TV Database Star Trek (1966)

McCoy: "Spock will have no truck with grief, Scotty; it's human."
Kirk: "Bones, Scotty!"
Spock: "Captain, it's quite alright; they forget I am half human."

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It's a pretty decent opening to season 3. With Star Trek and most '60s TV shows, you'd come to expect a certain level of budget restraint in its production value, but episodes like this make good use of it to still make the visuals interesting, whether it's with Melkot the disembodied Melkotian or even the obvious stage-set of Tombstone, Arizona that was explained away as a half-cocked recreation of the actual town. Ironically, for all its limited budget, Trek's creativity in its creature design is far more engaging than something like CW's Supernatural, a modern day show that seems obsessed with boring bipedal humanoid "monsters."

More importantly, the real appeal of Trek has always been its character writing, and this episode gave us a decent look at our heroes dealing with fatalism as they deal with the inevitable countdown towards their death. It's all pretty believable, especially if you're unaware of Chekov's existence in the movies prior to this episode's viewing (much like myself before I was made aware of the fact).

What stretches the suspension of disbelief, however, is Spock's logic that it's all in their head. Scotty, McCoy and even Spock believed that the tranquilizer would definitely work, not that it wouldn't, so Spock's logic of "belief dictates existence" in this world doesn't make sense.

The logical fallacy aside, the rest of the episode's pretty entertaining. I haven't seen Val Kilmer's Tombstone, but that was the first thing that popped into my head seeing this episode. And while Ron Soble is no Kurt Russell, I really like how intense his Wyatt Earp is in this episode, just a dead-eyed stone-faced grim reaper coming for Kirk's crew with his gang.

Yikes.

This was one of those problematic Star Trek episodes, and not being subtle about it too. It's literally based on Shakespeare's "The Taming of the Shrew", a play which obviously didn't age well, not to mention Elaan being a stereotypical "dragon lady Asian who's tamed into submission" (literally played by France Nuyen, a Chinese). At least the magic tears kinda switched the role of S&M, kinda, but man, this episode was a landmine of problematic.

"I am Kirok! I have come! I AM KIROK!!!"

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I find myself enjoying writing about bad writing on shows than good writing, and not just those mid-tier writing that's kinda stale either, but horrendously bad writing that everyone shits on. It's kinda challenging to write about a show where all the good things about it, someone else has said it better than you. The same can be said for a bad show, but the difference is that there's just so much more fun mocking it even if everyone else has made the same mockery.

As a Singaporean Chinese myself, the white savior trope has not nearly irritated me as it has for members of other minority groups, it seems, probably because I don't really see people purely as skin color the way our modern society loves to. This episode is hilariously on-brand though when it comes to a whole landmine of problematic tropes, merely three episodes into season 3 (going by production and VHS order):

• White savior? Kirk, as always, this time literally being a god to the Native Americans.
• Blackface? Sabrina Scharf as Miramanee and Rudy Solari as Salish, possibly more.
• Noble Savage? Definitely. Kirk compares discovering the Native tribes as discovering "Atlantis or Shangri-La."

The trinity of problematic tropes in a racist episode, ladies and gents. Not a great way to begin your production of the season, and the problem is further confounded by Shatner's hammy acting, grinning like an idiot when Kirk proclaimed his discovery of peace and happiness, or his shouting at the clouds that he's Kirok in front of the alien obelisk to somehow stop the imminent asteroid impact, a performance merely topped by his "I'M CAPTAIN KIRK!" performance from way back in season 1, "The Enemy Within".

But let's step back a little bit and talk about that third of the problematic trope, the Noble Savage. What was Gene Roddenberry and his crew thinking, exactly? Why over-compensate a native people to the degree of making them look like mystical and sacred but utterly moronic primitives? The most likely answer? White guilt. DUN DUN DUN! Oh no, we did an inhumane act against their people centuries ago; let's amend that by making their people look good on a nerdy cult sci-fi TV, because that's how you make amends!

The whole notion might seem absurd on the surface, but in 2025, it's actually a pretty normalized behavior, just with a different coat of paint and a different label, the label basement-dwelling conservative trolls like to call... "woke." DUN DUN DUN! That's right, folks, performative and insincere portrayal of a minority group, obviously an accusation conjured up by delusional bigots who hate women and black people (because it's always about black people, rarely the white-adjacent Chinese). Probably. "They will never know what you sacrificed for them" probably didn't mean that Wanda Maximoff was an innocent savage who did the best she could have out of noble intentions and frustrating circumstances, even if it sure seems problematic on the surface.

And let's talk about that blackface for a minute too. What was the intent behind that, exactly? Was it because the industry during the '60s meant that Roddenberry had trouble normalizing the hiring of non-white actors/actresses and had to do the best with what he had on hand with actors that could actor (as opposed to just hiring Native Americans and hope they can do the best with the English-written script on camera), or was it the more likely reason that Roddenberry... hates colored people? DUN DUN DUN! Where's the diverse casting on this?! Sure, you have the token Uhura, but where's the Native Americans?! I call bigotry!

But seriously, folks, it's pretty easy to just jump on the bandwagon and call "RACIST!" on a "dated" show like this; it's another thing entirely to peel back the layers and examine why these "problematic" tropes came about and what they actually say about people in general when it comes to performative activism and tokenized minority groups that aren't portrayed as realistic and flawed people.

The majority of the episode's plot itself, even if you put the racist tropes aside, is pretty generic and cheesy, with Kirk going on a "Dancing with Wolves" soap opera where he had his memory wiped and falls in love with one of the natives, even having a rival in love to boot. It's on the level of "so bad it's good" so I could hardly complain because this was an entertainment goldmine full of hilariously hammy moments, partially due to Shatner's usual over-the-top performance. The fact that Kirk literally stumbled his way into amnesia is such pure comedy you'd expect a laugh track to chime in. If every episode of season 3 is going to be this bad, at least make it as funny as this one.

On the Spock side of things, it's a little more melancholic, but in a more black comedy kind of way in that Spock is working his way into exhaustion to stop the imminent asteroid while Kirk's frolicking with Miramanee around the trees like it's a Bollywood film. Bones is also being his usually insufferable and sanctimonious shrew, so he's no fun either. Where's Kirk to tame this shrew when you need him like in "Elaan of Troyius"?

Overall, a pretty fun episode, albeit for all the wrong reasons, but just don't take this too seriously; it's Star Trek, not The Wire.

"We were off the NBC schedule -- dropped -- cancelled. The letters, marches, and all the rest of it were immeasurable help in getting us put back on the schedule... The renewal was due to many factors -- over a million letters and petitions, the student protests, Gene Roddenberry’s literate, reasonable and persuasive assault in personal trips to New York to speak to the decision -makers there. We had definitely been off the schedule - - and then the mail began to pour in. It cost NBC a great deal in hiring extra staff to answer it... because much of it was from people of some standing in industry, professions and so on. These could not be answered by a routine form letter. So, we cost NBC some money -- and all of you kept us on the air." - D.C. Fontana, Spockanalia 2, April 19, 1968

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Back in the late '60s, when the second season of Star Trek: TOS was about to be cancelled, around 115,893 letters were sent for the "Save Star Trek" campaign and successfully led to the renewal of the series for its third season. The first episode to air... was "Spock's Brain". It was a disaster, supposedly.

I'm watching this series by production/VHS order, so I didn't have the privilege of seeing the dumpster fire of "Spock's Brain" yet, but I sympathize with Trek fans at the time who must have been immensely disappointed by the wreckage they created.

That said, the second broadcast episode, this episode, "The Enterprise Incident", would have probably reversed that despair... at least temporarily until the following episode, "The Paradise
Syndrome", though that dated episode might have been considered progressive at the time.

"Enterprise Incident" is great fun though, especially if you go in blind. Knowing the fiasco of "Spock's Brain", I was expecting Kirk's dumb decision-making here to be a symptom of the dumb writing that might have plagued this season. Thankfully, it's not, and that became particularly evident once Kirk has died, a move that was Fontana overplaying her hand since most people should know by now that it's essentially impossible for that to happen, at least on this series.

The rest of the episode is still solid after the other shoe dropped. Despite Roddenberry's intention for the series to paint an optimistic picture of humanity with progressive ideals, there were more than a few episodes where Trek feels more like "James Bond in Space" long before Mass Effect came out. Captain Kirk's usually the dashing adventurer out seducing women (alien or otherwise) with his roguish charm, but this episode reserved that spot for Spock as he goes full "From Romulus with Love" with the Romulan commander, a female commander long before Janeway arrived. Being a nerd in the '60s, you don't have a lot of role model figures in entertainment that aren't the traditionally masculine types, but we did have two of the more prominent intellect figures, namely Peter Parker and Spock, so nerds everywhere back then must have been ecstatic with this episode.

Despite the compelling twists at the first half of the episode, the rest of it is about as predictable as you'd expect, but that's not necessarily a bad thing in this case, as Spock's espionage adventure feels unique enough to make the story work, even the "good guy falling for the enemy" cliche that's, again, usually reserved for a more masculine Bond-like character.

The Bad Seed. Village of the Damned. Children of the Corn. And of course, The Omen. Enfant terrible, a trope so old it goes back to the 1800s and particularly fairy tales of Changelings or just demonic spawns. The idea that children are secretly evil might seem like a myth, but in actuality, the real myth might be that they're all innocent angels. It's in fact that innocence and naivety that can lead them astray in terms of moral integrity, dismissing dangerous or harmful acts as not a big deal due to their ignorance (or straight up negligence) of the consequences. South Park had it right - kids can be little dicks.

This episode, however, may have taken that concept a little too far, as the kids in here couldn't care less that their boring parents are lying dead at their feet. Granted, it might be the influence of Gorgan the green ghost (not that Green Ghost), but even then, they seemed unrealistically detached from the parents they were playing with in the past, presumably not that long before their demise.

It really doesn't help that this episode is unintentionally hilarious in terms of its cheesy visuals from start to finish. For starters, the children would perform this swiveling motion like they're shaking dice (or playing a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors) whenever they use their psychic (read: Gigalomaniac) powers to control the minds of the Enterprise crew. What's worse is that the hallucinations the crew saw can be kinda goofy, like Sulu seeing what's basically a looped Windows 98 screensaver of revolving knives, or Uhura seeing her wrinkled old ass in a small mirror that came out of nowhere.

Kirk's got the best deal in terms of these visions though, sent into a spiral of ShatNervana as he wildly pivots around in his induced anxiety like he's having a stroke, doing the hammiest impression of a man panicking like it's a highschool rendition of Shakespeare, before gripping Spock and sending the Internet into a homoerotic breakdown.

We also get a funny scene where the kids were shown the footage of them playing with their parents before a hard cut to them being dead, and then the scene of their tombstones. BOOM. DEAD PARENTS, KIDS! After that traumatizing experience and having defeated Gorgan, Spock and Kirk tell them it's gonna be alright now as the crew is all smiles, moving onto their next adventure like they had forgotten about the recently orphaned children. Peak comedy. This feels like what Zapp Brannigan would do rather than Kirk.

Honestly, I would have saved myself the trouble and set my phaser on stun.

And here it is, the notorious episode that began the season 3 broadcast, the hard-earned renewal all the fans asked for... Man, this one hurts.

But to be fair, for all its notoriety, I've actually seen worse in the same season so far. For one thing, I didn't laugh as much because most of the writing is pretty standard without slipping into absurdity too often. Yes, even the whole concept of Spock losing his brain. I could buy it because he's Vulcan, and I'm not nearly familiar enough with Vulcan physiology to know whether it's absurd or not. The truly silly stuff only comes through when Bones had to perform surgery to restore Spock's brain using alien knowledge, and then later, Spock's instructions... The latter part of the surgery was like someone playing "Operation". It's as ridiculous as it sounds.

The whole idea of females as the dominant species of the planet who uses ancient knowledge to enslave men for the good of the planet works about as well as you'd expect, mostly because it's an undercooked concept that didn't really go anywhere.

The farcical nature of this episode and its underdeveloped plotline makes more sense when you watch the VHS intro for this episode, where Walter Koenig (aka Chekov) explained that writer Lee Cronin originally penned it as a comedy, not a serious drama. Yes, this episode got "Alien: Resurrected", basically.

MCCOY: How can one so beautiful condemn herself to look upon ugliness the rest of her life? Will we allow it, gentlemen?
ALL: Certainly not.

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"Once, there was an ugly barnacle. He was so ugly that everyone died. The end." - Patrick's retelling of this episode, probably. Trek literally went there, an alien so ugly it drives everyone insane. It's an interesting concept if handled well, the subjectivity of ugliness and beauty. But no, we're not getting that. It's pretty obvious here that Dr. Miranda Jones is the beautiful rose here with thorns, the thorns being her womanly jealousy and volatile emotions. Ah, those women, amirite?

And seriously, for how progressive this franchise was supposed to be, this episode's one huge cringe-fest even for someone like me, just full of mansplaining and gaslighting in regards to Dr. Jones, not to mention Kirk's usual horndog behavior preaching to the good doctor about the wonders of love, and questioning why she isn't interested in it. Yeech. And the worst part is that she's ultimately thankful for it too, for how Kirk "fixed her." Christ, don't show this episode to a modern feminist. I think she'd go mad like Larry Marvick and Spock here. Don't get me started on how lazy it is to call an alien species whose ugliness drives people insane "Medusans". Was "DaHorror" taken?

Speaking of the alien, what a waste of a concept. I love non-humanoid aliens because it can be very creative, and much like the concept of "beauty being in the eye of the beholder," there's a lot of storytelling potential to be mined from an alien which you can't see. But yeah, we ain't getting that here either, as it's just a bunch of flashing lights like a kaleidoscope, while the rest of the episode, it's stuck in a box.

Spock smiling here is also nightmare fuel/uncanny valley territory. I got used to it after a while, but I guess it just feels so unnatural to see the man beaming like that. lol

KIRK: "We will not leave our friend. You've lost the capacity to feel the emotions you brought Gem here to experience. You don't understand what it is to live. Love and compassion are dead in you. You're nothing but intellect."

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I think that by season 3 of this show, you'd either be dropping the show entirely or merely accept certain conventions of its storyline and carry on, like for example: 1) the Enterprise would often face godlike beings, 2) Shatner's overacting is often goofy but great for laughs, and 3) character-driven storylines carry this show more often than plot-driven ones due to either how silly or repetitive the plots can be.

I think that for its production value, it did a fine job create its creatures than many modern genre TV shows like CW productions ("Supernatural" comes to mind), because while the Medusans are just kaleidoscope strobe effects and Vians are just Talosians with paler skin, there's an effort made here to not just do the lazy thing and paint colored skin over a humanoid and call it an alien (see "Guardians of the Galaxy"), keeping the imagination alive and the creature design more engaging.

More importantly, while Kirk giving godlike aliens a passionate speech that reverses their dire situation is nothing new, I think it hits a little different this time due to one significant detail: Bones dying. It became more personal this time, and Kirk's speech was less stemming from his intellect so much as his emotional outrage.

And speaking of which, the best part of the episode is of course the heartfelt interaction between Bones and Spock, with Spock almost lamenting that it should've been him in Nimoy's subtle expression that speaks volumes.

Kathryn Hays as Gem the Empath alien was kinda amusing at first with her interpretive movements, but once you learn that she's a mute, her body language just makes much more sense and I didn't have much of a complaint after that.

Overall, this was probably one of the stronger episodes of this season, though that isn't saying much.

MCCOY: Spock, I, er, I'm sorry. It does hurt, doesn't it?
SPOCK: What would you have me say, Doctor?

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It's not unusual for the USS Enterprise to stumble into piles of corpses or even a derelict ship, but somehow, when put together, the opening to this episode has a very eerie "Dead Space" vibe that feels different from other episodes, partially because of the number of bodies this episode, but mostly because the dead silent atmosphere was played out effectively.

We also get a nice exploration of parallel dimensions that overlap with each other, but the real highlight of this episode for me is easily Bones and Spock's relationship, how they manage to grief together while learning to cope with one another despite their differences. Kirk's speech to them is arguably one of the best monologues of the show, and it greatly justifies how they learned to put aside their differences and work together again.

The concept of an interstellar Noah's Ark is an interesting one that's been explored since 1918 in an unpublished paper by Robert Goddard. A more recent example would be Mass Effect: Andromeda. Unlike the video game, however, this episode's "advanced" civilization comes in old-fashioned plaid suits, and the immigrants believe in an oppressive AI god with much zealotry.

A sci-fi concept like this would normally call into the question of blind faith, but Star Trek had more often used complex sci-fi concepts for character-driven stories. Here, it's more about McCoy facing his own mortality and willing to settle down and find love. Even if the ending feels like a cop-out, it's hard to complain about a McCoy-focused episode that had him explore matters of the heart because there just aren't that many of those on TOS. And as much as I wish that Trek explored more of that blind zealotry in the same manner of flat-earthers, Star Trek: TOS is just not that kind of a show, at least not on a regular basis.

"Scotty. What's happening to us? We've been trained to think in other terms than war. We've been trained to fight its causes, if necessary. Then why are we behaving like a group of savages? Look at me. Look at me. Two forces aboard this ship, each of them equally armed. Has a war been staged for us, complete with weapons and ideology and patriotic drum beating? Even, Spock, even race hatred?" - Kirk at one of his Shatneriest

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"War is bad, mkay?" was probably this episode's PSA.

In the '60s, it felt like someone opened to a doorway to Hell in America as the country suffered conflicts on two fronts: the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, both of which resulted in many deaths for different reasons. It's inevitable then that a self-proclaimed "progressive" show like Star Trek would attempt to utilize the sentiments of that time to spread its lessons of peace and love, as any modern TV show in 2025 would do with THE MESSAGE™.

It could have almost worked too. Another godlike being manipulating the players into conflict like it's The Beyonder and Secret Wars all over again, its scheme to perpetuate the conflict ad infinitum an effective plot device expressing the absurdity of endless conflict and bigotry.

That was... until Chekov's actions here ruined it all. It felt like a step too far, too tone-deaf, especially when he's resolved of responsibility because "the alien did it." YIKES. It reminds me of "Casualties of War", where Brian De Palma tackled a similar subject expressed here, but far less tone-deaf in its execution.

The resolution for the conflict also felt kinda goofy too, having that after school special vibe, being too clean and too schmaltzy, even for Star Trek. What a waste of a good concept.

"Uncontrolled, power will turn even saints into savages. And we can all be counted upon to live down to our lowest impulses."

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"Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power," as they say. Once again, we've got godlike beings toying with people's lives because lulz, ironically missing Plato's lessons about justice. It resulted in some unintentionally amusing moments where Kirk and Spock are humiliated in routines that ended up feeling pretty comedic because of how goofy it all feels, the kind of humiliation you'd see on a sitcom actually (except maybe the forced kiss). Despite how degrading Kirk, Spock, Uhura and Chapel must have felt, it must have been a fun day filming that day, particularly for Shatner and Nimoy, who got to unintentionally flex their comedic chops.

It also gave us TV's first broadcast of an interracial kiss, something that Southerners weren't happy with (to which Roddenberry said, and I quote, "To Hell with you"). It's kinda a weird accomplishment because 1) it's a forced kiss, and Kirk was later forced to pull out the whip on a black woman, so yikes, and 2) Uhura and Spock's shipping in New Trek makes this even weirder, retroactively.

That said, I do like that they gave the humiliation the gravity it deserves rather than treat it like a sitcom routine, thus in turn making me care enough about their duress. The episode's a little tone deaf in bits about how the futuristic society is prejudice-free (see "Day of the Dove"), and Kirk's heightism jab at the end didn't help, but otherwise, this was a pretty good episode with real stakes.

DEELA: It was quite delightful kissing you when you couldn't see me.

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As a straight man in his 30s living in 2025, I'm not afraid to admit that I'm not all that confident about my own gender role in society. I believe that as a people, humanity has progressed far enough culturally that most of the first-world countries have considerably improved gender roles for women compared to the '60s. And yet, it just feels like the paradigm had perhaps shifted a little too far to an extreme end, especially when I feel afraid of discussing gender roles as a man for fear of being called out on as a bigot. And if someone ordinary like me already has that fear, I could only wonder what a man with a more significant influence feels about cancel culture in regards to free speech. It's for reasons such as these (and more) that I take double standards in modern identity roles very seriously.

I bring this up because I feel strange watching this episode of Star Trek. Everyone else who has reviewed or commented for this episode, their takeaway is that Kirk's being a horndog again who keeps bedding every woman he meets, and while it's true that Kirk did turn up the charm again to resolve the conflict, while he did feel affection for Deela, there's a deeper, more uncomfortable context surrounding that. Almost every word Deela had said to Kirk this episode made me feel uncomfortable because they felt predatory. It doesn't help that she literally said that their species' intention was to keep the Enterprise crew there... for breeding. In human terms, that's called "human trafficking." Never mind the fact that Deela basically roofied Kirk and was looking forward to Kirk becoming a subservient sex slave, but then subsequently got bored because he's no longer the feisty bad boy that excited her anymore.

I have to praise Roddenberry, however, for not only creating such a disturbing villainess, but also for having Kirk trying to use his sexuality as a ruse to have Deela let her guard down every step of the way, mirroring the way James Bond (particularly Pierce Brosnan's take) would leverage the playing field against a villainess ("No, no, no. No more foreplay."). In fact, unlike what most took people took away from this episode, I felt that Kirk was more motivated in getting back to his crew than banging another alien, because let's remember: Kirk's first love is always the Enterprise.

To further make the case even more interesting, both the Star Trek and James Bond franchises had significantly influenced the 2007 video game, "Mass Effect", where the male Paragon version of Commander Shepard's idea of diplomacy was turning up the charm ("We'll bang, okay?"). It also says a lot that Femshep only did this when it's the Renegade version of her, and yet, nobody bats an eye towards either Shep.

But perhaps I could be perceived as "reading too much into it" or "projecting my own insecurities." If so, fair enough, and I consent to your reading of this episode, but I'm glad to have experienced this one, because despite not being a perfect dissection of gendered double standards in sexual consent politics (due to Kirk still feeling affection for Deela, his groomer), it felt like an accidentally brilliant satire that just happened to hit all the little uncomfortable notes. I kinda doubt that was Roddenberry's intentions if I could be honest because his idea of progressiveness has always been dubious on this show, but for this particular episode, I'm willing to see it as a big win.

SULU: How can such people be, Captain? Such evil and she's so, so beautiful.
KIRK: Yes, I know.

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Last episode in the production order, "Wink of an Eye", we had a pretty progressive episode where Kirk accurately called out a female alien's lack of consent in enslaving his crew while secretly plotting to escape her enslavement. This episode, however... had Sulu and the crew sympathizing with another female figure that was killing crewmembers left and right, even going so far as to attempt and blow up the Enterprise. But no, she's not evil; she's beautiful, ladies and gents. Keep your male privilege in check.

It is amusing though how we managed to take a few steps back in gender role enlightenment, but it was ultimately inevitable, because let's be honest, even "Wink of an Eye" was problematic in parts too, with Kirk fraternizing with the female human trafficker in the end, so it was only a matter of time before we return to this point of storytelling degression again.

The bigger point of entertainment for this episode though comes in the form of the character beats. I feel like this episode had the most in-depth character exploration since season 2, since we got a lot of interesting interactions between Spock and Scotty, an odd couple we haven't really seen explored much since it's usually Spock and Bones. Here, Scotty's illogical love for the Enterprise ship that's mixed with his engineering knowhow just greatly annoyed Spock to no end as the Vulcan constantly sassed with his passive-aggressive, "Have you tried not being emotional? Please keep control your humanly feelings, crew. Your illogical assumptions do not amuse me." Spock's not technically wrong to keep his cool and maintain control over the chaotic crisis, but his unintentional snark is nevertheless cringe-inducing comedy that carried most of the otherwise eye-rolling episode with an overly enthusiastic defense system.

SPOCK: All that matters to them is their hate.
UHURA: Do you suppose that's all they ever had, sir?
KIRK: No, but that's all they have left.

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Race relation, especially in our modern landscape, has become murkier than ever. But even in the '60s, the conversation surrounding black and white people were never the kind of straightforward narrative that was colonial times slavery, or hell, even the clear evil against the Nazis in WWII, just two decades before this episode aired. And the concept of "RACISM. IS. DUUUUUMB!!!" explored here could have worked if it had not gone into the real world specifics of colonial slaveowners vs. slaves, because one generation of racism is rarely the same as another. It's not a one size fits all allegory, but you could have at least had the illusion of a functional allegory by not drawing attention to the broadness of the loose metaphor.

Instead, we had Kirk going "we have very fine people on both sides." Bruh. One is an obvious plantation owner calling the other an inferior species. It might have worked had Lokai's actions been shown to be more extreme, or perhaps just as bigoted as the other, but even then, it would be impossible to measure up against the 200 years of generational dehumanization by "the greatest country in the world" and its greatest historic failure.

In the '60s though, when race relations had reached a breaking point, especially in 1969, just one year after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., one could see easily how this episode might have felt progressive, with the difference in race becoming so absurd by then that one could simply point out the ridiculousness of judging someone else by the color of their skin, or in this case, the color pattern arrangement on your body. The consequence of Bele and Lokai's war against each other at the end was powerful, its symbolic imagery undeniably poignant in the face of such violence during the decade (both domestically and in Vietnam), and perhaps the writers were understandably a little overly enthusiastic then hammering home the message they wanted to spread.

There were a few other good stuff too about the episode that got mucked up by the dated execution of either the writing or the performances, such as Kirk's subtle recognition that Bele's full of it and that turning Lokai over to him might not be such a sound idea. His staring contest with Bele over the self-destruct sequence was also ridiculous and lacking any tension with how smug Kirk was acting, but the attempt to have Kirk laying down a gambit against Bele was conceptually exciting. The unsubtle urgent zoom effects on the red alert signal like it's an ABBA disco video really didn't help with the tension either, nor did the superimposed imagery of burning buildings as Bele and Lokai memeified the Vietnam flashback before it became a thing. It's all pretty nonsensical in its execution, even if the intent was sound at the time.

Overall, this episode might very well represent the crux of Roddenberry's fallacy in his progressive ideas: compelling on paper, tone-deaf and cringe in execution.

Kirk: "Captain's Log, stardate 5718.3. The Enterprise is orbiting Elba Two, a planet with a poisonous atmosphere where the Federation maintains an asylum for the few remaining incorrigible criminally insane of the galaxy. We are bringing a revolutionary new medicine to them, a medicine with which the Federation hopes to eliminate mental illness for all time."

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Yeah, from that opening line, I knew this episode's gonna be funky, and not in the positive groovy way. It's essentially Arkham Asylum without any of the compelling psychological battles, just interpretive dancing from proto-Gamora and really hammy performances from Steve Ihnat as Garth, doing his best to out-Shatner the Shat like he's Tommy Lee Jones competing with Jim Carrey on Batman Forever, just one "Sashay!" away from tossing pink flamingo scarves around Kirk.

Of course, since we have a torture chair machine, that means Shatner still gets to top the bill for overacting, twitching his head around like he has a stroke, or just doing an impression of Marlon Brando on the set of Apocalypse Now being forced by Coppola to do his job (at one point of his "grimace," Shatner's face straight up reminded me of Brando's for some reason).

That dance btw dragged out forever, to the point where I was tempted to check the time. More than many other episodes, this one felt like it was finding excuses to drag out the screentime, having Garth acting crazy and pulling insane acts to impress Kirk into giving his conveniently-introduced "callsign code" for the Enterprise. Really doesn't help that Garth is conveniently shoveled away at the end sympathetically even though he did kill someone. The mental illness cure-all was already a facepalm-worthy moment, but the episode never really made the lazy plot device feel like it's worth it or earned at all.