The Gamesters of Triskelion (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (The Gamesters of Triskelion) (2)

It's funny, the green women and the blue men are forever remembered as icons of 'TOS,' yet the bright yellow Tamoon is forgotten. Probably for the best! She does aptly represent the episode as a whole: something alien and outside even the accepted norms of this most science fictional of series', not quite a comfortable mix, yet at the same time somewhat exotic and different, which doesn't really work when you look it square in the face. This is Trek done in the most outlandish manner, and if there are those wanting examples to cite for the more fantastical direction and approach to the franchise of recent years, far from the grounded reality of a consistent framework in which to explore cultures and ideas, then this would be a prime example. It's also an example, perfect to sit alongside modern Trek, of Trek which is pretty bad. It has all the vibrancy and colour of a motley collection of mostly unknown aliens (except for a solitary Andorian, and it would have been fun if they'd said Kloog was a Kaylar), a deadly situation for Kirk and two of his crew, and a desperate search by the Enterprise under Spock to find them. From that description it sounds like one of the best, but when looked at analytically, and leaving aside the enjoyment of watching something very daft, it crumbles like the remnants of the Providers' city through which Kirk and his drill thrall, Shahna, jog.

Where to start? Perhaps the B-story, if it can be called that, of the crew's search for their vanished crew-mates. We've seen this played out before, most notably in 'The Galileo Seven' in which the roles were reversed, Kirk the one to be hunting for the seven, and Spock trapped on the planet with a gathering atmosphere of mutiny around him. Except Uhura and Chekov are never in a position to doubt their Captain, instead Spock is the one to have dissension to deal with, and from McCoy and Scotty, too! Trouble is, it's really just the usual bickering from the Doctor, and Scott halfheartedly takes his side, though always in a deferential manner towards his commanding officer, commendably. Spock, perhaps having learned valuable lessons from 'The Galileo Seven' and subsequent dealings with difficult humans, especially the recurring antagonism of Dr. McCoy, deals with the disagreements quite easily using logic, humour (if you can say that about his quiet conversation about them starting a mutiny), reassurance (they'll go back to the original planet if his theory doesn't pan out), and even concession to the emotion of hope (while at the same time spinning it as contamination from long exposure to humans). There's never any real drama over whether he'll succeed, no outside force creating a ticking clock like the one bureaucratic Commissioner Ferris of 'The Galileo Seven' wielded over Kirk's head in that instance, and instead it always comes across as lighthearted banter.

Not that you could imagine, at this stage of the series, that McCoy or Scotty would go against their First Officer in his rightful position of authority, but there were stakes missing that were required for an edge to the search, a need for drama and suspense that simply wasn't there, relying solely on the concern that the Captain is missing with only a slender thread of a lead to follow. I'm not saying I wanted them at each other's throats like modern dramas tend to do, but they needed a way to show their individual expertise working together to solve the problem, and instead it was just fluff (although the surprise reference to Daniel in the lion's den having only his faith, was good!), and if anything, appeared mainly to fill time, a crime in the episodic medium. The humour, too, takes away from the drama, while also making the episode more enjoyable than it would have been: the first I noticed this was Scotty's incredulousness about Kirk and his Landing Party's sudden vanishing while standing on the Transporter pad. When he calls up to the Bridge and Spock says he assumes he means they vanished outside of the normal operations of the Transporter and Scotty responds that of course that's what he means, he wouldn't be ringing up if they'd beamed down as normal! It was so funny and yet so true. I also liked that they mention the absence of magnetic storms as if to remind us of 'Mirror, Mirror' earlier in the season when a similar vanishing occurred, sending them into the alternate reality of the Mirror Universe - even better, Kirk even mentions the possibility of them being sent to another dimension, so there's some good continuity there.

The other particularly amusing scene is when Tamoon comes to Chekov's cell and is drawn to him - there was just something about the deep, mechanically altered voice of this yellow woman, cooing over 'Chee-koov,' and his obvious discomfort, especially as she rests her chin on his shoulder, that was hilarious. Unfortunately there was also the unintentional humour of William Shatner's overacting - he really didn't seem to be at his best in this episode and it is just the kind of over the top wackiness of Kirk bellowing to Uhura to find out if she's alright while being attacked by Lars, her own drill thrall, or goggling at the camera as he goes down in pain when Galt activates the Collars of Obedience, culminating in a fight of the Captain taking on three opponents at once, that gives the wrong impression of what Trek was all about to casual viewers. Weirdly it also has strong scenes that does show what Trek was all about in the same episode and so it's an uncomfortable confusion of style and substance, further muddled by some rather dramatic and atypical direction that make it look quite good: when Kirk and his officers collapse to the ground the first time the Collars are activated, the camera is handheld and moves in on them like a predator enjoying the kill. Other great shots include Spock in the Captain's Chair recording Ship's Log, the camera starting close on him, then zooming out across the navigation console until we see the wider Bridge. More handheld capture in the fight at the end where we're right in amid the action, and the view looking down on the Providers circular vault all showed an understanding of how to shoot scenes well in a variety of ways.

If well directed, it was not so well written or acted. Uhura and Chekov are fine, though fairly understated, which only serves to make Kirk look much more hammy. He didn't seem to be his usual confident self, but then he was put in an impotent position, more than we commonly see - the best example his inability to help Uhura in what was edging towards a rape scene. More great direction as we see the attack only as shadows on the cave wall of her cell, but the screeching and scuffling make it quite an ordeal so that you're almost wondering how far this is going to go, despite it being a 60s TV series and 'Star Trek'! In that sense the drama did work as the helplessness we feel towards the situation is vivid. Fortunately, Uhura is up to the task, doing enough to make Lars have second thoughts, at least to put him off for later - when we eventually do see her again at the end of that scene she's holding a metal jug which she's clearly had designs on using as a weapon and it's a good episode for her in a season that has given her more to do than open the ubiquitous hailing frequencies. Episodes such as 'The Changeling' gave her a different challenge, and 'I, Mudd' included her in the action. As well as fending off Lars she takes on the two female thralls at the start when the trio are surrounded: Kirk takes Lars, Chekov's against bearlike Kloog (I don't think he's got much of a punch: this is the second time he's belted someone in the chest to no effect - a Klingon in the bar fight of 'The Trouble With Troubles' and now monster man!), and there's little Uhura without a weapon facing both Shahna and Tamoon. Okay, so she's quickly subdued, but she didn't back down and I love that as soon as Kirk realises their Phasers are dead he barks out 'hand to hand' and they all know what they're doing!

Clearly there are moments that work really well, though oddly this success only makes the episode more disjointed. Just when you think this is all about mere colourful action (the equivalent to the CGI of our modern entertainment industry - there to hide the lack of substance), a chance for Kirk to pull his usual stunts, whether that be fighting until his shirt is ripped (which does happen, but not in the usual way, Kloog whipping the back of it and slicing small holes into the front), or romancing the female guest of the week (again he does, though only as a weapon towards escape), we get Kirk's skill with words as he puts pressure on the weak point of the Providers: their inherent sense of superiority towards all races. There's so much to unearth from this little scene, mainly in the blind arrogance and inability to realise what they've become. In absolute irony these beings believe they've 'evolved' to a point of extreme greatness by somehow leaving the physical behind and becoming entirely mental creatures (the Brainsters of Triskelion!), yet their only purpose comes from wagering between each other on who will win in the thrall contests. Where does this money go, or come from, and what can it buy (assuming Quatloos are money!), or is it merely a method of totting up the eternal score between them? They can't use this money for anything, it has no purpose and neither do they - in casting off the physical life they've trapped themselves in a glass dome of emptiness, relying on the physical creatures 'beneath' them.

It's staggering in its simplicity that they can't see any of this and it makes you wonder just what a brain can turn into, even if it were possible to give up the body. None of that really makes any sense, it's just part of the science fiction convention that you accept that they were somehow able to put themselves in this case and control everything from there. Presumably others of their kind had to build it and make the transfer otherwise how would they have got there? Do they have some kind of alien fantasy power, as much a ridiculous contrivance as being able to beam people across twelve lightyears? None of these questions are answered, for once it's best not to think about the reasoning behind choices in the story, another thing, and the greatest, that pushes the episode toward 'silly sci-fi,' even more than the crazy aliens and weird setting would. And yet… There is still some kind of goodness in them, despite the cruel and callous way in which they enslave those under their power. The one spark of fair-minded justness is a sense of honour, however twisted it may be: they are good losers, they honour the bet with Kirk when they could easily have taken the Enterprise crew. So they weren't completely evil, even in the state they'd reached, and Kirk's words manipulate them into this bargain by telling them something humans and the Federation have achieved that they haven't: to develop cultures or worlds across the galaxy (although we don't know how true this is due to the Prime Directive, unless he's talking about post-warp cultures who still needed assistance). Their loss in this is actually their gain because now they have a new task to occupy their brains: to create a society out of slaves.

It's a grand vision Kirk conjures up and it would be interesting to return in, say, a hundred years and see what had grown from this space seed… Yes, it's another episode where you wish we could have rediscovered the society they leave behind in some way, in the later Treks. I can't imagine on an average episode of 'DS9' that we'd have had a story where they visit Triskelion and the three brains are still there, blinking away, but there is the thinnest of thin suggestions that they did succeed in crafting a society, from that same series: the art department used the terrific graphic design (another plus point of the episode), of the central symbol worn in the collars, carried by Galt and seen as the 'landing pad' (as Uhura mistakenly calls it), upon which they fight, on barrels in the Cargo Bays. At least I think that's where it was. It's only a tiny thing but it could be used to suggest they export goods of some kind and you can't imagine a failed society doing that when you consider the infrastructure and knowledge required, something which could have been thought out by the Providers. At the same time, despite this glimmer of hope you have to wonder what happened to their own civilisation since there appear to be only three survivors. Did their experiments backfire and the vast majority die? Is Triskelion, as suggested by the name, really a Provider colony? Did these three leave their society and form this new one on an empty planet? The fact that the name has 'Tri' in it (sadly no Tri-ladders in evidence), that there are only three brains, and the symbol of the planet is a triangle, would appear to be lead toward this theory.

The idea of a race being given the task to create a society in which the thralls could govern themselves, working together, is very Trekky. It does seem a little irresponsible for Kirk to plant this idea in the brains of a cruel and cold ruling body, a mere challenge for them to achieve, because who's to say they'd create something positive, it could just as easily turn out to be a dangerous, hellish place of evil. Perhaps Kirk was relying on the sense of reason and need for order in them that they would do their utmost to create something that worked as a display of their greatness. But it's another example of interference, such as in the previous episode, 'A Private Little War,' and I suppose if that was Vietnam, this could be another hint towards real world Western policy of setting captive peoples free and then telling them to govern themselves now their cruel masters have been removed and a new kind of authority put in its place. I'm not a student of geopolitics and history so I don't know the ins and outs of such things, but it is fascinating to see that worldview, but at the same time you wonder if he should have made a deal to have the Federation make diplomatic inroads, to promise advisers to assist in the development. This was a different case to some examples of interference, however, partly that wouldn't work because the whole point was to give the Providers something to provide from their own vast capacity, but it was also, like the overtures towards Shahna that proved ultimately a means to escape, a way out for Kirk and his crew.

It relied on certain things being true, such as the Providers honouring their wager, but Kirk was, as ever, a shrewd and quick judge of character, able to spot the weak points and push home the advantage. The same was true when he dealt with Shahna, pumping her for information, confusing her with romance and selflessness, and she was actually a character you feel sorry for. You can't really care what happens to these primary coloured brains (which oddly, didn't even seem to be the right colour - we see yellow and red in the Collars, which corresponds with the brains, but the third Provider is actually green, as is his symbol in the dome, yet blue is the third colour in the 'outside' world!), they're a tragic example of a confused belief that all things can aspire to become mental beings and cast off the shackles of physical form (without being dead!), except they're as much prisoners of their brain form as they had been before. Shahna, born into slavery and not even comprehending life outside of it, does give us something to be sad for, Kirk opening her eyes to such concepts as life among the stars, such tiny pinpoints of light that are teeming with possibilities beyond even the faintest hope or conception of a slave, was quite beautiful to the extent that when it ends with her looking up to the stars, a tear trickling down her cheek as she hopes for such a  future, it becomes the most powerful moment in the episode. If only the rest of the story had been as well written it would have gone down as a classic - I was really hoping we weren't going off to the typical jokey final scene on the Bridge because it wouldn't have fit after such a touching moment, but we didn't, making this, one of the silliest episodes, feature one of the strongest endings in the series!

You could find commonalities between this episode and 'The Cage' - that's where we first saw 'brain' people who have developed themselves to the point where they are emaciated (unless you accept 'DSC' continuity where they're much more robust! Who says these people don't get Trek…), live underground, and require other physical beings to provide what they need. Perhaps the Talosians and the Providers should have got together –hey! A thought just struck me like a drill thrall's whip: what if the Providers were actually an offshoot of the Talosians? Okay, we don't need everything to be connected like fan fiction (and modern Trek - urk!), but it would fit with the established facts we know so far. I'd have to reexamine 'The Cage' to see if it could be possible, but that would be a fun extrapolation. The terrific design of the Talosians isn't really evident in the aliens here: the brains were great, pulsating as they spoke, but Shahna in her 'silly sci-fi' silver costume, yellow Tamoon and her mop of hair, Kloog and his fangs, and Lars with his, well, nothing to say he's even alien… (and training harnesses that seemed to serve no purpose). None of them stood out as anything more than cheap aliens in the latter half of a season when the budget was probably dropping (and we'd just seen them do the same thing well in 'Journey To Babel'). I'm not saying the episode was cheap, the simple design of Galt (skin like a pumice stone, practically gliding around like a robot - some say he's 'armless), the great graphic and good set design, the simple cylindrical subterranean chamber housing the Providers, it all looks visually arresting, but there's not a lot more to what you see than surface.

Where 'The Cage' worked was in its characterisations, particularly Captain Pike and Vina, and you really don't get that here. We don't learn about anyone, neither the Enterprise crew, nor the exotic selection of aliens which Kirk describes as being creatures who belong to races scattered all through the galaxy - it would have been wonderful to explore them even a little as we did with Shahna who becomes a person rather than merely a thing to fight. The potential was there, but it's not approached, as if Shatner's a black hole that pulls everything else into his orbit. It's not normally like that, he's the magnetic centre of the series, unquestionably, but his oafish hamming, in between turning on the charm or singlehandedly turning around these 'geniuses' that are supposed to be mentally superior is yet another sign of the episode's roller-coaster reality. It's always good to have people thrown together who you wouldn't normally see, or a group of aliens (the 'TNG' episode 'Allegiance' keeps springing to mind), but not if there's no development for them. The closest it got was when Chekov sees what happened to Uhura when her drill thrall first enters her cell and the look on his face is dread as if he's wondering who his will be. I love that it was Uhura and Chekov, the more inexperienced members of the crew who accompany their Captain (and they must have been selected for their specific expertise when the original mission was to beam down to an automated station on a planet), but I needed to see them working with their Captain, and him relying on them a little.

The crew aboard the Enterprise looks decidedly different with only Spock, McCoy and Scotty of the main cast there - there's a different woman at Uhura's station again, and another at Chekov's. Sulu's spot is taken by recurring face Mr. Hadley, who appeared to have that same sixth sense that so many crewmembers in later series' displayed: they'd leap out of their chair as if they knew one of the main cast was coming up behind them to take that seat, and that's exactly what Hadley does here when Spock approaches his station! That's about the most dramatic thing that happens on the ship, though it was interesting to see the part of the Bridge to the left of the Viewscreen, an area rarely shown - it featured a bank of lights for Spock to study. As in 'Arena,' they're given the ability to watch the fight contest on the Viewscreen, where Kirk faces Lars, Kloog and Nameless Andorian, but they can do nothing to intervene. That's another thing about the episode that turns it too far towards fantasy, with the level of power these brains have. Long before Fake Khan was beaming from Earth to Qo'noS in one easy transport, they're whisking people off their starship (or United Space Ship as, pleasingly, Kirk states when explaining who they are), at a distance of lightyears. To what limits do these powers extend? I suppose you can accept it as alien power, we don't know what they are or can do, but while uncertainty can often allow for positive speculation, in this case it makes them seem too powerful.

What they did get right was the sense of alienness. They may be merely gamblers, playing with the 'lesser' beings on their patch, but the whole place is strange, yet with a history and reality. The ruins of a past civilisation are always fertile ground for the imagination, and like 'The Time Machine' this is one long-dead race that aren't actually dead. The usual ability to succeed in creating alien planets (this season especially), is another plus point as we go from the precise design of the arena to the crumbling outskirts complete with the strange alien shimmer of audible atmosphere that does more than any set design could to breathe alienness. All this is enhanced by Shahna's attitudes and fear, most ably demonstrated at the end when her Collar is unlocked and she finds a new horror of uncertainty without it. The biggest message of the story is a strong one: she wants to go with Kirk to the stars, but he tells her there is so much to learn here, on this planet, before they can reach for the stars. The groundwork is needed, the basics to be mastered before the Special is pursued. Nowadays the message would be quite the opposite: that you are all you need, you need to be you and then you can succeed at whatever you want to. The idea of building towards something, or putting in hard graft and patiently working towards a desired goal rather than having whatever you want instantly, is as alien in some quarters today as the Providers themselves. I almost upgraded the episode on the strength of that takeaway and the final scene alone.

I didn't, though. In the end it is a little too daft, the development is sorely missing and it's more that I can imagine them doing this episode so much better with only a few tweaks here and there. It still manages to send home the message about hard work and not becoming sloths, inactively bound to entertainment (not even passive, since the Providers were invested in the contest, just as we are when we play computer games), and I'm glad it exists, but there was so much potential here. Joseph Ruskin deserves special mention for playing Galt. Apart from being a constant presence on TV for decades (he appeared in so many things), he was one of those rarities that returned to Trek thirty years later to play multiple roles in its next generation with roles on 'DS9' (including Tumek the Klingon, of Grilka's House, in two episodes), 'Voyager,' 'Insurrection' and even 'Enterprise,' dying in 2013. He had one of those unique faces and voices that made him ideal for Trek and while he isn't necessarily thought of as one of the best guest actors in the franchise, his contributions do stand out, especially on 'DS9.'

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