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Star Trek - The Omega Glory
episode 2.23
Raumschiff Enterprise - Das Jahr des roten Vogels
USA 1968
produced by John Meredyth Lucas, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Desilu, Norway Corporation/NBC
directed by Vincent McEveety
starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Morgan Woodward, Roy Jenson, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Irene Kelly, Morgan Farley, David L. Ross, Lloyd Kino, Ed McCready, Frank Atienza
written and created by Gene Roddenberry
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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The USS Enterprise runs across the USS Exeter, and when Kirk (William
Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy), McCoy (DeForest Kelley) and a redshirt
(David L. Ross) beam over, they find the whole crew turned into crystals,
and they learn from the log that they can't go back to the Enterprise as
they've caught whatever killed the crew, and it's highly contagious - but
there might be a cure down on the planet. Down on the planet, our heroes
soon run into a conflict between two native tribes, the more civilised,
Asian looking Khoms and the savage Caucasian looking Yangs. And they find
the Khoms are led by the Exeter's captain Tracey (Morgan Woodward), who
has come to power thanks to his superior weapon, a fazer, with which he
killed many of the Yangs. Kirk of course immediately wants to arrest him
for breaking the Prime Directive of non-interference, but instead, Kirk's
redshirt is killed and Kirk and the others are made prisoner, with McCoy
ordered to find the secret of longevity on the planet which Tracey assumes
to be a fountain of youth, and Kirk left to fight the incarcerated Yang
leader Cloud (Roy Jenson). Ultimately though, Kirk somehow manages to
communicate with Cloud and even helps him escape - and he comes to the
conclusion that this planet is living a different version of Earth
history, with the Yangs being the Yankees, the Khoms the communists, and
apparently a nuclear war between the two has thrown them back to the
primitive state they're in now. The Yangs soon attack and take the key
Khom city while Kirk and Tracey battle it out before being made Yang
prisoners - and there, Kirk is confirmed in his assumption, as the Yangs
actually carry the star-spangled banner, and quote from the US
constitution. To prove he's on the Yangs' side Kirk still has to go
mano-a-mano with Tracey though ... Along with Where
No Man Has Gone Before and Mudd's
Women, the script for this episode was considered for the (second)
pilot of the original Star
Trek - the honours went to Where
No Man Has Gone Before of course, but Gene Roddenberry didn't let
to go this script go to waste nevertheless, which if nothing else
perfectly mirrors the mood of its time, exaggerated patriotism included.
And yes, much of this script doesn't make sense, like how did the planet
come into possession of the American flag and constitution (verbatim) -
similar can also be said about the episode Patterns
of Force and others of course -, and no effort is made even to
explain this away. In all, The Omega Glory is one of the weaker
episodes though, maybe because it tries too hard to stay timely and
relevant and forgets the adventure aspect over it, besides from a few
genre mainstays. And William Shatner's overacting when explaining the
constitution to the Yangs is a bit too much even by his standards. At the
same time, the episode's somewhat entertaining because of its
heavy-handedness of its now dated message, so worth a look from that
perspective, but it's definitely less than brilliant.
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