By Any Other Name (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (By Any Other Name) (2)

…And it would be interesting to return to that world on which the Kelvans settled in, say, a hundred years to learn what crop has sprung from the seed they planted there… Perhaps in a mere fifteen years or so they'll leave that world on a hunt for the Captain who left them there, to be told in a feature film: 'The Wrath of Kelvans'! Okay, so it's starting to be an overused joke on my part (starting?!), but we do keep coming upon fascinating societies or groups that Kirk and the Enterprise become entangled with and then move on with the question of what would happen from the setup established by the end of the episode. You would think from this that 'TNG' and its spinoffs, set a century afterward, could have returned to a 'TOS' civilisation every other week, or at the least several times per season, but the reality was that they wanted to create their own races, places and spaces for ideas and not get stuck falling back on the parent series' lore most of the time, beyond taking the key species for their own. I've always loved the one reference to the Kelvans in the 24th Century that we do get, as it's Mr. Worf (one of the best characters), on 'DS9' (The best series and the one that ties in most to 'TOS'), throwing in a mention of battling Kelvans twice his size. Considering he was a burly man that's not an inconsiderable foe and also suggests they returned to their natural form of huge creatures with a hundred tentacles all capable of individual control.

That's a fearsome description and for some reason I always associate the Kelvans with the Nestene from 'Dr. Who,' that alien consciousness that took the form of a nasty great squid creature. There's something unsettling and disgusting about the creeping things of the sea, so alien to our biped sensibilities, and especially those with tentacles, so it's even more diabolical to think of such beings with the intelligence of humans, or even greater (though that's questionable - their lack of emotions, squeezing them out for the sake of being able to do all the other things they could do, was brought to our knowledge by Mr. Spock who is somewhat biased when it comes to that particular subject!). Obviously in the 1960s they couldn't have come up with a convincing creature that would have worked on the tight budget of money and time (even if such creations as the Horta, the Gorn, the salt vampire, the Mugato - need I go on? - suggest they'd have given it a very good go), and while we'd seen a giant creature running through halls and causing menace to our Starfleet heroes this season (the cat in 'Catspaw'), it was one thing creating a scale model of a simple castle corridor at the start of the season, and quite another to recreate the internal Enterprise, with all its details at the other end of the season. While it makes for great interest in speculating what might have been if they'd manufactured the true Kelvan form it would have undoubtedly made for a very different episode, more of a creature feature than a study of impossible odds, an impossible journey and the impossibility of living in human form and never experiencing 'what it is to be human.'

It was quite an impossible journey, too, heading out between the galaxies into the empty void where space is actually just space, nothing else, no stars, only the tantalising shape of the Andromeda Galaxy to aim for on a lonely voyage of three hundred years to come. I think that's right, because the Enterprise under her own steam couldn't have made it: as Kirk says it would take thousands of years at ship's maximum warp, and only thanks to the modifications from the Kelvans is the time reduced. How do they know it'll take that long? Because they've already made the trip once, or their ancestors did, for this is a truly generational mission from Rojan and the gang. We aren't told how long the Kelvan lifespan is, but it's clearly shorter than three hundred years. It's a bit of a long shot to be sending out such protracted missions, but then the Kelvans are thinking of the long game: they 'only' have ten thousand years before Andromeda becomes uninhabitable (radiation), and so ships had been sent out looking for another galaxy to conquer since that's the nature of the beasts. It strikes me a little like the Founders sending out their hundred infants to explore the galaxy (ours, in that case), in order to learn about it without venturing out themselves. We presume Kelvan society, or dominion, has continued on while they wait for the ships to return with news that, yes, this galaxy is the one. I wonder why they didn't just pick one and go, except that we'd be flooded with Kelvans and there wouldn't have been a way to defeat them since they'd probably not have need of humanoid bodies and would then not have the opportunity of discovering a new identity.

When you think about it, how would an entire galaxy of civilisations migrate into an already inhabited galaxy? I know 'it's a big galaxy,' but how many Kelvans are there? (As I was travelling to the Milky Way I met a fleet three billion strong, and each ship within the fleet held ten million chambers, and each chamber held a million Kelvans, each with a family of six and a dog - three billion, ten millions, millions of six and a dog: how many going to the Milky Way?). And if the Kelvans are Lord and Master of Andromeda who do they lord it over? There must be other races, other species, and are they all set to make the trip of a lifetime, or is there a golden ticket in every million Wonka bars that selects the fortunate few whose genes will go on like the Picard family name? The numbers are incomprehensibly staggering - indeed, I have never computed them, Captain. If this were modern Trek the whole season would have been about this vast coming invasion and somehow the Kelvans would have found a way to form a bridge of some kind and would show up in the final episode to have a massive fight that you can barely see due to the camera whirling around so much and without a cohesive narrative. You can also say that there would definitely be fifteen foot Kelvans all over the place (No! Make them BIGGER: 100 foot tall and a thousand tentacles!), and their magic tech would come up against the destiny of our Starfleet heroes who would prevail because it was their destiny from touching a time crystal.

Thank goodness modern Trek didn't do the Kelvans (although there's still time and I wouldn't put anything past them), because this episode is exactly how you need to deal with concepts that are so vast and unimaginable (well, almost, otherwise we couldn't even be discussing it), and that is to go small: focus down on a group, but throw in enough dialogue (that is, words that inspire, explain and open up the mind), to conjure up Big Ideas without Big Effects. Though I'm sure the visual of the Galactic Barrier at the edge of the Galaxy (as opposed to the Great Barrier at the centre of the Galaxy which I say is an illusion!), was cutting edge at the time and might have given the episode a bit of wow factor, even though it was a reuse from the very first episode of the Kirkian era ever made ('Where No Man Has Gone Before'). That one was definitely no illusion since even with the Kelvan's advanced technology that can make a ship travel faster than we can even compute (it was less than Warp 10 since we know you'd be in every place in the galaxy at once, and presumably not just the galaxy, but the whole Universe, so in answer to the trivia question, 'who was the first man to travel to Andromeda?' we can confidently answer: Thomas Eugene Paris of the Starship Voyager, just before turning into a salamander), they either weren't prepared (and you should always be prepared for every eventuality when setting out on a three hundred year odyssey - pack an extra pair of shields just in case), or the journey had made the ship weaker, because it took out their vessel and forced them into a life craft which eventually crashed on that lovely set… I mean planet.

It wasn't my favourite planet set design, I must admit. Perhaps the natural world on a soundstage had worn off a bit since it was a novelty for how real they could make it in earlier episodes such as 'The Apple,' but it may simply have been that it wasn't as well shot or made for such a good stage for the drama, mainly because most of the episode took place on the Enterprise so there wasn't the need to spend as much effort in creating something that felt spacious and impressive, though I do give them points for the large pond they went to the bother of forming. It's not that it looks bad, as a whole, just that it wasn't used as well as other planet sets (I think of 'Metamorphosis' as a great example). Most of the drama would occur in space, but there was room for a little piece of horror when Rojan demonstrates more of his magic tech - not just the neural paralyser (similar technology to Dr. Adams' flashing ceiling light in 'Dagger of The Mind'?), which either was only selectively paralysing, or Kirk has such strong will that he's the only one who can move his eyes about while in its thrall (though Uhura also must have had willpower since she blinked a few times when the same device was used on the Bridge, unless it was Nichelle Nichols not having the willpower and couldn't help herself!). Again, that's something we saw before (Trelane's tricks are the first that spring to mind, which again we know was technology from his magic mirror rather than completely unexplained powers), but it was the deconstructing a person into the form of a dodecahedron (I assume), that took the biscuit (or rusk, or other such crumbly material).

Importantly, all the 'magic tech' of the Kelvans can be explained and feels rational and believable in the context of how it's used and spoken about - so although it might seem farfetched that with the press of a button on their belt buckles they can reduce the human form to a geometric container of all that it is to be human, at the same time we also learned later in the episode that the way they present themselves, in humanoid form, is actually a sight more palatable than the way they really are (yet Kirk bravely ignores all such qualms in the pursuit of retaking his ship, by smooching Kelinda the Kelvan, all thoughts of a hundred tentacles pushed to the back of his mind). If they can reduce themselves into our bipedal design, squashing themselves down from the size they're supposed to be, why shouldn't they also be able to condense a person into a shape? You see, it's not what they do, it's how they do it: systematic, internally consistent, a certain kind of logic to the aliens and the way they think and behave that trumps all the worst of modern magic tech that shows itself up as the lazy solutions to twist-based plotting that has ruined the current era of Trek for anyone that likes to think. You can do anything as long as you present it coherently and consistently. The dodecahedrons were like a horror version of the common Tribble that had strewn the corridors of the ship earlier in the season - instead of lovable, cute fur-balls all over the place, dusty white polygons litter the deck (it could have been worse - there might have been a horde of hungry Tribbles let loose at the same time… a disturbing thought).

I did wish someone would go round and pick up all the remains of the crew for safe storage, after all if the journey's due to take centuries they might as well do something (I calculate it would take seventeen point nine years to pick them all up, taking into account that some crewmembers might have been in hard to access areas or fallen into parts of the engine…). I wonder if this might be a form of immortality - are they perfectly preserved like Han in Carbonite, since we know they survived the 'freezing' process when we're shown them being reconstituted into normal form without a hair out of place. Or would they still age? It throws up many questions about the process, and you almost forget at the end when Kirk is simultaneously wrestling Rojan and talking him through the logic of the situation (like three-dimensional chess boxing), that this guy crushed Yeoman Whatsername down on the planet and maybe killed others, too - walking down the corridor when >CRUNCH< - whoopsie, just squashed Ensign No Name, sorry (good job no one sat on Uhura's chair by mistake!). This time I was specially looking out to see if the correct shape was the one that was crushed when Rojan demonstrates his power and intention and I'm pleased to say that if you follow it, like the shell game, it is the right one which is executed (or is it the left one, the one that was left being right - oh well, it's all relative depending on your orientation, but the point is the one that was Yeoman Whatsername was indeed the one to snuff it).

While all the fun of the Kelvan fair is transpiring the episode isn't short of 23rd Century life, hinted at in the subtle touches of the set dressing. We see them relaxing in the Mess, McCoy playing a game with circular playing cards (is he hard at work on inventing the rules of Fizzbin, inspired by Kirk's idea in the previous episode - all I know is that when Quark played the game it was with circular cards!), perhaps for something to do in the long decades of bleak travel ahead of them - it could well be the first game invented outside our galaxy! Also in that room we see a three-dimensional game of Draughts (or Chequers to some)! I had no idea they ever made one, with 3D Chess the one I always think of (again taking the limelight away from the simpler game as we see Spock beating Rojan at it in this episode - was he getting the Roj' riled up as a test of his theory that they'd be affected by emotion, or did he want to be able to claim he'd beaten someone from another galaxy at the game?), but no, there it sat on the table for anyone to play. Until Kirk rolled over it in the fight with Rojan, disintegrating a great prop and perhaps why it was never seen again because it wasn't so easy to simply replicate a new one in those days. Or was it? This season there appeared to be evidence for Food Slots, or Food Synthesisers, not being Replicator-like, but then in this one Rojan states they can't synthesise enough food for the entire journey, giving him reason to off most of the crew…

Hmm… they have enough power to travel at faster than top speed for centuries and yet not enough to power the Synthesisers for that time? Are they saying all the power will be needed to transport them there, or that there are only finite levels of materials which can be synthesised into food? And even if you took out ninety-seven percent, say, of the crew, keeping Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a select few for emergencies, would that really extend their food source sufficiently? It's not like they can stop off at a planet on the way to replenish supplies, so how does this work? It's a big puzzle and doesn't throw much light on the workings of the Food Synthesisers, but I think we just have to take it that the Kelvan technology which could modify the ship for such an extended journey, far beyond what it was ever designed to sustain, must also be able to eke out other areas of life such as food. Then again, it could be that they only really eat food pills, tiny supplements that give them all they need without the pleasure, as McCoy said of Hanar (played by Stewart Moss who'd been Tormolen in 'The Naked Time' and died in 2017), dosing him up with shots of something to make him irritable (surely not acceptable under the Hippocratic Oath?), and clearly Tomar relished the new experience of eating the way humans are supposed to eat. Makes you wonder how long they'd been in human form - it could have been as little as just before Kirk and crew met them. But then how did they get their detailed knowledge of human ways, calling their home galaxy Andromeda when that's a human construct? Or how does he know what humans are, have they encountered them? Or did I fail to pick something up from dialogue?

It's one of those solutions like the common cold defeating alien invaders that is now all too common, but in the Sixties maybe wasn't quite as well established - and it stumbles upon them by chance when Tomar wanders into the Mess and shows interest in what they're eating: get the aliens who are unfamiliar with feelings and sensations to be overwhelmed by same in order to defeat them, unused to such 'heightened senses' of the shells they inhabit. It was played for comedy more than drama in later Trek (I think of various Ambassadors, but specifically the ones in 'Liaisons' on 'TNG' and 'Someone To Watch Over Me' on 'Voyager'), as it was here, though with high stakes: the fate of the galaxy was going to eventually be in the balance when Rojan's descendants made it back to Kelva to let them know the Milky Way was the place to go, plenty of planets to take over, lots of little people to conquer. But it was all called off because they realised, thanks to Kirk's persuasiveness, that they had become aliens themselves through lack of exposure to their own culture, they'd grown apart with only memory tapes of Kelvan life, not actual experience. When faced with that it seemed reasonable to settle down on the planet they'd already been living on and with the prospect of the Federation sending a robot ship to Andromeda with a proposal for evacuation, their mission can be over, free to live life as they've found it, even if they do claim to be creatures of space and prefer artificiality, maybe that was just the clinging to life's familiarity of journey to the new galaxy and perhaps 'real' Kelvans are as outdoor as any other species.

Do we know if a robot ship was ever actually sent? With the Kelvans happy to settle down they aren't a threat any more, so perhaps the Federation grew complacent. I'm sure they'd have put people on it at first, but after a while perhaps the need for such a project lessened. This could be what made the Kelvans fight against the Federation in the 24th Century as we come full circle to Mr. Worf and his claim - they were outraged that no ship had been sent and went to war? It's possible. It's also possible that in the 26th Century when the Kelvans of Andromeda realised there was still no message from an expedition that should have taken three hundred years to get there, and another three hundred to get back (so they left in our 20th Century!), that something was amiss and decided to send another, larger force. And when you're dealing with six hundred years at a time you realise that the ten thousand year deadline doesn't seem that far off after all…Will 'Discovery' tackle the Kelvans, since it went to the 33rd Century? As I said before, I sort of hope they leave well alone because they haven't demonstrated an awareness of either good sci-fi or even basic drama, but at the same time it is fun to speculate on the Kelvan situation, both the humanised versions settled on the planet or their counterparts in the other galaxy and that makes the episode far bigger in the mind than it ever was on screen. It also proves a strong ending to the episode, too, without a joke, just a triumphant realisation that the Kelvans may as well be like us because that's what they'll be by the time they get to Kelva, the Enterprise turning away from the distant wonder of a galaxy that will have to wait until extragalactic travel becomes a reality, beyond even the furthest Trek dreams.

Another intriguing aspect of this episode is seeing Kirk once again not at his best. He's uncertain, indecisive, he witnesses the cruel death of Yeoman Thompson (played by Julie Cobb who was once married to Zefram Cochrane Mark II, James Cromwell!), in the hand of Rojan, blackmailed into taking the ship beyond the galaxy, trapped in a hopeless situation beyond his control. Part of the reason he succeeded was the naivety of the Kelvans toward those they conquered. They were arrogant about their power, felt the humans posed very little threat, and allowed them the run of the ship, to be talked to and worked on individually until a plan was made. But the first plan is to end it all, sacrifice the ship for the future of our galaxy, even though any invasion will take place well outside their own lifespans. Scotty's on that Bridge with his finger poised over the button that will flood the engines and explode the Enterprise and everyone in her, but Kirk has this nagging doubt about this course of action as the only solution. It's not that he wouldn't do it, but you can tell instinct is within him that another way can be found. I love that moment when they're crossing the Barrier and Scotty keeps verbally nudging his Captain, the one chance is almost over - the discipline the Engineer shows and the respect he has for his Captain, even though he thinks this is the only way out, is truly inspiring and is exactly what Trek is about - I can't imagine Burnham following orders to such a degree when she thought she knew better, disobeying authority became second nature on 'DSC,' much to its detriment. In the end the situation was academic as the Kelvans knew of the plot and had already prevented it, but that doesn't detract from the drama of the scene wherein the characters didn't know what their actions would lead to.

It often seems that when Kirk is at his weakest and finds a way out is when he shows himself strongest and this is exactly that kind of situation - William Shatner looked tired, Kirk was put through a lot, his usual skills seemingly foiled, but he was able to succeed despite all that. McCoy flies off the handle at his failure to destroy the ship, he sees it as the last chance they had, but I don't believe even he would have pushed the button against Kirk's orders. Scotty does his bit in other ways, too, getting Tomar drunk in his Quarters, the first time we'd ever seen them I believe, laid out quite differently to other examples such as the ones Kelinda, and presumably Rojan occupied, had the same layout as Kirk's, except with alternate set decoration. Scotty has a kilt hanging up, armour, and the only thing missing are all the schematics he loves to pore over, but I imagine he keeps them all on 'tape,' the coloured disks Starfleet uses for data storage at this time. We see a great example of them laid out on a table by the Food Slots in the Mess - I imagine they were all food choices that crewmembers could push in the slot, though how they knew what was on them I don't know. Maybe they put them in the computer on the same table first, then transferred to the Synthesiser slot? It was also fun to notice both a ladder and a Tri-ladder in almost the same shot - when Spock and Scotty climb down that yellow exit ladder from the Engineering annexe just along the corridor is access to the Tri-ladder. And I'm not sure I ever noticed before that doors are different colours: everyone remembers the Bridge Turbolift has a red door, but Sickbay and the Mess both have pale blue doors and McCoy's lab has a yellow one!

The arrogance of the Kelvans is also a weakness - they believe humans will face the end of their existence as they've known it and the idea of colonising, at first, is distasteful because they're used to taking what they want, not sharing what others have. Kirk right away wants to take their problem to the Federation, but they have no interest in help, yet they've already demonstrated flaws in themselves and their technology merely by their ship not surviving the Barrier (but at least they didn't get silver eyes and delusions of godhood - has Starfleet improved its shields since the earlier encounter or was there no one aboard who had the genetics to be activated by the strange properties of this phenomenon?), which Kirk confidently mentions knowing about because they've been there, a beautiful piece of continuity (even if it's hard to take how quick the Enterprise could make it there!). We're tantalised by Kirk's assertion that the Federation has handled foreign invasions before, making you wonder to what he's referring. It's vague enough that it could provide great potential for a series set in the early days of the Federation ('Enterprise' was pre-Federation), and it can't be referring to the Romulan War since that occurred before the founding. Even the misjudged, pitiful Klingon 'task force' seen heading towards Earth at the end of (the misjudged, pitiful), Season 1 of 'DSC' couldn't be counted as an invasion so who knows where these invaders hailed from?

Another spot-on reference comes with Kirk asking Spock to use the same technique that worked before on the guard of Eminiar VII ('A Taste of Armageddon'), something I've recalled in at least one recent review when they've been held captive. This time it both backfires, but also gives Spock the necessary mental understanding of who these people are and how they tick, invaluable information in the end, so I love that an existing piece of lore was used, but not in the same way, they do get out of the cave (constructed by the Kelvans?), but it avails them nothing. Instead of being a tired retread of an idea that worked fine once, but could make things too easy for Spock, it has a different effect and that makes it more real. Spock is shown to have another ability, which he has used before, but usually in the service of recovering from traumatic injury rather than as a ruse to get him and McCoy up to the ship. The Kelvans aren't monsters, they claim to have a code of honour, so though they treat their prisoners as they see fit, they also understand they have value to them (that is until the ship's through the Barrier, then everyone's expendable and they show themselves to be much more monstrous by being inhuman - or is that being more human?), so Spock's ability to put himself into complete relaxation almost to the point of death was exceedingly useful and made sense since they must have known he'd performed some kind of mind probe on Kelinda - I'm surprised they didn't play up that side of it.

And for once a Turbolift doesn't wait until it's convenient for it to arrive at its destination - usually in Trek if a conversation happens within one of these, what are supposed to be super fast lifts, it never takes longer than the journey as if the travel time fits with the required dialogue, but not this time! Kirk is discussing the plan to blow up the ship, with which he's extremely conflicted, but he doesn't have time to finish his thought as the doors open and he's on the Bridge. That made a lot of sense and also added to the drama in what is an episode of dramatic ideas. Not everything works so well, I already mentioned the planet set not enthusing me, but we also see Spock wheeled into Sickbay on a trolley. I wonder why they didn't beam him directly from the planet's surface to a Biobed? All things being considered, while this isn't an absolute favourite of mine, it does present so much imagination and affords much speculation that it's a pleasure to consider and is all the better for it. Not quite sure how apt the title is, it sounds like they just wanted a Shakespearean connection without there being a direct connection, other than Kirk using those words - maybe it's about the Kelvans themselves being like a rose that would smell as sweet by any other name since they become human yet are not? They could always do a series based in Andromeda, though clearly that would have to be the Kelvan Universe…

***