185: Star Trek TOS Season 2, “Bread and Circuses”

 In this episode of Trek In Time, we’re talking about doing as the Romans do, and yes, that means making out at the very least, with a slave. Ew. That’s right. We’re talking about bread and circuses. Star Trek, the original series originally broadcast on March 15th, 1968. It was episode number 43 in shooting order, but 54th in broadcast order the 25th of the second season, meaning they pushed this to the penultimate episode of the second season. I wonder why. Welcome everybody to Trek in Time where we’re watching every episode of Star Trek in chronological start date order. We’re also taking a look at the world at the time of original broadcast, which means we’re talking about March of 1968.

We’re talking about the original series. We are talking about Star Trek, but who are we? Well, as our regular viewers and listeners know, I am Sean Ferrell. I’m a writer. I write some sci-fi and I write some stuff for kids. And with me as always, is my brother Matt. He is that Matt behind Undecided with Matt Ferrell, which takes a look at emerging tech and its impact in our lives.

And together we like to revisit Star Trek, geek out, nerd out. Let it all hang out. Matt, how are you doing today?

Well, I’m nerding out Sean, uh, we’re gonna be talking about this ’cause we’re planning on recording an Out of Time for subscribers, but I just, my wife and I just finished watching all of Andor season one before we start watching season two.

Mm-hmm. And I recently just got a short throw projector and I have like a little mini theater set up and Sean watching it projected on a movie screen is right. Fantastic. It was so good.

I can imagine. Yeah. My son and I have been watching Andor season one in preparation of moving on to season two and we’re watching it in batches, so we’re watching it like it’s chapters and it works beautifully like that.

And yeah, I shared with him that Andor season two has just passed , Empire Strikes Back as the most highly rated Star Trek story on Rotten Tomatoes, which is saying something. It’s quite impressive, especially as my, as my started son started did say Star Trek or did you say Star Wars? Star Wars is what I meant.

I may have said Star Trek. I wonder why Is that because we’re gonna do a podcast? Oh no. I don’t know. But on we go to our discussion about today’s episode. Before we get into talking about bread and circuses, we always like to revisit the mailbag and see what you had to say about the previous episode. So Matt, what have you found for us this week?

From the episode, the Trouble with Tribbles. For those of you that may have listened to that episode, I didn’t know. I did not like it. Sean liked it from a nostalgia point of view, but it kind of like was like, eh, it is not a good episode. But I still like it. We got some interesting feedback. ’cause we had called out like, what do you feel about this?

And there were a couple people that were like, like Baba Rudra who wrote. It’s a cromulant episode. Not a favorite. Not the worst. It’s just there. It’s fun in quotes. Yeah. DS Nine’s revisit was better. You know. Okay. Uh, but we also had one from Happy Flappy Farm who wrote, okay. I will give you credit for hitting the nail on the head that the fight scene was ridiculous.

There were moments of cringe, like the idocy of Cyrano Jones and the obnoxious of the up under Secretary Baris. But I have to like this episode because as a child, I wanted a Tribble myself and loved how the Tribbles found out, the Klingon spy. And then And the poisoned, what was it? triticale? Is that how they said it?

Yeah. triticale.

Yep.

Cute and fuzzy. And it purs sweet. The actors had a great time. Shatner was the best. At his best. Scotty was a loose cannon. Spock was factual. Bones was his sarcastic self. To me this episode is classic Trek. The Trek I prefer minus the fight scene please. My husband noticed the difference in how the Klingons refer to themselves as Klings, who speak Klignese, and the federation calls them Klingons.

Mm-hmm. Thought that was interesting. But, so yeah,

there are about three different pronunciations of Klingon in that episode. Somebody actually says Klingon. Oh geez. And then somebody else says Klingon, and they’re both Klingons. So,

but the def defense, the defense of the, the episode, I think prevailed in the comments.

So I definitely am the odd man out in my view on this episode. Uh, Mark Loveless had some really good rebuttals to our take, but one of his comments he wrote was; Ages ago I remember reading the book, the Trouble With Tribbles by David Gerrold. Gerald, yeah, yeah. Which was a kind of behind the scenes look at the creation of this episode.

The book actually shows a lot of insight into what happened on the set and bits and pieces behind the overall production process. Haven’t read it since maybe the late seventies, but it was fascinating. I like it that he channeled his inner Spock. Yes. Very good. Yes. And then old Trekky came out and said, oh my, Sean and Matt, the Trouble with Tribbles, and let’s not even mention Subspace Rhapsody is quintessential Star Trek.

Yes. As you point out, it mentions the Oregonian Peace Treaty, gave us Chekovs for propensity for assigning was it assign significant historical events to Russia. Not to mention. Quadrotriticale. It also, I keep thinking of, uh, Kirk’s. Like, what, what was he saying? Repeat? Kept repeating. Yeah. Grain. Grain. What? Grain.

Grain, grain. It also forced, albeit indirectly, deep space nine, to deal with the differences in the appearance of the clingons, which in turn gave us the whole augment segment of future history, tying everything back to space seed. From a franchised perspective, this is a nexus point and mm-hmm. I will admit that yes, it’s, yeah, it is absolutely Nexus point.

I just don’t like this Nexus point. I prefer others.

And then finally we have Mark Loveless, wrong answers only Sean. Bread and circuses. Now, I actually haven’t read this myself because I want to enjoy it with you for the first time, okay? I may stumble over this a little bit. Plot of bread and circuses. The enterprise is sent to resolve a conflict between two supposedly warring groups on a planet that humans were stationed on to develop into a farmable planet.

Kirk fresh from dealing with bureaucracy involving Tribbles, gets pissed off because the quote war involves two groups who each developed circuses and kept lowering the price of admission to lure in guests. A, I like where this is going. A poor attempt at being a hippie episode. Each side keeps charging less bread man, and it takes forever for Kirk to resolve the res.

The reviews of the episode are awful and hated by regular viewers and hippies alike, as the emphasis on capitalism is against hippie philosophy. Considered the worst episode ever by all. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Mark. You managed to like, I like now he’s branching outta the show.

You managed to tie a lot of things, like pull it all in.

Yes. And then squeeze it into a shoe. Yeah. Tie up the laces as always. Thank you everybody for your comments. We do love to read them and I wanna revisit the idea of Tribbles being a nexus point. And you don’t like the episode. It’s, it’s the nuance of a story and a story well told. Yeah, yeah. You know, you’re acknowledging Yes, there are connective lines that all move through this moment.

Mm-hmm. I don’t like the way it’s depicted, so. Yes. Yeah. Perfectly fine. So that noise in the background and those flashing lights. No, it’s not the acid kicking in. It’s the read alert. It’s time for Matt to tackle the Wikipedia description. This one seemed, as I was pasting it into our document. It seemed a little bit like a, if you blink, you’ll miss it.

It’s kind of short, so,

okay. That’s a good thing. Take a deep breath and get it in one go. Captain Kirk and his companions are forced to fight in gladiatorial games on a planet where with a civilization similar to the Roman Empire, Kirk, Spock, and Bones beam down to a planet to find out why its people live like an the ancient Roman Empire where slaves are subjected to fighting in gladiatorial combat.

They ask refugees who escaped slavery to help them get into the empire where they meet a former Starship captain. I gotta say this is actually kinda wrong, isn’t it?

This is, it’s got all the right beats, but they’re in the wrong order and it’s poorly grammatically constructed. So, okay.

All three of them are Cap, okay?

All three of them are captured. Spock and Bones are forced to fight, and later all three of them are sentenced to death to the death penalty. However, Kirk, Spock and Bones managed to get back to their transponders and Scotty immediately beams them up. That is the most anti-climactic ending.

It’s, it’s an anticlimactic ending.

It’s a little bit of a shell game. The entire description here, uh, it’s got, there’s a P under there somewhere, but where is it? Yeah. Nah, I don’t know. Episode number 25 of season two, directed by Ralph Senensky, written by, and stop me if you’ve heard this name before, Gene Roddenberry. Who’s that? Gene L Coon. Story by Gene Roddenberry. Original air date, March 15th, 1968.

Amongst the cast, we see the usual cast members, but we also have guest appearances by William Smithers, Logan Ramsey, Ian Wolfe, Rhodes Reason, Lois Jewel, Bart Larue, Jack Perkins, Max Kleven, and William Bramley On this day in history, March 15th, 1968. What was the world like at that time? We’ve jumped forward from previous episodes, some three months, so we would anticipate we’ll finally see some changes.

Is it gonna be The Monkeys yet again? Is Gone With the Wind still the number one movie? We’ve been talking about those it feels like for the past 13 years. But no, Matt, you get to sing a different song this time. It is Love Is Blue, the number one song by Paul Mauriat. Take it away, Matt. Good as always. And in the box office, stop me if you’ve heard of this movie.

It’s The Graduate featuring Dustin Hoffman. The Graduate is of course, the 1967 American romantic comedy directed by Mike Nichols. He would win an Oscar for it, written by Buck Henry and Calder Willingham, based on the 1963 novella by Charles Webb. It, of course, starred a young Dustin Hoffman and Bancroft and Catherine Ross and featured the music of Simon and Garfunkel with some of the most popular songs from their library.

And on on television we’ve been trying to look apples to apples trying to look at the Nielsen ratings, but at this point, we’ve reviewed because of season one of Star Trek, a big portion of the top shows of 1967, even though the list for season one was 1966. Those shows maintain popularity. So we skipped through those and we were doing some of the ones that are a little bit lower on the list, but now we’ve reached a point where we’ve kind of burned through those as well.

So what are we left to do? Well, I decided to look around and see if there are some lesser known sci-fi shows that were on the air at this time that are maybe forgotten. I found this one, Matt, or stop me if this reminds you of anything from our childhood. Okay. A TV show that aired on CBS, Mr. Terrific. It was an attempt to catch on to the Batman phenomenon.

At this point, Batman was a well rated superhero comedic take on a superhero, and other networks tried to capture the same lightning in a bottle. Mr. Terrific with CBS’s attempt with the comedic twist on a superhero genre airing in 1967. The series followed Stanley Beamish, a mild-mannered gas station attendant who transforms into a superhero thanks to a special pill.

It only lasted one season. It aired on CBS on Mondays at 8:00 PM from January 9th to August 28th, 1967, Stephen Strimpell started the title role. Now as I read this, it’s 1967. It’s Mr. Terrific. It’s a ho hum gentleman who ends up becoming a superhero. And immediately I was like, this is the greatest American hero.

Yes, that was the first thing that just popped in my head. It was like it was the greatest American hero. But then in reading about this show, there was this little nugget. A similar series on NBC called Captain Nice also aired that season on Mondays at 8.30. So CBS is airing Mr. Terrific at eight. NBC is airing Mr or Captain Nice, which Captain Nice focused on a police chemist who developed a formula that gave him superpowers and similarly comedic take on the superhero. Apparently in Captain Nice when he would drink the formula, his clothes would explode off of him, leaving him in long underwear with the remnants of a shirt looking like a cape.

And on his belt buckle where the initials CN. And when somebody saw him doing something heroic, they asked, what is your name? So he came up with Captain Nice on the spot. I have no words, Sean. I don’t even know if I know how to breathe anymore.

And in the news on this day, Friday, March 15th, 1968, see a lot of headlines about trying to stabilize international economies through the gold trade at this point in 1968. The US dollar was still a hard currency. It was still based on the value of gold. So gold rising and lowering did tremendous things to the US dollar, and it was doing tremendous things to the world economy.

Headline here, the British Suspend Gold Trading for one day at the request of the US. Pretty incredible favor. Hey, can you help us out and not let people trade gold? The UK said, okay, so an attempt to defend the dollar, which at that point was a hard currency under Nixon, spoiler alert, the next president after Johnson, he would remove gold from US currency.

He would make the dollar soft. But there, there’s some early rumblings politically in this newspaper’s front page. We see that. To the far left, Kennedy refuses to back Johnson for Renomination, it is the beginning of Robert F. Kennedy fully throwing his hat into the ring and saying he’s going to challenge President Johnson for the nomination.

There is also a story about next to that Lindsey is critical of Nixon on war, but he would back him. Lindsay, who at that point was the mayor of New York City, was being asked in an interview if he would back Richard Nixon. He mentioned he was more in favor of Rockefeller, the governor of New York, getting the nomination for the GOP, and that he actually was more in line with Robert f Kennedy’s approach to the Vietnam War, which was deescalation.

Nixon was much more hawkish. Nixon was the one who was talking about escalation. So again, spoiler, guess which way it goes when Nixon gets elected, we of course know that Johnson would choose not to run. Nixon will win the Vietnam War. Escalate and spread in ways that many say are illegal. Were illegal at the time and prove a already unpopular war, even more unpopular. On now to our discussion about this episode, we are of course talking about bread and circuses. There are aspects of what was going on politically at the time that I think reverberate in the background of this episode. I think at the time they would’ve been a little more obvious.

We had at the point that this episode was aired, president Johnson, who got reelected on the guns or butter issue. His platform, guns or butter. You either are helping the population to afford butter to put it on their tables, or you are funding the war effort, the guns issue. Here we have an episode titled Bread and Circuses, which is a, again, two word approach to distilling down the culture at the time. It is from a old British poem in which it is describing the idea that you can keep the populace entertained and quell descent if you just keep them entertained with a full belly bread and circuses, enough entertainment to keep them off of issues that are actually more critical.

So we see in this depiction of a 20th century Rome, we see the Roman Empire is using entertainment, which at a certain point feels very much like we’re watching. I mean, I can imagine a young Stephen King watching this and getting the idea for the Running Man. This is like that kind of entertainment taken to a level where it is gratuitous, it is violent, it is inhumane, but it is being depicted as this is entertainment that keeps the masses satisfied. So I forget, what did we do last week, Matt? When we talked about the Trouble with Tribbles? Did we launch into your take on it or did I start off my take? I think we started with your take. Why don’t we do the opposite this week?

How did you feel about Bread and Circuses as an episode? Don’t say it with just your expression. Because there may be people listening on a podcast who can’t see your face, but your face, I mean, a picture is worth a thousand words. So maybe I just described it enough.

I’m gonna sound a little bit like a broken record, but this one was, I did not, I like this one better than Trouble with Tribbles.

Like I, part of the reason I like this one more, it’s been a while, but this episode had a point, there was a thesis, there was a thing that was trying to say a message it was trying to convey. And I, it’s one of the things I love about Star Trek is when there’s a message to say, when something is trying to be communicated.

Some of my favorite episodes of Next Generation, same thing. There’s, there’s a point to what’s happening to the characters. There’s something that the writers are trying to convey, like a fable almost. And so like this has a little bit of that where Trouble with the Tribbles didn’t have that. Couple of the other ones that I didn’t like, they felt adrift.

You know what I mean? Like didn’t, it just felt like we’re just going through the paces just for mindless entertainment. At times, right? And this one felt like it had something to say. Did it say it eloquently? Did it say it with nuance? No, this did not. It was kind of ham-fisted, the way the message was conveyed.

It was like hitting over the head with it, but it was at least there. So on that regard, I, I kind like it from that point of view. I also really enjoyed some of the character developments of how they played with Spock and Bones and the conversations they had and the, the arguing and like, do they even, why did they, do they hate each other?

It’s like, well, I don’t think they know, you know, like I, I really liked how their banter was escalating, but by the end you could see that there was this admiration between the two of them. And Spocks… Like there was some actual character development in this episode. Yeah. Where again, Trouble with Tribbles?

There is no character development of any kind in that episode. It’s just, it’s like eating popcorn. It’s just, there’s nothing there. This one at least has something there. It has something there for, here’s your message for the episode. Here’s some character development where we see beginning and middle and end.

We see how we see some of the revelations these characters have about each other, which I thought was really cool. So there’s a lot to like about this one. At the end of the day, Sean, this is such a forgettable episode for me. I have seen this episode, I know probably two or three times. The episode started and I was like, huh, I don’t think I’ve ever seen this one.

That’s weird. Halfway through I was like, no, something’s feeling a little sim. I think I’m kind of remember a little bit of this, and then by the end I was like, oh, oh, oh, yeah. Okay. It’s all clicking back into place. I have seen this one. So for me it’s like. This is like one of the commenters, a cromulent episode.

That’s what this is to me. It’s a cromulent episode, but there are some like nuggets of gold in there. Yeah. For me like it, it’s like I wouldn’t hold this up as quintessential Star Trek, but I would say there’s enough here specifically for like character development that I would, I just, I really enjoyed it. I liked what they were doing with Spock and Bones in particular.

What about you?

I land firmly in the same territory for all the same reasons. PO probably a little bit more toward the genuine like this episode. Okay. I, in my research was reading, um, there was a guy, I think he, I think he may have been at the Onion. Somebody had put together a list of the most underrated Star Trek episodes, and this was one of the top of that list of the most underrated episodes, and I agree with that because I think that what this does on the surface with the Roman, they do a lot of, I think, very nice hand-wavy techno-babble that ends up saying like, oh yeah, there are theories about parallel development and here like, what a great case parallel development.

Right, right on display this, this planet is so similar to Earth, it’s almost identical except for the shapes of the land masses. And oh, lookie, they developed Rome, and that to me is as audacious as saying, here’s the mirror universe. Yeah, it feels like this is doing something very similar to what the Mirror Universe episodes are doing.

It did not surprise me when I saw, after watching the episode going in and discovering Gene Roddenberry helped write it. It was a story based like out of his mind. This feels very Gene Roddenberry. So to me that helps make it feel very Star Trek. Yes. ’cause it lands within that original zone of what he wanted to do with the show.

The parallel development, the Rome, the fact that it feels kind of like the mirror universe. It’s like so over the top as to become abundantly clear that it’s not the point. So it’s like, okay, there’s a metaphor here. We are going to, as you said, it’s a little on the nose at times. It hits you over the head at times.

I do think there’s a connection here to the idea of a populace that is under the sway of television. Television as a political cudgel was beginning to be recognized, people were already at this point, analyzing the fact that Kennedy beat Nixon, in part because Nixon did not look good on television.

Kennedy did. So there are, there’s that aspect of what is this thing and the fact that they, in the episode are talking about, oh yes, they used to call it, I believe it was television. And the fact that they keep bringing that up is like, well, this is what it does. This is the point. They’re kind of critiquing the thing.

They’re in, in a half. Wink, wink. I’m cute way. Yes, yes. And half in a, yeah. This is really, can be used in a problematic way and in that way this episode, it doesn’t aspire to the same level, but it does touch a vein that is similar to the. The Running Man, the original Robocop, ideas that were in a Clockwork Orange, like it’s touching a thread, which I think, uh, especially if you, if you think of a movie like Fahrenheit 4 51, Roddenberry story and then the movie that came out of that, the ideas here are the kids’ version of is the medium the message.

Yes. And I think that’s really kind of impressive for Star Trek to have touched on it in that way. At the same time as when Fahrenheit 4 51 was coming out, Kubrick was, was doing his examination of these ideas and the idea of your depiction manifests thinking on how people understand the world. And I found that really interesting, even though it’s such a light touch.

And then for me, just to, to wrap it back around to what you were saying before, to me the point of this episode is actually the relationships between the characters. And for me, that’s what makes this, this puts this into a category for me that I would rank this in the top third of episodes because for me, there was no doubt that I knew this episode.

There are lines of this that I find incredibly moving when Spock and McCoy are in the cell waiting for Kirk and McCoy is needling Spock a little bit, trying to get him out of the worry. And then they both acknowledge how worried they are. And then Spock reveals like to McCoy in that last line. Do you truly think I don’t have the emotional depth and care for our captain?

Do you truly believe that? And McCoy and him pulling back from each other and seeing each other in a way that’s outside the bubble of argument and them acknowledging indirectly the bubble of our arguments are how we express our admiration and love for each other. We can say these things to each other and know that it’s not gonna shatter the other person because this is how we tell each other.

We love each other. Like, that’s a genuine moment in this episode. That, for me is incredibly powerful. So for me, that’s the point of this episode. So, to go back to what you were gonna, you were gonna jump in with something

I was gonna jump in with, um, you hit on the nail on the head for why I liked the, the message, even though it was kind of ham-fisted.

My favorite science fiction is dealing with the human condition in a way where you’re kind of telling it through, you’re going to like. Man versus man, man versus self, man versus you’re, you’re coming up with some kind of ethical dilemma. You’re coming up with something that you’re dealing with and you’re talking about it in a kind of like a metaphor metaphorical way.

So you can pick apart current events in a way that’s a little less, um, incendiary, where somebody might not wanna hear the message, but you tell it in an entertaining way and you’re kind of coming about it in a roundabout way, it can make it feel more palatable. It can make, it can challenge your preconceptions.

That’s what I love about science fiction and this one is trying to do that. It does that. Yeah. It’s kind of not super eloquent, but that’s part of what I love about Star Trek and some of my favorite episodes do that. And this one is doing it. It’s, it’s doing it. That’s why it feels very Star Trek to me.

But the other thing that struck me as I was watching this and the reason why I like that kind of approach to storytelling, science fiction. It can become timeless. So it’s like you un, you explained really well why, why this bread and circuses from the 1960s, why it made sense of why they were telling the story this way, why it was titled that way.

But you could take this episode and make it today. Yeah. And it’s like literally what’s going on today? Like it is Trump, it’s the maga right. It’s a lot of our politics. It’s social media and how we’re turning into Idiocracy. Where we’re going into our little bubbles and the algorithms that are feeding us, the algorithms of social media are, are breaking our society.

They’re just absolutely breaking it. And so this episode is kind of dealing with that same thing. Keep the enter. Yeah. Keep the masses entertained and we will completely up end politics and you won’t know what’s happening because you’re entertained and you’re not paying attention. Yeah. So it’s like. For me, I’m watching this going.

Good Lord. This episode is still timely today and it was made in the sixties, and that to me is like really good storytelling. When you can do something and you hit, you hit a a human condition, that is going to happen again and again, and again and again, and it’ll forever remain relevant, and this episode has a nugget of that on top of which characters you care about.

You’re building on top of it. So for me, that’s why it’s like, it’s not done well. Super well, but it’s done. Yeah. And because it’s done, that’s why I’m kind of giving it a passing grade. I, I The, the one Yeah, go ahead. The one thing I do want kind of go like, ugh, I don’t know if you had this reaction, the very ending

I remember as a kid.

As a kid rolling my eyes. Yeah. And like there are like, like I would like to, I would like to visit a few of the cringey things and then end on the more positive note of production. Yeah. Okay. So let’s quickly just like spitball those things that may just go, please don’t do that. Which maybe that should be a theme song for a new segment on the show called, oh, please don’t do that.

If somebody wants to take that

and make a

bit of music, go for it

with maybe a 1960s pop graphic of my face like.

Oh, please don’t do that. Um, we’ll drop it in the show when appropriate. On the cringe meter, I had a lot of issues with Kirk making out and probably having sex with a slave. Yeah, I mean, that was. It was like, who slave are you? Well, I’m yours for tonight. Oh, okay. Let’s start making out. This is okay because you seem into it.

She is a slave. She does not have any autonomy to say, oh yeah. Ooh. Yeah. Super cringe. They do it so artfully pan up to the lamp. The lamp is burnt out. Yeah, yeah. Panned down. Yeah. He is perfectly dressed, so it’s just like, it was just a makeout session. But the implication is it was, yes. Sex with a slave.

Yes. So did not like that. And. The stuff at the end about, it’s the son of God hit me differently as an adult than it did as a kid. Mm-hmm. As a kid, I legitimately rolled my eyes. This time around, I, I felt a little bit like, oh, 1960s, like yes, it’s, it’s dated, it’s hand fisted. It’s on the face of it, kind of gross, but.

I mean, it’s like, oh, you’ve been misinterpreting the use of the word son thinking they were worshiping a star, they were worshiping the son of God. And like, okay. Like was anybody legitimately in that scenario going to say like strange that they had a sophisticated religion of peace that was worshiping a star?

Like really, like you came to another planet like, like there’s never been, on earth, anybody who didn’t worship a literal person. Yeah. And have a message of peace. I mean, it’s just like, that’s ridiculous. So this was all, but it was sort of a weird proselytizing without, I, I don’t think it was intended to be proselytizing, but it was the kind of proselytizing where it’s like, oh, I disagree.

Oh, it’s just understood culturally that this is the best religion.

And it was just like, that’s what I’m saying, it’s, it was basically saying Christianity is the best. It’s like, and it’s galactic and it was like, oh God, what are you doing? Yeah, what are you, what are you doing?

Yeah. And then it’s like this kind of weird sort of like intentional depiction of almost like a cultural high five in the background.

Yes, exactly. While these actors like Shatner and Nimoy and I don’t know who else on the set, but they were Jewish like, like, come on, that’s gotta be weird. That’s gotta be weird. And make people feel gross. Anyway, the thing that I wanted to end on, well, there’s two things I wanna end on, uh, real quickly.

I think this is a nice episode as well for Scotty. Um, yeah. Yeah. I mean, they just seem to really lean onto, like the guy knows what he’s doing. He’s just, and it made me hearken back again. Yet again too Strange New Worlds and their, in their depiction of him at the introduction of that character into that show, saying, yeah, he’s kind of like been living guerilla, while being hunted by Klingons for months, and he’s also seems perfectly fine with it. He’s kind of goofy. He’s making jokes. He’s charming When they meet him, he is like, oh yeah, I’ve been here for a while. I don’t even remember where I use those pieces. I think it’s in this thing over here like that is on display when he’s like, the code I’ve been given means I’m not supposed to interfere.

There is danger about, but I’m not supposed to interfere. But that doesn’t mean I can’t monkey around in the background. Yep. So we’re gonna do what we can to destabilize the situation, to maybe give them a window to do something. I love the idea of him up there pulling levers to say like, we’re not gonna step in and destroy the prime directive.

We’re not gonna beam down with armed guards. But if there’s a power outage, I. Like, we’re gonna show our strength, we’re gonna flex our muscles. And if, and if Kirk and company down on the planet can use that to their advantage in whatever way. I mean, it’s entirely possible in a different ending to this.

It could have been, there was a blackout and Kirk says, that’s what my ship can do without even shooting a shot.

That’s what I was actually hoping they, we were gonna do. Like, like he, he commits the blackout. It’s like, if you want the power to come back on, yeah, you gotta let us go.

Yeah. You know what I mean?

I kind of seen that it’s like, we can do this. You, you don’t, we don’t even need to blow anything up. We can do this at will and you can’t stop us. Really cool depiction of Scotty. Love the fact that you get to see him get the commendation on camera. That’s a neat way to, yeah. Wrap that up with him speaking directly into a tri-quarter and saying like, accommodations to Scotty for his brilliant thinking.

And he is like, thanks a lot. It’s back down to engineering. I liked, I liked all of that. I liked the depiction of the antagonist, Merrick, who is described as, yeah, I knew him in the academy, but he got booted because he didn’t pass the psych test, which I, in my head, in my head cannon was the Kobyiashi Maru.

Yeah. Yeah. I, I envision it as like, he went to Kobyashi Maru and he absolutely pooped in the captain’s chair. It was just like, he did something where it was like this, the, the academy was like, this guy doesn’t have it because he absolutely pooped the chair and.

I wish to show him. I wish that was Star Trek lore, Sean, that they would refer to as he really poop.

Poop in the chair. His captain’s chair, he pooped.

Well, that’s the captain’s log, isn’t it? That’s,

oh, Sean, God.

Oh man. Give everybody a moment to, hopefully nobody’s listening to us while driving and that and that joke like.

So I, uh, I do want to, I, yeah, are you done?

I just got one last thing I was gonna say. I say

I like the depiction of Merrick as he had what he thought were logical reasons. Yeah. Even though it’s all very hand wavy as to why he would’ve signed on with the Romans at all. Like that’s very like, and he did, given that I liked the depiction of that guy as you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do to survive.

He’s a terrible captain as a result, but. I liked the depiction of him as a villain, especially since he wasn’t actually the main villain. By the end, it’s like he’s a puppet, so they could have done more with. Why was he of interest to the Romans at all? They never explain like, what is he bringing to the table?

He shows up, this guy convinces him like, Hey, why don’t you become one of us and you can be the first citizen? Like, none of that makes any sense. No. Forgiving all of that. I’m like, I like the depiction of that guy as, come on Jim. You gotta do what’s right for yourself. You gotta, you

gotta to survive. So,

yeah, that was sense.

That’s what I wanna say about that.

Make it didn’t make sense why he was the first citizen. Like what was he giving the Roman Empire? Yeah. To keep him alive. It was never made clear. And I wanted to bring up, you brought up Strange New Worlds, and I forgot one of my notes was this episode was redone essentially in strange new worlds.

The, the world they go to where they all lose their memory. And it’s a, there’s Starfleet that are there that have changed the course of that planet because they’ve taken control, because they have the technology. And then coming across those guys and getting them to kind of like, you guys done screwed up.

Yeah. It’s like, it’s the same basic idea. Starfleet, they’re doing what they have to do to survive. They make the wrong choice. The captain makes the right choice. So it’s kinda like, but it actually has, I think, a stronger message, a stronger ex execution. So I think this Strange New Worlds episode is better than this one, and it’s definitely better from showcasing why the bad guy did what he did.

Yeah, and showing the ramifications of that. I think it did a better job of of that as well. But still, yeah. Passing grade for this one.

My final comment is just about the production value. They did a great job in this episode of like, what does the TV set look like? What is the logic of how everything operates?

Literally putting a camera behind a camera and just filming the sound stage, the Roman background, which is the arena, the piped in boo’s and cheers. The showing of the director, the voiceover guy, the, the seating of the honored guests, which is just a platform with no other seats in the room. Like I liked the depiction of all that, but I also really liked when they see that magazine and it’s.

The Gladi, the gladiator on the cover, all the article titles that are depicted, the advertisement for the car called the Saturn like. Even make a comment about

smog. I thought that was really funny. They made a, they made an environmental statement of like, well, that explains the smog. I was like, Ooh, wow.

Spicy for the sixties. There you go. He’s like

internal combustion engines that explains the smog, like all of it. I’m just like the production value, the look of that magazine, like somebody had that magazine and I’d like to think somebody like, yoink, took it home. It’s, mm-hmm. It’s in a frame somewhere, airtight compartment so that it doesn’t turn yellow and brittle.

Uh, I just, from a production standpoint, I thought it was a great, great episode. I find myself thinking that because of the, the nature of the revelations around characters. To me feel very, you talked about Trouble with Tribbles being a nexus point. This feels like an important point in Trek lore to me, from the perspective of Spock and McCoy in particular.

Yep. Their conversation to me seems critical to them as characters. Me too. What is our relationship? We don’t even know. We fight all the time. Is it because we don’t like each other or do we fight because we like each other and it’s the only way we can connect? This is the second to last episode of the second season.

And I’m wondering, it’s one, it’s not produced that close to the end. So they held this in reserve and I found myself wondering, did they hold this one because they liked it and they thought it would be a good end of season sending people off in anticipation of a new season? Or do you think it was held because they were like, ah, what do we do with this one?

Like I think it was held because they liked it. I think they were trying to end the season in some good notes. Yeah.

Yeah. I would like to think that that was the cause. Because I do overall, as I said, I would put this in my top third. Okay. I would say this is one of the ones that I like thinking about, so I’d like to think that it was put in the season at where it was because they were like, this one does a lot of good things for us, so let us know in the comments as always, what did you think about this one?

Did you find yourself scratching your head and saying like, okay, parallel development, yada, yada, yada, whatever. Or did you find, like Matt and I did, that some of the moments of emotional connection between the characters does a lot of heavy lifting and puts this one in a better territory than it might otherwise be?

Let us know in the comments. We always appreciate your comments and also when you’re down there, don’t forget to like, don’t forget to subscribe and don’t forget wrong answers only, Journey to Babel. I imagine there’s gonna be some interesting responses to that. Looking at you, Mark, but I’m looking at all of you.

Everybody jump in. Wrong answers only do it.

Before we sign off, Matt, do you have anything coming up on your main channel that you wanted to share with our listeners and viewers?

By the time this one’s out, my new episode’s gonna be about wave energy. How we’re finally at the cusp. I know it’s, it’s gonna power everything, Sean. The power of the wave.

Can’t stop the wave, but it’s, it’s interesting. It’s, it’s a technology that’s been being worked on for decades and it looks like we’re finally getting to the point where it may actually start to become a thing now.

Interesting as for me, if you’re interested in finding out more about my writing, you can check out my website, sean Ferrell dot com.

There’s information about all my books there. Or you can go directly to wherever it is you buy your books. That includes wherever. My books are available everywhere, Amazon, local bookstore, public library. I would love to find out what you think about my work. If you do check it out. If you’d like to support the show, please consider reviewing, liking, subscribe, and sharing with your friends.

Those are all the very easy and free ways for you to support us. And if you want a non-free way, you can support us directly. You can click the join button. No, you can’t. And if you want a non-free way to support us, you can support us directly by going to Trek in Time dot Show. Click the Become a supporter button there.

It allows you to throw coins at our heads, and it will automatically make you an Ensign, which means you’ll be signed up for our spinoff podcast out of time, which we talk about things that don’t fit within the confines of this program, which might be movies, TV shows, other genres, what have you. We hope you’ll be interested in checking it out.

Thank you so much everybody, for taking the time to watch or listen, and we’ll talk to you next time.

Just the intro that I wrote, the grammar, she is not so good. I was like, why are those words there?

It’s a good thing that you’re not a writer, me, a writer.