And now for a change in pace as the crew of the Enterprise meets a super being in The Squire of Gothos … oh wait…
Synopsis: The Enterprose is charting a star desert when they come across a lone planet in the void. Suddenly the Capatin and Mr Sulu mysteriously vanish. A mysterious sihnal is sent from the planet below which seems to be uninhabitable. The landing party find The two trapped in a castle owned by Trelane, a being with strange powers and a facination with the history of the Earth. Unwilling to let the crew go Kirk must match wits and sacrifice himself to free his crew and learn Trelane’s secret.
Thoughts:
Ok, I know we’ve been down this path at least two times before. The Universe seems to be populated with super beings. This episode runs the risk of being a rehash of the same story line except it is saved by the performance of Trelane and his little secret. Campbell’s campy performance as an angry fop then miffed child made this very entertaining.
I loved how he was ready to just run Kirk through before the good captain explained teh nature of the game. His reaction was priceless as he contemplated how much more fun it would be to hunt him and kill him rather than just kill him.
The crew is not so much stupid in this one as overwhelmed by something that makes no sense. Mind you they do some deductive reasoning as to what they preceive to be the limit of Trelanes powers. They even figure out his mirror, too bad he was cheating. (By the way, why have the mirror machine if he had all that power anyway?)
A line of dialogue had me wondering what year this show is set in. Trelane mentions Napoleon and Hamilton which are the late 18th early 19th century and some one mentions the planet is 900 light years for earth. Trelane seems to think he was looking at contemporary Earth and did not take into account for the time difference. That would mean that Star Trek takes place at least 700 years from now.
Kirk is a very dedicated captain. He’d risk his life to save the ship. I’m glad he is back to being a strong leader.
Spock’s behaviour to Trelane almost boardered on human contempt rather than logical reaction.
Not the best episode but a very memorable one. I give it a 7 out of 10
I believe that one of the non-canonical STAR TREK novels established later that Trelane was a form of Q. I don’t think they were going for any time period per-se but just what a spoiled child who knew a little of Earth history would have fun playing with (rather as if he’d been allowed to run wild through the prop and furniture warehouse of a large theater).
Trivia about the episode: Trelane’s father was voiced by James Doohan.
PS- I always wondered if they deliberately wrote this episode with Liberace in mind. The hair, the outfit, the candelabra, the piano (or harpsichord)- it was all straight off Liberace’s nightclub act.)
PPS- More trivia: in real life, Campbell’s ex-wife was Judith Exner, later a mistress of both JFK and Sam Giancana and a key figure in JFK Conspiracy theries.
I don’t think so… (2005) Liberace’s more flamboyant stage came out, so to speak, later in his career during the 1970s. This was more of a version of the 18th century Foppish aristocrat.
Not the best episode but, as kingpengvin said, saved by the performance of William Campbell as Trelane.
Spock ends up in command of the bridge, and right away they’re whining at him again.
The time line thing does seem a little wonky, though, doesn’t it? If he’s supposed to think that the 17th century is the current time-frame on Earth, why does he know the Nazi march? Or did German soldiers always march that way? For that matter, were there even any ‘German’ soldiers in the 1700s? Trelane makes reference to a Deutchsoldat (I know that’s probably spelled horrobly wrong), but weren’t they all seperate Duchy’s like Prussia back then?
SCS (Stupid Crew Syndrome) strikes again, if only briefly: Trelane appears on the bridge, and blonde-yeoman-du-jour utters a mildly curious ‘look!’. Shouldn’t that be “Intruder on the bridge! Security alert!”? And how many different blonde yeoman does Kirk have, anyway? He must do his own recruiting. At least he’s learned their names, now.
So if my count is correct that’s three seemingly all-powerful beings so far. Gary Mitchell and Elizabeth Denner from “Where No Man…”, Charlie from “Charlie X” and now Trelane. I hope they come up with some different ideas soon. This could get old real quick.
[2005] kingpengvin, you may have to pull a SentientMeat on these threads and always include a brief disclaimer on the rules of the game in the OP.
[/2005]
Actually, unless I missed a small trelane reference in “Q-in-law”, which was mostly about Q and Lwaxana Troi finally meting it’s not. The correct title is “Q-squared”, in which Trelane is a major character
We now return you to your regularly scheduled sixties. (chrisken runs out before he gets un-conceived in the temporal reversion field )
Yes, in that period central Europe contained a plethora of small independent states (the Holy Roman Empire theoretically ruled over them, but it had about as much power as the UN has over modern nations). However, the concept of “German” ethnicity definitely existed, and people might refer to “German” duchies, principalities, or whatever.
Oops. Mid thought, I switched from “three episodes” to “four characters”. Silly me.
It’s interesting how all the “godlike” beings we’ve seen so far have been intrinsically flawed. I wonder if they’re just trying to amplify human traits, or if there’s some larger idea here. I hesistate to say anti-religious, because I don’t mean to start a theological argument, but is Star Trek saying that all-powerful beings are inherently a bad thing?
It’s those goldurned leftist secular humanists running Hollywood trying to brainwash us, I tell ya! “Godlike beings are not Gods, they are simply godlike.” Just like the Norse gods, they always seem to have a flaw. “Hoping for a better world by means of of a God who cares is stupid. It’s worse than stupid, IT’S SILLY!” What, do the creators of this series think that technology left unchained can bring a utopia?
Let’s not even talk about why it was necessary for them to write this godlike enitity as some sort of POOF!
And then, they (the writers) seem to handicap themselves by including some sort of machine as an integral part of the godlike beings godliness.
Yep, I’m smelling some sort of vast conspiracy here, with the queers, the commies, the negroes, even the eastern religionists, all trying to undermine our superior way of life based on the precepts laid down in the Bible and seized upon by our founding fathers as the building blocks of the best government ever!
Also, what’s with this one world government thing they keep alluding to? Will the UN somehow take over? Talk about an anti god, anti american orginization! Thank god at least the crew is shown to be American, even if they don’t call themselves that!
[2005]Roll playing as a conservative middle American in the 60s is fun! In a warped sort of way.
Also, it’s amazing how well the basics of these old episodes hold up over decades. Sure, we can nitpick the goofy effects, the lack of continuity, and the cliched endings, but the eps work as well or better than anything on current TV.[/2005]
This has l[2005]ong been said to be the case (even by Doohan, himself), but just listen to the voice carefully and it is obvious that it is not Doohan, but rather Bart Larue, a guy who did many voices for Trek (the “Guardian of Forever,” for one). Doohan did a lot of voice-work for the show and for the animated series, and his voice, no matter how he pitches it, always instantly recognizable.[/2005]
it’s not. The correct title is “Q-squared”, in which Trelane is a major character
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