Title: The Squire Of Gothos
Airdate: 01/12/1967
Plot Summary
The Enterprise is waylaid by a being of unimaginable power who uses the crew for his own amusement. But what is his secret?
Risk is our Business
Kirk figures out that Trelane is a child. He’s also willing to be hunted for sport in return for the safety of his ship. Not the last time Kirk will put himself in jeopardy in order to save his ship and crew.
His slapping of Trelane at the end is pure awesomeness. Even after breaking the mirror that appears to be the source of Trelane’s power, but doesn’t come close to stopping him, he knows he’s probably dead meat. He gives him a bitch slap anyway. Great stuff.
Logical
Spock has no use for Trelane’s behavior. When asked if Vulcan’s are predatory, Spock responds “Not generally. But there have been exceptions,” the closest I ever heard Spock say FAFO. Trelane amusedly considers Spock ill-mannered.
Spock also defines what he finds “fascinating” and this situation isn’t it.
He’s Dead Jim
McCoy has a few observations of Trelane’s props, no taste in the drinks and whatnot. He’s not a really a factor though, here.
Canon Maker
While this isn’t canon per se, Trelane is most likely a precursor of Q. Peter David even wrote a novel establishing Trelane as part of the Q continuum in 1994. However since he had parents, this was probably dispelled with Voyager’s Q episode The Q and The Grey where Q and Hot Q had sex and created the first Q child.
Trelane would appear in the computer game Star Trek: Judgement Rites, a game I had the privilege of playing when it first came out, the sequel to Star Trek 25th Anniversary game in 1991.
The salt vampire is put on display here in Trelane’s castle. Then he blasts it with a phaser which makes me wonder if he just killed the only evidence it ever existed.
Canon Breaker
Kirk runs across a planet that just “appears.” He basically says “that’s peculiar” and then orders the Enterprise to continue on its way for the supply mission. Given how he stopped everything and sent a shuttle to investigate a green cloud, even though he was on schedule in the last episode, this seemed contrary.
Geophysicist Jaeger sits at the helm starting a new tradition of occasionally throwing anyone unqualified at the steering wheel when the main helmsman is unavailable. This would go badly in Generations.
Technobabble
In The Squire Of Gothos, DeSalle has a handheld beacon he can point up at the ship for them to locate where they are. I’m guessing they invented that after the last episode’s fiasco.
You can apparently reroute impulse power to the sensors. Not sure how that would work exactly as it would be like channeling your car engine power straight to your car radio but fair enough.
Destroying Trelane’s machine sets off cartoon boings and slide whistles, not the sound effects I would’ve expected.
I Know That Guy:
The voices of Trelane’s parents are Barbera Babcock and Bart LaRue. LaRue would do many voices on Trek including the Guardian of Forever and one of the brains who keep betting quatloos.
Babcock would also do a few voices, notably the computer in Assignment: Earth. You’ll really notice her in probably the best guest lady alien outfit in A Taste of Armageddon. VaVoom. She’ll also appear in Plato’s Stepchildren with a little less voom in her outfit.
Richard Carlyle plays Geophysicist Jaeger, and Vinita Wolf plays one of many yeomen that would replace Janice Rand.
Of course, the real star is William Campbell who was just amazing as the Squire. He would come back in The Trouble With Tribbles as Koloth. He would reprise Koloth in Deep Space Nine with probably the most mic-drop lines ever uttered in Star Trek. I’ll wait until then to tell you.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
The Squire Of Gothos is not my favorite episode, nor is it one I typically go to. And yet when I do watch it, I end up enjoying it. Ever have one of those episodes or shows? You don’t put much effort into watching it but if it’s on, you end up enjoying it?
This is one of those. I do enjoy two things that put the clues together and begin to show what’s happening.
Kirk and company trying to understand what he is and figure he’s using the machine to do his tricks. So he loudly proclaims Trelane is “unstable and immature” with immature being the operative word. But he still hasn’t put it together yet. He slaps Trelane in a challenge for a duel, as one adult to another.
He mentions he doesn’t want to play Trelane’s “games,” something children regularly engage in. Adults engage in “sport.” Later when Kirk slaps Trelane, it’s as a parent slapping an unruly child. Breaking his sword, realizing Trelane doesn’t know much of anything, Kirk shows why he’s the OG.
William Campbell does a great job of playing an unruly child, though he masks it well. He knows exactly how to let tiny little clues come out. He’s clearly enjoying himself.
The Squire Of Gothos is a great Trek episode now that I take the time to unwrap it. I’m not sure why it doesn’t come to mind more maybe when you know what’s going on, it doesn’t quite have the repeat value that other episodes do. So I’ll up my rating from a 3 to a 4 just because I think I just found a new appreciation of it.
