THE PLOT
The Enterprise has been ordered to make contact with a telepathic race known as the Melkotians. When they encounter a Melkotian buoy carrying a warning to turn back, Kirk sticks to his orders, ignoring the warning... and finds himself and his Away Team facing unforgiving Malkotian justice!
Using their advanced telepathic powers, the Melkotians transplant Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekhov to a somewhat surreal recreation of the Old West: specifically, Tombstone, on the day of the famed gunfight at the O. K. Corral. The town is under the control of the ruthless Earps, and Kirk and his crew have been cast in the role of the Clantons. Come five o'clock, they will face a gunfight that history has shown they cannot possibly win!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: Once again, dogged in sticking to his orders, even when he realizes that there are extreme risks involved. We also see once again how deeply the prospect of losing a member of his crew troubles him. Shatner's first Season Three performance is of the same standard as most of his performances: rock steady for the most part, though he does get a bit... enthusiastic when shouting "I can't just kill them!" at the town sheriff.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: Spock uses his Vulcan mind-meld to implant suggestions into the minds of the landing party. This actually isn't much of a stretch beyond previous "mind-meld powers," given that Spock has been clearly shown implanting suggestions in people's brains before. This episode also shows Spock and McCoy yet again as a strong team, this time in creating an effective tranquilizer using 19th century tools... and that tranquilizer's failure gives Spock the clue he needs to decipher the puzzle. All in all, this is an episode where Kirk, for all his dramatics, does relatively little; it's Spock who saves the day.
Chekov: An unusually strong episode for Chekov. He gets the episode's romance (usually the reserve of Kirk), and gets to demonstrate a fair amount of bravado. He also gets a few good one-liners in the bargain, notably when he scoffs at the Earps' outdated weaponry, saying that if they shoot at him, he will "simply step out of the way."
Hot Western Babe of the Week: Bonnie Beecher is Sylvia, the young woman in love with "Billy" (Chekov). She is a fairly typical "damsel" character, with few notable characteristics. She is in love with Billy/Chekov, and is pursued by the possessive Morgan Earp. That's really about the sum of her character, though Beecher is quite appealing.
Villain of the Week: The Earps are portrayed here as something other than the heroes, or even anti-heroes, that they usually are shown to be. Here, we get a quartet of dead-eyed, impassive, implacable killers. They are not really individually characterized, save for Morgan Earp's possessiveness of Sylvia. Instead, they are forces of nature: The Four Horsemen of the Western Apocalypse. The scene in which they gather, in ones and twos, to execute Kirk & co. at the O. K. Corral, is one of many splendidly-directed moments.
THOUGHTS
The first produced episode of Season Three... and there's really no visible sign here of a season that would end up being widely seen as a huge comedown from the show's first two years. The script is tightly-constructed, the situation in which Kirk and his crew find themselves generates a reasonable degree of tension, and the regulars all play well within roles they have long since come to fit like hands in gloves.
It is a particularly memorable episode visually. Instead of going the "parallel Earth" route of Season Two and recreating a fairly faithful western street, script and production instead opt to create a bizarre landscape, a mixture of stage-like minimalism, German Expressionism, and Salvador Dali, all rolled into one. Buildings are represented by single flats against a barren landscape, under a red sky. Interiors are suffused with red, with half-finished walls (always red in the background) and half-constructed sets. It's a reasonably daring choice. If the art direction failed, it would look painfully cheap. It doesn't fail, however, and this stands as one of the most visually striking Trek episodes I can think of.
Less successful are the updated effects representing the warning buoy. There is something particularly artificial about the replacement buoy. Technically it looks better than the original... but it also looks "fake." Unlike most of the remastered effects, this one doesn't fit, and it jars every time it appears. Which, fortunately, isn't often. Still, this is one episode where I would probably suggest skipping the remastered version and staying with the original.
Rating: 8/10.
The Enterprise has been ordered to make contact with a telepathic race known as the Melkotians. When they encounter a Melkotian buoy carrying a warning to turn back, Kirk sticks to his orders, ignoring the warning... and finds himself and his Away Team facing unforgiving Malkotian justice!
Using their advanced telepathic powers, the Melkotians transplant Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekhov to a somewhat surreal recreation of the Old West: specifically, Tombstone, on the day of the famed gunfight at the O. K. Corral. The town is under the control of the ruthless Earps, and Kirk and his crew have been cast in the role of the Clantons. Come five o'clock, they will face a gunfight that history has shown they cannot possibly win!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: Once again, dogged in sticking to his orders, even when he realizes that there are extreme risks involved. We also see once again how deeply the prospect of losing a member of his crew troubles him. Shatner's first Season Three performance is of the same standard as most of his performances: rock steady for the most part, though he does get a bit... enthusiastic when shouting "I can't just kill them!" at the town sheriff.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: Spock uses his Vulcan mind-meld to implant suggestions into the minds of the landing party. This actually isn't much of a stretch beyond previous "mind-meld powers," given that Spock has been clearly shown implanting suggestions in people's brains before. This episode also shows Spock and McCoy yet again as a strong team, this time in creating an effective tranquilizer using 19th century tools... and that tranquilizer's failure gives Spock the clue he needs to decipher the puzzle. All in all, this is an episode where Kirk, for all his dramatics, does relatively little; it's Spock who saves the day.
Chekov: An unusually strong episode for Chekov. He gets the episode's romance (usually the reserve of Kirk), and gets to demonstrate a fair amount of bravado. He also gets a few good one-liners in the bargain, notably when he scoffs at the Earps' outdated weaponry, saying that if they shoot at him, he will "simply step out of the way."
Hot Western Babe of the Week: Bonnie Beecher is Sylvia, the young woman in love with "Billy" (Chekov). She is a fairly typical "damsel" character, with few notable characteristics. She is in love with Billy/Chekov, and is pursued by the possessive Morgan Earp. That's really about the sum of her character, though Beecher is quite appealing.
Villain of the Week: The Earps are portrayed here as something other than the heroes, or even anti-heroes, that they usually are shown to be. Here, we get a quartet of dead-eyed, impassive, implacable killers. They are not really individually characterized, save for Morgan Earp's possessiveness of Sylvia. Instead, they are forces of nature: The Four Horsemen of the Western Apocalypse. The scene in which they gather, in ones and twos, to execute Kirk & co. at the O. K. Corral, is one of many splendidly-directed moments.
THOUGHTS
The first produced episode of Season Three... and there's really no visible sign here of a season that would end up being widely seen as a huge comedown from the show's first two years. The script is tightly-constructed, the situation in which Kirk and his crew find themselves generates a reasonable degree of tension, and the regulars all play well within roles they have long since come to fit like hands in gloves.
It is a particularly memorable episode visually. Instead of going the "parallel Earth" route of Season Two and recreating a fairly faithful western street, script and production instead opt to create a bizarre landscape, a mixture of stage-like minimalism, German Expressionism, and Salvador Dali, all rolled into one. Buildings are represented by single flats against a barren landscape, under a red sky. Interiors are suffused with red, with half-finished walls (always red in the background) and half-constructed sets. It's a reasonably daring choice. If the art direction failed, it would look painfully cheap. It doesn't fail, however, and this stands as one of the most visually striking Trek episodes I can think of.
Less successful are the updated effects representing the warning buoy. There is something particularly artificial about the replacement buoy. Technically it looks better than the original... but it also looks "fake." Unlike most of the remastered effects, this one doesn't fit, and it jars every time it appears. Which, fortunately, isn't often. Still, this is one episode where I would probably suggest skipping the remastered version and staying with the original.
Rating: 8/10.
Previous Episode: Assignment - Earth!
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You nailed this one -- the key is the bizarre, dreamlike look and mood very rare to the series. Instead of staging it all in prosaic Gunsmoke fashion.
ReplyDeleteThe director they brought in for this ep was an old hand at westerns and in fact did more than 50 Gunsmokes, and he rose to the sci-fi occasion with this gem.
One of Spock's best TOS moments is the explanation of how there can be no reality where the natural laws of existence do not apply. This could have been a weak "It's all a dream" copout but instead it's wonderfully written and recited.
On a personal note, a history teacher once assigned us to analyze western movies through various eras to capture the mood of America. He let me use this episode as my late-60s Vietnam-era choice! Notice the numerous pacifist themes in the episode, and the way Kirk continually looks to avoid confrontation and killing.
My fave line is Kirk's "Well then, we're just not going to BE at the OK Corral at 5 o'clock!" The Melkots beg to differ, with hilarious immediacy. Of course, life is what happens when you're making other plans.