The Omega Glory (2)

DVD, Star Trek S2 (The Omega Glory) (2)

It could be said this episode is an amalgam of various Trek ideas used before, but it could also be said this was the origin of various Trek ideas since the story was one of the original plots laid out for the series as a possible pilot. How much of the story was finished back then I don't know, and it's just as possible that some of the tropes were incorporated into this final version rather than the other way around, but it's interesting that a story that was suggested so early in development should have taken almost two years to come to fruition. Perhaps this was because they had so many ideas to take up their time that it was only at this final stretch of the second season they were able to fit it in. Alternatively, it's possible they were simply running out of ideas and had to cast around for anything that could fill a slot just to battle to the end of the season - I've already noted in recent reviews that the season was becoming tired, the last couple of episodes suggesting fatigue in the writers and actors, and this one continues the trend, although it is better, perhaps because of the advantage of being previously formed.

So what do we have? A renegade Starfleet officer who ends up on a primitive planet and decides to exercise his power for his own gain or some other motive ('Bread and Circuses' and 'Patterns of Force' to name two this season), some Starfleet crew are reduced to crystals of their components (the Kelvan punishment in 'By Any Other Name' - I'm sure the Salt Vampire from 'The Man Trap' would be happy, tasty snacks scattered all around, or should that be water vampire since that's what was removed?), there's another Constitution-class vessel ('The Doomsday Machine' and 'The Ultimate Computer' - they certainly got their money's worth out of those sets!), it's a Prime Directive issue (they certainly got their money's worth out of that concept this season!), and we come full circle to the start of the season when it was usually Kirk, Spock and McCoy beaming down together. Maybe it is that the series was starting to become a little formulaic at this point, and I'm sure in the jumbled up airing of episodes that they chose (rather than the production order in which I watch), they could have spaced out similar episodes better, but it's not that this is a dull episode, it's just that it does appear to be one seen quite a few times before.

This time it's a very specifically patriotic angle, not the Vietnam parallel of 'A Private Little War,' but an alternate history where Communists (the Kohms), were able to rise to power on this planet (Omega IV, hence the episode title, which is otherwise a little shaky), and the Americans, or Yanks, or Yangs in this case, were reduced to barbarity, though they still hold dear the American constitution. It has more meaning for the original US audience and I can't imagine Trek doing something so patriotic now as it's much more aimed at being a global brand and trying to appeal by being all things to all people in a way that this episode does not. Yet there's still something reassuring about that in old Trek, the American-centric style was like sampling another culture, similar to your own, but different, which works doubly for the fact that it is supposed to be a future culture of what humanity could be if it got its act together and if the galaxy was filled with weird and wonderful races that all exhibited an aspect of humanity and played on that to create stories that examine those aspects, something lost in the muddle of cliffhanger storytelling and desperate-to-please-everyone soap opera twists that makes up modern Trek's 'style.' In comparison, this is quite simple and straightforward, though it does have its reveals, such as the constitution and the parallels with Earth history.

If it had been the only one of its kind this season it would have stood out much more, but part of the reason I didn't warm to it as much on this viewing was that it has been done a few times, and while I usually enjoy thematically linked episodes and like to point out the consistency of similar groups of stories for categorisation purposes, this may have been one too far, especially after the lacklustre 'Patterns of Force' coming so close behind. The episode isn't helped by a lack of something between the trio of main characters (McCoy is at his most pessimistic when he says in his experience evil usually wins, an attitude you'd not expect from Trek, especially 'TOS'), and almost no establishing of the situation back on the Enterprise - there's no sign of Scotty (which suggests, if you take it with the fact that Sulu has been elevated to temporary command, that he's either incapacitated for some reason, has some vital engine work that must be overseen, or is on another assignment, dropped off on either a planet, a station or a starship), or Chekov, and this close to the end you really want to see all the cast. Spock sounds like he has a cold, which only further makes him seem a little distant (as well as being kept in a separate cell to Kirk), or muted, and McCoy is also working on his own for a chunk of the story, so there isn't that impression of brotherhood and the cast exploring things together. Instead it seems to be Kirk getting into a fight every few minutes and having to work everything out for himself.

When dodgy Captain of the USS Exeter, Ronald Tracey (perhaps a descendent of the crew of 'Thunderbirds'?), manages to take on our Captain in a fistfight, despite looking ten, or even twenty years older, I assumed it was because he'd been affected by his exposure to the planet, a potential fountain of youth that he wants to exploit (see 'Star Trek: Insurrection' for details), either because he plans to live for hundreds of years or for the profit he can make off it, Ferengi-like, or more likely, both. But later on we find out the inhabitants only live so long because they're descended from those that had the makeup to survive the disease and were thus strengthened from that hereditary immunity so there's no benefit to being there other than to get immunity from the water extraction that killed the Exeter's crew. At least I think that's what happened, I may have missed dialogue or didn't pay close enough attention… I can only assume that Tracey thought he was feeling younger and healthier, like a placebo effect, and also that Kirk was weakened by captivity and fighting the Yang captives he was thrown in with, and Tracey has the vitality of a driven madman. He also has no redeeming features, which doesn't help, I like a sympathetic villain whose motives you can at least understand, not one who is just greedy and murdering (we see him kill Redshirt, Galloway, with his Phaser).

Kirk himself doesn't appear to be at his best, usually he loves a good fight and a chance to test his mettle, but maybe having to constantly take on opponents through the episode made him sick of it. Or he was getting demoralised from having to deal with rogue Starfleet/Federation personnel and wished he could be out doing something more fun, like taking on the Klingons or Romulans? It was unlike him to let his guard down so the Yang could batter him with the metal bar they'd just dislodged from the prison window, and then he isn't able to overcome Tracey when the devious Captain takes Kirk on in words as well as fists in front of the Yangs. Kirk just seems a bit tired, which was unfortunate since he then had to do a sort of Andorian fight where he and Tracey are tied by one wrist with a curved blade left for one of them to claim - of course Kirk still prevails, then refuses to execute his opponent, sparing him in the same way he did the Gorn Captain in 'Arena,' not something the 'Evil One' would do, and proving himself good. There's a bit of theological difference to our own Bible, as although we see the book of Haggai is in there, we also get an illustration of the Devil looking like Mr. Spock, which is not theologically accurate - the pointed ears and all that comes from Medieval mythology, not Christian teaching! But we can say that not everything was identical to our own history so perhaps they'd incorporated such things into their Bible for some reason - they already were saying the constitution wrongly, like a jumble of sounds without meaning.

Spock may not have been on best form either, but at least he earned his keep by using the nerve pinch on occasion - he claims he did try to teach Kirk (shame you couldn't teach me that, says he), which suggests anyone could do it with the right technique, and borne out by both Picard, Data and Burnham employing it in other Treks. Data I can buy because he shares greater than normal strength with Vulcans, but humans? I don't believe it's ever been laid out in canon what exactly is happening - it could be strength, it could be a bit of telepathy, neither of which a human would be able to utilise, but if it's just where you press then that's a lot less mysterious and I'd rather believe Spock was making light at that moment rather than he'd actually given Kirk a lesson in the attack. His other contribution is the old close proximity telepathic suggestion which we've now seen twice (once in 'A Taste of Armageddon' and then again against the Kelvans in 'By Any Other Name'). Earlier in the episode I was wondering why he didn't employ it on the Yangs Kirk was trapped with, to give his Captain a better chance. In the end he does use it on that same girl (Sirah, though nothing to do with the guy of the same name from 'The Storyteller' on 'DS9'!), in the last scene to get her to pick up the Communicator, so I don't know why he didn't earlier. I wasn't quite sure how Spock was injured: Tracey bursts in as they're about to contact the Enterprise, phasers the machine and Spock was either touching it or standing close enough to experience the shockwave of energy? I don't think we've ever seen someone affected by being near a Phaser beam before.

I did like seeing the two starships in the same shot as the Enterprise approaches the orbiting Exeter, and we find out that (possibly), four shuttlecraft are the standard complement (as opposed to hundreds we see in modern Trek, which is utterly ludicrous - you see how much more seriously they took the internal reality back then and it really pains me how loose they are with it now), so we can assume this is true of the Enterprise, too. Once again we get to see that each ship carries its own unique badge, the Exeter's quite different as a long, horizontal strip, another detail you don't see in contemporary Trek, probably 'too much trouble' and 'who cares about such minor details when the fate of the galaxy is at stake' - I do. We see McCoy write with a stylus on a padd and he mentions biological warfare experiments in the 1990s, another reference to a period yet to happen from the perspective of the series' production - I'm surprised they didn't throw in a reference to Khan or the Eugenics Wars as that would seem to be just the sort of thing that would go on in that conflict (although the first Gulf War used chemical weapons, so…). It also adds a little more depth that this is a Prime Directive issue, that these people don't know about other worlds, and while Tracey is all for exploiting them and their planet, Kirk says they have no right or wisdom to interfere with the development of the planet, a bold statement considering his 'side' had lost in the war that was avoided on our world, as Spock says (so far, anyway…), although the Yangs were coming back strongly.

I wonder if he'd have been more open to changing the balance of power if the Yangs were being overthrown by the Kohms? That might have made for a more interesting episode because the rights and potential of the Federation-like side being quashed by Communism could have made for a much tougher dilemma. A bit like 'A Private Little War,' though in that it was about outside influence (again, the 'Communist' Klingons arming one side, so Kirk restores the balance of power), and I can't help feeling this one had more potential than it demonstrated. I like Morgan Woodward (who only died in 2019), he's one of the most expressive and energetic guest actors on the series, his role as Dr. Van Gelder in 'Dagger of The Mind' was unforgettable (especially for being the first person to be shown having a mind meld applied), and he's still strong here, but the character, like Van Gelder, comes off as being a bit mad and not much more. Why else would he throw off his allegiances and beliefs for the sake of living longer or profiting, did he really hold Starfleet's tenets so lightly? There was another actor who appeared in both 'Dagger of The Mind' and this: Ed McCready, an inmate in the former, here as Dr. Carter, the ill-fated Chief Medical Officer of the Exeter whom left a video log before he died. He'd had a couple of other small roles, too, including an SS Trooper in 'Patterns of Force.' David L. Ross (Galloway), was another to appear in multiple episodes, and like Mr. Leslie (who gets name-checked by Kirk when he beams down with Sulu and another Redshirt at the end), he returned as his character after death, although it was misspelled Galoway later.

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