Title: Who Mourns For Adonais?
Airdate: 9/22/1967
Plot Summary
The Enterprise is grabbed by a giant hand in space, by a being claiming to be Apollo. His power is undeniable but is he really a god to be worshipped or just another odd alien being with delusions of grandeur? In any case, how can the crew fight one with such power?
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk is really annoyed by Apollo. From the start, he dismisses him with “never mind with the history lesson!” interrupting Apollo’s proclamations. Then pretty much spends the rest of the episode telling him to get bent.
Kinda weird at the end that he mused, “Would it have killed us to gather a few laurel leaves?”
Logical
Spock is not welcomed by Apollo, called “the one with the pointed ears.” As such, Spock on the ship turns out to be an advantage. Also, Apollo is racist against Vulcans. I may have made that last part up.
Spock also shows his talent at command by coming up with ideas, pushing Uhura to work faster, and helping her confidence as she works.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones is allowed down to the planet to meet Apollo and gets to stand in for Spock by saying “Fascinating.”
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu does his best but can’t out-pilot a giant hand.
Nuclear Wessels
Chekov likes to run his mouth, sarcastically telling Apollo off when the god tells everyone who he is. Chekov also is able to figure out that Apollo is a little like an electric eel.
We also get to see Chekov take on the role that Spock would normally do, identifying various things with his tricorder and making some good observations.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Uhura has a lot of trouble with Apollo’s force field but is able to rig up a bypass to get through to the landing party because she’s awesome.
My Wee Bairns
Scotty gets to get the girl this time, though his lovesick behavior nearly gets him killed. He really needs to stay away from women, he loses all common sense. Kirk is quite right to upbraid him.
Canon Maker
Ok, so this really makes the Greek gods Star Trek canon. I always thought this was a missed opportunity. Sure, they weren’t exactly “gods” but there probably was some more that could’ve been done with the idea in the future. Still, this was one of the trippier episodes, a giant green hand holds the Enterprise for most of the runtime, which is a really weird image.
Canon Breaker
At one point Kirk says “Mankind no longer needs gods, we find the One quite adequate.” This will be contradicted in the Next Generation era as it appeared that religion was done away with. In fact, in other episodes, it’s not really clear in The Original Series whether or not religion is a thing. It’s possible that in the 23rd century, vestiges of belief were still hanging on but by the 24th century, it was finally dead.
In real life, Roddenberry was a huge atheist and the whole tone of the various spin-offs with him still around were more anti-religious than non-religious. Deep Space Nine would somewhat reverse that attitude with a much more balanced and interesting take on faith and religion through the Bajorans.
Man It Feels Bad To Be a Red Shirt
No one dies! Except Apollo.
Technobabble
Spock tries reversing the polarity. Even as far back as the 60s, that was played out.
I Know That Guy:
Apollo is played by Michel Forest. He had an unremarkable career though he did a lot of voiceover work in anime. He’s 95 years old as of this writing and still kicking.
Leslie Parrish plays Carolyn Palamas. She doesn’t have the fall that McGiver’s did so she doesn’t make quite the impression either. Except with the outfit Apollo gives her. Vavoom.
Parrish had a decent career as an actress but really found her calling in political activism and finally the news media founding the Los Angeles PBS station KVST-TV. Unfortunately, it was run by a bunch of Hollywood types who couldn’t get along and it was turned off in 1976 after only 2 years on the air.
Finally, John Winston returns as Lt. Kyle and Eddie Paskey as Lt. Leslie.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Maybe now that I’m doing these reviews I’m more observant, but I have never really noticed before until now that this is basically a retelling of Space Seed. A superior being from the past who wants to rule mankind and Kirk has to stop him. Also, a female lieutenant whom he seduces and her loyalty is questioned. But there are a few differences.
One, Apollo is not quite the ambitious despot Khan was. And Michael Forest is no Ricardo Montalban. And two, the Lieutenant is not nearly as taken with Apollo as McGivers was. She has a moment but it’s possibly Apollo’s power over her as opposed to Khan’s persuasion. She may not have been completely in control of her choices. She feels sorry for him and you can kind of see why.
Apollo lives in the past, an ancient relic of a bygone age that just can’t let go. Even Kirk has some sorrow at what had to be done. But she snaps back pretty quickly to Kirk’s speech. A small temptation that she quickly overcomes.
But since those moments that Khan had with McGivers feel somewhat muted here in comparison, you don’t really buy that she might betray the ship.
Apollo returns in a YouTube fan series, Star Trek Continues, in the episode Pilgrim Of Eternity. In that episode, Forest returns as Apollo, realizing the error of his ways, and finds the organ that gives him his power is much more powerful when he uses his powers to help rather than to get worship. It was an interesting idea.
Overall, this episode just doesn’t quite have the resonance that Space Seed did. It’s more interesting to me conceptually than in execution. However I do think Trek missed some opportunities with all the time travel they did. What if they went back to the Greek times and met the gods all in their prime?
Eh, it’s probably for the best.
