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!

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