The Squire of Gothos

[Timo]

...But he doesn't actually break any of his toys.

The absolute worst he manages in the field of doing damage is his brief exposure of Kirk to the elements of Gothos, and it seems he timed that down pat, too, making sure there was no harm even in the shortest term. All his "death threats" and scary promises come to exactly nothing, basically only because he stops himself in time.

Even Khan "No Kill I" Singh managed better, that is, worse. Trelayne may be annoying, but he doesn't appear truly dangerous when the halfhearted push comes to the gentle shove.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mytran]

My feeling is that Trelane scanned the Enterprise, determined it was from Earth, peeked into Earth's past at multiple time periods, then created the zone of "mishmash Earth environment" on the planet surface for his new guests to visit. The story tries to give us, the viewers, the idea that Trelane's fasciation with Earth culture is old, but it is clear that the Earth-like zone is just an instantaneous creation:

That makes almost too much sense. Yoink!

Kirk and crew are making an error about the viewing capabilities of Trelane, they think it must be viewing light from Earth like a telescope from a single point, but the evidence is all around him that Trelane must be looking into multiple time periods. Kirk should have said: "Then you've been looking in on the doings hundreds of years past."

I've never worried too much about the "900 years" thing because at the end of the day it was Jaegar who made that claim and he was a meteorologist, not a historian. I imagine he took one look at the castle and its accoutrements, interpreted them as being from the "olden days" and picked what he thought was an appropriate time period; the 14th century. Kirk is not a historian either (aside from certain favourite historical characters) so he simply went along with Jaeger's assertion. Had Spock been there, he doubtless would have set them straight.

 

[Henoch]

Jaeger must have fixated on the architecture as just one observation in his quick report to Kirk, and Kirk, still a little confused from his statue-state, used Jaeger's conclusion without taking the time for his own observations.

<edit. Based on the many examples of Q using historic Earth scenarios in TNG, perhaps Q is the same infant Trelane from TOS. >

 

[Winterwind]

I like to think Kirk was being poetic and emphasising the timeless cheekiness of misbehaving boys by using archaic examples to amuse Spock, rather than suggesting Kirk himself did that when he was a boy. But I agree with you - it is very out of place.

Just one of those "fun facts" as they say but... I was born in '73 and in public school our desks still had the holes in them for the ink wells.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Just one of those "fun facts" as they say but... I was born in '73 and in public school our desks still had the holes in them for the ink wells.

I'm 11 years older, went to public schools, and I don't think I ever saw an ink well. I had a super-old fourth grade teacher who required us to get a genuine fountain pen, but the pens contained replaceable plastic ink tubes. The ink was liquid, unlike a ballpoint pen, but there was no bottle of ink to deal with. Still, my father was astonished that I had to have this old-fashioned, fancy pen, and he griped about the expense.

 

[Winterwind]

I'm 11 years older, went to public schools, and I don't think I ever saw an ink well. I had a super-old fourth grade teacher who required us to get a genuine fountain pen, but the pens contained replaceable plastic ink tubes. The ink was liquid, unlike a ballpoint pen, but there was no bottle of ink to deal with. Still, my father was astonished that I had to have this old-fashioned, fancy pen, and he griped about the expense.

Yeah, we had normal pens and pencils, just really old desks. Heh. I was born in a small town. But I do remember my grandparents (I lived with them for a while) not being pleased when I needed a scientific calculator. I think that was Grade 9.

 

[T'Bonz]

I went to schools in the city when in elementary school and I did see the old-time desks with the holes in them.

 

[Henoch]

Me, too.

 

[johnnybear]

Apart from the Peter David novel there is no on screen confirmation anywhere that Q and Trelane were related!!!
JB

 

[Shawnster]

Because they aren't and the idea otherwise smacks of small-universe syndrome.

 

[Henoch]

Because they aren't and the idea otherwise smacks of small-universe syndrome.

...or grand-universe syndrome. YMMV.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Because they aren't and the idea otherwise smacks of small-universe syndrome.

To me, the small universe problem is having Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Sulu, Rand, Sarek, Kor, Koloth, Kang, and Arne Darvin all cross paths with the spin-off characters. And I still ate it up with a spoon.

When you get into connecting the super-being dots, like Mitchell, Charlie Evans, Apollo, the Organians, Trelane, and Q, that's more like a non-canon thing, and often fanfic.

 

[Timo]

It might be reassuring to know that ascension to the noncorporeal plane unites diverse species and individuals into a harmonious unity of divine beings.

But it would be much more fun to think there's diversity on the upper tiers, too!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Poltargyst]

This episode does have scenes that would send kiddies screaming in terror.

Didn't bother me.

 

[Greg Cox]

This episode does have scenes that would send kiddies screaming in terror.

I can testify that it gave me at least one nightmare as a kid.

As for "The Most Dangerous Game," this is where I pedantically point out that it inspired a movie version as far back as 1932 (starring Fay Wray no less). My impression is that it was always a very celebrated short story. I remember reading it in school, where it was included in our English Literature textbook alongside Poe, Hemingway, Conan Doyle, Dorothy Parker, etc.

 

[Maurice]

Just one of those "fun facts" as they say but... I was born in '73 and in public school our desks still had the holes in them for the ink wells.

Same.

 

[Maurice]

[...]This episode does have scenes that would send kiddies screaming in terror.[...]

Never had that effect on me as a kid. There's nothing terribly scary about it from a kid POV.

 

[Lance]

^ There's some psychological terror in the episode. Kirk standing on the dock while the shadow of a noose can be seen on the wall behind him, and Trelane himself, a being who is at once both child-like and endlessly dangerous in his abilities (quite the combination, if you can imagine the way a toddler runs through a candy store needing to fiddle with every little thing on every little shelf, but put that same toddler behind the controls of a tank with lots of levers and buttons to press...)

This one is up there with the best of TOS. Trelane is a compelling foe in all of the same ways as Q later would be, equal parts charming and deadly, but has an edge in that, even at his most bad-guy like, Q was always a being more advanced than humanity and in many ways guiding them even as he plays with them, whereas Trelane has got that unbridled child thing I mentioned going on. You couldn't really concieve Q destroying Picard's ship, not in malice anyway, as he was always really just trying to teach Jean Luc something, and if he'd actually destroyed it then you can imagine Q tutt-tutting in disappointment that Jean Luc "didn't apply himself", and probably giving him another chance to try again, where as Trelane would get angry like a child and start bucketing the Enterprise with meteorites for fun. He's a much, much deadlier enemy for not having Q's maturity.

It helps that Shatner plays it this way, all the way through, his chemistry with guest star William Campbell is sublime. Where some of his crew are charmed and amused by Trelane's parlour tricks, Kirk recognizes him immediately for the serious danger he presents, and never let's his stony faced mask slip, except briefly when Spock insults Trelane and Kirk can't help but admire his Vulcan friend.

 

[Phaser Two]

^ There's some psychological terror in the episode. Kirk standing on the dock while the shadow of a noose can be seen on the wall behind him, and Trelane himself, a being who is at once both child-like and endlessly dangerous in his abilities (quite the combination, if you can imagine the way a toddler runs through a candy store needing to fiddle with every little thing on every little shelf, but put that same toddler behind the controls of a tank with lots of levers and buttons to press...)

This one is up there with the best of TOS. Trelane is a compelling foe in all of the same ways as Q later would be, equal parts charming and deadly, but has an edge in that, even at his most bad-guy like, Q was always a being more advanced than humanity and in many ways guiding them even as he plays with them, whereas Trelane has got that unbridled child thing I mentioned going on. You couldn't really concieve Q destroying Picard's ship, not in malice anyway, as he was always really just trying to teach Jean Luc something, and if he'd actually destroyed it then you can imagine Q tutt-tutting in disappointment that Jean Luc "didn't apply himself", and probably giving him another chance to try again, where as Trelane would get angry like a child and start bucketing the Enterprise with meteorites for fun. He's a much, much deadlier enemy for not having Q's maturity.

It helps that Shatner plays it this way, all the way through, his chemistry with guest star William Campbell is sublime. Where some of his crew are charmed and amused by Trelane's parlour tricks, Kirk recognizes him immediately for the serious danger he presents, and never let's his stony faced mask slip, except briefly when Spock insults Trelane and Kirk can't help but admire his Vulcan friend.

Great post. This one is in the Top 10 Shatner acting performances, I think.

 

[Maurice]

Still not kiddie nightmare fuel.