3x20 The Way to Eden

[6.8/10] Some episodes have such a reputation that it would be impossible for them to live up to it. For an installment like “City on the Edge of Forever” it meant that I was fairly nonplussed by what is reputed to be one of the show’s greatest achievement. And for an episode like “The Way to Eden”, widely acknowledges as one of the show’s worst episodes ever, it made me say, “that wasn’t so bad.”

If there’s one thing I’ve learned about my appreciation for Star Trek this close to the end of the series, it’s that I rarely mind the show when it’s being goofy. Episodes like “I, Mudd” or “A Piece of the Action” certainly veer into silly territory, but in that way it softens the blow of them. It’s when the show is being overly serious or inescapably dull that I start to have a problem. But for something like “Eden,” where the show is a bit preachy but for the most part just giving into ridiculousness, it usually works for me as an enjoyable, if not necessarily outstanding flight of fancy.

The problem people have with the episode, I imagine, is one of tone and preachiness. For as pulpy and adventure focused as the show may be, and as heady and sentimental as it can get, Trek mostly takes itself seriously. Injecting an element as inherently silly as a crop of string-strumming space hippies with hard-boiled egg slices pinned to their tunics could (and presumably) did rub fans the wrong way.

By the same token, it’s easy to imagine viewers and late-comers to the show, who were closer to the actual hippie movement in this country, taking offense or simply rolling their eyes at the show’s cartoonish depiction of the astro-hippies. I don’t know enough about hippie culture to know how much of this is accurate, but the episode certainly looks down on them, painting them as unreasonable, lazy, anti-science, and dumb.

The catch is that fifty years later, hippies have been so neutered and commoditized in the popular culture that I can’t help but see them as an inherent object of comedy anyway. From Dr. Teeth and Electric Mayhem of Muppets fame, to the similar tune-humming, guitar-play nomads in Avatar: The Last Airbender, sandal-wearing, spiritual musicians read to me as archetypes there for laughs. So it’s tough for me to take any offense or see the hippie movement mischaracterized here, or do anything but chuckle at their antics.

Hell, I’ll cop to the fact that I liked most of the space hippies’ songs. Despite coming to them pretty late, the music of the sixties and seventies often resonates with me, so the campfire song quality of their tunes and the cast bopping along to it felt like a fun lark. Sure, by the fifth or sixth impromptu song from the guitar-playing troll-haired hippie, it got a little tiresome, but for the most part, I enjoyed their musical interludes.

That’s a good thing, since the show seemed pretty fascinated with them. The premise of the episode is that the Enterprise beams the reckless collection of flower children on board after it comes across them in a stole shuttlecraft. They’re searching for Eden, a seemingly mythical planet where everything will be really “now” man. In the process, it’s revealed that their leader is the carrier of an incurable (but inocculateable) plague, and that they’re using the music to distract the crew while they take over the ship and try to steer it toward this Eden.

It’s pretty farfetched as simple plots go, and largely just provides a throughline for the hippies to wander around the ship, call people they don’t like “Herbert,” and try to win the crew over to their side. That said, there’s a couple of decent thematic elements here that clicked surprisingly well.

For one thing, I appreciated the head hippie’s insanity and obstinance being a product of his resistance to science and technology. I don’t agree with him in the slightest, but in an age where there anti-vaxxers and preppers and all sorts of people still worried about advances and computers and the ways in which mankind has slowly become divorced from nature, his fears and desire to return to a more primitive life still feels like a salient concern in the otherwise utopic Federation. In the same way, he feels like a forerunner to the Maquis, and other groups who are skeptical of the Federation’s way of life. In his exchange with Spock in particular, the show captures real worries folks have about what side effects technological improvements may have.

For another, while it was a bit trite, I enjoyed the relatively abbreviated romance between Chekov and his old flame. It’s an old story -- they knew one another in school; he went off and joined the military while she became a rebel and free spirit. But it works as they reunite and both consider the road not traveled. It’s a slight part of the episode, but an effective one given the contrast of the things the two have in common and the things that set them apart.

The only big problem with the episode is that it goes about one act too long. I don’t know why the show needed to have the hippies eat poisonous fruit despite warnings to really drive home that they’re idiots. It’s that last portion of the episode that makes me understand why fans felt Trek was too heavy-handed in the way it treated the intergalactic flowerchildren and belittled their point of view.

Still, let’s be real. It’s an episode of Star Trek where they run into a pack of folks dressed like a cross between the treasure trolls and a My First Buddhism Lesson playset, and the hippies proceed to sing, dance, and cause trouble. Is it the peak of the franchise’s political potency or philosophical greatness? Absolutely not. But is it a silly, enjoyable, flawed but entertaining hour of television? Most definitely. “The Way to Eden” isn’t exactly a classic, but it moves and has its share of laughs, some intentional and some not, which is more than you can say for a lot of Star Trek’s lesser lights.

I can't say I hate this episode. It has a bad reputation but it ain't really that bad.

Costumes and songs are of course a parody. Except when Spock plays the jazzy space harp of his. That's actually groovy (or whatever they would have called this back then). That's how you should watch this. Plus, forget that this is a thinly veiled quip against hippie culture. For younger folks like me this simply bears no relevance (and this is why we will never truly like or fully understand Easy Rider). But remember kids: don't distrust authorities, don't eat fruits in gardens named Eden and always wear leather boots cause acid will eventually burn hippies' barefeet.

Still, the story has its moments. It starts with an exciting chase. A motley group of dreamers who obviously don't like militarized Federation, bureaucracy or authority but have high ideals, a mysterious belief system, and are generally peaceful prevent Kirk aka Herbert from running a tight ship. It's actually something I have thought about often before: why is the Federation of planets and its essential core Starfleet that much militarized? Modern democracies also have a military. Yes. But the Federation relies a lot on officers instead of sending civil servants and civil ships.

Spock is again fascinating. Despite his general problems to socialize, he effortlessly connects to them since Vulcans are polite, deeply spiritual, curious and determined. Then there's this disease/virus part. I can relate to his wishes to travel freely (no matter wether he's really insane and turns out not be so peaceable).

Plus, I like Pavel's story. On of the few times his character and origin story is actually discussed. Irina is great. This academy drop-out is like a mirror that shows non-Federation Chekov.

Adverb of the day: peaceably