Captain's Blog pt. 65: Who Mourns for Adonais?

The second episode of Star Trek's 2nd season premiered on 22 September 1967:

Script / story: (7.5 / 7 of 10/10). A story where the Enterprise crew encounters the literal Apollo from Greek mythology and even has dialogue from Kirk about how much of 23rd century culture comes from a worship of such beings could easily collapse under the strain of its own message. "Plato's Stepchildren" and "The Savage Curtain" (as fun as "Curtain" is) are good examples of inelegantly mixing real history with Trek history like that; the results don't quite justify the conceit. But "Adonais" is something different. Grounded in recognizable emotion throughout, it takes a compelling premise ("what if the Greek gods were aliens and whatever happened to them...") and ends up making several subtle points about the relationship of belief, worship, and spiritual evolution.

I'll take it easy on most of these points - you can thank me later - and try and focus mainly on the compelling premise/ fun story. Our evening begins in Peter Seychelles' comfortable study. (The candlelight is just right, the hi-fi is in the background and the wine is delicious.)

This screencap from the remastered release is so Hamburger-Helper-y. Doesn't work for me at all. And while I understand the logic of making all M-class planets look like Earth, I greatly prefer the old day-glo planets.

Much cooler. Anyway.

Apollo.

Gilbert Ralston, according to Koenig's autiobiography, intended it to be a "The bigger they are, the harder they fall" story. Still is, but it was expanded, not unkindly, into the more familiar Trek theme of "we have outgrown the need for gods" by DC Fontana and the Genes. That theme is probably conveyed here as well if not better than anywhere else in TOS (and beyond. It's a fun companion piece to both TAS' "The Magicks of Megas-Tu" and TNG's "Devil's Due.")

Even if they're a little too on-the-nose about it at times.

"Would it have killed us, I wonder, to have gathered a few... laurel leaves?" I wish Bones could have smacked him upside the back of the head for that one. Would've torpedoed the gravitas of the resolution, but man, what I wouldn't give.

Scotty's inability to find romance is addressed for the first time here. It'll return in later episodes like "Wolf in the Fold" and "The Lights of Zetar."

Apollo's infatuation with Lt. Palamas and her surrendering to his charms is the other arc of the episode.

Shades of Horace - and yes, I'm the kind of guy who says stuff like Shades of Horace... - "Conquered Greece took captive her savage conqueror and brought her arts into rustic Latium."

As originally written, Palamas discovers she is pregnant with Apollo's child at episode's end. (Something expanded upon in Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier.) I'm not sure why that was changed - it's an excellent ending - but a likely explanation is the network censors. No sex with the gods, please; this is NBC. (How they got "A Taste for Armageddon" by them is one for the thwart-the-censors hall of fame.)

Back to life, back to reality.

Title (2.5 of 3). For years I mispronounced "Ad-oh-nay-us" as "Adonis." I was corrected (with a big eye-roll, like I was getting a comeuppance of some kind) by a professor in college. It'd have been nice if someone said Adonais once in this episode, to protect me from such things.

If you have the opportunity, read the Shelley poem which inspires the title of this episode. Mick Jagger read a part of it at Brian Jones' eulogy in Hyde Park, a scene darkly parodied in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen: Century 1969:

Guests: (4.5 of 5). I don't read many New Age Spiritual Adventure-type books these days, but for a spell in the 90s (starting when a friend lent me Way of the Peaceful Warrior, a book I really enjoyed back in the day but I either outgrew or one that wasn't very good to begin with) I made my way through quite a few such authors. (I call this phase the "Carlos Castenada phase" of my life, which is kind of a misnomer, since I didn't read much Castaneda at all during it. But the name stuck for my personal "files.")

Among them was Richard Bach, probably best known for Jonathan Livingston Seagull. But my personal favorite was The Bridge Across Forever, which recounts his meeting and falling in love with Lt. Palamas herself. As with Millman's Peaceful Warrior series, I have no idea if it'd appeal to me these days. But I remember it fondly, and as a result, it's become impossible for me not to project the Leslie Parrish of that book onto her performance in this episode. Regardless, she acquits herself well in this role.

 She would wear this famous Bill Theiss dress again in a 1968 episode of Mannix entitled "The Girl in the Frame." 

Michael Forest is one of the all-time great Trek guest stars. His Apollo is appropriately bombastic, arrogant, commanding, and, ultimately, sympathetic. To judge him too harshly - as Kirk realizes - is to judge ourselves.

But, defy him we must. Come at me, bro!

Here's a little section I like to call: 

I WILL NOT BE MOCKED!

      

These last two are kind of suggestive.

Hey, don't shoot the messenger.

Kirk and the Gang: (25 of 10).

Welcome aboard, Mr. Chekov.

Koenig had to wear this goofy wig for his first few episodes until his hair grew out.

It's undeniably sentimental for me to see a young Koenig (though not as young as Chekov's supposed to be) mugging for the camera in this wig. Was there even an inkling that he'd be reprising this role (increasingly bewigged) for seven motion pictures and countless conventions over the next five decades? Does he think the same thing when he sees this episode now? Or Our Town?

In light of their hooking up in the new movies, it amuses me to read the Spock and Uhura scenes a little differently when I watch TOS now. i.e. To project onto them, I guess I mean. In case such things amuse you, it's fun to project naughtiness on this little exchange re: Uhura's "exceptional oral sensitivity."

"Speed is essential, lieutenant."

"It's very delicate work, sir."

"I can think of no one better equipped to handle it. Please proceed."

And lest we forget:

Visual Design: (2.5 of 3). I've showcased the costumes, but the Greek ruins/planet surface stuff is also quite striking. It was all filmed in the studio. Production Assistants shook the trees to make them look like they swayed in an imaginary breeze. Ah, show biz.

 

Memorability: (3 of 3). Foolish mortal! A god cannot survive as a memory.

Internal Logic (2.25 of 3). I find it a little weird that Scotty refers to Apollo as a "bloodthirsty Saracen," but hey. Scotty.

Total Points Awarded : 54.25