"Star Trek" Arena (1967)

User Rating:

8.2/10   

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Gene L. Coon (teleplay)
Fredric Brown (story)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

19 January 1967 (Season 1, Episode 18)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

When an alien race known as the Gorn destroys an Earth colony, the Enterprise pursues the fleeing Gorn...

Plot Keywords:

Reptile Man | Federation | Space | Starship | Computer

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
George Takei	...	Sulu
James Doohan	...	Scott
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Jerry Ayres	...	O'Herlihy
Grant Woods	...	Kelowitz
Tom Troupe	...	Lt. Harold
James Farley	...	Lang
Carolyne Barry	...	Metron (as Carole Shelyne)
Sean Kenney	...	DePaul

Runtime:

50 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp | Canada:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park - 10700 W. Escondido Canyon Rd., Agua Dulce, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

Although it was not intentional, Desilu's research department realized that Gene L. Coon's screenplay strongly resembled an earlier story of the same name by Fredric Brown. To deal with the difficulty, Brown was telephoned about the matter and he agreed to an official credit for the story.

Goofs:

Plot holes: Although this episode eventually cranks up to be one of Star Trek's very best, capped by Captain Kirk's immortal declaration "I won't kill him...you’ll have to get your entertainment somewhere else!" it almost doesn't make it out of the starting gate due to several staggeringly huge plot holes. The episode opens with Kirk and his companions communicating with the Cestus Three outpost commander, Commodore Travers, after which they beam down to find the outpost destroyed, and themselves in jeopardy. Problems: ...Commodore Travers speaks to Kirk in the manner of an old friend, yet this is soon revealed to be a "faked" communication...faked by the Gorns, who we later learn have little or no knowledge or humanity, and cannot approximate our language without lisping and hissing; the personalized impersonation of Travers seems far beyond their abilities. ...The Enterprise transports its senior officers down to what is supposedly an active Federation outpost, without scanning it to see that it has been destroyed...or even noticing that the normal subspace communications activity of such an outpost is totally missing. When helmsman Sulu contacts Kirk to inform him that the Enterprise is under attack, no one has "taken the con," that is, occupied Kirk's command chair (and function) in his absence...though Sulu seems to be in authority (it should have been Engineer Scott, as established in other episodes) he is still at the helm...and is ordered by Kirk to fire first his phasers, then his photon torpedoes...without bothering to aim either!

Quotes:

Captain James T. Kirk: You'll enjoy Commodore Travers. He sets a good table.
Dr. McCoy: I wonder if he brought his personal chef along with him to Cestus III?
Captain James T. Kirk: Probably. Rank hath it's priviletes.
Dr. McCoy: [they both chuckle] How well we both know that!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Futurama: Where No Fan Has Gone Before (#4.12)" (2002)

Not one of the first seasons finer moments

I enjoyed this episode much more when I was a kid, growing up on Star Trek.

The episode that brought us the memorable fight between Kirk and a 6' tall scaled down version of Godzilla (The Gorn Captain) is not one of the better thought-out first season episodes. It starts out strong - somebody has completely destroyed a federation outpost and Enterprise detects an alien vessel while the landing party is stuck on the surface. A brief engagement is followed by a long pursuit, as Kirk's desire for revenge mounts. Finally, both ships are stopped by yet another omnipotent advanced culture, The omnipotent alien power (The Metrons) exsplain that violence is not tolerated in their system and that the Gorn and Star Fleet are therefore unwelcome. And Kirk and his counterpart on the Gorn ship are transported to a planet to settle their dispute with hand-to-hand combat. To the victor goes life. To the loser - death for the entire crew. The Metrons have apparently adopted pacifism, but have no qualms about hypocrisy. Kirk's character is also somewhat inconsistent throughout this episode. The Gorn's lizard body suit is pretty cool looking, but his costume, as well as that of the Metron is straight out of Flash Gordon. Despite its high rating among some fans, I consider this episode somewhat dispensable.