Star Trek (TOS): Episode By Episode Thread

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It stinks.

 

Darryl

 

No, it's pretty awful. One of the worst episodes along with "Spock's Brain" but "Spock's Brain" was awful from the beginning whereas this one had promise with a great teaser.

 

The Omega Glory: 1 bald Tribble and that's for the setup and sheer effort of producing the dud.

Star Trek's bold if sometimes crude approach to drama and action misfires badly all over the place in this episode. If it's memorable, it's for being fodder for lampooning. Oh it's easy enough to tell what Roddenberry and whomever else was working on this story and script were initially intending:

- A flag waver with action and speeches to fire up and inspire any "red-blooded American boy" but eh... epic fail. As such it didn't work out any too well then and it only gets worse with time.
- A look at the resonances and influences a great society may have upon another in a different, distant future. This was of particular interest in Gene's time; in common with the founding fathers of the US, many Western writers of the time were influenced in a number of respects by "classical history," principally Ancient Greece, at least as per reinterpretation and study of it in whatever resources Gene was exposed to. Gene undoubtedly wondered what reach his own society may have upon others in future. It's a different aspect of what also manifests itself in a number of other episodes of TOS (Who Mourns for Adonais) and some other ideas or perspectives here and there. Unfortunately this ep was not much more successful on this point either.

Excellent point. You're right about that. It's an important likely factor in potential space travel but is seldom delved into in scifi programs.

 

What's astonishing to me is that Roddenberry considered this ham-fisted, badly written episode as a second pilot. It's leftover script and not very good at that.

As a kid I thought it was pretty awful. How could anyone consider this to be a quality script.

 

It is astonishing and I really don't know how it could get a green light as it is. Best guess I can come up with is that he and/or others involved genuinely believed their underlying ideas would be inspiring and their critical faculties were blinkered to the extent they failed to see it from the viewers' eyes. As may be true of quite a few bombs over the years.

Doubt we'd have any other Trek if this, or anything close to it, had been the pilot.

 

Awful episode. You've all said it well above. My grade: "D"--if you give it a few points for Kirk's comically bad speech at the end...

 

One of Isaac Asimov's lesser novels, "The Stars Like Dust," published in 1951, has a somewhat similar idea. Wonder if Roddenberry was inspired by it. This idea, by the way, was forced on Asimov by one of his editors iirc. Here's the relevant part of the plot summary from wikipedia:

"...It is further revealed that the Director, who possesses a collection of ancient documents, has searched for, and found, a document that will help a future empire-yet-to-be (likely Trantor) govern the galaxy. This document is ultimately revealed to be the United States Constitution."

 

The other reason I was thinking this might have gotten green lit--Roddenberry thought he could improve the script with rewriting it or they were short of shows that could use existing sets (to save money on the budget).

 

If you read Herb Solow and Robert Justman's book "Inside Star Trek", you'll see that NBC had previously rejected the script to "The Omega Glory".

The network liaison was therefore pretty peeved when Roddenberry/Paramount went ahead anyway and produced the episode at the end of the second season.

It's too bad they couldn't find a way to incorporate the exciting beginning to a better story.

 

I suggested in my review, that this episode could have been saved with a different ending. I have struggled to figure out what that might be, but here are my current suggestions.

1. Abandon the communism angle. You wouldn't HAVE to change the names, but I probably would.

2. Remove all of the reading of the sacred words (pre-fight and post-fight) and the U.S. flag.

3. You could let Kirk spare Tracey at the end of the fight, and then he could be killed by an angry Yang from the crowd of onlookers (it would be revealed that he, or she, had lost family to Tracey's phaser assaults). Kirk could then make a soliloquy about Tracey falling to the consequences of violating the Prime Directive.

 

Agreed that The Omega Glory is one of the true low points of ST:TOS.

Sadly, it seems that Gene could not be objective enough to realize that this one one, even though "his baby", really should have stayed an unaired script.

As this has not been mentioned, I was a huge View Master junkie as a kid and when they finally got around to making a View Master version of a Star Trek episode, it was ....surprise...The Omega Glory!

I'm wondering if Gene was the one who made THAT decision as well.

 

#53: The Ultimate Computer

Original Air Date: 3/8/68

Stardate: 4729.4

Kirk is none too impressed when he's told that the Enterprise is to compete in simulated war games but under the control of a new computer. The M-5 computer is the latest invention of the brilliant Dr. Richard Daystrom, who is confident that his unit can not only take control of the starship, but do a better job than humans can. At first, the computer performs admirably, but soon takes on a mind of its own. Daystrom has little interest in disconnecting the M-5 and treats it more like an errant child than a machine. For Kirk and the few crew members still aboard, it quickly becomes a matter of life and death.

After a run of weaker episodes, The Ultimate Computer is a nice return. Trek proves to be ahead of its time again, especially in the age of unmanned military attack drones. When Trek brings in an excellent guest star, the episode is usually successful, and Dr. Richard Daystrom (played brilliantly by William Marshall) carries this episode. Where this episode could have fallen into a retread of The Changeling, it is Daystrom's struggle with failure and past glory that takes it to another level. Add to that the intriguing question of risking the lives of mankind for space exploration. We do have Kirk's inevitable battle of whits with a computer, but overall this episode is one of the stronger of season 2.

Personal Rating: 4 Stars

 

Trivia:

In addition to playing his regular role of Chief Engineer "Scotty" Scott, in this episode James Doohan also provides the voice of the computer M-5, as well as that of the briefly heard and unnamed starbase officer who gives Commodore Wesley and the other starship commanders permission to destroy the Enterprise.

The Daystrom Institute, mentioned prominently in Star Trek: The Next Generation(1987), Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993), and Star Trek: Voyager (1995), is named for Dr. Richard Daystrom, the guest character in this episode.

In his 1999 essay "Welcome Aboard the Enterprise," science fiction author Robert J. Sawyer writes, "...the ship's computers, as seen in "The Ultimate Computer," were designed by a Nobel-prize-winning black cyberneticist, played with equal dignity by William Marshall. During the era of Martin Luther King and the Watts Riots, it was a powerful, important statement to have the white captain of the Enterprise deferring to black people; as Marshall observed thirty years later, the single most significant thing about his guest-starring role was that he, an African-American, was referred to as "Sir" throughout the episode."

Robert Wesley was named for a pseudonym that Gene Roddenberry had used early in his career, and in fact, "Wesley" is Roddenberry's given middle name.

 

The Omega Glory is probably the best episode of the original series and my personal favorite.

 

The relevance of this episode is very fitting given the cusp we are on where UAVs are proliferating. The F-22 fighter was cancelled due to various reasons but supposedly the last 'manned' fighter.

As time goes it, these original stories still hold interest and relevance - as all good science fiction should!

 

Side note.

Living in San Diego, I'm fortunate to attend some really good plays at the Old Globe.

A long while back, I got the chance to see William Marshall in "Othello"....STRONG stage presence.

 

Darryl

 

Seriously?

 

Absolutely - It is brilliantly written and executed, and poses some great questions. I really do not understand the hate directed towards it, and certainly not comparisons to Spock's Brain, which is awful.

 

Because, while being issue driven, it's heavy handed, obvious and features some of Roddenberry's laziest writing with an awful performance by Shatner. Indeed, it's an example (to me) of all the worst "social commentary" writing typically written by those who aren't writers that understand the genre. It's preachy as well. It does have a great set up but it's the execution that's lacking in all of its awful glory.

I agree Spock's Brain is an awful episode as well that is laughably bad. Ironically two of the wort episodes written by two of its producers (Gene L. Coon wrote Spock's Brain but, as I recall, had his name removed after extensive rewriting by someone else on staff)

 

What elevates The Ultimate Computer is an extension beyond the typical human vs. computer and parallels the insane computer in 2001: A Space Odyssey also made in man's image(although TUC aired a full month before the release of 2001) and how the madness and ego of the king and how it infects those around him--specifically his "son". It's also anchored by a brilliant performance from William Marshall as he descends from egotist to a man unhinged by his own need to prove his work was no accident.

It isn't flawless as yet again Kirk outsmarts a computer (I remember David Gerrold's comment about these type of episodes--"how IBM must hate Kirk") with a fourth act reduced to simplicity for the sake of a quick resolution.

 

Regarding The Omega Glory, I am in the minority in that I enjoy the episode. Morgan Woodward is outstanding as the Captain who is exiled on the planet and breaks the prime directive. Also, Kirks speech at the end is enjoyable to me because of the line that "the book" is for everyone, not just "for kings". That is an important message. It was an important message in 1968 when the episode first aired, as it is today. The "kings" work for the people, not the other way around.
The Ultimate Computer is one of the best episodes of the series. William Marshall gives a powerful performance as the great scientist who comes unhinged. Also, the episode has some nice Kirk, Spock and McCoy moments which always strengthen the episode.

 

I'm really enjoying these. They are a very nice addition to the thread. Keep them coming.

 

The Ultimate Computer, I remember that one.

Very good story of ambition, expectations and consequences for the guest character, with the regulars caught in the consequences of others' (literal, in this case) mechanizations. Uncomfortable to watch things carry on once you know how far the guy's gone. Also of course another instance of a cautionary about artificial intelligence and letting the tail wag the dog.

On the other hand, it felt, to me, like allowing the test to carry things that far was forcing credulity a bit much to enable the story (particularly so to wrap it up in the last act, as wayneklein says). So, a 4 Tribble rating.

Yes, it does have a lot of strong story elements including the dissemination of and access to knowledge (on that topic, the Gutenberg press was a catalyst for a key period in history) but to my impression it stumbles in trying to dramatize it all. A problem may be in taking it all on at once; perhaps they could have better served the story ideas of access to knowledge and specifically American patriotic ideals in separate episodes.