I’m watching The Original Series again

[The Laughing Vulcan]

The Alternative Factor

The Enterprise is exploring a barren lifeless planet when, for a brief moment, everything winks out. Magnetic fields reduce to zero, mass vanishes, in short it is a moment of non-existence. An urgent communication from Starfleet confirms that the effect was felt beyond the reaches of the galaxy, and they concur with Kirk’s opinion that it could be the prelude to an invasion. Kirk is informed that all Starfleet resources are recalled for defence, and the Enterprise will be alone in determining and dealing with the threat. A clue to which has suddenly appeared on the planet, a life form where there previously was none. Beaming down, they find a manic bearded man named Lazarus, who claims to be hunting a strange figure responsible for the destruction of his planet. Suffering a fall from the cliffs, he is brought back to the Enterprise for treatment where he explains his situation. Another moment of non-existence occurs, and suddenly there is an uninjured Lazarus, one who is rational and is paying great attention to the ship’s dilithium crystals. They also interest the manic Lazarus when he reappears, as he claims that the crystals will allow him to defeat his nemesis, and demands the ship’s crystals from Kirk. When Kirk declines, the Enterprise is sabotaged and the crystals stolen anyway. Kirk will have to beam down and stop Lazarus from destroying life, the universe and everything.

Um, right. Moving on. The next episode is Tomorrow Is Yesterday…
What is there to say? This is Star Trek’s first genuine stinker. There is absolutely nothing that can redeem The Alternative Factor, and trying to put into words what is wrong with it is depressing. There is this much in its favour, it certainly didn’t fail through mediocrity. This is an episode that aimed high, that attempted something thought provoking, that was imbued with a good deal of hard sci-fi, something that lesser episodes of later generations would have been eager to claim.

The trouble is apparent right at the outset, as this is all bad science. When Spock describes the planet’s atmosphere as hydrogen-oxygen, I begin to have serious misgivings. Hydrogen oxygen is rocket fuel. Kirk’s first order to the landing party should be, “I’ll have the hide of the first person who so much as farts.” In fact, as an atmosphere it just shouldn’t exist. This awkward science is carried through to the premise of the show itself, the anti-matter and matter universes. I don’t know if this was prior to antimatter being established as the Enterprise’s fuel source, but the conceit is that matter and anti-matter will only annihilate if absolutely identical particles come into contact with each other. Which in this case means anti Lazarus meeting Lazarus. Any other person can interact with anti-Lazarus without fear of big bangs. This episode also throws in the sci-fi staples in willy-nilly, without worrying about explaining or even developing them as ideas or plot points. Lazarus announces he is a time traveller, Lazarus comes from an alternate version of Earth, and Starfleet somehow knows that the effect extends beyond the galaxy (Implying that Starfleet extends beyond the galaxy).

Bad science can only sink this episode so far. The episode as presented is dull, poorly plotted, and filled with dubious continuity, not least of which is the consistency of Lazarus’ beard. The first change between manic Lazarus and sane Lazarus happens off screen and is apparently managed without benefit of the winking effect. McCoy states that one minute his patient had a bandage, and the next minute he was fine, but nowhere does he state, “by the way, I felt that I was turned inside out again, just what have you got us into this time Jim?” Just why does a complete stranger have free reign through the ship? Where did he learn to sabotage a ship’s Energiser by fiddling with a panel in a corridor? Just how many times can one man fall off a cliff in one episode? It isn’t helped by an uninvolving performance from the actor playing Lazarus. Which one is on screen, the fanatic or the other one? Who cares? Far too much time is spent with the sixties eye candy of two negative figures battling in slow motion, and too little time in developing the characters and story.

How did Kirk get from space winking out to prelude to invasion? Why would Starfleet leave him to face the threat alone? Why do dilithium crystals look so appetising? This episode just leaves too many questions to be asked. And it is easier on the old grey matter to boil it down to just one, a beseeching Shatner of a “Why?”

 

[scottydog]

Re: The Alternative Factor

Yes, good assessment of a very painful episode to watch. I think Spock actually meant to say "Nitrogen-Oxygen" and no one caught his slip-up.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Tomorrow Is Yesterday

An F-104 is scrambled when a UFO appears in the skies over Omaha in the late 1960s, just days before man’s first step towards the stars. Captain John Christopher takes his interceptor up to a stunning rendezvous. In the pale blue sky, a vast disc appears, with two nacelles behind it, and an engineering hull below. The Enterprise has been sent, after an encounter with a black star, hurtling through space and time back to Earth of the past. Now as the battered and powerless ship tries to climb out of Earth’s atmosphere, a relic from the past threatens it. Although the crew is quick to realise when and where they are, Kirk underestimates the strength of 20th Century engineering, shattering the fighter in the grip of a tractor beam and necessitating a quick beam out of the pilot. Which is where all the problems begin. Now that Captain Christopher has glimpsed the future, he can’t be returned, according to Spock that is. Captain Christopher being the good patriot feels he has to fulfil his duty, which causes more than a few headaches for Kirk. Worse is yet to come, as while Scotty can repair the ship, he points out that they have nowhere to go. They are just as much victims of time travel as is Captain Christopher. Fortunately, it’s when Spock admits a mistake that there forms an opportunity. It turns out that Christopher’s unborn child will have a significant impact on future events, meaning that he must go back. Spock also formulates a method of returning the ship to its own time. So now all that is left to do is to steal any photographic evidence of the Enterprise’s visit, erase any records, and with a deft bit of transporter work, return Christopher back to his own time before he even left. Unfortunately, it’s a case of the best-laid plans and all that, as when Sulu and Kirk beam down to infiltrate a military base, Kirk is captured, and another guest is accidentally beamed up to the ship.

Tomorrow Is Yesterday is a sublime episode made back when time travel was still a novelty in TV sci-fi. It also has one of the best pre-credit sequences in all of Trek, throwing the audience for a loop by opening with a contemporary scene of a fighter scramble. It’s only when Christopher makes contact with the UFO that the familiar theme begins to play, and we are left with the bizarre sight of the Enterprise in the pale blue skies of Omaha to tantalise us over the credit sequence. What follows is a classic story filled with culture shock and time travel shenanigans galore. I think one of the most tantalising ‘What ifs’ about sci-fi, is what if we were to find ourselves in such a situation. This episode answers that by introducing the people of the 20th Century directly to the 23rd. But aside from all the wonder of the future and hints of a better world, the characters aren’t forgotten, and Captain Christopher remains patriotically committed to completing his duty, despite the apparent hospitality of the visitors out of time. The tables are reversed when the Captain and Sulu beam down into the 20th Century, and Kirk has to endure a rather odd interrogation.

The whole feeling of this story is one that is light and humorous. There isn’t any feeling of peril as there is the impression that Kirk and his contemporaries find their little jaunt to the past as something wholly enjoyable. It’s almost like shore leave for them, a chance to meet new and exciting people from the past. It takes Spock’s bucket of cold water for Kirk to realise the ramifications of time travel after he has been showing off his pride and joy to Christopher. If anything, I get the feeling that Kirk finds all this, and his guest quaint. And try as he might he just can’t take it seriously.

This episode also blows Data’s claims that television doesn’t exist past the 21st Century out of the water. I try to put myself in Kirk’s shoes, finding myself 300 (rather 200, that’d be just about right) years in the past. It would be a world where English would be unrecognisable from today, no electricity, no running water, anything vaguely odd would be thought of as witchcraft. It would be a world that I would not be able to function in. Society would be far too different. In fact, thinking about history, the most recent time prior to my birth that I would be able to function as effectively as Kirk managed, would be around about the same time, the 1950’s and 60’s. It’s because of television and cinema that there is a living breathing historical record of the period, a familiarity with culture and language of the period that makes it accessible even fifty years on. It’s the apparent degree of comfort that Kirk and Sulu had in the past that makes me feel that they too would have experienced the cultural references of the period to a similar extent. I can imagine a young James Kirk staying up late to watch old black and white serials in amongst the widescreen epics of today, and the 3D holodramas of the future. Why wouldn’t Buster Crabbe as Flash Gordon, or Lost In Space inspire a future Starship Captain?

Oddly, a couple of the problems that plagued The Alternative Factor crop up here, namely the incomprehensible science, as well as the cavalier security. They get a military man visiting from the past, and the first thing that Kirk does is give him a guided tour. He takes him to the bridge, and the lax security gives Christopher more than one chance to attempt escape. When the guard is beamed up and he stands there dumbfounded, it takes more than a minute before anyone thinks to disarm him. Also try as I might, I just can’t get my head round Spock’s explanation of the return of the visitors. If they travel back in time just a tad, and beam them back to a point just before they were beamed up, then they should have no memory of the future? Huh? One thing, their future selves are beaming into their past selves. Why don’t they turn into a TimeCop style amorphous blob? Also if travelling back in time erases memory, why didn’t the Enterprise crew arrive in the late 60s as blank slates? Fortunately Tomorrow Is Yesterday has none of the other problems of the earlier episode. The characters are engaging, the story flows perfectly and it is enjoyable enough to make me forget the plot holes. Let’s face it, with Time Travel there are always plot holes.

It’s odd to see the Earth from orbit minus any cloud cover whatsoever, and while I love the shot of the Enterprise from the viewpoint of Christopher’s plane, the rest of the effect shots are less effective. The cast interactions are great, McCoy gets uppity when Kirk compares him to Spock, although he’s delighted when Spock admits having made an error. Kirk has his own problems with an over affectionate computer, and it’s a delight to see the show get some back-story that isn’t necessarily on screen. It hints at a great adventure though, and if anyone is interested in reading about the rest of Kirk’s relationship with his ship’s computer then Web Of The Romulans by M.S. Murdock is the book to read.

Minor plot points and trivia include the fact that there are 12 ships like the Enterprise in the fleet, and they operate under the auspices of U.E.S.P.A. the United Earth Space Probe Agency. (I supposed this could be retconned into belated disinformation about the future supplied by Kirk). We also get to meet a nameless Transporter Operator, who will soon get the name of Kyle. Finally, Sean Jeffrey Christopher will be the first man to Saturn, although judging by the real world progress in space exploration, by the time we get there, he could very well be the oldest too.

Tomorrow Is Yesterday is fun, entertaining and timeless. Coming immediately after a duffer like The Alternative Factor it is perfectly placed to get the show back on track.

 

[Saxman1]

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Really loving these reviews a ton! Keep up the great work!

Sidebar: TOS is now gone from SciFi Channel? They moved it to premium (SciFi Channel) out here in the Chicagoland area and it's a big price jump. If it's gone, we're not upgrading.

Thanks!

 

[Endymion]

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

I keep meaning to watch all the TOS episodes again, but I keep falling asleep.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Posted by Saxman1:
Really loving these reviews a ton! Keep up the great work!

Sidebar: TOS is now gone from SciFi Channel? They moved it to premium (SciFi Channel) out here in the Chicagoland area and it's a big price jump. If it's gone, we're not upgrading.

Thanks!

It's gone; hasn't been on since August 1. Even though I had all the DVDs, I still watched it from time to time on the SciFi channel.

 

[Russ]

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

I had figured Sci Fi just didn't bother to pick up the contract again, but I was informed in this post that Spike TV will be picking up the episodes.

Voyager starts up on Spike TV in 2006, so I assume that's when TOS will be incorporated into the schedule.

 

[pookha]

Re: Tomorrow Is Yesterday

Tomorrow Is Yesterday is a sublime episode made back when time travel was still a novelty in TV sci-fi. It also has one of the best pre-credit sequences in all of Trek, throwing the audience for a loop by opening with a contemporary scene of a fighter scramble

yeah my first reaction when i first saw it was damn they
pre empted star trek.

great set up.

and it is one of the most fun episodes.
a reason i overlook some of the stuff like beaming people back into their bodies (something i dont think they ever do again).

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

The Return Of The Archons

A follow up mission to determine the fate of the Starship Archon gets off on the wrong foot when half of the scouting party, Mr Sulu beams up brainwashed and in a state of bliss. The Archon vanished a hundred years ago near the planet Beta III, and the Enterprise has been sent to find out what happened. Now Kirk has to discover what has happened to Sulu and the whereabouts of his missing crewmember. The second landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and three guards beams down to find an odd stagnant society, where the population lives a life of inane and placid harmony. That is until Red Hour, when the repressed urges and passions of the inhabitants is unleashed in a paroxysm of orgiastic violence, a nightmare euphemistically called Festival. The older members of society are excused from this, but when Kirk and his colleagues fail to join in, eyebrows are raised. Not all of the people are happy with the state of affairs, and Kirk encounters a member of a fledgling resistance. The planet had almost destroyed itself in a war 6000 years ago, and it took the vision of Landru to save the world, and reorganise society into a non-aggressive and non-destructive form, eliminating all passion, drive and creativity. The individual inhabitants were co-opted into a telepathic whole, The Body, where all thoughts are monitored and controlled. Those not of The Body are considered outsiders, dangers, and are either eliminated or absorbed. This was the fate of the crew of the Archon, and it now looks as if it will befall the Enterprise too, when heat beams lancing up from the planet ensnare the starship. Kirk has 12 hours to find and convince Landru to release his ship, or the crew of the Enterprise are doomed.

If you have ever worked in IT support, I’m sure you will have come across the user who says, “I just wanted to see what happens when you type FORMAT C:” That person’s name is most likely Kirk. In Return Of The Archons, James Kirk displays that remarkable propensity he has for destroying computer hardware as he goes head to head with Landru, a 6000-year-old governing computer. If only James Kirk had met Skynet, we never would have had the Terminator movies. This is an interesting story, which proceeds from the premise that a functioning vibrant society requires progress at its heart. It is a singularly modern premise, one that is enshrined in the heart of capitalism where bigger is better. There have been societies in the past that have existed with the sole purpose of maintaining the status quo, and this episode really only works from the viewpoint of a modern Westernised society.

For Landru is actually an interesting paradigm, a watered down version of Gaia, where instead of an entire world, it is society itself that has been formed into a living organism, a proto-Borg. The individual is merely a cell in the larger society, and the mind of the organism, that which controls its various elements is Landru itself. The Body reacts to invaders much like any other living thing, it identifies it as different, and sends antibodies to deal with it (here they are the cloaked figures with the hollow sticks), the invader are either absorbed (assimilated) into The Body, or they are eliminated. Landru has achieved an effective homeostasis, a society that works, that continues and suffers from no ills. If crime and social deviance is a virus, then Landru eliminates it, uncontrolled growth, the cancer that is societal progress is prevented. Then Kirk comes along, the disease against which there is no cure, no vaccine and destroys The Body by attacking its brain. Of course the paradigm breaks down because individuals are not cells in a whole, and free will and choice define whom a person is. To subsume that completely is to in actuality reduce a human being to nothing more than a single celled organism.

For Kirk, even when presented with the Prime Directive, the choice is a simple one. His background of individual achievement and growth predispose him to look on Landru’s society as flawed. But I wonder what was the strongest motivation in his decision to destroy Landru. Was it his perception of the society as stagnant and moribund? He hadn’t really been on the planet long enough to be sure that that was actually the case. Was it the tacit agreement and reluctant plea for help from the wavering revolutionaries Marplon and Reger? Was it the idea of members of his crew co-opted into the whole, the vacant looks from Sulu and McCoy? Or was it the thought of his beloved ship threatened by Landru’s heat beams? The more I think about it, the less I agree with Kirk’s reasoning. He was guilty of judging a society by his own prejudices and broke the Prime Directive in spirit if not in fact. It would have been preferable to have quarantined the planet and let it continue in its idyll imposed from within. But as soon as the Enterprise was endangered, all bets were off. We have seen how protective Kirk is of his ship, and it would have been an easy call to make. It is also an easy decision to justify. A primitive backward quarantined world is of less use to galactic society than a growing and vibrant potential Federation member. And there is always the possibility that Landru’s programming could be subverted, and the residents of Beta III become Borg in more than just vague analogy.

Noteworthy trivia: The Enterprise crew were recognised by absorbed Sulu as Archons, suggesting that Starfleet uniforms have changed little in 100 years. That’s something to blurt out in an inopportune moment in the Enterprise forum. Night falls quickly on Beta III, it was still daylight when Red Hour began, but when Kirk and his party got to their room, it was pitch black outside. All through this episode, Kirk calls McCoy ‘Doc’ instead of ‘Bones’. There are some nice character moments between Spock and Kirk in this episode. I love the moment when Spock slugs one of the Landru Jedi, and Kirk asks, “Isn’t that a somewhat old fashioned?”

Personally, while this episode is enjoying enough, and more than thought provoking, it has never been one of my favourites, although I am hard-pressed to categorise just why. It has all the Trek standards of god like being, powerful computer requiring outwitting by Kirk, ship trapped in orbit and spiralling to its doom, but between Landru and Vaal, I’ll take the latter any day. One final thought, if as Sulu says, Beta III is paradise, does that make Kirk the serpent? If so, there’s very little temptation involved as he practically force-feeds Eve that apple.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

A Taste Of Armageddon

The Enterprise has been ordered to star cluster NGC 321, where it is imperative that the Federation makes contact with the resident civilisations. To that end, Ambassador Robert Fox has been given nominal authority over the mission, and despite a Code 7-10 transmitted by the dominant world in the cluster, essentially a directive to stay away at all costs, Fox orders Kirk to take the Enterprise in. His position is that the Federation can’t stand by and allow the millions of deaths in the cluster to continue; the senseless conflict that engulfs the worlds must stop. However the Enterprise arrives in the orbit of Eminiar VII to find an idyllic untouched world, peaceful and gardenlike in its beauty. Kirk overrides Fox and takes a landing party down to investigate. Kirk is met by the leader of the Eminian council, Anan 7 who despite the ship’s refusal to turn back, offers every hospitality to the visitors. When Spock raises the issue of the war and the rumoured deaths, Anan confirms that there has been a vicious conflict fought between Eminiar and its former colony Vendikar for the last 500 years. The landing team are incredulous given their pacific surroundings, so Anan 7 takes them to the war room, just in time for the start of another attack. Soon thermonuclear bombs are exploding over the surface of the world, at least on the computer screen. The penny drops, and the landing party realise that the war is fought solely by computer. It’s a lethal conflict though as Anan 7 explains, the computer tallies the casualties and informs the victims to report to disintegration booths. The planet’s population dutifully complies, willing to accept death in exchange for the preservation of their world and their way of life. Then what Anan 7 was dreading occurs, and the Enterprise is destroyed in the simulated attack. Unless the Starfleet crew report to the disintegration booths, war will exist in reality instead of simulation between the two worlds and real bombs will start falling. He takes the landing party hostage and targets the Enterprise.

The critic in me wants to be harsh and really drag A Taste Of Armageddon over the coals. After all, we’re barely twenty episodes into the run and already Star Trek has started to repeat itself, and quite blatantly so. We get another meddling muckety-muck from higher up the Federation food chain, meddling with the ship’s mission a la Commissioner Ferris in The Galileo Seven. More tellingly, this is the second episode in a row where the Enterprise is placed in danger while orbiting a world where society has gone subtly and fundamentally wrong. There is another pesky computer at the heart of the problem, and once again Kirk is cast in the role of Satan, casting this world’s inhabitants out of their self-imposed Paradise. It’s also the second episode in a row that the Enterprise follows up an ill-fated Starfleet mission. Here it is the Valiant (not the one from the edge of the galaxy) that came to grief attempting to make contact with the Eminians, and once again the Enterprise falls into the same trap.

I would complain about all this, were it not that A Taste Of Armageddon is so good. It’s entertaining, paced perfectly and is original enough to give it a unique feel. For one thing, rather than the utopia of Landru, this culture is enmeshed in a destructive war. It’s a clean, bloodless and organised war, but a war nonetheless. I love the dichotomy presented here. Anan 7 is the ultimate in genteel amiability, he is proud of his civilisation, and the calm measured way his people go about the business of war, dutifully reporting to suicide booths when ordered, just to maintain the treaty between Eminiar and Vendikar. Next to him, Kirk is quite the barbarian, Anan 7 can’t understand why Kirk doesn’t realise the beauty of their system, and feels justified in expecting the Enterprise crew to live up to the treaty they have blundered into. Kirk is violent in comparison, fighting to save his ship and change the Eminian’s system. It’s epitomised in the scene where Kirk is recaptured. He runs into Anan 7 and the guards, and they engage in the obligatory fistfight. One of the sonic disruptors falls at the feet of Anan 7 early on in the fight, but he never even thinks of picking it up. This is a man who can’t consider soiling himself with the actuality of violence, preferring to orchestrate it by proxy. But the truth is quite the reverse. It is Anan 7 who is the barbarian, who would far rather continue the state of affairs where millions die each year in the sanitised war, while it is Kirk who fights, who conducts his brief little terrorist campaign all in the hope of changing things, in the hope of establishing a peace. It’s terribly good writing that is subtly done, yet ultimately very effective.

A welcome omission from this episode is The Prime Directive. Were this The Next Generation, this episode would never have occurred, but the Original Series has it very well defined. Don’t meddle with primitive societies. That’s it. The operative word is primitive. There is nothing about the Eminians that can be classed as primitive, so they are fair game, indeed the Federation is insistent that their be a treaty port established in the star cluster and to that extent have assigned the Enterprise to Fox’s disposal. Ambassador Fox is another of those meddling outsiders who exists to add a little drama to the proceedings aboard ship. Just the sonic weapons from the planet wouldn’t be enough to raise Scotty’s hackles, but the presence of the annoying diplomat is enough to have him disobey orders. Incidentally, Scott gets both the best and worst lines in this episode, I love his line about the best diplomat being a charged phaser bank, but his comment about “the haggis is in the fire for sure” is horrible stereotyping that makes me cringe whenever I hear it. On the whole, Ambassador Fox isn’t so much irritating as he is misguided. He has ultimate faith in his abilities, and has underestimated the severity of the situation on Eminiar. He operates the best way he knows how, through diplomacy and it’s only when he comes face to face with what’s occurring on the planet’s surface that he has to re-evaluate his position. In my opinion, he was less at fault than those who ordered the mission, and gave him an inadequate briefing. It’s good to note that he apparently has his confidence back at the end, when he offers to mediate the peace talks between the two worlds. He’s obviously operating on familiar ground now. The one plot gap would be Scotty refusing to lower the screens to beam down the ambassador, followed by the sight of him beaming down. Oddly enough, I’m not too bothered by this. I just assume that Fox and Scotty had another confrontation off screen, one that the ambassador won. The story doesn’t require you to see it, and it’s fun leaving it up to the imagination.

Then there is General Order 24. Kirk orders Scotty to destroy Eminiar. That is one hell of an order to place in the Starfleet handbook, an organisation devoted to the peaceful exploration of the galaxy. It makes you wonder, why the Federation would even entertain the possibility of committing genocide. It hints at desperate moments in its past, and while the Romulan War springs to mind, I’m also loath to admit that Xindi incident in Enterprise would be the sort of desperate moment that would call for ultimate sanction. It also begs the question, was General Order 24 ever executed in Starfleet’s history. It certainly is a chilling aspect of what seems like such an amiable and forward thinking organisation and society.

Notable trivia in this episode: An alien planet never before contacted by the Federation uses Federation codes to warn off the Enterprise. There is an excellent character moment, where Spock and Kirk arrive at the same course of action separately, that of destroying the disintegration booths, Spock’s ability to meld through doors and walls, the multi-legged creature distraction ploy, and the Enterprise can’t fire full phasers through raised screens. Finally Yeoman Tamura gets a whole heap of dialogue for an extra, even if it is just asking for exposition.

A Taste Of Armageddon is another classic episode where a planetary leader brimming with false confidence learns never to threaten the love of Kirk’s life, his ship. He also learns that it’s unwise to leave a damsel in distress in plain view because that will only give Kirk added motivation.

 

[scottydog]

Re: A Taste Of Armageddon

A great episode. We are to assume that negotiations between the two planets are succussfully able to bring about a peace between them. But what if the talks are unsuccesful and Kirk's gamble leads to inter-planetary annihilation -- the very thing that their computer-based war was so good at preventing?

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Space Seed

Ah! Here we go! The Enterprise detects an Earth ship where no such ship should be. An ancient DY100 sleeper ship, built in the 1990s when interplanetary travel took months is found in the depths of interstellar space, and what’s more, there is evidence of life on board. Kirk, Scotty, McCoy and ship’s historian Marla McGivers beam aboard to find a ship filled with 200-year-old travellers in suspended animation. Historian McGivers is transfixed by the appearance of the leader, a handsome man from North India, and becomes emotional when his reawakening is interrupted by a malfunction. It’s more his remarkable physique than McCoy’s skill that ensures his survival, and that rings alarm bells back aboard the ship while he recuperates. As Spock relates, the 1990s was the era of Earth’s last world war, the Eugenics war, when an attempt to improve the species through selective breeding failed horribly. The resulting Napoleons rampaged through the world in their attempt to bring order, and whole populations were bombed out of existence. He also discovers that a number of these supermen were unaccounted for, a similar number to those still lying in suspended animation aboard the Botany Bay, a portentous name for a ship. Meanwhile, the Indian wakes and demands to see the Captain. Kirk finds himself interrogated by the charismatic individual, and all he can ascertain is that the man’s name is Khan. It’s more than enough though, as the most notorious of the supermen, one of those unaccounted for was Khan Noonien Singh. It’s too late, as Khan has exerted his intense charisma on star struck McGivers, and the Enterprise is left vulnerable to a shipload of genetically engineered supermen.

What price research eh? I occasionally wonder just how much research was done into these shows, and Space Seed especially, given that I am a Sikh myself. Not a lot apparently. There is a bit of me that is proud that the most memorable villain to grace Trek would be a Sikh, which is balanced out by the, why oh why did he have to be a genetically engineered megalomaniac? Most annoying of all is the name. I mean, Khan Noonien Singh? For one thing, Singh is the middle name; it is always the middle name. No Sikh would be called Khan, it isn’t so much bigotry as it is history. Look up Sikh history vis-à-vis the Mughal Empire and you’ll see that the likelihood of a Sikh bearing a strongly Islamic name is remote enough to be nigh on impossible. As for Noonien, dear me, I know that Roddenberry was supposedly trying to contact a Korean War buddy, but it’s another ridiculous name when it comes to a Punjabi. Would a little research have hurt? After that, the Sikh with a Mexican accent is just the icing on the cake. Incidentally, it’s no big deal that he doesn’t have a turban or beard. Unless a Sikh chooses to be baptised later in life, then how he or she dresses and acts is a matter of personal choice and morality. With baptism comes the strict adherence to the five Ks Kesh, Kirpan, Karra, Kacha, and Kanga. That’s to avoid a blade coming in contact with one’s hair, to carry a blade or sword at all times, to wear a steel bangle on ones wrist at all times, to wear shorts for underwear, and to carry a comb. It also means a prohibition against alcohol, meat and tobacco, and a vow to lead a clean and spiritual life. Which is why it remains a personal choice for later life. Other Sikhs follow the religion to the degree that suits them best, which is why you can meet Sikhs who don’t wear turbans or sport beards, and most certainly don’t carry blades. Neither are they genetically engineered. And here the RE lesson ends.

But these are just nitpicks that I have. The majority of the audience probably won’t even care, they just see an uber-cool villain in one of the best episodes of Trek, so good that it led to a movie sequel. This episode also lays down oodles of canon, which subsequent Treks have proceeded to ignore. Earth’s final world war took place in the 1990s, it was called the Eugenics War, whole populations were bombed out of existence, and Khan ruled over one quarter of the planet before he was driven off. Also, in the 1990s space travel was advanced enough to allow for travel between the planets in nuclear powered ships, with crew and passengers sleeping away the months’ long journeys in suspended animation. This episode places Trek 200 years in the future, in contradiction to the earlier Squire Of Gothos, but would make sense, given the speed of progress posited in this episode. Also the 1990s would be the time that one Sean Jeffrey Christopher would be placing the Stars And Stripes on Titan, which again fits well with this episode.

The Next Generation and subsequent Treks would erase this entire canon. The argument I’ve heard most often is that Trek is supposed to be a rosy outlook for our future, and by firmly placing Trek as a future of a distinctly alternate reality it would alienate fans. This has resulted in retconning galore, with perhaps one of the most heinous examples the Eugenics Wars novels, in which the war between genetically engineered supermen indeed takes place in our world, but is a secret war, unknown to the general populace and taking place in the background of our history. How 25% of the world’s population can remain unaware of who rules them is beyond me, how whole populations being bombed out of existence without making the Fox News headlines is equally farfetched. Finally, to get Khan offworld in this history where the furthest from Earth that humans venture is LEO, requires the biggest compilation of fanwank I have ever seen in a professional publication. I’m given the impression that the average Trek fan would see the contradictions in Space Seed and be reduced to a gibbering wreck unable to reconcile an alternate history with our own. I refuse to believe this. We are sci-fi fans after all, capable of believing half a dozen impossibilities before breakfast. I am just as capable of accepting that the last world war happened in 1996, as well as there being a post-atomic horror in the mid 21st century. Just don’t expect me to believe they happened in the same history.

Wasn’t this supposed to be a review of Space Seed? You have to excuse me, but I’ll take any opportunity to rant about this subject. Space Seed is built around the mind games between two exceptional individuals, the natural born Kirk, and the reconstructed man in Khan. These are two charismatic leaders who size each other up intellectually as well as in terms of strength, and neither are averse to play the game of strategy with the pieces at hand. As Khan quickly cottons on to, Kirk uses Spock to pick away at Khan’s story while he observes and watches for weakness, (As McCoy notes, a fair psychologist). For Khan, he gets gifted a prize pawn in Marla McGivers, and soon realises that her fascination for his era and him personally provides the opportunity to take over the ship. Khan is no mean psychologist himself, he’s observing the interpersonal dynamic between Kirk and McCoy from the moment he revives. As you would expect, it comes down to a fistfight to determine the victor, and the strong but slow Khan comes up against a quicker and more lithe Kirk. It’s the one weak point of the story, a genetically engineered superman slower to react than an inferior human. But this is sixties television after all, Kirk had to emerge victorious, proving that genetic engineering is no match for a hero in gold. Besides, Khan made the fatal error of threatening Kirk’s ship, and as we know that is just a recipe for disaster when it comes to villainy.

There is a third angle to the dynamic in this story, the historian Marla McGivers, or as I like to think of her, the most stupid woman in existence. Much has been said about the gender politics of this episode, the ease with which Khan dominates the historian, and her infatuation with powerful men of history. But I believe that the signpost is clear to see early on, when Kirk organises the landing party. He speaks disdainfully of the historian, dismissively mangling her name, and stating that she would “earn her keep for once”. This suggests that McGivers is a less than exemplary officer, indeed one so low on the radar that she doesn’t even merit the Captain’s attention. A glimpse at her quarters, filled with her own artwork and historical paraphernalia simply confirms the fact. She is one of those individuals who lives in a romantic idealised world, dreams of the past, ignores the present. I get the impression that she probably spends her time in the ship’s library, lost in the past and her services are rarely called upon. Even when they are, her work is competent but never more than that. When confronted with Khan, she sees her ideal vision of a hero, and her own personal plaything. She’s eager for him to survive, an example of that romantic past that she so covets, but she obviously bites off more than she can chew. I think that she is perfectly aware of how women were treated in the past, the gender inequality and the domination by powerful men (It doesn’t paint the alternate 90s in a good light, with the sexual revolution apparently having failed utterly). She acted that way because she wanted to live up to that ideal, she wanted to live in Khan’s world and that meant submitting to him. It’s interesting that Khan instinctively knows all this, and reels her in. He makes a point of offering her the choice, making the betrayal explicitly her decision. A point to note is that while Kirk and Spock are still trying to ascertain Khan’s identity, McGivers has already painted his image as a Sikh warrior, ready to add to her personal collection of butchers (I’m surprised we didn’t see any Nazi memorabilia in her quarters). This presents a chilling thought. I believe that from the moment she saw him on Botany Bay, she was perfectly aware of his identity. He isn’t wearing any of the trappings of a Sikh, yet she identifies him as such on board the Botany Bay. She knew he was Khan Noonien Singh, she knew his history, and she actively sought to see him revived and for him to exert his charismatic influence over her specifically, and the world of the future in general. Her romantic ideal was about to be realised, and she wasn’t about to let trivialities like her Captain or the ship get in the way. It’s only when she is faced with the reality of Khan’s brutality and the sight of Kirk in the decompression chamber that she has a change of heart. It’s a giddy, schoolgirl crush gone horribly wrong. This is a woman who was far too irresponsible to be in Starfleet, and would have been better off as a high school teacher or something else innocuous.

While there is a strong anti-genetic engineering streak in post TOS Trek, it’s remarkably absent here. Of course the Eugenics Wars are frowned on as a dark moment in history, but there is an admiration for Khan from Kirk’s crew that is usually absent in later Trek. Kirk sees a lot of positives in Khan, despite his actions and despite Khan threatening the ship. Did he regret the idea of Khan being imprisoned, caged for his actions? Did he see something of himself in the charismatic leader? Despite the events of the episode, the final scene between Kirk and Khan is one of mirror images, and Khan quoting Milton is most apt. Were the situation reversed, how would Kirk have acted? Rather than being caged as a criminal, or gawked at as a historical curiosity, Khan is given a world to tame, and star struck McGivers joins him in exile. Much as I love Star Trek II, I’m intrigued by Spock’s notion of seeing just what would have sprouted in a hundred years. It would have made one hell of a Next Generation episode.

Now it’s down to the trivia, which begins with the Botany Bay looking like a converted submarine. Would that work, after all a submarine is a pressure vessel designed to withstand external pressure, not contain internal pressure. It’s a smart ship too, anticipating the arrival of Kirk’s party by powering up and restoring atmosphere. A scene I absolutely adore is McCoy’s grace under pressure when Khan is holding a blade to his throat. Talk about icy cool. Another moment, which is less adorable, is Kirk gifting the ship’s schematics to a complete stranger, without regard to security. Khan is also unsurprised by Spock, which raises the question of whether that is a sign of his innate adaptability, or was 1990s Earth aware of aliens in that reality? Also note that the hearing that settled Khan’s fate was on the record, meaning that forgetting where Khan was 15 years later becomes all the more incredulous.

Still, I did notice some cute parallels between episode and movie. In both, McCoy offers a pithy comment before entering a turbolift to a transporter room. Before beaming onto the Botany Bay he asks, “if you’re actually giving me a choice?” while before beaming to the space station, Spock entreats Kirk to be careful, to which McCoy replies, “We will!” In both episode and movie, Kirk smashes some glass, once to rescue Khan, and once to retrieve Chekov and Terrell. Finally, and most obviously is Khan’s determination to die rather than submit, setting the Enterprise on self-destruct, and of course the Genesis device.

Space Seed remains a firm favourite of mine, and no doubt always will, after all the baddest villain in Trek is a Sikh.

 

[Timo]

Re: Space Seed

I wonder how much of the classic "subtle hinting" there is in the name of Khan Singh. Scifi is replete with examples of futures where we'd meet an Ali Mohammad ibn-Gandhi, or Adolf von Goldenberg, or a red-haired Asiatic named Tyrone Lincoln, just to make a point that this isn't your grandfather's world any more.

The choice to set dramatic developments of Earth history to the near rather than the far future was a bold one, and one that should have been honored in later Trek. Admittedly, nothing in subsequent shows specifically countermands the idea that the early 1990s saw massive fighting over eugenics, given the fact that this time period is not visited by any of our heroes (and the exact timetable of Earth's final internal wars is to be rearranged by TOS itself soon enough, in "Bread and Circuses"). But the spinoffs do pussyfoot around an issue that could have been milked for great dramatic value. We should be thankful we got the fourth season of ENT to comment on the conflict at least...

Marla McGivers may have been written as shallow, but your observations paint a very different picture (literally!). In modern retrospect, McGivers comes off as a rather driven woman, and indeed a classic example of "topping from the bottom": she gets to have her cake and eat it too when, after first willfully submitting to Khan and then very neatly and efficiently betraying him, she ultimately becomes his trusted companion-in-exile anyway. If the neo-Darwinist superman thinks she deserves his full respect, why shouldn't the audience think likewise (even if from a slightly different vantage point)?

Interesting how the teaser is dedicated to examining the fallibility of our heroes, as all Big Three have their theories, assumptions and speculations thrown at their faces almost immediately. On one hand, this forms an excellent contrast to Khan's supposed superiority. On the other, it allows us a few outs in dealing with Spock's information dump on the Eugenics Wars, Last World War and so forth. If every other statement in the teaser was erroneous...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

Re: Space Seed

Posted by Timo:
I wonder how much of the classic "subtle hinting" there is in the name of Khan Singh. Scifi is replete with examples of futures where we'd meet an Ali Mohammad ibn-Gandhi, or Adolf von Goldenberg, or a red-haired Asiatic named Tyrone Lincoln, just to make a point that this isn't your grandfather's world any more.

Timo Saloniemi

I think it's less a case of futurism rather than character reinforcement. McGivers makes the Sikh warriors observation early on, exotic and different enough to appeal to audiences who may not have much knowledge of Sikhs. I feel the Khan is simple shorthand for dictator. While it most certainly is an Islamic name, I'm sure the name also brings forth connotations of Ghengis and Kublai, dictators and warriors in their own time who swept across much of the world, pillaging and conquering all in their path. It's a quick way of establishing the history and abilities of the character. As I assume, it's more a matter of a lack of research than any conscious decision to deliberately name the character that way. he could easily have been named Alexander or Julius.

That would have been interesting, Julius vs Tiberius

 

[Mallory]

Re: Space Seed

Nice work on the review The Laughing Vulcan (as usual). But the Sikh information is the best part for me. I've never seen this episode evaluated from that perspective before and I've learned something from what you posted. And, as we all know, that's a good thing.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Re: Space Seed

If it makes any difference, in the original draft of the script, the bad guy's name was Harold Ericcson.

Imagine that: Star Trek II: The Wrath of Harold.

 

[RookieBatman]

Re: Space Seed

Of course, if we was named Harold, I doubt he would've been played by Ricardo Montalban, and somehow, I don't think the character would've made quite the same impression if played by anyone else.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Re: Space Seed

Yeah, probably Wally Cox or someone.

 

[TigerOfDarkness]

Re: Space Seed

One of the bits I like in this episode is where Kirk, Spock and the others tell Khan what was happening when he left Earth and Khan replies "Gentlemen, I know something of these times!" - opening up the possibility that what Kirk and Spock have been taught about the late twentieth centuary may not be exactly correct. History being written by the winners etc.

BTW, I agree with Mallory - your information on Sikhs was very interesting.

 

[The Laughing Vulcan]

This Side Of Paradise

The Enterprise is assigned to follow up the doomed colony on Omicron Ceti III. It has recently been discovered that prolonged exposure to the Berthold radiation put out by the Omicron sun results in death to all animal life forms. This wasn’t known four years previously when Elias Sandoval and his band of colonists set forth to forge a new life for themselves. The ship approaches the planet, hearing silence on all frequencies, expecting the worst. The landing party beams down to find an apparently abandoned homestead, a veritable ghost town confirming their worst fears. Then Elias Sandoval shows up to greet them, along with the other colonists. Somehow, despite the lethal radiation, the colonists are healthier than ever. It’s a mystery that Kirk is determined to get to the bottom of. Meanwhile, Spock meets Leila Kalomi, a woman with who he was acquainted 6 years previously. It was a one sided relationship, with her love for him unrequited, no doubt because of his Vulcan nature. She is determined to show him the wonders of this world, and introduces him to a strange flower. When Kirk next sees his first officer, he is hanging upside down from a tree and laughing. Starfleet pre-empts the mission and orders the Omicron colony evacuated, but the colonists refuse to leave their paradise. Meanwhile the flowers’ spores are working overtime with the Enterprise crew, and soon Kirk faces a mutiny. With the crew leaving the ship for the planet, soon Kirk is left in orbit, alone.

We’re re-treading old ground yet again. Kirk once again plays serpent to cast Adam and Eve out of Paradise, although he assumes a sense of collective responsibility, when at the end he states “We chose to leave by ourselves”. I didn’t see anyone else make that choice. It’s the same argument between material progress and a pursuit of the status quo. The colonists on Omicron Ceti III appear to have adopted a lifestyle similar to that of the Amish, forgoing modern amenities to get back to the soil. So what if they only produce enough for their own needs, with Omicron a year away from Earth, they are hardly in a position to be a major food exporter. Let’s face it, with the clash of philosophies one of materialism versus a lack of acquisitiveness, it’s hardly a cause for great controversy. In fact, two things pre-empt Kirk here, Starfleet’s orders to remove the colony, and the effect that the spores have on his crew, in effect removing his command. If neither of these things had happened, I wonder how he would have dealt with the situation.

In effect this is one great plot hole in the story. A viable colony existing despite constant influx of lethal radiation would be something worth maintaining and exploring further. The spores that provide immunity also heal and reverse any damage to the human system. They are a medical marvel, a genuine panacea, and one that McCoy would probably give his right arm for. Yet in no later episode, or Next Gen show did we see a spore dispenser as standard equipment in a Starfleet sickbay.

This episode is less about plot than it is about subverting the characters once more. Just as in The Naked Time an external influence allows people to lose their inhibitions, the same occurs when the spores infect a person. This is a more subtle effect though and far less damaging, providing peace, joy and contentment while eliminating more aggressive impulses. The changes in character are minimal, with barely a layer of beatification applied. Spock doesn’t behave illogically so much as he seems much more comfortable in his own skin. He doesn’t feel compelled to live up to the Vulcan ideal and has no problem with expressing his human side. That is perhaps the most drastic of changes to occur. With McCoy it’s merely an increase of his accent coupled with a greater tendency to relaxation. It’s also a little predictable, and attributes superhero status to Kirk that of all the many crew affected by the spores, it’s only he whose sense of duty and passion for the ship is such that he can fight off their effects alone, where even Spock needs provocation. That said, it is one of Shatner’s better performances in this episode, especially when alone on the bridge and almost despondent, he dictates his log entry before being zapped by the spores. There is also some great dialogue in this episode, most of it from McCoy.

Come to think of it, there are some sinister aspects to the spores. For one thing, those affected by them seem to form a sort of subliminal collective unconscious. At least they do seem aware of each other’s presence on a small level. Also the impetus, the instinct to beam down to the planet, to stay there hints at a rudimentary intelligence, a will if you choose, exerted by the spores over the victims. Another thing worth noting is that despite 4 years alone on the colony, there were no children. The spores may give excellent health but the evidently reduce the libido. It may have been a happy commune, but it probably wouldn’t have lasted.

Small touches. The very contemporary suitcase that Kirk packs always makes me laugh. Also when the series began, Vulcans were originally referred to as Vulcanians, but as the early episodes passed that designation vanished. But here, with a colony that has been out of touch for four years, Sandoval uses the old nomenclature. I always wonder about Spock and Leila’s relationship 6 years prior. Would this have been the smiling Spock of The Cage or the logical severe Spock of recent episodes? I’d like to think the former. I can envisage the two embarking on a relationship, beginning to get close, but at the same time Spock would be finding Surak. When faced with a choice between increased estrangement from his family if he pursued Leila and living up to his heritage, Spock chooses the path of logic, leaving Leila nursing unrequited feelings for the next six years.