Submersion

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (Submersion)

Not one of the most memorable episodes, partly because it had a lot of potential, but also because it would have been hard for any episode to follow the previous one. I thought this was going to be the series' 'Empok Nor,' that great 'DS9' episode in which a small crew board the abandoned sister station and awaken enemy soldiers left to guard it - lots of creeping around in the dark with people getting offed. Of course that story took a much more interesting turn, as I thought this might. But they got the main drama out of the way early on when Teyla is predictably taken over by a Wraith Queen when she tried to search out the mind she sensed, beating up Ronon and preventing the team from reaching the Jumper within which they came down to this abandoned underwater station to explore. It's sad that they can't really think of much to develop Teyla's character so they resort to having her be possessed by the alien villain of the week so she has something to do. I wasn't even fooled by the trick at the end where she makes the Queen believe Rodney is going to get the engines working on her nearby warship which stranded her so deep underwater with no way to reach the surface, and Sheppard will fly it. It seemed too obvious a thing to do: pretend she's hiding something so she'll take the bait and go and turn off her self-destruct that's going to cause problems for the entire planet. It reminded me a bit of that recent episode where they were on some alien station in a moon, trapped and needing to work out a way to escape before it was too late ('The Ark'), but that was better.

This one suffers from not much going on. Lots of walking around corridors that even Ronon grumbles all look the same, and there was never a great atmosphere of impending doom or a grisly fate around the next corner. I admit the Queen's attack at the mouth of the Jumper did make me jump because I was thinking of something else, but I wanted better use of the team. I liked having them all together on this mission, but there wasn't enough of the camaraderie or good banter between them that there has been so much of this season. I noticed Paul McGillion remains in the opening credits as Dr. Beckett, so if you'd missed the previous episode you'd not know he was gone (even showing up in the recap in the teaser), but I imagine it's a cost issue and they'd wait until Season 4 to change the titles - I'd like them to make Zelenka a main cast member because he's reliably there so often and proves a thorn in McKay's (or Dr. McCoy as he's known to some of the 'lesser' scientists he works with, for his crotchety personality), side, though in a pleasant way. It didn't help that sunshine was shining brightly in the window while I watched, this is definitely one for dark winter evenings, and by rights it should have been a good one - I always like underground (or underwater), bases, wherein lies some terrible thing with which they're trapped aboard.

I suppose I found it hard to believe that Teyla's mind was strong enough to be able to partially block a thought for the Queen to force out, yet still be able to pretend it's not a trick. It's not like she's had that much experience in linking to Wraith minds. At least she did show some guilt, however unfounded, since there was nothing she could have done about being taken over, but what it all boils down to is a mere adventure story that doesn't even have the hysteria or impression of rising tensions seen in such 'DS9' classics as 'The Ship.' And what about that ship they left behind, lying on the ocean floor? Are they going to get that up and running and use it in the season finale? Rodney even makes a joke about how even if he does get it to work, Sheppard will probably just fly it into another Wraith vessel and all that hard work will be wasted, so maybe they were anticipating our expectations - but it's only because that's the sort of thing they usually do. In the end we don't know if it'll come up again or just be something to forget, but even if we saw it rise majestically out of the waters that wouldn't have improved what is nothing more than a functional episode, in spite of featuring the whole cast on a mission together, which doesn't often happen.

**

A Private Little War (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (A Private Little War) (2) I say Mugato and you say Gumato, let's call the whole mission off. That's sort of what happened thirteen years ago when a 'brash,' in his own words, young Lieutenant Kirk led the team on his first planetary survey, made friends with Tyree, spilled a few friendly beans about men from stars in the sky and went merrily on his way. I'm not sure what the point of that particular mission was if it's only now they're discovering things about the planet, but I suppose McCoy was just confirming what had already been found the first time. Which makes you wonder why they came back if they already knew whatever it is they wanted to know. It's not the strongest rationale for setting up the drama, in line with the hokey blond or dark wigs used respectively to represent the hill people and the villagers, a population that has grown up in the Garden of Eden, never became barred from it, living peacefully as they did. How they managed to live like that for so long with ambitiously shrewd shrews like Tyree's witchy wife Nona (perhaps named because no one says no to her), apparently only interested in stirring up trouble, is anyone's guess, but there's certainly a similar vein being mined to that which we saw in 'The Apple,' as if that innocent people led astray by the Serpent wasn't clear enough in its message: don't interfere with the natural development of a gentle, pleasant people. Or was it 'do interfere to save them from computer gods gone awry'? If it wasn't clear enough then here it's spoken and reiterated over who and what is the Serpent or serpents: the Klingon is the Serpent, upsetting the balance between the two groups - though if they were already violent toward each other with bows and arrows, and rocks, then what's the difference, other than a more efficient method of killing? Or were their weapons previously only used for hunting until the knowledge [of good and evil] was imparted by Klingons wanting to mine the planet. At least I think that was their aim, in keeping with several other encounters this season: destabilise, pretend friendship to a certain faction, then reap the rewards and hopefully poke the Federation in the eye as a bonus. Then again, perhaps the weapons themselves (as Kirk says at the end), are the Serpent, a temptation to power. 'The Apple' was a tidier story and despite the similarities (and that this version boasts two giant alien horned apes with deadly venomous bite), this comes off the worse. It's terrific to hear more personal history of Kirk's career, but at the same time it would have been better if we could have discovered more, like the name of his ship, perhaps some of the people under him, and what was achieved on this planet, why it was left for so long, and why he felt it was suitable to break the Prime Directive and tell Tyree of the wonders of the stars. There's nothing wrong with Kirk's eyesight, his twenty-twenty vision (long before he needed Retinax), able to pick out the detail of the weapons the villagers carry as flintlock rifles, as well as spotting Tyree among his similarly attired and bewigged comrades from an even greater distance! That was another flaw with the episode - no, not Kirk's eyesight, but that everyone seems to have extensive knowledge of ancient Earth weaponry to the extent that on the Bridge of the Enterprise Uhura and Scotty pipe up about it! If it had been Sulu (still absent from his post), it would have made sense because we know he had an interest in such antiques, but would Kirk and his crew really have that much knowledge and understanding off the bat, seemingly without any research? While I'm piling in on the inadequacies, it's also another episode in which we're denied a Klingon ship, which is beginning to be a bit of a bore. I know they somehow evade the Klingons' sensors by keeping the planet between them (how come Starfleet sensors are so much superior to the Klingons'? Even if Kirk does state that research is not the Klingon way, though this could be an example of his general distrust toward the race from experience), and they're careful not to send any signals to Starfleet Command, which would give away their presence, so it does make a kind of sense that they never outright encountered it thus making it unnecessary to show it, but it would have been a good idea to introduce a design, especially as we know they eventually did - it was all a budgetary issue. I say the 'Klingons,' but it was really only one: Krell, in keeping with the predilection for names beginning with K (Kras in 'Friday's Child,' Koloth and Korax in 'The Trouble With Tribbles,' and of course Kor in Season 1's 'Errand of Mercy'). I must say he did look very good, but was also very underused (Ned Romero was one of those crossover actors, returning much later as an Indian in 'Journey's End' for 'TNG' and no less than Chakotay's Grandfather in 'The Fight' on 'Voyager'! It's possible the Klingon of the same name in 'Divergence' on 'Enterprise' was a tribute to him). There's further confusion over the Organian Peace Treaty, though they don't refer to it by name. I thought the whole point was they couldn't fight the Klingons because their weapons would become too hot to handle, the Organians' way of forcibly keeping the peace. Obviously we've seen them fight with fists in the K7 brawl, but perhaps this was the only way they could combat each other as it would be impractical for war in space to rely on fists and boots. Yet Kirk says if the Klingons are breaking the treaty it could lead to interstellar war. How? We're not told, either they're ignoring the special properties of the Organians now (though we haven't yet seen a direct confrontation with starships or hand weapons so it hasn't technically been contradicted), or skirting the issue and hoping the details had been forgotten. I'm not entirely clear why the Klingons chose to arm the villagers - were there minerals in the hill country they wanted and were rebuffed by the peace-loving Tyree and his people when they offered to make trade? That would be in Klingon character to go to the other side and make war, but then why not just kill all the hill people themselves? They are a bit Romulan-esque, apparently enjoying pitting groups against each other and sitting back to let them do all the work, quite in contrast to their later, well established code of warrior ethics where you'd expect them to want to fight! The rule of non-interference is broken by Kirk in response to the Klingons, and this is really the only interesting part of the episode (apart from a certain shaggy white gorilla sporting a rhino's horn), raising the question of what is the right course of action: it was best to leave them be, as Kirk's report recommended from the original survey mission. They were peaceful, they didn't fight amongst themselves, they stayed in their Garden of Eden, an idyllic paradise (except for horned, biting predators, of course!), but now the cat has been let out of the bag, balance of power has been upset, the grizzly Mugato has been let off the leash, metaphorically speaking (though if you could tame one, it would probably make a good guard dog), and can they let one side have the advantage and wipe out the other due the outside interference of the Klingons? Is it right to start an arms race that will develop to who knows what proportions? Kirk thinks it is, but then he is biased, having a friend whom he respects and loves, personal loyalty that requires something of him. Kirk stops short of giving Tyree superior weapons, but he's so sure of Kirk's goodness and experience that he shows himself a man of simple faith, believing Kirk will be able to help them in ways they don't understand, yet without resorting to wiping out their enemies. Tyree is a good man and strong friend who really didn't deserve such a witch of a wife, one who holds him in thrall by the use of intoxicating leaves, abusing her power of herb-lore and roots - there is a suggestion that's how she became his wife, that she genuinely did 'bewitch' him by the use of drugs so that he was put in a stupor and bent to her will. She continually shows herself to be devious and proud, believing herself superior since her kind are sought after. But on this simple world, knowledge really is power and from her perspective why would she allow herself to be put in a position of weakness? Eventually she does exactly that, trusting her enemies to want what's best for them instead of the immediate advantage of a lone woman to savages who have been keeping company with wolves of late and probably developed their manners from them. Her treachery toward husband and hill clan is rewarded with death, which in turn strikes rage and hatred in the heart of Tyree where before he found it hard to drum up sufficient violence to fight. It's a tragedy really, Tyree the victim of manipulation. He will not kill, and it's said he'll have to fight or die, yet when he sees Kirk taken advantage of by Nona and her amorous leaves he goes to shoot him, but his better nature wins out even then and he casts away the rifle and storms off. Nona does what's best for Nona, except she doesn't because she has no true loyalty, and because she doesn't have it for others it rebounds and proves she has none for herself. Maybe that's the best message of the episode? Kirk's excuse in not doing exactly what she wants and giving them Phasers is that their weapons grew faster than their wisdom and they almost destroyed themselves, the Prime Directive in a nutshell: now they're wise enough to know they're wise enough not to interfere and let the people find their own way, make their own mistakes and their own discoveries. That's why it's hard to interfere, yet the Klingons don't have this attitude, they're happy to mess with established nature. And so there's no happy ending, rightfully, anger has been inflamed and the two sides will be left to their increasingly violent wars until they can come to the realisation that they need to stop hating and learn to make compromises. There's an attempt at a little humour when Spock talks from the Bridge and McCoy asks if he's alive, Spock responding as you'd expect, but it's a halfhearted quip, the real feeling you're left with is that for all their intelligence and technology they weren't able to solve this problem and it was one of the rare failures for Kirk and his crew, and that makes for quite a downer. I'm not saying every episode should end with laughter, in fact I prefer it when there's a poignancy to Trek endings, but they didn't often have the foresight to understand that that would make a more satisfying conclusion, preferring the standard belief of the time that you should leave the audience on a high note because then they'll be more likely to return next week, but the series was fighting its own nature in doing that sometimes when thoughtfulness and an open-ended question can be so much more powerful and true. Spock's story is the B-plot of the episode - his sole function appears to be to tell us this is a Class M world, Earth-like (always good to hear the unique Trek terminology which was carried through, well, until the current era largely ditched protocol and procedure, sadly), then to show that even a tough Vulcan hide can't repel bullets (witness the smudge of green blood on his uniform). Mind you, he did present a good target with his bright blue shirt, and with no Redshirts around to be shot at (it's another one of those Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam downs - perhaps, like in 'Bread and Circuses' they were trying to limit personnel on the surface due to Prime Directive concerns), which makes you wonder why they didn't wear native garb as they did later (once again we have the impression they don't have Replicators since Kirk says to inform ship's stores they need native costumes, and he wouldn't be doing that if anyone could just magic up a set of clothing in their Quarters as we saw Michael Burnham do in 'DSC'!). Spock leaves his Phaser behind and I thought this was going to be a precursor to the end of 'A Piece of The Action' where McCoy realises he's left his Communicator behind (later turned into an actual story on 'Enterprise'), but nothing ever came of it, in spite of the fact that a villager could easily have picked it up and the whole dynamic of the story could have changed - what if he decided to set himself up as a new leader and also that he no longer needed Klingon influence and vaporised Krell (just as McCoy did to the unfortunate Mugato, and Kirk did to its mate). That could have made the story a little more developed. Instead we get a sub-story of Spock recovering in Sickbay with the help of Dr. M'Benga, one of the few members of the crew who would appear more than once (though there are exceptions, like Mr. Leslie who appears so often I've stopped mentioning him, though he'd have a more important role in a coming episode, or Mr. Hadley, I think his name is, who's taken Sulu's station), at least characters who were named on screen. He was interesting, a man who interned on a Vulcan ward, the closest they have to a specialist, though considering well established Vulcan secrecy on private matters it seems a stretch to allow they would accept a human around their ill. Really, his role is to tell the audience what Spock's doing, putting himself into some kind of self-induced hypnosis to concentrate all his healing on the damaged organs. And it's all a setup to further the Nurse Chapel ongoing story of fluttering eyelashes and sighs. In reality it doesn't really go anywhere other than giving us a little more insight into Vulcans and making the space for Kirk to have another close friend he must help. If Spock had been there perhaps things would have been easier, who knows? McCoy wasn't going to be the one to give advice on matters of war, he's there to stare boggle-eyed at madam Nona's witchcraft, for that is what it appears to be, and the closest Trek comes to suggesting such occult power is genuine: it's all wrapped up in Nona's abuse of power by putting on a show rather than simply dressing Kirk's Mugato bite with the healing root, but we also see that the skin of his shoulder and the palm of her hand which she bled, are healed, so it's a bit disturbing. We know that she manipulates, using certain herbs to intoxicate men, scratching Tyree's skin to administer it into his bloodstream, and the same with Kirk, so maybe it was all a sham? McCoy never refutes her methods and though it's implied from the way we, the audience are let in on her cunning ways, that she's a dangerous woman, the other characters never learn what she does. She's a thoroughly detestable person, untrue, changeable, caring only for personal power, and though her end is horrible there was some rough justice in it. Though again, this becomes a spark to ignite the powder keg of war to the hilt, so even in death she caused so much damage to a people who had been compassionate and gentle. That, again, makes the episode quite a sad and unhappy story, and as much as I love the design of the Mugato (it remains my favourite ever Trek action figure), and wish they could have found a way to bring that back, much more than the Gorn, it's not enough to hang a good story on. We do see Starfleet technology once again demonstrating its versatility when McCoy heats up rocks with his Phaser, or Kirk instructs him to make records of everything in the smithy on his Tricorder, so that's a positive, as is seeing Scotty actually sitting down in the Captain's Chair when he's left in command, when Spock finally comes to relieve him at the end. I suppose he'd finally got tired of standing around or leaning on the arm, and then he has to hop out of it! But all of this is small comfort in such a downbeat episode. **

Journey To Babel (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Journey To Babel) (2)

It's all about the journey, not the destination, and this journey travels much further than Babel, into the far future beyond the TV series' end and into its rebirth, generally, and all the way to what I now regard as its final ever season (that was true to Trek), 'Enterprise' Season 4: they spun out a whole trilogy of episodes on much the same premise, a faction of the galaxy attempting to foment war and strife among the major members of the Federation, though at that time the august body was yet to be and suitably only strengthened the ties of these disparate races finding their feet on the galactic stage to become the Coalition of Planets which led to the Federation - Andorian, Tellarite, Vulcan, human, little gold men and that purple pixie girl off 'Andromeda,' they all have their part to play. Okay, so those last two were from this episode, but how I wish we'd seen them in 'Enterprise' (although according to Memory Alpha, the little copper men, whose skin is reminiscent of Data, were named Ithenites in 'Azati Prime,' though sadly never seen)! The more general legacy of this episode was to show that Trek could be more than mere action adventure, but veer off into space opera, which the later, more sophisticated 24th Century series' with their bigger budgets and greater scope, built atop such examples as this. It wasn't the beginnings of showing the wider life of our characters by introducing their families, we'd already met Kirk's brother Sam, and nephew in Season 1 ('Operation -- Annihilate!'), and in 'Amok Time' this season we'd encountered Spock's betrothed, but never had we been treated to so much insight as we do meeting his parents in the flesh, while also clearing up the mystery of why no family members showed up to his big wedding do.

For Spock and his Father, Sarek, Mark Lenard returning to wear the ears again having been so memorable as the Romulan Commander, Kirk's equal in battle during 'Balance of Terror,' in his second major race role (before returning to score the hat trick by playing the Klingon Captain in 'The Motion Picture'), haven't spoken in eighteen years for the son's decision to join Starfleet. There's some slight confusion since his Mother, Amanda, says he hasn't visited them for four years so it's not as if they hadn't been together in that time, but I can imagine a tense family get together, all sitting round drinking tea silently and Spock resolving not to do this to himself and stay in deep space as much as possible! Not to say he went home to visit them, otherwise he might have looked up T'Pring while he was there, so perhaps she meant visit them on Earth since Sarek is the Ambassador so he could have been on the planet a lot. It's fascinating to view this episode having seen the first two seasons of 'Discovery' and all the mess they added to the characters and their backstory in stark contrast to the clean, tidy job of histories Trek had managed until then - Sarek was made out to be someone who sanctioned genocide for the Klingons, considered himself a bad Father and husband so much that he apologised to the women of the family, Amanda and Michael Burnham, adopted daughter. The only somewhat sensible thing to come from it all was to present a reason for why he disapproved of Spock's choice - he wanted both children to attend the Vulcan Science Academy (although even that was messed up with some Vulcan Expeditionary Force, or something, that confused the issue), and when only one was permitted, and Spock turned it down, it reflected badly.

Enough about that terrible alteration of these wonderful established characters by inferior writing, it was enough to accept Sarek did not accept his son's choice - in 'DSC' it seems inconceivable that he would disapprove of Starfleet because it represents force and he is a man of peace (Vulcans believe peace should not depend on force, explains Amanda), but perhaps it was what motivated him to strive even more, those events and what they made him, a constant source of… not sorrow, that is a human emotion, but remembrance that his logic is uncertain where his son is concerned, to copy and paste from the film series. It's enough to know there is a rift of sorts between Father and son, one that isn't even really healed by Spock risking his life to be the blood donor that will save Sarek's life - it's not until 'Star Trek IV,' that Sarek accepts Spock's friends are good people and he made the right decision, a couple of decades later. That's what I love about the best episodes of Trek, they deal with characters and personal history in a way that transcends different production periods and groups, writers, directors, producers (the ones that took care to be true to Trek, that is, not this current Kurtzman era of misery and gloom). Sarek was created for this episode by DC Fontana (now sadly no longer with us, as is the case for most of those involved with 'TOS'), he returned in four of the original films (including flashback to a young man witnessing the birth of Spock), then twice more in 'TNG' where we were privileged to see his story finally come to an end.

In the same way, the great Mark Lenard's own story came to an end a few short years later (Jane Wyatt outliving him by ten years), but his contribution, however small it was in raw time, was assured to go down as one of the greatest guest roles in Trek, no small feat when we've seen so many amazing actors over the years. Far from the double-minded Sarek of 'DSC,' only ten years removed, he is a most Vulcan of Vulcan men, his wife is in submission to him and on a short leash ('my wife, attend'), quite different to the version so full of herself in 'DSC,' so at least we can say that for all the follies and failures of the pair as shown in 'DSC,' they learnt from it and became better people, even if not always reasonable even now (Amanda flies off the handle at Spock, slapping him hard in the face when she can't accept his duty to the ship, and again when she rails against Vulcans, not able to understand their ways - Spock was right, how can she have lived among them so long yet not understand what it is to be one!). It would be interesting to examine Amanda more: it was great she returned in 'Star Trek IV' by the same actress, and she is a memorable character in a unique position, willingly going into an alien culture so different from her own. When she tells that heart-shredding story of Spock coming home at the age of five with a stiff lip having been bullied by other children who don't accept him as a Vulcan, and how she knew inside his human half was crying (note that he didn't outwardly express emotion, unlike how Vulcans are portrayed now), you also see that this is how she must have been treated herself.

Even what she wears when coming aboard the Enterprise is like a deliberate concession to Vulcan mores with that very high collar which hides her ears from side and back as if she must not offend the people with which she coexists. It's not that she's ashamed of her humanity, but it's easy to speculate that this is the kind of thing she'd be expected to wear to reduce the impact of her humanness, quite different to the strident, outspoken version of 'DSC' that you sometimes wonder could stay on Vulcan for long. You see also that once she's established aboard and is away from Vulcan, she dresses differently in brighter colours without a collar, freed from constraints of convention. These things aren't overt and it's only speculation, but I love how things make sense when you think about them (the opposite of 'DSC' and its ilk), one of the hallmarks of Trek that bound it together. The colour Amanda brings to the ship is just a part of the variety and brightness of the various alien delegations, many of which are new to Trek, yet are a founding cornerstone upon which cultures would be built. Though we never see the Orion, disguised as an Andorian as he is, we know his people are green (hang on, doesn't blue and green make purple - so maybe the purple girl was also an Orion spy? Conspiracy!), as we saw an Orion woman (technically a human woman transformed to appear Orion), in the first ever episode, 'The Cage.' Sadly, we'd never see a true, native Orion man (though another female of the species showed up in Season 3), and strangely it wouldn't be until 'Enterprise,' and its final season at that, when we finally did.

As well as the false Andorian, Thelev (real name unknown), we see a true one, Shras, only one of the great alien designs they came up with for this episode - notice how a darker shade of blue is used around the eyes, something used to great effect on Quark in 'DS9,' and the snow white hair and striking blueness with those tall antennae and the thin, bony faces instantly created a distinct and specific classic Trek alien. It's only a shame we got so little of them, with only one further appearance (Season 3), left until 'Enterprise' to really get to know something of their culture - those missing links and gaps to fill were both a blessing and a curse since for future generations there was so much to explore and take ownership of without stepping on the toes of what had come before, but expanding it and detailing it and building upon it. The other side of that coin is that we've seen the opposite happen, characters and races misrepresented, things that hadn't been tied down messed about with to further modern ideals - yes, I'm talking Kurtzman era Trek yet again, a group who have shown their disinclination to keeping the Trekkiness intact and instead using gaps for their own ends and sometimes not even relying on gaps to do so (e.g: the Klingon debacle). It only makes you appreciate what the Berman and film eras did so well to stay within keeping of what had gone before without overwriting it.

Andorians and Orions are joined by Tellarites whose argumentative attitude is well established here. But it's the superb makeup that stands out for me - the face is well known, that pig-like snout and inset eyes forcing the performers to stare upwards down their noses. But it was the three-fingered claws or hooves that I had forgotten about: covered in a short warthog scrub of hair and with bright nails, they really were a work of excellence. And to put all these various races together and play out the simmering tensions was a great prospect. The story is helped not just by the addition of space opera and the moral quandary into which Spock is plunged, duty to a dying father versus loyalty to a ship in danger, but in the way we're thrown into things: Gav, the Tellarite Ambassador, suddenly seizes Sarek and is easily rebuffed, reminding us of superior Vulcan strength when Sarek merely shrugs him off! Then when we see Kirk fighting Thelev we cut to it out of nowhere, we're not sure how they came to be in combat, just that they are, and it's a thrilling choice to jump into scenes like this which we'd usually anticipate. The threat from the covert Orion ship is uncertain, like a wasp in the room that suddenly darts at you, you know where it is but not when it will strike. It's unfortunate that they couldn't stretch to building some kind of model as they had for Deep Space Station K7, but don't forget, even in that episode they still hadn't given us a Klingon ship. Here we see the standard 'TOS' representation of an alien vessel as a spinning light which isn't impressive but at least keeps an air of mystery since they can't identify it.

Were the Orions working for another power? We're told they're smugglers and they're clearly not a galactic force in the sense of an empire (borne out by later iterations that they're involved in criminality rather than outright empire building), they work for payment, so it could be that either Klingon or Romulan forces were behind their employment - both are mentioned but we never get to the bottom of it all other than as an attempt to destabilise and sow seeds of distrust that could lead to interplanetary war. It's apparently faster than the Enterprise, travelling at Warp 10 (we never found out if they turned into salamanders because they self-destructed), but this of course is on the old scale! There's one notable omission from the episode (aside from Sulu), as Scotty is usually the one to be telling the Captain how badly damaged the ship is, but he never appears once, not even to show off his kilt when the senior staff are kitted out in dress uniform to welcome the ambassadors. Could this be because his presence would lessen the pressure Spock is put under, the one weak link of the episode. It's easy to believe Spock would put, shall we say, the needs of the many over the needs of the few… or the one: namely his Father. And if Kirk is incapacitated he would be sure to follow regulation to the letter and the exclusion of all else. But if we were reminded of the competency of Mr. Scott (and McCoy does actually voice the view that Spock could turn over command to him), who's been seen several times in command this season, then we might not see it from Spock's side so easily.

The solution should have been to have Scotty up to his elbows in repairs from the damage done by the alien attacker, either external or internal, complaining that he had to do what he could as no one else would be able to. That would have made sense, but I suppose they were already limited by the costs of makeup, costumes and a large guest cast, so perhaps Scotty was the sacrifice amid all this. It's sad, but it makes sense for the drama. What there was, however, did use the budget most effectively, whether it be dusting off the dress uniforms (it seems it wasn't only the crews of later Treks who found them uncomfortable!), or my favourite addition: the Hangar Bay in which we see a Shuttlecraft enter (with the announcement of depressurisation, then pressurisation again - I love those details, living in that world!). It rotates on a large turntable so that the shuttle can face the Hangar Bay door, presumably for easy egress. But the most fantastic moment is when we see the full-sized (well, you know what I mean!), shuttle with an honour guard of Enterprise Redshirts, their Phasers drawn, forming a line by which Sarek, Amanda and their retinue enter the ship. How ingenious to film the whole scene as if we're standing in the doorway so they didn't need to construct an entire set, merely hinting at it and yet absolutely selling it. We're more concerned with the guests arriving to worry about the set details and the whole scene is superb, even down to Sarek appearing to be a rather undiplomatic ambassador in the way he snubs Spock by refusing to greet him and requesting a different guide when Kirk assigns him!

We're also gifted more on Vulcan culture, especially Spock's childhood and the fact he had a large pet called a sehlat (again, something we'd not see 'in the flesh' until 'Enterprise' Season 4 - how happy I am they weren't cancelled at the end of Season 3!), something 'The Animated Series' was able to show. There's also 'tal-shaya' a merciful form of execution by breaking the neck, which is how Gav was murdered (was that a spider's web in the Jefferies Tube? The cleaning crew need to do better, both in the fictional world and the real!). It's said that there are other Vulcans aboard who could have done it, rather than Sarek, though this could mean the members of his retinue or suggest there are other Vulcan crewmembers aboard (like the Mirror Universe's ISS Enterprise). Sarek has no alibi, but claims to have been on the Observation Deck at the time of the murder (so they don't record what goes on all over the ship as they do on the Bridge, shown in 'Court Martial') - I think that's the hallway overlooking the Hangar Bay which we saw Kirk take Lenore Karidian in 'The Conscience of The King,' and though we don't see it, it's great to have these real places spoken of. And we see a fair amount of the Enterprise in this episode, such as the Brig. You'd think they'd have thoroughly examined the prisoner before incarceration, but maybe his false antennae were somehow blocking scans of the receiver secreted there. Was it linked directly to his brain or could he take it out to use, I wonder? We're told both 'verifier scan' and 'truth drugs' were used on him, but his mental training was too strong for it. And the guard shoots him with a Phaser blast (a bright flash), rather than a beam.

Oddly, when the Enterprise fires on the Orion ship at the end the beams show up purple - I don't know if this was meant to denote a more powerful blast or was merely a visual effects mistake. What wasn't a mistake was the return to battleship tactics that made 'Balance of Terror' work so well, none of this zipping about like a fighter craft from 'Star Wars' - in fact that was the approach taken by the Orion attacker, it was faster and more manoeuvrable, so Kirk, even while injured and in grave discomfort, uses the trick of playing dead to lure them in for the kill. Kirk shows himself not just a true hero and a wise Captain in this episode, but a true friend, pulling off a convincing performance so Spock will believe he's up on his feet again, despite being severely stabbed in the fight with Thelev, a rare example of real damage which he's usually immune to. He sinks into his Captain's Chair the second the Turbolift doors close as Spock heads for Sickbay, but true to form, Kirk quickly loses thoughts of pain when confronted by an enemy intent on attacking his ship - she and the crew within her come first above all considerations and he's really inspirational in his choice not to let a little thing like a stabbing stop him from doing his job. In an age when a little cold prompts people to phone in sick it demonstrates that in the future people are hardier and more able to cope with feelings rather than just accepting them and using them as an excuse to take the easy way out.

Though Kirk and Spock are top billing in the episode, as normal, Dr. McCoy continues to make his presence felt and his role essential. This time he has the tricky task of carrying out surgery on Sarek he's never performed before, with both his and Spock's lives in the balance amid a battle which keeps shaking up Sickbay, and never once wastes time calling up to the Bridge to yell at the Captain for not keeping the ship steady (no, he has a moan later once it's all done). The contraption over Sarek's torso must have inspired the later tech of 'TNG' because it looks very much like the kind of addition to the biobed that they used, and beyond. McCoy may not be able to make his hand perform the Vulcan salute, but as Dax once said, he had the hands of a surgeon, in the truest sense. But did he have a cigar under there, as smoke keeps wafting up from within the surgery, unless they were implying heat was being used somehow? Nurse Chapel is as devoted and efficient as ever, such as having Spock's medical file ready for use (note McCoy's desk cluttered with those coloured 'tapes' as they call the square disks, a precursor to later series' when desks would be full of PADDs!). Is the Science Lab just off his office? Because there's a door on the left that seems to show through to the lab by the looks of it. And is the Doctor breaking the fourth wall and looking directly at the camera when he says he finally got the last word at the very end? I wasn't sure, he could have been looking slightly off to one side which would suggest he was talking to himself rather than committing the sin of addressing the audience…

Everyone gets their moments, such as Uhura showing up on what I think was a Tri-Screen in Engineering (though it was difficult to tell as we only see it from one side), although she lets the Captain down slightly later by not narrowing down the communication with the spy, for which she looks suitably chastised. And Chekov spends his time between his usual station and Spock's viewer (having to tap his replacement on the shoulder to take back his rightful place - unlike in the 'TNG' era where unnamed crewmembers seemed to have a sixth sense about when they should vacate a regular's seat!). And it's always nice to have Chapel along. I wonder if there was a deleted scene since we see a shot in the end credits where Spock is walking towards the shuttlecraft in an otherwise empty Hangar Bay. I'd love to know what that was all about… Last episode we heard Kirk speak of the oath he took, and this week it's Spock who cites taking the oath, I never knew there was so much oath-taking in Starfleet! Though it was hardly worth calling a trip, this is another time we'd been to Vulcan this season, only seeing the red planet from orbit, before it was off to Babel for the conference where Coridan would be voted in or out of joining the Federation, though it's not without good reason since it's a planet rich with dilithium. Sarek's Vulcan retinue includes a 'familiar' face in Russ Peek who plays one of his aides (uncredited), and had previously been the executioner in 'Amok Time' so perhaps he was a spy for Sarek on that occasion and would never have actually killed Spock had he lost?

In all, a worthy addition to the Trek canon and one that would have lasting repercussions throughout Trek history both real and production-wise. It gave us so many gifts to the canon and cultures and is one of the most important episodes for showing what Trek could be capable of. I'd never considered it as a precursor to the kind of personal stories we saw in later Treks on a regular basis, but seeing it again (for possibly only the second time as this was one I didn't recognise when I saw it for the first time on DVD), underlines how much they got from this. I only wish modern Trek was able to create the reality of Vulcans and their culture as true as this did, but that's no fault of this episode's. I didn't even go into the Coridan link that runs through 'Enterprise,' but it's enough to make you want to see all those episodes as well and solidify the history in your mind, as so many of the great Treks did. The destination was much further in the future than they ever realised and this stands as an ideal of the sub-genre Trek created.

****

Bread and Circuses (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (Bread and Circuses) (2)

Ancient Greece. Now Ancient Rome. Hodgkin and his Law of Parallel Planet Development has a lot to answer for. Except that the Greece we saw in 'Who Mourns For Adonais?' was only an enclave of Apollo's, and Rome is actually modern, if you were watching in the 1960s, which was what the episode was designed for, 'TOS' and much of later Trek happy to call back to the contemporary viewer's 20th Century. It's a good idea, transposing our 'modern,' mid-20th Century world with all its cars, TVs and tech to the ancient Roman world with all its barbarity, slavery, swords and sandals. We even get a character that reminded me of Demetrius, Victor Mature's character from 'The Robe' and its (superior) sequel, 'Demetrius and The Gladiators' in Flavius Maximus, an ex-gladiator (or 'xG' in 'Picard' parlance), who found a new way of peace after hearing and accepting the Way of The Son. I love the simple pun that conceals the kind of mystery that actually is worthwhile instead of the current predilection for galaxy-spanning potential armageddon unlocked by a key character of destiny, blah, blah, blah, that we're forced to endure as the motivating factor in watching serialised Trek today. If you're paying attention enough and know your history you can probably work out what's going on, although I have no idea if it would have clicked on original viewing since I first saw it many years ago and know the twist very well. But I'd like to think that if I came to this episode for the first time now I'd catch their drift when the setting is Rome, the 'enemy' are escaped slaves with a message of brotherhood for all mankind, and they follow the Son!

Yep, this must be the most pro-Christian entry into the whole Trek canon, and for that I enjoy it all the more for all those atheists and staunch humanists that held up Trek as this ideal of non-faith and belief. Funnily enough, just as the other 'historical' episode of the season so far that I already mentioned featured unequivocal declaration of monotheism from none other than Captain Kirk himself, this takes things a stage further as the full light dawns on our crew at the very end of the episode and Kirk nostalgically wonders what an experience it would be to witness the birth of Christianity all over again, his eyes alight with excitement and pleasure. This is probably the closest to an Easter episode in Trek we ever got (or are ever likely to!), so it was fitting that I watched it mere days before Good Friday, what an amazing coincidence of timing! That warmth towards the founding faith of the Western world could be taken as mere scientific and anthropological interest if not for the wonder and joy on the faces of those discussing it. True, earlier in the episode Dr. McCoy, when challenged on the subject of belief says they represent many (and also admitted a questionable desire to beam down to a planet and announce he's the Archangel Gabriel earlier, though I suspect he was being flippant!), to which Flavius rightly responds there is only One Way, so at least to mollify the shocked viewers who find their preconceptions ruffled on what Trek stands for, there are crumbs of comfort that the Federation isn't a solely Christian enterprise, if at all. Still, it is a lovely ending and inadvertently makes a necessary comment on the theology.

That is that if there are other worlds out there then either they fell into sin as our Earth did, and therefore required the sacrifice of Jesus Christ to atone, or they never fell and didn't, something that famous Christian writer CS Lewis dealt with in his sci-fi series (far less well known than 'The Chronicles of Narnia'), 'The Space Trilogy.' It's clear that here on planet Eight Ninety-Two-IV (to give it its Starfleet designation since we were never let in on the name its inhabitants called it), they followed the same pattern as Earth, only in some ways much worse. Like the Mirror Universe, we have an alternate history that has played out, so although there were the Caesars, barbarians, etc, for whatever reason they diverged from the path our history took so that slavery became an accepted institution with government benefits, gladiatorial combat to the death became more than a bloodsport, a national TV obsession with ratings of paramount importance (I guess they had to wait a few decades before they got widescreen TV by which time Sky or HBO, or whatever the equivalent organisation was, built full-sized arenas instead of a paltry backdrop in a studio!), and advertising had taken over as much as in our culture (very surreal to hear Kirk say toothpaste or bath salts when he flips through a magazine!). If there is something missing from this story it's that they surprisingly didn't use the setting to comment on TV trends, advertising, and the attitudes of executives. But then I suppose Roddenberry could get away with exotic costumes for women and sly, tangential approaches to delicate subjects such as racism and nuclear war, but he couldn't sneak in blatant commentary of the industry in which he was working - he wanted to keep making the series, after all!

Instead, we have this underlying mystery of an apparently conflicting belief system that has sprung up to turn gladiators into men of peace, a potentially crooked example of what a space Captain might do under pressure, and the most overt discussion of Spock and McCoy's strange form of friendship yet seen. All of these strands are of great fascination, but the most confusing has to be that of Captain Merik. He's set up to be one of those typical-to-be Captains-gone-wrong that we'd see several times and became a bit of a trope over the years (and not just in sci-fi: 'Apocalypse Now' is the same kind of story). A leader who ends up 'going native' and being a threat that needs to be dealt with. But far from the other examples (such as Dr. Tristan Adams, similarly in authority of a Federation facility whose personal ambitions and cruelty make him a villain), we'd seen, or would see, perhaps most suitably in Captain Tracey of 'The Omega Glory' (oddly linking that episode to 'Dagger of The Mind' since Morgan Woodward was in that, too!), he's an enigma in the way he's a prisoner himself, both of the Prime Directive and of his own greed and lack of honour. First thing is, he didn't do what a good Captain is supposed to do, supposedly they swear to die rather than violate that directive (according to Claudius Marcus, though we don't tend to see anyone put in that position that I can recall, and sometimes the Prime Directive is even broken, so maybe Merik told him that, but it wasn't necessarily true), perhaps eased into this other culture by the fact that they spoke English as is called out in the episode, something you don't normally get highlighted.

His duty it to his ship and crew, as Kirk demonstrates, bluffing that he'll let Spock and McCoy die in combat (strangely not pitted against each other, though they'd already played that angle in 'Amok Time,' so this is the second time Spock fights in an arena this season!), rather than bow to the demands of Claudius to bring down the rest of his crew. For what it's worth (not very much, but it's more to make Merik feel like the coward he is), Claudius comes to respect Kirk for his manliness and resolve in the face of death for he and his colleagues. It's not really man to man because Claudius, that fat, smug-faced creature with a deadly look in his eyes, is no more of a real man than Merik, but he'd like to think he is, perhaps, and even he can admire the qualities in Kirk that he enjoys watching in gladiators. But I was never really sure what role Merik was playing. He was a kind of lapdog to Claudius and had developed a hated name among the slaves for his treatment of them, but how much is true and how much Claudius' machinations to keep him ever further under his control can't really be said. There's evidence that he had psychological problems, the reason he was expelled from the 'space' Academy (we can assume this is another name for Starfleet Academy, though it could also be some kind of parallel service since that Academy's training was said to last four years elsewhere, but Merik was booted out in his fifth year - unless there was a period when it was five years and then they condensed the training down), but he seems pretty mentally balanced when we see him, other than cowardice.

Yet Merik still became a Captain, only in the merchant service, which I assume is why his ship was the SS Beagle rather than USS. That's what slightly confused me during the episode: he wasn't Starfleet, his ship couldn't have been Starfleet, yet when they ask the followers of the Son about the companions they're searching for, Spock says they wore uniforms similar to their own (mind you, Spock's dress sense is questionable - he briefly wears a woollen hat to hide his ears! But I did like the slaves' outfits with that simple chain graphic at the neck). Did the merchant service model their uniforms on Starfleet, then? That would seem to be counterproductive if they were there as an alternative to Starfleet, perhaps for people like Merik who were kicked out of the service but still wanted to work in space and so wouldn't want to be reminded of what they'd lost or cast off. Maybe Spock meant generally and the uniform wasn't actually similar, just closer than the kind of ancient Roman outfits worn on the planet - outlander garb. So Merik became Merikus, First Citizen, though he didn't appear to have much power, he was little more than a glorified slave himself. No doubt Claudius wanted him close by for amusement, as a reminder of his own power, the novelty of being able to discuss other worlds and beings, and because he didn't trust him. As we saw at the end when Merik found a measure of redemption by calling for beam out before throwing the Communicator into Kirk's cell so the Enterprise would be able to lock onto them easily, and gets stabbed in the back in classical Roman betrayal by Claudius.

Claudius is strangely contented with the world that he has, with no imagination for the wider galaxy and what it could bring him if he had a starship, unlike Mudd, for example, who desperately wanted to get off his planet in 'I, Mudd,' and use the Enterprise for his own ends (or indeed the androids who served him, but had their own agenda). Part of me wondered if he was actually a rogue Romulan that had had to flee his people for some crime or other, settling on this backward planet that reminded him so much of his own culture. I don't have any real proof or a hint that it might be the case, it was just the way he looked, and I don't mean merely the haircut, but his nasty enjoyment of pain and power. It wouldn't really make sense since he didn't seem to know that much about technology and the galaxy at large, other than that it was out there, but it was the cruelty in him and yet sense of finer qualities that appealed to him in others that suggested it to me. It's interesting to contrast this man who knew the truth of space and other worlds and species out there, yet was entirely focused on the cruel harshness of his own world and culture, while the Children of the Son are shown to be somewhat naive and simplistic in that Septimus, their leader (or cell leader perhaps), who I thought as soon as I saw him, "It's Mr. Atoz!" (Ian Wolfe's better known role was in Season 3's 'All Our Yesterdays'), and didn't have as big a role as I thought he would in this, thinks the stars are only lights shining down from Heaven and can't really conceive of other planets. It's a bit like the worldly-wise who know so much about the physical world, while those of faith are like children, yet are in touch with the Maker of everything.

While Kirk may be positive towards the idea of Christianity, that doesn't make him one (the implication of the time he spent with Drusilla doesn't help his stereotypical image of the womaniser, for example, and didn't seem to have any bearing on the story at all), though he does share their core belief that all men are brothers. This creed is demonstrated in their own unique way by Spock and McCoy, two 'brothers' who show their affection for each other by quarrelling, a regular duelling between the unstoppable force of emotion and the immovable object of logic, which both would learn to modify to varying degrees in later life (in the film series thanks to McCoy's experience of hosting Spock's katra, and Spock's accepting his dual nature). The Doctor appears to hit a nerve when they're in the prison cell together and he accuses Spock of not caring if they die because that would be easier than living as he does, always careful not to slip in his Vulcan ways and become like petty humans with their disgusting emotions. There's a ring of truth in it, even though Spock does brush it off in the eternal distance between them that was somehow evidence of their closeness (recalled so wonderfully in the characters of Odo and Quark). He has indeed slipped on occasion, the most famous being earlier in the season when he thought Kirk was dead and he was alive again (another Easter parallel!), and the mask came off in utter joy and devotion. Flavius hits it right on the head when he asks Kirk if they're enemies and he replies he's not sure they're sure, which was a great answer!

This whole Spock and McCoy antagonism in the story came out of nowhere to be almost a subplot, at least in terms of 'TOS' which didn't tend to do more than one story at a time. They didn't need those scenes, it could easily be considered padding, but is actually a development for the characters whom we'd seen cross words on a number of occasions, but not every time they were together. It was something that must have been born out of the way the actors played such scenes so that it worked really well in a way we don't get to see much of in other characters - perhaps the asides and deadpanning between Sulu and Chekov might be the closest thing (Kirk is even very formal speaking to Chekov on the Bridge and calling him 'Navigator'), but the others didn't get as much time for dedicated scenes together and this was the culmination of so many previous engagements, that they're about to die and all they can do is argue, fomented by McCoy's fear while Spock enrages him with his coolness and acceptance of the situation as any good Vulcan would (wonder why he didn't use his mind powers to influence a guard to come and open the cell as he did in 'A Taste of Armageddon' - too far away?). We're back to the trend of the first few episodes of the season where Kirk, Spock and McCoy would beam down together, sometimes even alone as they do here, without a Security Guard in sight. In this case they were visiting a pre-warp planet so they wanted as few people as possible to avoid risk of contamination, but you'd have thought they'd wear native clothing (as in 'Errand of Mercy'), and make a better attempt to hide their uniforms and equipment than walking brazenly around like an ordinary Landing Party!

The objective was to try and locate the Beagle's crew since it had been missing for six years (which would put it in 2261, the centenary of the Federation, though they didn't know it at that time of the franchise's development), but they could have done a better job of making contact than they did. Perhaps they thought they might be hiding out in these hills, which looked suspiciously like those in 'Friday's Child' (although a hill on one world looks much the same as a hill on another!), another episode in which the trio had been on the run from enemy forces. The episode takes quite a different turn as Kirk and co. are captured pretty quickly, first by the brothers of the Son, ex-slaves who had escaped captivity, and then by the Romans themselves (if they did call themselves that), so they spend most of the time as prisoners which throws a different light on proceedings since they're without their usual advantages and must do whatever is put before them to their best ability in the circumstances. Stripping them of technology and the option for the Enterprise to be able to sweep them out of there easily, enables them to show their character and qualities, what Starfleet officers are made of, in difficult circumstances (much like 'Friday's Child'). Spock doesn't wish to fight, he tells his gladiator opponent he could beat him easily and seems to hold back, making sure not to cause injury while also avoiding injury himself, while McCoy, the older and weaker human, takes all he can, even with Flavius going easy on him!

The hardest role in this scenario is Kirk's, forced to watch his men fight while sat next to an evil man, or men since Merik is also there. He refuses to give in and order his crew down to share a similar fate that he knows will happen, covering with bravado, and it's really only timing that prevents any deaths, though Flavius does sadly die. For him it would be a release thanks to the faith he has. Kirk's given the choice early on to obey Claudius' instructions, but instead he uses his 'one phone call' to order Scotty not to intervene - Mr. Scott is in command as he should be, as it had been established, and these things are what make Trek so appealing, the order, certainty and procedure of regulations and reoccurrence of what we know. Condition Green wasn't something they'd done before and I don't remember it ever coming up again, which is a shame, but it's not often that the Enterprise isn't allowed to interfere so it was a rare situation. Although, if Merik attended the Academy and served on a ship, even though it wasn't a Starfleet vessel, wouldn't he know about it and tell Claudius? Unless he was actually being brave and keeping it secret, but then even if it was known it only meant they're in trouble but you can't interfere because of the Prime Directive (perhaps the first time it was ever used as a weapon to be held over the heads of our characters). They could have beamed up except that the machine gun fire would have riddled them with bullets before they were half dematerialised which was a believable limitation on the technology.

In the end Scott is able to get around it by affecting the planet's power supply so that Kirk has an opportunity and takes it (apparently those guns use magic bullets because when he fires at the cell door's lock there's no sign of damage to it, and after they beam away at the end and the guards fire into the cell there are no bullet holes on the wall behind!). Scotty as usual refuses to actually sit in the Captain's Chair, preferring to lean on one side, a sign of humility and the hopefulness that his Captain will return, and is even commended by his Captain (which makes a change after all the battering he's gotten this season, whether physically being thrown around in so many episodes, accused of murder, or being verbally berated by Kirk and threatened with being fired!), for providing an escape via the blackout which didn't interfere with the culture, though if it hadn't been for Merik's last act of throwing the Communicator they might still have been mown down so it all came together neatly. There's even time for a spot of future history, which I always admire, when Spock speaks of Earth's first three World Wars (does that mean they were leaving it open for more if need be?), although his estimate of how many lives were lost in World War III seems uncharacteristically conservative: only thirty-seven million seems like far too few for nuclear armageddon! It was put as six hundred million in 'First Contact' which is more feasible and we can say that perhaps more evidence was available at that later date than was known in the 23rd Century.

A couple of other little things worth noting (such as the usual green starboard light on the Enterprise being purple!), are the reverence Merik has for the starship - he tells Claudius, unlike his own ship, Kirk commands not just a space ship, but a starship which is a very special vessel. Again, these aren't the words of someone bitter at being cast out of his Starfleet training so either he always kept his appreciation of the qualities of Starfleet's finest, or his enforced life on this alien world had altered his perspective and made him appreciate even that which he had been denied. Kirk says that his world is his vessel, reiterating something we'd heard before about how much she means to him, and he also mentions his oath and his crew, all things that Merik failed. The Captain's Oath became a more crystallised part of the canon (at least in the alternate Kelvinverse continuity), as that version of Kirk equated it with the opening monologue of the series, in 'Into Darkness,' something that was a little too cute and interfering, playing with lore in a way that didn't please me, something we continue to see - such as the clear establishment here (and underlined in 'TNG' which liked to give dates), that TV no longer existed ('TNG' said it died out in the 21st Century, which you could argue is actually happening if you go by the medium of transmission since internet streaming is becoming the norm, perhaps meaning traditional broadcast's days are numbered, though it's all TV, technically), yet in 'Picard' we see the news on large floating screens and Jean-Luc himself is actually interviewed onscreen!

We do get what was not even thought of in the 1960s, with the Enterprise's main viewer being used to show programmes (albeit black and white footage), in widescreen, decades before that was developed, and something else they were forward thinking about, without realising it, was the announcer (played by Bart LaRue who had previously gone uncredited as Trelane's Father's voice in 'The Squire of Gothos' and would have a couple more roles in 'TOS' to come), for the fights telling the TV audience that 'this is your programme, you name the winner' - phone-ins and live voting by any other name! The way our society is going, with an attitude developing faster and faster that anything goes, I can imagine fights to the death being created for live viewing before the end of this century, so although this episode wasn't attempting to predict the future and was instead looking back at a combination of their contemporary 1960s technology coupled with the brutality and decadence of past cultures in history, they couldn't help but be prescient in observations on the future of TV. Although we haven't yet fallen to the level of deaths on screen for ratings, real death has certainly been allowed to be shown (I remember a programme on euthanasia some years ago, for example), and with the motivation of money and each generation growing up to believe they should expect to be and do whatever they can conceive it seems the Children of the Son and their exhortation to Christian brotherhood is looking ever more necessary!

***

Sunday

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (Sunday)

Why? It's a natural question in real life; 'why did this person have to die?' But in fiction it takes on a whole new meaning because it's made up, it's for the writers to write what they want to write for a goal of advancing characters or creating drama. But that's not really enough of an explanation for killing off one of the best characters of a series as they did with Dr. Carson Beckett. It's like they have a vendetta against the medical staff because they did the same thing with Dr. Fraiser on 'SG-1,' and for no real good reason other than to inject more 'danger' into the series. With Beckett it was even more pronounced because the wider interpersonal dynamics of 'Atlantis,' due to its larger selection of characters, had only just found its footing this season to the extent that I was commenting on it in my reviews. How they'd come together so well, gelled and made a great team, a different type of a team to the 'SG-1' series, but still becoming as close and as much a delight to watch. And now they suddenly rip one of these characters out of that mix and I don't know what that will spell for the series as it goes on without him. It certainly achieved a shock and a dramatic episode, but at what cost to the series?

Beckett really was one of my favourites, not just because he had the same name as a much loved character on one of my favourite TV shows of all time ('BUGS'), but because he was such an empathetic character, a person who was dedicated to his profession in the same way the best doctors from Trek always were, and a credit to the series and those he served with. It was especially cruel to take him out in the way they did, so that you think it's going to be okay after all, and the impression of impending doom was only the usual dramatic tension, he'll be fine. I don't know at what point I actually considered he might not make it, but it must have been quite late, perhaps during that time he was putting the explosive tumour in the medical container, because prior to that I had no belief at all that he'd really die. There are two more seasons of this series yet to play out, why would they take what was a recurring character in the first season or so, who became a full regular, and then dispense with him? I still don't know - I can speculate whether Paul McGillion had a more lucrative job come up or some other reason for wanting to leave. I doubt very much that it was the same reason they got rid of main cast member Lieutenant Ford, who didn't really work very well, because Beckett definitely grew in prominence and in integration with the other characters.

That's the tragedy of this particular episode: it's set up as this apparently innocuous story, the kind of filler you sometimes get in the franchise where it's just about having fun with the characters or within the standing sets, getting to know them better away from any jeopardy. I'm sure there were plenty of 'SG-1' episodes like that over the years. Sure, you get that explosion which was a shocking way to open an episode that appeared to be about people and their interactions (it was weird, but Dr. Hewston, the woman Teyla is talking to in the teaser reminded me of someone I used to know), and then when the episode began properly and it's yet another one where we get the caption 'x hours earlier' and you think it's going to be some average filler with this mystery building up to the explosion. But even with that well-worn device they seemed to be having a bit of fun with it so after the first jump back to an earlier period it happens again, even earlier, and again, even earlier, so it seems even more like a frivolous, but fun story and you wonder how it will play out because the tone is so different to what we know is going to be a horrible end result. If anyone was to die it would be more likely Teyla as she's been the most underused and served characters of the series. But you have absolutely no idea that the true ending will be even more numbing, as beautifully as they dealt with it all, the memorial service and carrying the coffin through the 'gate as a bagpiper plays, reminiscent of Spock's memorial in 'Star Trek II' which must have occurred to them.

It certainly succeeded in being one of the best episodes of the season, in fact I'd say the best, and it's been a good season where things have clicked better than they had before so that's a compliment. But at the expense of a great character and an actor that really sold being a doctor. Of course they gave him a truly heroic way to go out, because if he'd waited for the bomb defuser guy to show up it would have gone off while still in the medical bay with Beckett, his brave nurse, and the patient taken out in the blast. Instead we just lose that anonymous bomb disposal man who always knew he was taking a huge risk in this job, and Beckett. That he would stand by a patient to the bitter end you never had any doubt, he was an honourable man, always fighting for the right to heal in whatever weird or alien circumstances he found himself in. You only have to look at all those scenes where he's going round trying to get someone to go fishing with him to see the chemistry he had with the other cast members and to appreciate a chance to see a different side to him and them as they relax on this newly implemented mandatory rest day (on Sunday, which I heartily approve of!). The downside is that this was very much the attitude and tone of writers of TV post-2000s, when it became part of the 'fun' to threaten the cast of a series, so none are safe, anyone can be taken out at any time. And that's supposed to make us more attached to them? No, it's the gradual getting to know these people that makes it worth watching, so although there are times when you need to write a character out, it should only be done as an absolute last resort, and if they have to, better to keep them alive with the chance of future appearances.

Mind you, this is sci-fi where no one ever truly dies. It's possible this was all part of a bigger plan and that Carson will return sometime, just as they took Ford out, but turned him into a semi-recurring villain. I wasn't entirely sold on the idea of Rodney having an imaginary conversation with Beckett on the edge of some outlying part of the city where he'd gone to be alone. Maybe it was too indulgent, although I love the same kind of indulgence they did with Tasha Yar on 'TNG.' Maybe it just seemed like it was better to see him last as the sombre coffin rather than a strange apparition appearance since this is sci-fi and you could confuse it for reality. It makes me want to get the companion book and read up all about their decision-making process. In a way I hope they don't later bring Beckett back somehow because it was such a final and moving way to remove a character, even if it wasn't justified to meddle with the balance of the series that had been so finely adjusted.

However I look at it, it was a fine slice of drama, with different takes on various characters such as Weir showing herself something of an isolated Captain Janeway character who can't fraternise because everyone is under her command (though she's not in quite the same boat because she can go back to Earth now and again, which the intrepid Janeway couldn't), or Sheppard and Ronon finding ways to enjoy time away from work, Rodney back with Katie from last season's 'Duet' (though I must admit I didn't remember her), Lorne painting, and even Zelenka with his chess club which he beats easily! It was a lovely episode from that perspective, and while the explosion angle added some true mystery I'd have found the story just as enjoyable, if not more, if they hadn't killed Beckett. At least they allowed plenty of time at the end for the drama to sink in. Here's to one of the best doctors in sci-fi: ye'll be missed, laddie!

***

Children of Mars

DVD, Short Treks (Children of Mars)

Finally they release the last of the 'Short Treks' for those who don't consume via streaming, as part of the 'Picard' Season 1 set. At least we got it in the end, even if for the sake of completeness it should have been part of the 'Short Treks' DVD release which featured all nine others in that anthology series that very much lived up to its name - the 'Short' part, though not the 'Treks.' But then very little of the current-gen productions feels like Trek and I came to this with no expectations whatsoever, knowing how little enjoyment or pleasure I had in the other shorts (or, for that matter, 'DSC,' nor even 'Picard' really!), it was just an exercise in finishing the complete set, though of course this particular entry was of slightly higher importance in its position of being setup for 'Picard.' Despite that, I didn't watch it until after seeing the full series and then going back because I had the impression from the title and images I'd seen that this was going to be only tangentially connected and not, as it first sounded, an essential prequel to what was the most anticipated Trek since the end of 'Enterprise.' I was right, it's completely unnecessary viewing.

The title suggests, once again, a 'Dr. Who' style, but they were, and are a series aimed at children so its natural that they want to include examples, but Trek is not for children, at least it's not designed for them though it is a family franchise which it would be good for children to see (up until the modern films and 'TV' shows which are demonstrably unsuitable for younger audiences!), and was indeed the age I first came to it. So it's not for children, but it is suitable for children, and I didn't find myself wishing as a child that there were children aboard Kirk's Enterprise - in fact when we saw children on Picard's Enterprise it was often slightly irritating, with young Alexander Rozhenko a rather annoying addition, even if it created more drama and character for Worf. It was left to 'DS9' to make childhood relevant with Jake and Nog, and really they were closer to adolescence than junior school age. Not that I'm saying there should be no children in Trek, decreeing like an angry Picard (no children on the Bridge!), just that it's not Trek's strength, nor does having a story centred on schoolchildren endear me to the current generation. It's yet one more thing that makes it unlike Trek once again, and this time the kid-ification is in the extreme: it's all about these two schoolgirls that are having a rough time because their parents (or parent, it seems broken families are just as common in the 24th Century as now - another punch in the eye for the Utopia we used to get, now replaced with brokenness that shows humans haven't worked out their problems after all, unless I'm reading too much into it, but we never see another parent), are away working on Utopia (the only Utopia we get in modern Trek), Planitia Shipyards.

About the only good thing I can take from this episode is the reassurance of a Trek staple: that starships are made in the zero gravity of space, not planetside as we saw in 'Star Trek XI.' I guess the designing and partial putting together of components occurs on Mars, but the assembly of the final article happens in a spacedock, as it should. So that's good. Otherwise, this is as stupidly contemporary as 'DSC' and 'Picard' have been, with no sign of the improved Federation members in childhood, they're just as savage and unpleasant as today's children would be, far from the imagined future Trek used to give us - at one point I thought I was watching 'Cobra Kai,' with the two little tykes battering each other against the lockers in 'High School' like it was modern day Earth! Who do they think their target demographic is, because it certainly isn't young adult to middle-aged males any more, and that goes for the rest of current Trek, too, none of it having the feel of Trek, none of it carrying the messages and carefully constructed lore and consistency of aliens and technology. Oh sorry, no we do get a message: the two rivals bond over their joint loss (or as Kurtzman puts it: how our petty differences are irrelevant in the big picture), at the destruction of Utopia Planitia - I ask you, would a junior school really show the latest news of an annihilating attack on a Federation facility without the sensitivity to think that some of the pupils would have family members there? This isn't true to the psychology of today, let alone a much more developed one of three hundred plus years hence! And I hated that the Vulcan teacher or Principal (I'm assuming he's Vulcan from that austere look, but now that 'Picard' has gone back to the flathead Romulan variant, who knows?), showed some shock in his face at the news because that's NOT how a Vulcan would react, he would take it calmly and solemnly, but the writers and producers are clueless about Trek and the way its pieces work, intent on making it as contemporary as possible for all those mainstream viewers that don't care about such things, at the expense of the loyal viewers that do!

I suppose there would have been some interest in this short being centred around Utopia Planitia, because it has a lot of history to it and so a surprise attack there would leave you wondering what was going on and anxious to find out in 'Picard,' but having seen that and knowing all about it, well, what little they told us (synthetic lifeforms attacked because… slavery? Hatred of non-synths? I can't actually recall, which shows how poorly they get their key points across), it was old news and I was already put off by the focus on a couple of horrible little schoolgirls overlaid by a pop music track in the usual way of attempting to heighten the emotion of it all because Trek is now aimed at women and girls and so everything has to be overtly concerned with feelings. That's what turned me off 'DSC' more than any of its other myriad problems, and I will say that at least with 'Picard' it did generally feel a little more grounded, a little more adult in how it approached character's sorrows, but not much and still nowhere near the far more appropriate and moving way Trek used to portray such things. There wasn't really much time to be melodramatic in an episode that lasts a mere nine minutes (including credits), but this was yet another reason for me to stop watching modern Trek.

Wow. Did I really say that? Me, who has been invested in Trek for almost thirty years is almost ready to give up on new Trek? I suppose when they do stop printing the discs and I no longer have the option to watch I'll at least have been prepared for it, and perhaps that's when it'll start to return more to a Trek that I actually like, that would be ironic. Until then, I keep buying the DVDs because Trek taught optimism, even if now it's changed its tune to be miserable and unhappy, like it doesn't know its identity any more and seeks to be like all the other sci-fi out there, and as long as it can be successful that way it'll go on losing its uniqueness and I'll go on returning to the original five series' and ten films because that's where Trek ended for me.

*

The Trouble With Tribbles (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (The Trouble With Tribbles) (2)

Tribbles. Troubles. Lots of both of those things, so the title is accurate, and that's a good start. I can't stand an inaccurate title. Just what is it that makes these round furry creatures so different, so appealing? Is it the fur, is it the purr? Is it the 'grrr'? They seem so peaceful and serene, these little creatures, but put them next to a hated Klingon and they start growling in the most aggressive attack-Tribble way imaginable, if an agitated chirruping can be likened to a growl. Which was fortunate. For the story, if not for the Klingons. Because what we have here from David Gerrold is a story that makes logical sense and use of its seemingly whimsical invention. We can also add to this that the characters are dealt with well - though it is something of a comedy it is played seriously, no one is made to lose their dignity and it doesn't become cartoonish, even with Kirk being buried under an avalanche of the little cuties, he still commands respect. Furthering the tally are the addition of the Klingons in their second appearance of the season, once again behaving deviously and finding ways around the Organian Peace Treaty - and that's another thing, the reminder of previously established canon and an example of how to turn what could be chains to bind a lesser writer into an opportunity: by continuing to deal with this imposition of zero conflict upon the two sides by an outside force we see the Klingons having to be much more cunning and therefore the story is raised a level in consequence.

'Tribbles' is considered one of the best of the series and yet when you look at it superficially it has so many of the usual tropes and limitations that lesser episodes have. There's the bureaucratic official who comes into conflict with our Captain and causes him headaches (literally, this time), there's Chekov sounding off about everything's roots being Russian, McCoy with his miracle 'cure' at the end, and while we have the Klingons in person their ship remains as mysterious as a black hole. As if to taunt us with this missing link in the starship canon they go to the trouble of displaying the Enterprise herself shown orbiting the Deep Space Station K-7 from a window in Governor Lurry's office, a great piece of attention to detail that very effectively sells the location. And yet we never see even a small version of a Klingon vessel in the distance through the window! It's likely the reason was budgetary: they couldn't afford to build what is a beautifully designed space station, complete with lighting and the style (later to be magnified in the films), that suggests the Federation starship we know so well, yet is very different and clearly has different design constraints and purposes. It is surprising that they were able to create this, for the time, elaborate model when so often, as is the case with the unseen Klingon ship, they didn't show other spacefaring vessels at all, or they were so 'alien' that they were mere coloured lights in the black web of space. The only reason we had the Shuttlecraft Galileo was due to a development deal for a model, so although we don't get our first glimpse of Klingon architecture, it's still impressive that the station was so visible.

No discussion on this episode can go on for long without bringing in its legacy. I don't mean just the Tribbles species which showed up down the years in various places, be it 'Star Trek III,' 'Enterprise,' infamously in 'Into Darkness' and now the latest era with a 'Short Treks' dedicated to them ('The Trouble With Edward' that succeeded in messing up the canon quite badly and shows the difference in tone and approach most distinctly between the first forty years of serious Trek and this current age of flippancy and lack of dignity and respect for characters and lore - don't get me started!). No, it was left to 'DS9' to create the best 'Tribb-ute' to the fuzzy things that happened to us, a series often thought of as the least Trek-like which is actually the most connected to 'TOS' in both spirit and actuality: 'Trials and Tribble-ations' was an achievement unmatched in Trek, the closest being the recreation of so much of a Constitution-class starship seen in 'Enterprise' ('In A Mirror, Darkly'). As a result, watching this episode having seen the tribute you're always looking out for those moments where you know 'DS9' characters were going about their secret mission in the background, adding a whole new level of pleasure and enjoyment to the original. It was the perfect choice of an episode to revisit because there were so many locations and chances for characters to slip in and out believably. While they couldn't get into the main office and be party to some of the key conversations this meant that the episodes are quite distinctly different, it's only selected scenes that were repeated so it's still very much worth seeing the original play out from its angle with the 'TOS' crew.

For most of that crew it does play out, but George Takei must have been annoyed to have been absent for one of the most highly regarded episodes of the series as this was the time he had definitely gone off to film 'The Green Berets' (though it balanced out in the long run since of all the original cast members who appear in 'Tribble-ations' he was the only one to return 'live' for the 30th Anniversary with the 'Voyager' tribute 'Flashback'). Nurse Chapel also doesn't appear, and in fact we don't see Sickbay at all other than McCoy's office, though it appears the Science Lab is back when he and Spock confer (argue). Chekov is really being used well as this hotheaded youngster, usually so cheeky and self-confident, here itching to fight the Klingons, having to be held back by authority of Mr. Scott who was given specific orders to keep the shore leavers out of trouble. We see writing that shows how well the characters are known, and an excellently written and expertly choreographed fight scene that playfully runs a little story through the action as space trader Cyrano Jones steals drinks from the bar. It's a delightful scene all around and was made even more fun by the later addition of 'DS9' personnel into the fray, a genius move.

Scotty's penchant for being out of the ordinary is where much of his character comedy comes from - his delight in being restricted to Quarters because it'll give him time to catch up on his technical journals, as if he thinks Kirk's actually secretly rewarding him for the defence of the Enterprise's honour (when we first see him reading those journals on a monitor, an example of visuals we see so rarely on one of those personal screens, I thought he was in his Quarters, but we pull back to find it's the Mess Hall, so he likes to 'socialise' by reading in a roomful of people!). We forget that Scotty is also a tough cookie and his upbeat, open demeanour covers a leathery hide - he competes with Chekov about which drink is more manly between scotch or vodka (no synthehol in those days!), then he's into beating bells out of the voluble Klingon Korax. I notice again how sly the Klingons were at this time - it's like Korax realises his insults on the Captain are having no effect, comes over to Scotty, recognises he's an Engineer and quickly changes tack to attack his ship which he'll be much more sensitive to, and he was right! And it was all done without resorting to swearing or obscenity, the likes of which modern Trek throws in with gay abandon because the writers have not a tenth of the wit and deftness of Gerrold.

One of the things I liked about the fight was the aftermath, and not just because we later get Bashir and O'Brien in the revised lineup in front of Kirk (Lieutenant Freeman is the one replaced by O'Brien - he's also the man they mistakenly think is Kirk when they first see the Starfleet party in the bar), but due to the fact we see some actual results of the  carnage: Chekov has a bruise on his cheek, Scotty a black eye, the kind of damage so rarely seen in TV and film fights, be it Trek or otherwise: violence has consequences, kids! Kirk is hard on his men, but he comes across as being quite dismissive and uppity in the episode, the slurs of the Klingons about him being a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator may have some basis from his attitude here. It's because he was summoned by Nilz Baris on a Code 1 Emergency just to protect some grain, and he feels it was unjustified and though he's given orders from above you sense he doesn't really appreciate all this for some grain. He takes an instant dislike to Baris (easy to do when this man really is overbearing), and things go down from there. He's having a bad day, suffering from headaches, a ship that becomes plagued by Tribbles and a crew not taking it too seriously (or taking things too seriously when Scotty starts the fight), so it is understandable, though we somehow expect more from the great Captain Kirk. Everyone has their off days, and this proves it.

One thing this episode proves, or not, as the case may be, is the existence of Replicators. According to the revisionist history of 'Discovery' they do have that technology and it's widely used, but in 'TOS' its very difficult to justify such tech from what we see, though there's evidence both ways: the food slots (which Scotty calls food processors), seem to show a form of synthesis in solid food and beverages (Kirk's chicken sandwich and coffee in this case, replaced by Tribbles). But if it was replicating then how would the Tribbles have eaten and drunk it all in the seconds it takes for Kirk to open the hatch? It seems more logical these meals are sent through a hatch system from a chef (we know there is one from 'Charlie X,' voiced by Roddenberry, no less!), which is how the Tribbles could get inside and consume. There's also the example of the grain itself: why would such a thing be invented if Replicators could simply magic every food into being, even given some people's preference for naturally grown produce? Then again, we see the drinks machine in the bar being used to dispense glasses of whatever it is on several occasions, but it could just be a sophisticated dispenser rather than replicating (as we saw in the older tech of 'Enterprise'). So the conclusion, at least from this episode, is difficult to reach, but certainly doesn't justify the addition of 24th Century all-singing, all-creating technology at this time and earlier, and if anything edges more towards simpler tech (one of 'DSC's most grievous sins was in so poorly representing different eras as they should be, so they all feel the same - lack of imagination and intelligent design in exchange for surface glitz, that appears to be its mandate).

Technology can still be quite advanced, however, as seen with such an example as Uhura talking to Kirk on the Tri-screen (no Tri-ladder sightings to be reported this time, though!), and instead of looking at her console with the Bridge in the background as you might expect with their equivalent of webcams, she's turned round as if to face a cameraman on the Bridge (how 'strange'!), her console behind her, so either there's some kind of floating drone recording (which we never saw), or the Bridge has the ability to zoom in on the face of whoever's talking on the comm system and transmit it to the other end. In reality of course it's just easier to film Uhura at her station than it would be to shoot from her station's POV (though didn't they do just that with Spock's station in a recent episode? - his was easier to manoeuvre around as it was at the edge of a removable pie wedge of the set. That's not the only intelligent viewing device in the episode - when Kirk talks to Lurry on screen, at the right dramatic moment the view pulls back to reveal the Klingons with him!). It's quite a good one for Uhura as not only does she get to show up on a screen, she also has the authority to call for Red Alert and plays a part in the unfolding Tribble story when she's given Cyrano Jones' sample Tribble (the only love money can buy, according to him she later reports), in order to drum up demand for the little blighters. Interestingly, we have more evidence of a monetary system (if we didn't already have several references this season), with Jones and the barkeeper haggling over 'credits,' and Uhura herself wanting to shop on her shore leave, which means money, presumably (and suggests the female predilection for shopping hasn't receded even by the 23rd Century!).

Cyrano had a bumbling facade, but was actually a shrewd businessman that you wish could have interacted with Quark, his spiritual successor, both in schemes and the unsuccessful result of them, so it's fitting that 'Tribble-ations' ended with a shot of Quark in the same position as the K-7 barkeeper, miserably leaning on the bar surrounded by Tribbles! Like Mudd, Jones is a bit of a con artist, though I'm sure he considers himself merely a good businessman. He's described as an 'independent scout' by Baris, a licenced asteroid locator and prospector, which shows that not all humans (presuming - there are plenty of aliens that look human), and citizens of the Federation lead lives of dedication to Starfleet, there are some still out there trying to line their pockets as the best existence they can muster. Stanley Adams was one of the few to return to play his character, he did the voice in 'The Animated Series' for the sequel episode 'More Tribbles, More Troubles,' but what is less well known is that he co-wrote the third season 'TOS' episode 'The Mark of Gideon.' He didn't win the award for longest gap between appearances on Trek from actors in this episode with the six years between, as William Schallert (Baris), returned to Trek for the Season 2 'DS9' story 'Sanctuary,' playing a Bajoran musician. But even he didn't win the award with only twenty-six years between appearances, as Charlie Brill (Baris' aide, Arne Darvin), returned, and as the same character, twenty-nine years later, an impressive record that can't be beaten by any other guest actor in this episode (though Leonard Nimoy had the longest reign, first appearing in 1965's 'The Cage' still playing the character as late as 2013's 'Into Darkness'!).

A little more texture is added to the history with the knowledge that a Klingon outpost isn't far away and that the Battle of Donatu V was held near Sherman's Planet twenty-three years ago (the battle pleasingly referenced by 'DSC,' as the planet was in 'DS9'). We're also told Sherman's was first mapped two hundred years ago by John Burke of the old English Royal Academy, so is this the first mention of England in Trek canon? And that would put it in the 21st Century, which would at least be possible. There's the impression that Kirk and Koloth know each other from the way they meet in Lurry's office, though it could be that they both have reputations. William Campbell was never my favourite version of a Klingon as he was too identified as Trelane from 'The Squire of Gothos,' the spoilt brat alien boy in an episode I've not been particularly fond of for its foppish filler. But here again we have yet another actor who went decades before appearing again, beating Schallert by appearing twenty-seven years later, and the only one of the big three (Kor, Kang and Koloth), to return but once, killed off in 'Blood Oath' on 'DS9,' so this really is a hub of all kinds of Trek offshoots! Koloth wants an official apology to the Klingon High Command something Kirk is never going to give him, and the plot is entertainingly revealed to be Klingon sabotage with the exciting possibilities inherent in the idea of Klingon spies altered to appear human, something they really should have explored in future episodes, though with mention of the Organian Peace Treaty it's easy to forget that 'TOS' didn't often rely on continuity for its stories.

If there's a mistake in the episode it's that Kirk chooses to open that overhead hatch to the granary, because he must have known that even if there had been no Tribbles up there it would have been filled with grain and he'd be covered in the stuff. But perhaps he wasn't thinking straight with all these problems mounting on his shoulders and the Tribbles doing the same was like a visual metaphor for the weight of responsibility covering him as he dealt with enemies both Klingon and domestic. He behaves realistically, not politically correct as he deals with either Klingons or Baris and doesn't hesitate to show his disdain for poor authority, so perhaps his diplomacy was a bit shot this time, but he was certainly honest. And it's always good to see him go up against the familiar foe. If Koloth was a little too refined for a good Klingon adversary, his subordinate Korax had much more of the belligerent swagger and sneering glare so it's a shame he never returned to the series, although actor Michael Pataki (even his surname sounds Klingon, if only an insult!), did come back in one of the many good episodes from Season 1 'TNG' ('Too Short A Season'), again playing a bad guy, though not, sadly, a Klingon. Paul Baxley (Freeman), played several roles on 'TOS' including going uncredited as the Black Knight of the previous most famous shore leave ('Shore Leave'). Maybe doing another comedic episode immediately after 'I, Mudd' might not have been the best choice for variety, but then they didn't show the episodes in production order so these two episodes had others sandwiched between in that December 1967, and however you balance it, this was one of the finest and most charming of the series.

****

The Ark

DVD, Stargate Atlantis S3 (The Ark)

They really like the last remnants of a dead civilisation on this series - we'd already had the last of the Ancients during the season, and now we get another race from a planet who had variable technology (it's like 1970s NASA in comparison, but with the ability to store people in those Wraith devices, oh, and artificial gravity due to budgetary reasons, obviously), and used all their ingenuity and the sacrifice of almost the entire population in order to build a secret base in a hollowed-out moon, then let the remaining people be killed by Wraith so that they think there's no one left alive. It was a bold plan, perhaps an immoral one, we're not really sure how many people actually agreed to this genocidal choice, but for whatever it was worth, it did work. Sort of. I have to say I wasn't sold on the episode at first, or, really, at most: I feel the use of the device where a scene kicks off the episode that is actually from the end to build tension is very over-used and rarely worthwhile. It also seemed like it might be one of those stories about a crew trapped in the bowels of a set the production people are very proud of, with a monster or a murderer on the loose. Then it took a different turn and we meet a couple of the people who built the thing, and then again it changes to become one of those episodes where various characters are trapped together and running out of air. So none of it was particularly promising.

However, like Sheppard riding the shuttle ship to safety at the end, they managed to secure the landing, narratively speaking, and it became an uplifting story of heroism, Sheppard doing all he can to rescue Teyla whom the old man took hostage in order to force the team to save the device which holds the last thousand people who had been squirrelled away from the Wraith in order to preserve their society and rebuild it. I was somewhat on the old guy's side most of the time because he was dealing with the end point of five generations of preparation and sacrifice - it was imperative that a way be found, even if they were hurtling towards the planet, the moon about to burn up and Sheppard was stubbornly, and perhaps selfishly concerned only with getting those who were alive out of there. When the old guy agreed to open the hatch and let him in I was expecting to find a chamber full of the people who would have all been beamed back into existence, but instead he'd taken Teyla with him and stored her pattern on the machine so they had no choice if they wanted to get her back. It was a desperate gamble, but it paid off, and Sheppard does a ridiculous thing that shouldn't have worked (other than for the fact he's the series lead, so, you know…), but I did wonder for a short moment if they might be writing Teyla out since she hasn't been one of the better developed characters either this season or the previous two.

I was glad to find that there was a madcap plan to save her and it worked, and I forget that although this looks nice and is all widescreen and shiny it can no longer be considered 'modern' since it was made over a decade ago. Therefore it doesn't have to follow the current dramatic contrivance of 'needing' to kill off regular characters for shock value rather than finding an ingenious way to have it all: save the good guys and do it in a believable way. The story of the people's sacrifice was strong, even though we never saw it, it had that ring of truth and desperation, and was a tale of horror. But it was the team's usual fault of meddling in things that didn't concern them and so it really was their duty to do all they could for this civilisation, even if the troubles were caused by one of that people's own, distraught at the loss of his family who'd been promised sanctuary on this ark but had to be left to die to avoid the Wraith tracking the moon base. It was a hard decision that was made but that guy just messed up the entire remnant of his people, uncaring because of what he lost. If not for him there would have been no desperate need to hold hostages or pilot a rickety old shuttle, and so I suppose no story - while he did his own people no favours he did create the drama.

It's strange to have an episode where McKay can't save the day, but then he was trapped and only had access to antiquated tech that couldn't do anything so this time it had to rely on old-fashioned guts and derring-do for the win. Yet again it's the fondness and dedication between the characters that made it worth the time. I would have liked to see the beaming out of all the people (or some, at least), especially Teyla, but the end scene with her in a hospital bed was really all that was needed to convey the result of Sheppard's actions and sometimes, often in fact, less is more.

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