Who Mourns for Adonais? 

A powerful being claiming to be the Greek god Apollo appears and demands that the crew of the Enterprise disembark onto his planet to worship him.

Director:

Marc Daniels

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (created by), Gilbert Ralston

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Capt. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Michael Forest	...	Apollo
Leslie Parrish	...	Lt. Carolyn Palamas
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Walter Koenig	...	Chekov
John Winston	...	Lt. Kyle

Storyline

The Enterprise is stopped dead in its tracks by a powerful energy force that appears in the form of a human hand. Soon, a being claiming to be Apollo orders Kirk (William Shatner) and several others down to the planet below. Apollo (Michael Forest) claims to have visited Earth 5,000 years ago and Kirk theorizes that he may be telling the truth. Apollo's demand for unquestioned servitude, however, doesn't give the crew much choice and it becomes imperative that they locate and destroy his power supply.

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Plot Keywords:

greek mythology | kiss | crying man | year 2267 | 2260s | 

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Certificate:

TV-PG

Did You Know?

Trivia

Apollo's temple was constructed on an indoor studio set. Swaying trees (courtesy of hidden stagehands) and dubbed-in bird sounds were combined with stock footage of an outdoor lake and adequately conveyed the illusion of being outdoors.

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Goofs

Apollo and others constantly refer to the Trojan War time period as "5000 years ago." Since the Trojan War happened in the 13th century BCE, this would place Star Trek's setting sometime in the 37th century CE. All other references throughout the series indicate a date of no later than the 31st century, before the writers settled on the 23rd.

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Quotes

Dr. McCoy: To coin a phrase, fascinating.

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Alternate Versions

Special Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song

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Connections

Referenced in Star Trek Timelines (2016)

User Reviews

Neat idea, terrible execution

The idea of gods actually being ancient aliens is something that has fascinated science fiction authors for many years. A pity then, that this episode falls victim to a bad script with cast members acting out of character, dull scenes that serve little purpose and excessive sexist dialogue. Scotty is a complete moron in this episode, and we're supposed to believe it's because he's in love with a lieutenant we've never seen before this episode. If he wasn't a main character Kirk would have court-martialed him for his disobedience and idiocy. Furthermore, every character is useless to the plot except for Kirk and that archaeologist chick, whatshername. Apollo is as one-dimensional as villains come, and does nothing but spout the same boring garbage over and over again, and no one thinks to use reason to persuade him until the last few minutes. They spend the episode mocking him and threatening him with their powerful weapons, even long after he's proved they are virtually useless against him.

Very rarely are the Enterprise crew shown as being so incompetent, almost to the point of being mentally handicapped. If this had been the first Star Trek episode I ever saw, I'd be wondering why anyone let these fools out of the house, let alone on a Federation starship. Of course, the blatant sexism in such comments as "one day she'll meet a man and resign her commission" which implies women cannot be married and keep their careers doesn't help. I realize this was the 60's, but c'mon. Do you have to be so obvious? The worst part though was Kirk's comment about "only needing one God" which implies monotheistic religion is somehow superior to Greek polytheism, a rather close-minded sentiment for someone from the 23rd century. Considering the point of the episode is outgrowing the need for gods, why would he make such a comment? So we've outgrown Apollo but not the Abrahamic God? Silly.

All in all, it's garbage. Without a doubt the worst episode of the second season.

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 September 1967 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1