Festival, Festival

[MAGolding]

Archon is an old Greek term for a higher Councillor or Judge I believe too!
JB

In "Byzantine" Greek it was a more or less generic term for ruler or leader.

"The Unknown Archon" is a term used to described the legendary founder of Serbia.

The Unknown Archon (Serbian: непознати архонт / nepoznati arhont), Unknown Knez (непознати кнез / nepoznati knez),[1] Unnamed Serb Archon (неименовани српски архонт / neimenovani srpski arhont),[2] or simply Serb Archon (српски архонт / srpski arhont),[3] refers to the Serbian prince who led the White Serbs from their homeland to settle in the Balkans during the reign of Byzantine Emperor Heraclius (610–641), as mentioned in Emperor Constantine VII's De Administrando Imperio (950s). The work states that he was the progenitor of the first Serbian dynasty (known as the Vlastimirović), and that he died before the settlement of the Bulgars (680).[4] Serbian historiography commonly treats him as the first Serbian ruler.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unknown_Archon

It's too bad nobody thought to put in a mention of "unknown archons" or "The Unknown Archon". in "Return of the Archons".

 

[UnknownSample]

It's better that it's not said, but they didn't mean for it to be a mystery. The viewer is supposed to put it together that this kind of extreme control of minds and feelings is so psychologically destructive and creates so many problems for the society (like procreation) that a periodic safety valve is required to keep the whole thing going. If they hadn't guided this sort of eruption by channelling it into this Festival, it would have happened randomly to people. You can't just put a lid on drives, primal needs, and conflicts, and expect them to behave.

 

[johnnybear]

The USS Archon was lost a hundred years or so previously but for some reason was not re-registered as another ship in the mighty Starfleet of Kirk's time!
JB

 

[Timo]

How so? Ships by that name might be a dime in a dozen. We just never ran into any.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Marsden]

As to why, we're never told. Which I like.

Maybe Landru needs to go offline every now and then, or reboot.

I really like that, Plynch! I like that much better than the supposed right answer.

It's very consistent with mainframe type computers that have many terminals that need to update periodically and shows the systems severe limitations of providing a truly safe environment. Perfect. That's my go to explanation forever. I'll credit you, of course, just like I always will mention Melakon (RIP) for the theory that the Halkans created the whole Mirror Universe to test Kirk's true intentions.

 

[Henoch]

I'll credit you, of course, just like I always will mention Melakon (RIP) for the theory that the Halkans created the whole Mirror Universe to test Kirk's true intentions.

The various Trek writers and producers didn't get the memo. They continue to test Starfleet over three or more generations, one pre-Kirk (time travel?) and one post-Kirk (ENT thru DS9).

 

[Marsden]

The various Trek writers and producers didn't get the memo. They continue to test Starfleet over three or more generations, one pre-Kirk (time travel?) and one post-Kirk (ENT thru DS9).

I know. What you have said is true. My customs are different. What the sequels has said is unimportant, and I do not hear their words.

 

[Qonundrum]

I saw 'Return of the Archons' again recently. Maybe I missed something, but what was the point of the Festival? Was it so Landau could give up control for a little while, and do maintenance on it's systems, or was it to let the humans experience some relief from it's control? It also goes against it's claim of a peaceful society.

Catharsis is a viable possibility, but then what are the reasons behind the denizens smashing everything? (I'll admit, the direction and acting of all these extras was first rate...)

Any good computer system has secondary/layover circuits should a primary system in the server farm go down. Then again, like error trapping (which would prevent Kirk from nagging any computer to death with the weekly ritual cliche of using illogic to make the computer overheat and promptly explode), server farms and redundancy didn't exist... at least in America, in the UK the Cybernauts of "The Avengers" had numerous backup systems - told in that typically charming 1960s style, but it was the 1960s and Michael Gough could read from a phone book and make that seem entertaining, so there...

I also wonder how many times they have the 'Festival'? seems like a lot of damage to fix up afterwards.

Once per year? It's not much different to your ordinary holiday known as "Black Friday", though given all that turkey people eat you'd think they'd sleep all the way until "Hangover Saturday", the one day of the year that the typical hangover event is allowed to take place one day early...

I also like how this was a pretext to how the Borg operate, in a way.

It's an interesting mix of mob rule via telepathy (and not in that cool in living color on NBC television way), body snatching, zombified beatings of those who don't comply to the rules... it's almost like "The Jerry Springer Show" but with copious amounts of valium instead of meth... The Borg are more a direct technological link but the Collective is a spirital precursor, of sorts. And noting how the Borg were created as being a mirror but flipped-evil parodied image of the 24th Century Federation...

 

[Qonundrum]

As to why, we're never told. Which I like.

Maybe Landru needs to go offline every now and then, or reboot.

When done ideally, not every detail has to be told as it allowed the viewer a little freedom to fill in narrative gaps. The flip side is knowing when to tell the details and when to let it be. On top of that, each individual viewer will have their own preconceptions.

Or it's an open ending for a sequel or, worse, prequel. Does everything need to have an origin story or can the viewer accept that the here and now as postulated at the episode's beginning just came about and it's immaterial? And is the script strong enough in other ways to get around details that may or may not be needed?

Or nothing's said because the author of the script ran into a proverbial cul-de-sac for whatever reason(s) and let it be. TOS did explore strange, new worlds teeming with alien life forms - maybe that's just how it is and human customs can't always fit?

 

[Roundabout]

Maybe they were getting them ready for the University of Landru fraternity party life.

You mock the lawgiver. You mock Landru. You're not of the the body. You will be absorbed.

Peace and contentment to all.

 

[Qonundrum]

Given 1960s television censorship standards, what could they even try to imply. Especially in an age when showing a navel was a no-no. Until season 3 when nobody cared... (Paradoxically, movies like "Planet of the Apes" had much more brazen things to say and none of those should have been a "G" rating... but I digress, there's a shock...)

Another reason for Festival - once the proverbial drug wore off for the 12 hours, the reason would be: Procreation via ghood old fashioned copulation and not in a test tube, though not always through the most civilized or savory means. Even Landru knows that if there are no people, there's nothing to govern therefore no reason for it to exist and it can't make little itty bitty microchips that wet the diapers every few hours. "The Return of the Archons" was easily the most shrouded metaphorical allegory regarding hippie culture. As much as "The Way to Eden" flirts with some cool topics, the best allegories won't spoonfeed it. And to think this was shown almost 2.5 years before the Altamont Festival in December 1969. What a way for the 1960s to end...

 

[UnknownSample]

"The Return of the Archons" was easily the most shrouded metaphorical allegory regarding hippie culture.

The youth counter culture was the exact opposite of the sleepwalking unfeeling drones of this story. This was rigid Puritanism. Unless you mean the Festival. I can't see any comment on youth culture there, but suggest one if you want...

 

[Qonundrum]

The youth counter culture was the exact opposite of the sleepwalking unfeeling drones of this story. This was rigid Puritanism. Unless you mean the Festival. I can't see any comment on youth culture there, but suggest one if you want...

I'll cite another example, but the belief of the counterculture doesn't always match up to what has happened in documented history, so neither side can claim "total truism" but let's analyze a bit more: The youth counterculture was arguably a parody (if not a superficial one but I'll save that for now) of mainstream culture, rendered worse by drugs... If you didn't act and do as they did, what did they do? The hippies still had their own sense of rigid conformity. Anyone who wasn't like them was a "square".

That, and frilly outfits were used by hippies too, but that's a far looser association and the author of that Trek episode was probably railing on communism. But then, hippies were called "communists" all the time, so it still fits, even if only loosely but perceptions will vary. Especially when hippies hated government in an ironic twist, since their ideals of anarchy and belief in drug-induced pacifism don't work.

Here's an article on George Harrison's visit to Haight-Ashbury. He was not overjoyed over the indolence and zombie-like nature of the people there, who were offering him drugs, which he of all people rejected and the result is somewhat antithetical to the myth of the counterculture--> https://www.beatlesbible.com/1967/08/07/george-harrison-visits-haight-ashbury-san-francisco/

Quick excerpt:

We were expecting Haight-Ashbury to be special, a creative and artistic place, filled with Beautiful People, but it was horrible – full of ghastly drop-outs, bums and spotty youths, all out of their brains. Everybody looked stoned – even mothers and babies – and they were so close behind us they were treading on the backs of our heels. It got to the point where we couldn’t stop for fear of being trampled. Then somebody said, ‘Let’s go to Hippie Hill,’ and we crossed the grass, our retinue facing us, as if we were on stage. They looked as us expectantly – as if George was some kind of Messiah.
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(big snip)
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Then the bloke turned round and said to the others, ‘George Harrison turned me down.’

And they went, ‘No!’

And then the crowd became faintly hostile. We sensed it because when you’re that high you’re very aware of vibes, and we were walking faster and faster, and they were following.

When we saw the limo, we ran across the road and jumped in, and they ran after us and started to rock the car, and the windows were full of these faces, flattened against the glass, looking at us.

In its own way, it comes a cross a bit like the beginning of another "Festival", does it not?

There are more similarities - in certain ways - but, again, the episode isn't going to spoonfeed it heavyhandedly. That's what "The Way to Eden" did with characters like Rad.

 

[UnknownSample]

I'll cite another example, but the belief of the counterculture doesn't always match up to what has happened in documented history, so neither side can claim "total truism" but let's analyze a bit more: The youth counterculture was arguably a parody (if not a superficial one but I'll save that for now) of mainstream culture, rendered worse by drugs... If you didn't act and do as they did, what did they do? The hippies still had their own sense of rigid conformity. Anyone who wasn't like them was a "square".

That, and frilly outfits were used by hippies too, but that's a far looser association and the author of that Trek episode was probably railing on communism. But then, hippies were called "communists" all the time, so it still fits, even if only loosely but perceptions will vary. Especially when hippies hated government in an ironic twist, since their ideals of anarchy and belief in drug-induced pacifism don't work.

Here's an article on George Harrison's visit to Haight-Ashbury. He was not overjoyed over the indolence and zombie-like nature of the people there, who were offering him drugs, which he of all people rejected and the result is somewhat antithetical to the myth of the counterculture--> https://www.beatlesbible.com/1967/08/07/george-harrison-visits-haight-ashbury-san-francisco/

Quick excerpt:



In its own way, it comes a cross a bit like the beginning of another "Festival", does it not?

There are more similarities - in certain ways - but, again, the episode isn't going to spoonfeed it heavyhandedly. That's what "The Way to Eden" did with characters like Rad.

It's not that the counter culture was/is inherently conformist, it's that every movement of any kind has always fallen far short of what it was trying to achieve. There is hypocrisy everywhere. The essence of it was just what we needed, and still do, but these were still humans embedded in the culture they were raised in, and very young ones. By the way, lots were/are not like that. It's not inherently "rigid" at all, and conformism creeps in less there than in other groups and movements. It just gets through the cracks everywhere, that's all.

 

[Maurice]

I think “Archons” is too early to have been any sort of commentary on hippie counterculture, given how early Roddenberry came up with the initial story concept: summer of 64 as one of his 1st pilot story ideas. If any first season episode were such a commentary I’d say “This Side of Paradise” is more like it.