And the children shall sing bubbley gum music and dance
the robot to it:
TOS: "The Way To Eden"
It's a mess of potential plot points trying to hit on huge societal issues, which is somewhat typical of the third season, but in the spaghetti of a story there's a lot of meaty bits; they merely skimped on the strands that make it swing better. It'd be worse if it was a generic story with less to offer.
But, really, here are
some of the plot points, and as with Pokemon I can't catch them all:
- Society vs the mirage of anarchy
- Nonconformity even among the nonconformists
- New diseases made from an enclosed environs
- Exploring teenage rebellion (and the joke is that there's little really being rebelled against)
- Though to be fair, no 33 year-old can double as a kid
- Never mind someone nigh on 40, since hippies were known to not trust anyone over 30...
- The hippie movement in general
- Coincidental or not, there was a "Herbert" with a book that was very topical at the time that fits into this "Eden" story a little too well (certainly less vague than a lot of the story's plot points were, but the novel Herbert Armstrong isn't exactly sanitized either, arguably another irony in this complex, multifaceted episode that is more shallow than it should be...)
- Is Eden really a planet or just a myth?
- Someone other than Kirk had a love interest at one point
- Vulcans appreciate multiple points of view and will work in good faith
- Charles Napier's song lyrics being nerdier than they should be
- Not all planets with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere are habitable for humans
- Mocking face painting
- It's been a while since we used the shuttlecraft, and the stock footage is cheaper than teleportation effects
Definitely bold ideas for a show that made its thing by holding a proverbial mirror up to the audience. It almost stretches to the cult phenomenon, which was years away from becoming a big problem and one can easily argue that it already was a problem of sorts by 1969 (Manson, et al) - this story is almost ahead of its time, had they focused on the ideas to come up to some plausible or possible conclusions.
I like how Sevrin's followers aren't all entirely sure of his plan. And how one if not two were quick to go along with it. Wish they had more time to delve into these facets.
Sevrin (proto-Manson in a way) is definitely insane, but the underlying cause wasn't brought up. Another moment to wish they had expounded upon.
We don't get much of Sevrin's plan and how their shiny new community will be formed, much less maintained. There is as much an irony as a reason for the Federation setting up its own system to create a balance in the first place and the reasons given in the episode are a bit shallow and vague...
Stop me if you've not heard this before, but the episode should have devoted more time to the philosophy of
Eden.
Yes, yes, Chekov is all wrong. Well, mostly wrong, but him being a serious character and not the butt of backhanded joke is arguably a refreshing change.
Yes, plot points happen for the sake of them. Another fun Trek trope is that the guest characters of the week are given the means to figure out the ship, but nobody's going to bother with "Star Trek MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMDCCLXVIII - The Revenge of Sevrin", since naturally he doesn't really die but adapted to the acid...
...which reminds, just how many more drug references can be shoved into Eden, right down to the grass that causes the interlopers to smoke and not the other way around? Sci-fi rarely goes into detail about checking out the shiny new planet's environment to make sure, and it's not like the audience is going to go "Hey, back 1000000000 years ago, how did humans figure out what wasn't edible in ways that didn't kill them?" either... (never mind who first tasted "castoreum" and decided "Yum, tastes like vanilla! Or raspberry! Or whatever flavor I'd rather be licking than where this stuff came from!!" )
As usual, the ending wraps everything up neatly.
At least television made decades later would be more sophisti-- oh, wait...
Also, there's something about the lyrics, oversimplified as they are, finding about having to eat and to drink, then later found about having to think, sounding all nice but like most tv talk shows accomplish nothing, uh-huh!
Note only did Napier co-write the song, look up what he did while auditioning for the role. It's absolutely no wonder that he clinched the role very quickly. He went on to be a prolific character actor; it's not hard to see why and how...
Groove and bee-haif with teh boomahs 'n' zee shilentz!
So many stories left. A few are spaghetti jumbles with meaty bits. Others are just meaty bits with no strands. Others are nothing but sauce to slather on the audience with. But this story is by no means the worst. It's just a misfire that tripped over its surfeit of plot points, in a season known to be the last, with this one written nearly toward the last, and therefore scribbled out as quickly as possible. I can think of more recent episodes (especially from a certain, and
early season 5 DS9 episode) that took hefty themes and squandered them worse.
Also, here's Pokemon at its pinnacle:
What's left:
TOS: "And The Children Shall Lead"
TOS: "Plato's Stepchildren"
TOS: "Wink Of An Eye"
TOS: "Elaan Of Troyius"
TOS: "The Mark Of Gideon"
TOS: "The Lights Of Zetar"
TOS: "The Cloud Minders"
TOS: "Turnabout Intruder"
TNG: "The Ensigns Of Command"
TNG: "The Bonding"
TNG: "The Price"
TNG: "Transfigurations"
DS9: "Meridian"
VOY: "Favorite Son"
ENT: "The Xindi"
ENT: "Anomaly"
ENT: "Extinction"
ENT: "Chosen Realm"
DIS: "Die Trying"
DIS: "Unification III"
DIS: "The Sanctuary"
DIS: "There Is A Tide..."
