The Enterprise is investigating the 100-year-old disappearance of an Earth ship called the Archon.\u00a0 They are in orbit around a planet called Beta III.\u00a0 Now first of all it\u2019s a hundred years later who gives a damn?\u00a0 Second of all they send down Sulu and some other guy.\u00a0 As everyone knows Sulu is the lamest character except for Nurse Chapel.\u00a0 Anyway, he returns from the planet having been brain washed into a state of placid stupidity.\u00a0 He talks about Landru as if of a deity.<\/p>\n
Kirk, Spock, McCoy and a couple of red shirts go down to the planet and observe the population acting the way Sulu did.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 But at the stroke of 6 am everyone returns to their normal placid behavior and resume normal life.<\/p>\n
Kirk and Spock figure out that the population is controlled by a force that calls itself Landru.\u00a0 Landru was an historical figure from six thousand years earlier who reformed their civilization into the placid soulless existence it currently has.\u00a0 The system is monitored by Landru\u2019s robed priests who can deal out deadly force.\u00a0 At the same time the Enterprise reports that a powerful heat ray is threatening the ship.\u00a0 All the ship\u2019s power is needed to power the deflectors but because of this, the ship\u2019s orbit will soon decay and destroy the ship.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s knowledge and plan.\u00a0 But Kirk argues the computer into knowing that the Landru life system is actually a living death and therefore it blows itself up.<\/p>\n
This is the first mention of the non-interference prime directive and, of course, the first occurrence of Kirk ignoring it.\u00a0 Also, Kirk\u2019s ability to talk computers into destroying themselves is an often-repeated plot device that will be seen over and over.\u00a0 But because these are the first occurrences, I\u2019ll give this episode the pride of place.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call this a 7.\u00a0 There is no Shatner mockery to speak of so let\u2019s give the overall score of 7 \/\/ 1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Enterprise is investigating the 100-year-old disappearance of an Earth ship called the Archon.\u00a0 They are in orbit around a planet called Beta III.\u00a0 Now<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[237,244,2149,240],"tags":[2150,38,1355,44,309,265,1691,293,2358,154,1692,837],"class_list":["post-10042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff-tv-reviews","category-star-trek","category-tv-reviews","tag-gene-roddenberry","tag-review","tag-reviews","tag-sci-fi","tag-sci-fi-tv-review","tag-science-fiction","tag-sff-tv-show-reviews","tag-star-trek","tag-the-return-of-the-archons","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-william-shatner"],"yoast_head":"\n