Opinions on The Omega Glory

[Nerys Myk]

As others have noted, Star Trek in the beginning was not unlike an anthology like the Twilight Zone. The setting of being on a ship traveling through space from planet to planet was to give them the "freedom" of an anthology in terms of story variety, but with a regular cast to take the audience into the story.

 

[The Grim Ghost]

I think the Twilight Zone comparisons are appropriate.

TOS always had a Twilight Zone element to it, at least in many of the episodes. Weird imagery, out of left field surprises, 'shock' scenes and 'how could this happen' moments.

I think a lot of people don't like Omega Glory because parts of it don't fit into the hard science fiction mold that people want to force TOS into. When in reality the show was more of a sci-fi/fantasy thing.

It's amazing that so many elements of the show hang together as well as they do in forming some sort of coherent sci-fi univerese. But it was the fans and the later shows who were obsessed with making everything fit together and make sense. Eps like Omega Glory don't fit into what the fans now want Trek to be hence the dislike.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

This is actually the heart of the ep, which most fans miss: Kirk and Tracey do battle on a war-torn alien world that serves as a Vietnam War allegory.

That wasn't hard to miss. The 'Nam allegory was as subtle as some of Roddenberry's other allegories, such as "A Private Little War."

Yanks and Koms is about as subtle as "Bones, do you remember the Asian brush wars of the 20th Century?" The allegory is painfully obvious, especially since the characters spell it out for the audience — "Yanks... yankees" and "Koms... communist."

In other words, the 'Nam allegory was a sledgehammer to a pane of glass.

 

[Expo67]

The same could be said for the episode "A Taste Of Armageddon." The idea for that episode, as many fans know, came from one of the main television network news broadcasts, showing the number of fatalities in the Vietnam Conflict. A commentary on the war and the loss of life being reduced to statistics and cold equations.

Robert Hamner and Gene Coon did a brilliant writing job with that anti-war themed episode.

 

[The Lensman]

Like many, I like the episode just fine until the flag and Constitution bit. As a kid, I generally loved any ep where we got to see another Starship and it's crew...dead or alive.

And I have no problem with the parallel world element in Star Trek.....it's one of the things that made Star Trek "Star Trek" to me.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I would love to read the original 1965 draft that was written for consideration as the second pilot.

 

[Harvey]

^^
Well, it's in the UCLA library special collections. Won't be able to get to the episode this quarter--I'm doing research focused on "The Cage," but perhaps in the future. You can't make photocopies of script pages, though.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf5z09n9vr;style=oac4;view=dsc#c02-1.8.7.2.49

Box 17 , Folder 10
1) Rough draft teleplay, 4/28/65, 34 pgs. (Incomplete) 2) First draft teleplay by Gene Roddenberry, 5/21/65, w/annotations, 71 pgs. 3) Teleplay, n.d., 32 pgs. (Incomplete) 4) Teleplay, 12/15/67, 40 pgs. (Incomplete)

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

^^
Well, it's in the UCLA library special collections. Won't be able to get to the episode this quarter--I'm doing research focused on "The Cage," but perhaps in the future. You can't make photocopies of script pages, though.

http://www.oac.cdlib.org/view?docId=tf5z09n9vr;style=oac4;view=dsc#c02-1.8.7.2.49

Box 17 , Folder 10
1) Rough draft teleplay, 4/28/65, 34 pgs. (Incomplete) 2) First draft teleplay by Gene Roddenberry, 5/21/65, w/annotations, 71 pgs. 3) Teleplay, n.d., 32 pgs. (Incomplete) 4) Teleplay, 12/15/67, 40 pgs. (Incomplete)

Damn. And I used to live in Culver City down the ways from Westwood and UCLA.

 

[mb22]

I would love to read the original 1965 draft that was written for consideration as the second pilot.

I believe one of the editions of Asherman's Star Trek Compendium has a brief description of the early script.

 

[plynch]

"I think Roddenberry really wanted the surprise and shock of that American flag showing up out of left field." - Jonas Gumby

YUP! This one wasn't a science fiction story to explore thoughtfully how a world might develop eerily similarly to ours. It was TV - make a Star Trek ep with the flag and the Constitution and a quote from the Star Spangled Banner tune on the soundtrack. In "living color" to boot! Sometimes TV is just TV, even Star Trek. (And I like this ep, btw.)

 

[Winterwind]

I always liked parts of the episode. Capt. Tracey going rogue, his convincing the natives Spock was a servant of the devil, etc. Morgan Wordward did a damned fine job in my view.

However... the story does quickly fall apart when examined too closely.

And I always wondered if Kirk let him win that first fight. Either that or James T. isn't as tough as I'd always wanted to believe.

 

[Expo67]

Josan, if you like The Omega Glory, you might like the sequel to the episode. It's located at the Star Trek Animated web site. Here is the web address:

http://www.startrekanimated.com/tas_main.html.

I believe the title for the sequel(which is in the comic book section of the site), is called "For Death Or Glory". Ron Tracey returns to give Kirk and company, as well as the new crew of the starship Exeter a whole bunch of trouble.

Check it out if you have the opprotunity. It's pretty solid entertainment.

 

[Anticitizen]

"I think Roddenberry really wanted the surprise and shock of that American flag showing up out of left field." - Jonas Gumby

YUP! This one wasn't a science fiction story to explore thoughtfully how a world might develop eerily similarly to ours. It was TV - make a Star Trek ep with the flag and the Constitution and a quote from the Star Spangled Banner tune on the soundtrack. In "living color" to boot! Sometimes TV is just TV, even Star Trek. (And I like this ep, btw.)

Agreed. And it's one of the reasons why TOS is my favorite of the bunch - the need to tell a story was the primary concern. Yeah, in the final analysis, they probably should've crafted a document and flag similar the Constitution and the US flag, but in the world of good drama, what does it matter? It only matters to people trying to rationalize it all in the context of literal likelihood and later Trek works. It's a good story and not out of character for short stories and the like from the science fiction world of the era.

I also must point out that I love Shatner's acting in this episode. Over-the-top Shatner is my favorite Shatner. This episode was all about high drama and I couldn't imagine that a more... sedate actor could carry across the point so effectively. The only other Trek lead I can think of is Avery Brooks, who also was the man behind quite a few highly-emotional over-the-top forceful speeches in Trek. Which is one of the reasons why DS9 is a close second to TOS in my esteem

 

[Jonas Grumby]

^ Absolutely! Star Trek is supposed to be entertainment...even art. It is not supposed to be a f**king documentary!

What evokes the greater shock and surprise: seeing that ultra-familiar flag coming out of nowhere, or something like this:

Kirk: "Spock! That flag! Look at those colors! And those stars scattered across it! The old U.S. flag on Earth looked a little like that!"

 

[Expo67]

Aside from Bill Shatner's acting(or over-the-top acting - depending on your point of view), Morgan Woodward also did an excellent job in playing the ill-fated Captain Tracey. Near the end of the episode, you could tell that Tracey had really gone over the edge(i.e. the scene where he disintergrated McCoy's scanner that Spock jury-rigged to contact the Enterprise).

The way he was ranting and raving of how the Yangs sacrificed so many of their own, just to draw the Kohms out into the open, it was clearly obvious that the loss of his ship and his entire crew, let alone him being unable to prevent such a disaster, just made him snap. And worse, his situation on Omega IV thereafter, before Jim Kirk and his crew found him.

Clearly, battle intoxication(mixed with mental instability)had set in, causing Ron to have a severe nervous breakdown.

Even though Ron Tracey was a direct opposite of Woodward's other character(Simon Van Gelder from Dagger Of The Mind), Tracey was still an interesting character and one of Woodward's finest performances.

 

[plynch]

Even though Ron Tracey was a direct opposite of Woodward's other character(Simon Van Gelder from Dagger Of The Mind) . . .

They do both have that crazed look about them, though (Tracy at the end).

 

[Mr.AtoZ]

I do indeed like the idea of looking at the US flag and Constitution as symbols of similarity, rather than literal representations. It does make the episode far more palatable. And granted they probably did not have the time or resources to invent a whole set of believable substitutes.

 

[Nerys Myk]

I do indeed like the idea of looking at the US flag and Constitution as symbols of similarity, rather than literal representations. It does make the episode far more palatable. And granted they probably did not have the time or resources to invent a whole set of believable substitutes.

Again I would ask, what makes anyone think they wanted to? And what would be the point? The whole scene hinges on the fact that the US flag and Constitution are the same.

 

[Anticitizen]

Remember, this is the same show that had a guest character named 'Elaan of Troyius'.

 

[Potemkin_Prod]

And it's got Romulans, Vulcans, Greek Gods. All these including the flag, the Constitution and even Elaan work for me. Sorry if they don't for you.