2x23 The Omega Glory

[7.6/10] Cards on the table -- I have no idea how to rate or judge this episode. The first 2/3 or so are a pretty darn good bit of Trek adventure, with another rogue commander, some interesting science fiction concepts, and a good if hammy performance from a guest actor. Then, in the last third, the episode gets downright idiotic, but it’s so ridiculous, so loony, so absurd, that it can’t help but be entertaining as jingoistic kitsch. The first portion of the episode is pretty great, and the last portion of it is pretty great too, but for entirely different reasons, to the point that they practically feel like different episodes.

The setup is pretty standard. The Enterprise shows up to a new planet, something is amiss (in this case, another starship that was patrolling the planet earlier is still there and won’t respond to hailing), so Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam over to investigate. They find that the crew has all been killed by some biological agent -- reduced to a few pounds of chemicals, but a last log from the ship’s doctor (the disease seems to have taken away his ability to act) that tells them by boarding the ship they’re all infected and their only hope is to beam down to the planet.

That’s where things get interesting. Captain Tracy is the most recent Starfleet commander gone mad. He’s effectively taken over the planet, siding with the Congs -- who appear to be Inuit, and are dignified and able to communicate with humans -- and against their rival group, the Yangs, who appear to be a wild, uncivilized people. Tracy’s used his phaser to take control, and taught his local allies about his “fireboxes.”

I really like the idea of a starfleet commander gone rogue like this. Tracy is just unhinged enough to be believable as a madman who believes this is the only way, drunk on his own kool aid. It adds an air of real threat, the way he’s dismissive of Kirk quoting regulation and wise to his tricks. (As an aside, it’s pretty funny that Kirk’s so aghast at Tracy having violated the prime directive, considering how many times he’s pretty brazenly interfered with a local species and left them to pick up the pieces, but whatever).

But what makes this part of the episode really interesting is Tracy’s motive. For one thing, he genuinely believes that he’s trapped on his planet, that what killed his crew will kill him if he dares to leave. But he also thinks he can get rich, or powerful, because he believes he’s found the fountain of youth. What’s fascinating is that he’s half-noble and half-greedy on this account. Sure, he clearly wants to profit from his find, and maybe it’s a rationalization, but he also thinks the veritable fountain of youth, whatever secret these people have found that lets them live for a thousand years, if worth violating the prime directive for. (See also: Star Trek Insurrection).

There’s even an air of tragedy to it once McCoy discovers that, naturally, there is no fountain of youth on the planet. The alleged science is a little incoherent, but the thrust of it is clear -- the locals’ immunity and long life is a product of natural selection and adaptation to their surroundings after biological warfare wiped the less adapted members of their society out, and it’s unable to be replicated.

The tragedy comes with the realization that it was all for nothing. Spock uncovers that Tracy blasted away three phaser power packs’ worth of Yangs to protect the Congs’ cities (which presumably were something he thought he needed to synthesize the cure?), and it turns out he was doing it for a false promise. Tracy is just nuts enough to be dangerous, but just logical enough to still be a threat, and the reveal that his grand quest is a fool’s errand heightens that.

The marginal stuff in the first part of the episode -- the endless scuffle between Kirk and the Yang prisoners he’s with, Spock talking to him through the bars, the chase with Kirk and Tracy -- are fairly pointless, but the core of this section is solid and interesting. There’s hints that it’s supposed to be a polemic on the dangers of germ warfare (apparently Earth had both germ warfare and the Eugenics wars in the 1990s in the Trek universe?), but it’s also a character study -- a Kurtz-like examination of a colonial nation violating all his rules in the name of some mythical holy grail that doesn’t really exist.

The turning point comes when our heroes (and villain) are captured by the Yangs. One of them walks in with an American flag, the score plays an ominous yet patriotic sounding sting, and I just died laughing. The episode half-explains that the Yangs are the Yanks, the Congs are the Communists, and somehow this planet had the exact parallel history of Earth except the “Asiatic” people won the cold war, and drove the Western people into the desert where, for unexplained reasons, they adopted Native American culture.

Oh my goodness is that a stupid, stupid, stupid story development, and it cracked me the hell up. Most of the time when Star Trek is bad, it’s the dull sort of bad, where it’s weak enough to be irksome but competent enough to be dull. But this was the full on, ridiculous sort of bad that cannot help but be entertaining.

It makes so little sense. At least “A Piece of the Action” had the decency to offer the fig leaf of the old book on 1920s gangsters. How did this planet not only develop parallel Capitalists and Communists, but also the exact same American flag and Constitution? Why would otherwise Westernized individuals suddenly adopt Native American identities and rituals just because they have to live in the desert? How did they forget language and have it all turn into a religion. (Alright, maybe that last part is frighteningly plausible.)

So it ends as it must -- with Spock’s psychic powers calling Sulu to come play Big Damn Hero, Kirk beating Tracy in an erstwhile fight to the death but forbearing, and most importantly of all, with Kirk giving one of big, supercilious lectures on the importance of freedom and how great the Good Ol’ US of A is. It’s laughable stuff, but again, the kind of full-throated, absurd sort of laughable stuff, without a hint of irony, that makes it absolutely work as camp even though it doesn’t work at all as the stirring bit of patriotism it’s intended as.

I still don’t know what to make of “The Omega Glory.” Most of it is a pretty standard, well done Trek episode with some very interesting ideas, and then after the big reveal, it turns into an unintentional farce. All I can tell you is that I enjoyed the whole thing, though for the last third, not necessarily for the reasons the episode’s creators intended.

• The writers' favorite death: turn humans into white powder. Second episode in a row they did this.
• I don't understand why Kirk suddenly defends the Prime Directive. He violated this directive more than once.
• Why invest in make-up and costumes when your aliens can be represented by Asians that are dressed like soldiers of the Golden Horde? Conveniently for the 60's TV audience, this makes it apparently clear that they are the baddies.
• That fight in the prison cell is probably the low point in Kirk's wrestling career. The second fight is better but that's the part that was totally overshadowed by the ridiculous setting.
• How exactly did they escape? There was a conveniently placed key all the time? And Kirk was only able to spot the key after being unconscious for 7+ hours and after a failed attempt to escape through the window?
• The general premise of a rogue captain violating the prime directive 'cause he thinks it's a necessity, ain't even totally bad. The execution is bad though. Plus, the repetitiveness of this premise is very dull. Didn't we have something very similar in that infamous Nazi episode?
• Let's not talk about the native american people comprised of blonde Caucasians. Plus, a Stars and Stripes flag. Plus, Kirk citing the US founding fathers. Really? That scene alone justifies a 2/10. Why is it that they always encounter alien planets that mimic Earth's culture? How is that possible or even exciting? And what is that supposed to tell us about real native Americans? Let's not even start to come up with an interpretation.
• Now, Spock starts to manipulate half-naked girls? I thought that's a move exclusive to Kirk and his gigantic libido.

This is truly one of the worst episodes in this season.

I'm sorry. But without even a hint of an explanation on why a civilization way across the universe has developed similar (and in some ways exactly) like on earth this is just a fairy tale. It's the most blatant attempt to hammer home a message that would be worthy of modern Star Trek. Spin it like you want but there is no logic whatsoever in this story.

It can't be a forgotten human colony. The war was at least a millenia ago based on the fact that the father of one of the Kohms is that old. That's already the middle ages on Earth. And this civilization had to be there centuries if not more millenia before to even develop the means to fight a war on that level. Even if those people on the planet had been brought there by Aliens that must have been way before Christ. Heck, if the prolonged lifespan is evolutionary and they reach ages of over a thousand years now, even three or four generations (which I doubt are enough) would put this at up to 5000 years. And what are the odds they come up with a Constitution that is exactly word for word like the one on Earth? And developing the same faktions having the same flag and so on.....

But they don't even try to come up with any explanation and that is quite honestly worst then having a silly one. And that's not taking into account that we've yet again encounter a Starfleet Captain going nuts about something and trying to influence a culture.

There are only four TOS Episodes on imdb rated lower than this one. But Gene appenrently loved this script. It was one of three considered for the second pilot. NBC thought it was weak and wanted to shelve it. Roddenberry got it through for season 2 and then later submitted it personally for Emmy consideration.

(all info according to imdb)