In "Bread and Circuses", the Enterprise investigates the disappearance of a ship, the USS Beagle, whose captain is an old school chum of Kirk's. They discover that the ship has crash-landed on a planet with a parallel development to Earth. It resembles 20th century Earth in many ways but has maintained a Roman-like society, complete with gladiator games, swords, and togas. The Prime Directive dictates that Star Fleet will not interfere with the development of burgeoning societies. Because of this Kirk, Spock, & Bones must head to the surface incognito in order to find their fellow Earthlings and return with them. They find that the cultural has already been contaminated by the Beagle's captain and crew who are in cahoots with the planet's government. The Enterprise's trio are thrown into the gladiator games and must figure out a way to escape back to the Enterprise without interrupting the planet's development.
Any of the parallel planet episodes have to be taken with a grain of salt. They're inherently silly and if you want to get any satisfaction out of them, you have to just buy into the premise and deal with it. That being said, this episode comes with a lot of other problems.
Instead of just embracing the fact that there maybe parallel planets out there with similar worlds, the writers try way too hard to overexplain their existence and point out the parallels: Spock's quips about how they speak English, the fact that their products all have names derived from our galaxy, their religious movement towards Christianity. All of this really bogs the episode down with expositionary dialogue.
I also think that the excuse of the Prime Directive doesn't make any sense in the context of this episode. Everything's already been spoiled by the crew of the Beagle. The government's well aware of the existence of other world's with superior technology. So Kirk's circumlocution feels unnecessary.
Now for the good: the satire of the television industry. This still feels relevant today, especially when you consider the reality TV world. The emphasis on ratings, the fake applause, it all works so succinctly. From this perspective, the episode works.
Unfortunately, this section doesn't really tie into the plot too well. A better story arc and this episode would be very good.
Any of the parallel planet episodes have to be taken with a grain of salt. They're inherently silly and if you want to get any satisfaction out of them, you have to just buy into the premise and deal with it. That being said, this episode comes with a lot of other problems.
Instead of just embracing the fact that there maybe parallel planets out there with similar worlds, the writers try way too hard to overexplain their existence and point out the parallels: Spock's quips about how they speak English, the fact that their products all have names derived from our galaxy, their religious movement towards Christianity. All of this really bogs the episode down with expositionary dialogue.
I also think that the excuse of the Prime Directive doesn't make any sense in the context of this episode. Everything's already been spoiled by the crew of the Beagle. The government's well aware of the existence of other world's with superior technology. So Kirk's circumlocution feels unnecessary.
Now for the good: the satire of the television industry. This still feels relevant today, especially when you consider the reality TV world. The emphasis on ratings, the fake applause, it all works so succinctly. From this perspective, the episode works.
Unfortunately, this section doesn't really tie into the plot too well. A better story arc and this episode would be very good.