Bread and Circuses

What makes this episode memorable to me after nearly forty years is not the tired, clumsy gladiator swordfights -- and certainly not the historically dubious tributes to Christianity as a religion of peace.

The power of this episode actually comes from the backstory of the minor villain, Merrick aka "Mericus." The real theme of this episode is the redemption of a man who once dreamed of being a Starship Captain, like Kirk, but was doomed by a single moment of cowardice to a lifetime of self-loathing. This is basically a retelling of LORD JIM by Joseph Conrad, with perhaps a dash of THE SHORT HAPPY LIFE OF FRANCES MACOMBER by Ernest Hemingway.

The clues come right away that Merrick is disgusted with himself. He's supposed to be questioning Kirk but really he's the one begging to be heard out, to be absolved. "Lots to talk about, Jim. Lots to explain." Later, when Kirk is absolutely ice-cold under pressure, watching Spock and McCoy face death in the arena, Merrick helpfully points out, "Proconsul, he commands not only a space ship, but a star ship. A very special ship, and crew. I once tried for such a command." Poor Merrick does everything but break down and bawl here. "I coulda been a contendah!"

The truly vile specimen in this episode is the proconsul, a fat little man who never gets tired of rubbing salt in Merrick's wounds. Watch how he makes Merrick pat Kirk down for weapons like a flunky. And listen for that little dig, "the thoughts of one man to another cannot possibly interest you, Merrick." All this stuff is a lot more hateful -- and closer to everyday life for most of us -- than sending men to die in the arena. And it's all the more grim in that this repulsive punk of a proconsul is still alive at the end, and will presumably live to die in bed, evil and unpunished. Tough stuff.

But in the end, what real uplift this episode provides is not Uhura's asinine speech about "The Son" but watching Merrick grab that communicator and shout, "Enterprise, lock on to this transmission. Three to beam up -- ACK!!!!"

Merrick lived a coward, but dies a hero -- in a tragic ending worthy of Conrad.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy visit a planet mirroring the Roman Empire of Earth.

This is an enjoyable but unoriginal episode with some good character moments.

The plot is mostly uninspired as we see yet another Federation character breaking the Prime Directive in a similar way to 'Patterns of Force' and 'The Omega Glory'. I prefer this one to both of the above, but the source of the Roman cultural imitation is not explained, much like the situation on Omega IV. Though, I do like the themes regarding slavery and the role of the entertainment industry to help curtail civil unrest.

The character interactions are good, with the central three having some strong exchanges, particularly Spock and McCoy.

The guest characters are mostly solid, particularly Claudius and Flavius, played well by Logan Ramsey and Rhodes Reason respectively. I enjoyed the scene with Drusilla who suitably entertains Kirk, distracting him from the plight of his two friends.

Where it falls down cinematically is the gladiatorial fights. Not only are they cheaply staged, but poorly choreographed. It looks suspiciously like a one-take rush job. Aside from this the visuals are reasonably good.

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley are on good form. It's also nice to see Nichelle Nichols chipping in briefly towards the end, but as always she is underused.

Kirk, Spock, and Bones beam down to a planet because it is quite possible that the survivors of a space catastrophe have ended up there. They find that the society of this planet is modeled after ancient Rome - complete with gladiators and slaves - except that it's been given a 20th century twist. (These people are fond of television.) Our trio of heroes are going to end up participating in the "games" before there is any chance of escape.

By this point, it was clear that the series was in something of a rut, with too many stories set in representations of moments in Earth history, and too many stories in which the Prime Directive is broken. A former associate of Kirks' is involved, a man named Merik (William Smithers, "Papillon"), but he's not the true villain; rather he's a weak character dominated by a man named Claudius (Logan Ramsey, "Walking Tall"), who comes to respect Kirk but who is still determined to see him die for his defiance.

I do understand Roddenberry's following of a formula, as it allowed him to examine various social & political facets of our own history through the funnel of a science-fiction series. It just comes as disappointing if one is hoping for more tales of a cosmic nature. Certainly the tales are provocative, however, and do get us talking about them afterwards.

There are pleasures to be had, of course: the ongoing arguments between Spock & Bones (including a dramatic moment where Bones believes he's gotten to the heart of Spocks' character), the sight of Spock & Bones carrying swords & shields, Kirk romancing yet another woman (gorgeous blonde Lois Jewell), and appearances by two other top character actors: Ian Wolfe ("Witness for the Prosecution") and Rhodes Reason ('White Hunter').

Even though these kinds of episodes do tend to get repetitive, they're always "interesting" in the way that they hold a mirror up to our own lives - if not "fascinating".

Seven out of 10.

By this point, we begin to see a pattern in Roddenberry's approach to Trek science fiction; he's not interested so much in cosmic concepts as he is in addressing social & political concerns of the present day through the filter of the Trek universe. He's not concerned with believable science fiction concepts in presenting other worlds which should have very different evolutionary stages from our own history. Hence, we've had the virus-stained 'Satan Bug/Omega Man world' ("Miri"), 'gangster world' ("A Piece of the Action" - admittedly a comedy), Nazi world ("Patterns of Force") and 'World War III world' ("Omega Glory"), all just like our own Earth except for a shift in their history to differentiate them. The proper way was to present stories in a parallel universe, but this was a space travel show, so Roddenberry was kind of stuck by his own premise (he includes a brief mention of 'Hodgkin's Law' here to explain the parallel development). Now we have 'Roman Empire' world, a rather effective precursor to the films "Westworld" and "Rollerball" - the title refers to keeping the populace, the mob, satiated with blood sports.

On this world, the Roman Empire never fell, as if continuing for several hundred more years rather than falling apart as it did on our Earth in the 4th - 5th centuries. Gladiatoral combat is on display again (not as silly as in "Gamesters of Triskelion"), now shown on TV rather than the old-time arenas. Cops or Centurians run around with machine guns, wearing motorcycle helmets (see also "Soylent Green" in 1973), but still have swords for the sake of tradition. Slavery has evolved, as well, with most slaves complacent due to an extension of some meager benefits over the centuries (again, a more effective presentation than the cheesy "Gamesters..."). Quite a few concepts were thought out, including some commentary on religion, and most of it comes across as a serious, adult approach. Indeed, there's a coarseness to much of this episode, an edge, reflecting the cruelty of the culture - this empire was a much earlier version of the brutal Nazi regime, after all.

As we've become accustomed to by now, the main trio (Kirk,Spock,McCoy) are the ones who beam down to muck about in this intriguing yet dangerous culture. What comes as a surprise is that they actually adhere to the precepts of their Prime Directive in this one and it shows how tough this directive can be - ironic as this was the time I was kind of hoping Kirk would decide non-interference be damned (again) and lay waste to a city or two in teaching that fat proconsul a lesson in power; the episode succeeds in repelling the viewer to such an extent with all the unpleasantness on this planet that you wouldn't mind the Enterprise 'going Roman' on a few key establishments. The edginess extends to the Spock-McCoy relationship, in that fateful scene when McCoy spells out Spock's fear of living in their jail cell (both appear to accept that death is inevitable for them this time - it is that grim); McCoy's verbal attack appears to be a personal triumph for him but is he so successful at it because he knows what a death wish is like? The scene recalls their tension in "The Immunity Syndrome."

While this is an enjoyable episode, one of the things that sets it apart is that it has some great lines in it.

"Doctor, if I were able to show emotion, your new infatuation with that term would begin to annoy me."

"Really, Doctor? I had no idea they were trained. Watching you, I assumed it was trial and error."

"You bring this network's ratings down and we'll do a special on you!"

"Fight, you pointed-eared freak!"

"I'm trying to thank you, you pointy-eared hobgoblin!"

"Oh...we've preempted 15 minutes on the early show for you...in full color. I guarantee you a splendid audience."

If nothing else, this episode gets high marks for the script.