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The Omega Glory's Good Points

The rumors that they are genocidal barbarians, first perhaps viewed with suspicion seeing as they come from the mouth of the main antagonist of the story, are now fully confirmed.

Not remotely. The Yangs are pretty clearly portrayed as noble savages defending themselves from a ruthless and aggressive totalitarian enemy (who are Tracey's allies by reason of their corruption and his own). And because they're confirmed in the end to be a devolved form of American from a parallel Cold War that went hot (this being TOS this was all meant quite literally), Kirk's reaction to them isn't "ZOMG you're genocidal barbarians victimizing these poor helpless people;" it's rather them he entrusts with the task of restoring peace and the true, universal meaning of America's constitution (and redeeming even the degraded Kohms too).
In effect, god has told Cloud William to make sure the Holy Words apply to everyone. It is going to suck, massively, for anyone who doesn't agree. If this frackus wasn't genocidal to start, it will be now.
 
The good news is, it doesn't really matter any more. Cloud William, keeper of the supposedly unique Holy Book, Sacred Flag and their Pretty Well Respected Wrappings and thus probably a rather big chief as far as chiefs go, has this to say about the issue:

Cloud William: "Many have died, but this is the last of the Kohm places."
There aren't any Kohms left.

Or, to be accurate, the last village was as good as deserted when our heroes walked through it for the last time, with Tracey commenting that the people were "dead or hiding". Not too many places in the village for hiding... But really, I wouldn't pay top dollar to be among the surviving, say, twenty-two of the Kohm culture when Cloud William starts to dish out Freedom!

Timo Saloniemi
 
The good news is, it doesn't really matter any more. Cloud William, keeper of the supposedly unique Holy Book, Sacred Flag and their Pretty Well Respected Wrappings and thus probably a rather big chief as far as chiefs go, has this to say about the issue:

Cloud William: "Many have died, but this is the last of the Kohm places."
There aren't any Kohms left.

Or, to be accurate, the last village was as good as deserted when our heroes walked through it for the last time, with Tracey commenting that the people were "dead or hiding". Not too many places in the village for hiding... But really, I wouldn't pay top dollar to be among the surviving, say, twenty-two of the Kohm culture when Cloud William starts to dish out Freedom!

Timo Saloniemi

What? Sure you would. Some day you'll get cheap tags, smokes, run your religion without interference. Get restitutions, open casinos, sell oil found on your land.

And FTR I *am* American Indian.
 
I've read several places that the Yangs and Kohms were supposed to be Americans and Chinese who traveled from Earth to settle another planet. That seems rather bizarre to me... if they were at such ideological odds to begin with, wouldn't you expect they'd settle on different planets?

Hmmm... now that I think about it... maybe at some point, both the U.S. and China--both possessing space flight capability--discover a planet that they both want to control, and thus both try to seize. Neither gains the advantage and war breaks out.

There you go GR, I just provided your back story! Oh, that's right, you're....
 
I also find it puzzling how the Enterprise could be sent to find the Defiant after the latter is missing for three weeks, while the Exeter seemingly is not missed after going missing for 6 months.
 
The only redeeming value in the episode to me (aside from some well-staged fight scenes) is the cinematography. There are a few excellent compositions and nicely lit shots, which is even more impressive given the truncated shooting schedule at the end of the second season. Some examples:

http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd0249.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd0318.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd0830.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd1079.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd1204.jpg
http://tos.trekcore.com/hd/albums/2x23hd/theomegagloryhd1255.jpg
 
I've read several places that the Yangs and Kohms were supposed to be Americans and Chinese who traveled from Earth to settle another planet. That seems rather bizarre to me... if they were at such ideological odds to begin with, wouldn't you expect they'd settle on different planets?

Hmmm... now that I think about it... maybe at some point, both the U.S. and China--both possessing space flight capability--discover a planet that they both want to control, and thus both try to seize. Neither gains the advantage and war breaks out.

There you go GR, I just provided your back story! Oh, that's right, you're....


The story was originally conceived when GR thought that Star Trek would be set much farther in the future. The idea was in fact that space-age colonists had suited up and left Earth so long before Kirk's time that their voyage was lost to history.

In this original version, written alongside "The Cage," the Yangs' copies of the Constitution and the Bible made perfect sense and there was enough time for everything to have happened. The way things stand now though, we pretty much have to say a time traveler tampered with that planet's culture.
 
The way things stand now though, we pretty much have to say a time traveler tampered with that planet's culture.

Which helps in many other respects as well. A time traveler like that would probably be pretty obsessive about what he's doing, while his disciples wouldn't be genuine Earthmen and thus would get most of his teachings dead wrong - so naturally the resulting culture would be a caricature, an exercise in extremes. Pretty much the same as in "Patterns of Force", except that the time traveler might be even more of a god figure as the original cultures might have been more primitive.

Timo Saloniemi
 
I also find it puzzling how the Enterprise could be sent to find the Defiant after the latter is missing for three weeks, while the Exeter seemingly is not missed after going missing for 6 months.
I suppose it could have something to do with the respective ships' missions, and when they were expected to re-contact Starfleet.
 
I have a question for those well versed in mythology. The picture in the book supposedly featured Satan.

The fallen angel theme is obvious because of the wings, but did Satan already have pointed ears before he "got" the horns? :confused:

(the picture reminds me definitely more of a Vulcan than Satan)

Bob


I think the style of illustrating Satan has always been up to the artists. And the Yang Bible seems to have a custom-made portrait of Mr. Spock. :devil:
 
I have a question for those well versed in mythology. The picture in the book supposedly featured Satan.

The fallen angel theme is obvious because of the wings, but did Satan already have pointed ears before he "got" the horns? :confused:

(the picture reminds me definitely more of a Vulcan than Satan)

Bob

He's not supposed to be the Evil One, but the "servant" of the Evil One. Admittedly, I'm not sure who that is.

The Preamble scene is vintage Shatner. "Marmite," as they say in Britain. It even has one of his classic idiosyncratic pronunciations, "trongquility." I do not fully understand, one named Kirk.

But the greatest line for me in this episode comes from Bones: "Spock, I've found that evil usually triumphs unless good is very, very careful." :rofl:
 
In all the pissing this episode gets there is something admirable about it: it dares to speak a truth.

Kirk's reading of the E pleb nista was a message to the audience and it's one that still applies very much today. Those words are a wake up call to people to really understand what those words really mean rather than what a great many like to think they mean.

He is reciting what people should aspire and strive to be rather than what they often are.
 
Weren't the Yangs called the "Meriks" in an early version of the script? I'm sure I've seen this name for them in some tie-in media, possibly the View-Master reels. :confused:
 
...So now we know who the time traveler was that corrupted the Omegans! Obviously, the tendency to play god to barbaric civilizations runs in the family...

Timo Saloniemi
 
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