Opinions on The Omega Glory

Hello,

Similar to what Dale Anastasio did with "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", I was wondering if anyone would like to participate in an opinion poll about the Original Series episode "The Omega Glory."

I would be grateful if you would participate in my very brief questionaire by answering the following three questions:

1. What do you think the episode is all about?

2. What type of leader do you think Captain Ronald Tracey of the U.S.S. Exeter was, before his downfall(nervous breakdown)on Omega IV?

3. Why are fans divided about this episode and its content(i.e. why some love it and some hate it)?

Thank you for your attention and cooperation.

Regards,
Expo67

 

1) We the People

Kirk makes one of his truly eloquent Kirk soliloquies

2) There's too little to say, probably fine.

3) Cold war Jingoism and incredible scene chewing hamming. I like the episode quite a bit, but it does have over the top faults.

 

Episode completly falls apart during the last chapter. The whole worship of the flag/constitution is just ridiculous making this my least favorite TOS episode. Its not even logical with the whole "parallel development" theory. Since some of the Kohms were over 1000 years old at the time, the establishment of their constitution would have occured at least 500 years before the USA - making us the planet mimicking Omega IV, and not the other way around. Did the flags and documents have to be EXACTLY the same? sheesh! and they say the guys in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" were taking things too literally. "The Omega Glory" shoots itself in the foot trying to make its point about the Cold War and winds up being ludicrous.

 

I wish the deleted scene (which explained who the natives of Omega IV are and why they are so much like us) had made it into the final episode. That scene was filmed, but *every* version of the episode - even the DVDs - cut it out. This is from Memory Alpha's entry on this episode

Spoiler: episode

Another McCoy-Spock debate was filmed for this episode, but edited. Just before the landing party left the Yangs' flag room, Kirk cut short an argument which seems to be about nothing. The reason McCoy and Spock were in an argument was cut from the episode. The dialog excised from the final print was as follows (taken from the final draft shooting script for the episode):
McCoy: Jim, the parallel's too close. They seem so completely Human. Is it possible that... ?
Kirk: The result of Earth's early space race?
Spock: Quite possible, Captain. They are aggressive enough to be Human.
McCoy: Now listen, Spock, you...

 

^It still wouldn't fit the time requirements.

I vaguely recall reading that this episode was intended to be very different from how it turned out.

I found the ending to be downright offensive. I wonder if the whole "USA #1" notion is why this, and not other much more deserving episodes got made into a View Master reel?

 

I had heard of this and it is a satisfying explanation for their origins. Time is an issue given how old this war is supposed to be. It may have been Ellison, I am not sure, but I recall it being commented that one problem with Trek was that it was postulated too near in the future. With a longer time frame- five hundred to a thousand years- you could frame a back story much more easily.

 

I'd bet its selection had more to do with who wrote the story than any considerations about quality

 

^^^From what I've read (Solow's and Justman's book, iirc), GR delayed the Viewmaster people coming in until this episode was ready to film to insure one he wrote was used. They also relate that he submitted the episode for Emmy consideration, with a note saying something like, "I'm too close to the material to tell, but folks around the office say it is the best piece of writing they've seen in years." Nonetheless, the Emmy folks declined to put it on the nomination ballot. I wonder why...

Sir Rhosis

 

I thought it was pretty cool when I saw it at age 12.

1)Not sure. It's a mishmash of several halfbaked ideas from bad SF Crazy Captain goes native. Post apocalyptic neobarbarian society. Red Scare. America F yeah! Planet of the Apes meets Red Dawn in the Heart of Darkness. I'm Gene thought he pulled a Sterling with the ending. It does show that Gene wasnt alway the best writer Trek had and maybe the show wasn't quite what we fans and Gene like to think it was.

2) Tracey isn't given enough background to make that determination.

3) Its heavy handed and contains too many elements fans have decided are "bad". Earth duplicate culture and Crazy Starfleet officer.

Kirks speech is pretty good though.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b56e0u0EgQ[/yt]

Makes some good points.

 

Nerys Myk's answer above says it better than I could.

IIRC, the episode itself doesn't specifically say. However, as the "Starship Class" ships were Starfleet's top-of-the-line, and since there were only twelve of them, one could certainly surmise that Tracey was an exceptional officer. (Unless Starfleet had a severe personnel shortage. )

A lot of the complaints about this episode stem from the appearance of the U.S flag and Constitution at the end of the episode. Some have actually claimed to be insulted by it, which to me seems pretty hyperbolic. The episode was not made for an international audience; there was no expectation that it would ever be aired outside the U.S. Additionally, at the time the episode was made, only two nations on earth even had any kind of space program to speak of, both of which were referenced (as the "Yangs" and the "Kohms") in the episode.

I, personally, would have preferred that the script had given the Yangs and the Kohms some kind of real connection with earth, making the whole thing a bit more believable (and, IMO, more satisfying as well). But once TPTB decided to go the Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development route, I guess it was "anything goes!".

 

Overall a good episode but the with a constitution and flag identically to ours just breaks down the plausibility factor for me.

 

If they had crafted a kind of constitution that had similar elements to the US constitution without plagiarizing it, and did not use an American flag (something else, with no excessive attention over it), then I would give the episode more credit. Discounting the whole language similarity issue, there could still be the "freedom" key word interplay between Kirk and Cloud William.

It's also hard to believe that a starship captain like Tracey would go about things as he did, echoing what others said about his highly unique training and qualifications. If it was just outright madness brought on by the situation, there should have been more time dedicated to revealing how it happened in a plausible manner. On the other hand, someone like John Gill was more believable because he was just a cultural observer who couldn't keep himself within the confines of the prime directive.

The US sourced constitution and flag introduced by visitors from Earth early on is a good idea, but unfortunately there's just not enough time from the point at which Earth has sufficient space faring technology up to the point where the Enterprise shows up. It just can't work... unless you introduce alien visitors to Earth in the 18th century who take some US patriots with them who are then later deposited among the Yangs.

I'm actually surprised it didn't end up further down the list in the Hurt/Heal thread.

 

I've always loved The Omega Glory.

 

Even back in 1966, some Canadian stations carried American TV shows! I'm sure Roddenberry couldn't have unaware of that! (although apparently you are)

 

^ So what? We see lots of British TV shows over here in the states. Even in today's "multicultural" environment, I don't feel offended if I see a British flag or hear distinctly British references.

I very much doubt that Star Trek was the only American TV show shown on Canadian TV that was guilty of failing to tailor itself to a Canadian audience.

 

This is one of my favorite episodes. Not for the true meaning of the episode or the ridiculas fact of the Yangs and the Khoms and the US flag and US Constitution somehow wound up on this planet.

But for a Starship Captain to go rogue! It was similar to Doomsday Machine when Commodore Decker went a little crazy. Different circumstances, but cemented why Kirk was the best! That was the best part of the episode. I liked the justification of Tracey Vs Kirk. Also discovering the fate of a sister ship and the mystery that surrounding her. I am a sucker for derelict ship stories!

 

We mustn't forget that part of GR's idea in developing and selling Star Trek was to save money depicting alien worlds by suggesting the possibility of parallel development on those worlds and thus make use of existing sets, costumes and props. And TOS did quite a bit of this...

"Patterns Of Force" (1940's Germany)
"A Piece Of The Action" (1920's Chicago)
"Bread And Circuses" (The Roman Empire)
"Errand Of Mercy" (Midieval Europe)
"Spectre Of The Gun" (19th Century American West)
"The Paradise Syndrome" (Pre 20th century American aboriginals)
"The Omega Glory" (more concept than costume)
"Return Of The Archons" (Turn-of-the-century century America)
"The City On The Edge Of Forever" (1930's New York)
"Tomorrow Is Yesterday" (1960's America)
"Assignment: Earth" (1960's America)
"Miri" (Mid 20th century U.S.)

"This Side Of Paradise," "Operation--Annihilate" and "Shore Leave" also come to mind.

I'm probably overlooking something...

 

QUESTION 1
The meaning of the episode is that the words of such documents as the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution are often in danger of losing their real meaning through ritualization and repetition. People often hold a religious like reference for such documents without living by them.

QUESTION 2
One possibility is that Tracy was a geniune sociopath. In the command rank of Starfleet, personality traits associated with such a disorder would be viewed as militaristic toughness.

QUESTION 3
I'm not sure how to answer this, since I've never pretended to understand the mentality (or lack thereof) of this episode's detractors. I'll venture a guess though.
A good portion of Trek fandom is made up of post-modern liberals. And anytime any American shows pride in their country, these people get in a tizzy. In fact, a liberal isn’t happy unless they are self-righteously screaming about how terrible someone else’s display of what they view as “jingoism” is. This is the only explanation as to why “Glory” receives more abuse than an episode like say, “Bread and Circuses”, which also has a planet with a culture identical to a part of Earth’s history. Certainly, for all the vitirol the “Omega Glory bad - ugh!” neanderthals have offered up, not one of them has ever made a cogent argument as to WHY they think the episode is so bad.

 

It's a disturbed, un-Trekkian mishmash of an episode that is ultimately about nothing in particular except making me feel ill.

The writer's didn't think logically about the episode, but I'm supposed to?

Who loves it? You basically have to be blinded by love for Trek, or possibly the simplistic, jingoistic message behind the episode, to have any feeling for this POS.

 

Case in point.