[4.7/10] Coming to a show from fifty years ago, particularly a science fiction show, you have to accept that certain things that were novel or exciting ideas for the time have become cliches or commonplace five decades hence. Star Trek was groundbreaking for the Sixties, and some of what it does is still groundbreaking for today, but some of its innovations aren’t so unique and thus can’t wow the same way anymore, and that’s okay.
What’s not okay is telling the same sorts of stories over and over again with a new, inferior coat of paint. How many times has the crew of the Enterprise stumbled across some god-like being, who traps them just long enough for them to figure out a weakness and escape. We’re barely a third of the way through the series, and already it feels like we’ve played this game several times. Making the whole thing a Greek god-inspired adventure is a weak cover for the fact that this is Star Trek regurgitating its own leftovers.
But that’s what we get here. The Enterprise is trapped by a big green hand emanating from a nearby planet (and the crew’s befuddled reactions to it are unintentionally hilarious) and Kirk and an away team beam down to investigate the giant floating head speaking in stentorian nonsense. The possessor of that hand and head claims to be Apollo, instructs our heroes to worship him, and gets mad when they don’t immediately accede to his wishes.
The premise of the story is what’s easiest to forgive. The whole “maybe the gods people worshipped were really aliens” thing has become such a trope that everyone from Futurama to Thor has made use of it. But that’s alright. There’s juice in the idea of encountering an honest-to-goodness being with some connection to humanity’s past.
“Adonis” just doesn’t do anything interesting with that premise. Apollo struts around making demands; the team resists and tries to find a way out; lather, rinse repeat. Apollo himself makes little impression, seeming more like a guy selling caeser salad at the mall than a genuine Greek myth. Kirk’s rebukes that humanity has moved beyond the need for many gods (the only time I can recall in the Star Trek franchise of someone invoking something approaching traditional Western monotheism) quickly become dull repetitive. And while the initial flails at Apollo’s lightning bolts have some initial thrill, his parlor tricks also get boring fast.
That is not, however, the worst thing in the episode. That would be the love story. Between “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and the Khan episode, I’ve grown tired of the show’s propensity to show doe-eyed women falling madly in love with conquerors they’ve just met and being ready to betray the crew for it.
Obviously there’s a bit of a twist on that here, but for such a progressive show, The Original Series isn’t shy about feteing men with power, turning its ladies into weak-kneed schoolgirls by comparison. It’s obviously unfair to hold an episode of television from 1967 to the same social standards of today, but it makes it harder for me as a modern viewer to enjoy the episode.
Indeed, there would be more meaning in Lt. Palamas (the latest in a line of Trek babes of the week who just so happen to have the specialty needed for this specific adventure) betraying Apollo if their relationship was founded on anything more than him saying “you’re hot” and sweeping her away. Maybe you can write it off as, like with Khan, Palamas being so enraptured by meeting the object of her prior academic study that she’s blinded in the moment. But still, it’s a weak trope.
Throwing out Scotty as her erstwhile knight in shining armor (or gladiator, to be more thematically appropriate) doesn’t do much to make the gender politics in the episode seem any less regressive. And the way Kirk and Bones talk about Scotty and Palamas, or Kirk acts like none of his men can possibly control themselves around her is pretty gross to boot.
So what’s good about this episode? Not much, unfortunately. This is a bit of a coming out party for Chekov. He has some funny lines (the Minsk vs. Cheshire Cat thing in particular) and his presence livens the proceedings considerably. While the compositing effect to make Apollo seem larger is forgivably cheesy, the shot of the crew shifting their gaze upward sells the effect better than any video trickery. And Kirk’s purple prose about the progress of man, while a bit overly florid, has a nice sense of poetry to it.
Beyond that, we’re back to giving an episode like this a “there’s some nice ideas that are just executed poorly” backhanded compliment. Apollo frequently speaks of himself as a father, and of humans as his children. Kirk pushes back on that strongly, asserting that mankind no longer has need for gods (or at least more than one). In that, Star Trek offers an interesting commentary on the notion of the relationship of society and religion as that of a child and a father.
It’s reductive, but “Adonis” seems to posit that when humanity was still developing, it needed gods and mysticism to help give it guidance and allow it to progress, but by the 23rd century, where enlightenment has been achieved and humanity is part of this technology-fueled utopia, that need is diminished. What used to be guiding has become restrictive and cumbersome. The truth is obviously much more complex than that, but it’s at least interesting thematic material.
There’s also a bit of mild tragedy. While Apollo’s overacting kills it, the notion of a “god” holding out hope that he would be worshipped again, with all his divine brethren fading away based on The Simpsons’s “Just Don’t Look” principle is an interesting and sad one. Kirk’s “couldn’t we have just gathered a few laurels” speech is pretty rich coming from the guy who just organized the latest “reverse the polarity” means of destroying him, but there’s at least something to it.
Still, “Adonis” is one big rehash. Between an encounter with a god-being who isn’t as interesting or fun as Trelane, another female crewmember with Stockholm Syndrome, and the usual “like putting too much air into a balloon” method of problem solving, this is a lesser light that should be discarded like the old gods it references.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-03-22T17:48:29Z
[4.7/10] Coming to a show from fifty years ago, particularly a science fiction show, you have to accept that certain things that were novel or exciting ideas for the time have become cliches or commonplace five decades hence. Star Trek was groundbreaking for the Sixties, and some of what it does is still groundbreaking for today, but some of its innovations aren’t so unique and thus can’t wow the same way anymore, and that’s okay.
What’s not okay is telling the same sorts of stories over and over again with a new, inferior coat of paint. How many times has the crew of the Enterprise stumbled across some god-like being, who traps them just long enough for them to figure out a weakness and escape. We’re barely a third of the way through the series, and already it feels like we’ve played this game several times. Making the whole thing a Greek god-inspired adventure is a weak cover for the fact that this is Star Trek regurgitating its own leftovers.
But that’s what we get here. The Enterprise is trapped by a big green hand emanating from a nearby planet (and the crew’s befuddled reactions to it are unintentionally hilarious) and Kirk and an away team beam down to investigate the giant floating head speaking in stentorian nonsense. The possessor of that hand and head claims to be Apollo, instructs our heroes to worship him, and gets mad when they don’t immediately accede to his wishes.
The premise of the story is what’s easiest to forgive. The whole “maybe the gods people worshipped were really aliens” thing has become such a trope that everyone from Futurama to Thor has made use of it. But that’s alright. There’s juice in the idea of encountering an honest-to-goodness being with some connection to humanity’s past.
“Adonis” just doesn’t do anything interesting with that premise. Apollo struts around making demands; the team resists and tries to find a way out; lather, rinse repeat. Apollo himself makes little impression, seeming more like a guy selling caeser salad at the mall than a genuine Greek myth. Kirk’s rebukes that humanity has moved beyond the need for many gods (the only time I can recall in the Star Trek franchise of someone invoking something approaching traditional Western monotheism) quickly become dull repetitive. And while the initial flails at Apollo’s lightning bolts have some initial thrill, his parlor tricks also get boring fast.
That is not, however, the worst thing in the episode. That would be the love story. Between “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and the Khan episode, I’ve grown tired of the show’s propensity to show doe-eyed women falling madly in love with conquerors they’ve just met and being ready to betray the crew for it.
Obviously there’s a bit of a twist on that here, but for such a progressive show, The Original Series isn’t shy about feteing men with power, turning its ladies into weak-kneed schoolgirls by comparison. It’s obviously unfair to hold an episode of television from 1967 to the same social standards of today, but it makes it harder for me as a modern viewer to enjoy the episode.
Indeed, there would be more meaning in Lt. Palamas (the latest in a line of Trek babes of the week who just so happen to have the specialty needed for this specific adventure) betraying Apollo if their relationship was founded on anything more than him saying “you’re hot” and sweeping her away. Maybe you can write it off as, like with Khan, Palamas being so enraptured by meeting the object of her prior academic study that she’s blinded in the moment. But still, it’s a weak trope.
Throwing out Scotty as her erstwhile knight in shining armor (or gladiator, to be more thematically appropriate) doesn’t do much to make the gender politics in the episode seem any less regressive. And the way Kirk and Bones talk about Scotty and Palamas, or Kirk acts like none of his men can possibly control themselves around her is pretty gross to boot.
So what’s good about this episode? Not much, unfortunately. This is a bit of a coming out party for Chekov. He has some funny lines (the Minsk vs. Cheshire Cat thing in particular) and his presence livens the proceedings considerably. While the compositing effect to make Apollo seem larger is forgivably cheesy, the shot of the crew shifting their gaze upward sells the effect better than any video trickery. And Kirk’s purple prose about the progress of man, while a bit overly florid, has a nice sense of poetry to it.
Beyond that, we’re back to giving an episode like this a “there’s some nice ideas that are just executed poorly” backhanded compliment. Apollo frequently speaks of himself as a father, and of humans as his children. Kirk pushes back on that strongly, asserting that mankind no longer has need for gods (or at least more than one). In that, Star Trek offers an interesting commentary on the notion of the relationship of society and religion as that of a child and a father.
It’s reductive, but “Adonis” seems to posit that when humanity was still developing, it needed gods and mysticism to help give it guidance and allow it to progress, but by the 23rd century, where enlightenment has been achieved and humanity is part of this technology-fueled utopia, that need is diminished. What used to be guiding has become restrictive and cumbersome. The truth is obviously much more complex than that, but it’s at least interesting thematic material.
There’s also a bit of mild tragedy. While Apollo’s overacting kills it, the notion of a “god” holding out hope that he would be worshipped again, with all his divine brethren fading away based on The Simpsons’s “Just Don’t Look” principle is an interesting and sad one. Kirk’s “couldn’t we have just gathered a few laurels” speech is pretty rich coming from the guy who just organized the latest “reverse the polarity” means of destroying him, but there’s at least something to it.
Still, “Adonis” is one big rehash. Between an encounter with a god-being who isn’t as interesting or fun as Trelane, another female crewmember with Stockholm Syndrome, and the usual “like putting too much air into a balloon” method of problem solving, this is a lesser light that should be discarded like the old gods it references.