The Omega Glory

Somehow, whenever I chance upon a rerun of the original series, this is the episode that seems to be on. It involves a gross misuse of the prime directive. A Starship Captain has gone bonkers, thinking he is on the verge of the discovery of the fountain of youth. The indigenous races seem to be able to live for centuries. The Yangs and the Kohms are the races, and they are engaged in a constant battle for superiority. Kirk gets embroiled in their business and gets knocked around quite a bit. The point is that somehow this fellow needs to be stopped and the war he is promoting needs to be stopped. The final scene where Kirk begins pontificating, is about as incredible (and I mean in a really negative way) as any scene in all of Star Trek. This may be one of the worst episodes of all time.

It was inevitable, sooner or later I was gonna get up to John Meredith Lucas's final episode of STAR TREK. Written by Gene Roddenberry shortly after "The Cage", "The Omega Glory" was actually the 1st of the (so-called) "parallel Earth" episodes, a concept apparently hatched as a con to make the networks think they could cut costs by re-using existing sets (kinda like THE TIME TUNNEL-- heh). It was offered as one of the 3 possibles for the 2nd pilot, but, thankfully, not chosen, in fact, unlike "Mudd's Women", downright shelved! (Since learning it was written so early, it hit me that it probably inspired the somewhat-similar "Miri", which I always felt was the WORST episode of the entire 1st season-- by a mile!)

I've long felt this was a very stupid episode, and I've found online that a lot of fans feel the same way, often ranking it as "one of the worst" in the entire series.

My original impressions remained intact watching it UNCUT again tonight. The opening sequence is the most intriguing part, where they discover the crystalline remains of the Exeter crew. (I did, after all these years, suddenly find myself wondering WHY Kirk didn't have the Exeter scanned for life before beaming over; instead, he gets on the ship's intercom and asks, "Is anyone on board?")

I've since learned that Morgan Woodward had a long career in westerns, but man, to me, he will always be Captain Ron Tracy-- a starship commander who due to circumstances went COMPLETELY INSANE!! Matt Decker (from "The Doomsday Machine") has nothing on this guy. One scene I hadn't seen in ages (clearly it's usually cut in syndication) was when Tracy decides to talk with a bound Kirk and, after quoting regulations at length, give him his reasons for violating "The Prime Directive". (Did Roddenberry really come up with this idea so early? In the order of filming, it didn't turn up until halfway thru the 1st season.) All that aside, if there's any reason Kirk should NOT have played ball with the guy, it's when Tracy, for NO apparent reason, VAPORIZED the already-injured Lt. Galloway! (Was he trying to make a point?)

Between Kirk & Cloud William in the cell, Kirk & Tracy in the street (with a battle-axe!!), and Kirk & Tracy in front of the assembled tribe, this episode has no less than 3 of the most BRUTAL fight scenes in STAR TREK history! Just the kind of thing to grab the attention of the average viewers (and no doubt keep the network happy).

Of course, the extreme annoyance of focusing on The Prime Directive aside, I didn't mind the "parallel development" concept here so much... that is, until the FINALE. When they pulled out the flag of the United States of America, followed by the US Constitution-- "WE-- THE PEOPLE...", that just went too far over the line for me. Always did, always will.

And yet... and yet... in spite of this, tonight I found this episode remains one GRIPPING watch. You just can't take your eyes off it-- no matter how stupid Tracy's actions got, no matter how outrageous Gene Roddenberry's ideas about sci-fi got, no matter how preachy Jim Kirk got. In fact, when Kirk speaks to Cloud William and the tribe, in spite of, if not because of how outrageous it is, I felt myself welling up with emotion. It's GOOD to be an American, and REMEMBER what BEING an American is supposed to be about.

Whatta ya know? I ENJOYED this tonight. And I remember that, yes, there ARE several ST's that are MUCH worse, and far more unwatchable than this one. (Including "Miri", "The Paradise Syndrome", "And The Children Shall Lead")

Funny enough, the plot about a Federation officer violating the Prime Directive and trying to wipe out an indigenous population so he can profit from something on a planet that could benefit the rest of the galaxy wound up being reused in the movie STAR TREK: INSURRECTION. (That film also borrowed the "back to nature" theme of another oft-maligned ST episode, "The Way To Eden".)

Sheesh, lots of concepts, and most not presented very well. This episode rates low with many Trek fans, as it ends up as a ham-handed paean to the concepts of liberty and posterity. These are lofty concepts to aspire to, but, much like "Miri" in the 1st season, the ideas exist within an unbelievable framework, even if it is a sf show. The story doesn't even bother to present a duplicate Earth here, as in "Miri"; this Omega-4 is some other planet in another part of the galaxy which also had Yankees & Communists, the American Flag, the U.S.Constitution and (probably) Declaration of Independence, written in the exact same words. Some sf writers need to distinguish between other planets and other dimensions - this should have been some parallel dimension Earth tale or altered Earth history. However, it's a pretty exciting action episode and has, for me, one of the best villains of the original show.

Whereas losing his crew in "The Doomsday Machine" drove Commodore Decker over the deep end, here Capt. Tracey (his ship is the Exeter) seems to have become more ruthless, more harsh. If ever there was a dark version of Capt. Kirk, an anti-Kirk, if you will, or an ultimate example of a starship captain gone bad, it's Tracey. He's like Kirk's evil older brother - taller, tougher, and possessed of the same indomitable will - geared towards non-Starfleet-like goals, including casual murder and even attempted genocide. He's somewhat obsessed about immortality for some reason and the economic gain from same, a throwback to yesteryear goals (this idea is revisited a century later in "Star Trek Insurrection" with the TNG crew); maybe he joined Starfleet with such goals in the back of his mind and hid his dark side from his peers all these past years. This is idle speculation and I suppose it's another weakness of the story that his backstory is never explained.

Most of the episode, until the last couple of scenes, is quite gritty and brutal, what with the elements of bacteriological war and further tension of a village under siege by an army of savages. Kirk and Tracey seem to fight it out in nearly half the episode. But, it's worth a chuckle to Trekkers hearing Kirk's voice-over about how a Starfleet captain should give up his life before violating the Prime Directive. We remember Kirk's approach towards this non-interference directive on past missions - "A Taste of Armageddon" anyone? How about "The Apple"? Uh, "Return of the Archons"? Gee, it gets worse: lets even things out in "A Private Little War"; stop the war in "Patterns of Force." What's Kirk talking about? To top things off, Kirk interferes with things at the very end of this episode, capping off Tracey's transgressions with his little instruction on how to read an important document. Spock hints to him he should have kept his mouth shut and Kirk just shrugs him off. Only one arrest per episode.

As the Enterprise approaches the planet Omega IV, the U. S. S. Exeter is found in orbit. Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam aboard the spaceship only to discover that everyone on board has had the water drained from their bodies, reducing them to a handful of crystals. The ship's log reveals that their only chance of survival is to beam down to the planet below.

Arriving at the last co-ordinates stored in the Exeter's computer, Kirk and his pals meet the Exeter's captain Ron Tracey (Morgan Woodward), who tells them that they have contracted an infectious disease and that they must spend the rest of their lives on Omega IV, where a war is raging between two civilisations, the Kohms and the savage Yangs.

This episode has received some critical mauling here on IMDb. Sure, the timeline is a little iffy: the two tribes at war have apparently evolved from early Chinese and American space travellers, yet there is no way that makes sense. They would have had to have set off into space sometime before the middle-ages for that to be possible! And yes, the story seems very jingoistic, with Kirk giving a rousing speech at the end about the true meaning of the American constitution. But when all is said and done, this one is a lot fo fun, with plenty of action as Kirk fights a pair of savage Yangs while trapped in a cell, and an exciting battle to the death between Kirk and Tracey, who has broken the Federation's prime directive by interfering with the evolution of a planet.

As for the accusations of racism levelled at this episode: Kirk clearly states at the end that freedom and liberty applies to everyone, not just the Yangs. He is advocating peace and friendship between the tribes, not genocide. Anything else wouldn't be Star Trek.

For those of you that didn't see this episode when it first aired, it's understandable why it doesn't make sense to you. For those of us that saw it when it first aired, it makes perfect sense. It was 1968, we were fighting the communists in Vietnam. It was only 13 years after the cease fire in Korea in which we fought against the communist north koreans. Communism was spreading across the globe, and people were dying, or being imprisoned for opposing communism. Star Trek was as much a treatise on current events as it was a science fiction show. And it also offered hope. Think Bread, and Circuses in which Uhura, learns that Jesus Christ appeared to 20th century man.

Before Lucille Ball chose to pick up Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry was turned down by every studio. They thought the show was too cerebral. Sadly, it only lasted three seasons. But, for whatever reason, it survived in syndication, and gave a whole lot more.