“Requiem for Methuselah”
Written by Jerome Bixby
Directed by Murray Golden
Season 3, Episode 19
Production episode: 3×21
Original air date: February 14, 1969
Star date: 5843.7
Mission summary
Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to planet Holberg 917G in search of pure ryetalyn, the only known cure for a deadly outbreak of Rigelian fever on Enterprise. If they can’t secure this maguffin and process it in four hours, McCoy says “the epidemic will be irreversible.” They certainly don’t have time to investigate the life form that Spock’s tricorder registers on the supposedly uninhabited planet, nor is it a convenient moment for a floating robot to wobble over and fire a blue laser beam in their general vicinity. But these things happen, so what are you going to do?
They try to defend themselves but their phasers don’t work so they run for it. Fortunately, the cute little robot is a crap shot, and it ceases its attack when a timely male voice commands, “Do not kill.” The bot’s owner appears, a gray-haired man in a super short tunic and a fabulous blue cape. He introduces himself as Flint and tells them to get off his lawn planet. He already knows all about them, but he’s gone all Walden Pond and doesn’t want any visitors, for any reason. Kirk first offers to buy or trade for the life-saving ryetalyn they need, but his begging falls on deaf ears. Finally, Kirk promises, “If necessary, we’ll take it.” Flint responds to his threat in kind: “I have the power to force you to leave or kill you where you stand.”
Kirk isn’t without his own resources. He calls Scotty on Enterprise and orders him to fire on their location if anything happens to them, turning the delicate negotiation into a game of chicken. Spock advises Flint to back off, and McCoy hits a nerve when he tells the old man that Rigelian fever is like bubonic plague, which sets Flint off on a bizarre history lesson:
Constantinople, summer 1334. It marched through the streets, the sewers. It left the city by ox cart, by sea, to kill half of Europe. The rats, rustling and squealing in the night as they, too, died. The rats.
Looks like someone’s been watching a lot of documentaries! Spock politely asks if he’s a history buff, and Flint confirms that’s the case. He relents and grants them a two-hour visit. He sends his ultimate robot M-4 to harvest the ryetalyn for them while he welcomes them into his grandiose matte painting.
Inside Flint’s palace, they find a lush drawing room filled with antiques. Their host tells them that his planet is shielded to make it seem uninhabited, presumably to deter door-to-door salesmen, while McCoy admires his books: a Shakespeare first folio, a Gutenberg Bible, and Taranullus’ Creation lithographs. Though Flint claims that he lives alone with M-4 (because what more does a bachelor need?), a woman in a shiny dress watches them on a flatpanel TV. When he excuses himself to check on her, she’s delighted at their unexpected visitors. She begs to meet them, but Flint refuses. He tries to kiss her, but she doesn’t respond, as if she isn’t even familiar with the concept of kissing.
FLINT: Rayna. Have you been lonely?
RAYNA: What is loneliness?
FLINT: It is thirst. It is a flower dying in the desert.
RAYNA: Flint, don’t take this opportunity away from me. It’s so exciting.
FLINT: Exciting? You have never made a demand of me before.
RAYNA: I’m sorry.
FLINT: Do not be sorry. It might be interesting.
While Flint flirts, McCoy gets into his liquor supply and starts doling out 100-year-old Saurian Brandy. Even Spock agrees to have a glass, mostly because he’s so stunned at Flint’s collection of rare stuff. He admits to almost feeling envy at the unknown Leonardo da Vinci paintings on the walls, which were painted fairly recently. Weird. Kirk’s learned a few things over the years though, and he reminds them this could all be an illusion. He asks Spock to scan Flint to make sure he’s human and orders Scotty to perform a full background check on the man and his planet. His work done, Kirk kicks back for a bit. “Let’s enjoy this brandy. It tastes real.”
M-4 bobs into the room and tosses a baggy of purple crystals at McCoy, who is eager to process it into an antitoxin. Flint returns and promises that his robot buddy will take care of all that in his own lab, under the doctor’s supervision, so that Kirk and Spock can hang out some more. To “make amends” for his previous behavior, he introduces his adopted daughter, Rayna Kapec. As far as Kirk’s concerned, all is forgiven once he looks at her. He even lets Flint backpeddle on his previous claim that there was no one else on the planet.
Rayna ingratiates herself to Spock by speaking his language–not Vulcan, but sub-dimensional physics. There’s also a mutual attraction between her and Kirk, and McCoy starts to lay on his “Southern charm,” overdoing the compliments on her beauty just a tad. Flint sends him to play with M-4 in the lab while he entertains the others with games and friendly debate. Kirk immediately gets defensive about their defenses while Rayna shows him how to handle his, uh, billiard stick.
KIRK: You said something about savagery, Mr. Flint. When was the last time you visited Earth?
FLINT: You would tell me that it is no longer cruel. But it is, Captain. Look at your starship, bristling with weapons. Its mission to colonize, exploit, destroy, if necessary, to advance Federation causes.
KIRK: Our missions are peaceful, our weapons defensive. If we were barbarians, we would not have asked for ryetalyn. Indeed, your greeting, not ours, lacked a certain benevolence.
FLINT: The result of pressures which are not your concern.
KIRK: Yes, well, those pressures are everywhere in everyone, urging him to what you call savagery. The private hells, the inner needs and mysteries, the beast of instinct. As human beings, that is the way it is. To be human is to be complex. You can’t avoid a little ugliness from within and from without.
Spock plays a waltz and Kirk and Rayna dance while our man Flint watches creepily in the corner. Kirk’s putting the moves on her when McCoy bursts in with bad news: the ryetalyn wasn’t pure after all–it was cut with irrilium. Spock states that the impurity will “render the antitoxin inert and useless.” Flint takes McCoy and M-4 to find more ryetalyn and Spock tries to interest Kirk in his observation that the Brahms waltz he just played is totally new to him and was written in the composer’s own hand, which he happens to recognize. Kirk’s too preoccupied with concern that trusting Flint was a costly mistake, so he heads to the lab to see if the ryetalyn can be salvaged.
He has trouble focusing on his work when Rayna appears in the lab and stares at the door to a room Flint has forbidden her from entering. Kirk asks her if she’s happy living with Flint, rubs her shoulders seductively, embraces her awkwardly, and finally kisses her. She appears to be confused at the contact, and M-4 arrives with its virgin alarm flashing. Kirk shoves Rayna away just before Spock zaps M-4; the robot was unaware of his presence so it didn’t neutralize his phaser.
In the drawing room, Flint explains himself:
M-4 was programmed to defend this household and its members. No doubt I should have altered its instructions to allow for unauthorized but predictable actions on your part. It thought you were attacking Rayna. A misinterpretation.
Speak of the devil… M-4 drifts into the room as though nothing has happened. Or is this one M-5? Flint clearly understands the importance of backups. The old man takes Rayna away and Kirk bristles at the way he orders her about. Spock recommends the captain stop hitting on their host’s daughter, but Kirk insists that Flint is pushing them together even if he’s acting jealous. Mixed signals!
Scotty reports in to say that the Rigelian fever has spread to almost the entire crew. They also have the report on Flint and the planet: the man doesn’t exist, but Holberg 917G was purchased by a Mr. Brack, “a wealthy financier and recluse.” Spock adds a tantalizing detail: Flint is human, but the tricorder says he may be over 6000 years old. They soon discover that there’s no record of Rayna Kapec or her parents either.
They need the cure for the fever in a little over two hours or everyone on the ship will die, but it seems Flint may be delaying their progress on purpose. Kirk cares less about that when Rayna shows up to say good-bye. He sends Spock to the lab to check on the ryetalyn, while he asks Rayna to come with them. Flint watches Kirk kiss her on his TV–she’s finally getting the hang of it!
KIRK: Come with me. I offer you happiness.
RAYNA: I’ve known security here.
KIRK: Childhood must end. You love me, not Flint!
She runs away, so Kirk joins McCoy and Spock in the lab, where he learns that the ryetalyn has mysteriously disappeared along with the robot. Their tricorder scans lead them to Flint’s Forbidden Door, and Kirk and Spock argue about who gets to go in. Spock insists he go alone, but won’t say why. Finally they all enter and find more than the ryetalyn–the room is filled with tables that hold bodies covered in sheets, helpfully labeled Rayna 16, 15, 14, and so on. Kirk pulls back a sheet to uncover a bald copy of Rayna.
In his log, Kirk calls her “the perfect woman.” Except for the whole not being human thing. McCoy spells it out: “She’s an android.” These aren’t backups of the woman, they’re prototypes. Flint appears to deliver some overdue exposition.
FLINT: Created here by my hand. Here, the centuries of loneliness were to end.
SPOCK: Your collection of Leonardo da Vinci masterpieces, Mr. Flint, they appear to have been recently painted on contemporary canvas with contemporary materials. And on your piano, a waltz by Johannes Brahms, an unknown work in manuscript, written in modern ink. Yet absolutely authentic, as are your paintings.
FLINT: I am Brahms.
SPOCK: And da Vinci?
FLINT: Yes.
SPOCK: How many other names shall we call you?
FLINT: Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Methuselah, Merlin, Abramson. A hundred other names you do not know.
It isn’t important how or why, but as a Mesopotamian soldier in 3834 B.C., Flint was mortally injured in battle and learned he couldn’t die. Not only was he some of the greatest men Earth has ever known, he hobknobbed with the A-list of historical celebrities. Bodacious! Though he cannot fall in battle, love has pierced his heart more than any weapon–but his many wives keep dying on him, so he decided to build his own immortal beloved.
Spock suspected it all along of course, but he tells Kirk, “I had hoped I was wrong.” But now that Flint knows that they know, he won’t let them leave. Spock promises they won’t tell, but the old man doesn’t trust them. He pushes a button and turns Enterprise into a model on the table, promising to hold them in suspended animation for a couple thousand years. He only relents when Spock and McCoy point out that now that Rayna can love, she will never love him if he acts so cruelly.
Kirk says his lips are sealed and Flint returns Enterprise to orbit, presumably at its normal size. But the captain is still jealous, and miffed that he was used, claiming that he and Rayna still love each other. They fight for the woman over her protests. Spock cautions them that they should really stop, but it’s too late–her brain overloads and collapses. Spock explains,
She loved you, Captain. And you, too, Mr. Flint, as a mentor, even as a father. There was not enough time for her to adjust to the awful power and contradictions of her newfound emotions. She could not bear to hurt either of you. The joys of love made her human, and the agonies of love destroyed her.
Back on Enterprise, the plague is all taken care of but Kirk is depressed over Rayna. He rests his head on his desk, tells Spock he wishes he could forget her, then promptly falls asleep. McCoy pops in to report that Flint is dying because he left Earth, with its “complex fields” that somehow granted him immortality. The old man will live out a normal lifespan, which he plans to spend improving the human condition. After all, he did wonders for Kirk.
Before he leaves, the doctor takes a moment to insult Spock and his inability to love; the Vulcan is clearly missing out, even if love can make you miserable. Then he comments, “I do wish he could forget her.” Which gives Spock an idea! He initiates a mind meld with the sleeping Kirk and intones, “Forget.”
Analysis
I do wish I could forget this episode. I almost had too, because I was deceived by the evocative title into falsely remembering this as one of the better ones. How could I have been so wrong?
To quote Spock, “I am close to experiencing an unaccustomed emotion.” Only in my case, it’s anger. I don’t mind the idea of an immortal living through the centuries and watching history unfold, even playing an active role in it, but it bothers me that “Flint” is supposed to be all these famous figures, a genius in so many different disciplines. Really? He was Solomon and Alexander? And they even threw Merlin in there for good measure? I find it insulting to all these great people, and insulting to viewers because we’re supposed to swallow it. They don’t even offer any plausible reason for his amazing regenerative abilities, attributing it to some handwavey Earth fields, which he apparently needs to survive. Wouldn’t these fields have changed significantly over the course of 6000 years? If Flint wants to live, couldn’t he just move back to Earth? Or is he just giving up now, ready to die without his precious Rayna? There’s also a bit of irony, I suppose–it would have sucked for Rayna if he’d ended up dying and leaving her alone on that planet, huh?
Then there are all the ethical implications, most of which are glossed over. After Kirk tells the Halkans that the Federation would never just take their dilithium crystals in “Mirror, Mirror” (also written by Jerome Bixby), it was startling that he considers taking the ryetalyn against Flint’s wishes. Granted, their situation was life-threatening, and you don’t have any of those pesky politics with one private landowner, but once you cross that line, it’s hard not to seem like a hypocrite. On another note, I’m not even sure what ryetalyn is. Some kind of ore? A psychostimulant to treat ADD and depression?
Spock’s decision to wipe Kirk’s memory at the end is most distressing of all. A spoken desire to forget is hardly giving carte blanche to make it happen, and I doubt Kirk would have actually agreed if Spock had offered. The captain probably even knows that it’s possible, but he doesn’t ask. Even if he’s just forgetting Rayna, or his feelings for her, it seems like an incredibly personal violation–and as we know from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Kirk needs his pain. Besides, the imposed amnesia probably won’t even stick unless Spock also alters his official and personal logs, which is another major problem. I’ll admit, this is probably just a personal trigger, but I really hate stories in which one character decides that another is better off without certain memories and intentionally submerges or erases them. Don’t mess with another person’s brain. Despite good intentions, this isn’t a choice anyone should be able to make for someone else, when so much of our identities are determined by our experiences, good and bad.
It seems to me that Spock sacrifices being a good officer for being a good friend. He sees how Kirk is affected by Rayna and offers relationship advice, even withholds information (or suspicions) from the captain from the desire to spare his feelings. Perhaps he’s starstruck to be in Flint’s presence, but it just isn’t very Vulcan. His concern is also touching, notably when he tries to stop the captain from entering the Rayna Room, but if Kirk’s attraction to Rayna is interfering with negotiations for the drug they need, he should be much more forceful. Not that it would have done any good; through the whole episode, Spock makes sage suggestions to both Kirk and Flint, but the two men completely ignore him. This is much less in character for Kirk, as is the captain’s rapid obsession with Rayna and the extreme depression that follows.
I know that this was the Valentine’s Day episode of Star Trek, but their love for each other just didn’t seem believable or justified. Fine, Rayna has never seen a young man before, so perhaps Kirk is irresistable to her…except that she isn’t human, and she doesn’t have feelings, at least not at first. Instead, I think she’s starved for company and the stimulation of new perspectives and people. Kirk calls her the perfect woman, but why? Is it because she’s so much more beautiful and smart than anyone else? Is it because he’s lonely, as he suggests at the end of the episode? She should only be perfect for Flint–because he designed the woman he wants, because she’s immortal. No, Kirk has been involved with better women for better reasons than simple plot necessity.
Finally, why does Flint go to so much trouble to lead Kirk to the Rayna models? He may just want Kirk to give her up, but when Spock subsequently makes his observations, he doesn’t even try to make up an excuse. In fact, like Tony Stark in Iron Man, he voluntarily confesses “I am Brahms” without much provocation. If he really wanted to be left alone, he could have just given them the ryetalyn and sent them on their merry way. He’s been watching them this whole time, so he knows how close Spock is to discovering the truth, but he does nothing to stop or mislead him. Again, blinded by love, no doubt–the same love which Spock claims destroyed Rayna. That’s poetic, but perhaps she simply couldn’t deal with the fact that she isn’t really alive, her whole past is a lie, and her “father” is in love with her, hmmm?
This is the worst kind of episode–a stupid plot that appears to be much smarter and deeper than it is, as fake as Flint’s androids. And Spock’s entirely illogical, immoral action pretty much kills it for me.
Eugene’s Rating: Full Stop (on a scale of 1-6)
Torie Atkinson: If you could live forever, would you want to? With all the stimuli you could conjure, with centuries of knowledge and generations of experience, would there be any joy left in the world? And if there weren’t, could you make joy?
“Requiem for Methuselah” was brilliant in its exploration of immortality and its obsession with the loneliness that must surely follow. When Flint first meets Kirk and Kirk asks for the ryetalyn, Flint tells him, “You have nothing I want.” He has everything: genius, hindsight, creativity and all the time in the world. Yet he’s perhaps the saddest man we’ve ever met. He takes no pleasure in his pursuits. His paradise is as much a prison, cutting him off not just from life’s sorrows and regrets but from its joys. He feels these things acutely, and James Daly does an amazing job bringing a huge spectrum of emotion and anguish to the surface. Here is a man whose loneliness and exile has so twisted him that he must manufacture joy. He creates the Raynas to be all things to him and fill all roles. Her task is impossible. She must be a child for him to care for, a woman for him to love, and an intellectual peer to inspire and challenge him. But who could ever really make him happy? It’s the great science fiction parable: immortality can make you a hero of the ages and yet without death, without a timetable, there’s nothing but joyless tedium to mark each passing day.
The way that Flint manipulates the “woman” he claims to love for his own satisfaction was perversely compelling. It’s sick, what he does. Flint knows he can never unlock in this woman the kind of passion he desires. Passion feeds on passion–it needs to be ignited by a lust for life he lost long ago. So he uses Kirk: young, bold, courageous. Kirk’s exciting. And he’s the key. The way that Flint watches them–watches them dance, watches them through his flatscreen TV, watches them playing pool–it’s practically depraved. He’s a monster, setting them up for heartbreak so he can jump in as a rebound and claim her devotion. His need for her is a selfish one, too: he doesn’t want her love freely. He wants desperate loneliness to drive her to latch onto him and in her misery mirror his own pathetic state. Twisted.
And yet his true reflection is in Kirk, not Rayna. Kirk acknowledges Flint’s view of the world: “The private hells, the inner needs and mysteries, the beast of instinct. As human beings, that is the way it is. To be human is to be complex. You can’t avoid a little ugliness from within and from without.” By the end, all that’s left is “A very old and lonely man. And a young and lonely man.” They are so similar, the two of them–men who should feel as if they have everything, men who have accomplished so much. They have people with whom to share pursuits–and yet no one to share their sorrows.
Sorrow, love, envy, fear–emotion is really the heart of this episode, and again I was so impressed by both the performances and the nuance. Shatner manages to run the gamut from charming to despondent. His anguish in the end is palpable and heartbreaking. And yet they never try and make him weak for it. Emotion here is strength. Its presence is what makes Rayna human, and its cold absence makes Flint so inhuman. It’s perhaps best expressed by Spock, of all people. In Flint’s palace he admits to a degree of envy, for the first time. But the most touching moment is the final scene, when he makes Kirk forget Rayna. McCoy says he wishes Kirk could forget, but I don’t think he really means that. It’s an expression we toss around all the time. In reality, though, we need our pain to appreciate our joy. It’s something Spock would never understand, and yet his compassion for his friend means he cannot let him suffer. He thinks he’s doing the right thing. (The scene is even more touching when you remember in Star Trek II that he does something similar to McCoy, only telling him instead to “Remember.” That one word contains his entire being.) I was reminded of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind–to lose the bad memories, the pain, the heartache, means losing the good ones as well.
It’s not a perfect episode, of course, and I’m sure in an earlier season all the plot holes, awkward dialogue, and melodrama would have been ironed out in the next few drafts. Flint’s starring role in Western Civilization’s Greatest Hits is a cheap shortcut, and Kirk’s sudden uncontrollable passion is a little hard to swallow. But I’d be nitpicking: thematically, this episode shared much with the best of Trek: loneliness, self-determination, emotion, and yes, love. It’s a flower, dying in the desert of season 3.
Torie’s Rating: Warp 5
Best Line: McCoy: “At her age, I rather enjoyed errors with no noticeable damage, but I must admit you’re the farthest thing from a bookworm I’ve ever seen.”
Syndication Edits: Kirk requests a background check on Flint and the planet, then enjoys some brandy; following a commercial break, Flint and Rayna approach Kirk, Spock, and McCoy; McCoy asks Rayna what else she’s interested in and she tells him everything; Kirk talks about how complex humanity is; Spock sits at the piano to play the Brahms waltz; much of Kirk and Rayna dancing and McCoy in the lab checking the ryetalyn; Kirk goes to Flint’s lab; Rayna telling Kirk that Flint has denied her access to one room, including the dialogue from her first “I don’t know” to the second; after a commercial, M4 looms toward Kirk and Rayne and the captain shoves her to safety; after a commercial, Flint and Rayna talk about why M4 attacked Kirk; some reaction shots after Spock recommends Kirk focus on getting the ryetalyn.
Trivia: The story outline contained some significant differences from the aired episode, including: Kirk and McCoy sneak into Flint’s home and Rayna stops M4 from attacking them, Dr. McCoy takes lookout while Kirk hugs Rayna, Kirk combats an illusory monster that is actually M4, they discover a drying Michelangelo painting at Flint’s, the man is 8,000 years old and once was Beethoven, and Spock erases Kirk’s memory from the bridge while the captain is in his quarters.
The exterior of Flint’s palace is a modified reuse of the Rigel VII matte painting from “The Cage,” ironic considering the crew is afflicted with Rigelian fever. Elements of M4 originated with the similar robot Nomad from “The Changeling.”
In a counterpoint to Spock’s use of a Vulcan mind-meld to make Kirk forget, in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, he transfers his katra to Dr. McCoy with the simple word, “Remember.”
This episode has two links to Star Trek: Voyager: in “Death Wish,” Q peers into a Christmas-ornament-sized Voyager through the viewscreen as Kirk does here with the shrunken Enterprise; and in “Concerning Flight,” Captain Janeway comments that Kirk claimed that he met Leonardo da Vinci.
Other notes: In the Bible, Methuselah is recorded as the oldest man who ever lived, to the ripe old age of 969. A “requiem” is a Roman Catholic mass for the dead.
Rayna’s surname “Kapec” was an homage to Karel Capek, the Czechoslovakian author who coined the word “robot” in 1921 in his play R.U.R.
The Season 3 DVD release incorrectly spells Rayna’s name as “Reena” in the end credits. The spelling was corrected for the remastered DVD release, with a different, slightly less whimsical end card of Spock playing tridimensional chess.
Stage actress Louise Sorel (Rayna) had genre credits on Rod Serling’s Night Gallery in the episodes “Pickman’s Model” and “The Dead Man” (which also starred Jeff Corey from the upcoming episode “The Cloud Minders”).
The Brahms waltz that Spock plays was composed for this episode by Ivan Ditmars.
Story elements from this episode were echoed in Bixby’s last screenplay, for the film The Man from Earth (2007).
Though Al Francis is credited as director of photography, the cameraman was actually John Finger.
Flint appears in a number of Star Trek tie-in novels, including Federation by Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens (as Micah Brack), The Cry of the Onlies by Judy Klass (which also follows after “Miri”), The Eugenics Wars, Volume One: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh by Greg Cox (as Wilson Evergeen), Immortal Coin by Jeffrey Lang (as Emil Vaslovik), and in Strange New Worlds 9 in “The Immortality Blues” by Marc Carlson (as Lewis Bixby and Jerome Drexel).
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 18 – “The Lights of Zetar.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 20 – “The Way to Eden.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
I think Eugene is much too harsh and Torie is too generous. I’d give it a solid2+, maybe a 3. It’s McGuffin city with a few largish plot holes, but it does do some things very well.
Had Flint known anything at all about James Kirk, he never would have let the Captain anywhere near his precious thinking machine. I think this may be the last AI that Jim works that ol’ black magic on.
I’ve always thought that what Spock was making Kirk forget was the pain of the loss, not the woman herself (such as she was). Sort of accelerating the wound-healing properties of time. And I still think that last scene was the major contributor to the birth of slashfic.
Spock at the piano reminds me of Lurch for some reason.
Next week: Hooo, boy! (Or should that be Yeah, brother?)
@ 1 DemetriosX
I waffled between a 4 and a 5 for a long while (it’s really more of a 4.5, but we don’t do half-warps), but based on Eugene’s take I’m probably going to knock that down come season end to a 4.
Isn’t MacGuffin City on Pandora?
@2 Torie MacGuffin city/Pandora Yes! Spot on lady, spot on!
I lked this episode much more than I had remembered, I honestly think the last time I watched this episode might have been during a syndication rerun in the 1970s.
I am shocked to see that neither, but especially Torie, of our hosts mentioned that this is so clearly a riff on The Tempest. Like Forbidden Planet before it, this episode follows in the long line of Star Trek ripping off Shakespeare. Thought from the comments on the original version of this script it was far too close to Forbidden Planet in much of those thefts.
@1 DemetriosX
I agree with you that Spock was not wiping out her memory entire – that would be too crude and unsubtle for our favorite Vulcan. I agree it’s the pain of the loss he’s adjusting, anything would become too noticeable.
Eugene: oh I understand your heebie-jeebies over messing with people’s mind but I really liked the very end. It’s a true testament to Spock’s friendship with Jim.
The most disturbing element of the episode is that after watching it a fanfic jumped to my mind. I shall resist writing for the good fo the galaxy.
I too think Eugene was a bit harsh and Torie a bit lenient in their reviews.
This is a gem in a pile of dreck that is Season 3, with an enigmatic and powerful opponent and a deepening mystery that unlocks heightened human themes. Yes, Flint is a bit too potent and Kirk’s passion and loneliness come around a bit too easily.
I’ve always imagined Spock was trying to limit the captain’s memories of what an ass he’d become, fist fighting while his erstwhile love struggled to survive it, and ultimately did not. His actions led directly to her death. Something most ethical people would probably rather forget.
That said, we’ve quickly gone from Spock being deeply reluctant to perform what he describes as a dangerous and invasive mind meld that he says he’s never before performed on a human (in season 1’s “Dagger of the Mind”) to this almost offhand housekeeping procedure.
We haven’t seen too many complex “villains” who were more than a match for Kirk ending up still standing and revealed as less than villainous by the episode’s end (Khan is certainly one), so I give it marks for that.
Sorry, Eugene — while I understand all your concerns and dislikes, I have to go with Torie on this one. It was one of my favorite episodes as a kid, and time (ironically) has not changed that.
Threading the needle this time: 2.5 (incidentally, is this the furthest apart you two have been?)
I sort of agree with Torie, but I think it was more potential that was squandered than realized. The surprise mind meld seemed to come out of nowhere. It’s not like Kirk hasn’t left a dead love interest behind before. If there’s anyone able to handle that situation, it’s James T.
Next week we eat all the fruit and through away the rind.
Yes, this was the first time Torie and disagreed so completely. I think I probably was too harsh, but this is my gut reaction–perhaps also the result of being beaten down by season 3 in general and not having much to look forward to. I seem to recall liking this one as a kid too, but my opinions have clearly changed. I’ll have to reevaluate some of my ratings when we do our retrospective of the season.
@7 Eugene
We went north and south here. I didn;t like thisn one as a kid and I like it more. (Though it really stretches Clake’s Law. Of course he really was Prospero) I thought the actress playing Rayna did a fine job with a really difficult task. I just wish that had showed some quality to Rayne that made Kirk fall for rather than just ‘man she’s cute.’ She really should have had some spunk that intrigued him.
I would’ve been less irritated by Spock zapping Kirk’s memory if he’d used a different technique, as seen in Superman II.
Louise Sorel … sigh
Hm? Oh!
Anyway — I see that the Trivia section has already stolen my thunder and pointed out that Jerome Bixby used this premise again in his The Man from Earth, which I saw for the first time a year or two ago. Clearly, the later work deals with the themes Bixby wished he could have handled in a Star Trek episode (no spoilers, but if you think this fellow being Brahms and DaVinci is a big step, well…).
You have to get past some of the acting, and treat it not as a film but as a stage play, and it works well; it does keep you talking and thinking about it afterwards. And it must have been made for a song.
As for ‘Requiem’, it is one of my favourite episodes — and not just because of Rayna! I think the whole concept is great, and I think James Daly is fabulous as Flint. He reminds me, actually, of Paul Scofield as Sir Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons — he projects the same gravitas and world-weariness.
And, of course, as is usually the case, William Shatner does a fine job.
I have to admit the ‘Stay out of this Spock! We’re fighting over a woman!’ line was a bit much. But I suppose that’s what they were doing — or felt they were doing — so it’s accurate enough.
I always have to laugh whenever M4 comes on-screen, though. It’s such a lousy job compared to Nomad (whose parts were obviously scavenged, once again — he shows up in bits and pieces in various episodes), and it so obviously is hanging on a wire, that it’s rather sad. They must really have been cutting the effects budget by this point. Fortunately, the episode itself makes up for that.
And my favourite line — well, second, really, to Flint’s weary ‘I … am Brahms’ — is McCoy’s catalogue of all the joys and agonies of love that Spock can never know. I find that a wonderfully poignant scene — and Spock shows us that McCoy is wrong almost as soon as the doctor leaves the room, by helping his friend ease the pain of loss….
Call it what you will, that is a moving scene. (Granted, Kirk falls asleep too deeply too quickly, but, hey.)
Poor episode; it was almost really good.
Poor Spock; 3rd season writers and producers keep forgetting he is Vulcan (and it’ll get worse).
It may have been a mistake to make Flint so many historical figures (and Merlin?), but he has had plenty of time to learn knowlegde, skills, and wisdom.
And does Rayna remind anyone else of Andrea, Roger Korby’s android love doll?
I like Rayna’s surname. She should’ve moved to planet Chapek 9.
@ Eugene- Don’t let Season 3 get you down already, there is dreck to come. And a couple of decent ones (although one of those has a too-human Spock).
bobsandiego@8: Yes, that’s true; it was never clear what exactly the attraction of Rayna for Kirk was, other than sheer beauty, brains, and poise. But I suppose relationships have been founded on less.
@ 12 NomadUK
Yup and Jimmy Boy has seen all of that before without falling apart afterwards. He’s usually the love’ema nd leav’em type. For a woman to really get under his skin she needs something special. (Edith’s vision and empathy, Deela’s spunk and forceful manner, etc) I don’t doubt that Rayna could have such qualities but we the audience never saw them.
bobsandiego@13: Okay, yeah, you’re right. But, still — Louise Sorel.
Here’s my off-the-wall theory: The wrong duplicate got phasered by Andrea on Exo III and the Kirk we all think we know is really Roger Korby’s android. Therefore, Rayna really was his irreplaceable girl, the perfect mate. No?
I meant to note this earlier. In the recap, Eugene wrote:
.
Actually, I think they’d been reading Camus. Those last two sentences could have been straight out of The Plague (which is surprisingly readable if the only Camus you’ve ever been exposed to is having to read The Stranger in high school).
And I saw a still of Spock at the piano, and he reminds me even more of Lurch than I remembered. Maybe it’s the overly baroque piano. It’s also interesting that rather than playing a dance tune for Kirk and Rayna, he’s actually testing this apparent unknown Brahms, running through it to see if his reading of the notes can be confirmed by the actual sound of it. Spock is actually rather musical when you look over the course of the series, but they seem to have dropped that in the films.
…while our man Flint watches…
16 comments in, and no ‘I see what you did there’?
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059557/
!7 rvanwinkle
frankly I’ve always been more a Bond or Number 6 man than a Flint fan.
Still I feel dim for not ctaching it at all. I am not clever.
I remember when I figured out the Kapec/Capek thing, shortly after having read RUR (in translation, Czech is not among my languages!).
Like most of you, I’m MOTR on this one: 2.5-3, I’d say. Interesting idea, cheesy plot elements, middling-to-good in the context of S3.
First time I’ve been surprised in this rewatch, when I got to the end of the (first part of the) recap and found it was not who I’d thought had written it. You two are growing closer in your writing styles as this has gone on, despite that you had such different opinions on the ep’s quality.
rvanwinkle@17: I thought it was so obvious it didn’t require a remark (the first Flint film was especially good). Now, the Capek/Kapec reference — that’s one I hadn’t caught at all, due to my abysmal education in literature.
@ 3 bobsandiego
Wow, I didn’t pick up on the Tempest theme at all–good catch!
There’s nothing wrong with fanfiction. Or at least, that’s what I tell myself every time I remember “What Men Dare Do.”
@ 4 Lemnoc
Yeah, Spock has become a little overpowered at this point.
I also love that Flint, who is supposed to be the most learned, creative, and wise man in the universe, settles his disputes with man-fighting.
@ 5 ***Dave
Woohoo! The Torie team has better uniforms anyway.
@ 6 ChurchHatesTucker
This is indeed the furthest apart we’ve ever been. The previous record was “Arena,” as he was a 6 and I was a 2.
I didn’t think the mind meld came out of nowhere. He can’t bear to see Kirk suffer, and wants to help him. It’s very human.
@ 10 NomadUK
Agreed on all points. I thought I would be totally alone in liking this one so much! I really love the idea, and while the execution wasn’t superb, it was admirable, at least.
M4 is really embarrassing. It feels like Lost in Space.
@ 11 sps49
I liked that they casually tossed Merlin in there, as if just to throw you off.
@ 12 NomadUK & bobsandiego
I thought Kirk’s attraction to her was perfectly reasonable. I mean, moreso than the chick in “Wink of an Eye.” Rayna is beautiful, confident, curious, and learned beyond measure. Hell, if “Mister Spock, I do hope we can find a moment to discuss field density and its relationship to gravity phenomena” doesn’t do it for you, you’re in the wrong fandom!
@ 16 DemetriosX
And yet they didn’t drop it in next week’s episode…
@ 19 CatieCat
Heresy! Eugene is much funnier than I am, that’s how to tell the difference.
@ 20 NomadUK
I caught the Capek thing right away, but (shocking, I know) had to follow rvanwinkle’s link to get the Flint reference.
Arriving late for the discussion this time.
I liked this episode better as a kid than I do now but I still have a fondness for it. I liked the idea of one person living many different assumed lives and I found myself thinking about this episode a few times while watching Highlander. (That scene where you see artifacts of past “lives” mounted on the walls in his loft was one that Kirk, Spock and McCoy could have fit in nicely.)
At the time this episode was written, one could still accept the idea of one person going undetected in living so many lives. With everything we had seen so far in the series, it’s clear that going undetected would be difficult if almost impossible in that century. I doubt that anyone thought then (the 60s) that Forty years later – due to technology advances and political concerns – going undetected at this would be becoming almost as difficult.
I think Flint led them to the ‘forbidden’ door because he expected Kirk to lose interest in Rayna after learning her true nature.
Oh. And, how did you miss the opportunity to use another one in saying something like ‘They opened the door then were In Like Flint.’?
Also late to the party.
I thought this was more of a 4: good ideas that weren’t fully fleshed out, and predictable plot (though the android thing caught me by surprise; I assumed she’d be an alien).
I do disagree with Eugene — I don’t think you can practice anything for six thousand years without becoming pretty good at it, so I don’t find it shocking that this guy would be so brilliant at everything. But with the Mesopotamia background, I’m surprised they didn’t go for a Gilgamesh reference. Maybe because in that epic you *can’t* live forever, and the rubes at the tubes wouldn’t’ve understood the nod anyway.
I was going to say that Flint’s actions don’t seem to make much sense overall, regrettably — but then, isn’t man the most alien creature of them all?
. . . no?
@ Torie- you missed the Chapek 9 I tossed in here? You don’t have every Futurama memorized? For shame!
@ 21 Torie
Really? I quite surprised. I am assuming that it is a Tempest reference and not just a blant theft of Forbidden Planet. (Which was The Tempest in SF) I tried to make an Sf novel which was MacBeth, but it didn;t work out so well. (Or so the beta readers told me.)
Oh i have nothing against fan fic, I have even written some. Here’s a Running With The Devil. However I really didn’t want to write an overly emotional piece about Spock dealing with the blow-back from that mind meld.
@ 22 Ludon
It’s only been 24 hours, you’re not late!
It’s hard to talk guy-who-has-lived-many-lifetimes and not think of Highlander, I’ll admit. I also agree with you on the door. Flint probably intended for Kirk to see what she really was, become disgusted, and run off–leaving Rayna broken-hearted and ripe for the rebound.
@ 23 DeepThought
The robot thing also surprised me.
@ 24 sps49
I didn’t miss it! “Got you, you murderous flesh piles!” Don’t challenge me to a Futurama-off…
@ 25 bobsandiego
Just teasin’. :)
Torie, if it makes you feel any better, I haven’t actually seen any of the Flint movies.
For that matter, I had to google Bobsandiego’s “Number 6” reference. When/if Netflix comes to our household, will have to finally take in The Prisoner.
@27 rvanwinkle
You’ll either love The Prisoner or you’ll hate it. Either way, it is worth seeing.
The Prisoner is an experience as much as it is a TV show. I didn’t see it first run but I saw it when I was in college. That show taught me how to watch TV. Don’t take everything at face-value. Question anything. I mentioned the series when I was back home and my younger brother asked what it was about. I replied “It’s about Number 6 and why did he resign and Number 2 and The Village and a bouncing ball named Rover.” Then my father jumped in and said to him “Any you think he’s kidding you.”
Not too long ago I made a comment about Number 6 and the other person said “I don’t get it.” He then quickly interrupted my explanation with “No. You must be thinking of Leobon. Number 6 is a woman.” How things change with time.
Ludon@28: Now, see, I had to Google ‘Leobon’.
rvanwinkle@27: It helps if you’ve had something strong to drink when you watch the final episode….
Yeah, the final episode of The Prisoner is, um, odd, to say the least. Something even stronger than strong drink might even be required. It did get nominated for a Hugo, though.
Also Ludon@28, heh! Well played by both you and your father.
@28 Ludon That’s fitting. Ron Moore named “Number 6” as an homage to The Prisoner.
@17 rvanwinkle, @20 NomadUK, @22 Ludon
I wasn’t sure if it was too subtle or too obvious. I did want to work in “in like Flint,” but figured that might tip the balance too far in the obvious direction.
@19 CaitieCait, @20 NomadUK
At first, her name made me think they were referring to Hoffmann’s Coppelia, which I thought also tied into the dancing scene, but I guess that’s reaching too far for deep literary meaning.
@21 Torie
If you think I’m funnier, then you haven’t been reading our re-watches! :)
@27 rvanwinkle
Do NOT watch the new Prisoner miniseries. At least not until you’ve seen the real one.
@29 NomadUK, @30 DemetriosX
Heh. I was thinking of the finale of The Prisoner for our joke at the end of the title sequence in the “Spock’s Brain” Laugh Trek. In fact, I played a scene several times for Torie which may have dissuaded her from ever watching the show.
@31 ChurchHatesTucker
I had wondered if “Number 6” wasn’t just a coincidence in BSG. Now that’s fitting, considering how Ron Moore ended his series.
Eugene@32: @27 rvanwinkle: Do NOT watch the new Prisoner miniseries. At least not until you’ve seen the real one
No, you had it right. Do NOT watch the new Prisoner miniseries. Full stop.
@33 NomadUK
The original DVD art for the miniseries said “RESIST,” and I really should have listened. Despite all the negative reviews, and they really were ALL negative, I still let curiosity get the better of me and I’ve regretted it ever since. So yes, I change my recommendation–don’t waste your time on the new miniseries, but the original is entirely worth seeking out.
“… but the original is entirely worth seeking out.”
Just stop short of the last episode. Seriously.
@ 26 rvanwinkle
Oh good, I haven’t seen it either! We should do a Prisoner watch.
@ 27 Ludon
Ron Moore ruins everything!
@ 32 Eugene
Psshaw, Real Writer, you.
All: is it wrong to say how excited I am about next week’s episode? Because I am going to take time out of my tropical vacation to read those comments.
ChurchHatesTucker@35: Just stop short of the last episode. Seriously.
No, no, no. Life is incomplete if you haven’t experienced the mind-f*ck that is the last couple of episodes of The Prisoner. I don’t know if McGoohan was stoned when he wrote it, or if the whole thing was a joke (which some people say is the case), but it’s a unique literary and cultural milestone.
It’s like saying you should walk out of 2001: A Space Odyssey once Bowman reaches the Stargate.
I have to apologise for that moment of inexplicable squeamishness. ‘Mind-fuck’. There. That’s better.
@37 NomaUK
I have to agree. You cannot stop short of the ending, you must following it out. if
the trampoline jousting didn’t drive you away you can handle the final episode. Anyway you have to watch it it make up your own mind about what the series means.
nomadUK, do you think he was John Drake? Personally I do not.
I’ve got to admit, I have a certain fondness for stories of immortality and the idea of a man who has lived as long as Flint and seen as much as he has. It’s a very romantic idea for me, primarily because I dig history a lot and would love to have witnessed it, yet I also think that such a life would by necessity be a very lonely one.
Then again, I might have seen this episode when I was really young and been so influenced by it that my appreciation for this sort of story is actually dictated by seeing this episode at an impressionable time.
I even wrote a (not very good) short story once about Jim Morrison actually being one of these immortal types of people from the time of Alexander’s rule who had decided to drown his sorrows and lonliness in drugs and alcohol.
Anyway, I actually kind of liked Spock’s action (particularly in contrast to STII). Naturally it’s rather horrible but it seems like the kind of mistake he might make. It’s too bad there wasn’t any continuity between the episodes, because it would have been really interesting to see the effects of that one action.
@40 Toryx
OK, I’m beginning to think we should have an open post here somewhere where everyone can share their Star Trek fanfiction and related short stories. I have a terrible TNG short story, and a number of spec scripts I wrote for DS9 and Voyager that I will eventually scan and share–well, perhaps portions of them.
https://www.youtube.com/user/RaynaKapek
Eugene, you must be pardoned, but your not a woman, and just you do not have a clue on how touching this is to a woman’s heart and soul! I mean no offense to you but this is one of the best ever made.
Pardon my haste in my backwards dyslexic writing that I was guilty of, as I taken aback by the malice in anothers commentary against this SWEETHEART of an episode , that spoke from the heart and has modern implications in my and others lives that it may not have had in the year 1969…
“I was not human. Now I love. I love.”
@42 Rayna Kapec
Well, I did revise my rating later in our season 3 wrap-up, so perhaps there is hope for me yet:
“To start off on a positive note, I’ll bump “Requiem for Methuselah” up to a Warp 1, slightly narrowing the yawning gap between my rating and Torie’s. I agree that I was far too harsh on it, and it certainly rates much better than the other episodes I rated at a “Full Stop.””
@45 Eugene
But after a season and a half of the start of TNG how dfo you feel about thsi episode?
@46 bobsandiego
I refuse to look backward. I must look ahead to brighter days…
I was surprised that no one noted this:
McCoy wants to take the raw drug stuff to the Enterprise to refine. Instead, Flint suggest that it be done in his lab by the robot, under McCoy’s watchful eye. So McCoy goes to watch the robot at work… behind a frosted glass wall.
I loved this episode. It’s the best since “For the World Is Hollow And I Have Touched the Sky.” I would have liked it even more than that one if it weren’t for the silly “Honey I shrunk the Enterprise” bit.
I should also add, right after McCoy suggests that Spock will never understand love and the way it can drive a man to break rules and do desperate things, he breaks a big rule in a desperate bid to help Jim be happy. If this was a valentine’s day episode, I think I know who the real valentines are.
I’m very much with Euguene on this episode. Having recently watched and reviewed Forbidden Planet, “Requieum for Methuselah” is definitely riffing that movie, with anything it picked up from The Tempest as an incidental pass-through. Not only do you have Morbius=Flint, Alta=Rayna, and M4=Robby, but the same “Captain falls in love with the daughter/ward who has never seen a man” story, and the same forbidden locked door in the laboratory. The lack of originality pissed me off enough to put me out of the story. In that film the love story was better justified, because the Captain was a younger man who hadn’t seen a woman since he left Earth, the character of Alta was far better, and there were several more scenes to set up their attraction. Here, you have Kirk shoehorned into this plot, blithely ignoring the danger to his ship and the ticking time bomb of the virus/MacGuffin, because he looked at a pair of blue eyes. “Wait–you didn’t tell me there were WOMEN on this planet..!” If they had a larger special effects budget, they should have just made his eyes pop out like a Looney Tunes cartoon. I thought we had left behind the convention that there has to be a special musical sting and a lighting change when the ingenue of the week walks into the room–the last time I remember this happening was in “The Other Side of Paridise.”
I was, also, terribly offended by Spock’s act at the end of the episode. There is no way to spin this other than as terrible violation, undoubtably harmful to the Captain, that he would be shocked and furious to find out about. Nevermind that Kirk’s overwrought state of mind and antics leading up to Spock’s “act of mercy” were not remotely plausible for an adult human, let alone the worldly character we (but apparently no one who worked on the writing of this episode) have grown to know. We all know Kirk still pines for Edith Keeler.
The episode would have been far more interesting if Rayna had gone for Spock instead, which was the obvious play. Funny the way she lost interest in talking about physics, or anything else of substance, about 15 seconds after her character was introduced.
One thing that struck me about Spock (and it’s not only confined to this episode)–for someone who carps a lot about emotionalism and all the barbarism in human history, he sure is an Earth-phile. He plainly knows more about Earth history and arts than most specialists, let alone ordinary humans. I’m going to keep this in mind the next time I hear him complain about human tendencies. Leonard Nimoy was the best thing in this episode. As McCoy hectors Spock about how he can’t understand love or enjoy the Saurian brandy, Spock never argues, but Nimoy makes us understand very clearly without words that none of this is remotely true.
I’m surprised that anyone with even the slightest knowledge of music — or the ability to read music — hasn’t yet picked up on the error that while Spock plays a waltz on the piano written by Johannes Brahms and then picks up the manuscript written in the composer’s hand; the music shown is the Waltz no. 1 in B Opus 39 by Brahms — which was and is of course published and “totally known” — but was not what Spock was playing … why on earth didn’t they simply write out the waltz that Spock was playing? Why show music that any classical pianist was recognize by sight?