Statues in the last act of The Omega Glory

Here's yet another example of something I never really noticed or thought about in all the decades I've been watching Trek.

In the last act of The Omega Glory, our heroes are in some big room with the Yangs. I presume it's a Yang room. It could be a Kohm room, but all the Yangs' paraphrenalia are there.

In the corners of the room are statues sitting on blue boxes. They look European, so it follows that it's a Yang room. However, they're dressed more like some kind of weird Roman/Indian hybrid, not like the other Yangs we see.

Where did the prop masters get the statues? I'm sure they weren't made for the episode, so they must be relics of an earlier show, or more likely a period movie of some kind. Does anyone recognize them?

 

I have no idea where they are from. I assume you mean the statues like the one in the background, here. http://strekonline.com/3981/star-tr...he-omega-glory/attachment/omega-glory-66#main

 

The props and set decorations generally came from the (combined) Desilu and Paramount prop inventory. I haven't seen these pieces in other productions, but they will, no doubt, surface in some old movies eventually--once people know to look for them.

You're right: European-ish busts of women elevated up on Matt Jefferies-esque blue pedestals. There would appear to be one in each corner--at screen left and screen right.

 

Let us not forget that The Kohms took over the land of The Yangs as stated by Cloud William! "That which was ours is ours again and will never be taken from us again!"
JB

 

Well, that was a Jim Kirk statement, and "You're a romantic, Jim".

And the Yangs were genocidal savages. It's probably not a good move to believe their propaganda. Who had this land first? And does it matter? Cloud William is probably right in his prediction, as he has just razed the last Kohm settlement remaining on the planet - but if the Kohms indeed once did that to the Yangs, then another round of rebellion and retaking might well be coming...

The Yangs seem to drag around quite a bit of holy paraphernalia, including that big flag and heavy book. Considering the impromptu-looking pedestals, one wonders if the statues didn't travel with them as well!

Timo Saloniemi

 

The Yangs could be somewhat like the Mongols were through their empire, which would mean, yes they brought their own statues.

I never thought about it, but that could be the main building in the Kohm village that they just took over, so were the statues theirs or did they not bother to remove them? Same think for the many drapes hanging around.

 

I don't buy the extermination of the Kohms planetwide. That continent, quite probably. But planetwide? I don't think the Yangs are technologically advanced enough to even care about planetwide. "Sea to shining sea" may be Yang territory, but across the sea? The Yangs probably don't go there, and don't care who does.

 

^ Indeed. The Yangs took back what the Kohms took from them, but there isn't a shred of evidence of actual genocide. No mention is ever made about the Kohms' native land...

As for Omega IV in general, I find it interesting what Christopher put forth in his novels based on the Department of Temporal Investigations:

Spoiler: Forgotten History

Omega IV isn't a parallel Earth. The people there are not human.

The artifacts we see - the flag, Bible, Declaration of Independence, Constitution, etc. - were actually LEFT there by a passing Earth freighter, whose crew saw the Yangs' struggle and wanted to inspire them. This makes much more sense than somehow having another planet, with no connection to Earth whatsoever, spontaneously develop EXACT copies of things we all know were written on Earth; this would be so absurdly unlikely as to be impossible.

Kind of like, say, "All Along the Watchtower" managing to get written 150,000 years ago on an alien world and then turning up on present day Earth with identical lyrics and music, but that's another matter.

And furthermore, you couldn't literally have those artifacts be as old as the episode says they are, because the things would have long since crumbled into dust!

 

Thanks for your contributions, everyone, especially Greg. It would be interesting if someone saw those props in an earlier movie or show.

 

One other tangential observation: I stepped through the frames for the apocryphal "beaver shot". I know I did once before, but probably on the DVD, not the BD.

Anyway, it certainly does look like a "flasher" incident, but did women go "bald" during that era? I thought that was a recent fad. I apologize if anyone finds this topic offensive.

 

On the contrary, feel free to include a screen shot.

 

This is the first I've ever heard of this.

 

I want to know who's going to get in trouble for shredding an American flag in this episode!

 

I've never heard of it either, and you have to know the people making the episode would be highly vigilant against wardrobe malfunctions. But if Poltargyst isn't kidding, I'd like to know what scene he means. I'm not above taking a look.

"The Omega Glory" does have some revealing communicator shots. There's one scene where I swear you can see everything.

 

The passing earth freighter theory doesn't hold water or the earth colonists finding Omega IV unless they went through a time warp! The Kohm Wu is hundreds of years old and his father is well over a thousand according to Captain Tracey! So when the Yangs and Kohms first fought their battles the earth was yet to face the dark ages of the thirteenth century!
JB

 

Can you elaborate about this "Beaver shot", Doug? Anything to do with Irene Kelley is top on my lists of everything about The Omega Glory!
JB

 

Talking of Irene Kelley, unless she changed her name in the 70s, she didn't do much after the odd film or two but I swear that's her in an episode of Starsky and Hutch in the first season! The one with James Keach as the nutjob who covers himself in tinfoil!
JB

 

Sorry, I thought it was common knowledge. I know it's been discussed on this forum in the past. I couldn't find the exact screenshot on Trekcore, but it happens just before this moment, when Spock stuns her and she slumps to the floor. For a frame or two as she's falling, her skirt slips up.

 

Indeed. But there is nothing wrong with time warps. And if we assume that time travel is the reason 18th-19th century Earth artifacts rose to prominence in 8th-9th century Omega IV, we might be better off assuming it was the work of some nutcase like John Gill with an actual mission of political upheaval. Add a suitably tragical twist to the story where this selfish meddler meets a gruesome end after seeing all his efforts bring nothing but personal and general disaster...

As for the scale of Yang barbarism, why would it be anything less than global? If the Kohms still held major parts of the globe, why would they not come and crush the Yangs? Or at least attempt that, somewhere within the sphere of influence of Cloud William's posse, thereby making the chief aware that his mission is less than complete?

(Incidentally and fittingly, Omega IV has no oceans separating landmasses: it's all a single continent, both in TOS and TOS-R...)

The most telling bit, however, is that Ron Tracey beamed down on this particular village. There would be far too much coincidence involved unless this really were the last remnant of recognizable civilization surviving on the planet!

As for crumbling artifacts, we have to consider that the artifacts reach the site of the final Yang triumph apace with Cloud William himself. There are many scenarios where this would be plausible:

1) The planet has five hundred copies of the Holy Writ and about ten thousand US flags. Each field commander has access to a set. I mean, why not?

1.1 Cloud William might not be able to read or write, but he can have clerics/clerks for the task. And even they can work on monkey see, monkey do basis, without understanding the weird symbols they are copying.

1.2 Whoever provided one set of the paraphernalia could easily have provided a million. That's trivial compared with interstellar travel, let alone time travel.

2) There is only one set, but it survives through millennia.

2.1. The clerks/clerics keep it alive with constant but limited-edition copying.

2.2 The original meddler made sure the artifacts are indestructible. See above.

All sort of variation is also possible. Perhaps Cloud William and his various colleagues and predecessors consumed these artifacts like there was no tomorrow, but their former lands are full of secret shrines where replacements can be dug out and rallied in front of the troops. Or the local Kohms might have preserved a set out of sheer curiosity or respect for the ideas and ideals of the barbaric enemy.

In the end, I see no reason to assume the Yang campaign was less than effective across the globe. Towards the end of the desperate fight, the Kohms have captured the local Yang leader - without realizing that it is in fact the Yang leader. Sure, this can mean that it's only a local action, but it can equally well mean that the campaign is drawing to a close and the biggest bosses necessarily converge on the site (nothing else would work for a nomadic culture like that). And if it were a local action, the odds would be greatly against the surviving Kohms not recognizing their chief foe - but without mass media, they could well remain ignorant of the looks of the global boss.

Timo Saloniemi

 

And the likelihood that: 1) Omega IV has the same length year as Earth does, and 2) anything Tracey says is legitimate, is...how low, exactly?

(The correct answer to both questions is "Very.")

Also, remember what I said about how absolutely impossible it is that Omega IV evolved EXACT copies of those documents I mentioned, and how those same documents can't possibly still be in existence after so long a time.