Kirk, the PD, "The Omega Glory" and "Miri"

[Dale Sams]

Sorry if this has been discussed to death, but in "The Omega Glory" what with the greatness of the PD angle, the batshit craziness of the immortality angle and the ludicrousness of the American flag coming out...I only just noticed (even though Spock points it out)...

Kirk, for all his mouth service, blew the PD out of the f***ing water. All Tracey did was try and save a peaceful nation from savages. (putting aside any other motives he may have had).

Kirk, tries to alter the destiny of an entire planet! If Kirk had just beamed up after he won (as he would and should have if an unfamiliar flag and document were marched out) the Yangs would have looted, pillaged, started executions and some 1,000 years of civilization would have gone down the toilet.

"Well, all he did was explain to them the true meaning of their own documents." Well who the **** asked you to do that Kirk?? That's blatant interference.

By the way, this calls into question Kirk's actions in "The Apple". There Kirk says the PD only applies to a living, growing civilization. WHAT?? Well obviously the civilization on the Omega Glory planet isn't growing, in fact it's about to take a giant step backwards. But the PD very much applies.

edit: A couple of other things, I'm watching the episode now. The psychopathic and greed angle of Tracey is completely unnessecery. His character would have been much more compelling if he felt some grief over killing Galloway and if he had violated the PD out of a true desire to provide immortality to people and not out of greed.


Also, in Miri a couple of things.

1) So the landing parties are in the habit of beaming down without ascertaining if the dangerous germs are about? Smart Kirk, real smart.

2) Had this been a TNG episode, Picard would have held back the cure from the inhabitants because curing them would violate the PD.

 

[Commishsleer]

In the "Omega Glory" the Yangs are taking back their 'own' lands. The Comms have had them oppressed for centuries. It was Tracey who interfered first by attempting to change the balance of power by arming the Comms. Kirk accidentally worsened the situation with his men's phasers.
Still in the end the Yangs regained power in their own lands despite Tracey's interference.

I don't think Kirk violated the PD here, maybe it was Spock by arranging the communication to Sulu and letting the natives see a beam down. Telling them to read their own document would be a very soft way of breaking the PD IMO.

I'd have to know more about "The Apple" to judge. Were those people we saw on screen the only ones on the planet? Did they build the thing? Did the machine capture them? Do they have free will? I'm not so OK with sentient beings being the slaves of machines (call me racist if you want to)

In 'Miri' or any other planet they should check for bacteria etc first but that would slow the story down a lot. On any new planet in reality, they would probably been someone down in a decontaminated Hazmat suit, collect samples and examine then. If deemed safe a team would then beam down after being decontaminated so as not to pass Federation diseases onto each new planet.

They also should not allow any random person they let on the ship to have free reign of the ship but in every Star Trek they do - just to have some drama, conflict, a story.

Would Picard have left the kids? I hope not, though technically I think he might feel compelled to. He wasn't moved by the little girl in 'Pen Pals'... If I were Picard I would just view this as a bunch of human children who needed rescue. They didn't have a 'civilisation' to not interfere with.
Even Kirk's action of leaving a team there seemed strange. The kids should have just been transferred to Earth to be adopted or placed in reform school. (Teenagers saddled by small kids aren't really going to be able to rebuild a civilisation) They really had nothing to keep them on the planet.

 

[Dale Sams]

"There's no civilization here to interfere with" is pretty good reasoning. I suppose even Picard would have been moved. Doctor "Let's figure out if they're at an evolutionary dead end lest they interfere with the evolution of other species" Phlox...I'm not so sure.

A couple of other things I noticed after reviewing the episode.

1) Kirk goes even BEYOND explaining their own documents to them. He says the Constitution "Applies to The Kohms or it means nothing." Poppycock. The Constitution doesn't protect conquered people. But of course the Yangs are going to accept James T. Skygod's interp. BLATANT interference and....

2)...right in front of Captain Tracey! Who is one of the most conniving, devious, smart bad guys seen in Star Trek. Tracey would have Kirk over a barrel.

3) Wow, Kirk and Tracey are assuming a lot when they start their "Don't your holy texts say..." bit. I don't THINK it says 'Bible' on the front of that book. I don't know if that would be more unlikely than an identical Constitution appearing or less.

 

[Warped9]

Tracey had already "contaminated" the planet by taking sides with the Comms and using phasers as well as arming the Comms with the phasers he took from Kirk's party. Advanced tech had already been introduced. Kirk "explaining" the meaning of the Yangs' document hardly complicates matters. If anything it might prevent further bloodshed...but I doubt it. And how do we know the natives hadn't already seen Tracey's original landing party materialize out of thin air and then disappear later as they went back to the Exeter.

I can see lots of dissent over what the document is supposed to mean after Kirk and party depart. Note that when the original American Constitution was drafted slavery was in effect in the U.S. Certainly looks like the founding fathers weren't including those enslaved as being equal with everyone else. Extrapolating from that I imagine there would be lots of Yangs insisting their holiest of holies can't possibly apply to the Comms as it does to them.

 

[Dale Sams]

Tracey had already "contaminated" the planet by taking sides with the Comms and using phasers as well as arming the Comms with the phasers he took from Kirk's party. Advanced tech had already been introduced. Kirk "explaining" the meaning of the Yangs' document hardly complicates matters. If anything it might prevent further bloodshed...but I doubt it. And how do we know the natives hadn't already seen Tracey's original landing party materialize out of thin air and then disappear later as they went back to the Exeter.

I can see lots of dissent over what the document is supposed to mean after Kirk and party depart. Note that when the original American Constitution was drafted slavery was in effect in the U.S. Certainly looks like the founding fathers weren't including those enslaved as being equal with everyone else. Extrapolating from that I imagine there would be lots of Yangs insisting their holiest of holies can't possibly apply to the Comms as it does to them.

I think that technically, and truthfully as well as in spirit....Spock is quite correct whenever he tells Kirk, that he is violating the PD. It's Spock after all! Come on!

But I can also easily see the "Prime Directive Board" (which is probably human-dominated) rolling their eyes at the Vulcan contingent and telling Kirk, "Wellllll...no harm was done. Off with Ye then youuuuuu. Get out of here you knucklehead! Why I oughta...."

I also noticed that in the beginning of the episode, Kirk was going to let Cloud William be executed. ...of course he couldn't restrain himself when the more fetching Julie Newmar was going to be executed in "Friday's Child".

edit: Oh, and in direct response to your second point...so Kirk caused a Civil War among the Yangs? WTG Kirk!

 

[CrazyMatt]

According to what I've read, "The Omega Glory" was simply a mess from day one (i.e., from the time "The Cage" was selected to be the first pilot). I believe It may be the least distinguished episode of the second season.

I strongly suspect the only reasons this dog actually got produced was that it was written by "the Great Bird" and the production team (lead by John Meredith Lucas by that time) must have desperately needed a shootable script to close out the second season commitment to NBC. Thus, it was produced, no matter how convoluted the story was.

Bob Justman is on record several places saying he disliked the episode.

Considering the story existed all through his tenure and yet was never produced on his watch--even when they were desperate for scripts in the first season--I think we can surmise that Gene Coon (who by the way actually invented the Prime Directive) was no fan of it either. Somehow I doubt if he had stayed on as producer until the series was cancelled if this episode ever would have been produced at all.

And I say this actually liking several things in the episode, such as Morgan Woodward, the use of another Starship, the cool assignment Exeter patch, and a pretty cool fight at the end. But all in all, this episode was a major let down from the high points earlier in season two.

 

[Dale Sams]

^^

****, I forgot to mention the fight!! Not only do Woodward and Shatner do the entire fight,...I would put that in my top five most exhausting looking fights.

 

[TheSubCommander]

In the case of Omega Glory, Miri, or Bread and Circuses for that matter, it is assumed these are cases of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development. But there is also the Preservers to be considered, namely in The Paradise Syndrome. What if instead of parallel versions of Earth, that these were actually planets where seeded by the Preservers using humans they gathered from Earth during various eras, as well? If that is the case, then these are basically lost human civilizations. And if that is the case, does the Prime Directive really apply, in the first place?

Now Captain Tracy was clearly in the wrong no matter what the situation was. So regardless if the Prime Directive applies or not, Kirk was essentially repairing what damage was created by Tracy, as best as he could. SO if the PD did apply, he didn't violate it.

I can see lots of dissent over what the document is supposed to mean after Kirk and party depart. Note that when the original American Constitution was drafted slavery was in effect in the U.S. Certainly looks like the founding fathers weren't including those enslaved as being equal with everyone else. Extrapolating from that I imagine there would be lots of Yangs insisting their holiest of holies can't possibly apply to the Comms as it does to them.

Well, if the preservers WERE involved, then I would say that the Kohms and the Yangs were plucked from Earth during the Cold War. If that were the case, then the Yangs' constitution must have included the 13th amendment.

 

[Anwar]

If the Yangs and Kohms were snatched during the Cold War, you'd think they'd not have devolved into barbarism so quickly and forgotten they were from Earth so fast.

 

[T'Girl]

They were transported into that planet's past, and given thousand year life spans.

 

[BillJ]

Tracey had already "contaminated" the planet by taking sides with the Comms and using phasers as well as arming the Comms with the phasers he took from Kirk's party. Advanced tech had already been introduced. Kirk "explaining" the meaning of the Yangs' document hardly complicates matters. If anything it might prevent further bloodshed...but I doubt it. And how do we know the natives hadn't already seen Tracey's original landing party materialize out of thin air and then disappear later as they went back to the Exeter.

I would think it likely that the Enterprise team used the coordinates already programmed in the Exeter transporters. Seems like the quickest way to find Tracey if he was still alive.

 

[Warped9]

Tracey had already "contaminated" the planet by taking sides with the Comms and using phasers as well as arming the Comms with the phasers he took from Kirk's party. Advanced tech had already been introduced. Kirk "explaining" the meaning of the Yangs' document hardly complicates matters. If anything it might prevent further bloodshed...but I doubt it. And how do we know the natives hadn't already seen Tracey's original landing party materialize out of thin air and then disappear later as they went back to the Exeter.

I would think it likely that the Enterprise team used the coordinates already programmed in the Exeter transporters. Seems like the quickest way to find Tracey if he was still alive.

And rather than materializing outside of the village or in a back alley they materialize in the heart of the village just in time to witness an execution in progress.

 

[BillJ]

I would think it likely that the Enterprise team used the coordinates already programmed in the Exeter transporters. Seems like the quickest way to find Tracey if he was still alive.

And rather than materializing outside of the village or in a back alley they materialize in the heart of the village just in time to witness an execution in progress.

Since Tracey was negotiating with the village elders for the right to send down survey parties, they might not have been protected by the part of the Prime Directive where you can't make any mention of space or other planets with life.

TRACEY: Our medi-scanners revealed this planet as perfectly harmless. The villagers, the Kohms here, were friendly enough once they got over the shock of my white skin. As you've seen, we resemble the Yangs, the savages. My landing party transported back to the ship. I stayed down here to arrange for the planet survey with the village elders. The next thing I knew, the ship was calling me. The landing party had taken an unknown disease back. My crew, Jim. My entire crew. Gone.

 

[Dale Sams]

I don't think Kirk even turns around to stop Galloway from stopping the execution of Cloud William. That's how well Kirk knows his trigger happy security guards.

 

[TheSubCommander]

If the Yangs and Kohms were snatched during the Cold War, you'd think they'd not have devolved into barbarism so quickly and forgotten they were from Earth so fast.

They were transported into that planet's past, and given thousand year life spans.

The Preservers going through a wormhole or a time dilation of some time, when they transported the Kohms and Yangs could totally explain that.

 

[CrazyMatt]

Like I said, it was a mess. And now nearly 50 years later some of us are trying to "unmess" it. Good luck with that!

Bob Justman said it best when talking about this episode... (paraphrasing) 'When we had a bad episode, it could almost always be traced back to a bad script.' I'll take it further myself, as it appears to moi that in this instance a bad script can be traced back to convoluted ideas.

 

[Dale Sams]

Like I said, it was a mess. And now nearly 50 years later some of us are trying to "unmess" it. Good luck with that!

Bob Justman said it best when talking about this episode... (paraphrasing) 'When we had a bad episode, it could almost always be traced back to a bad script.' I'll take it further myself, as it appears to moi that in this instance a bad script can be traced back to convoluted ideas.

I'll just mention it here rather than give it it's own 'lite on content thread'...

"Miri": They run across a planet that looks just like Earth....and it's never mentioned again. WTH was that all about?? It's set up in the teaser as being the plot of the episode and is never mentioned again. Bizarre.

(Goes to Memory Alpha) Ha! I see that Christopher Bennett came up with an explanation!

 

[CrazyMatt]

In a way, it was a major cop out to have "another Earth" (albeit a cloudless one!) in "Miri." Very similar to Earth, that I could by. Another Earth, that defies the senses.

 

[Botany Bay]

According to what I've read, "The Omega Glory" was simply a mess from day one (i.e., from the time "The Cage" was selected to be the first pilot). I believe It may be the least distinguished episode of the second season.

I strongly suspect the only reasons this dog actually got produced was that it was written by "the Great Bird" and the production team (lead by John Meredith Lucas by that time) must have desperately needed a shootable script to close out the second season commitment to NBC. Thus, it was produced, no matter how convoluted the story was.

Bob Justman is on record several places saying he disliked the episode.

Considering the story existed all through his tenure and yet was never produced on his watch--even when they were desperate for scripts in the first season--I think we can surmise that Gene Coon (who by the way actually invented the Prime Directive) was no fan of it either. Somehow I doubt if he had stayed on as producer until the series was cancelled if this episode ever would have been produced at all.

Roddenberry thought this episode was worthy of an Emmy and submitted it for a writing award from memory.

I think Lucas may have been fired by this point?

 

[Harvey]

Lucas wasn't fired. He was contracted to produce the rest of the second season after Coon left, and he did so. Roddenberry took on the producing chores for the last episode, "Assignment: Earth," because it was a backdoor pilot.

Presumably, Roddenberry submitted "The Omega Glory" for Emmy consideration because it was the one episode that season in which he had sole writing credit.