The Return of the Archons - 45th Anniversary this week
- Thread starter Wingsley
- Start date
Consider that our heroes had typically encountered highly dissimilar alien opponents in the past. Their talk about what Landru could do to "a starship" would be meaningless if it didn't assume a non-dissimilar vessel - thus a non-alien one... (Wholesome fun for the kids: strip the triple negatives to find out what I really think!
)Klingons have starships on par with the Federation ones, of course, and other UFP arch-adversaries might be assumed to have them, then. But I rather think Kirk wouldn't be quite that altruist...
At least that's IMHO the only real argument one way or another, beyond the fact that Archon appears to be an English name. But since it's also a recognizable noun, it could be a translated name for all we know.
Whether the locals would speak of "the Archons" differently if they were blue and had three eyes... Depends. But many non-UFP aliens have humanlike appearance; the Archon could have been a Klingon vessel, and the locals would still be justified in thinking that Kirk and friends were more of the same.
Timo Saloniemi
In Act I of the final script, right before the scene that shows Kirk looking out the window of Reger's house, there is a scene involving Kirk and Lindstrom that had been filmed but not included in the final cut of the episode. In this deleted scene, Lindstrom tells Kirk:
LINDSTROM
But it's Bacchanal! Saturnalia!
Occurring spontaneously...
simultaneously... I've got to know more...
But it's Bacchanal! Saturnalia!
Occurring spontaneously...
simultaneously... I've got to know more...
Saturnalia and Bacchanalia are deity-honoring festivals. Their Wiki entries reveal more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturnalia and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacchanalia
BTW, the directions in the script for the staging of the festival emphasize the Bacchanalia/Saturnalia aspects. As the Red Hour starts, a man "...strikes out lustily at Kirk..." and "...a young woman, beautiful, with a torn (but modestly) dress, dashes up, grabs Kirk's arm, tries to drag him off..." and then later "Another man chases a half-clad, screaming woman across the street...," etc.
One thing only hinted at in the final scene of this ep was the aftermath of Landru's demise. Apparently the Enterprise left personnel behind on C-111 Beta III. Perhaps this would be a Federation requirement if a starship captain decides to override the Prime Directive.
One thing crossed my mind recently as I finished viewing this ep on the Star Trek web-site: What was the disposition on all the technology Landru left behind? The facilities on the planet included at least one powerful anti-starship weapon, broadcast telepathy machinery, some kind of extremely sophisticated brainwashing machinery (the absorption chambers), an awesomely powerful central computer (no longer in good condition), and an impressive goes-anywhere holographic address system "with no apparatus at this end". And let's not forget that lighting panel and imagine other little goodies.
What did Kirk do? Steal it and have Section 31 bundle it all up and haul it to Asteroid 51? Or did he pull a Picard and simply order a team to stay behind to begin to demolish all of it? (remember TNG's "Contagion"?) Or would he "leave sleeping dogs lay"?
The Enterprise was sent there to investigate what happened to the Starship Archon, strongly suggested to be an earlier Federation starship out exploring that got caught in Landru's web and was destroyed as a result. So Kirk had to re-explore the planet and determine in there was a threat there. He did, there was one, and he eliminated that threat by disabling the computer. ("YOU! ARE THE EVIL! FULFILL THE PRIME DIRECTIVE!" Sorry.) But Kirk obviously had some 'splainin' to do for his actions, and he also had to decide what he was going to do with all those goodies.
What do you think he did?
One thing crossed my mind recently as I finished viewing this ep on the Star Trek web-site: What was the disposition on all the technology Landru left behind? The facilities on the planet included at least one powerful anti-starship weapon, broadcast telepathy machinery, some kind of extremely sophisticated brainwashing machinery (the absorption chambers), an awesomely powerful central computer (no longer in good condition), and an impressive goes-anywhere holographic address system "with no apparatus at this end". And let's not forget that lighting panel and imagine other little goodies.
What did Kirk do? Steal it and have Section 31 bundle it all up and haul it to Asteroid 51? Or did he pull a Picard and simply order a team to stay behind to begin to demolish all of it? (remember TNG's "Contagion"?) Or would he "leave sleeping dogs lay"?
The Enterprise was sent there to investigate what happened to the Starship Archon, strongly suggested to be an earlier Federation starship out exploring that got caught in Landru's web and was destroyed as a result. So Kirk had to re-explore the planet and determine in there was a threat there. He did, there was one, and he eliminated that threat by disabling the computer. ("YOU! ARE THE EVIL! FULFILL THE PRIME DIRECTIVE!" Sorry.) But Kirk obviously had some 'splainin' to do for his actions, and he also had to decide what he was going to do with all those goodies.
What do you think he did?
Well, according to Trekkian physics, when you blow up a central computer, all the peripherals blow up also.
The technology Landru left behind would probably be considered the property of the natives of Beta III. The Federation may have left advisors behind, but in the end, it's up to the Betans to decide what to do with it.
Always felt the Archon would have looked something like this:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/Primacron/USSArchon.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v176/Primacron/USSArchon.jpg
The question in my mind is whether Captain Kirk would have allowed the natives to continue to be exposed to this technology when they had not thought for themselves in so many generations. What if a race hostile to the Federation (the Romulans or Klingons, etc.) visited Landru's mind-control factory and decided to help themselves?
Clearly, the Enterprise was sent to C-111 to investigate and deal with a potential starship trap / security threat. I just don't see Kirk leaving all that dangerous hardware (Spock said they were "commanding powers far beyond our comprehension") in the hands of a society where he just overthrew a mechanized dictator.
So from my perspective, either Landru's self-destruction also destroyed the technology, or maybe Kirk removed all the unattended hardware to Asteroid 51, or Kirk ordered all of it demolished.
Clearly, the Enterprise was sent to C-111 to investigate and deal with a potential starship trap / security threat. I just don't see Kirk leaving all that dangerous hardware (Spock said they were "commanding powers far beyond our comprehension") in the hands of a society where he just overthrew a mechanized dictator.
So from my perspective, either Landru's self-destruction also destroyed the technology, or maybe Kirk removed all the unattended hardware to Asteroid 51, or Kirk ordered all of it demolished.
Personally, the stuff should have been left behind. If this PD crap is gonna be implied, let the natives use the equipment.....especially since there is neither proof it is alien or domestic. And given the fact the society has just been awakened, they are going to need all the help that they can get, especially considering all that stuff is what probably maintained the society's infrastructure.
The computer self-destructed, so there may not even have been a way for the mind control to continue after the death of faux-Landru.
That looks really cool. Did you make that?
I know that the Archon is sometimes assumed to be a Daedalus-class ship. Did you derive that image from this? (AFAIK, most Daedalus concepts don't have four nacelles. Yours looks better anyway. )
That looks really cool. Did you make that?
I know that the Archon is sometimes assumed to be a Daedalus-class ship. Did you derive that image from this? (AFAIK, most Daedalus concepts don't have four nacelles. Yours looks better anyway.
)
The computer self-destructed, so there may not even have been a way for the mind control to continue after the death of faux-Landru.
That looks really cool. Did you make that?
I know that the Archon is sometimes assumed to be a Daedalus-class ship. Did you derive that image from this? (AFAIK, most Daedalus concepts don't have four nacelles. Yours looks better anyway.
Ask Madman.
Anyhow, the very idea of an asteroid 51 or other place to store/hide technology found on other worlds would make Starfleet look like nothing but anti-Robin Hoods, or just a continuation of governments gone wrong by hiding everything they find, and most likely at the public's expense....and using the PD as an excuse, like the ironically named Patriot Act of today. I feel that it would be against everything Gene stood for with having Starfleet doing such a thing.
I think that design for the Archon would make sense. I would think the Daedalus class would have some of them upgraded, or there being another class that looks like them (would be fine for me, since we've seen so many TOS/TMP/TNG era ships using so many of the same parts or designs) made for deep space travel, since would not that world the Archon went to be in a rather unknown spot of space when it arrived there?
We don't know if Beta III was out in the sticks or not. Many places in TOS appeared to only warrant a starship visit several decades apart, and even the supposedly busy port of Deneva could go silent for a year before Starfleet reacted.
Eminiar and Vendikar appeared to be a pair of primitives kept in an isolated bubble within explored and exploited territory: Ambassador Fox wants a treaty port there in order to protect existing UFP (or other interstellar) interests in the quadrant. Yet Starfleet failed to investigate the disappearance of the Valiant for more than fifty years, and only reacted to the interstellar threat after that had been brewing for twenty years. So even these worlds probably were relatively distant from the beaten path, and UFP interests in the region had only developed in the recent past.
Beta is known to only ever have claimed one starship associated with our heroes, and the response to that is even less immediate - a whole century passes before a revisit! We could again claim that Kirk is sent because Beta has recently become part of the UFP sphere of interest, having been distant and uninteresting previously.
The same could go for the numerous other places Kirk forcibly contacts - the First Federation, the Melkots, the Iotians. In contrast, Omega from "Omega Glory" appears to fall within the patrol region of multiple starships, as does the L series of systems in "Doomsday Machine" - even though everything indicates this is the far frontier, untouched by UFP commercial interests or logistics networks. We probably have to assume that Starfleet not only helps the UFP gradually expand, but also performs preemptive military-scientific claim-staking in distant space in the direction of potential threats. The mission to Beta III could fall within either category of activities, then.
Timo Saloniemi
Eminiar and Vendikar appeared to be a pair of primitives kept in an isolated bubble within explored and exploited territory: Ambassador Fox wants a treaty port there in order to protect existing UFP (or other interstellar) interests in the quadrant. Yet Starfleet failed to investigate the disappearance of the Valiant for more than fifty years, and only reacted to the interstellar threat after that had been brewing for twenty years. So even these worlds probably were relatively distant from the beaten path, and UFP interests in the region had only developed in the recent past.
Beta is known to only ever have claimed one starship associated with our heroes, and the response to that is even less immediate - a whole century passes before a revisit! We could again claim that Kirk is sent because Beta has recently become part of the UFP sphere of interest, having been distant and uninteresting previously.
The same could go for the numerous other places Kirk forcibly contacts - the First Federation, the Melkots, the Iotians. In contrast, Omega from "Omega Glory" appears to fall within the patrol region of multiple starships, as does the L series of systems in "Doomsday Machine" - even though everything indicates this is the far frontier, untouched by UFP commercial interests or logistics networks. We probably have to assume that Starfleet not only helps the UFP gradually expand, but also performs preemptive military-scientific claim-staking in distant space in the direction of potential threats. The mission to Beta III could fall within either category of activities, then.
Timo Saloniemi
One of the best ST episodes. It's definitely an "idea" episode. On the meaning of "Festival"-- Star Trek did not have pointless, thoughtless stories, not in season one anyway. From my first viewing as a 9-year-old (a summer rerun probably) to today, it's been clear to me that Festival was the way that this bloodless, controlled, dead society kept going. That's the idea that the whole story rests on.
Original Trek had two main themes: (1) What do mere humans, no matter how great their technology, do when confronted with beings at the technological level of "gods", and (2) What happens when human emotion is taken away from people and from a society?
The whole idea of Vulcans is one way in which they addressed #2, and unlike previous SF, in films anyway, the emotionless alien was the protagonist. He paid a huge price, though, which was explored through those three seasons, often in the Spock/McCoy debates, where you could never tell who was going to "win"... there were definitely two sides.
They also explored it with Archons. It's a sign of the intelligence of the show, and their respect for the audience to connect the dots for themselves, that we were presented with "Festival", without a speech establishing its exact purpose. In that situation, who was likely to offer such a convenient explanation? Landru, in an uncharacteristically generous and chatty moment?
ST was made for adults, not for the kids who grew up with it and after it. They approached viewers as adults with minds, at least in 1966-67. I'm sure they thought of the adults we intelligent kids would become though, and hoped we'd get it too.
Archons is totally and completely about the consequences of "total control", especially the loss of humanity, and the need for the crude safety valve and release of something like "Festival". It's the point of the episode. Turn off feeling, and even procreation gets f'ed up, and a mass rape has to be staged, to keep the race going. That's the #1 reason for "Festival". These zombies can't mate without being given orders, and having their brains and glands reprogrammed for a night.
Original Trek had two main themes: (1) What do mere humans, no matter how great their technology, do when confronted with beings at the technological level of "gods", and (2) What happens when human emotion is taken away from people and from a society?
The whole idea of Vulcans is one way in which they addressed #2, and unlike previous SF, in films anyway, the emotionless alien was the protagonist. He paid a huge price, though, which was explored through those three seasons, often in the Spock/McCoy debates, where you could never tell who was going to "win"... there were definitely two sides.
They also explored it with Archons. It's a sign of the intelligence of the show, and their respect for the audience to connect the dots for themselves, that we were presented with "Festival", without a speech establishing its exact purpose. In that situation, who was likely to offer such a convenient explanation? Landru, in an uncharacteristically generous and chatty moment?
ST was made for adults, not for the kids who grew up with it and after it. They approached viewers as adults with minds, at least in 1966-67. I'm sure they thought of the adults we intelligent kids would become though, and hoped we'd get it too.
Archons is totally and completely about the consequences of "total control", especially the loss of humanity, and the need for the crude safety valve and release of something like "Festival". It's the point of the episode. Turn off feeling, and even procreation gets f'ed up, and a mass rape has to be staged, to keep the race going. That's the #1 reason for "Festival". These zombies can't mate without being given orders, and having their brains and glands reprogrammed for a night.
The very first TOS episode I can remember watching from my childhood in the 80s 
I think the first time that the notion of the Archon being a Daedalus-class Federation starship would be the Star Trek encyclopedia in the mid-1990s, which tied both the Essex (TNG's "Power Play") and the Archon to the spheroid-and-tubular hulls that become commonly known as the Daedalus design.
I envisioned the Archon as either being a sistership of the Bonaventure (TAS "Time Trap") or some ship class descended from the Bonaventure; perhaps a "missing link" (or one of several) between the NX and the Constitution-classes.
If you pay attention to references to the engines in ENT, the characters never refer to the "Warp 5 Engine" as "warp drive". In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the term "warp drive" is never used in ENT. My supposition would be that true "warp drive" only arrived with the mythical Warp 7 engine that Archer and Trip were toasting to in "These Are the Voyages..." I assume that ships like the Archon and Bonaventure were direct design ancestors of the Connie. The Bonnie would be the first ship to be able to sustain Warp 7.0 for short "burst mode" periods, at least as long as the Vulcans could in the 2160's. By the time of the prototype Starship Constitution over 80 years later, the design had been perfected to the point where a Connie could sustain a maximum speed of Warp 7 for days, perhaps longer.
I envisioned the Archon as either being a sistership of the Bonaventure (TAS "Time Trap") or some ship class descended from the Bonaventure; perhaps a "missing link" (or one of several) between the NX and the Constitution-classes.
If you pay attention to references to the engines in ENT, the characters never refer to the "Warp 5 Engine" as "warp drive". In fact, if I'm not mistaken, the term "warp drive" is never used in ENT. My supposition would be that true "warp drive" only arrived with the mythical Warp 7 engine that Archer and Trip were toasting to in "These Are the Voyages..." I assume that ships like the Archon and Bonaventure were direct design ancestors of the Connie. The Bonnie would be the first ship to be able to sustain Warp 7.0 for short "burst mode" periods, at least as long as the Vulcans could in the 2160's. By the time of the prototype Starship Constitution over 80 years later, the design had been perfected to the point where a Connie could sustain a maximum speed of Warp 7 for days, perhaps longer.
Last edited:
UNKNOWN, I don't want to quote a whole block of text, but the story would work fine for me without red hour at all. Do people deserve/need to be free, challenged, and sometimes suffering? Or is controlled, but happy an ok state for people? Same story as This Side of Paradise, really. And Body Snatchers, too, come to think of it.
Archons is still an idea story with or without red hour. Thank you for reminding us of the goodness that is Trek when it is sci-fi.
Archons is still an idea story with or without red hour. Thank you for reminding us of the goodness that is Trek when it is sci-fi.
Well, there's no need to have RotA sans "the Red Hour"; it's not about to be edited out. I also know that some of us would start thinking about the consequences of a society of centrally-controlled minds and instincts, even without Festival. However, there's just no substitute, really, for a horrifying consequence being shown on-camera.
By the way, someone posted that the Federation hadn't been mentioned until this story, I think. It's strange that I never noticed this. I started watching in the middle of the season though, and many ep's I must have first seen in summer reruns. I thought the Federation was a basic part of ST from the start. The Archon never struck me as anything like a ship at the level of the Enterprise, though.
This is just me, but given the context of 1960's TV writing and visual/audio cues, the Red Hour spectacle was probably inevitable. The show's writers and producers obviously were deliberately seeking a weird, TWILIGHT ZONE vibe for this ep. What better way to show how strange and irrational these aliens seem than to show staff-zapping Grim Reapers, followed by creepy slow-prancing Victorian zombies who suddenly transform into rowdy rioters at exactly 6:00?
Very well said! But let me nuance this a little. As I mentioned previously, the deleted scene involving Kirk and Lindstrom referred to the Red Hour festival as a Saturnalia (in combination with a Bacchanal). And, although the Red Hour festiival was certainly orgiastic, I believe the writers intended the event to be a festival in honor of Landru, much like the Saturnalia was a festival in honor of Saturn. In fact, Landru and Saturn have a lot in common. For example (from the Wikipedia article on Saturnalia:)
"In Roman mythology, Saturn was an agricultural deity who reigned over the world in the Golden Age, when humans enjoyed the spontaneous bounty of the earth without labor in a state of social egalitarianism. The revelries of Saturnalia were supposed to reflect the conditions of the lost mythical age, not all of them desirable."
And also, from the same article:
"The Saturnalia reflects the contradictory nature of the deity Saturn himself: "there are joyful and utopian aspects of careless well-being side by side with disquieting elements of threat and danger". As a god of agricultural bounty, Saturn embodied prosperity and wealth in general."
So, while I think that the Red Hour might indeed have been the start of a "release" for the inhabitants of Beta III, I don't think that the writers of the episode intended that to be the #1 reason for it.
Last edited: