“The Paradise Syndrome”
Written by Margaret Armen
Directed by Jud Taylor
Season 3, Episode 3
Production episode: 3×03
Original air date: October 4, 1968
Star date: 4842.6
Mission summary
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy beam down into a nature documentary. The captain and doctor immediately fall in love with the rustic setting; despite astronomical odds, the planet is identical to Earth right down to the pine trees, honeysuckle, and metal obelisk in a clearing. No wait, that’s new. Its composition and the markings on the strange building are alien, but there’s no time to study it because a moon-sized asteroid is heading for the planet. They’re on a tight schedule if Enterprise is to have any chance of diverting it.
The landing party scopes out the native inhabitants they hope to save and are surprised to discover an American Indian settlement on the lake shore.
SPOCK: A mixture of Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware, I believe. All among the more advanced and peaceful tribes.
KIRK: It’s like discovering Atlantis or Shangri-la. Mr. Spock, is it possible there’s a more evolved civilization somewhere else on this planet, one capable of building that obelisk or developing a deflector system?
SPOCK: Highly improbable, Captain.
The whole situation is already highly improbable, but they roll with it. And what was that about a deflector system? Never mind, it probably isn’t important. They prepare to return to the ship, but first Kirk wants to examine the suggestive structure once more. Or perhaps he’s just reluctant to get back to work, tempted by the “peaceful, uncomplicated” way of life.
Kirk stands on a platform around the obelisk and calls the ship. No sooner does he say “Kirk to Enterprise” than he falls through a trapdoor and lands in a darkened chamber with lots of fancy consoles. He pulls himself to his feet and accidentally presses the “electrocute operator” button. Bolts of electricity zap him and he collapses. Outside the obelisk, Spock and McCoy look for their missing captain. Spock, now in command, insists they don’t have time for hide-and-seek. If they can’t stop the asteroid from colliding with the planet, Kirk will die with everyone else. They can come back for him when the tragedy has been averted.
Kirk wakes up in the obelisk chamber with amnesia and a bad case of voiceover, unable to recall his identity or how he got there. In a daze, he stumbles toward a set of stairs and a panel opens to the outside. He emerges just as two native women approach. They greet him: “We are your people. We’ve been waiting for you to come to us.” Lucky!
As Enterprise shudders along at warp nine to a rendezvous with the asteroid, Kirk is questioned by the Tribal Elder and his medicine chief, Salish, in their lodge. The Elder tells the befuddled Kirk of a prophecy:
Our skies have darkened three times since the harvest. The last time worst of all. Our legend predicts such danger and promises that the Wise Ones who planted us here will send a god to save us, one who can rouse the temple spirit and make the sky grow quiet. Can you do this?
If someone asks if you’re a god, you say yes.
Kirk doesn’t even know his name, but he could be a god, sure. All signs point to yes when he revives a drowned boy with an interesting interpretation of CPR after Salish had already pronounced the victim dead. This is grounds for a medical malpractice suit, but the Elder settles for revoking Salish’s license and making Kirk the new medicine chief. Perks of his new job include a shiny headband, as well as the Elder’s daughter Miramanee, the woman who found Kirk at the obelisk. Salish is miffed.
Enterprise reaches the giant space cauliflower asteroid in bad shape, its dilithium circuits damaged from pushing the engines past their limits. Their deflector beam barely budges the massive rock, so Spock moves them into its path, retreating before it at impulse power until they can concentrate phaser fire to break it apart.
Miramanee cozies up to her betrothed and brings him new clothing, but for the first time Kirk’s uniform shirt doesn’t come off so easily. He’s also more interested in scooping out a gourd and finding out more about the Wise Ones and the temple he came out of. The secret of how to use the temple when “the sky darkens” was passed on by tribal medicine chiefs, from father to son. Unfortunately Salish’s dad was as much of a loser as he is—he died without sharing his information. Oops. The Elder pops in to check on his daughter and future son-in-law and asks Kirk for his name. The amnesiac captain can only remember a couple of sounds, which the old man interprets as “Kirok.” Eh, close enough.
Enterprise‘s fails in its attempts to destroy the asteroid and the power drain burns out the warp drive, to Scott’s chagrin. Unable to effect repairs without returning to a starbase, Spock decides to limp back to the planet at impulse with only a four-hour lead on the asteroid, on the off-chance that he can figure out something useful about the alien obelisk in time to be of any good. The trip will only take them 59.223 days, and the Vulcan doesn’t plan to get much sleep for most of it no matter how much McCoy nags him.
A funny thing happens to Kirok on his way to his wedding: Salish attacks him with a knife. Kirok fends off the jealous man, but Salish cuts his hand and sees him bleed: “Behold a god who bleeds!” (If that’s all it took, why bother with the miracle test in the beginning?) Everyone’s at the lodge waiting for Kirok though, so he’s the only one who beholds it. Kirok leaves him behind to go get hitched, decked out in ritual face paint and a feathered cloak of many colors. Kirok blissfully settles into married life with Miramanee, the voice in his head saying “I have found paradise. Surely no man has ever attained such happiness.”
Obviously this means the good times can’t last. Months pass, and he is still troubled by dreams, half-remembered memories of his other life in the “strange lodge which moves through the sky” and guilt that he isn’t there. Then Miramanee drops a bombshell—she’s pregnant. As shocking as that is, an even bigger bombshell is on the way: the asteroid is about to reach the planet. When the skies finally darken, the people look to Kirok for salvation, but he can’t figure out how to get back inside the obelisk and “make the blue flame come out.” Not even screaming “I am Kee-rok!” seems to have an effect.
Back on Enterprise, Spock’s obsessive examination of the obelisk has paid off and he can finally translate the expository writing on the walls.
SPOCK: The symbols on the obelisk are not words. They are musical notes.
MCCOY: Musical notes? You mean it’s nothing but a song?
SPOCK: In a way, yes. Other cultures, among them certain Vulcan offshoots, use musical notes as words. The tones correspond roughly to an alphabet.
MCCOY: Were you able to make sense out of the symbols?
SPOCK: Yes. The obelisk is a marker, just as I thought. It was left by a super race known as the Preservers. They passed through the galaxy rescuing primitive cultures which were in danger of extinction and seeding them, so to speak, where they could live and grow.
MCCOY: I’ve always wondered why there were so many humanoids scattered through the galaxy.
SPOCK: So have I. Apparently the Preservers account for a number of them.
MCCOY: That’s probably how the planet has survived all these centuries. The Preservers put an asteroid deflector on the planet.
SPOCK: Which has now become defective and is failing to operate.
Spock and McCoy beam down to find Kirok and Miramanee being stoned by their people. The sight of the Starfleet officers scatters the attackers, allowing them to tend to Kirok. They order Nurse Chapel down to come down with an emergency medical kit, and it’s a good thing they do because she notices the injured woman lying right next to the captain who needs even more help. With only fifty minutes to impact, Spock uses a Vulcan mind meld to help Kirk regain his memory. The technique works and they compare notes on the obelisk, the deflector mechanism.
Spock explains that musical notes or “a series of tonal qualities” can open the obelisk. Kirk recalls his actions before falling inside, flipping open his communicator and saying “Kirk to Enterprise.” The door slides open and they enter. Spock presses the correct sequence on a console to trigger a deflector beam from the top of the obelisk, which easily pushes the asteroid away to trouble another planet somewhere.
With the planet and ship out of danger, all that’s left is for Kirk to comfort Miramanee on her death bed, promising that he will always love her.
Analysis
The real paradise syndrome here is the Star Trek writers’ ongoing fascination with Eden-like planets and a yearning for simpler times. Though they thankfully refrain from invoking Eden this time around (they’re saving it for an even worse episode), the story fits the usual mold: an idyllic, Earth-like planet with primitive people and no demands other than simple living. (Whatever happened to man needing a challenge, Captain?) On this side of paradise, Kirk enjoys an overdue vacation while his responsibility literally hangs over his head—though he would never have taken time off without the Preserver-induced amnesia. (Hopefully the engineer who installed that “memory beam” in the obelisk got fired.) It seems that something in Kirk’s wiring just won’t allow him to enjoy a carefree life, a common theme all the way through Star Trek Generations. At least Kirk doesn’t ruin the American Indians’ perfect way of life as he is also prone to do… except for pretending to be a god and teaching them about irrigation and interior lighting, which they somehow couldn’t figure out on their own in over 600 years.
The setup has some promise, but on further reflection “The Paradise Syndrome” has plot holes you could drive an asteroid through. Briefly ignoring the mere presence and portrayal of Indians, the story just doesn’t make any sense. What is Enterprise doing there in the first place, if they didn’t even know who lived there? Why go out of their way to save a random planet from its natural end?
I found the shipside scenes of their attempts to redirect the asteroid and Spock’s translation of the Preserver language the best aspects of the episode, even if they cheated by having Spock consider musical languages because of his familiarity with “certain Vulcan offshoots”. (You mean…Romulans?) I was very impressed by the effects shot that tracked along Enterprise as it retreated ahead of the massive rock, not to mention the design of the obelisk itself. The problems they faced—a crippled ship and ineffective weapons—provided a sobering reminder of the dangers of space and their own limitations, and Scott’s frustrated coaxing of the warp engines offered a welcome dose of humor to an otherwise uninspired script. There were a few other subtle touches that indicate they put at least a little thought into this, such as Kirk’s bushy sideburns after two months without his barber, and the prominent deflector dish on Enterprise finally revealing its purpose.
But there’s the big issue of the Preservers, which unfortunately are little more than a weak excuse for lazy storytelling in this and other episodes where the crew encounters other humans. When you get down to it, there’s no reason to use American Indians, and plenty of reasons not to. They could have been replaced by any other alien race that was worth saving, although perhaps this is a way around the Prime Directive—not that a conflict with the rule was ever mentioned. It might make sense if the point of the episode were to introduce the Preservers as a recurring plot thread; however, the advanced race is presented as an afterthought and is never mentioned again in Star Trek. That’s probably for the best. (And no, Shatner’s novel Preserver isn’t Star Trek canon.)
The episode also talks about a prophecy, which appears to be fulfilled by Kirk’s arrival. Yet the prediction of “the Wise Ones” contradicts the fact that the medicine chief is supposed to know the secret of the temple. If someone is trained to use the deflector, why promise that a god will come to save them? Either they’re psychic (which could explain “Kirk to Enterprise” being the equivalent of “Open Sesame”) or they were setting themselves up for the inevitable Preserver maintenance guy on routine inspections. Where did the Preservers go, anyway? Who preserves the Preservers?
One other thing really irked me: Spock’s resorting to using rocks to illustrate how they were planning to divert the asteroid. I know McCoy’s just an old country doctor, but he isn’t an idiot. The viewers at home likely didn’t need the grammar school demonstration either, even the ones who were actually in grammar school at the time.
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 3 (on a scale of 1-6)
Torie Atkinson: The moment this episode opened onto a pristine wooded landscape I began to hear, in the back of my mind, the rendition of “Row Your Boat” that so scarred me as a Trek fan. Turns out I wasn’t that far off…
I can’t even begin to talk about this episode without confronting the staggering racism in the “American Indians” depicted. Let’s get this out of the way: the inhabitants of Amerind (*groan*) are at worst offensive caricatures, and at best the manifestation of the bizarre, creepy fantasy that the indigenous peoples we proceeded to nearly exterminate are some paragon of blissful tranquility. The idea that American Indians represented a Biblical paradise of unvarying rusticism is both stupid and offensive.
While the “noble savage” can be traced to the beginning of the modern era, the quaint idealism espoused by Kirk here (“so peaceful, uncomplicated”; a kind of “Atlantis, or Shangri-La”) seems to me a very particular early American myth. Today we call it primitivism and it’s not okay. But Hollywood made a killing by caricaturing American Indians in this way, and that’s probably why Paramount had so many of these costumes lying around. It’s critical to keep in mind that there is not and never was any monolithic American Indian, and Spock saying that these are the combination of the “Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware” completely fails to recognize how different those cultures were. (Also warlike! And matrilineal! But whatever.) The fact that we never see any other tribes (or even villages) is confusing and weird.
Also they’re all white actors. Great job, Star Trek.
“The Paradise Syndrome” is a fantasy, pure and simple. It pushes aside pesky things like the horrors of first contact in order to fetishize an (imaginary) back-to-nature ideal and project that onto a convenient culture. Our captain is just so stressed, you see, and what he needs is a simple life with a simple woman (so simple she can’t figure out how to take off his shirt) to have simple children with and live out the rest of his days in peaceful simplicity. Did I mention how simple?
It’s all ridiculous, of course, because it implies not just that technology alone somehow creates conflict, but that Captain Kirk would thrive in this kind of world. We’ve seen time and time again in “The Menagerie,” “This Side of Paradise,” and “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (am I forgetting any?) that men like Kirk—and he’s all of us, remember—cannot survive without conflict. It’s imperative that he have something to struggle against, something to aspire to, and something to stimulate his desire for knowledge and achievement. Without goals and without the innate human need to reach higher and farther than the last time, men become empty, hollow shells of themselves. It was baffling to me that the Kirk we have seen so often wax poetically about how struggles make us human is presumed here to have, all along, desired tedious complacency. I don’t buy it. It doesn’t make sense for Kirk and what we know of him and it doesn’t make sense to me in my experience as a living person. People need challenges. It’s one of those themes that I feel Star Trek has always gotten right, and here it is so wrong.
In the scope of things, though, that wrong seems almost trivial amidst the other huge wrongs. Kirk, as the “civilized” white guy is clever and smart (he made a lamp, guys!) and a born leader and just so goshdarn awesome. They have stoves, apparently, and yet can’t figure out how to make a lamp on their own? As the trope goes, “What these people need is a honky.” Combine that with the fridge stuffing of Miramanee and you get one of the more appalling episodes in the franchise (so far…). I was frankly shocked that they not only allowed Kirk to get married, but allowed this woman to carry his child. Of course, then they have to kill her off to ensure that Kirk remains heroic (and unattached).
More than “Spock’s Brain,” even, “The Paradise Syndrome” had some of the most painfully idiotic dialogue in the series. They reach the obelisk and Spock finds the “incised” symbols (they’re raised, actually) and thinks they’re “some form of writing.” You don’t say. Once Kirk disappears into the obelisk, Spock becomes Bill Nye and uses rocks to show Dr. McCoy the asteroid problem. Do they not cover physics in the medical school of the future? I also love when Miramanee reveals that, yeah, Salish probably should know how to activate the temple, but they only tell one guy at a time and the last guy died with the knowledge. This is why you have back-ups, people.
Completely buried under all those things, however, was the spark of an interesting twist: what if Starfleet and its captains were the space douches? We’ve seen before that a “god” is usually just an advanced alien species, and here that’s Kirk. What if they are the ones upsetting the balance, playing power games, and trying to prove a point? What if “trying to help” backfires? There was a great (unrealized) opportunity here to see that trope turned on its head.
I also liked the idea of writing based on music. Phonetics aren’t so far off, really, and so many cultures have strong oral traditions. Why they decided to reinforce this idea by having every appearance of Spock include a bass line, I cannot say.
I know that the end is supposed to be tragic, but it felt completely forced. There’s no denouement at all; the fade to black is abrupt and startling. I didn’t feel anything at Miramanee’s death because the two of them exchanged maybe five words before they became engaged (did she even know his name at that point??), and then their “happiness” seems to involve frolicking in the forest. (Hilariously, this trope continues forty years later—it’s even in the Twilight movies.)
The one truly outstanding aspect of this episode was Spock. His struggle to accept the consequences of his high-risk gambling is moving and authentic. He tries to be Kirk, really, and it doesn’t suit him. I liked the way that he and McCoy mourned for Kirk in their own way and allowed themselves, in part, to become closer because of it.
Maybe if you just cut those parts out and splice them together I will watch it again?
Torie’s Rating: Warp 1
Best Line: SPOCK: “His mind. He is…an extremely dynamic individual.”
Syndication Edits: Spock’s log entry 4843.6; Kirk’s first appearance in the tribal lodge; Salish walks to the lake after Miramanee dumps him and Kirk makes a lamp; McCoy leaving Spock’s quarters after they argue about the obelisk; Miramanee’s discussion of her joining meaning “the end of darkness”; part of Kirk’s fight with Salish after he first says “Behold the god who bleeds!”; after the joining, an establishing shot of the ship retreating before the asteroid, Spock thinking, and McCoy entering the Vulcan’s quarters; some of Kirk and Mirmanee’s antics in the forest; following a commercial break, another establishing shot and McCoy entering Spock’s quarters again; Salish and the others begin stoning Kirk while Miramanee climbs the platform; Miramanee telling Spock she saw Kirk emerge from the temple.
Trivia: The original outline for this episode was titled “The Paleface” (groan) and differed in many details, some of which might have benefited the filmed episode had they remained. The planet Amerind (ugh) was in a meteor and asteroid belt (only implied by Kirk and Spock’s dialogue in the teaser) and instead of an obelisk, the deflector was a totem pole with its controls hidden in a “haunted” underground cave. Kirk’s amnesia is caused by a head wound and Spock beams him and the American Indians to Enterprise to save them. Miramanee survives with Kirk’s child.
Other notes: Alternative explanations for the prevalance of humanoid life in the galaxy were proposed in “Return to Tomorrow” and TNG’s “The Chase.” Some fans have speculated that the representative of the ancient alien race at the end of the latter episode could be a Preserver, which isn’t supported or refuted by any episode.
The director, Jud Taylor, acted in shows such as The Fugitive and directed episodes of numerous genre series and TV films, including Weekend of Terror, Search for the Gods, and Return to Earth.
Sabrina Scharf (Miramanee) appeared the next year in Easy Rider. Rudy Solari (Salish) appeared in The Outer Limits (with Leonard Nimoy) and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, while Richard Hale (Tribal Elder Goro) appeared on Thriller.
The lake in this episode is the Franklin Reservoir near L.A., immortalized in television as Andy Griffith’s fishing hole.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode 2-“The Enterprise Incident.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 4-“And the Children Shall Lead.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
Plot holes and all, I tend to agree more with Eugene, here. I find it to be a solid 3. The McGuffins stink, but the way they approach “the captain deals with stress and being human” is interesting and certainly superior to Janeway’s Gothic romance.
While Torie’s complaints are valid, many of them are a matter of hindsight. Both “back to nature” and the “noble savage” were very prominent in the late 60s. The latter was very much a backlash to attitudes towards Native Americans of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Yes, it’s an attitude that actually robs them of their humanity, but it still represents an improvement over what came before. (As an aside, I’ve always said that the earliest instance of the noble savage that I know is in Tacitus. Both the Britons in Agricola and the Germans in Germania fill the bill nicely, though you can argue a lack of influence on the part of Tacitus for the modern world.)
Given the episodic nature of the show and the mores of the time, Miramanee’s death was pretty much a given. Characters just didn’t change and grow back in those days. They had to be exactly the same from episode to episode. We’ve seen the problems that causes in earlier episodes. And there’s no way the censors would have allowed Kirk to leave behind a wife and child. Note that they had to get married! These days, at least, they would have just frolicked without getting hitched first.
@1 DemetriosX
It’s all about hindsight. As acceptable or progressive as this may have seemed been back then, it’s jaw-droppingly bad now. Heck, even when I first saw this as a kid I didn’t pick up on most of it, but I was raised on a steady diet of stereotypical portrayals in the media. Another 60s show, Get Smart, may have done an even worse job with the episode “Washington 4, Indians 3” but at least it was a comedy/satire so I cut it a little more slack. I agree with everything Torie said on the matter of the American Indians, but I knew she would handle it much more eloquently than I would. And I had other issues to dwell on!
That’s a very good point about the marriage for television. I also felt it’s meant to be more tragic for Kirk than even Miramanee or her father–our hero just isn’t allowed to be happy! (But it might have been worse for him to leave her behind, and he certainly couldn’t bring her with him on Enterprise, so what else are you going to do with her?) This happens a lot in fiction and it is largely a matter of limited character development. This time when I saw it, I couldn’t help thinking of the devastating end of the Bond film, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service. It’s a shame killing off the protagonist’s true love became such a trope. And uh, still is, I suppose.
Hmm, I’m not seeing the login box.
Anyway, two things I noticed about this episode (in addition to the stuff Torie was talking about with the crazy stereotypical depiction of the American Indians):
First, not just that Kirk doesn’t seem the type to accept a peaceful existence — how many times have we seen him actively destroy similarly peaceful, simple societies? Whether it’s burning the computer, stealing back the brain, whatever, Kirk has a profound moral objection to people who aren’t challenged in their lives, which makes his characterization here all the more off.
And second, I think it’s really telling the leadership differences between Spock and Kirk. When Spock’s in charge, he is demanding and exacting, expecting his crew to exceed the operating specs of the Enterprise, and breaking the ship in the process. Kirk is exactly the same, except that he’s less cold, and his bets pay off. I think this is intended as a commentary on leadership; that there must be an emotional core that inspires the crew in order for it to do its best, such that even when Spock is demanding and doing the same things Kirk would do, he ultimately fails as a leader when he can’t get results. We see the same thing in (I think) The Galileo Seven, too — Spock’s arrogance as a leader is of the same mold as Kirk’s, but its emotionlessness destroys the crew, who think he doesn’t understand them and is throwing them away like some chessmaster, rather than demanding the finest from them and including them in his audacity, in his own seeking to exceed the boundaries.
Aside from the patronizing treatment of the tribal peoples, something else that rankles me about this episode (and stories like it) is the worship of the ‘simple life.’ Only someone who has gotten all their food from a supermarket could consider a farming life easy and relaxing. If you have to farm without advance techniques and equipment you are engaged in hard, back-breaking labor that is risky. Both to your health and towards your outcome.
Living without modern technology – and medicine — makes life ‘nasty, Brustish and short.’ not a paradise.
I’m sure I didn’t pay too much attention to the ludicrous Indian portrayals when I was a kid, and I’m equally certain I realised they were ludicrous when I was a teenager and, later, at university. But, stupid as they are, that’s what passed for representation of North American aboriginals on television at the time. As such, they were probably more sympathetic than most (having spent many years watching Gunsmoke, The High Chaparral, The Virginian, The Rifleman, The Big Valley, and too many Western films to mention, all I can say is, I don’t think there are many white people in the US — or anywhere else, for that matter — who actually have any idea who those people were and are, or what they’re actually like, or what their history is).
So — having said all that, does it work dramatically? Well — kinda.
I agree, as has been pointed out, that the thing that really saves this episode is the shipboard action, and the interaction between Spock, McCoy, and Scott as they race against time to figure out a way to stop the asteroid. The special effects — for the time — are great. Spock in command is always interesting to watch, and the above analysis of his primary weakness in this regard is spot on, although it is interesting to note the one exception to the general pattern: his handling of Enterprise against the Doomsday Machine and Commodore Decker. There, his presence was a positive godsend for the crew (though his determination to stick to regulations did almost sink the ship — so to speak).
Now, as for Kirk and paradise…. It certainly is the case that Star Trek repeatedly comes down against Paradise as a lifestyle choice, and probably for good reason; I agree with Torie that Mankind needs a challenge, lest it stagnate. On the other hand, there is a part of Kirk that yearns for a simpler life, and we see it exposed in The Naked Time: ‘This vessel. I give, she takes. She won’t permit me my life. I’ve got to live hers. […] I have a beautiful yeoman. Have you noticed her, Mister Spock? You’re allowed to notice her. The Captain’s not permitted. […] Now I know why it’s called she. […] Flesh, woman to touch, to hold. A beach to walk on. A few days, no braid on my shoulder.’
(Shame really, to compare the writing of that episode to this one, but, needs must.)
Anyway, clearly there’s a part of Kirk that does yearn for some other reality; he just keeps it under control most of the time. So perhaps, with the constraints of command lifted from him forcibly by the Obelisk, this yearning emerges and takes over. Of course, he’s never quite free of it: he immediately starts making lamps and digging irrigation ditches (or, rather, getting other people to dig irrigation ditches — you can take Kirk out of the captaincy, but you can’t take the captain out of Kirk!)
The god business — well, meh.
And — Navajos? In forests? Where are the hogans? The pueblos? Hmm.
Nobody seems to have mentioned the obelisk icon on the headband, but I suppose that was pretty obvious.
Regarding the electronic zapping at the beginning: clearly the purpose of the Obelisk is to impart knowledge to the medicine man at the correct time. No doubt the medicine man can’t necessarily be expected to know how to deflect the asteroid, so he recites the magic words, enters the Obelisk, has the knowledge zapped into him, and does the necessary stuff. But perhaps the Obelisk is malfunctioning, or perhaps the Amerindian (yes, really annoying name) brains are different to human brains, and the zappage doesn’t work properly on Kirk.
And, okay, I’m going to confess to being a sappy, hopeless romantic here, and say that I was a bit affected by Mirimane’s death at the end. Okay, she doesn’t get to do much in the episode, and she and Kirk have a whirlwind courtship — but, hey, Mel Gibson does the same thing with Catherine McCormack and goes off and starts killing loads of Englishmen when she dies, and nobody seems to mind!
So, for the third season, it’s really not too bad.
Okay, time for bed.
Oh — P.S. How do we peons get avatars? Or is that only for the ruling elite?
@5 NomadUK
Nobody seems to have mentioned the obelisk icon on the headband, but I suppose that was pretty obvious.
Ack! I meant to mention that as one of the nice touches of the episode, so I’m glad you did. I don’t think it was all that obvious–this is the first time I noticed it, and I had to look at it a few more times before I decided that yes, that’s what I think it is. Makes perfect sense since the medicine chief is the only one who’s supposed to be able to use the obelisk.
And I didn’t figure that out about the memory beam at all. I just assumed the first medicine chief had been taught what to do, but that does seem to be its purpose–like the Teacher in “Spock’s Brain”. But why would it wipe his memory and not give him knowledge of the obelisk? Is Kirk’s brain supposed to be more advanced or something?
How do we peons get avatars?
Not sure… Torie runs this thing with magic, so maybe she can figure something out…
@4 bobsandiego
That thought flitted through my mind too–that he was idealizing their way of life with no notion of its actual demands. I would have liked to see Kirk suffer a little bit to feed his family, and maybe try surviving a winter on that planet.
We’ve already seen the trope reversed in such episodes as “Pattern of Force” (Fed officer remakes planet into Nazi Germany), and to a lesser extent “A Piece of the Action” (Feds accidentally inspire planet to remake itself into parody of Prohibition-era Chicago).
One minor detail that bugs me about this episode is Spock’s rock demo for McCoy. He says something like “In the time it’s taken to explain this, the asteroid has moved from here to here”, closing like a third of the distance in a few seconds. And yet, when the Enterprise has to precede the asteroid to the planet, it takes them a couple of months to get there! That sort of sloppy imprecision is totally out of character for Spock.
Also, any reason they couldn’t have left behind a shuttle with a medical and security detail (perhaps led by McCoy) to search for the captain? The shuttle would let them escape the asteroid at the last minute if necessary. I mean, it would’ve wrecked the plot, but a plot that relies on the characters acting like idiots is an idiot plot.
@ 1 DemetriosX
Why must you mention that Gothic romance again? And I had almost forgotten it from last week!
With regard to the stereotyping, I get why it happened–I just think that Eugene is spot on when he said “When you get down to it, there’s no reason to use American Indians, and plenty of reasons not to.” Why did they have to be American Indians? It’s not like they got anything right about them, so why not use aliens, or Belgians, or bear people?
Tacitus had many–let’s call them reservations–about the Roman empire, and was inclined to be sympathetic to its conquered people.
@ 2 Eugene
But I can’t imagine him actually being happy in a place like that. I think he’d be climbing up in the walls in no time.
@ 3 DeepThought
Agreed on both counts. Excellent points.
@ 4 bobsandiego
At least that seemed authentic in “This Side of Paradise”! They were out there farming and working some of the time. Tolkien’s pastoral ideal of the Shire has some of the same issues. It’s still got a class system, in which our hero Bilbo is a rich gentlemen who mostly futzes around all day and lets other people work for him. Sounds great if you’re not a poor gardener who gets dragged to Mordor…
@ 5 NomadUK
Sympathetic isn’t an acceptable substitute for fair. Even seemingly positive stereotypes are, when one considers the real impact, potentially damaging. But yeah, asking for realistic portrayals of American Indians in ’68 is kind of like expecting realistic portrayals of women in ’45. Or ’68. Or, sadly, sometimes 2010.
The onboard ship action, I’m glad we can agree, is great.
As for Kirk, I still don’t buy it. You can sit and idly fantasize about peacefulness and tranquility, but that doesn’t mean that after two months of it you wouldn’t be clawing at your own eyeballs desperate to do something other than hunt, gather, and farm.
I like your interpretation of the obelisk. To be honest, I hadn’t thought of it that much. Why IS the zapper there? Kirk says he hit the wrong button–why the hell would The Preservers make a “erase who you are” button when it’s supposed to be a “destroy the asteroids” machine?
Would you lose respect for me if I said I hadn’t seen Braveheart?
Oh, and @ NomadUK:
1. I didn’t notice the headband until you said that. Nice touch!
2. Let there be avatars! It’s actually really easy–we use Gravatars (Globally Recognized Avatar). Go to gravatar.com, and it’ll associate whatever picture you want with your e-mail address wherever you comment.
Oh yeah, the Gravatars. I promptly forgot about that after you helped me set that up :)
This is one of the reasons I loathe the third season so congenially, this episode. Even when I was a kid, the pastoral thing didn’t fly for me, and the faux-Indians just had me groaning. My suspension of disbelief was stretched monofilament-thin, and then it snapped, when Kirk becomes the medicine man within ten seconds of arriving because…yeah.
At least The Way to Eden has Spock jamming with Uhura. And I’d much rather call someone Herbert than Kirok. :D
Deep Thought @3: I think the major difference between this and those other simple societies that Kirk has radically altered is that those others were enforced. There’s no controlling computer here keeping them down, their current technological state is essentially their own choice. Vaal, the Archons, and so on, not so much.
Torie @9: The zapper is probably there to keep unauthorized people from mucking about with the works. Or you could say that in the 60s a lot of dangerous equipment didn’t really have the safety features we expect today. Lots of failsafes, not so much idiot-proofing. Or maybe the Preservers were just Irwin Allen fans. (God, is anybody but Nomad going to get that joke?)
As for Tacitus, I’d argue that he was more taking a line against Roman decadence, than sympathizing with the conquered (and unconquered) peoples. More of a Cato the Elder kind of thing. The noble savages were a handy mirror to show how Romans ought to be. Then they would deserve to go out an conquer all the barbarians. But that’s an issue for elsewhere, I suppose.
Why Indians? Just maybe, because they’d already spent most of their budget on location shooting and building the obelisk. Ready-made outfits from central costuming!
(Hey! That gravatar thing works!)
Oh, and I just wanted to say that by the time this season is over, you will look back somewhat more fondly on this episode. Indeed, you may well find yourself in that position as early as next week.
I liked this episode better than many, mostly on the strength of the performances.
The native portrayal was not the best, no.
But a science fiction show should try to keep it’s science fictiony-ness straight. If the engines just got toasted beyond self-repair, how do you get to the nearest Starbase? Unless there is one in that solar system, they’re stuck. Did they send a subspace message asking for a dilithium crystal delivery, please?
Now I gotta set up a Gravitar, thank you, please.
Hee! Torie doesn’t disappoint!
Why did they have to be American Indians? It’s not like they got anything right about them, so why not use aliens, or Belgians, or bear people?
Because they already have the wardrobes? Remember, this is third season. The budget has been slashed.
And yeah, Spock’s description of them is a hell of a mish-mash of tribes, but he’s obviously picking out superficial details. In retrospect, I think it was a brilliant way of handwaving the fact that their wardrobe department doesn’t have an anthropologist on staff.
YMMV. Having sat through some painful Anthro 101 classes on the virtues of the Yanamamo in the eighties, I’m willing to cut Hollywood types from two decades earlier a lot of slack.
@12 CaitieCait
At least The Way to Eden has Spock jamming with Uhura
You say that like it’s a good thing. He’s also jamming with the hippies, isn’t he? Ugh, this is working me up all over again. I might be out sick the week we have to do that re-watch…
@8 Avram
That rock thing annoyed me greatly, and I also thought Spock was being unusually imprecise in his measurements. It’s more like the amount he moved the rock was the actual amount the asteroid had moved, totally out of scale with his little demo. At least he didn’t draw a diagram in the dirt with a stick.
Great point on leaving a security team to look for Kirk. Perhaps he simply didn’t want to doom more lives in case they couldn’t stop the asteroid?
@13 DemetriosX
Or maybe the Preservers were just Irwin Allen fans.
I watched a lot of old shows when I was a kid, so I know his TV work more than the disaster films. I watched Lost in Space and Land of the Giants religiously on summer vacations before I ever tried Star Trek.
All: are the comment subscriptions working, if you’re using them? Anything broken?
@ 13 DemetriosX
…I read that and thought, “Zapp Brannigan was in this episode??” And then realized you weren’t referring to The Zapper.
Re: Tacitus, it wasn’t just decadence: he rages on about greed, corruption, violence, and tyranny. Buuuut we’re getting off topic and to be honest I’ve only read a bit of Tacitus. But Cicero! Can we talk Cicero? :D
Your comment @ 14 worries me greatly.
@ 15 sps49
I believe that’s what the “handwaving mumblemumble” tag is for.
@ 16 ChurchHatesTucker
It’s not my fault! Eugene always gets to play the good cop! It’s not fair.
@ 18 Eugene Myers
It could have been even more insulting to his intelligence: he could have used Powerpoint, like in “Spock’s Brain.”
Eugene @19: Actually, it was his TV shows that I had in mind, especially Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. It seems like in his shows operating panels blow up spectacularly and injure crew members every week.
Torie @20: You used “zapper” first (well, in reply to NomadUK using just about every other form of the word “zap”). And Cicero? Cicero was a prig who ruined his brother and nephew with his priggery. But he was also the last best hope for the Republic. But if you want to talk Cicero go over to ancientworlds.net. I should be easy enough to find.
I can hand wave my way past the amnesia machine. The tower of power is for deflecting asteroids. (Cause the preservers didn’t believe in planets outside of rubble fields for religious reasons.) The native, simple, pure and wholesome people left on the planets would seek salvation when the skies turn dark and stormy. (Preservers also believe in year round good weather.) Speak the magic words. (And what is the Magic word Dr. Venkman?) The medicine man would go into the machine, of course he didn’t know how to operate it so the data would be zappered into his head. After saving the native, simple, pure and wholesome peoples you couldn’t have a medicine man knowing the truth – then he wouldn’t be simple, pure etc. The zapper then wipes away all memory of what he had done, returning him to his pristine state.
Kirk, his head full of all sorts of wholesome truth had to be reset much further before he could find wholesomeness.
See? simple!
Torie@9: As for Kirk […] You can sit and idly fantasize about peacefulness and tranquility, but that doesn’t mean that after two months of it you wouldn’t be clawing at your own eyeballs
True, true, but we (well, some of us, anyway) still fantasise about it. And who’s to say that Kirk is better than the rest of us? Oh, sure, he’s commanding a starship — but, as has been pointed out, Starfleet’s psych screening seems to leave a bit to be desired.
Would you lose respect for me if I said I hadn’t seen Braveheart?
Certainly not.* I’d be disappointed if you said you hadn’t seen 2001, but you can miss Braveheart and still be aces in my book.
Torie@10: Your comment @ 14 worries me greatly.
Be very worried, for Demetrios is, unfortunately, correct.
And thanks for the avatars!
* Notice how I’m not using some easy and utterly reprehensible line about respecting you in the morning.
bobsandiego@22: I could have sworn I already said that.
Kirk his head full of UNwholesome truths — yesh.
also the magic device is also a weather control machine. Makes for better crop growing and the silly storm as an asteroid warning system.
@ 23 NomadUK
I’ve seen the first hour and the last half hour of 2001 three times, but haven’t managed to stay awake for the middle bits. Does that count?
@ 25 bobsandiego
Is there anything that obelisk can’t do?
Torie@23: You made the effort, so, absolutely. But do try that middle bit again sometime; it’s slow, but that’s the whole point: space travel can be dull.
On the other hand, when things start going wrong, it sneaks up on you.
Really, the whole thing is like sitting in a museum studying a painting by a great master. It’s that good.
(I confess that I hadn’t seen the middle section myself until about 10 years ago or so; I always fell asleep when watching as a teenager.)
@24 NomadUK
yes you did postulate that the device give the user the knowledge to use it. I added the wipe out the memory feature. Snarkily of course.
Forgot to mention, “Spock’s resorting to using rocks to illustrate how they were planning to divert the asteroid. I know McCoy’s just an old country doctor, but he isn’t an idiot.”
I think Spock was making fun of him.
Forgot to give this a rating. I’m going with Eugene (for a change) and giving it a three, although one full point is solely for, “I! AM! KIROK!!”
@21 DemestriosX
I’ve been itching to re-watch some Lost in Space on Hulu or Netflix, and I never did finish The Time Tunnel. I do recall a lot of explodey panels.
Say what you will, I don’t think anyone ever beat Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea for explodey panels.
Voyage is the hands-down winner of the explodey panel sweepstakes. They had a slightly unfair advantage in that they had more panels to work with. Lost in Space (which is actually kind of fun once you get past the serious episodes in the first season) came a close second, but the Jupiter II just didn’t have as many and was subjected to a lot less stress. Time Tunnel had the problem that they were usually in some era where there just wasn’t anything to blow up and I’m just not sure about Land of the Giants. But Voyage, man, the panels blew up more often than there was dangerous feedback at an ops station in TNG. And the effects were way, way cheesier.
Getting back to “The Paradise Syndrome” sort of, I wonder if there was any influence from the set design of the obelisk on Land of the Lost. I’ve always thought there was a bit of similarity to the pylons
@31 NomadUK @32 DemestriosX
I uh, actually haven’t ever seen Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea. But guess what I’m going to watch this weekend? At least an episode or two.
And I can’t get over how impressive that obelisk is. They must have really wanted to do this episode “right” to go on location and build that thing, when I don’t think we’ve ever seen it reused on the show. In the list of best sets, it’s up there with the Guardian of Forever, in my opinion.
Maybe they saved so much money on the costumes and script development they were able to justify a little extra for the prop department. Was the obelisk on Land of the Lost in multiple episodes, or one in particular? I don’t remember it. (Pesky memory beam!) I watched very little of Land of the Lost, but did follow the remake series in my own childhood.
Eugene @33, just try not to watch the one with the crab monster or the one with the pirate (?) ghost. Of course, if you want episodes with the flying sub, that means more chance of a monster of the week, but as long as panels explode and David Hedison shouts orders into the captain’s mike, you’re good to go. Let us know what you think.
In Land of the Lost, the pylons were in almost every episode. They looked a bit like the top of the obelisk in this episode, with all the writing scraped off. Inside, there was usually a stone tray with an array of crystals. Rearranging the crystals caused a variety of effects. There were also floating pylons called skylons that looked a little different. The original series was much better. David Gerrold wrote a lot of scripts, as did Larry Niven, plus there were scripts from Norman Spinrad, Ben Bova, and Ted Sturgeon. They cared a lot about consistency and continuity. It was really well done.
Eugene & Demetrios: Hey, the Flying Sub was the coolest! I remember building many Lego ships based on that concept! And whoever was in it always got to wear these great leather flight jackets — so we’d know they were, like, piloting and stuff.
Don’t forget, however, that before the series was the film, with Walter Pidgeon as Admiral Nelson, and with the theme song (yes, with lyrics!) sung by Frankie Avalon! And with Peter Lorrie! Seaview saves the world from the burning Van Allen Radiation Belts!
Nomad@35: Sure, but I don’t recall lots of exploding control panels in the movie. It’s pretty good, though, for certain Saturday afternoon values of good.
Y’know, Space: 1999 made a pretty good few years out of explodey panels and bad physics…that one would make a fun re-watch too. :)
@37 CaitieCait
No. No it would not.
Well, to be fair, it really does depend on how one defines ‘fun’.
And I’m not certain I can see any big difference in fun — for pretty much all values of ‘fun’ ranging from enjoying dark Belgian chocolate to being guest of honour at a full-on sadomasochistic orgy — between rewatching Space: 1999 and Lost in Space or Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea — or Blake’s Seven, for that matter.
I finally watched the first episode of Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and was surprised at how good it was. As promised, there were plenty of exploding panels, but the effects were decent and I found all the jargon and protocols convincing. I may do a longer blog post at some point after seeing a few more episodes, but it was definitely fun, though there wasn’t much depth to it (ahem). It was simply an adventure story that doesn’t offer much in the way of discussion outside of how it reflects the politics of the time.
I think I’d like to re-watch some of Land of the Giants too, since it has been years since I saw it. And to ChurchHatesTucker’s point, the one time I tried to watch Space: 1999 I found it dreadfully boring, but I’d be willing to give it another shot. And I never finished Blake’s Seven, come to think of it.
Time allowing, I see a lot of classic SF television in my future…
Eugene @40: You never finished Blake’s Seven? Oh, then you definitely missed something. The final episode is… well… it’s hard to describe without giving things away. Let’s just say that when I watched it, I said a bad word, rewound the tape and immediately watched it again. Sure the effects are bad and they had problems retaining cast members (including Blake), but the writing was tight and Jacqueline Pearce was seriously hot.
@41 DemetriosX
Ah, so I’ve heard… I’ve been spoiled for some of the late developments, but I’m eager to see it anyway. The problem is the show hasn’t been released in the US and the fourth-generation VHS tapes I had were actually painful to watch. But I think I’ll bug my friend who has better copies and try to get around to this. I mean, is it better or worse than the ending of The Prisoner (which incidentally, I didn’t mind)? Or hell, it can’t be any worse than the finale for the new BSG. Right?
Eugene @42: Dramatically, the ending is absolutely perfect. It’s simply stunning, in every sense of the word. Note that I immediately went back and watched the whole episode again. I mean that literally. The only time between the last bit of the final credits and starting the episode again was the amount of time it took me to rewind. It is really, really worth it.
Eugene@40: Oh, wow, I’d forgotten about Land of the Giants. And how about The Invaders? Or, for more British fare, there was the original Survivors, which was pretty good, as I recall.
And, I, too, am perfectly happy watching the last episode — or pretty much any episode — of The Prisoner. Nobody scowls like Patrick McGoohan.
I mean, I could sit and watch just the opening credits for hours….
My sweetie-wife recently gifted me with The Prisoner on Blu-ray. since it was shot on film and not videotape it looks fantastic.
Blake’s Seven I am slowly gifting to her. (We have to buy the DVD from the UK. I got her a region free player some years ago because she is such an Anglophile.) a re-watch of either series would be friggin awesome.
The Time Tunnell What hokey fun! The poor series only lasted a single season so it doesn’t get stripped hardly anywhere. They knowledge of history is barely better than the average american’s, but it was certainly a guilty pleasure of mine. Most frustrating thing about the show is after wtaching it on the ScFi channel 7 or 8 years ago I was suddenly struck with an idea for an episode. Great a story that can’t be sold anwhere else and that there is no market for at all. Lovely.
Land of the Giants is more fun than one would expect. For that matter, so is Lost in Space. (We just did a taste-test of several episodes a week or so ago.)
UFO held up pretty damn well last I checked it out (which was a few years back.)
I Spy holds up jaw-droppingly well. It’s smarter than most shows on today.
@ 46 ChurchHatesTucker
If you want a show that was sharp, intelligent, and truly well crafted watch Danger Man/ Secret Agent (UK title and USA Title) The whole series is available on DVD and through netflix. I had never seen it but my sweetie-wife had. Wow, very few clunkers and great stories and characters.
@47 BobSanDiego Good to know, that’s already on our list!
@47 bobsandiego
I watched one episode of Danger Man and wasn’t wowed, but I think the problem was I wanted it to be more like The Prisoner. Can’t beat that theme song though!
This episode is sort of hopelessly boring and offensive, but I do like the vastness of space being demonstrated by the Enterprise returning to the planet over a period of months. I remember thinking that was pretty cool, and made their whole mission as space exlorers seem that much more terrifying.
This one isn’t quite bad enough to be a camp classic, although it’s got its moments. We do get treated to the entertaining spectacle of William Shatner hoking it up, both as a carefree and cartoonish medicine man in buckskins frolicking through a sylvan paradise with Hiawatha (“Surely no man has ever attained such happiness!!”) but especially when he’s exposed as an unwitting impostor.
McCoy’s dickishness toward Spock, while not as bad as in “The Tholian Web”, is grating. He’s angry with Spock for leaving prematurely before finding Kirk, then he’s angry with Spock for overstraining the ship because they’d lost valuable time on the planet. Choose a pretext for anger and stick with it, Bones!
The illogic of the Preservers’ “seeding” these Hollywood Indians on a planet subject to frequent bombardment has been noted.
A few idle observations:
1. Asteroids generate their own weather before hitting something?
2. I’m not an expert in mythology but…gods bleed all the time, don’t they? Aphrodite gets a pretty bad scratch in Book V of the Iliad, for example.
3. Notice that while “Kirok” gets pelted with foam rocks multiple times but Miramanee gets maybe one glancing blow. Yet she succumbs to massive internal injuries while Kirk just sort of faints.
etomlins-
Agreed on Kirk just waving his hands in the air when what are supposed to be 20-30 pound rocks are pummeling him, while Miramanee gets hit once and that’s that. And, the effort made to save her is halfhearted.
Also, Shatner’s fake smile plastered on his face when he’s supposed to be enjoying paradise is only good in that it is perfect for satire.
Otherwise, I can sleep to this episode. Journey to Babel, The Trouble With Tribbles, Day of the Dove, Spectre of the Gun, Requiem for Methuselah and The Paradise Syndrome: all episodes to have on while half paying attention and lying down to sleep. Not sure why. Just something soothing about them, despite their many and deep flaws.
Oh, I get it now. Bones is the “Party of No!”
“And — Navajos? In forests? Where are the hogans? The pueblos?”
That didn’t bother me as much as Miramanee’s headband. It’s woven out of seed beads. Seed beads are made of glass. This means there is a more technologically advanced society somewhere on the planet. Indian people got them as trade items from the Anglos. Maybe the Preservers schlooped up some people from Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), the global capital of seed bead manufacture?
This, like ALL other third season episodes is subpar. It’s even subpar compared to most third season episodes. Comparing this to the 2 part TNG episode The Chase gives the perspective on how far this missed the mark. The story of how all the aliens in Star Trek travels look alike is a greatly needed part of the franchise.
As far is this disaster goes. There are lines that are like a punch in the stomach. Behold the god who bleeds, and that whole love scene with Kirk and Mirimanee is abysmal even on a Shatner scale.
This gets the lowest possible vote with all due respect to Spock’s detective work on the obelisk.
Balderdash, Dear William.
I don’t appreciate the barbs. THIS was the VERY FIRST episode of Star Trek (in re-runs) that I ever saw when I was about 9. It’s what HOOKED me into Star Trek, along with the cartoon! Spock using rocks to explain what happened made sense to ME, and I was in 4th Grade at the time. Maybe it’s nostalgia, or because I was a kid when I first saw it, but I loved this episode, and all of you seem like a group of sourpusses to be berating it. Don’t forget, this series had FOUR run-offs, as well as Ten movies (and yeah, I’m trying to forget Star Trek V was ever filmed! Shudder.)
I was ready to delete your entire witty conversation, above, Eugene! The Paradise Syndrome happens to be one of my favorite episodes! Perhaps, because, it was the first one I ever saw on re-runs, 1974 Channel 11, when I was 9 years old. (and yeah, I did appreciate the school lesson Spock used to explain it to McCoy, and US KIDS, at the time!) This one episode, featuring the Preservers, explained a LOT of the duplicate Earths the Enterprise ran into throughout the galaxy: Miri’s World, for one; the Roman Empire world, for another. Those people weren’t just “humanoid,” like Vulcans or Tellarites; they were EARTH, TERRAN, HUMAN BEINGS. They had to get to their far-flung worlds somehow, and this episode explained it all! This episode was also an introduction to “native Americans” for me, got me as a child to reading about them, instead of just viewing them as the villains in old black & white cowboy movies. The one point you did make, I agreed with, was that the writers of Star Trek SHOULD HAVE mentioned the Preservers on the other duplicate worlds, like Miri’s World, as well as Amerand. It would’ve made perfect sense for the crew to find another silver Preserver obelisk among the old buildings where the kids were shouting, :”Nyah, Nyah!” especially since that particular world was an EXACT duplicate of the Earth! What was disappointing, is that in all the other Star Trek series, nobody ever ran into the Preservers or their obelisks again!