"Star Trek" Arena (1967)

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:

The Cestus Three outpost is a re-use of the Alamo set.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): The Metrons pronounce their name "Meh-trahn" but Kirk mispronounces it as "Meh-trohn" every time.

Quotes:

Captain James T. Kirk: [narrating] The Enterprise is dead in space, stopped cold during her pursuit of an alien raider by mysterious forces... and I have been somehow whisked off the bridge and placed on the surface of an asteroid, facing the captain of the alien ship. Weaponless, I face the creature the Metrons called a Gorn...

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Trials and Tribble-ations (#5.6)" (1996)

Kirk Battles "Ugly" Creature

In "Arena", Kirk and the Captain of an alien vessel are forced to fight for the lives of their respective crews. Not one of the show's best, but a very action-oriented episode. It looks like producer Gene Roddenberry was trying to appeal to a wider audience, so this episode is less cerebral than usual. Those viewers expecting to see the monster-of-the-week were delighted, but this is not what the series is about. It is a good episode, but not one of the best examples of what the TV series could do. But it is interesting and suspenseful, though. Also, as usual, the story has a moral message that is worth thinking about: war is often another problem, not a solution. Good fun but not much substance.