“For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky”
Written by Rik Vollaerts
Directed by Tony Leader
Season 3, Episode 8
Production episode: 3×10
Original air date: November 8, 1968
Star date: 5476.3
Mission summary
With Spock in the captain’s chair, six archaic, sub-light speed missiles are headed straight for the Enterprise. Kirk quickly takes command (where was he, exactly?) and orders the missiles destroyed. Easy enough, but where did they come from? Sulu plots a course to the missiles’ origin to answer just that question.
Meanwhile, Dr. McCoy and Nurse Chapel are having it out in sickbay. Kirk arrives just in time to break up the fight–but Chapel looks sad, not angry, and McCoy asks her to leave. Kirk notes tactlessly that that “was quite a scene” (lack of subtlety will be a hallmark of this episode) and wants to know what the emergency is:
MCCOY: I’ve just completed the standard physical examinations for the entire crew. […] The crew is fit. I found nothing unusual, with one exception.
KIRK: Serious?
MCCOY: Terminal.
KIRK: What is it?
MCCOY: Xenopolycythemia. It has no cure.
KIRK: Who?
MCCOY: He has one year to live.
KIRK: Who is it?
MCCOY: The ship’s Chief Medical Officer.
McCoy knows he can do his job with the time he has left, but insists that this be kept a secret from the rest of the crew. Kirk agrees.
The Enterprise arrives at the missiles’ point of origin, and it’s an asteroid. That’s weird. The asteroid has independent power, as if it were a spaceship: also weird. It’s got a hollow core with a breathable atmosphere: Weird Factor 5.
But the real doozy is that it’s headed straight for Daran V, a world inhabited by over 3 billion people–all to be killed by the asteroid if it doesn’t change course. Though Spock detects no life signs aboard the asteroid, Kirk decides to beam down with a landing party and find out firsthand. He recruits only Spock, but McCoy shows up in the transporter bay anyway insisting that he’s fit enough to join them.
They beam down to the surface and find giant tubular columns but not much else–until a dozen natives in colorfully checkered tunics and condom hats leap out at them from the column. (Someone really needs to upgrade those ship sensors, which seem to only find life by chance.) Some man-fighting ensues, but a woman steps out and tells them all to stop. She is Natira, the high priestess of Yonada. All are taken down, underground, to meet the Oracle. Given Kirk’s previous interactions with beings that seem to be gods, though, you can probably expect how this is going to play out. They are told to kneel before the Oracle, and they “whisper” (which for Kirk means to SPEAK VERY LOUDLY) about the fact that these fools don’t even know they’re on a spaceship.
Kirk tells the Oracle that they come in friendship and the Oracle responds:
ORACLE: Then learn what it means to be our enemy before you learn what it means to be our friend.
He then zaps them with some kind of lightning/energy beam until they all fall unconscious. That Wizard sure knows how to throw a tantrum.
Kirk and Spock awake on comfy beds, but McCoy is still out cold. Spock knows something is up–there’s no other explanation for why the doctor hasn’t recovered yet–so Kirk spills the beans about the xenopoly-whatsit. When McCoy finally comes around Kirk confesses right away, which I guess is the right thing to do even if his secret-keeping ability is about on par with that of a middle schooler. They decide that Kirk and Spock are going to have to find the control room to change the asteroid’s course, and McCoy’s “mission” is to distract the high priestess while they do this. (I’m sure if he had known the pity missions were this great he would’ve contracted the disease earlier.)
An old man enters and offers them an herb to recover from the shock, which they all eat immediately and without question despite the fact the last time they trusted these people they were zapped unconscious. There’s something a little twitchy about this old man, though, and he winces with almost everything he says. He asks where Kirk, Spock, and McCoy came from–and doesn’t seem surprised by the answer. He explains that once, he climbed the mountain that was forbidden.
MAN: But things are not as they teach us. For the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky.
And then he collapses, dead. They find that some kind of pain device has been implanted in his skull.
Natira arrives and wants to know what a dead guy is doing on the floor of their recovery room (wild party?), but Kirk says he doesn’t know. She says that they are now to be treated like honored guests, because gods are fickle like that, and two women bring some snackies. While the ladies fuss with the food and drinks the three men hatch their plot (again, the lack of discretion! These women aren’t more than five feet away!). McCoy is going to be the bait–hello, laaaaaadies–while Kirk and Spock scout out for the control room. The women return to the scene (but they were right… there… how does this work that they don’t hear?!) and bring them the food and drink. Like real men our heroes take the drinks but not the food. Kirk asks if he and Spock can go exploring (TOTALLY INNOCENTLY, of course) around the complex. She agrees, and seems delighted that McCoy isn’t feeling well enough to join them, successfully executing their own plan.
McCoy wants to know what killed that man, but Natira won’t tell him–it seems that everything she says or even thinks is monitored (and, if necessary, punished) by the Oracle. But she has something else on her mind anyway, and cuts right to the chase:
NATIRA: Is there a woman for you?
MCCOY: No, there isn’t.
NATIRA: Does McCoy find me attractive?
MCCOY: Oh, yes. Yes, I do.
NATIRA: I hope you men of space, of other worlds, hold truth as dear as we do.
MCCOY: We do.
NATIRA: I wish you to stay here on Yonada as my mate.
McCoy’s smile disappears at this line. He paces anxiously. Commitment?! That’s not in the good doctor’s playbook!
MCCOY: But we’re strangers to each other.
NATIRA: But is not that the nature of men and women? That the pleasure is in the learning of each other?
Er, yeah, whatever you say, baby. She explains that a new chapter is beginning for her people and she’d like him to share it with her. He could rule over them with her, together. McCoy admits that he’s led a lonely life and is receptive to her message. But he has to come clean: he tells her about his illness and his prospect of no more than a year to live.
NATIRA: Until I saw you, there was nothing in my heart. It sustained my life, but nothing more. Now it sings. I could be happy to have that feeling for a day, a week, a month, a year. Whatever the creators hold in store for us.
Awwww. They, unsurprisingly, make out.
Meanwhile, Kirk and Spock have found the room with the Oracle inside. Spock recognizes the engravings around the entrance as Fabrini–a race that died out thousands of years ago. Their sun went nova, and before they died they lived underground to escape the radiation. They must be the creators and sent out this ship full of people to find a new world. The people of Yonada today are the descendents of those original voyagers.
Spock figures out how to open the door and they enter. The Oracle doesn’t seem to know they’re there, though–it must not be activated unless someone kneels on the platform the way that Natira did. They see a monolith with an illustration of a sun su rrounded by eight planets–the Fabrini system. Spock asserts there’s no question that these are the people descended from that civilization. But someone’s coming, so they hide behind the monolith. It’s Natira! She kneels on the platform and asks the Oracle if it approves of McCoy as a mate for her:
ORACLE: He must become one of the people, worship the creators, and agree to the insertion of the Instrument of Obedience.
NATIRA: He will be told what must be done.
ORACLE: If he agrees to all things, it is permitted. Teach him our laws carefully so he commits no sacrilege, no offence against the people or the creators.
NATIRA: It will be done, oh most wise.
But as she leaves the Oracle zaps Kirk and Spock where they stand. Caught red-handed! The Oracle makes it clear that the punishment for that kind of sacrilege is death.
She returns to McCoy, who begs her to reconsider the punishment. At first she resists, but once he explains that he’s decided to stay with her on Yonada she agrees to do this for him, and for them. They can return to their ship.
On the planet’s surface, Kirk and Spock are ready to beam up. McCoy explains that he won’t be joining them. I don’t know why Kirk is so surprised–he orders McCoy to come back, but the doctor refuses. (I mean really, what’s he going to do, fire him?) Kirk’s worried–if they can’t find a way to course-correct the asteroid, they’ll be forced to blow it up in order to save Daran V. But McCoy knows all this–he has little time left and he wants to spend it with Natira. His friends seem to understand, and reluctantly, they leave him behind.
McCoy and Natira get married in the eyes of the Oracle. He agrees to have the pain device implanted in his skull and become one of them, one of the Yonadans. They take their vows:
NATIRA: May I give you the love you want, and make the time you have beautiful.
MCCOY: We’re now of one mind.
NATIRA: One heart.
MCCOY: One life.
They kiss. Now that he is one of them, Natira shows McCoy something very special–not that–a secret hidden beneath the monolith. She touches three of the planets on the diagram and it opens, revealing a white book: the Book of the People. It explains her people’s history and why they must seek out a new world, or at least she thinks so–no one’s allowed to read it until they arrive. McCoy insists she must be curious, but her faith is confidence enough in what it contains.
Back on the Enterprise, Kirk has reluctantly contacted Starfleet command and been taken off this assignment. He is instructed to continue his previous mission and abandon the asteroid and his friend.
McCoy, however, knows that book has the key to getting the asteroid back on course. He uses his communicator to hail Kirk and explain about the Book of the People. The Oracle, however, is listening in, and uses his obedience device to hurt McCoy until he can no longer speak from the pain. Natira enters as he collapses on the floor, and she can hear Kirk on the other end of the communicator. She knows this is their doing.
Kirk and Spock beam into the room immediately, but Natira flies into a rage:
NATIRA: You are killers of your friend! I will have you put to death! […] Until you are dead, he will think of you and disobey! I will see you die!
Spock goes for McCoy and removes the pain device. This upsets Natira even more and she says they have separated him, irreparably, from her people. But Kirk decides enough is enough and drags her into a back room to tell her the truth. He explains that they are on a ship, not a planet, and tells her the history of the Fabrini people–her people–and why they need to get to the control room before it’s too late to save them. She doesn’t believe it (“Why would they keep the truth from us?”), but Kirk has planted the seed of doubt. She runs to the Oracle for answers.
The Oracle isn’t very helpful:
ORACLE: The truth of Yonada is your truth. There can be no other for you. Repent your disobedience.
NATIRA: I must know the truth of the world!
The Oracle sends some pain rays her way until she collapses unconscious. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy catch up with her at this point and McCoy tends to her. She believes them now (that Oracle is a dick), and agrees to let Spock remove her obedience device.
Kirk tries one more time to reason with the Oracle but he insists their presence is sacrilege, and the punishment is death. Suddenly the panels with writing on them glow red, heating the room. The Oracle is about to boil them! McCoy explains how to open the monolith and they find the book as the temperature keeps rising. Inside it is a diagram, with an instruction to press the center of the Oracle’s altar. They do so and the whole structure slides forward, revealing a door behind it. Kirk and Spock dive back there and disable the toaster coils before focusing on how to redirect the asteroid.
Natira is, despite everything, glad that Kirk and Spock returned and will be able to set things right. She releases McCoy from his obligation to her. McCoy offers to stay, but she won’t deny him “life and the fullness of years.” He wants to find a cure for his disease and invites her to join him–but she knows she has an obligation to lead her people to this new world and declines.
NATIRA: This is my universe. You came here with a great mission to save my people. Shall I abandon them? Perhaps one day, if it is permitted, you will find Yonada again.
Kirk and Spock manage to effect a course correction, but they find something else, too: a huge knowledge database that the Fabrini amassed for their people. They won’t miss a few medical logs, will they?
And with that knowledge they extract a cure for McCoy’s disease and promise that one day, when the Yonadans have reached their new destination, he might want to pay them a visit at their new home.
Analysis
Best. Title. Ever. I’m a little disappointed that the title is so literal, but it’s a beautiful idea that perfectly encapsulates the main conflict of this episode: faith.
It is Natira’s crisis of faith that provides the episode’s climax. Here we have a culture entirely predicated on absolute faith and acceptance. For those who question the belief or try to test it, there is punishment and pain. But I get the impression that few here bother to do that and most accept the world as they see it. It seems real; it is real. On faith alone the Yonadans have sustained a culture for 10,000 years, unchanging, because none of them desire (or dare) to prod and feel the boundaries and limitations of their knowledge. They live in a bubble, and not just literally. The consequence of that life had Kirk and the others not intervened would have been the deaths of billions of innocent people. All because they were not brave or curious enough to seek knowledge. When everything is destiny, why bother?
In a way, McCoy’s story mirrors this. He accepts his fate without question. He does not moan or despair, but he doesn’t make any attempt to change things, either. How many times have they faced impossible situations or incurable diseases, and how many times have they come through? He has given up on himself, and meeting Natira is the one that seems to inspire him. By the end of the episode, his goals have changed. He wants to explore what he can of the universe and find a cure for himself and others like him. He will no longer accept the limitations of his own knowledge, of his own truth, as the universal truth–he needs more than that. To stand by and let this happen to him would be the worst kind of defeat: it would be accepting ignorance as the only truth worth knowing.
DeForest Kelly does a great job in this episode. He’s practically unrecognizable from the hammy, scene-chewing guy we saw in our last outing, “Day of the Dove.” The scene where he rebuffs Chapel and tells Kirk about his illness is a nice one. He wants to preserve his dignity, yes, but he’s also in a kind of denial. He can hide behind the blind acceptance of his fate rather than challenge his circumstances. I felt a twinge of sadness when Kirk and Chapel try to get him kicked off the landing party–they’ve already begun to treat him differently because of his illness.
This episode also includes some of the sweetest moments of the series so far. The way that Natira describes love as this great awakening within herself was beautiful, as were their marriage vows: “May I give you the love you want, and make the time you have beautiful.” Who could ask for more? How perfectly and poetically expressed. I even liked the way they dodged the “But I don’t even know her!” objection: “But is not that the nature of men and women? That the pleasure is in the learning of each other?”
But like so many Season 3 episodes it just doesn’t hold up to closer inspection. Why would the Fabrini created such an elaborate ruse? Was there a mutiny? The lengths to which obedience to superstition and the Oracle are enforced seem completely out of proportion to the necessity. I can see that perhaps the people had forgotten the original purpose of their journey, but the episode makes it pretty clear that all of this was designed to keep the people in ignorance. What were the ancestors afraid of, exactly? And how did they not plan for something in a machine as complex as a spaceship to break?
Other oddities: why do Kirk and Spock know so much about a civilization that was apparently wiped from existence 10,000 years ago?
Budget cut roundup: I love that the inhabitants look like they’re late to Woodstock, decked out in dizzying psychedelic colors and weird vinyl condom hats. I think my favorite nit, though, was when one of the guards on the surface who attacks Kirk and the others upon arrival leans over to pick up his weapon before returning underground. He picks up the sword by the blade. I bet the prop master had a conniption. I do love the sets, though–the geometry is really beautiful and the alien writings are a nice, eerie touch.
And lastly, please don’t tell me I was the only one who giggled when the Oracle said that McCoy had to agree to “the insertion of the instrument of obedience.” Hehehehehe.
Torie’s Rating: Warp 4 (on a scale of 1-6)
Eugene Myers: I barely remember having seen this episode before. (For some strange reason, it seems like I watched season 3 episodes of Star Trek much less often than any of the others.) The asteroid-ship Yonada only seemed familiar because they recycled the effect from “The Paradise Syndrome” and I was surprised at both McCoy’s fatal illness and the romance with Natira. That said, “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” is probably my favorite episode title of any Star Trek show, even though I wish it hadn’t been directly referenced in the episode not once, but twice.
I love the idea of the asteroid-ship and found it to be one of the most intriguing set designs I’ve seen in the series–once they get below ground. The corridors are visually interesting and the sound of echoing footsteps as people walked through them reinforced the idea of it being an enclosed space. It felt like people actually lived inside the asteroid, as we see plenty of them wandering about, and their culture was nicely implied with all the markings and the rituals observed by Natira. There are broad shades of dystopia here, with yet another controlling computer intelligence guiding the development–or stagnation–of its people, but overall I found the Fabrini settlers fairly well-realized. There was also at least an attempt at interesting cinematography in this episode, with one standout shot of the stairs as Kirk, Spock, and McCoy descend inside the asteroid.
What I liked best was the classic pairing of a big story with big stakes (the asteroid-ship in danger of destroying itself and Daran V) with a much more personal one. Though the doctor handles the news of his impending death calmly, we get he’s putting up a brave front for the sake of his friends and because he doesn’t want special treatment. Kirk’s feelings for his friend are evident in Shatner’s every expression and gesture, and it’s terrific that McCoy realizes Spock knows about his disease because of the Vulcan’s gentle touch. Their close bonds have never been clearer than when Kirk and Spock have to leave McCoy behind.
It’s also a pleasure to see Dr. McCoy have his rare moment in the spotlight, and Kelley turns in his best performance yet in one of the most affecting love stories since Kirk and Edith Keeler; his relationship with Natira is honest, and Natira herself is a refreshing change from the show’s latest female roles. The musical score evokes romance films of the 1940s, and the gradual feelings that she and McCoy develop for each other fall just short of cheesy or over-the-top, though the same can’t be said for her accent. Still, her line “The pleasure is in the learning of each other,” and her desire to be with McCoy for as long as they have together is touching. Similarly, her outrage at Kirk’s apparent betrayal is entirely believable and justified when she tells him he has no right to treat them like children and sneak around when they were more-or-less welcomed as guests. She has a fair point: they’ve already decided to abandon the Prime Directive, this time legitimately, so why not try to explain what’s at stake earlier on?
There are a few low points of course. The clown costumes that all the Fabrini but Natira wear are ludicrously bad, and of course Spock’s discovery of an alien cure to the disease we hadn’t heard of before was awfully convenient… But this is a character piece, pure and simple, and I enjoyed nearly every minute of it.
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 5
Best Line: NATIRA: Is truth not truth for all?
Syndication Edits: None.
Trivia: The Book of the People is also The Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, as seen in “A Piece of the Action.”
In the original draft, Scotty was the one dying of an irreversible blood condition brought on by radiation exposure. Kirk and Scotty beam down to the ship and are warmly received. He had three years to live and was allowed to choose wherever he wished to “retire,” so Scotty chooses Yonada. When Kirk tries to talk him out of staying because it’s going to blow up an inhabited planet, man-fighting ensues. Later, when they confront the Oracle, the walls close in on them (too expensive?) and Kirk phasers through a wall to the control room. Then the Oracle apologizes and exchanges information banks, giving them the cure for Scotty.
Though Spock claims the Oracle room gets to be 120° and they only experience some slight discomfort, that would probably leave them all with serious burns.
This episode adds a little to the McCoy canon backstory. According to The Star Trek Writers’ Guide, McCoy was married before he joined Starfleet, but when the marriage ended in divorce he left behind his daughter, Joanna, who was studying to become a nurse.
Other notes: Jon Lormer, who plays the old man, appeared in “The Menagerie“/”The Cage” as Theodore Haskins and in “The Return of the Archons” as Tamar.
Catherine Woodville, who plays Natira, appeared in dozens of contemporary shows. Perhaps most notably she was in the first episode of The Avengers–it was her character’s murder that gave the show its name. She married Patrick Macnee, who starred on the show, though they’re divorced now.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 7 – “Day of the Dove.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 9 – “The Tholian Web.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
A salt vampire threatens the Enterprise, attacking innocent salt shakers and crewmembers alike.
Addendum #1: This post is early because of the Thanksgiving holiday; it’s not indicative of a format change.
Addendum #2: The tableau in that second screenshot is possibly my absolute favorite of the series.
Torie, you aren’t the only one who was amused by “the insertion of the instrument of obedience.” That was one of the strangest wedding ceremonies I’ve ever seen.
Not to see Japanophilia everywhere, but this episode is also another Treaty Port Metaphor Plot. This explains a large number of production decisions — first, you have the basic framework of people kept isolated from the outside world by their dictatorial master, like the sakoku policy of the late Tokugawa shogunate. This is reinforced by the guards inexplicably wielding swords and wearing condom hats — they’re actually done up in a pastiche of Noh-style samurai (reference images 1 and 2), which is why they’re wearing that ghastly garish patterned cloth — which was quite the style in the Bakumatsu. Note also the old dude who dies; I don’t recall whether he was wearing a peasant-style straw hat, but the robes right up to the way they’re gathered between the knees is a Japanese peasant thing (reference image 3). Even the Fabrini script is supposed to look blocky, though the effect is more like Korean than Japanese script. And don’t forget the practice of ancestor worship.
Oh, also — Yonada? Yamato.
Anyway, that aside — My theory as to why the people were kept in ignorance and stuck in this agrarian society is to ensure their survival for several thousand years. The creators wanted to have a society which was kept busy, which wouldn’t advance technologically or have energetic needs beyond the capability of this artificial intra-asteroid environment to support. You can’t expect to maintain military discipline for 10,000 years through hundreds of generations, taking the culture of an entire planet and distilling it into just enough people to maintain genetic diversity without causing all the old rivalries of nation and culture to break out. What good is the generation ship if everyone dies?
Or I’m thinking about this too hard — there aren’t cultural distinctions among the members of this planetary civilization! How silly of me.
Other thoughts: I too was struck by this being a very Orphans of the Sky plot, but it looks like Torie already covered that.
Oh! One other thing I forgot — DeForest Kelley’s posture in the scene where he’s fighting with Nurse Chapel. He’s got a kind of slouched posture with his head and neck pretty far forward — it’s not an effective physical position from which to be asserting authority, an effect that’s only increased by Majel Barrett’s being pretty tall and having rather high hair in the series. But then you discover that he’s supposed to have a terminal illness, and yes, those little signs of weakness suddenly become more noticeable and more understandable.
Hey! What happened to my first post?
Trying to reconstruct: This is one of a handful of episodes (including “Friday’s Child” and a couple of others) that didn’t seem to get aired nearly as often as others in pre-TNG syndication, so my memories are fuzzier. But I remember this being a fairly good one.
The generation ship had been around for a long time (though I’m not 100 % sure that Heinlein invented it) as had the hollowed-out asteroid (it was used in the first Dig Allen book, so it must be even older), but I bet these concepts were pretty wild and new to most of the general audience. Given the problems inherent in a generation ship – not having later generations tinker disastrously or seriously altering the mission, rigid population control, etc. – a sociological mechanism for enforcing those things might look pretty good to the mission creators. Religion is a time-tested method of sociological control. Gene Wolfe used it in his Long Sun books, but that’s fairly late. More likely models here might be Gather, Darkness or A Canticle for Leibowitz.
In all of the stories where McCoy plays a larger role than just doctor, he comes across as a very lonely man. I don’t know if it was in the series bible or what, but it is an odd characteristic to carry through in a series with so much less continuity control than we are used to today.
Once again wingman to Eugene at Warp 5.
This one made a strong impression on me when I was a kid. The old guy with the title line in particular.
One thing I always wondered about, though, was why didn’t they just settle the Yonadains (Yonadaers?) on Daran V?
@churchhatestucker #6
Well, they probably didn’t settle them on Daran V because there were already several billion people living there. It seems like a lot to ask that a fully developed world become the new home world for the last remnant of an extinct alien people, not to mention the problems involved with cultural differences and the backwards technological state of the Yonada.
That Jon Lormer (not “Lomar”) just can’t make it to the end of a Star Trek episode, can he? He went 0 for 3. And in two of them he was essentially killed by the computerized intelligence that was running the planet.
I’m with Deep Thought about seeing Japan everywhere in this one.
And so far as I can tell, Heinlein didn’t invent the generation ship (Goddard postulated it back in the 20s), but he appears to have come up with the idea of the descendants forgetting they’re on a ship.
@7 DeepThought
Prolly right. Was it even established that they were Federation members?
Still the whole plot is basically ‘Ship at sea is about to crash into harbor town. We patch them up and point them in a different direction.’
And where *were* they supposed to go that was envisioned ten thousand years ago?
It’s one of those things that bugged me as a kid and has stayed with me.
@3 DeepThought
I didn’t think about it much while watching it, but you’ve built a pretty good case for the Japanese influences on this episode. It all seems so obvious now…
@5 DemetriosX
Of course I’ve seen this sort of story done before (or, after this episode, from my perspective) but it’s still a compelling idea that I haven’t heard a lot about. I’m embarrassed to say that I haven’t read any of the SF novels that people have mentioned (yet!), but I have definitely encountered short stories that played with the concept.
@6 ChurchHatesTucker
why didn’t they just settle the Yonadains (Yonadaers?) on Daran V?
I thought the issue was the ship was out of control and was going to crash into the planet and kill everyone. We don’t know what their original course was supposed to be, but there’s apparently a Star Trek novel titled Ex Machina by Christopher L. Bennett that establishes that they do settle on Daran IV, so they could have been heading there all along. I think I’ll have to check out the book–it sounds interesting, and I really enjoyed this episode a lot.
As I said some time ago when the subject of Star Trek titles came up, this is my favorite title – science fiction or otherwise.
I can think think of two reasons that have not been suggested for the people being kept from true knowledge of their world. And these reasons do work with the reasons suggested by DemetriosX in #5.
The first may seem silly at first but give it some thought. “Are we there yet?” Parents taking kids on long road trips get to know that line well. But, even worse than the kid’s desire to get there – or at least get out of the car for a bit – would be enduring the knowledge that you are on a journey lasting so long that you will never see its end and neither will your children. That is unless you are lucky enough to be born into the last shipboard generation. This is the opposite of the concern over the population growing too large. And this would be just as likely to happen. The people could become depressed and give up. “Why would I want to put my children through this?”
The second reason is related to the first. Many people would see space as a depressing place. There is no change of seasons. Very little color. A people who have evolved on a planet and who’s culture is rooted in the planetary lifestyle would have a hard time living in a ship surrounded by the bleakness of space. True, they’re society could evolve to one that accepts and thrives on the space environment but that would defeat the purpose of the journey – to re-establish the race and the civilization on a new world.
Just a thought. Knowledge of the Fabrini could have been similar to our knowledge of Atlantis – something passed down through legends. The knowledge, or theories, of the Fabrini could have been pieced together from noticeable overlaps in the myths, legends and histories of races on other worlds.
True, they’re society could…
I should know better than that.
Popping up not one day early but two…..oh you guys are tricky,
Agreed that that this is a decent episode. The most glaring weaknesses of the episode is the space distances involved. Chemical missiles coming at the Enterprise? The range would have to have been so short that the ship would have been right on top of the generation ship. The same goes for their destination, at one year plus a few days their target would need to be the same planet that they threatened.
Still, Star Trek has had far worse science, and it will get worse before it gets better. (Scratch that, it gets better next Episode. The next one is a gem.)
So, the Longest Title episode. I think they must have had a hard time fitting that title card onto the film….
Is it my favourite title? Not sure. Certainly up there with The City on the Edge of Forever — it does have, though, a certain Ellison-esqueness to it, doesn’t it? But, yes, a great title in a series with the best titles in the business.
Love Natira’s outfit. Yow! But who does her hair every morning?
I forget how James Blish dealt with the Oracle’s personality in his novelisation (or short-storisation, if you like), but he dealt with Yonada being off course by positing a wasps’ nest in one of the vent tubes or some such. Spock suffers a sting removing it.
Although I remember thinking whenever I saw this episode: what if Daran V was the intended destination?
bobsandiego@13 is right, of course, about the time scales and distances involved; it’s just so irritating that, even today, people just can’t seem to get it through their heads that space is big (insert obligatory Douglas Adams quote here).
I also always wondered why the Oracle didn’t just zap Kirk and Spock again — fatally — when it was applying the final correction. Why go to the trouble of heating up the room, thus giving them time to break into the control room?
And Orphans of the Sky is one of my absolute favourite books. One more little touch is the use of gestures in front of the control panels to open the door to the Oracle Room: no moving parts, just as in that novel, so nothing to wear out.
I’ve always found the interstellar ark idea to be utterly fascinating. You see it used in Silent Running and (with Ellison mentioned earlier, we can’t not bring this one up), The Starlost, which was generally horrific, but did at least bring the concept to the screen in a weekly series. I suppose, really, you can extend the idea — a culture isolated from the outside world, forgetting that there is even such a place — to films such as THX1138, Logan’s Run, hell, even Soylent Green if you want to stretch it (Sol Roth’s last journey is, really, to the ‘outside’ world).
Anyway, I’d probably sign up for one myself if the chance came along….
DemetriosX@5: I had never really thought about McCoy’s loneliness before, but I think you’re absolutely right. I wonder if that was a deliberate choice of the writers, or if it’s just such an obviously necessary trait for that character? I mean, how could McCoy not be a lonely man? It just is who he is….
I also like the stark choice facing Kirk if they fail to alter Yonada’s course: they’ll have to blow it out of space to save Daran V. But is that before or after Starfleet evacuates all the passengers? And why can’t they do something like attach some big old impulse engines to the thing and nudge it out of its current trajectory? I mean, we can almost do that. Surely Starfleet has the capability. Of course, that goes for the asteroid in The Paradise Syndrome as well. I guess none of these writers went in for Big Engineering Projects.
Okay, back to work…
addendum:
I also want to menton that I think for the most part this is a very well thought-out script filled with subelty. It has been mentioned that the culture felt distinct, and I agree with that but there’ more here.
Think about the line’ Is it not written that the High priestess may choose her own mate?’ That implies that only the High Priestess can do this and all others have their mate chosen for them. Which makes total sense from the generation-ship point of view. Two big problems, population control and genetic diversitty would require strict breeding controls to preserve a viable colony population. The Oracle selects your mates, controlling when children are born and by which couples to prevent inbreeding.
None of this is expounded upon with the exposition truck of doom, but it seems like it is there to me.
Yes! The Starlost. I agree it was bad but I’m glad I saw it. Here’s an off topic thought. Could the computer interface in Starlost have been (at least part of) the inspiration for Marvin in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy? “May I (sigh) help you?”
Now two more thoughts on the controlled society. First. Given the comments raised over the problems of dangerous tinkering, over population or under population and such, could the controlled society be the better model for use on a generation ship?
Second. We don’t know anything about the Fabrini society before they left their home system. Maybe this model is not that far from what they had then.
@11 Ludon
I like a lot of Harlan Ellison’sTM story titles, like “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman” and “I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream.” Definitely a lost art there, and I’m crap at coming up with titles for my own work.
I found myself thinking about WALL*E while watching this episode. It’s a similar set up with the generation ship, a computer intelligence guiding them, and one person as the leader who can access the knowledge they need when the time comes. There, I thought it was a matter of just letting people enjoy themselves until they have to take action.
I hear you Eugene. I bang my head on the wall until it bleeds trying to come up with titles. I so evnious of my friend Gail who not only has great titles, but great titles for all the chapters of her books.
The best I ever came up with has a similar tone to this title. Mine was “Regent, I am allowed.”
@ Eugene
Those are some fun titles and I also like his “On The Downhill Side.” Bradbury used some fun titles and I loved James White’s use of “The Silent Stars Go By.” There is just something about the title of this episode and how it relates to the story that makes it stand out for me.
@18 bobsandiego
Looking for the title may not be the way to go. Try letting the title come to you out of the story as you work on it. And I’ve found that sometimes a brief line of dialogue from a chapter can work as that chapter’s title – example “That’s not a real map.” This little reveal before the map was introduced was not important because what the map really was was more important to that chapter.
A novella I’m working on has the title “Passage On A Singing Rail” and a novel in progress (in revision stage) is titled “Home Is A Long Way From Home” while my latest finished short story is titled simply “Race Day.” I did not go searching for those titles, they each came to me as the stories developed in my head. They may not be great titles (that’s for others to decide) but they each fit their story and that works for me. Now, I don’t have anything published – yet – so you can take my suggestion for what you think it’s worth.
Your Star Trek reviews are okay, but why don’t you ever have any giveaways?
@20 JohnSteed7
Every one of these posts is a giveaway! What more could you possibly want?
And you know what? Someone had better give me something if I have to sit through “The Way to Eden” again.
And you know what? Someone had better give me something if I have to sit through “The Way to Eden” again.
Herbert.
@ 22 NomadUK
Bugger, there is no topping that retort.
Wow. I do not think it is possible to come up with a wittier reply to my first post.
For Natira’s speech about the High Priestess choosing her own mate, Blish either wrote, or included from the original script, the Oracle’s reply “Of necessity. Our world is small.”
The title seems almost like something Star Trek fan James Tiptree, Jr. (Dr. Alice Sheldon) might come up with. He/She had some wonderful titles. “With Delicate Mad Hands” (a quote from an Ernest Dowson poem) — “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” — “Your Faces, O My Sisters! Your Faces Filled of Light!” — “Love is the Plan the Plan is Death” — “She Waits for All Men Born” and “We Who Stole the Dream”. Wow.
Did none of you go away for Thanksgiving? Hello again!
Everyone’s explanations for why these people are kept in ignorance are helpful, but I still don’t know that I buy it… I also think it underestimates natural curiosity. Hasn’t SOMEONE poked around that book before, in 10,000 years?
@ 5 DemetriosX
He strikes me as a lonely man, too. I like that. I like that everyone on the ship seems to have his or her own reasons for being there. Kirk is obviously an adventurer; McCoy probably wanted to get away from something in his past. There isn’t a lot to go on in terms of character history for the crew on but what’s there lends itself to a really diverse set of people, if you’re willing to fill in the gaps.
@ 8 ccradio
Oops! Fixed.
@ 14 NomadUK
To quote Galaxy Quest:
The “why can’t they just evacuate these people” thing came up again in TNG, actually. Someone puts everyone from a dying planet in a holodeck simulation that looked like their planet hoping to resettle them on a different one without their noticing (“Homeward“). Didn’t quite work out…
@ 25 Bluejay Young
Yes! Very Tiptree-esque. I loved her titles. “The Man Doors Said Hello To,” “With Delicate Mad Hands,” and my personal favorite, “And I Have Come Upon This Place By Lost Ways.”
@22 NomadUK
I see how it is.
@25 Bluejay Young
Oh yes, Tiptree came up with marvelous titles, and fantastic stories to go with them. I really loved “Love is the Plan the Plan is Death”. I didn’t realize she was a Star Trek fan!
@26 Torie
Thanksgiving for me is very simple. Me and my sweetie-wife, no other family living close at all. We still went away though — LosCon the Los Angeles Area SF Convention is held over Thanksgiving weekend. Much better that a weekend with genetic family in general.
LOL
@22 Eugene Myers: I didn’t realize she was a Star Trek fan!
Check out ‘Beam Us Home’ (in Ten Thousand Light-Years from Home).
Brief synopsis: N lbhat obl tebjf hc nf n Fgne Gerx sna. Yngre nf n qlvat svtugre cvybg ur syvrf uvf cynar nf uvtu nf ur pna naq vf erfphrq ol n cnffvat fgnefuvc.
@29 Rob Rusick
Thanks! I’ll try to track that collection down. :)
I’m surprised to read that you guys thought DeForest Kelly did a great job in this episode. I thought he seemed completely uninterested in Natira, to the point where it looked like he had no idea how to kiss her. (Sheesh, if it were Spock, maybe that could be in character, but noooo, Spock kisses just fine, in the few episodes where he gets to do so.)
To me, this episode showed that they had the right guys in the #1 and #2 roles, because I thought Kelly showed that when given a chance to do something different, he couldn’t actually pull it off.
This isn’t an episode I go back to a lot (same with most of the 3rd season really) but I did about a week ago. What it reminded me of was a Ben Bova juvenile novel I read back in grade school, “End of Exile”, about a bunch of kids aboard an Ark Ship who are similarly unaware of the nature of their vessel until one of their number deliberately seeks out and finds the last surviving adult still living in the center of the ship. It’s somewhat silly stuff as I recall, informed by that same sensibility you see at work in Asimov’s “Foundation” where a mere few decades are enough to make everyone forget everything about science and technology and believe it’s all spirits and magic.
This episode gets off to a good start, but the relationship between McCoy and Natira really drags it down for me. Why does she instantly fall madly in love with hom? Does she have a thing for guys who look awkward and uncomfortable all the time? His body language seems to be conveying anything but attraction to her. (Maybe Fabrini body language is radically different from ours, and what we interpret as discomfort, they interpret as intense sexual interest). His decision to stay with her is also a little difficult to understand: first, because he just doesn’t seem that interested in her (unless he happens to have read a book on Fabrini body language back on the Enterprise, you know, just in case he happened to meet someone from a culture thought to be dead for 20,000 years). Second, sure he’s lonely and dying of an incurable disease, but isn’t the possibility of survival still higher if you’re NOT on an asteroid that’s on a collision course with a planet? Also, he seemed to do pretty well with Yeoman Barrows and the chorus girls in “Shore Leave”; is an asteroid priestess with bad eye makeup really his only option for female companionship? Finally, I’m a big fan of DeForest Kelley, but he just seems completely off in this episode. It must be the xenopolycythemia.
This episode does have some pretty neat cinematography, though. I really liked the single shot from the flashing red alert signal to Spock sitting in the captain’s chair in the opener. The foot-level camera when Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Natira are coming down the ramp towards the Oracle room was pretty cool, too.
Oh, and I thought the Yonadan costumes with the psychedelic plaid and the vinyl condom hats were awesome. I wish I could go to work dressed like that.
By the way, this is hardly the only Star Trek episode where the name of the episode is actually mentioned in the episode. In fact, the episode title is mentioned at least once in about a quarter of all Star Trek episodes (depending exactly how you count them). See below:
“The Cage” – 1 mention (just “cage,” no “the”)
“Miri” – 24 mentions
“The Menagerie, Part 2” – 1 mention (just “menagerie,” not “the menagerie part 2”)
“The Conscience of the King” – 1 mention
“Shore Leave” – 7 mentions
“The Squire of Gothos” – 1 mention (actually “the lonely squire of Gothos”)
“Court Martial” – 1 mention
“The Changeling” – 3 mentions (2 x “changeling” + 1 x “the changeling”)
“The Apple” – 2 mentions
“The Doomsday Machine” – 4 mentions (all without “the”)
“Catspaw” – 1 mention (actually “catspaws,” not “catspaw”)
“Obsession” – 1 mention
“Wolf in the Fold” – 1 mention (actually “wolf in THAT fold”)
“A Piece of the Action” – 4 mentions
“By Any Other Name” – 2 mentions
“Spock’s Brain” – 15 mentions
“The Tholian Web” – 1 mentions
“For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” – 2 mentions
“Plato’s Stepchildren” – 1 mention
“Wink of an Eye” – 1 mention
“The Empath” – 3 mentions (all without “the”)
That’s 15 episodes using a strict criteria, or 22 using a less strict criteria. Using the less-strict criteria, there are 79 on-screen mentions of episode titles, which averages out to one per episode.
Yes, the fact that I took the time to figure this out demonstrates what a huge geek I am.