Starfleet mentioning that the Enterprise had found the wreckage of the Beagle drifting away from the planet with it's 20th Century equivalent civilization. And they had intercepted video communications mentioning one of Merrik's junior officers. All done before they even beamed down. Kirk could argue that if anything happened to them that half of Starfleet would come knocking at their door. Regardless of the Prime Directive.

 

[UnknownSample]

Claudius Marcus is evil because his society made him that way.

Captain Merik, on the other hand, is evil simply because of his own personal idiosyncracies. Why else would he have willingly condemned his entire crew to death on Magna Roma? He sent each and every one of them to their deaths, and knew exactly what he was doing.

And, unlike Claudius Marcus, Merik was raised in the society of the Federation - and thus he should have known better.

He DID know better. He did it anyway. Why? Because no one is "evil", but also no one is "good". We are all vulnerable, three-dimensional, confusing masses of drives and impulses as well as intelligence and conscience, who can't know for sure how we will respond to a mortal threat or crisis, until we are pushed up against the wall by the crisis, and forced to respond to it.

It's all well and good for us to sit in our comfortable chairs watching TV, passing harsh judgments on characters for not doing the selfless thing, but being under actual threat is very different, and feels very different.

I like to think I wouldn't have taken Merik's way out. But I don't know that I wouldn't have.

 

[johnnybear]

Merik wasn't evil but like said earlier scared of dying! You could sort of see how he was ashamed of himself while in the presence of Kirk and Spock! And not all the crew of The Beagle were dead, others that had conformed to the society were still alive probably in government jobs while those that disagreed with their captain lived in hiding in the city or had already been killed like the broadcast stated about the last of thee barbarians, William B.Harrison!
JB

 

[Captain Rob]

Kirk, Spock and McCoy were just asking for trouble by beaming down in uniform. They had intercepted a TV broadcast. They should have been able to synthesize local clothing and blend in like "Assignment Earth". Plus have a phaser 1 shoved down a boot cuff just in case.

 

[BillJ]

That Proconsul was a slimy bastard; I wanted to see him get beat.

One of my favorite Star Trek villains.

 

[David Strickhouser]

"Bread and Circuses" and "A Taste of Armageddon" are both favorites for many reasons. By the time of "Bread" the PD was fully in place; in the case of "Armageddon", it had only been introduced a few eps earlier in "Archons".
The Federation was trying to open diplomatic relations with Eminiar VII, whereas the Enterprise was discovering the remains of the Beagle which led them 892-IV (Magna Roma).
Differing circumstances; General Order 24 was for the benefit of Kirk's ship, Condition Green was for the benefit of the planet (despite their civilization's current leadership).