“The Gamesters of Triskelion”
Written by Margaret Armen
Directed by Gene Nelson
Season 2, Episode 17
Production episode 60346
Original air date: January 5, 1968
Stardate: 3211.7
Captain’s log. The Enterprise has arrived at Gamma II, an automated communications and astrogation station on which they are doing a maintenance check. Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov arrive at the transporter room, but before Scotty can even activate the transporter, the landing party disappears. They arrive on a planet that definitely isn’t Gamma II—the sun is wrong, and they seem to be in some kind of arena. They can’t contact the ship—and then they’re confronted by four people carrying spears and knives. Their phasers don’t work, so they try hand to hand. Chekov takes on the biggest one, and is quickly subdued, while Uhura gets stuck fighting two women at once and is also captured. Kirk, meanwhile, takes the easy way out and goes after the smaller man, and does fine until one of the women subdues him.
Back on the Enterprise, Scotty reports that there’s no equipment malfunction on their end, the landing party just disappeared, and Spock scans Gamma II to find no sign of them, nor of anything else, on the planet or in the solar system. Ensign Jana Haines at the science station does detect a fluctuating energy reading in a hydrogen cloud, which Spock identifies as an ionization trail. It’s the only lead they have, so he has Haines set a course following that trail.
A man named Galt appears in the middle of the arena. He knows everyone’s name, and says they’ll be invaluable here. Galt is the Master Thrall of Triskelion. The trio are taken to a cell and shackled to a wall. Collars are placed on their necks, which are similar to those on the other four combatants, and Galt as well.
The landing party is taken to their quarters: cells that are labelled with their names (in English!). They try to make a break for it, but Galt stops them by activating the collars, which light up and cause great pain.
One of the combatants from earlier, whose name is Lars, identifies himself as Uhura’s drill thrall and enters her cell. He attacks her, and she screams, though she appears generally unhurt when Lars angrily leaves, saying she can’t reject being chosen.
The two women are the drill thralls for Kirk and Chekov. Shahna brings Kirk food and a significant amount of attitude, while Tamoon is much friendlier to Chekov. Kirk learns from Shahna that the colors of the tabs on the collars indicates which Provider owns the thrall who wears it. For now, the landing party’s collars are white until they’re purchased by a Provider. Kirk tries to get more information out of Shahna, and also flirts with her, but she isn’t very talkative.
The landing party is brought out to the arena, where they are trained with spears that also can be used as staffs (and also look like they can be used as coatracks…). The training is interrupted by Galt, who brings out a thrall who reacted too slowly and now gets to be the practice dummy for training. Uhura refuses to attack a defenseless person, and so she is to be the practice target instead. However, Kirk insists that he suffer any punishment, as he is responsible for his crew. He is bound and put in the arena with Kloog, the big guy, who is armed with a whip and a net. Kirk manages to loosen his bonds enough to get his arms in front of himself and go on the offensive, eventually choking and subduing Kloog.
Suddenly, the Providers are heard from, in voice only, as they start to bid on the newcomers. Provider 1 gets the high bid of two thousand quatloos, and Galt changes the tabs on their collar to red. They’re now full-fledged thralls.
Shahna takes Kirk running. Kirk is now shirtless (since his uniform was shredded by Kloog’s whip). On a rest, he tries to question her more, but she remains unhelpful. He tries to explain about freedom, a concept utterly foreign to her, and about love, which is even more foreign. When she gets all nervous, Kirk changes tactics and asks about the Providers. When she tries to answer, her collar lights up and she writhes in pain. Kirk yells to the sky, taking responsibility for her behavior. The Provider is intrigued by this whole “compassion” thing and explains that Kirk better learn obedience, and quick.
Kirk comforts Shahna, who is surprised and confused by Kirk’s willingness to take responsibility for her suffering. And then they smooch, because of course they do. Any further nookie is interrupted by Galt who says there won’t be punishment this time because the Providers find him interesting.
On the Enterprise, McCoy and Scotty complain to Spock about the wild hunch he’s playing, even though Spock insists it isn’t a hunch but the only course of action available given the beam that was directed at Gamma II and the complete lack of any other evidence to explain what happened to the landing party. Spock reminds them that he’s in command and that what he says goes. McCoy and Scotty back off—they’re not interested in mutiny, just a rational discussion—and Spock also agrees to go back to Gamma II and do a new search if this lead doesn’t pan out.
Shahna brings Kirk food, and she’s very uncomfortable with what happened between her and Kirk. So of course Kirk knocks her unconscious and takes her key, quickly freeing the other two. Chekov subdued Tamoon, and Uhura got rid of Lars, but they only get as far as the arena before Galt appears and punishes them.
The Enterprise arrives at Triskelion, detecting a concentration of life forms in the lower hemisphere. Spock and McCoy intend to beam down, but the Providers take control of the ship. Even as both the Providers and Kirk provide a huge mass of exposition to Spock and the others to explain what is happening, Kirk challenges the Providers to show themselves. So they teleport Kirk down to a facility beneath the surface, where he meets three colored brains in a jar. They used to have bodies, but they evolved beyond that. Kirk points out that gambling on arena fights is unworthy of their superior intellect.
Once the Providers announce their intention to destroy the Enterprise, Kirk changes tactics. He says that humans wager on everything, and that it’s in their nature to win. Kirk wagers that his landing party can win a fight against an equal number of thralls with weapons of their choosing. If Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov win, the Enterprise goes free, the thralls are also freed and will be educated and made into a self-governing society, with the help of the Providers (when they balk at that, Kirk points out that humans have been doing that for centuries, and is there really something humans can do that the Providers can’t?). If the thralls win, then all four hundred-plus people on the Enterprise will become thralls. The Providers say those are high stakes, and Kirk snottily replies, “Not for true gamesters.”
The Providers have one change: it must be Kirk alone against three thralls. Kirk says 3-1 are pretty long odds, and one Provider snottily replies, “Not for a true gamester.” Thus firmly placed on his own petard, and given that the alternative is death for him and his crew, Kirk accepts.
Kirk is sent to the arena, armed with a spear, facing Kloog, Lars, and an Andorian. Kirk must stay on the yellow parts of the arena floor, while the other three have to stay on the blue parts. The fight is to the death. If Kirk only wounds an opponent, that thrall will be replaced by a fresh one.
Kirk does fairly well (though he steps on the blue parts of the floor more than once without comment), killing Kloog with the Andorian’s spear, then ducking in time so that the Andorian’s spear toss impales Lars rather than Kirk. Kirk then takes down the Andorian, so he must be replaced; Galt chooses Shahna, who’s pissed that Kirk lied to her. She subdues Kirk, but hesitates to strike the killing blow. Kirk then subdues her, but does not kill her. However, despite this totally violating the terms of the wager, the Providers say that Kirk has won.
The collars are deactivated. The Providers promise to abide by the terms of the wager and educate the thralls. Shahna asks if Kirk can take her with him to the “lights in the sky,” but he says she has too much to learn on Triskelion first. They beam back, and Shahna looks up at the sky and promises to follow him some day.
Fascinating. Spock mentions that they have to hope they can track the landing party down, and McCoy points out Spock’s always said that hope is a human failing. Spock’s rejoinder: “Constant exposure does result in a certain degree of contamination.”
I’m a doctor not an escalator. McCoy insists that Spock is wrong to track the energy trail when it’s far more likely that they’re somewhere near Gamma II. Spock’s aggressive embrace of logic and rationalism prevents him from actually doing an I-told-you-so dance when they arrive at Triskelion.
Hailing frequencies open. Uhura rather unfairly has to take on two opponents when they first beam down, and Shahna and Tamoon are able to subdue her. She’s also defiant to Lars in her cell and to Galt when he orders them to attack another thrall.
I cannot change the laws of physics! Scotty stands right by McCoy in saying that Spock is wrongity-wrong-wrong-wrong when he is in fact 100% right.
It’s a Russian invention. Where Kirk flirts with his drill thrall, and Uhura fights hers off, Chekov just sorta sits nervously and stammers around his.
No sex, please, we’re Starfleet. Kirk wastes no time in hitting on Shahna, whose outfit is hilariously skimpy even by the high standards of a William Ware Theiss costume.
Channel open. “I would welcome a suggestion, Doctor, even an emotional one, as to where to look.”
“First time you’ve ever asked me for anything, and it has to be an occasion like this.”
Spock showing how desperate he is, and McCoy totally forgetting that Spock asked him for something in “Amok Time.”
Welcome aboard. The late great Joseph Ruskin makes the first of several Trek appearances as Galt. He’ll return on Deep Space Nine as Tumek in “The House of Quark” and “Looking for par’Mach in All the Wrong Places” and as a Cardassian in “Improbable Cause“; on Voyager as a Vulcan master in “Gravity”; on Enterprise as a Suliban doctor in “Broken Bow”; and in the movie Insurrection as a Son’a.
The Providers are voiced by Bart LaRue, Walker Edmiston, and Robert C. Johnson. LaRue previously did the voices of Trelane’s father (“The Squire of Gothos“) and the Guardian (“The City on the Edge of Forever“) and appeared as the games announcer in “Bread and Circuses“; he’ll be back in “Patterns of Force” and “The Savage Curtain.” Edmiston did the voice of Balok, dubbing Clint Howard, in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” and did various voices in “The Return of the Archons,” “A Taste of Armageddon,” “This Side of Paradise,” “Friday’s Child,” and “Amok Time.” Johnson is best known as the voice on the tape at the top of every Mission: Impossible episode, and he also did voice work in “The Cage,” and upcoming in “The Immunity Syndrome” and “Assignment: Earth.”
B-movie actor Angelique Pettyjohn plays Shahna, the textbook example of the Alien Babe Whom Kirk Seduces. Stunt coordinator Dick Crockett plays the Andorian, while Steve Sandor plays Lars, Jane Ross plays Tamoon, Mickey Morton plays Kloog, and the Enterprise crew are played by Victoria George and recurring regulars Nichelle Nichols, James Doohan, and Walter Koenig.
Trivial matters: This is the first of several Trek scripts by Margaret Armen. She also wrote or co-wrote the third-season episodes “The Paradise Syndrome” and “The Cloud Minders,” the animated episodes “The Ambergris Element” and “The Lorelei Signal,” and a script for the abortive Phase II series, “Savage Syndrome.” This episode received uncredited rewrites by both Gene L. Coon and John Meredyth Lucas.
This is the first and only onscreen mention of the monetary unit known as the quatloo, though it has taken root in Trek fandom as a joke currency.
Phaedra M. Weldon wrote a sequel to this episode in Strange New Worlds, “The Lights in the Sky,” which takes place around the time of the Generations prelude, in which Shahna is Triskelion’s ambassador to the Federation.
This episode was parodied on the “Deep Space Homer” episode of The Simpsons.
To boldly go. “A hundred quatloos on the newcomer!” There are a lot of reasons why I wish this misbegotten piece of crap didn’t exist, but mostly it’s because the vast majority of the dismissive criticisms and stupid clichés that have accreted regarding Star Trek over the past five decades come from this damn episode.
We’ve got that old standby, our heroes placed in an arena where they have to fight other folks for the enjoyment of some manner of overseers. We have the “highly evolved” beings who toy with lesser life forms for sport. We have those same evolved beings conned by Kirk’s verbal trickery. We have our shirtless hero (with manly manly scars from being whipped) defeating three foes at once. For good measure, we also have lots of Spock-McCoy arguing, which doesn’t serve any useful purpose except to fill time and give them something to do, since in fact Spock’s course of action actually makes perfect sense.
And, of course, we have our hero and the green-haired woman in the skimpy silver outfit, who has her entire view of the universe changed because James T. Kirk kissed her.
It’s not all bad—I do like the casual use of a female officer to run navigation and the science console in Chekov’s absence. There are some great voices at work here, as Joseph Ruskin, Bart LaRue, Walker Edmiston, and Robert C. Johnson are among the finest vocal stylists ever to grace a TV screen. And, uh—well, Angelique Pettyjohn sure did look good in the shiny silver outfit!
Yeah, I got nothin’. Just a blight on the Trek landscape.
Warp factor rating: 1
Next week: “Obsession”
Keith R.A. DeCandido will be at First CON-tact this weekend at the New York LaGuardia Airport Marriott in Queens, New York. He’ll be doing a panel on genre fiction alongside fellow author Ilana C. Myer and also have a table where he’ll be selling books and signing autographs.
Y’know, it’s funny, I was surprised when I realized this was after “A Private Little War.” I always think of this as a third-season episode……………..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
Surely it rates at least a “2” for getting Uhura off the bridge (should’ve kicked Lars in his tenders for his troubles). Never did like this episode much, but I agree Shahna’s outfit is choice… my wife wore something close to it when she performed in “Fandom At The Opera”.
I thought it seemed strange that Lars told Uhura right off the bat that he was selected for her but Tamoon merely suggested selection to Chekov as something that might happen in the future. And because Lars was so personally dejected that she fought him, and the Providers didn’t punish her (or Kirk in her place as her commander) despite him saying that it is forbidden to refuse selection, I’d venture a guess that Lars lied to her for his own (ahem) benefit. It also seems to me that it would be cheating for any Provider to try to “select” any thrall who hasn’t been vended to him.
My only comment is that Shahna and Tamoon’s hair looks like cotton candy for some reason. Next!
“He attacks her, and she screams, though she appears generally unhurt when Lars angrily leaves, saying she can’t reject being chosen.” — I think it’s worth noting that Lars does not look entirely unhurt when he leaves. I’ve always gotten the impression that Uhura did some damage in fighting him off.
I agree the episode has its problems (including Margaret Armen’s fondness for ludicrously on-the-nose alien names — a triskelion is a three-armed figure like the one on the floor of the arena), but I’ve always kind of enjoyed it. Kirk is in top form as a blarney artist, manipulating the Providers into giving him a chance to free the thralls. And aside from the cliche of the space hero making out with the space babe, I think the Kirk-Shahna subplot shows how powerful it can be to show compassion to people who’ve grow up without knowing it.
I’m surprised you didn’t go harder on its sexism, though — on the one hand, the ultra-space-babe presentation of Shahna, and on the other hand, the humor at the expense of the “ugly girl” Tamoon.
500 quatloos that someone claims this as their favorite episode before comment 20!
1000 quatloos that someone else will try to get KRAD to raise his rating!
I do love this episode. Everything that pop culture knows from Trek can be pretty much distilled into this single episode. For that alone it should be celebrated. It is the quintessential Trek experience.
When I watched TOS with some friends a few years back, the only real enjoyment I recall getting out of this episode were the running jokes on our part that, for all we know, Galt is actually just a floating head who uses that cape to disguise his lack of body. (I’m pretty sure we never see his arms or legs, at least.)
-Andy
The Providers still strike me as imitations of IT from “A Wrinkle in Time” (but not nearly as scary).
Yeah, but – Angelique Pettyjohn, Warp Factor: 9.5. Saved the episode for the pre-adolescent me, back in the day :D
“She also wrote or co-wrote the third-season episodes The Paradise Syndrome and The Cloud Minders,”
Huh. I loathe both of those episodes. Don’t like The Lorelei Signal either but I can’t remember The Ambergris Element. I’m guessing I don’t like it. :p
This ep? The tiresome fighting. The sexy alien for Kirk to (censored) in one of the most gawdawful costumes of the entire series. Sadistic “evolved beings.”
I’ll give it a one for the “quatloos” reference only.
But a real crap sandwich of a show.
This episode is Bill Theiss at his finest. Okay, Angelique Pettyjohn’s outfit is Bill Theiss at his finest. I say this not in a prurient way, but this is the quintessential Bill Theiss costume, even more so than Droxine’s.
As for the sexism – Christopher (@5), I think it’s so rampant that it hardly bears mentioning. I mean, seriously, this animated gif of Shahna is straight-up ridiculous – yes, it’s a gif, but all her writhing…ugh. The scene between Chekov and Tamoon is painful. I’m getting disgusted just writing about it.
@/12 TBonz: I’ll agree this episode’s a lemon, but there are those of us who are rather fond of ‘The Paradise Syndrome’ & ‘The Cloud Minders’, so to each his own.
Having read a detailed synopsis of the unproduced ‘Savage Syndrome’, it really feels we missed out on what might have been a thrilling fun episode. In many ways it parallels the TNG episode ‘Genesis’, but without the physical de-evolutionary aspects that took away any verisimilitude (why oh why they didn’t just recycle the ‘Savage Sydrome’ script with Picard & crew as they did with ‘The Child’ I’ll never know).
You all really need to check out the cartoon on this episode in the “Planet of Hats” archive:
http://www.mezzacotta.net/planetofhats/episodes/0046.html
It is one of my very favorite of David Morgan-Mar’s Star Trek episode cartoons.
I feel like I should be able to say something in this episode’s defense but have no idea what.
It’s better in black and white. Or less painful. Does that count?
Uhura gets action scenes that don’t involve hailing frequencies. That’s got to be worth something.
@2/Bob Ahrens, 16/Ellynne: I agree. Uhura has some great scenes. That really elevates this episode. It should be a “2”. (@7/jmeltzer: You’re welcome!)
@5/Christopher, 13/Meredith: I don’t think it’s all that sexist. I mean – everybody fights to the death, everybody gets their mates assigned, both Uhura and Chekov get sexually harassed, everybody wears skimpy outfits. True gender equality. Plus a female navigator on the Enterprise, and the aforementioned Uhura scenes.
@15/Saavik: Yes! That’s my favourite too. With Chekov and Sulu’s Greek chorus in Amok Time as a close second.
If the providers evolved “beyond humanoid form”, I wonder: How do brains procreate?
Hmm. Trying to think of something good to say…Oh yeah. Uhura got to get away from the damn communications console and get some good scenes, and Ensign Haines was pretty cool, too. I like her being at navigation was treated as just another day. Angelique Pettyjohn did look great in those silver undies. Oh and the remastered version of Gamma II was cool, with rings around the planet and…Okay now I’m reaching.
Yeah, I’d give it a 2 just for getting Uhura off the ship.
The episode itself is stupid as ****, but I very much like the dynamics between Spock and McCoy and Scotty on the Enterprise. Especially the part when he conspirationally “suggests” they declare mutiny (the delivery of that line by Nimoy is comic gold).
Spock certainly learned a thing or two about how to lead “emotional humans” after his less-then-successful command mission in The Galileo Seven!
I also liked Kirk’s final verbal showdown with the providers. Yes, it serves a very silly plot, but the scene itself is wonderful both in scripting and in Shatner’s acting.
For these two things alone, I think, the episode deserves a 2.
@15: Okay, that was brilliant XD
Even with the recap I barely remember this, and I saw every TOS episode dozens of times since it was in syndication on Channel 20 here in the DC area (with Captain 20!) in the mid to late 70’s when I was a pre/early teen.
Looking at the screencaps, I think William Shatner does a self-parody here. Which is probably the best thing to do with a script like this.
I’ll give Margaret Armen at least some credit. She’s the one of the very few Trek writers who tried to give Uhura something to do, both here and in the TAS episode Lorelei Signal. It’s also nice to revisit Ruskin, knowing he’d be quite involved in later Trek spinoffs.
Other than that, I got nothing either. I know network TV is a sausage machine, and something has to be shot tomorrow. Sometimes, you shoot whatever lousy script you have with no time to refine it, clichés and all.
What I don’t get is what were they thinking when they came up with this? I can even imagine the half-assed story pitch: Kirk & co. are trapped on a planet, and are forced to fight to the death thanks to the whims of evolved brain gamblers. It doesn’t even sound good on paper. Supposedly, Coon was physically and mentally exhausted from running the show, so in a way this reflects that. Nevertheless, everyone is to blame for this: Roddenberry, Coon, Lucas, Armen and Fontana.
Angelique is gorgeous. The costume is jaw-dropping, but that’s not nearly enough to save an episode. No amount of cleavage can save this story from being boring. Spock’s Brain manages to be funnier than this episode.
@17/Jana: I was thinking more of the way Tamoon was treated, making a joke out of Chekov’s dismay at being pursued by the ugly girl while Kirk got the hot girl. So that the two female characters’ intrinsic worth was defined based on their attractiveness. I agree the other bits you mentioned are relatively progressive, but the Tamoon stuff is unfunny and unkind.
@23/Eduardo: I’d say a number of TAS episodes gave Uhura a fairly substantial role, and Sulu as well. They felt more like equal members of the ensemble there. “The Slaver Weapon” stands out — since Larry Niven was just doing a faithful retelling of “The Soft Weapon” with Trek characters plugged into the lead roles, it featured only Spock, Sulu, and Uhura aboard a shuttlecraft. “Once Upon a Planet” also gives Uhura and Sulu pretty sizeable roles, and Uhura implicitly has the conn in “BEM” while the other main characters are on the planet.
As for what they were thinking, I’d say this episode falls into the stock category of a Spartacus story. TV, comics, etc. are littered with stories where the heroes get enslaved as gladiators and inspire their fellow slaves to revolt. Of course, they’d just done a “Roman gladiators” story more literally in “Bread and Circuses,” but I guess they figured this one was dressed up enough with sci-fi elements to feel different.
My young self in the 1970s was not all that critical a viewer. For some reason, this episode was enjoyable.
Some of the worst episodes are the most iconic — this one, “Miri,” the one with Landru. Some of the best are good because they are atypical for the show. In these bad-but-essential episodes, something in the subtext or fable or character work got into my child subconcious, regardless of the theatrical quality of the production.
@24/Christopher: I see. Interesting, because I thought the joke was on Chekov, and I found that unfunny and unkind. Like, why is sexual harassment supposed to be funny when the victim is male? I guess you can look at it in two ways.
@26/Jana: But that’s the thing — in a TV script of the era, if the woman hitting on Chekov had looked like Shahna, he would’ve been loving it. (It’s basically the same situation as Drusilla throwing herself at Kirk in “Bread and Circuses.”) But because she wasn’t pretty, he was horrified.
Think of it this way: Shahna is Jessica Rabbit and Tamoon is Lena Hyena. A male lead being horrified that an ugly woman is pursuing him romantically is a stock joke. TV Tropes, inevitably, has a whole page about it, although it covers a broader range of types of “Abhorrent Admirer.” And, surprisingly, Tamoon is not counted there.
I remember this episode vividly as “technicolor brain colosseum,” which is at least as silly as the actual title.
I still wonder why there’s an ion trail left by the space brains’ transportation method (it suggests leaving molecular bits behind in a very uncomfortable way), but of course all transporters work as the plot dictates.
@10: they’re like IT’s slovenly younger siblings who have decided that totalitarianism is too boring, they’re going to play Mortal Kombat with real people instead.
@28/Quill: The ion trail is found in a hydrogen cloud. No doubt the cloud’s hydrogen atoms were ionized by the energy of the interstellar transporter beam. So, no, it wasn’t leaving anyone’s molecules behind.
@27/Christopher:You’re right, but I still think it’s mean to Chekov too. I read the entry you linked to and followed some of the links, and under “Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male” I found the statement that “the basic Double Standard at work in this trope is sexist on both sides”. That fits pretty well. If Tamoon were a man and Chekov a woman, we would be expected to detest Tamoon and feel sorry for Chekov; because it’s the other way round, both of them are ridiculed.
I gotta admit, I always found Shahna’s tin-foil bikini more ridiculous than sexy. It’s like something from a parody of B-movie sci-fi. More QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE than STAR TREK . . ..
Hell, Barbarella’s outfits are less silly . . ..
That Planet of Hats comic is brilliant. A hilarious summary of a ridiculous episode.
@24/Christopher: The problem with taking the Spartacus approach is doing it without tackling the consequences it would have to the characters. That’s the problem with being plot driven and under the clock. The biggest problem with Triskelion is that it doesn’t change Kirk in any fundamental way as a character. He doesn’t seem remotely affected by the experience. At least A Private Little War had Kirk emotionally reacting to the events around him. And you reminded me by Bread and Circuses was visibly superior as a whole.
@33/Eduardo: I wasn’t defending the execution of the story, just addressing your question “What were they thinking when they came up with this?” They were probably thinking of doing a spacey take on the stock gladiator-revolt plot.
Planet of Hats is generally brilliant, highly recommended reading.
Of course, as bad as this episode is – and it’s among the worst of the whole series – it’s got pretty good episodes surrounding it. It’s when we get to the third season and everything is horrible that I’m really afraid of…
I haven’t watched this episode in a while, and reading this recap makes it seem fairly(ok – outrageously) ridiculous, but I still have fond memories of watching this back in the day! I’m not sure if my mom(the big Trek fan in our house) just really liked the goofier episodes, but growing up, we’d rent episodes from Hollywood Video and she tended to pick a lot of the “bad” episodes. So that vibe screams “Star Trek” to me and nostalgia keeps me smiling as I think back to this episode. So bad in so many ways…except it still seems fun too. I’m just odd, what can I say?
@35/MeredithP: The third season does have a number of good episodes and noteworthy moments. It’s the weakest season on the whole, but it’s a huge exaggeration to say “everything is horrible” about it.
This is one of my favourite Trek episodes because of Shatner’s delivery on the line: “STOP IT, YOU’RE KILLING HEEEEERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!”
Occasionally you just love an episode because of the absurdity of it all, and this one has it in spades.
Shanna totally looks like Lady Gaga, and her outfit and hair looks like something she’d wear. Yeah, the episode is bad, but a 1? Come on, it deserves a few more points!
@8 – Random22: No, there’s no Vulcan nerve pinch, and no Vasquez Rocks, for starters. :)
@15 – Saavik: Yeah, that comic is funny.
@23 – Eduardo: True, getting Uhura from behind the communications console is always great. Unless she does a sexy fan dance… Also, I love the expression “a sausage machine”, which I don’t believe I’ve ever heard in English, but we definitely use it in Spanish in my country, so I guess it’s also valid in Portuguese? :)
@24 – Chris: The same stupid bit of having a hot and a ugly girl is still being used on TV these days, so what could we expect from the sixties? :|
@28 – Quill: Technicolor Brain Colosseum is my new band name.
(Also, I’m back, in case anyone missed me. :>)
Question.
Who is the Lady that Played the part of Ensign Haines?
Or, in case there are Abbot and Costello fans in the audience.
Can anybody provide the name of the person that played that part?
@40: Victoria George played Jana Haines.
A Private Little War 2/2/68
The Gamesters of Triskelion 1/5/68
Chuckov: I’m not sure what the point is of you posting the air dates of the two episodes in question, but I’m doing this rewatch in production order rather than airing order. When it comes to TOS, I prefer production order, as it makes more sense, particularly since the alternative is to have “Where No Man Has Gone Before” be after “The Man Trap” and “Charlie X,” which is absurd.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
2 things.
The battle portion was parodied by The Simpsons.
During the last fight, Kirk was supposed to say on the yellow portion, steps all over the blue part and nobody calls him out on it.
Also Shana speaking directly at the camera is the last time a guest star would get the last word in a TOS episode. Previous time was The Keeper from The Menagerie Part II.
Alex: um, I said both of those first two things in the rewatch entry. Did you even read it before you commented?
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@44/Alex: Miramanee, Odona and Kang also get the last word in their respective episodes.
krad – I didn’t see your comment about that. I still don’t. Can you point to the date time stamp?
Janajansen – nice catch. Although I always thought Shahna’s moment at the end was more touching compared to any of the others. Also it foretells the last scene in Starman when Karen Allen looks at the camera in wonder.
Alex: It’s in the main post. You know, the thing you’re commenting on? :)
I mentioned The Simpsons in the Trivial Matters section and Kirk’s inability to stay on the yellow in the Captain’s log section.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
krad – whoops – my bad. Do you get notified when new comments are made on a rewatch page? Is there a way I can sign up for notifications for new comments?
Regarding the triskelion combat area – my guess is it’s the 2-second rule. As long as you get out of the ‘forbidden’ color fast enough you don’t lose a weapon.
Alex: You need to create your very own account here on Tor.com. After that, you can follow any thread that you’ve commented on via the “my conversations” tab.
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
@47/Alex: Hmm, I think I find Miramanee’s moment the most touching. I wish her last words hadn’t been “Each kiss is like the first” – that’s just so corny – but I love the rest of the scene. She gets the last line of dialogue, and then she dies, but the episode isn’t over yet; Kirk sits there with her for another half minute or so. Then one last shot of the Enterprise moving away from the planet.
@50/Alex: Good thought. As for finding explanations for the oddities in this episode, perhaps Kirk can fight three adversaries (something he isn’t capable of in other episodes) because they simply aren’t good fighters. Perhaps the fighting techniques they developed in isolation aren’t very sophisticated, and the providers have never abducted people who actually knew how to fight before.
An oddity I can’t explain away is the fact that Kirk uses his crew, the crew he’s usually so protective of, as wager.
My wife, who’s an enthusiastic fan of TOS, and I, an ardent admirer of TNG, rewatched this episode together. When Tamoon came on to Chekov, we both thought Tamoon was supposed to be transgender, or at least gender-neutral or ambiguous. From that perspective, Chekov’s discomfort makes a little more sense, though not much.
@53/Poker Player: I think if that had been the intent, she would’ve been played by a male actor in drag, which is how most media have portrayed trans women until very recently.
Hello,
First time poster. Here in the UK COVID has meant that I have been working from home. In the high numbered TV channels TOS and TNG have been on during my work. The rewatch guides have been invaluable for assisting with plot points I have missed by the intrusion of actual work and video calls. So thank you.
This episode is the first one that I have read all the comments too because I was looking to see if there was any real mention of Galt’s characterization and costume and I was surprised it warranted so little comment.
In the trope-a-thon of this episode it was the first thing that leapt out at me when I switched on. Honestly I don’t know if a flash screen saying “this is Science Fiction” and “This is the antagonist” could have done the job as effectively.
This episode’s kind of interesting for me, an individual who just decided to delve into Star Trek seriously without any nostalgia or prior attachment to it. I noticed how elements of if felt clcihéd and began to pick up on how so much of the pop-culture view of The Original Series might have started with this one. Sure enough, KRAD singled exactly that aspect out and how damaging it’s been.
In any case, a pretty weak episode. I don’t think I hate it but only because that would involve feeling anything for it at all. I guess I should be happier it doesn’t kill the attractive female guest star as several of season 2’s episodes have done.
I just watched this episode for the first time ever but I feel like I’ve always been aware of it since I was a kid with The Simpsons parody and reading an interview with Angelique Pettyjohn in, I believe, Starlog magazine (anyone remember those?). It’s totally fascinating how this episode elicits such disparate reactions from people: you either love it or hate it. I’m more towards the former camp. It’s just too damn entertaining and campy to get hate from me. It’s also very charming, especially with the “romance” between manly man with his shirt off Kirk, and alien babe of the week, Shahna. Well, that is until Kirk sucker punches her! This must be a very rare instance of a man hitting a woman on a Trek show.
Yeah there are a lot of clichés on display here but I don’t necessarily think they’re negative ones so it’s okay they’re associated with Star Trek.
Entering middle age in my life, I’ve become especially aware of how media like television shows and movies are often noteworthy for being like a time capsule of the era in which they were produced. Even though the ‘60s were before my time I quite get the fondness one would have in seeing things so indicative of that era in their entertainment such as in this episode: the campiness, the bombastic music, the silly alien makeup, and the scantily clad women in “futuristic” sci-fi costumes. It’s part of why I find this episode so charming.
The actors do a very good job of being believable being in pain from the collars. Just look at Kirk in that screen grab! The Spock-McCoy-Scotty stuff is mostly filler but I like how Spock admits that being around humans so much is rubbing off on him with his expression of hope regarding his missing comrades. And I like how casually the woman officer on the bridge fills in at both the navigation and science stations.
Another reason I like this episode is because Uhura has so much to do here as opposed to her “hailing frequencies are open” line. I’m gradually making my way through all of the TOS episodes but I imagine this to be one of the episodes where she is used the most. My favorite episode with her (and one of my favorites of TOS in general) is “Mirror, Mirror” because Uhura has a lot to do and her actions are integral to our heroes success in that story. I’m glad Kirk takes the place of Uhura being whipped as punishment because that would have just been an awful sight to witness given real world historical context.
I didn’t like how a couple of the thralls were killed in the end. Sure, it was a fight-to-the-death situation, but on Star Trek usually killing is avoided and the enemy is only incapacitated. Those poor thralls were forced to fight by the Providers so they never had a choice in their own fate.
And I actually learned something new from this episode. I thought “thrall” might be a made up science-fictiony sounding word for this episode but it’s an actual word in the English language! Not sure I’d ever use it in place of the word “slave” but still, good to know!
So this episode is definitely no classic but for being so charming and iconic I’d give it a 6.
@38 – That’s brilliant! For my money (quatloos?), there’s nothing for comic value like Shatner’s hilarious act-ending, “WHAT’S HAPPENING TO LIEUTENANT YOO-HOO-RAH???”
This episode reminds of a third season episode of Lost in Space (the 1960s version).
This is one of the most boring–possibly, the most boring Star Trek episode. The only good part was Spock reminding McCoy and Scotty that he’s in command, unless they plan to mutiny.
Plus, the Providers’ evolution never made sense to me. I have no problem with aliens evolving into non corporeal beings, but just brains? I used to wonder how those brains got on the table by themselves but now I realize they must’ve used telepathy to get Galt to do it. It still seems implausible to me though.
The most cringe worthy moment is Chekov and his drill thrall. It was supposed to be humorous but I didn’t find it funny at all.
This is another very violent episode right after “A Private Little War.”