Category: SF&F TV Show Reviews

SF&F TV Shows reviewed by someone who remembers when Star Trek and Star Wars were actually good.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 24 – This Side of Paradise

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This episode is unique in that for the majority of the episode Spock reacts like a normal emotional human.

The Enterprise is sent to a recently colonized planet to confirm that the colonists have succumbed to the effects of deadly Berthold rays, which apparently are very bad.  But when they arrive, they find the colonists very much alive and in perfect health.  McCoy discovers that not only are they healthy but show remarkable signs of regeneration such as self-repaired lung damage and regrown organs that had been surgically removed.  In addition, one of the colonists, Leila (played by the very attractive Jill Ireland) is an acquaintance of Spock’s.  She had been in love with him when she knew him previously though he never reciprocated the feeling.  She asks Spock to go see some plant life that was important to the investigation into why the colonists had survived.  When she brings him into a field, she points to a flower shaped like a lily and when Spock approaches it, a puff of pollen blows into his face.  After exhibiting pain from the exposure, suddenly Spock began behaving as a human expressing happiness to see Leila.  He kisses her and they talk about how the plant spores protect the colonists from the Berthold rays.  And Spock agrees to stay with Leila and live on the planet.

Meanwhile Kirk has been telling the colony leader Elias Sandoval (played by talented character actor Frank Overton) that the Enterprise will be evacuating all the colonists to a nearby star base.  Sandoval placidly refuses.  When Kirk attempts to call Spock on his communicator, at first, no one answers.  This is when we cut back to Spock sitting with his head in Leila’s lap watching the clouds in the sky and acting like a man in love.  Finally, he answers the call and tells Kirk that he isn’t leaving the planet and to stop bothering him.

Kirk and several crewmen search for Spock.  When they find him, he’s swinging on a tree branch and smiling like a man without a care in the world.  When Kirk demands an explanation, he brings them to one of the lilies and all the crewmen except Kirk are sprayed with spores and begin acting like Spock.  Eventually everyone but Kirk are controlled by the spores and begin to transport down to the planet from the Enterprise.  Kirk is basically in despair because without his crew he cannot even leave the star system with the Enterprise.  Finally, a lily that is on board the ship sprays spores onto Kirk’s face and he becomes like the others.  He calls Spock and tells him that he will be joining them soon on the surface of the planet.  Kirk goes to his cabin and collects his effects (which he packs into a very recognizable samsonite carrying case) but as he is looking at one of his Star Fleet medals, he becomes angry and this has the effect of shaking off the control by the spores.  Kirk then dictates a captain’s log to let us know that his plan is to lure Spock back onto the Enterprise in order to get him angry enough to escape the control of the spores.  He adds that considering the much greater strength of a Vulcan he is taking a dangerous risk by angering the very emotional Spock.  And that’s what he does.  He calls Spock a half-breed and a traitor out of a race of traitors.  Spock flips out and throws Kirk around the transporter room.  Bu the plan works and Spock overcomes the spore control and assumes his normal Vulcan persona.  Together Spock and Kirk rig a subsonic noise that irritates the colonists and crewmen and they all start fighting and then come to their senses.  Leila says a sorrowful goodbye to Spock and everyone heads up to the Enterprise.  On board Kirk asks Spock to describe his experience and he replies, “I’ve little to say about it Captain, except that for the first time in my life, I was happy.”

This was a pretty good episode.  Let’s call it a 7.  As far as mockery, there were some pretty good payoffs.  When Kirk is throwing off the control of the spores, he is hunched over in a pose that I guess is supposed to be towering rage.  It looks more like constipation.  During his baiting of Spock, he taunts him in a voice that is more whiny petulance than anger.  And perhaps the most embarrassing aspect of the whole episode is the awful southern accent that Doctor McCoy affects when he is controlled by the spores.  He blathers on about mint juleps and other inane things.  Terrible.

So, I’ll call this a 7 // 6.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 23 – A Taste of Armageddon

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In this episode the Enterprise is on a diplomatic mission to a star system with an advanced civilization.  But when they attempt to communicate with the planet they are warned off.  Ambassador Fox, the head of the mission, orders Kirk to make contact and of course Kirk and Spock head down to the surface leaving Scotty in charge.  When they reach the surface, they are met by a typically beautiful woman named Mea 3 (played by a young and petty Barbara Babcock who later on was Grace Gardiner on the 1980s NBC show, Hill Street Blues).  While the planetary leader Anan 7 is explaining to Kirk about a 500-year-long war that is still going on, an attack takes place between the planet they are on and their enemies on the third planet from their sun.  But when Kirk speaks to the Enterprise, they tell him that their sensors show that no attack occurred.  Spock figures out that the attack is just a computer simulation that is played between the strategic computers on the two planets.  Anan 7 confirms this and explains that whatever the calculated damage turns out to be those located in the affected areas are declared casualties and have a day to report to a disintegration chamber.  Anan 7 explains to Kirk that by allowing a million self-inflicted casualties every year both sides sustain their infrastructure and thereby ensure that the war will go on indefinitely.

Unfortunately, in the latest “attack” both Mea 3 and the Enterprise are virtual victims.  Anan 7 arrests Kirk and Spock and orders them to send their entire crew to the planet to be disintegrated.  When they refuse Anan 7 uses a voice simulator to impersonate Kirk and tell Scotty to send the entire crew down to the planet.  Scotty, of course, figures it out and puts the ship on a war footing and raises the shields.  The planet’s offensive weapons are brough to bear on the enterprise but the deflector shields hold.  Meanwhile the imbecilic Ambassador Fox contacts the planet and believes Anan 7 when he says it was all a misunderstanding.  Fox orders Scotty to drop the shields but he refuses.  Ambassador Fox beams down to the planet to conclude a treaty and is immediately marched off to the disintegration chamber.  But luckily for him Kirk and Spock escape from captivity and rescue him and Mea 3.

Now Kirk puts his plan into effect.  He destroys the disintegration chambers and finishes by blowing up the computers that report casualties with the enemy.  Anan 7 is in despair and tells Kirk that the enemy will stage an actual nuclear attack.  Kirk informs him that two worlds that have kept a gutless fake war going for 500 years will be so frightened by actual war that they’ll both negotiate a peace rather than get their hands dirty.  Ambassador Fox volunteers to assist them in the negotiation.

I like this episode.  Anan 7 is such a sniveling cowardly bureaucrat that every time he calls Kirk a barbarian you can’t help but like Kirk more.  Kirk shows resolve and ingenuity.  Scotty also displays courage and grit when he disobeys the chain of command and refuses to lower the shields at the order of that other idiotic bureaucrat Ambassador Fox.  This is a solid 8 episode.  Kirk does some brawling and tumbling around but he’s not particularly comical so there isn’t a high Shatner mockery score.  Let’s call this an 8 // 2.

Shatner Moves On

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William Shatner Refuses To Reprise His Role As Captain Kirk, ‘Star Trek’ Icon Says Character Is “Played Out”

Say it ain’t so!  Well, my real question is, “Was anybody actually asking?”  Actually, eventually they would.  The desperation in Hollywood will require even the deceased Star Trek actors to appear in later movies as digital zombies, kinda like poor Fred Astaire dancing with a broom in some vacuum cleaner advertisement.  But Shatner is right.  He’s outgrown Star Trek.  He’s ready for Hamlet.  Well, maybe Falstaff.  He’s old and fat enough for it.  But I kid, I kid.  Shatner is one of the legends of early television and deserves all the attention and mockery we give him.

 

Hat tip to one of the Shat’s biggest fans for passing this along.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 22 – Space Seed

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I have previously reviewed this episode as part of ShatnerKahn I.  But I think it is desirable to provide a standard treatment for all the Star Trek episodes so I will follow the usual procedure here.

The Enterprise encounters a derelict space ship drifting slowly through space and identifies it as an old Earth vessel from the 1990s.  Upon scanning it they find signs of life and board it.  They discover the crew to be in suspended animation.  Upon rescuing the leader from his sleep they discover that the crew are eugenically produced supermen who were forced to flee Earth after their dictatorships were overthrown.

Their Leader Khan Noonien Singh, played by the inimitable Ricardo Montalban, dissembles his intentions and seduces crewmember Lt. Marla Mcgivers into assisting him in capturing the Enterprise in order to aid his people in finding and conquering an Earth colony for their new home.  The supermen quickly overwhelm the crew and Khan puts Kirk in a vacuum chamber and threatens to suffocate him if one of the crew does not assist him in his plan.  We get a view of Kirk gasping like an out of water goldfish which will earn this episode a very healthy Shatner mockery score.  But McGivers repents of her mutiny and saves Kirk from the death trap.  With the assistance of Mr. Spock Kirk is able to use knockout gas to subdue the mutineers.  But Khan escapes to the engine room and is causing an engine overload that would destroy the whole ship when Kirk arrives for their showdown.  Khan starts by prying Kirk’s phaser out of his hand and then bending it into a curve with his bare hands.  And here Khan makes his famous taunt.  He says, “Captain, I have five times your strength!” in his unique Ricardo Montalban enunciation.  Khan proceeds to toss Kirk around the engine room like a rag doll while Kirk attempts some pretty rudimentary martial arts moves.  I’m not 100% sure but I believe there was a stunt double for Shatner in some of the acrobatics.  But naturally Kirk fights dirty.  He grabs a metal rod and starts hammering Khan in the head and back until he passes out.

In the final scene Kirk convenes a court and dismisses all charges against the supermen if they will agree to exile on a deserted and inhospitable planet.  When asked if he accepts the offer Khan asks Kirk if he knows his Milton.  Kirk nods in understanding.  Then Kirk gives Mcgivers a choice; go into exile with Khan or stand trial for mutiny.  She eagerly accepts exile.

Scotty pleads shameful ignorance as a Scot for not knowing the Milton reference and Kirk explains that in Paradise Lost, Lucifer declares that he would rather reign in Hell than serve in Heaven.  The show ends up with Spock and Kirk wondering what they would find if they were able to come back in a hundred years and see what fruit had grown “from the seed” they were now sowing.

This is one of the quintessential Star Trek episodes.  Kirk is out macho-ed by Khan.  Spock gets to act appalled by the humans’ clear admiration for Khan’s obviously authoritarian methods, to which charge Kirk admits and explains humans have a primitive streak that allows them to admire an enemy for his strength.  In these days of #metoo Khan would never be allowed to rough up McGivers as he does to dominate her into helping him.  Of course, he also plays with her hair quite a bit so he is a romantic too.  One of the ludicrous things about the episode is Kirk giving Khan access to the ship technical manuals.  These allow Khan to capture the ship.  I mean come on!  What part of superman is hard to understand?  Couldn’t he have just given him a game of free-cell to keep him from getting bored?

Kirk’s fight with Khan is also classic.  His shirt manages not to get shredded but he has several awkward and lame looking judo holds that helps qualify this episode for a decent Shatner mockery score.  And above all there is Montalban.  He struts and brags and mocks Kirk for being inferior in all ways.  It’s quite entertaining.

Let’s give this a 9 for the episode and a 7 for Shatner mockery.  9  //  7.  Well done Ricardo.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 21 – The Return of the Archons

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The Enterprise is investigating the 100-year-old disappearance of an Earth ship called the Archon.  They are in orbit around a planet called Beta III.  Now first of all it’s a hundred years later who gives a damn?  Second of all they send down Sulu and some other guy.  As everyone knows Sulu is the lamest character except for Nurse Chapel.  Anyway, he returns from the planet having been brain washed into a state of placid stupidity.  He talks about Landru as if of a deity.

Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a couple of red shirts go down to the planet and observe the population acting the way Sulu did.  But while looking for a place to stay they observe a ritual insanity where at the stroke of 6 pm all the younger people go on a rampage smashing windows and ravishing the very cooperative women.  But at the stroke of 6 am everyone returns to their normal placid behavior and resume normal life.

Kirk and Spock figure out that the population is controlled by a force that calls itself Landru.  Landru was an historical figure from six thousand years earlier who reformed their civilization into the placid soulless existence it currently has.  The system is monitored by Landru’s robed priests who can deal out deadly force.  At the same time the Enterprise reports that a powerful heat ray is threatening the ship.  All the ship’s power is needed to power the deflectors but because of this, the ship’s orbit will soon decay and destroy the ship.

Finding allies among the native population, Kirk and Spock finally identify that the Landru controlling the planet is actually a six-thousand-year-old computer that has Landru’s knowledge and plan.  But Kirk argues the computer into knowing that the Landru life system is actually a living death and therefore it blows itself up.

This is the first mention of the non-interference prime directive and, of course, the first occurrence of Kirk ignoring it.  Also, Kirk’s ability to talk computers into destroying themselves is an often-repeated plot device that will be seen over and over.  But because these are the first occurrences, I’ll give this episode the pride of place.  Let’s call this a 7.  There is no Shatner mockery to speak of so let’s give the overall score of 7 // 1.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 20 – Court Martial

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Kirk is on trial for the wrongful death of one of his officers.  Lt. Commander Finney, the records officer, was in an ion pod (whatever that is) during an ion storm and according to the Enterprise’s computer telemetry Kirk jettisoned the pod prematurely before a red alert was declared.  The court martial featured one of Kirk’s old girlfriends as the prosecutor and Elisha Cook Jr. as his defense attorney.  We see a video clip of Kirk jettisoning the pod before the red alert status occurs.  This evidence seems to seal Kirk’s fate.  After this scene we hear Kirk telling Spock that at least Spock’s next captain might not be able to beat Spock at chess.  After hearing this Spock raises an eyebrow.

In the next scene we see Spock in his cabin playing chess against the computer.  McCoy enters and berates Spock for his unfeeling frivolous actions while Kirk’s career is in jeopardy.  Spock explains that he has just beaten the computer five times in a row.  Even McCoy recognizes that this is an impossibility.  They rush down to the trial and Kirk’s lawyer reconvenes the trial on the Enterprise where we learn that Finney is not dead but hidden on the Enterprise and is responsible for faking the accusatory video evidence against Kirk.  In a climactic scene Kirk fights Finney and after a vicious shirt tearing fight defeats Finney and saves the Enterprise from crashing by pulling loose a couple of electrical cables.

As silly as this episode sounds it was actually fun.  Seeing Shatner calmly shrug off the cold shoulder he was getting from his peers at the star base where the trial was taking place was interesting.  And Elisha Cook Jr. was amusing as the eccentric lawyer who preferred paper books to computer files.  The courtroom drama was fairly entertaining.  All in all, I’d say it was a 7.

 

The Shatner mockery index was low.  It really didn’t break a 4.

7 // 4

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 19 – Tomorrow is Yesterday

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In this episode the Enterprise is inexplicably sent back in time by getting too close to a “black star.”  I guess that’s supposed to be a black hole.  They find themselves in Earth’s upper atmosphere above Cape Kennedy right before the first moon shot.  A jet fighter is sent up to investigate the “UFO.”  The Enterprise locates the fighter jet, and fearing that it might have a nuclear weapon, grabs it with a tractor beam.  But this destroys the plane and the pilot is beamed aboard the Enterprise to save his life.

Spock informs Kirk that the pilot cannot be released back to Earth because his knowledge of the Enterprise would alter history.  But then Spock discovers that the pilot’s yet-to-be-born son will be an important man in the future of space exploration.  Therefore, the pilot must be returned or that would change history.

After that Kirk and Sulu beam down to an Air Force base to retrieve evidence from the wreckage of the jet that would prove the Enterprise was a real UFO.  This leads to another man being beamed aboard the Enterprise.  At this point the writers put the plot mercifully to bed.  The Enterprise would fly very fast toward the sun ending up even farther back in the past and then “slingshot” back out and start going forward in time.  Somehow, when they reached the time where each of the men captured from the past had been affected by the Enterprise they would be beamed into the spot where their bodies were.  So, we see the pilot in his plane and suddenly we see the appearance of someone being beamed into his location.  But somehow after the beaming occurs the pilot no longer remembers anything about the Enterprise and goes about his mission and returns to Earth.

And the Enterprise hurtles into the future at faster than Warp Factor 8 and in order to prevent overshooting their “present,” Scotty puts on the brakes and the crew pitches back and forth in their chairs.  They’ve made it home and everyone is happy.

So, this is the first-time travel episode.  So that’s something.  But it’s kind of meh.  The pretense of a rationale for how they went back in time and the even flimsier logic for how they retuned wouldn’t convince the lowliest of geeks.  Spock and Bones bickering about the fate of Kirk during his burglary is kind of contrived and silly.

As for Shatner mockery points, he does get a scene where he has a fist fight with three or four Air Force servicemen.  He gets to roll around a bit and throw some pretty phony looking punches.  But it’s also nothing to write home about.

If you’re interested in the nostalgia of seeing the Enterprise interact with 1960s Americans, I could throw an extra point in and call this a six.  Put that together with the Shatner score and I’ll call this a 6 // 5.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 18 – Arena

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The Enterprise reaches the Cestus III Outpost and after Kirk and company beam down, they find they have been lured into a trap.  The outpost has been destroyed and the enemy attacks the Enterprise landing party.  Kirk and Spock fight off the attack and once back on the Enterprise chase the enemy into unexplored territory.  But before they can overtake their target both ships are frozen in place and a voice announces that an outside entity, the Metrons, is putting a stop to the fight.  Because the Metrons consider the violence exhibited by the Humans and Gorns (the name of the race on the enemy ship) as barbaric they will minimize the destruction.  Kirk and the Gorn captain will be transported to a barren planet where their personal combat will decide which of the two ships will be destroyed and which will be spared.

The Gorn and Kirk show up on a barren planet that looks a lot like southern California.  The Gorn looks like and is a man in a really phony rubber dinosaur suit.  It turns out the Gorn is inhumanly strong and tough but pathetically slow.  Kirk rolls a boulder on him but to no effect.  And just to put some drama into the situation, Kirk runs into a trap and injures his leg so the possibility that the Gorn might eventually catch him won’t seem completely implausible.

Kirk was given a device to record his thoughts during the trial but the Gorn is able to hear his every word and thereby judge how badly Kirk is hurt.  The Gorn offers to kill Kirk mercifully if he will stop running.  Kirk exchanges insults with the Gorn over their treachery at the   Cestus III Outpost.  But the Gorn claims that the base itself was an act of war by invading their territory.  Eventually the Enterprise bridge is also given an audio-visual transmission of the combat.  And so, Spock is able to annoyingly claim that the humans deserved to be wiped out for unknowingly settling Cestus III in enemy territory.  Also, he cheers on Kirk’s gradual identification of the ingredients for a weapon.  Kirk finds a bamboo cylinder, a rope-like vine, potassium nitrate, sulphur, coal and large sharp diamond crystals.  He converts these into a makeshift firearm.  Just in the (painfully slow} nick of time, he shoots the Gorn.  But instead of finishing him off with the Gorn’s own stone knife, Kirk calls to the Metrons and refuses the kill.  An effeminate young man in a khiton shows up and congratulates Kirk for only being a semi-savage.  He tells Kirk that he will release the Gorn ship and promises to check back with humanity in a few thousand years when they may be ready to dialog with his people.

Kirk returns to the Enterprise and the ship mysteriously finds itself 500 parsecs away from their former position.  Kirk and Spock muse on their changed ideas about the definition of civilization.

Okay, so this is mostly an amusing episode.  The only thing that really annoys me is the idea that Kirk, Spock and McCoy think that if humans accidentally colonized an uninhabited planet that turns out to be in some other race’s home range that they deserve to be massacred.  This is just so self-hating that I would expect it to come from Picard but not Kirk.

That aside, watching Kirk fight a man in a rubber dinosaur suit in slow-motion can’t be anything but comedy gold.  Shatner rolls around and grimaces and gives us a great show.  The Gorn hisses like a snake so he can be heard like a half a mile away.  It’s wonderful.

I’ll give this episode a 9 // 8.

Escaping from Their Better World

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Joss Whedon is a colossal Progressive Jerk.  His politics are as stupid as the politics of any of the other losers in Hollywood.  But his one saving grace, in my opinion, is that he created the “Firefly” television series and the follow-on motion picture “Serenity.”  Serenity is a perfect metaphor for the culture we live in.

In the fictional Firefly universe, the powerful elites control the “Core” worlds where life is luxurious and everything is controlled by the security state known as the Alliance.  Out on the rim life is difficult and the inhabitants chafe under the hegemony of the Core which defeated their Rebellion in a devastating war. But they are far enough away from the Core that they can evade much of the control if they live outside the legitimate business world.  One such concern is the Firefly Class spaceship “Serenity” captained by former rebellion soldier Malcolm Reynolds.  Mal now runs Serenity as a trading ship which indulges in all manner of illegal enterprises and is constantly on the run from the Alliance security forces.

In the movie Serenity Mal is in more than the normal amount of trouble because one of his crew possesses a dangerous secret that the Alliance will do just about anything to stifle.  On a distant world the Alliance tested a chemical called pax.  It was meant to remove all aggression from the populace and therefore create a “better world” free from anger, hate and fear.  Unfortunately, it not only eliminated aggression it completely eliminated the will to live and the inhabitants just lay down and died.

To stop Mal and his people from revealing this secret the Alliance sends their most skilled “Operative” to eliminate Serenity.  In one of the pivotal scenes the Operative reveals to Mal his motivation.

Mal – Do you even know why they sent you?

Operative – It’s not my place to ask.  I believe in something greater than myself.  A better world.  A world without sin.

Mal – So me and mine gotta lay down and die so you can live in your better world?

Operative – I’m not going to live there.  There’s no place for me there any more than there is for you. Malcolm, I’m a monster.  What I do is evil.  I have no illusions about it, but it must be done.

Later on, Mal stops running and decides to take a stand.

Mal – This report is maybe twelve years ago.  Parliament buried it, and it stayed buried till River dug it up.  This is what they feared she knew.  And they were right to fear because there’s a whole universe

of folk who are gonna know it, too.  They’re gonna see it.  Somebody has to speak for these people.  You all got on this boat for different reasons but you all come to the same place.  So now I’m asking more of you than I have before.  Maybe all.  Sure as I know anything, I know this, they will try again.  Maybe on another world, maybe on this very ground swept clean.  A year from now, 10, they’ll swing back to the belief that they can make people better.

And I do not hold to that.  So, no more running.  I aim to misbehave.

To my mind this is exactly what we are faced with in our present culture.  The elites are determined to force us to live by the rules they have invented whether we want to or not.  In their minds we are evil children who need to be punished and trained to love Big Brother.  They don’t want coexistence.  They want capitulation.  But the truth is we are stronger than we know and stronger than they fear.  The main thing is not to play by their rules.  And by no means play fair.  Deception and secrecy are perfectly reasonable in the present situation.  Use whatever advantage you find and be sure to protect you and yours.  Don’t let them wear you down.  And don’t let them steal the enjoyment of life with your family and friends.  That is the definition of victory.

And to paraphrase Malcolm Reynolds, without a doubt we need to misbehave.

Star Trek – The Original Series – Complete Series Review – Season 1 Episode 17 – The Squire of Gothos

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I’ve liked this episode since the time I saw the original broadcast.  The story can be considered science fiction but I prefer to think of it as comedy.

The Enterprise is in route to some star base when in the middle of a starless void they detect a planet where none should be.  Attempting to avoid it both Sulu and Kirk disappear from the bridge.  Spock assumes command and even the planet has a poisonous atmosphere he beams down a rescue party headed by McCoy.  They find themselves in an Earth-normal environment and enter a building that appears to be a medieval castle.  There they find Sulu and Kirk statue-like in an apparent stasis.  Then they hear someone playing the harpsichord and someone calling himself General Trelayne, the Squire of Gothos, introduces himself to them and releasing Kirk and Sulu to consciousness invites the crew to be his guests.  But guest is just a euphemism for captive.  He toys with the crew members but meanwhile Spock has located Kirk and company on the planet and beams them to the Enterprise.  Trelayne shows up on the bridge of the Enterprise and returns Kirk and the landing party back to Gothos.  He also adds Spock and Kirk’s new Yeoman Teresa Rose who, of course, is a fetching blonde played by an actress named Venita Wolf.

Realizing that Trelayne doesn’t intend to release them Kirk figures out an escape plan.  He guesses that the device that Trelayne uses to perform the various miraculous transformations of matter and energy is hidden in the ornamental mirror in the castle hall.  Kirk uses Trelayne dancing with Yeoman Ross as an excuse to challenge Trelayne to a duel.  When Trelayne fires his pistol into the air Kirk diverts his own shot to destroying the mirror and the mechanism behind it.  Transporting back to the ship while Trelayne is powerless Kirk orders the Enterprise depart the vicinity of Gothos at top speed but before he can warp out of the system, they observe the planet Gothos somehow in front of them again.  After several more futile attempts at escape Kirk heads back to the planet instructing Spock to wait a short time and then leave the system at full speed.

Trelayne is dressed as an English magistrate and he condemns Kirk to death for treason.  But Kirk convinces him that hanging would be boring and instead Trelayne should hunt Kirk for an exciting experience.  While Kirk is hiding, he tries desperately to call the Enterprise on his communicator and tell them to run while Trelayne is distracted but the signal is blocked.  Finally, Trelayne traps Kirk and prepares to kill him with a sabre.  But Kirk knocks the sword out of Trelayne’s hand and slaps him in the face calling him a child.  Just then two voices, a man’s and a woman’s, are heard and Kirk and Trelayne look up to see two shining globes of light.  The voices come from these globes and they turn out to be energy beings and in fact Trelayne’s parents.  They berate Trelayne for mistreating his “predators,” meaning the enterprise crew, and tell him that play time is over and he must come home.  Then Trelayne assumes the tone and diction of a petulant child who doesn’t want to quit playing.  He tells his parents that they promised him he could have Gothos for his plaything and that he was winning against Kirk.  The voices continue to berate him and repeat, “No Trelayne,” to all his entreaties. At least he keeps repeating, “But I woulda won,” over and over again as he slowly fades away.  Afterwards, the voices apologize to Kirk for their son’s misbehavior and promise to let him return to the enterprise without further interference.

Back on the bridge Spock asks Kirk how Trelayne should be characterized in their report.  When Spock rejects the title of God of War, Kirk suggests a little boy, and a very naughty little boy at that.

As I stated above, I’ve always enjoyed this episode as a pure comedy and nothing else.  The Trelayne character is enjoyable as a selfish petulant child who loves play acting and posturing.  There’s nothing much to this story but the clash of Trelayne’s and Kirk’s personalities and even that is just a pretense to allow Trelayne to perform his tour de force.  There is the pretty girl hanging around which is nice.  But these things and the payoff joke at the end are enough.  I give this a 9.  On the Kirk side, he does a shoulder roll or two and some minor acrobatics but nothing really embarrassing so let’s call it a 9 // 2.