Ah, the last three episodes.\u00a0 The light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 Must stay strong.<\/p>\n
The Enterprise is investigating signs of life on a planet whose surface is covered with molten lava.\u00a0 Suddenly the viewscreen on the Bridge is filled with an image of Abraham Lincoln sitting in a leather chair in his usual coat and stovepipe hat.\u00a0 He explains that he is on the planet\u2019s surface and would like to come aboard the Enterprise.\u00a0 Suddenly an area of earthlike environmental conditions appears on the planet\u2019s surface.\u00a0 Kirk orders full presidential honors to be extended to this inexplicable appearance of an historical personage.\u00a0 This occasions Scotty to assume the kilt.\u00a0 Lincoln displays a charming personality and obvious ignorance of the modern sociological conditions when he describes Uhura as \u201ca charming negress.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite strong opposition by McCoy and Scotty Kirk and Spock decide to transport down to the planet\u2019s surface with Lincoln.\u00a0 There they meet up with another historical personage, Surak.\u00a0 He was the founder of modern Vulcan culture and revered by all Vulcans including of course Spock.<\/p>\n
Next, they meet up with a native of the planet.\u00a0 He looks much like a giant steaming cow-dropping with eyes.\u00a0 He informs us that the Enterprise crew have been selected to instruct the natives with a demonstration of the relative strengths of good and evil.\u00a0 Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak will represent good and Genghis Khan, Kahless the Klingon, Zora and Col. Philip Greene will represent evil.\u00a0 If you don\u2019t recognize any of the names other than Genghis Khan the reason is because they\u2019re made-up conquerors from pseudo future history.<\/p>\n
The Cow-Pat declares that the winning side gets to live and the losing side will already be dead.\u00a0 But to make the deal more persuasive to Kirk it is revealed that the Enterprise is being held captive in orbit and will also be destroyed if Kirk\u2019s side loses. \u00a0The bad guys fake a parlay then attack.\u00a0 They are driven off by our heroes in whom the force is strong.\u00a0 While Kirk attempts to convince everyone to build spears for a battle to the death.\u00a0 Surak declares that he will attempt to negotiate a peace with the enemy.\u00a0 Spock declares that this is an honorable position.\u00a0 But he continues to build weapons with Kirk and Lincoln.<\/p>\n
Shortly after he leaves for his peace mission Kirk, Spock and Lincoln hear a scream followed by a voice that supposedly sounds like Surak repeating over and over, \u201cHelp me Spock!\u201d\u00a0 It is in reaction to this that Spock declares, \u201cA Vulcan would not cry out so.\u201d\u00a0 But Kirk and Lincoln want to attempt a rescue.\u00a0 The plan is for Kirk and Spock to perform a frontal attack on the enemy base while Lincoln circles behind their position and frees Surak.\u00a0 But when he reaches Surak, he finds him already dead and his entry discovered.\u00a0 Then we find out that Kahless was mimicking Surak\u2019s voice and now shows how he will mimic Lincoln\u2019s cry for help.<\/p>\n
But suddenly Lincoln staggers toward Kirk and Spock to warn them of the trap.\u00a0 After warning them he falls forward and we can see he has a spear planted in his back.\u00a0 He dies there and the battle is joined between Kirk and Spock and the four evil warriors.\u00a0 When Kirk manages to kill Col. Greene the other three evil fighters run away.<\/p>\n
At this point Road Apple declares Kirk and Spock winners and sends them home.<\/p>\n
This episode is the source of a quote that has echoed down the decades with my brothers and me.\u00a0 At any random time since its inception in 1969 any one of us might exclaim in \u201cSpockian\u201d tones the seemingly meaningless sentence, \u201cA Vulcan would not cry out so.\u201d\u00a0 The question of why we would say this is open to psychological or maybe neurological debate.\u00a0 But suffice it to say that mocking Star Trek could be boiled down to mocking that one line.<\/p>\n
I assumed this episode would be as aggravating as many of the season three installments.\u00a0 But I actually enjoyed it.\u00a0 Sure, it was absurd but the extra characters added some much-needed novelty to the overdone interactions between Kirk and Spock.\u00a0 Once again, the guest stars were much better actors than the crew of the Enterprise.\u00a0 Even the oversized cow chip had more panache than Kirk and Spock.\u00a0 Although I did enjoy one comment by Scotty where he mentioned something about haggis in the lunch room.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll be magnanimous and give this a\u00a0 7\u00a0 \/\/\u00a0 4.<\/p>\n
A Vulcan would not cry out so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ah, the last three episodes.\u00a0 The light at the end of the tunnel.\u00a0 Must stay strong. The Enterprise is investigating signs of life on a<\/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":[237,4,244,2149,240],"tags":[2150,38,1355,44,309,265,1691,293,3514,154,1692,837],"class_list":["post-17349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reviews","category-sff","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-savage-curtain","tag-tv-review","tag-tv-reviews","tag-william-shatner"],"yoast_head":"\n