Star Trek (TV Series) Who Mourns for Adonais? (1967) User Reviews

They've Outgrown You, Apollo

[Bogmeister · 7/10 · 14 August 2006]

The supposition created here, a natural for science fiction writers, is that the famed Greek gods of myth - Zeus, Hera, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes & so on - were actually space travelers whose advanced powers made them seem like gods to the ancient peoples of Earth 5000 years ago (hey, I wonder if Jack Kirby, creator of 'The Eternals' comic book for Marvel Comics, was familiar with this episode). Now the Enterprise comes across the last of these - Apollo - on an otherwise ordinary planet. The other so-called gods have long since faded away. Most of these points in the story are not really explained; why do these beings thrive on worship? Are they shapeshifters, absorbing such emotions the same way we humans take in normal food? Instead, we are offered only hints, such as an extra organ inside Apollo detected by McCoy which is never elaborated on. This may be lazy writing or just a way of keeping some remaining mystery and awe around such a mythological character. In any case, the theme reveals itself as the age-old conflict between modern technology, which offers comfortable existence, and the more naturalistic gadget-free lifestyle we humans have left behind, or lost, in Apollo's view.

Returning to nature was a rising, popular theme during the sixties and seventies. Many began to feel that we were advancing too quickly, creating an abnormal culture, as a result. The super-alien Apollo certainly feels this way and offers the alternative; Kirk rejects this outright - he has his mission, as well as a ship, which Apollo makes the mistake of threatening to crush. Of the 5-person landing party, the one female member does give in, temporarily, to this proposition; perhaps she represents the 20% of our population who have serious doubts about our progress. Ironically, Kirk has to remind her of her humanity, her true heritage, to turn her back to the majority. We're stuck with what we have, this seems to say, not to mention, 'you will have no other gods before me.' The powerful Apollo, a more sympathetic version of the sadistic Trelane of the 1st season ("The Squire of Gothos"), truly has no harmful intent - he sees himself as very benevolent. This is his undoing, for he also proves to be quite naive - perhaps the clueless teenager to Trelane's spoiled brat - and, like the most vulnerable among us, he leaves himself open to heartbreak. No matter your powers - in matters of the heart, which Kirk chooses to exploit as that one weakness he usually finds in superpowerful threats, you may end up helpless. It's unusual to see such a powerful being weeping like a lost boy, a genuinely sad note to end things on. Kirk - destroyer of gods, another notch on his resume.

There is more depth to this episode that there appears at first glance.

[aaustin-10 · 7/10 · 7 March 2011]

Kirk and his crew are waylaid by a powerful alien who claims to be the ancient Greek god Apollo. Apollo demands they abandon their ship and become his worshipers like the Greeks of old Earth had been, and Apollo is not taking no for an answer. Kirk and Co. have to figure out how to escape his clutches without falling victim to his extraordinary powers and his violent temper.

At first glance, this seems like a too-goofy premise. They encounter a Greek god replete with laurels on his head living on a planet replete with marble temple and statues. It seems like something out of Lost In Space. But closer examination reveals a deep, meaningful character study of a being who is either unwilling or unable to accept that the world has left him behind.

Apollo, wonderfully and sympathetically played by guest star Michael Forest, is a powerful creature who masqueraded as a God on ancient Earth and obviously thinks it is his right and duty to continue to serve as a God to Earthmen. And at one point in the dialogue he indicates that his kind, of which he seems to be the last, need worship and attention. Perhaps it is a form of sustenance for them, or maybe Apollo just has a deep-seated neediness, it's never clarified. Either way, it is an important feature of what drives him. Another fascinating part of his character is shown when he suggests he disapproves of the clinical, dispassionate creatures he might think Earthmen are becoming as they continue to learn about the universe: to him, they have lost their passion and character as they have grown in power. And it seems his interpretation of reality is different from that of the Earth men, although at one point in the dialogue he seems to suggest he knew his God status was always just a masquerade. But finally, it's clear Apollo really believes he is doing the right thing by Kirk and Co.

When he is finally defeated, his sense of hurt, his broken-heartedness, and his sense that all that he looked forward to and believed in are destroyed, is genuinely affecting. You understand why he commits suicide at the end, and I for one felt sorry for him. He never meant any harm.

Also this is the episode where Walter Koenig gets to be vintage Chekov: irreverent, effusive, but very capable.

The thing that keeps the episode out of superb territory is that the premise, although it sets up such a good character study, is still unavoidably just a little on the goofy side, but that should not stop you from enjoying it, and should not stop you from feeling sorry for Apollo at the end, just like Kirk and McCoy did.

"A god cannot survive as a memory".

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 14 November 2010]

I don't know why, but the title of this episode manages to bug me a bit. Adonis was a god of Greek mythology, but spelled without the second 'a', and when all is said and done, Adonis doesn't have anything to do with the story. Oh well, maybe it's just me.

You have here another of those 'promise of eternal joy' stories that Star Trek managed to bring to the screen often enough in the prior season, 'This Side of Paradise' being the most familiar. All the character Apollo (Michael Forest) requires is that the crew of the Enterprise offer him the undivided adoration he so richly deserves. You just know this isn't going to sit well with the Captain.

What intrigued me with the story was the notion that Greek mythology might have been inspired by visitors from alien planets five thousand years ago. That was a rather unique way of looking at it, although I think I've heard that theory advanced by UFO enthusiasts before. Interesting to speculate as far as it goes, but how would we ever know?

Walter Koening made his Star Trek debut as Enterprise navigator Chekov in the second season opener 'Amok Time' and has a slightly larger role here upon which he would continue to build. I didn't notice it as much in the prior story, but he's really got that Beatle look going for him in this one.

Meeting a God

[Tweekums · 7/10 · 21 June 2015]

The crew of the Enterprise are understandable surprised when a giant disembodied hand reaches out from a planet and grabs hold of the ship. They then receive a message claiming to be from the god Apollo inviting the crew down to the planet. Kirk leads an away team that also includes McCoy, Chekov, Scotty and Lt. Carolyn Palamas; an attractive young archaeologist who is clearly fancied by Scotty. Once on the planet it becomes clear that Apollo wishes to be worshipped in the way the ancient Greeks worshipped him and his fellow 'gods'. He is quick to anger and takes an interest in Lt. Palamas that clearly riles Scotty. While Apollo is off with Lt. Palamas the others try to discover the source of his power.

The idea that the ancient gods were in fact visiting aliens is interesting and has been used many times since however here it seems like a way to make an apparently all powerful being a bit more interesting. His Olympus seems more like a small folly than a home of the gods and his patience is awfully short for a being who has waited five thousand years for humanity to advance to the point they can travel to him. As soon as we see Scotty flirting with the previously unmentioned Lt. Palamas we can guess that she will somehow be important in this episode and indeed she is as she appears to fall for Apollo… a little surprising given that he changed her out of her uniform into a garment that was clearly designed to appeal to the male viewers… although I suppose his attire could equally have been meant as a treat to the female viewers! While the story was a bit sillier than usual the conclusion was pretty good in a bitter-sweet way. Overall I thought this was a somewhat weaker than average episode but enjoyable none the less.

My Favorite TOS episode

[karenkey-949-930987 · 10/10 · 15 March 2014]

Spoilers ahead.....

Just my opinion. I loved "Who Mourns For Adonais?" because of the story and because it involved the entire ensemble. It gave everyone something to do, showed the hierarchy of the command, as well as the camaraderie of the crew.

I enjoyed Leslie Parrish and Michael Forest as a guest stars and the concept of Apollo and the Greek Gods being real beings was very intriguing to me.

The idea that Lt. Palomas would be captivated meeting a man of her dreams and vocation was realistic and the frightful rape scene was groundbreaking on TV. And the concept that her dream man would seek such retribution on one whom adores him was intense.

Then there's the dichotomy of the Trek crew and ship being trapped by these beings and trying to respect their different culture, but ultimately destroying the last of the alien's kind was riveting. The episode had great special effects, involvement of ship and crew plus the "monster" plus a classy story that made the viewer think. There was something - so Trek - about the lighting, the colors, etc that also was captivating.

The lines of dialog throughout were really choice and so well represented the established characters. The sorrow of Apollo was so great and well acted. And lastly, the line from Kirk of "Would it have hurt us, I wonder, to have gathered just a few laurel leaves? Fabulous.

Mourning for a lost god?

[cynic2all · 10 March 2008]

I think there is more symbolism in this episode than is normally acknowledged or commented upon. That they choose Apollo as the particular Greek god to meet somewhere out in space, apparently as if he had been waiting millenia for the earth creatures that resemble himself to develop spacefaring technology and eventually find him... while in reality, after millenia of looking at the night sky, naming the stars and planets, telling our seasons by them, and thinking up fables and superstititions about them, the program to actually land and walk on another world happened to be the Apollo Moon Program. And the moon, only feasibly reachable within the recent decades before it was actually done, and once thought a god 'himself' by many cultures, proved reachable, after all, without any god. So, as we were to soon reach what was thought a god, it was in fact not a god, nor was a god's help needed; it was pure applied science. And knowing Roddenberry was an agnostic, perhaps an atheist, the point is clear: there are powers and forces in the universe, but it was humans that invented the god hypothesis to explain them on the elementary level, and this hypothesis can be destroyed, and that will be one facet of our scientific legacy. But the god he really had in mind, of course, was not the loyal friend of (loser) Hector of Troy, but the God most of the western world eventually turned to, originally of the ancient Hebrews. He is not necessarily saying that that God (or his race of beings) may be found some day as having been Wizard of Oz type "humbugs," but it is at least such a thought experiment to that effect.

As for Apollo being a potential tragedy (slavery; everlasting indebtedness in the episode) we would have to deal with... this episode (and presumably its inception) came a few months after the launch pad fire of Apollo 1. The moon program, as is well known, had progressive success in the early and mid 60's and became overconfident and began to 'move too fast;' that is, too fast for safety in order to meet the deadline of landing on the moon before the decade was over. And in hindsight, many historians look back and say a disaster was inevitable. To phrase it in correspondence with the episode-- If we don't get Apollo under our control, Apollo will ruin us; even if we destroy the 'end of the decade' objective, we must get a grip on Apollo, and we cannot place ourselves forever in debt to 'him.'

I think the above 2 paragraphs are more of what ST was attempting to say, rather than anything in particular about the ancient astronaut theory, though that certainly was around at that time, just before Erich Von Daniken published his first book. Indeed, the 'getting back to nature' theme was more pronounced, but with the addition of "not because we are being forced to." There was a movement, of course, at that time of getting away from the unfriendliness, the pollution, the overly-mechanized cities, and living more in harmony with nature. Hippie communes, 'bedroom communities' with homes on large tracts, time-share getaways, et al, were manifestations of this idea. And shows like Green Acres parodied the idea. Perhaps "Who Speaks for Adonais?" was also another angle of parody of "away from mechanization; back to nature," or "weren't the ancients lucky to have no other way?" (the answer being obvious).

Welcome to Olympus Captain Kirk

[Rainey-Dawn · 7/10 · 7 January 2017]

Season 2, episode 2. The Enterprise encounters a very large hand made of pure energy. This hand stops the ship dead in it's tracks. Apollo appears on the viewing screen and demands Kirk and crew to come down to the planet.. all but Spock whom he claims reminds him too much of Pan. Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov and Carolyn beams down to met Apollo. Apollo wants Kirk and crew to worship him and uses his powers to stop them from communicating with the ship & using their phasers. Kirk theorizes "what if he really is Apollo?" Apollo is taken by Carolyn and willing to open up to her some. The men are working on who or what Apollo is and how to communicate with the ship. Kirk and crew must find away to deal with Apollo and go on to their next adventure.

Not too bad of a story... kinda interesting where Greek mythology meets science fiction fun.

7/10

Great episode

[intp · 9/10 · 26 July 2014]

I thought this was one of the best episodes of the series. Thought-provoking, very well-written, and well-paced, with a nice balance of attention paid to the various performers.

The premise is that the Greek gods were human-like aliens of an advanced race that encountered Earthlings some 5000 years ago, in ancient Greece, and formed the basis of Greek mythology. The dilemma here is that Apollo, the last of his kind, has seized control of the Enterprise and demands that the crew stay and worship him; in return, he will provide for their needs. Kirk, correctly realizing that slavery is not a viable option, searches for ways to break free.

Some really great writing here. The speech that Kirk gives to Carolyn was brilliant, I thought. A great piece of rhetoric that is strongly moving, and is potent enough to induce her to betray her heart and act for the good of her fellow humans. Spock was in fine form here as well, doing what he could under the circumstances. Carolyn's betrayal of Apollo was sadly necessary to distract him long enough for the Enterprise to effect an escape.

Bittersweet ending, too. Kirk, though realizing he really no had no choice, nevertheless feels sympathy and regret for Apollo.

A few minor complaints prevent me from giving this a 10/10 rating; mostly, the many unanswered questions: why would an advanced race of aliens crave worship so badly? How exactly are they 'immortal' if their anatomy seems largely the same as normal humans? How exactly did Apollo "spread himself on the wind" at the end, considering his power source was gone?

But these are minor quibbles. These are the kinds of questions that could scarcely be dealt with in a weekly television show. Even at 50 minutes, this episode was paced very tightly, I thought, with nary a dragging moment. Kirk and Spock confront their dilemma head on, and, together, work out a way to extricate themselves. Good performance also by Walter Koenig as Chekov, and even of minor background characters like Mr. Kyle. Apollo was well developed as a sympathetic figure. Yet, Kirk was quite right: bending knee to a powerful being for the rest of their lives was not a desirable outcome.

So Erich Vin Daniken wrote chariot of the gods a year after this was aired???

[SciFiEntertain · 7/10 · 11 June 2019]

I remember seeing this episode as a child and never thought much of it. It was one of the ones I didn't really like. I'm older now and I watch things like ancient aliens a lot. Anyone who has watched ancient aliens knows who Erich Von Daniken is!!! Yes he's the guy that seemingly knew that the gods that the ancient world believed in were simply just aliens!!!! So something I find fascinating is that he wrote his most memorable book about this 1 year after this episode of Star Trek Was aired!!! 🤔

Gilbert Ralston had a big hand in this.

[martinjames-muzo · 8/10 · 22 September 2016]

I've just watched this for the first time as an adult- pretty sure I wouldn't have found it too interesting in the eighties as a child, so it seems like the actual first time seeing it. I also don't remember being so distracted by Chekov's wig, which from some angles unfortunately looks like a headless chicken nesting on his head.

The remastered effects are done nicely in my view, not overdone- thankfully they don't seem to have done a "Lucas" on any of the episodes I've seen so far. The hand force-field effect would have been considered a bit corny back in the sixties even, but I guess it's making a statement of some sort - The God Apollo able to grapple a whole spaceship in the fingers of his hand.

The writer Gilbert Ralston has done a good job I think, considering at the time, he was writing for children's show Gentle Ben (a nice little connection, Clint Howard was in the more highly-acclaimed episode "The Corbomite Maneuver" as the Tranya-drinking Balok).

Anyway, I won't give away much, but it's the idea that mythological Gods were real, in human form and demanded worship from us mere mortals, plus maybe steal our girlfriend in the process. Is he really who he says he is, or just a lyre? (one for Greek myth fans) But, as perhaps expected, this "God" certainly turns out to be more "myth- illogical". Incidentally, this episode is a little Spock-light as he's stuck on the seized ship giving orders, but Kirk gives us some marvellous full-on Shatnerisms. A few nice lines from McCoy as usual, especially his almost affectionate utterance of one of Spock's favourite words. Fascinating, and I'd give it an 8/10.

After all, she's a woman

[snoozejonc · 6/10 · 12 May 2021]

Enterprise encounters the Greek God Apollo.

This is a fairly weak, mostly annoying, yet bizarrely compelling episode.

It has a standard Crew v God story, similar to 'The Squire Of Gothos' and gets irritating when Kirk and Apollo start posturing. Apollo wants to take life back to when Gods were worshipped by simple folk, but being such a developed society, the crew resist (all apart from Carolyn Palamas who is not as wise, for a woman, as Apollo thinks). Whilst it makes interesting observations about human nature and advancement of society, the tone of it all is a time portal to the 1960s, with gender attitudes more archaic than the visual effects.

Most characters have poor showings, with Kirk, Apollo, Palamas and Scotty all annoyingly written. Apollo and Kirk are equally as patronising when talking about Palamas. Scotty is in creepy stalker mode and shows none of his usual engineering charm. Palamas follows the Marla McGivers blueprint. Even Spock is slightly annoying in his harassment of 'Miss' Uhura's technical work on the communications system. In fact there is a pattern of male characters generally harassing the females. Chekhov does make up for things with some comical Russian cultural references.

Even though the predicament is resolved in an uninspired way, the sequence where Apollo is portrayed quite pitifully is probably the strongest part of the episode. Strangely, it's one that I always have to follow through to the end.

The costumes are camp and glittery on the planet surface and onboard the Enterprise Uhura looks more like a hairdresser than a Starfleet Officer working beneath her console. Giant hands and floating heads in space are memorable but not convincing.

Very few of the actors give likeable performances. Michael Forest does well with some fairly poor lines, as does Leslie Parrish. However, Walter Koenig is the only one of the regular crew who I actually enjoyed watching. DeForest Kelley is solid as ever, but has nothing particularly interesting to do.

I like the concept of portraying the Greek Gods as space travellers, but it could have been so much better.

All hands on deck

[Catalist127 · 8/10 · 3 July 2008]

This is all in all a pretty good episode. All members of the original cast appear in this episode and a couple have pretty good roles. I always enjoy when Checkov has some lines as he is a solid contributor and he is intergral in this episode. Scotty is prominent as well but is a bit on the annoying side as he not using good judgement.

The Greek god Apollo is the foil in this gem and Kirk and company eventually break him down and defeat him. Nice build up on what made the Greek gods tick and how they eventually died off with only Apollo holding up hope that his minions would eventually return.

In the end, the combined efforts of Kirk and landing party on the planet and Spock back on the Enterprise working independently to sort out the challenge and prevail.

Did they really have to destroy Apollo?

[el_deano · 6/10 · 4 August 2006]

Having just seen this episode again after having first seen it when I was a teenager my first impression is still the same today (4 August 2006) as it was back in the early seventies when ST (TOS) first reached the UK. I was really upset that they had to resort to destroying Apollo. I note that Dr McCoy was of the same opinion.

My version of the story would have had Kirk, instead of antagonising Apollo at every step, trying to befriend him somewhat and trying to dissuade Apollo (or perhaps re-educate would be a better word in the context of the episode). This may have worked after quite a lot of effort after all being in the position of thinking of oneself as a god is quite a height to be let down from. Eventually, of course, the storyline may have evolved so that re-education may not have worked for some reason, thus the course of action as followed in the ST episode could have been played out as seen.

On the other hand, perhaps the extra story I'm thinking of may have made the episode too long and would have had to have been excised to fit the time slot. Who knows?

I note that the actor who played Lt. Kyle in this episode also played Commander Kyle in The Wrath of Kahn.

Finally, When I saw this episode again tonight, I too noticed the line where Kirk says to Apollo "Mankind has no need for gods". However, if I were the writer, I would simply have left it at that. Enough said.

Just OK

[mhubbard-54657 · 5/10 · 3 February 2017]

This one is a hokey. And sexist. Some "Greek God" from 5000 years ago is looking for worshipers and the Enterprise stumbles coincidentally into the situation. There is an image of a hand which turns out to be a force field. The alien then contacts the crew. Mr Spock is specifically requested to stay behind, conveniently allowing him to fix the technical conundrum. A beautiful blonde female crew person, with an elaborate hair-do, ie Yeoman Rand-esque and back-lit to further enhance her appeal, is included in the landing party. The Captain and the Doctor have actually been speculating on how long it will take her to quit the service, get married and have babies. We have Scotty showing romantic tendencies, ie jealousy, which he never did before or since. Hhhmmm...

Unlike some of the other women in previous episodes, this female first betrays, but is eventually loyal to her crew and captain, helping to save the day.

The overall story line here is weak and very sexist. It seems to take the Captain a very long time to understand the alien's power. The wig on Walter Koenig is absolutely ridiculous. Not one of my favorites.

Major Historical Misrepresentation

[chrisbaird-ma · 14 February 2013]

Ugh...this episode gets under my skin. It's historical misrepresentation encapsulates well the ignorance and hubris of our generation. This episode can be summarized by paraphrasing Kirk: "Apollo wants us to herd sheep mindlessly and worship him like the ancient Greeks did, but we won't do it because we have outgrown that life. We are now scientists!" The problem with this conceptions is that ancient Greeks were not dumb hicks mindlessly herding sheep and hating science. The ancient Greeks formed the most sophisticated civilization outside of the modern era! They essentially invented science. Archimedes invented more successful machines than the average modern scientist could ever dream of building. Plato established political science. In High Schools today, we still learn about Pythagorus' theorem, Euclid's geometry, and Archimedes' principle. In fact, the first few years of a modern High School curriculum could be labeled "Grappling with what the Greeks mastered thousands of years ago." The ancient Greeks were ambitious, bright, and critical thinkers. So why did they love their polytheistic myths so much if they weren't so simple minded? For the same reason people love Star Trek so much: myths are fun and often thought-provoking. This episode says more about the ignorance of the modern television audience than it does about the ignorance of the Greeks. Go read a non-fiction book sometime. The world is very different from what popular entertainment portrays.

One of the Better Greek-God Episodes

[mike48128 · 7/10 · 30 November 2014]

Far more intelligently written than "Plato's Children", which is one of the all-time worst episodes, it again raises the dusty theory that aliens were mistaken for gods by the ancient human cultures. As always, a cheap and sparsely decorated Roman set, with no evidence of the alien's spaceship or anything like it. To show he was a "god" the alien-Roman grows to gigantic size. Good thing his toga grows with him. Of course, he finds the (guest star) blonde Earth woman extremely attractive. Really low budget. One of those "forgettable" Star Trek Episodes. Alas, humans have outgrown their need for "Greek gods". This is one of those insipid episodes that almost killed-off the series after only two seasons.

To coin a phrase...fascinating.

[Hey_Sweden · 8/10 · 14 May 2023]

The Enterprise crew is waylaid from their current mission by an all-powerful being (Michael Forest, "Cast Away") who claims to be the ancient Greek god Apollo. He intends for the crew to take up residence on his planet where he will provide all the amenities for them - *provided* that they adore & worship him.

The typically provocative Trek script is this time written by Gilbert Ralston, in his only script for the series. (A few years later, he adapted the novel "The Ratmans' Notebooks" for the screen as the killer-animal classic "Willard".) It means to explore the idea that humanity, despite Apollos' assertions that it has changed little in the course of thousands of years, basically outgrew the need for such beings as the Greek gods. Kirk intends for Apollo to learn this lesson, even if he has to learn it the hard way.

The result is a fairly poignant and entertaining episode, and one in which we see a different side of Scotty as he is clearly enamored with a co-worker (the lovely Leslie Parrish, of "The Manchurian Candidate" fame), and this causes him to act awfully irrationally at times.

Guest stars Forest (a true physical specimen) and Parrish add weight to this engaging tale, one in which Spock is his typical all-business self while running the starship in Kirks' absence, and one in which Kirk & Bones end up regretting the steps that they had to take. All in all, this is fine entertainment.

Eight out of 10.

Kirk and company vs Apollo.

[BA_Harrison · 6/10 · 30 May 2022]

The theory that the gods worshipped by ancient civilisations on Earth were in fact space travellers with advanced powers was popularised in Erich Von Daniken's 1968 bestseller 'Chariots of the Gods?', but this episode of Star Trek addressed the issue first. In 'Who Mourns for Adonais?', the crew of The Enterprise encounter one such being, Apollo, who has spent the last few thousand years residing on a planet waiting for the human race to advance into space so that he can once again be revered and adored. Of course, Kirk isn't about to kowtow to an alien, not even one that can shoot lightning bolts from his fingertips.

The story starts with The Enterprise halted in its path by a field of energy in the form of a giant green hand - a bizarre image that sets the quirky tone for this memorable adventure for Kirk and company. Beaming down to the planet below, a landing party discovers an ancient Greek temple where they encounter Apollo (Michael Forest), who renders their equipment useless and declares that they must stay on the planet and worship him. The deity also takes a shine to Lieutenant Palamas (Leslie Parrish) and seduces the woman, much to the annoyance of Scotty. In order to defeat Apollo, Kirk and his crewmates attempt to locate the source of his power and destroy it.

There's a fair amount of fun to be had with this one, Apollo growing to giant size to tower over the landing party, transforming Palamas' uniform into a more revealing outfit befitting the queen of a god, and hurling impetuous Scotty backwards with bolts of energy. The one big problem I have with the episode is the notion that Apollo requires a 'source' for his energy, the temple apparently acting like a powerful battery: it begs the question, 'Did he lug that temple all the way to Earth and back all those years ago?'.

Apollo's furniture gets "Waporized"

[XweAponX · 10/10 · 8 August 2021]

This episode was also Sequelled in "Star Trek Continues", In the first episode of that fan series "Pilgrim of eternity", which cycles back to this episode and creates a perfect circle of times' arrow.

Another thing that makes an appearance in that STC episode is the TOS "Holodeck": had there been a fourth season of Star Trek, we would have seen a holodeck and a saucer separation, this was discussed in the book "the making of Star Trek". So when "Star Trek the next generation" had its pilot episode, these were the first two things that were exploited. There are also saucer separations of Constitution Class Starships in Tim Russ' fan film "Of Gods and Men".

"Pilgrim of Eternity" has a much better resolution to the Apollo issue than this one. Because blowing up Apollo's Stone couch was actually pretty mean. But what can you do when Apollo is squishing the enterprise saucer section with his big green hand?

One of the other reviewer's said it: Kirk could have and should have been less confrontational with Apollo. And then of course Scotty was bugsputz over Leslie Parrish, who that week was guest starring on Star Trek rather than her usual place as a guest star on Perry Mason. Of course I think at that time Perry Mason was off the air. But with Scotty running around being his usual possessive self, that didn't help matters much either.

Some have said that this really had not been one of their favorite episodes, but in reality I think it is a very important episode. It focuses the idea that it is possible that aliens had visited us in the past and were perceived as "Gods".

And I have no trouble at all believing this, we simply don't know. In ancient times the earth could have been a popular planet for aliens to visit, maybe most of our religions and mythologies were inspired by alien visitors. Some of the artifacts found in the ruins of ancient civilizations show remarkable imagery that could represent things like spaceships, spacesuits, and ET's. Even some of the imagery in the book of revelation in the Bible is very strange, did aliens visit the Isle of Patmos? And then in the book of Ezekiel we have this gadget that appears to be "wheels within wheels".

But Apollo is your standard humanoid alien visitor, he looks like a man but he has Godlike powers.

It's interesting that only in these myths regarding Greek gods and goddesses, there were all kinds of interactions with humans, which was where all the demigods came from. You don't see those same kinds of stories in, let's say, Egyptian mythology.

A jealous god.

[amusinghandle · 7/10 · 15 November 2023]

What we have here is a 50 minute Gene Roddenberry commentary on his perception of God and the worship there of.

Apollo is a jealous and clawing god that demands servitude and worship from his flock but the advanced/evolved humans of the era have outgrown the quaint idea of deity worship. I must admit, I would be far more inclined to believe in a god if I could actually see one and experience it's powers. As it turns out ---- Apollo is actually an alien ---- offspring of a group of aliens that like to colonize primitive planets and be worships as a unique perversion.

I have always maintained that god is a human invention of the rich to maintain power in a lawless society --- but --- space aliens works to. *shrugs*

We must kill our gods is the uncontroversial climax of the episode. This had to have ruffled some feathers, right? I do have a soft spot for star trek episodes that are a bit punchy and this one ends up throwing plenty of jabs.

I am a tradesman like Scotty and a damn fine one I might add. Where is my bonnie lass at? Damn, I should have been born Irish, so I could speak with a Scottish accent.

Groundbreaking for nonconformist thinking regarding ancient theology

[drgarnett · 8/10 · 2 October 2020]

This was the first Star Trek episode I ever saw, as an 11 year old. I wasn't even supposed to be out of bed. I became hooked on science fiction based on realistic science.

But the real value of this episode is to demonstrate that Lt. Uhura was not just the simple 'switchboard operator' as posited by the more brainless feminists. Uhura was a communications engineer, capable of performing repairs and adjustments to the electronics of her equipment -- just as in the episode "The Naked Time", she took over the navigation station from Reilly, showing that all bridge officers were cross-trained for various duties.

According to Apollo he wasn't a god!

[charlieretiredguy · 10/10 · 29 September 2023]

While telling the landing party about himself, Apollo states that his father is Zeus and his mother was Lito, a mortal or human. In that case Apollo would actually be a demigod or a Titan.

Lito was actually a Titan princess, which did make Apollo a God in all sense and manner. I would consider this only a blooper by the writers of the show and did not take away much of the enjoyment.

My all time favorite was shown the other night. City on the Edge of Forever. Now that was the all-time best Star Trek episode of any of the Star Trek series. It's too bad that few of the original cast are still around.

Neat idea, terrible execution

[ryaning13 · 1/10 · 27 January 2012]

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.

Some fairly deep stuff.

[Blueghost · 27 August 2010]

Alright, where to start. We have on the surface a pretty standard sci- fi theme of old-historic power meets modern man. The two meet and things happen.

We've got this highly self centered and egotistical (and I should add abusive) "god" from Earth's past wanting adoration just like the olden days. But the days of mans' "oohing" and "ahhing" over things like fire, storms and earthquakes are over. Man is the master of his domain (the odd Klingon not withstanding), and needs little for super natural beings to interfere in his life.

But Apollo has other plans.

What strikes me as being interesting about this episode is a notion that the author brought up. The notion that we, mankind, have this primitive nature within us, but that we grow beyond it as we mature. Apollo, as another reviewer stated, is in this essence an immature teenage boy. He's an adolescent with lots of power. So much power that he can stop one of starfleet's finest vessels cold in space.

The story comments on man's primitive instincts and base desires. They're a foundation for a lot of what human's have achieved, but in the end they're only the foundation, and not the higher modes of thought we use in everyday life. Apollo uses his classical Greek god status and powers to try to win over the higher social circle that is the personnel of Starfleet command. He has temporary success, but must ultimately be brought down lest the rest of the Federation see/hear/read about the Enterprise not returning from a mission.

In this way you could use this episode as an allegory for a lot of man's ills, and a lot of history we as humans have created for ourselves because of our inner Apollo. Though the truth is that even though we recognize all those negative or over-energetic and unregulated aspects within ourselves, we still have Apollo-like moments. The key is to not let our inner Apollo over come our inner Kirk :-)

The times being what they were we have a Russian in the episode in the form of Chekov. Scotty, for whatever reason, has beamed down completing the usual "Let's send the ship's senior staff to the planet" motif that seems to be in nearly all Trek episodes. But hey, we wouldn't have a show or story if that didn't happen.

If I had a gripe with this installment of Trek it's that the thing wasn't shot outdoors. It's got that ever oh-so Trek artificiality when it comes to alien planetscapes shot on a stage. Which is too bad because this would have been perfect if Desilu could have found an old Steve Reeves' gladiator set, and had it double for an ancient Greek god oracle. Then again who knows? Anyway, that's how I would've shot it :- )

In any event, give it a whirl. It should entertain.

*EDIT* Hmm, interesting; apparently some of this applies to myself: An egotistical self-centered "god", prone to mood sways and high opinions of his worth than he actually is, has caused some mischief and problems for the traffic ways in the UFP. However, the difference is that for Trek's Apollo, his treatment was forced. Mine was voluntary, and now I've got some sort of plot to get me to "fairer pastures"; note; not greener, but something more suitable? Sorry. It's not going to happen. No matter who is sent to plead the case.

These reviews are done.

Allegorical commentary done with style

[thevacinstaller-03350 · 8/10 · 21 December 2022]

The story in this episode is just okay but this episode is all about the sub context and allegorical commentary on God / Worshipping God's.

How do you make a commentary about how "God" is jealous, not needed, and selfish in it's need to worship? Well, you write an episode about a Greek 'God' for a dead religion and you are spared the fury and pitchforks from a largely religious American viewership.

It takes a deft hand to come up with that idea and frame it in a manner to actually make a point that could potentially change the mind of someone watching it instead of insulting them and having them check out of watching the episode. I have no doubt that star trek has influenced minds in this way and likely improved people who have watched it (Not suggestion belief in itself is evil ---- I am talking a broad range of negative human attributes)

This one is getting a higher score from me based primarily on the creativity.

On top of being impressed with that ---- Chekov had me laughing with his 'mother russia' stick and I openly laughed at this small scene about helping Carolyn:

CHEKOV: Perhaps if I assisted.

KIRK: How old are you?

CHEKOV: Twenty two, sir.

KIRK: Then I'd better handle it.