The Squire of Gothos

William Campbell's performance in the title role of The Squire Of Gothos really makes this Star Trek story. Later on Campbell would play a Klingon captain in another classic Star Trek story The Trouble With Tribbles.

Some strange readings on a planet that should have no life on it make William Shatner want to lead an away team there. They land on a spot that shows earth like readings in the atmosphere and become the guests of Trelaine who styles himself The Squire Of Gothos.

He's living in a 18th century castle much like a home that William Pitt both senior and junior would feel at home in. But stuck out there in space he's lonely. He wants the Enterprise crew for company. Only Shatner and his crew have work to do.

Leonard Nimoy intrigues Campbell. He's studied earth, but he's only gotten as far as the 18th century. A Vulcan like Spock is something he can't account for. The very serious minded Spock has no time to deal with what Captain Kirk and the rest realize is an immature mind. But a very powerful one who can change matter to energy and back simply at will.

In the end of course the Enterprise crew escapes Campbell's clutches, but how they do it is something that puts the entire human and Vulcan races in its place in the universal scheme of things.

The planet Gothos has an irritating presence, a being that's progressing juvenescence, infantile and immature, devoid of all allure, at this rate he'll struggle to make it to adolescence.

The starship crew encounter a child who likes to throw its dummy out of the pram.

What is it that compels two factions to engage in conflict with one another? What propels them to a state of warfare? An exercise whose only product is the destruction of life? How can sane and mature men engage in such a practice? The "Squire of Gothos" examines a possible explanation for this proposition. Kirk and crew must escape and evade a wandering planet controlled by a being who has all the respect for life that a sadistic child might when it levels a magnifying glass and sunbeam at an unsuspecting ant. Said child gets a sick thrill out of this. But can we blame the child? Does it know enough not to do what it is doing? It is, after all, an undeveloped mind--not having reached full maturity. But is this really an excuse? Excuse or no the author of this episode offers it as a possible explanation to the fascination of warfare by a certain kind of adult. The child reads or hears tales of gallantry on the battlefield, and wants to act "grown up" by mimicking said deeds and his heroes. But, because he is a child, he knows not the peril of the bloody pastime he hopes to partake in.

All boys (and some girls too I guess) went through the period of playing "cops and robbers" or "war" prior to adolescence. For some people that little boy never leaves. Sometimes that's a good thing. Sometimes it's bad. "The Squire of Gothos" is slightly farce by sending up a caricature of the proverbial brave yeoman on a 18th or 19th century battlefield. Trelane is a parody of the idolatry that surrounded and generated the myths of battlefield heroics, and shows the audience the absurdity of lionizing the image he portrays.

What's worse is that Kirk and the Enterprise are powerless to stop him. The episode becomes fairly symbolic and drives home a very poignant message near the end. It is ultimately a parental responsibility and obligation to their fellow man to raise and reign in their child and his behavior.

Were it only that simple when it comes to armies clashing on the battlefield.

Science fiction at its thematic best.

Enjoy.

p.s. the "Q" comparison is apt, but is really a minor cog in a much larger clockwork of symbolism.

One of the best twilight zone episodes. Imagine if you will, a petulant man in a museum size doll house. He plays his guests in a game where only he knows the rules. This episode is mental fun representative of those shows where everything takes place in the mind. It reminds us that very little scenery is necessary to carry a good story. It's easy to appreciate the 2006 visual updates when Spock performs his signaling maneuver.

The Squire of Gothos is another very silly episode of Star Trek. William Campbell plays Trelayne, an alien being with the power to control matter who is obsessed with Earth's history of militarism, abducting several members of The Enterprise crew so that he can study their ways and question them about warfare. Kirk, one of the abductees, isn't best pleased about being whisked away from his ship and demands that he and his crew are released; the captain's anger provokes Trelayne, who becomes increasingly hostile, eventually forcing Kirk to take part in a 'The Most Dangerous Game' style manhunt.

For some, Trelayne's stroppy foppish behaviour will be too daft to take, but Campbell plays it all delightfully tongue-in-cheek, and the final twist - that Trelayne is actually a child - makes sense of all that has gone before: the squire is like a kid teasing a defenceless animal, not yet mature enough to understand the folly of his ways. In this way, The Squire of Gothos is very much like Charlie X (S1, E2), but without all of the irritating teenage angst. Kirk even admits to have tied tin cans to the tail of an animal himself when he was young, which means that he bears no grudge. If anything, it is Trelayne's omnipotent parents, who turn up at the end to drag their child away, who are to blame for giving their offspring too much freedom and not enough discipline.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for Venita Wolf as Yeoman Teresa Ross. Are there no ugly female yeomans on The Enterprise? (not that I'm complaining).