You know, as a child of 8 or so, this was definitely an episode I never liked and especially after it was later shown on KCOP in Los Angeles with all the great bits cut out (Uhuru's wonderful song, for example), commercials every 5 minutes, etc., it just was not done justice.
Now, seeing it all these years later, it is definitely one of the better episodes. It's great as a college-educated adult (as opposed to a snot-nosed kid) to see the structure of the story and the parallels to MacBeth and Hamlet. An especially interesting scene, I think, is the one where Kirk is trying to prevent the only other witness to the mass murder from murdering the executioner, arguing philosophically, Shakespearan, with the young man, behind the curtain where the real play is being carried out. A wonderful small bit there.
There are other great bits in this episode too including details about music, food, clothes, housing and other very imaginative bits of the 23rd century. Seems like they really took their time with this episode, setting up the scenery as well as the plot.
And, of course, this show had some of the most incredibly psychedelic colors in the whole series. Oh, 1966! In the scene where Kirk first meets Lenore, she is wearing a cobalt blue dress, Kirk has a bright yellow tunic, there are forest greens and pinks and all sorts of wild colors splashed all over the walls. The whole episode is like this! Wonderful.
The intricate structure of this episode owes so much to Gerd Oswald, the director. A great TV director of that era, who directed among other things some of the best episodes of the old Outer Limits show (14 episodes in total, among them the Harlan Ellison-authored "Soldier").
The one sour note I thought was Barbara Anderson's performance. Seemed like that scenery at the end must have had quite a few holes in it! She was very pretty though and wore some great clothes!
TV Land is showing Star Trek every morning. They have done a wonderful job with this. Seems like most everything in the original NBC viewing is in there (ok, maybe 1 extra commercial break somewhere in the hour) and the prints are great.
I definitely recommend this episode for viewing because you may too have thought this was one of the lamer ones but if you watch it now as an adult, it's pretty darn good.
Now, seeing it all these years later, it is definitely one of the better episodes. It's great as a college-educated adult (as opposed to a snot-nosed kid) to see the structure of the story and the parallels to MacBeth and Hamlet. An especially interesting scene, I think, is the one where Kirk is trying to prevent the only other witness to the mass murder from murdering the executioner, arguing philosophically, Shakespearan, with the young man, behind the curtain where the real play is being carried out. A wonderful small bit there.
There are other great bits in this episode too including details about music, food, clothes, housing and other very imaginative bits of the 23rd century. Seems like they really took their time with this episode, setting up the scenery as well as the plot.
And, of course, this show had some of the most incredibly psychedelic colors in the whole series. Oh, 1966! In the scene where Kirk first meets Lenore, she is wearing a cobalt blue dress, Kirk has a bright yellow tunic, there are forest greens and pinks and all sorts of wild colors splashed all over the walls. The whole episode is like this! Wonderful.
The intricate structure of this episode owes so much to Gerd Oswald, the director. A great TV director of that era, who directed among other things some of the best episodes of the old Outer Limits show (14 episodes in total, among them the Harlan Ellison-authored "Soldier").
The one sour note I thought was Barbara Anderson's performance. Seemed like that scenery at the end must have had quite a few holes in it! She was very pretty though and wore some great clothes!
TV Land is showing Star Trek every morning. They have done a wonderful job with this. Seems like most everything in the original NBC viewing is in there (ok, maybe 1 extra commercial break somewhere in the hour) and the prints are great.
I definitely recommend this episode for viewing because you may too have thought this was one of the lamer ones but if you watch it now as an adult, it's pretty darn good.