Sorry it's a bit late going up guys. Busy busy. Happy rating and reviewing!
Episode of the Week : The Squire of Gothos
- Thread starter Botany Bay
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Sorry it's a bit late going up guys. Busy busy. Happy rating and reviewing!
Generally I´m not a big fan of episodes where our heroes are being captured by some higher being for its amusement or other purposes - that feeling of being powerless makes me a bit uneasy. Here however William Campbell´s outstanding performance makes up for it. Seems you can actually see how much fun he had in portraying this all-powerful yet childish super-being.
Overall The Squire of Gothos gets a 6 from me.
Mario
Overall The Squire of Gothos gets a 6 from me.
Mario
Hated this one as a kid but as with so many others; I have grown to like it (more). There are things about it I like but if I'm honest Trelane's over the top persona still annoys me. I rate it a 5 (I'm judging that based on "And the Children Shall Lead" as a 1 and "The Doomsday Machine" as a 10)
This episode is a great example of casting. William Campbell was perfect as Trelane, he owned that part. A year later he was cast as the Kilingon Koloth is Trouble with Tribbles and in my humble opinion, was the worst Klingon ever. There was nothing "Klingon" at all about his portrayl of Koloth.
Right actor in the right role.
Right actor in the right role.
Greetings and Felicitations!
This is the episode with one the weirdest landing parties ever: McCoy, DeSalle and Jager.
This is the episode with one the weirdest landing parties ever: McCoy, DeSalle and Jager.
Hip...Hip...Hoorah!
The number two weird landing party, to me anyway, is Scott, Sulu and Jackson in Catspaw!
I'm sure I wasn't the only Trek viewer saying, "My god, it's Liberace in space!"
"I've been looking in on the doings on your lively little Earth..!"
I'm with the others here who didn't like this episode as a kid, but like it a lot as an adult.
One little question I have, is after the landing party is beamed up, Kirk orders the ship to warp, and the group leaves the transporter room. For some reason Spock walks over to the transporter console and hits a single switch, then leaves. What was that all about?
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How dare they suggest the possibility that the Enterprise might occasionally send down landing parties that don't include Kirk and Spock!
This landing party might have made the first use of the egg-shaped laser beacon, which Kirk would employ as a soldering gun in "The Doomsday Machine."
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/1x17hd/thesquireofgothoshd093.jpg
That looks so '50s sci-fi there. The monochrome velour with a trained officer looking up to the sky where his ship is and pointing a beacon "up" as the ship is whizzing by, in orbit at hundreds or thousands of miles an hour.
I hate this episode. Hate Trelane. Hate Q too, which Trelane is probably a part of, though unnamed as such in 1966.
Campbell's deliriously zany work nets it a 6 from me, but I was never all that fond of the Omnipotent Space Jerks trope and the somewhat deus ex machina resolution of this one -- with Trelane's "parents" showing up to save the day -- still strikes me as weak.
(Uh, it looks like I actually voted 5. Well, in my heart it's a six.)
(Uh, it looks like I actually voted 5. Well, in my heart it's a six.)
Regarding the beam-down, this is just about the only time in TOS (besides "Ultimate Computer") when the choice of landing party personnel actually was given a rationale. That is, Jaeger's field of expertise at least got a mention and sounded relevant enough.
Doesn't mean the other parties wouldn't have been equally well thought out (in terms of choosing the one relevant specialist to accompany the usual three tourists plus a security victim or three). We just failed to get Kirk's or Spock's thoughts on this, and had to rationalize all by ourselves.
(Did we get other such explications? I'm excluding boarding parties such as "Space Seed" and visits to civilized UFP locations such as "Dagger of the Mind" for argument's sake.)
As for the beacon, DeSalle says he thinks something is blocking the signal, and he's trying to find "open ground". We're clearly supposed to think he's staring at foliage he thinks is responsible for the blockage, not trying to spot the Enterprise...
Oh, right, the vote... I'll give this one a seven, as it's among the more amusing "superbeing tortures heroes" takes and a good counterpart to the actually scary "Charlie X" in that category. The rest in the mix, like "Triskelion", I would rather skip altogether.
Timo Saloniemi
Doesn't mean the other parties wouldn't have been equally well thought out (in terms of choosing the one relevant specialist to accompany the usual three tourists plus a security victim or three). We just failed to get Kirk's or Spock's thoughts on this, and had to rationalize all by ourselves.
(Did we get other such explications? I'm excluding boarding parties such as "Space Seed" and visits to civilized UFP locations such as "Dagger of the Mind" for argument's sake.)
As for the beacon, DeSalle says he thinks something is blocking the signal, and he's trying to find "open ground". We're clearly supposed to think he's staring at foliage he thinks is responsible for the blockage, not trying to spot the Enterprise...
Oh, right, the vote... I'll give this one a seven, as it's among the more amusing "superbeing tortures heroes" takes and a good counterpart to the actually scary "Charlie X" in that category. The rest in the mix, like "Triskelion", I would rather skip altogether.
Timo Saloniemi
Another brilliant and tremendously enjoyable romp - 9.
That Which Survives, Senior Geologist D'Amato
The continuity glitch has to be mentioned with this one: Trelane was supposedly recreating Earth culture as he saw it, 900 years ago due to the 900-light-year distance. Yet he made reference to Napoleon, who would have been only 4 or 5 centuries ago.
Of course, this episode was produced before they decided the show actually took place in the 23rd Century, rather than the 28th.
Of course, this episode was produced before they decided the show actually took place in the 23rd Century, rather than the 28th.
A great episode. I just wish that Trelane didn't have to be retroactively made "Q" because, for one thing, Q doesn't have to be the whole of STAR TREK ... you know? Q's like this athiest's version of god or something for Trekkies to believe in, who has to have his fingers in every pie. Can't make a move without Q being ever-watchful and working its wonders. Just let Trelane and his people be their own thing. This episode still has legs and should be allowed to stand on its own.
I brought this up a while back, and was pummeled with tomatoes for it. It's possible I've overlooked something...but upon consideration, I still maintain that the implication was, yes, Trelane was 900 light-years from Earth.
Trek novels are non-canon. Trelane doesn't have to be a member of the Q if you don't want him to be.Memory Alpha said:
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