An Intriguing Concept Is Undermined By Terrible Guest Actors In "Spectre Of The Gun"

The Good: Interesting idea, Moments of character, Moments of primary actors' acting
The Bad: Tired, recycled plot, Terrible guest actors
The Basics: In a recycled plot, five of the main characters find themselves re-enacting the Gunfight At The O.K. Coral, though the performances make it hard for the viewer to care.


Star Trek had a way of bringing aboard impressive guest stars that could sell an episode, even when the premise of it was shaky. It could also accent a decent episode with decent guest stars. So, for example, Joan Collins appeared in "City On The Edge Of Forever," Kim Darby brought "Miri" to life, and Mark Lenard became Spock's father Sarek in "Journey To Babel" and subsequent film in Star Trek The Next Generation outings. Sadly, when the show has a premise that was borderline in its concept and the execution of it was looking doubtful, sometimes it failed to bring aboard guest stars who could breathe life into it. "Spectre of the Gun," the first new episode produced in Star Trek's third season (though not the first aired), suffers for exactly this reason.

When the U.S.S. Enterprise ignores a warning buoy advising them to avoid the territory claimed by the Melkotians, Kirk follows his orders to make contact with these mysterious aliens. A landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov are accused by the alien, presumably a Melkot, they encounter on the Melkotian planet of trespassing and essentially sentenced to death. The method of their sentence; the quintet will relive the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, virtually assuring they will perish in a cheesy Western scenario.

The problems with "Spectre of the Gun" are numerous, but they are not so conceptually embedded that "Star Trek" could not pull it off with success. So, for example, the Enterprise had ignored warnings from alien species before and been tested by more powerful beings ("The Corbomite Maneuver" and "Arena" from the first season leap right to mind) on multiple occasions. Even the idea of a Star Trek western is not a terrible idea. In fact, Star Trek The Next Generation pulled off a Western quite effectively with "A Fistful of Datas." But the problem with "Spectre of the Gun" is that, just because it's possible to succeed with an unsure concept like this on Star Trek, it fails to capitalize on everything that could make this work.

Because we've seen other alien races toy with the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise before, in order for the viewer to buy this set of circumstances, the enemy has to be suitably impressive. In their natural form, the Melkots are disembodied paper mache heads with glowing eyes and Star Trek seldom creates a less menacing villain. But far worse are the Earps, the family who will slay the Clantons, McLaurys, and Billy Claiborne, who the Enterprise crewmembers embody. Instead, Wyatt, Morgan and Virgil Earp and Doc Holliday are generic Hollywood cowboy stereotypes that are just flat, boring villains. There is no spark of Western excitement here because the villains (from our perspective, rooting for the Enterprise crew) are flat, listless and dull.

This is in large part due to the actors playing them. Ron Soble, for example, looks bored as Wyatt Earp for much of his time on screen. His performance is best described as flat and because his portrayal of Earp lacks any zest, it's hard to take the menace he represents seriously. Conversely, Bonnie Beecher is over-the-top terrible as the girl that Chekov finds himself infatuated with. Beecher makes every gesture and emotion bigger than life and she and Walter Koenig (Chekov) ham up the romance between them some.

Moreover, Chekov's emotional attraction to her seems forced and silly given that the crew is in mortal danger. When I've got less than a day to live, starting a relationship with an image is pretty much the last thing on my mind. The romantic concept here serves only to advance the plot as it leads to Chekov's death and Spock's realization that his character should have survived the Gunfight. Thus, Spock is able to conclude the outcome is not inevitable.

One of the few clever ideas in "Spectre of the Gun" involves the set design, but even that concept seems to be executed in a silly way. A number of the buildings in Tombstone are simply flat facades, like the studio sets they actually are. The reason given for this is that because Kirk's imagination was the source of the idea for the execution, the Melkotians were limited by what was in his mind. So, because his memories were not complete, Tombstone is not complete. Where this reasoning falls down is in the progress of the episode. It does not make sense that the setting would not flesh itself out as time went on (i.e. if the Enterprise crewmembers started to walk up unfinished stairs, their imagination ought to have built onto it, allowing the rest of the stairway to create itself based on their imagination). As it is, the sets remain static throughout the episode.

The regular cast of Star Trek does not give anything extraordinary in the way of performances here. James Doohan is somewhat duller than usual as Scotty, Walter Koenig plays Chekov as disproportionately happy, and even DeForest Kelley is a bit . . . bored as Dr. McCoy. Leonard Nimoy plays Spock with his usual emotional detachment, which is fine. William Shatner does not give one of his more memorable performances.

In short, this is a Western style episode that hinges on the idea that there is a ticking clock until some of the favorite characters from Star Trek are to be executed in a silly fashion by aliens we're only just meeting. But there's no genuine menace and the performers seem to realize that and perform, or underperform, accordingly. This starts the third season off on a wrong foot and is overall a disappointment.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Third Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the third and final season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2007, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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How Many Times Can They Ask Us To Endure The Same Plot?! "The Omega Glory"

The Good: Morgan Woodward's acting, Good (if overdone) message
The Bad: Plot has been done to death! No genuine character development, Mediocre (at best) acting.
The Basics: In a generally terrible redux of three prior episodes, Kirk ends up among barbarians as allegorical freedom-lovers in a fight against the allegorical Commies!


I have the sneaking suspicion that either the executive producers of Star Trek thought no one was tuning in, their audience was complete morons or that they could simply dupe their audience by reusing the same plot over and over again without them noticing or objecting. That seems much more likely than my initial "The left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing" theory, considering two of the four offending episodes were written or co-written by Gene Roddenberry and two by Gene L. Coon. The final of four almost identically plotted episodes is "The Omega Glory," written by Gene Roddenberry and rewatching the episode in the context of the second season of Star Trek honestly made me respect the season less than I originally did.

In "Bread And Circuses," the perfect "A Piece Of The Action" and it's reset follow-up "Patterns Of Force" as well as "The Omega Glory," the following things happen with only minor variations: the U.S.S. Enterprise is searching for a person or starship, it arrives at a planet in the vicinity of where the person or ship was last thought to be, Kirk and Spock beam down to discover the planet has a culture modeled after an old Earth culture and they are captured, they make a daring escape, they meet another faction on the planet (optional Kirk sex interest) and then discover the source of the cultural contamination, usually the person they were looking for initially. The traitorous person who contaminated the culture realizes the error of their ways right before being killed in a fashion that aids Kirk's escape and the Enterprise leaves with the feeling that the planet is headed in the right direction once again.

Yeah, it's not a bad idea at all. The problem is, in a twenty-six episode season, doing that same plot four times (three of them in the last seven episodes of the season!) makes it seem like the writers are just not imaginative enough to come up with more than that. It's a shame, but the perception holds and "The Omega Glory" may just be the worst of the bunch in and out of context.

The U.S.S. Enterprise is searching for the U.S.S. Exeter, one of its sister ships, which it finds in orbit around Omega IV. Its crew is dead from a virus and knowing they cannot return to the Enterprise, the contaminated Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the planet to try to find a cure for themselves. There they find Captain Ronald Tracey, the Exeter's c.o. who unwittingly contaminated his crew with the virus that made them turn into lumps of crystals. He has learned that the atmosphere of Omega IV keeps the virus in check, so they are safe on the planet. Tracey is living among the Kohms, a race at war with the Yangs. The war involved biological weapons, yet both sides have been knocked back to a rather primitive state. Tracey backs the losing side in the civil war, which leads to a confrontation that - among other things - involves the appearance of the American flag and . . .

. . . Sigh.

You see where this is going, yes? Gene Roddenberry, clever as he was, was making an allegory. The Kohms, who are near-immortal people who appear to be of Asian decent, are fighting the Yangs, a group of barbarian white folks. The Yangs are fighting for freedom, while the powerful Kohms are fighting for control. This being the '60s when this was produced, I'm sure most of the audience figured out (well before the episode made it pretty much explicit) that the Yangs were Yankees (not the baseball team, freedom loving capitalists!) and the Kohms were the Communist (in this case the poor metaphor for the Chinese).

How many times am I allowed to sigh in a review and still be considered useful? The episode seems dated by today's standards, at best. At worst, this is campy '60s throwback science fiction and it doesn't take any serious analysis of the Star Trek franchise to suggest that Roddenberry is letting the mandates of the time alter his message in the most foolish possible way. "The Omega Glory" could have worked for virtually any other science fiction series, but not "Star Trek." Why?

Star Trek, despite two episodes that mildly contradict the other seventy-seven, features a crew that works as a military-organized collective in space. Kirk, Spock, and everyone else on the Enterprise, do not get paid, they are not motivated by greed. All they need (food, clothing, shelter, stimulation) is provided freely to them and in exchange, they give an honest day's work in the pursuit of furthering the knowledge of the Federation. They might not be Communist, but they're easily Socialist and a far cry from capitalist. So the idea that Kirk and his crew would empathize more with the barbaric Yangs as opposed to the Kohms is purely a construct of the time and a weird form of redbaiting.

Fortunately, Kirk's official position is to try to stay neutral and simply avoid being repeatedly captured. Unfortunately for him, he's trapped in an episode that offers him no room for growth and he is overshadowed at every turn by the kind of crazy Captain Tracey.

Tracey is played by Morgan Woodward, who played Dr. Simon Van Gelder back in the first season's "Dagger Of The Mind" (click here for that review!). It's nice to see Woodward back in Star Trek, though one wonders if it's in his contract that he is obligated to look sweaty and bug out his eyes once per performance. Seriously, though, he is a delightful actor and in this role he is able to present himself (initially) as an articulate character that gives us the sense that he could actually have been a starship captain before going over to the dark side. He is able to keep his performance tight as a man keeping a secret and there are moments in the episode where he masterfully insinuates - with just his eyes - that his character is thinking and scheming. He's great.

The other guest actors are just disappointing. Truth be told, actors like Roy Jenson and Irene Kelley, who play Cloud William and Sirah, respectively, are just given roles that are terrible on the page so they don't have much they can do to improve it with their execution. The result is a just plain painful to watch series of grunts and barbarian faces from them.

The main cast, especially William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy, trundle through the episode with a somewhat relaxed posture, barely hiding their indifference to the work. They seem bored by it, as if they had put together that they were doing the same thing over yet again! DeForest Kelley gives a mildly more energetic performance, though he is (as is frequent) utilized less as Dr. McCoy in this episode.

I suppose the episode might hold up for those who have never seen an . . . no, this episode does not hold up even for non-fans of Star Trek. Drama fans are likely to be caught off by the genre trappings and science fiction fans will find this an untenable waste of time. Were it not for Woodward's performance, I'd say this was a straight out "avoid it!"

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the second season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

3/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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Prominent Jews In Swastikas?! Star Trek's Journey To The Planet of the Nazis Is "Patterns Of Force."

The Good: Good acting, Not a bad concept
The Bad: Poor acting, Very recycled plot, Fails to emotionally invest the audience
The Basics: With a plot that has essentially been done by Star Trek before, the Enterprise journeys to a planet where a Nazi government has been established and we end up disappointed.


So, late in the second season of Star Trek, actors Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner who are both Jewish (though Shatner might not have known his heritage at that point) ended up in Nazi uniforms. No, this was not for a weird Rolling Stone or Vanity Fair cover, this was for an episode of Star Trek. For all of our claims (myself included) of Star Trek being a terribly original, groundbreaking science fiction and dramatic series, sometimes it just got stuck. When it found a good idea, it sure stuck with it. In the second season of Star Trek, there are four episodes where the Enterprise encounters Earth cultures recreated on alien worlds. While the series hit a high note with one of them - "A Piece of the Action" - "Patterns of Force" is episode three of the four plot-similar episodes and it's a toss up between being unmemorable and just plain bad.

The USS Enterprise is cruising along when it is fired upon by nuclear missiles, which it quickly dispatches with its more efficient weaponry. The missiles were fired from the nearby planet Ekos, which is not supposed to be technologically developed enough to have such weapons. The Enterprise investigates and discovers the Ekosians have adopted a Nazi culture. Instead of Jews, the Ekos Nazis are attacking the nearby planet Zeon. Spock and Kirk go undercover as Nazis to learn what happened to the planet, what happened to the Federation observer who was on Ekos and how to undo the damage that the cultural contamination is certain to be doing to the people of Ekos and Zeon.

"Patterns of Force" might have been better had it not followed episodes like "Bread and Circuses" where the Enterprise found a planet where Rome never fell and "A Piece of the Action" where a Federation ship contaminated a culture by inspiring the imitative culture there to create a society based around the Chicago Mobs of the 1920s. Yet, even without these other Star Trek episodes to rely on as superior examples of the concept, "Patterns of Force" seems weak as an hour of television.

First off, the Federation cultural observer on Ekos is John Gill. In order to have any respect for our protagonists, we - as viewers - have to respect their judgment some. Captain Kirk idolizes John Gill and took classes from him at the Academy and was impressed by him. In "Patterns of Force," we see none of the brilliance that supposedly inspired Kirk and that makes the premise of the episode even more flimsy. In fact, the episode suffers from the basic idea of how a cultural observer trained to have professional detachment would allow himself to essentially set up a government. Even more frightening is the idea that Gill would choose Nazi Germany as the most efficient government on Earth. I'm not going to debate world history, but it seems to me that the level of peace, prosperity and freedom exhibited on Star Trek might indicate that whatever government Earth is under in that time period might be a little better off. After all, for all the efficiency of Nazi Germany, there was the inhumanity, reliance on a war economy, unrealistic ambitions of world domination, persecutions of anyone considered the other, and the same tactical stupidity that sunk Napoleon.

And Gill's late realization that those who do not learn from history repeat its mistakes just seems silly and stupid considering its source. I mean, honestly, if one were to emulate a government that imploded horribly when its leaders were captured or killed, what would one expect in its replication? It's entirely foreseeable that it would collapse. At least Rome had a couple hundred good years. Britain survived its step off ruling the world better than any power in history, wouldn't that have been a better example?

So, we have a silly premise that the viewer and the characters are forced to take seriously. The problem is, it's almost impossible to take the episode seriously because it is so obvious, forced and derivative. But more than that, it's impossible to get emotionally invested in the characters of the episode because we never truly see the barbarism of the Ekosian Nazis. Sure, they walk around harassing the few Zeon citizens on their planet, but we don't see death camps, unexpected brutality or any truly successful attempts to exterminate the people of Zeon.

Instead, the characters are campy stereotypes that are thoroughly unsurprising. So, for example, we have the Nazi woman who turned her father over to the Nazis who turns out to be . . . well, what we're not supposed to suspect, but probably do. Daras feels more like a "type" and one of the superlative aspects of the episode has to be that she does not end up liplocked with Captain Kirk (as virtually every other blonde on Star Trek inevitably does).

The only performance that is truly noteworthy in "Patterns of Force" comes from DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy. Kelley plays McCoy as awkward and drunk in his Nazi uniform and the swagger is funny and a definite change from Kelley's usual hotheaded approach to McCoy. Sadly, McCoy is only a supporting role here.

Neither Shatner nor Nimoy give particularly astonishing performances as Spock and Kirk. Much of their place in the episode is to continually explain the plot to the viewer (they talk about Gill recreating Nazi society a number of times) and it's unfortunate that so much time is spent reiterating a pretty simply concept. In fact, while in their Nazi uniforms, Shatner and Nimoy do not alter their performances, which basically makes the episode like Spock and Kirk playing dress-up rather than trying to pass in an alien society. It's like how Alias became a series of dress-up dates for Sydney Bristow rather than actual personas.

Likewise, none of the guest stars give Earthshattering performances. Skip Homeier plays Melakon, the true power behind the Ekos Nazis and he plays him well, despite the character being somewhat monolithic. Homeier does fine as the villain and it's hard to ask more from him given the way the character was written.

As it is, though, "Patterns of Force" is generally a disappointment. The social messages that support the Prime Directive are better exemplified in other episodes (like "A Piece of the Action") because they do not hinge on characters acting contradictory to their characterization. This certainly leaves the viewer wishing for something more and better.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete Second Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the second season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other Star Trek reviews, please visit my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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"Miri:" Reminding Us That Children And Animals Are The Worst Variables In Hollywood (Outside Make-up)!

The Good: Decent idea, Generally good acting
The Bad: Weak plot, Light on character, Make-Up effects
The Basics: When the Enterprise journeys to a planet struck with a plague four of the crew contract it and must work with children to find a cure or die!

Long before House, M.D. broke onto the scene with weekly medical mysteries, there was Star Trek, which featured Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock discovering alien diseases or unheard of medical conditions and working to fight them. By the time Star Trek reached its twelfth episode, it had already dealt with a man developing godlike powers, another using mind control, an alien parasite that drained its victims of salt, and one viral outbreak aboard the Enterprise. With "Miri," Dr. McCoy goes to the virus and he, Kirk, Spock and Yeoman Rand are infected and given a prognosis of five days to live!

While out exploring the galaxy, the U.S.S. Enterprise comes across a planet that seems to mirror Earth, save that there appears to be no one around. A landing party consisting of Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Yeoman Rand beams down to investigate the planet, which is covered in ruined cities. The quartet soon discovers they are not alone; there are children on the planet and as near as anyone can tell, they have been alone there for quite some time. When the members of the landing party develop terrible blue splotches on their bodies, it becomes clear that they are infected with something. Kirk, who has befriended a girl named Miri - who has a crush on him -, learns that the adult population was wiped out by an experiment. The children who survived are actually hundreds of years old, though they, too die when they hit puberty. Kirk and his team are given five days to find a cure before they will die horribly . . . when Yeoman Rand is kidnaped by one of the kids!

"Miri" is a precursor to many, many, many post-apocalyptic viral outbreak movies and television series. Indeed, as I sat down to write this review I kept trying to think why the plot seemed so familiar - though I had just watched the episode - and I realized it was because I had just seen Jeremiah recently! The basic idea behind "Miri" is the same as Jeremiah with a large dose of House, M.D. thrown in. The result is an episode that belabors the medical, presents well immature children who rule a planet and is forced to fill with a hostage story to meet the time requirements.

Indeed, there is not an episode of the original Star Trek that comes to mind that is so preoccupied with the actual medical attempt to solve the problem of identifying and counteracting the plague. While "The Naked Time" had such a search, it was not illustrated in as painstaking detail as "Miri" does. The problem is that even with this devotion to the details of medical science, this Star Trek episode needed to go somewhere - i.e. the reveal of what the agent is is big, but what do you do after that?

The result is a plot twist that feels somewhat contrived. Yeoman Rand being captured and the efforts to rescue her distract the viewer from the medical aspect of the show and while it makes for more dramatic television, it still feels forced. In a similar fashion, the rescue effort diminishes the menace of the disease; while attempting to rescue Yeoman Rand, none of our heroes are crippled by the effects of the disease. Sure, it may be killing them, but you wouldn't know it from the acting.

This leads us to the infection itself. Wow, is it campy! Yes, Kirk and Company are infected by the giant splotch of purple-blue grease paint! The make-up is absolutely terrible. The splotches appear, they look hokey and fortunately, the show does not focus too much on them because they are essentially dollops of clown-style make-up. Fortunately, as well, I'm not big on rating on the grounds of effects (that's one point out of ten in my pantheon!) so the episode does not suffer too much for being utterly campy with the representation of the infection.

That said, the episode is largely enjoyable, if a bit light on character. "Miri" seeks to establish more of the subtext in the relationship between Kirk and Yeoman Rand (moments before she leaves the series!). As well, the episode is complicated because of Miri's crush on Kirk. Like the virus suddenly having no appreciable effects, the episode introduces the idea of Miri's crush then suddenly sweeps it aside when it could genuinely complicate matters for the Enterprise crew.

And despite my title, the acting in the episode is all right, though some of the kids are . . . well, kids. Actress Kim Darby appears as the title character of the episode and she has a quality that makes the viewer believe that she truly could be quite old and more mature than the child she appears as. Darby has wonderful posture and a very clear ability to speak, lending the perception that she is not as simple as many of the other children.

Grace Lee Whitney gives a decent, if simple, performance as Yeoman Rand. When she's not stuck sitting in a corner, Whitney plays Rand as inquisitive and a vital member of the landing party, which is more than she usually gets to do. In this episode she and William Shatner actually exhibit some decent on-screen chemistry that no doubt led to the mountains of fanfic about the two of them.

"Miri" is only notable on the character front for truly deepening the sparring and love/hate relationship between Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock. In this episode, the two verbally jab one another, but when McCoy is at his most vulnerable, Spock softens and is incredibly compassionate to him. Actors Deforest Kelley and Leonard Nimoy play off one another quite well and this no doubt spawned the many many scenes of them verbally sparring that followed in the series (and hey, if it works, why not stick with it?!).

Overall "Miri" works because while it has many different directions to go in, it comes together fairly well in the end. Jeremiah, for example, if far more realistic, gritty and dark, but "Miri" has a real good sense of mood to the medical mystery half that does keep the viewer actually wondering if some of the principles will not survive (keep in mind, only Shatner and Nimoy are credited cast for the show at this point!). Indeed, there comes a moment when McCoy collapses that still gets me. That takes something, especially for classic Star Trek (I've seen every episode SO many times at this point!).

Anyone who likes a good medical drama is likely to enjoy "Miri," though fans of Star Trek will likely be the ones who appreciate the character aspects more. Fans of science fiction in general may appreciate the episode, though I think it is more likely they will feel it is something they have already seen before. But it is generally intended for a more adult audience and it plays well to that.

Ultimately it's a generally average, but enjoyable episode, one of the ones that one wishes were part of a larger story. It works, it just could have worked better. Indeed, that is probably the episode's epitaph; everything was generally fine, but nothing more.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into "Star Trek - The Complete First Season" on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the premiere season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

5/10

For other "Star Trek" reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Star Trek's Obsession With The Crazy Begins With "Dagger Of The Mind!"

The Good: Not a bad principle, Moments of acting
The Bad: Most of the acting, Low on character, Remarkably inconsistent
The Basics: When Star Trek journeys to a prison planet where a doctor has taken over using a new device, the threads don't add up and the audience is bored.

There is much that is admirable about the ideology of Star Trek, not the least of which is the idea that galactic peace might be possible and that diplomacy is the ideal way to solve problems. Star Trek envisioned a place and time where people of all types got along and they did so with tolerance and no strong ideology outside working together for a common goal and a sense that they all belonged to the same outfit. And out in the galaxy of Star Trek, the idea was extended to helping all people and one of the ideas pitched early on was that humanity could exist without any criminally insane people who took joy in harming others. That idea was first presented in the first season episode “Dagger Of The Mind.”

The U.S.S. Enterprise arrives at the Tantalus Penal Colony where Dr. Tristan Adams is revolutionizing the treatment of criminals against the Federation, though no one knows quite how. Captain Kirk and the ship’s psychiatrist, Dr. Helen Noel, beam down to the prison to look over Dr. Adams’s work while Spock and McCoy deal with a stowaway who has beamed up from the planet. McCoy is troubled by the violent nature of Dr. Simon van Gelder, one of Dr. Adams’s assistants, who is in an agitated state after coming aboard and he and Spock try to figure out what happened to him. Down on the Tantalus Colony, Kirk and Dr. Noel learn about the neural neutralizer, the rehabilitative device Dr. Adams has pioneered. It soon becomes evident to them that Adams is not only subduing the criminal population, but experimenting on the staff as well.

Now call me crazy – many have – but when I’m touring a facility of any kind and I see people who look like zombies, I have to ask “What’s going on?” When I see them operating the machinery, I think I’d suspect that something has gone horribly, horribly wrong in the place. Apparently, Captain Kirk is a lot more lax about such things than I am, as he does not seem to notice what is going on around the prison. No, he goes along with it and is much more preoccupied with Dr. Noel and not being attracted or interested in her.

The problem with “Dagger Of The Mind” is that it is remarkably inconsistent. Dr. van Gelder is pretty much fried by the neural neutralizer, as most of the inmates of the Tantalus Penal Colony have been. Van Gelder is programmed by Dr. Adams to receive pain whenever he so much as thinks about revealing what is going on at the Tantalus Colony. Granted, van Gelder has no doubt been tortured using the rehabilitative device many, many times. Van Gelder is the end result, the viewer is meant to fear, of any abuse that occurs from the use of the neural neutralizer.

So when Kirk is put under the influence of the device, the audience has a legitimate sense of fear for the Captain’s mental health. Indeed, when Dr. Adams illustrates to Dr. Noel how the device works by implanting an innocuous suggestion in the Captain’s mind, it is immediately effective and the viewer might actually be surprised to learn the system is on its lowest setting. Our intrepid captain is putty to Dr. Adams while in that chair!

So, then, it makes no sense that Kirk is able to shrug off the ideas implanted in his mind after Noel is restrained and Dr. Adams and his goons turn the device up full blast! Yes, this idea is far from nitpicky as it guts the real menace of the episode. After all, if Kirk can just shrug off the effects of the Neural Neutralizer, can’t anyone, given enough time?

But that leads to the tremendous character trouble of Dr. Adams. Man, this guy is crazy! I mean, here he is trapped on a rock under shields that no one can penetrate without his permission and he has designed the ultimate mind-control device. So, what does he do with it? He takes over a small prison population and assaults a starship captain. Moron!

I mean, the Star Trek franchise does mind control occasionally and even episodes like Star Trek: The Next Generation’s “The Game” are better than this one! I mean how stupid can Dr. Adams be to lash out in the development stage?! A real villain waits until the populace can be controlled to exert his control. In order for Dr. Adams to make sense, he needs to do something with the Neural Neutralizer like the Emperor did in Star Wars – Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

This is, granted, a long way to go around saying that Dr. Tristan Adams makes no sense as a character. What motivates him? What changed to make him into an evil (if stupid) villain? Why should the viewer care what happens to him?

Far more engaging – and that’s saying a lot because it’s not a terribly thrilling one! – a plot is what is going on aboard the Enterprise. Spock and McCoy work to find out what happened to van Gelder and his scenes are all that make this episode bearable. Van Gelder is a victim and while the Captain is known to be heroic and better than your average man, no such prejudice exists in favor of van Gelder. Thus, we are left to assume that a kindly doctor was abused and destroyed by Dr. Adams. That makes him a far more interesting character than either Dr. Adams or short-skirt of the week, Dr. Helen Noel.

Morgan Woodward plays Dr. Simon van Gelder and despite being on his back most of the episode, Woodward is impressive in the role. He runs around with a manic fear and fury in his eyes that is actually quite disturbing to watch. Restrained in SickBay, Woodward thrashes about as van Gelder in a way that makes the viewer feel extremely uncomfortable. Woodward embodies with his physical style of acting all that we fear about losing out mind or our sense of control and he steals every scene he is in in this episode!

Leonard Nimoy gives a decent supporting performance in “Dagger Of The Mind,” though much of that has to do with his ability to play off Woodward. This is the first episode where Spock reveals the Vulcan Mind-meld and while it generally suggests that he would have had a higher ESP rating to have an effect in “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” this is not a huge problem as the nature of the mind-meld remains largely unexplained in the series.

Unfortunately, though, “Dagger Of The Mind” is one of the episodes that clearly establishes the stereotype of William Shatner’s hammy overacting. Sure, Kirk is in a situation where there are heightened emotions, manipulations and perhaps a call for overacting, but Shatner really goes for it in this one. The problem is when the effect ought to be devastating and troubling, it’s painful to watch because it just looks too silly.

The story deserved better. But then again, it deserved a more solid story as well. “Dagger Of The Mind” does not have a bad premise, but to pull it off, it needed to be better-conceived than it is, most notably with the villain. Dr. Adams has the potential to be a big villain; he is doing something that it truly evil and disturbing. The problem is, the episode has a microcosm, one small planet with prisoners that no one really cares about (including the audience). If he had been out to conquer the galaxy with the Neural Neutralizer, that would have been one thing, he just wants to own his little rock.

Ultimately, the episode does not think big enough and it is far too concerned with the mechanics as opposed to consistency, character or performance. As a result, it falls . . . hard.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete First Season" on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the premiere season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

4/10

For other Star Trek episode reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

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Star Trek Goes Into Masterpiece Territory With “Balance Of Terror!”

The Good: Tense, Wonderful acting, Moments of character, Effects, Message
The Bad: While the story is full, the plot falls just shy of perfect.
The Basics: In the first episode that Star Trek knocks it out of the park, the Enterprise encounters the Romulans with "Balance Of Terror!"


Star Trek succeeded in its first season at creating a memorable television show by being quite different from anything else that was on at the time. Even sitting down to watch the show in syndication, on DVD, on tape (whatever) it is quite evident that the show was strong because it was something quite different each episode. One week it was heady and dramatic, the next comedic, the next pure science fiction. In its first few episodes, it took a while for the show to truly hit a stride, but when it did, it knocked one out of the part. That first real success was with a tense thriller episode called “Balance Of Terror.”

“Balance Of Terror” is a political thriller, an episode that is overcome with the threat of war and battle and it is pretty wonderful. Indeed, all that brings this episode down is a faint drift of plot; there’s just an intangible quality that keeps it from perfection. Is it better than most television you’ll see today? Absolutely. Is it easily accessible to all adult audiences? Certainly.

When Federation outposts are being destroyed along the Romulan Neutral Zone, the U.S.S. Enterprise is dispatched to investigate. Despite any incursions into Federation space being an act of war on the part of the Romulans, the Enterprise is sent to investigate and avert a war, if at all possible. As the ship arrives at the latest outpost to be attacked, Captain Kirk and his crew discover that the Romulans have a new tactical advantage, a cloaking device that allows them to make their ship invisible! Desperate to keep the Romulan ship from returning to Romulan space with the knowledge that their device works (and of the Federation’s weakened capabilities because of the lost outposts) Kirk pursues the Romulan ship. While the bridge crew works to combat the Romulans outside, they work to combat prejudice on the inside when Spock manages to get the first images of the Romulans over the viewscreen.

You know what? Writing up the plot summary made me think of the complexity of this episode and the truth is, it is almost perfect. Here’s why: this is probably the first episode with real menace to it. “Balance Of Terror” has a bodycount, it’s complex – fighting the war against prejudice while fighting a battle against an enemy -, and it is tight with the tension. And it works!

Starting with – of all things – a wedding aboard the Enterprise, “Balance Of Terror” attempts to illustrate that the starship (and Star Trek) has a lot going on in it. While Tomlinson attempts to marry the woman he loves, Federation politics intervenes and forces them to postpone. While the Romulans attack, Spock employs his curiosity to tap into their communication’s system to get a look at one of them, resulting in racial tensions on the bridge.

One of the interesting concepts in this episode is what makes the revelation of the Romulans so intriguing. The Romulan War, fought quite some time ago in the Star Trek universe was a conflict wherein the humans and their allies never actually saw who it was they were fighting. They never knew what the Romulans looked like, despite fighting a war against them. That idea is a clever and disturbing one and it plays out extraordinarily well in this episode. When it turns out the Romulans have a striking resemblance to the Vulcans, one of the bridge officers, Stiles, begins to be suspicious of Spock. Why the Romulans look like Vulcans is theorized but not explicitly mentioned in the show until Star Trek: The Next Generation’s "Unification, Part II.”

The battles inside and out work very well over the course of the episode, especially because the moral of the piece plays out well on both fronts. The Spock/Stiles plotline illustrates wonderfully the misconceptions of prejudice and the Kirk/Romulan Commander plotline does that as well. But equally smart is the narrative technique employed to reinforce the explicit themes implicitly. No episode before this one spends so much time away from the primary crew of the Enterprise. But in “Balance of Terror,” the viewer is treated to several scenes on the Romulan ship. The result, we see that they are honorable, principled and cunning. The Romulan Commander is a patriot, much in the way Kirk and his crew are. The changes of perspective throughout the piece work beautifully to drive home the idea of the basic (for lack of a better term and it IS the wrong one in this context) humanity of all living sentient beings.

Part of the reason this works so well is the character aspects. While this is a very plot-intensive episode, when “Balance Of Terror” gives the characters moments to display their courage, character and resolve, it rises above the plot and the characters move the plot, not the other way around. So, for example, the highly principled Romulan Commander begins to make choices that illustrate a sense of tactics, honor and cunning, which force Kirk and Spock to rise to the occasion or die. Spock illustrates his unflappable (yet still logical) heroism for his fellow officer when he assists Stiles, despite the man’s prejudice of him. And even Stiles is a memorable character. In a clean as new snow universe, Stiles illustrates some character by being prejudice when he associates Spock with the Romulans.

Furthermore, the characters work because all of the actors are bringing their a-games to the episode. All of the guest actors carry a sense to them that they are a part of this universe and have a backstory in it. Instead of appearing awkward, all of the guest actors seem perfectly natural in their fantastic surroundings. The actors playing the couple to be married have decent on-screen chemistry. The actors portraying the Romulans have a unified sense of purpose and concept to their performance. Indeed, they set the bar high for what one will expect of the Romulans because all of the actors perform in a way that clearly establishes a sense of culture and reality to this new alien race.

The epitome of this is the performance by Mark Lenard. Lenard, who would later play Spock’s father, Sarek, in Star Trek, Star Trek: The Next Generation, and three of the Star Trek films is dignified and compelling as the Romulan Commander. Lenard has a strong leadership sense to him and his performance embodies the qualities one hopes to see in someone who is supposedly leading people into battle. Here, Lenard is able to balance appearing completely in charge with illustrating – through his body language and contemplative tones- that he is strategizing at key moments. Lenard sells the viewer on the sense of honor with the Romulans.

This is also one of the classic episodes where William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy work together to advance the relationship between Kirk and Spock. Shatner’s Kirk exhibits great trust in Spock, though one has to wonder what it is about Spock that compels him to hack into other ships’ systems (we saw him do it in “The Corbomite Maneuver” as well, with much the same effect!). But Shatner and Nimoy have great on-screen chemistry in “Balance of Terror” that establishes the depth of their characters’ relationship.

“Balance Of Terror” continues to ratchet up the tension and as the episode progresses, there is a very real sense that not everyone will survive the episode and that works quite well in establishing the mood and keeping the viewer on the edge of their seat. And while it is pretty much just a chase episode after a point, it keeps the viewer engaged because of the character elements thrown in and . . . well, it’s a good chase!

Even after forty years, this episode holds up for all audiences (not just science fiction enthusiasts) as a worthwhile piece.

[Knowing that VHS is essentially a dead medium, it's worth looking into Star Trek - The Complete First Season on DVD, which is also a better economical choice than buying the VHS. Read my review of the premiere season by clicking here!
Thanks!]

9.5/10

For other Star Trek episode reviews, please check out the index page!

© 2010, 2007 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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