How come the Proconsul and Merrick wore Roman style clothes, but the TV techs and announcers wore mid-20th century american clothing?
Maybe it's a symbol of their special rank.
I sat down to watch this armed with a notepad. This is what I came up with.
Spock seems surprised that the people on this planet speak English. The people on all the planets they go to speak English and no one has ever commented on it before. (And this is before the ubiquitous Universal Translator came into general use.) Another point--if this is a parallel Earth, with a parallel Roman Empire, why aren't they speaking a form of Latin? To the Romans, English would have been considered a barbarian tongue.
I liked the slave shirts with the symbolic chain loops up near the collar. Nice touch. I also noticed that Drusilla, when she was wearing her metallic gold seduction outfit, also showed, very briefly, what appeared to be a chain hanging down her back. It couldn't have been a real one, or it would have torn her outfit, so it must have been a very light, symbolic chain.
When Kirk was first given back his communicator and told to bring his officers down, the doors suddenly burst open and guards came and surrounded him. How did they know to come in at that precise moment?
When the Proconsul told Kirk that they were prempting 15 minutes for his execution, he paused and then said something like, "I forget. You're probably centuries ahead of anything as crude as television." Kirk replied. "I've heard it was similar." Similar to WHAT? In Phil's book, he said it was in comparison to violence, but it sure didn't sound like it to me.
Lastly--did they think of trying to retrieve those few men from the Beagle who had "adapted" to the planet and survived?
Merik(us) says that the Enterprise is a starship, whereas the Beagle was just a spaceship. However, the Enterprise has a USS designation, whereas the Beagle has an SS designation. Wouldn`t that mean that the Enterprise is a United Space Ship whereas the Beagle is just a Space Ship?
Good episode. The best part was the sly parody of TV with the filming of the gladiators. The guy playing Merrik was pretty good, the guy as Marcus was weaker.
Few Quibbles--
It was a great idea, showing a group of Christians on the planet, but I have yet to find a Christian yet who keeps saying "the Son" instead of "Jesus" or "Christ". I know it's used a bit, but not all the time.
The scene with Kirk and the slave girl was added just for that "love scene" thing.
D. K. Henderson asked how the guards knew to come in right at the moment when Kirk began calling the Enterprise. He missed the following shot where we see the Proconsul looking warningly at Kirk, his hand on a button underneath the table.
In the scene where Flavius is leading the away team toward the capital, they stop behind a clump of trees, which have pieces of bark missing from them. A moment later, soldiers spray bullets their way, chewing holes into the trees--the same holes we saw a moment before.
Talking about TV, Kirk's line of "I heard it was similar" is even more profound today than it was then. Maybe Kirk has heard of American Gladiators. Or maybe what Kirk meant by "similar" was that TV was a wasteland. Nimoy said it best on SCI-FI, "Anything for a rating."
Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!
Kirk knows that survivors from the Beagle are considered barbarians and forced to fight to the death and he still decides to go down? With his first officer and chief medical officer?
I find it amazing that people whose job it is to provide TV shows keep showing the idea of bloody TV programs in the future. Are they insulting the viewers, the networks or themselves?
There is another explanation for the Roman Empire on this planet besides Hodgkins' Law of Parallel Planet Development... Romulans. The Romulans' homeworlds are called Romulus and Remus, the myths of the founding of Rome have several celestial references and the Romans, Romulans, and this worlds 'Romans' have similar job titles.
Spock calls them ears, but technically the part which is the ear is inside the head.
The Beagle crashed six years earlier, then when asking for information, Spock says that the survivors wore clothing similar to what the landing party wears. At first I thought this was a mistake since in Where No Man Has Gone Before showed a different type of uniform. However when Merrick shows up you can see a green collar sticking out from under his tunic and the collar looks like the same type of uniform seen in Where No Man Has Gone Before. If it was one of those uniforms then somebody behind the scenes did a very good job.
Why didn't the landing party wear some Roman clothing?
In trying to learn about the Beagle survivors, Kirk violates the Prime Directive by mentioning men from the sky and other worlds.
Merrick says his ship suffered meteor damage. In space it is a meteoroid, in an atmosphere it is a meteor. So where was Merrick's ship when it was damaged?
I believe that the Proconsul identifies Spock as a Vulcan and then comments on wanting to use them in the games. The interesting thing is that Vulcan is the Roman god of the forge. (And the Romulans were Vulcans who were colonizing other worlds... hmmm?)
My nephew, Jon, saw Spock trying to bend the bars and said that he thought that Spock had the strength of ten men. I guess those were really strong bars.
The Proconsul believe that Kirk should have been a Roman. In previous episodes, Conscience Of The King and Mirror, Mirror, various women have commented that Kirk is like a Caesar. (And in Balance Of Terror the Romulan commander admired Kirk and even thought they might be friends in another reality.) I would say the creators of this show had a fixation on the Roman Empire. (Hail, Kirk!)
The guards have Kirk, Spock and McCoy surrounded and the Proconsul realizes that if they fire some of the guards will be killed, so he orders them to use swords only. So why doesn't Kirk just use his machine gun to kill the guards? None of his men are in the line of fire.
Throughout the show the Proconsul insults Merrick's manhood, so why is he surprised when Merrick betrays him?
How come the gladitorial fights took place in a TV studio as opposed to something like, say, Madison Square Gardens? Wouldn't Romans on this planet want to actually be there if they could, as opposed to watching it on TV?
"This is Don Caesar, bringing you the rumble from the concrete jungle! Yes, Marcus Tysonius vs. the barbarian Flavius! Retarius to retarius action, from the salute to the thumbs down! But remember to bring your Roman Express card because here at Madison Square Colliseum, you have to pay to see 'um!"
At the beginning of the episode, the crew talks about television and video like it is an ancient historical curiosity. What, the people in Trek's time don't have television in any form? I find that difficult to believe, especially since they use video-unit communications on board ship.
Apparently, Roddenberry's better, brighter future, didn't include TV.
(A rather odd point of view given how he made his living.)
In the NextGen episode The Neutral Zone, Data states that TV is a fad that ended in 2040.
This was later contradicted, after Roddenberry died, in Star Trek: Generations with all those reporters interviewing Kirk, also Neelix started a form of TV programming on Voyager, and apparently they still have news broadcasts because they were mentioned in a late DS9 episode.
But at the time when this episode was filmed the idea was that TV was as dead as a dodo.
BEST LINE:
"They're not talking about the sun up in the sky,
but the Son of God." Uhura
**** -4 stars
Thumbs up---way up.
Spock-tacular!
Didn't DS9's Past Tense establish that TV and the Internet had become one, so perhaps that's what exists in the future?
There are also newscasts in Spock's time. as Valeris mentions a newscast in the video version of "Star Trek VI-The Undiscovered Country". (This scene was cut fot theaters but restored for video and cable runs.) The announcer for the games is Bart La Rue, who also was the voice of the Guardian of Forever.
There are also newscasts in Spock's time, as ST:Generations so ably shows.
Spock's time covers the 23rd & 24th centuries. He's still alive on Romulus.
>Spock seems surprised that the people on this >planet speak English. The people on all the >planets they go to speak English and no one has >ever commented on it before. (And this is before >the ubiquitous Universal Translator came into >general use.)
It's also funny that he's surprised the people on the planet speak English since just before leaving the ship he saw the TV broadcast from the planet in English.
What with all the "reality" TV shows, FX's original programming pandering to a lower and lower standard, that upcoming program where a bunch of unwed couples will be stuck on an island with a bunch of singles whose mission is to seduce them--can live gladiatorial games be far behind?
Isn't that called Professional Wrestling?
Nah--that's just violent choreography.
I'll tell you this--if anyone could bypass today's laws and bring back the Roman circuses, you'd have people screaming protests--but you'd also have people beating down the doors to get in and watch them. The scary thing is, I don't know which group would be the majority and which the minority.
The sad thing is there would be more people protesting the use of animals in the games than the use of people.
Also, would there be enough people out there willing to fight to the death for lovely cash & prizes?
(Well, that would be one way to cull the idiots from our population. So there is an upside.;-)
To D.K. I have not heard of that show. Are you referring to "Chains of Love", which was dropped by NBC but picked up by UPN?
I think Logan Ramsey died a few years ago. He was married to the late Ann Ramsey ("Throw Momma From The Train", co-starring the Future Janeway, Kate Mulgrew.)
Adam, no, it's "Temptation Island".
I just realized upon this most recent viewing of this episode that when Kirk is escorted into the arena with Merrick and Claudius prior to Spock and McCoy being brought in, that you can see the far walls of the actual Star Trek studio in the background, between the fake colisium set. It's gotta be the real thing, because why would they spend money on erecting a fake studio wall?
Well, that only took about 25 viewings to notice...
I don't think that's a nit. It's a money-saver. Consider, everyone is *IN* a TV studio on the Rome planet, what better way to save money than to use the Trek studio? Of course, this also explains why the techs are wearing 20th Century clothing, but it makes sense for the cheap gladiatorial sets to be seen through, but the techs should still be wearing Roman garb... after all, Nitpickers Don't Deal With Reality™.
You also see the back walls of the studio in the video of "Star Trek The Motion Picture" but that is another topic.
Trivia note: When watching the planet's tv signals before beaming down Kirk and co. see an ad for the Jupiter 8 car. The Japanese electronic instrument firm Roland released a synthesizer with the same name in 1980. However there's no real connection, as Roland had previously released the Jupiter 4.
Let's not forget...the Jupiter 2 is Lost in Space!
There's a line spoke by Kirk in this episode that is obviously overdubbed. Refering to television, the line heard is, "I've heard its was-similiar." However, it looks to me like he is mouthing another word, possibly "primitive." Since I'm not a lip reader I can't be sure. Any lip readers out there?
How come Drusilla doesn't get to show her navel? The women in "The Apple" did.
The video transmission the Enterprise picks up is in black & white. Don't they have color TV on that planet?
PROPHECY FULFILLED: One of the camera guys is using a portable hand-held camera...THIS WAS NOT IN VOGUE IN 1968!!!!!! They had the big, clumsy ones for TV broadcasts!
The shot of Chekov pushing the buttons comes from "Mirror, Mirror"
GREAT COMMAND DECISION: Kirk uses "Condition Green"
He should have used General Order 24. Great bluff that would have been
The story points out that the Proconsul Clauduis Marcus "gives" Drusilla to Kirk as his "slave" for the night for his "last chance to be a man".
Intercourse on Star Trek? It certainly sounds like it.
If so, where's that kid from the "night together" and what is his/her name?
It takes an unusually long time for the title of this episode to pop up....it finally does after Kirk grouses about the choice of the beam down point.
Sulu is missing in this episode.
He must be on shore leave......
on the sands of Iwo Jima!
(snicker, snicker, snicker)
Chris---Kirk says "I heard it was simular" verified on DVD.
The TV announcer sounds like "The Guardian of Forever"...hmmmmm....I wonder why?
GREAT LINE: "If you bring this networks' ratings down, we'll do a special on you!" Guard to Flavius during the games.
I stand corrected on Sulu's dissappearance...he "joined" "The Green Berets"
Another correction...they DO have color TV on the planet...so that makes the nit on the video that much bigger!
By the way...General Order 24 is somewhat mentioned in this episode...not by name, but by purpose!
Back in the late '60s, though color TV was available, many sets were B&W, and often broadcasts were still in B&W. Hence, the NBC peacock and "...broadcast in living color"
OK...so what's the Enterprise's excuse?...All their video up until this point is in color and if the games were broadcast in color, the Enterprise should have received it in color.
Maybe the software couldn't unscramble the colouring encoding system.
Then that makes the nit that much bigger.
Why wouldn't a 23rd century Starship, with all its computers and technology be able to unscramble something simple as a primitive 20th century style color encoding system? (or video for that matter)
Man, that nit is so big you can drive a Mack truck thru it!
Howabout the K29-5 circuit was closed on Uhura's panel, which controls the color picture on the main screen? The color copier at my company can make copies in color or black and white, so why can't the main screen be adjusted to show a black and white picture instead of...ah, heck.
It's a nit, through and through.
Indeed...why would the Enterprise want to see a b&w broadcast when they have color technology & the encoding? Never mind.
OTHER NITS:
Flavius gets the proverbial "2 lashes with a wet noodle"...he's whipped on the back, but it leaves no mark.
The sound effect board used at the games is very interesting:
There are 4 labels: "applause / cheers / boos /catcalls"
Underneath the labels "cheers" & "boos" you can see some white embossing...it says "microphone"
So..in other words...even this planet has a cramped budget like Desilu...they have to salvage old sound mix boards and turn them into sound effects generators.
In order to coerce Kirk into ordering his crew to beam down, Claudius Marcus pits Spock and McCoy against two seasoned gladiators in a televised match. Isn't Claudius Marcus concerned that the Enterprise might intercept this transmission, and discover the fate of Spock and McCoy? If the Enterprise sees this match, they are unlikely to beam themselves into Claudius Marcus' hands no matter what lies Kirk might finally be compelled to speak! Maybe Claudius Marcus doesn't realize that the Enterprise has the capability to intercept and interpret these transmissions, but Merrick surely would realize it. Anyhow, it seems unlikely that Claudius Marcus wouldn't think of it on his own: His civilization is about on par with the earth of the 1960s, and as far back as the 1950s it was routine for spacefaring races in science fiction movies to have learned our language by listening to our television broadcasts from orbit.
The same objection applies to the televised execution of Kirk scheduled the next day. Not only does this further risk tipping off the Enterprise as to what is going on down on the planet, it in no way advances Claudius Marcus' aims to execute Kirk… not even if Kirk were executed in private. As far as I can see, he is just executing Kirk for spite.
And while we're on the subject, just where does Flavius come from when he dashes in to save Kirk?
Could Kirk and company be any more inept in their efforts to observe the prime directive? They beam down in their otherworldly uniforms, with their otherworldly weapons, communicators and tricorders in full view (not to mention Spock's ears!). They have only the lamest of explanations to offer for their presence here or their appearance, and Spock is forever saying things like "Remarkable! Colloquial 20th Century English!" within earshot of the natives (this really is remarkable: If Rome never fell I would expect everyone to be speaking in colloquial 20th Century Latin). Not to mention that detecting a starship in orbit would probably be well within the capabilities of this culture…
At least the "colloquial 20th Century English" blunder spares the creators the usual embarrassment of the universal translator. In episode after episode, Kirk and company have their communicators and phasers taken from them by alien captors… but no one ever finds universal translators on their persons and confiscates those. This is very lucky for us viewers, because if the aliens ever did take the universal translators, we would be deprived of the superbly-written dialog that characterizes so many episodes of Star Trek.
I am frankly astonished that when Flavius tells McCoy to "at least try to defend yourself!" McCoy fails to respond with "I'm a Doctor, dammit, not a gladiator!"
This episode's plot has more holes than there were in Caesar when the senators stabbed him…
Claudius Marcus, worried about cultural contamination from the outside, wants Kirk to beam down his entire crew so that the planet can remain uncharted. Even if Kirk fails to cooperate, Marcus is unconcerned, because the crew will come down piecemeal in search parties before long, ultimately emptying the vessel out. Does it never occur to Claudius Marcus (or at least to his advisor, Merrick) that the Enterprise might radio their situation and findings back to Starfleet before things got this far? Does it not occur to him that they might already have done so? Even if they hadn't, couldn't Kirk pretend that he has already sent such a subspace message, thereby undermining Marcus' stated rationale for keeping him prisoner? And does anyone really think that the Enterprise would empty itself out with search parties? Even if Scotty were dumb enough (granted, in some episodes he is just about this dumb) to keep sending search parties down, surely there is some Starfleet regulation that forbids a commander from sending out search parties after 10 or 20 percent of the crew has vanished! How can Claudius Marcus be so certain he will catch all these search parties, anyhow? It is pretty hard to intercept search parties that can teleport to any location on your planet at will, and who are possessed of superior weaponry and communications. And if Claudius Marcus is so sure that the Enterprise crew will send out one search party after another, why does he not think that Starfleet will do the same when the Enterprise fails to come home from this mission? Does he have some reason to think that Starfleet hasn't the foggiest idea where the Enterprise is right now?
One might also wonder whether the crew of the Enterprise would obey Kirk even if he were to comply with Claudius Marcus' demands and order them all down. Surely there is a regulation against abandoning a perfectly healthy starship, at least whenever the order is issued planetside by a Captain who might very well be acting under duress. The crew of the Enterprise ought to be particularly suspicious of such orders, since Anon-7 of Eminiar tried to get Kirk to issue them (in Taste of Armageddon) and even faked the Captain's voice. Or maybe they would remember how Roger Corby created an android Kirk, or how there once was a salt vampire aboard who could assume any crewman's shape and voice, or how a transporter accident once split Kirk into two… You would think that by now the Enterprise might have worked out a procedure for verifying the Captain's identity, and would have standing orders not to obey such patently absurd orders as "beam everyone down."
But all this aside, why does Claudius Marcus even care if his planet remains uncharted or not? He seems to understand the prime directive just fine, and relies upon it throughout the episode to constrain Kirk's behavior. If Claudius Marcus understands the prime directive, then he should know he has nothing to fear from the Enterprise reporting the existence of his planet: He should know that there will be no cultural contamination, because the Federation will not openly visit his planet.
YET ANOTHER GREAT LINE:
Drusilla says to Kirk, "...Tonight, I am your slave....command me."
WHOO BOY!!!!!!!!
Huh huh huh huh huh!
As you say, John A Lang, Drusilla is given over to Kirk for "Tonight" or "This evening". When Kirk wakes up after.... well, after, Claudius Marcus says it is no wonder he has slept through "the afternoon". He slept from last night through the afternoon??? Boy, was that Drusilla ever something
Actually, the more I think about this episode, the more I have a problem with it. Now please understand, I'm not trying to push retro-PC into sixties Trek, but this episode contains an unchallenged endorsement of slavery. Claudius Marcus gives Drusilla to Kirk for the evening, and Kirk apparently accepts. The woman's opinion is never consulted. Presumably had she refused she would have been whipped to within an inch of her life.
Now, ok, this is the Kirkster. We're supposed to assume that Drusilla considers herself fortunate to be awarded to Kirk for the night (well, since the option would have been Claudius Marcus....). But it might have been nice if that had actually been said on air. Or do we assume that Starfleet accepts slavery as long as you don't enslave Starfleet personnel? Or that Kirk felt 'obliged' to accept their cultural norms since questionning them might have been a breach of the PD?? (damned convenient of you ask me )
When Kirk, McCoy & Spock beam back up, the guards fire their machine guns and Claudius Marcus JUMPS as if he were startled...startled at what?
No doubt he's see the transporter work, seeing the crew of the SS Beagle beam down & up...so he can't be startled at that...Was he startled at the sound of the machine guns? He shouldn't be, he's heard those before too. IMHO Logan Ramsey (Marcus) screwed up his acting and was startled at the machine gun sfx....he wasn't expecting them to be so loud.
Just before Uhura makes her sun/son comment, Spock is surprised that there are sun worshippers on the planet because there were none in first century Rome.
But, there were sun worshippers in first century Rome. The mystery cult of Christ-Helios was active. In addition, Sol Invictus, the undefeated sun, played a part in Mithraism.
Even if there had been no sun worshippers in Rome, why should there have been any on that planet? What is more probable, a perfect recreation of first century Rome, albeit with cars and TV, or a culture that resembles first century Rome, but with major differences?
I suspect Uhura's comment is one of the reasons writers had the natives speaking English. The son/sun homonym doesn't exist in Latin.
Kirk doesn't exactly violate the PD when talking to Septimus. "Say you heard an impossible story, of men who came from the sky, from other worlds". He didn't imply it was a truth, but a legend that was spoken of about men who had no satisfactory explanation for their origin.
No one has commented on the black cameraman. Interesting that integration has been achieved, except for the slaves, definition of which seems to be based on other reasons: religious convictions? criminal record? sympathizing with slaves? anti-gladiatorial activism?
I noticed that hand-held camera in the background for the first time this past week. It could be a newsman's camera. TV stations sometimes used cameras for silent footage, especially if they're going to fly in a chopper where the motor and rotor sounds would drown out meaningful sound anyway (e.g. filming fire scenes, floods, Interstate pile-ups from the air).
The footage shot by the cameraman could be commented on by the sports TV anchor, and even mixed in under the sound and in place of inferior video shots of Spock, McCoy, Flavius and the other guy.
The Jupiter 8 ad was not a TV ad seen before beaming down - it was an ad in the popular magazine The Gallian that Spock found in the escaped slaves' cave.
All that the bridge crew saw was cutting into a report about slave revolts, then going to the world of sports, and losing the signal just after the death of William B Harrison is mentioned.
I agree, B&W is not too unusual. Enterprise might have picked up a remote transmitter that had not yet been upgraded to colour. It also might not have been a system familiar to the Enterprise. In the minute or less that they had the signal, they were probably fortunate to get what they did. The computer had to figure out:
* how many images per second were being transmitted - 30? 25? 50? 27? (the seconds being a little shorter or longer)
* how many lines is the picture? 525? 625? 819? 405? Those are the four standards used on Earth from 1950 through 1980, although I think the British have phased out 405, and the French may have phased out 819.
* is it AM or FM sound modulation?
* what is the signal polarity - vertical or horizontal?
* what is the aspect ratio? It looks like Rome is using a ratio closer to 2:1 than to 4:3. None of the human heads looked squished in any direction.
All these factors and more just to produce a monochrome image. Now, is that colour signal supposed to be compatible colour? - or is there a colour signal? The Romans might have chosen to broadcast colour TV on a different set of frequencies, and require eventual replacement of all existing receivers in order to phase out the B&W transmitter network.
If it is compatible colour, is it NTSC (America & Japan), PAL (western Europe) or SECAM (France and the Communist nations), or SECAM-III (East Germany), or is it one of the other systems developed before NTSC, PAL and SECAM became the standard choices?
With less than a minute, I think the computer did its best and gave them what it could.
It would've been sweet if Scotty had been up to date, watching on TV, and known the precise moment to tell Chekov to yank out the power.
As to the locale of the combat, it could be that the regular coliseum is closed for repairs and renovations. For a few years, they're doing local stuff in a TV studio. That's a weak justification, but it's something.
I think it's something I thought of over a decade ago. Who is this Claudius Marcus, "proconsul"? He struck me as someone who sits in regularly for Name the Winner and other ones. Are there lots of these proconsuls? And Merik is First Citizen, master of the games. Hmmm...
Okay, I don't know how extensive the Roman civilization is... it might be planetwide, or there might be an "east-west" thing. Rome is one of these two. The others are barbarians, even though they might, in fact, be a more civilized culture, but they're busy keeping the Romans from overrunning them - imagine a cold war type standoff, a balance of power with non-nuke weaponry.
Each Roman province or major city has its own proconsul and master of the games. The proconsul might have other official duties, but he also has the ho-hum task of going down to the TV studio every day to preside over some gladiator combat. And with that, he has a nice wardrobe allowance of traditional-style Roman clothes, while most people have to buy what they can at R-Mart, Woolworthius', and Kresgeus.
For that matter, there might be several "proconsuls", and Claudius Marcus is on contract for Empire TV. Someone else is the contract proconsul for the another network (RBS?).
We can't know exactly what Kirk let Drusilla do, but I got the impression he was more polite to her than Marcus. He seemed to enjoy dinner.
Umm, why wouldn't Merrick know what "condition green" means?
I suppose one could explain it away by saying Starfleet hadn't devised that one yet when Merrick and crew got shipwrecked.
Not necessarily a nit but:
This episode portrays the Romans as suppressing Christianity, and suggests that had the Roman Empire not fallen, we'd all be worshipping the Roman Gods. On our world, the Romans were converted to Christianity and carried it all over their Empire.
There was mention above of a black cameraman; the implication being, why wasn't he a slave?
IIRC, the Roman Empire did not seek to enslave the countries in the Empire, but rather sought to Romanise them. Also I think it was possible for a Roman slave to become a Citizen. I don't think somebody in Rome would be a slave simply because of their race (unless there was an additional political motivation).
When Kirk says, "I've heard it was similar", he's comparing this Roman TV with Earth TV. (He may have heard more about Roman TV during the commercial breaks--we don't see everything.)
TV died out--maybe what happened was the current system with the networks and commercial advertisers died out, replaced by cable and public TV funded by donors and wealthy philanthropists.
The philanthropists can just start their own public TV networks.
In ancient times, people were enslaved for debts, as prisoners of war, for various crimes, not for race.
No way would those slaves have failed to explain exactly what they meant by "The Son."
The planet has several geographic features different from Earth--it should have been a duplicate like Miri's Planet. The geographic differences would have caused differences in climate, available plant and animal life, history, etc.
A more likely explanation is the Preservers took some pagan Romans and set them on this planet just to see what would happen.
Uhura says the guy on the radio couldn't bring himself to make fun of Christianity.
Nit: Lots of people made fun of it, and still do.
Anti-nit: The guy on the radio was secretly a Christian.
This episode has one of Kirk's more egregious incompetent blunders, when he's incapable of telling a lie.
He should have said, "Sure, I'll have Scott beam down a bunch of phasers."
Then, beforehand, he had arranged for certain words and phrases to have special meanings--the code words and phrases would be different for each ship, and they'd be changed periodically. That's why Merik wouldn't know what "Condition Green" means.
But when Kirk says, "Condition Green," he should NOT say it dramatically and quickly; he should say it calmly, as if he's confirming the order. Then Scott understands that Kirk really means, "Beam up everybody in this room and have security standing by."
Of course, they had to have something more dramatic because it was just before a commercial break and they didn't want the audience to switch channels.
It wouldn't necessarily end the episode early because they'd have to find the other surviving crew...speaking of which, the Romans wouldn't have called that guy "William B. Harrison", they'd Latinize his name and probably only use one name--either Villamus or Harrisius.
Good use of Roman food, mentioning garum, roast sparrow, which they did have.
The throw rugs...which are supposed to be dead animal skins, look absolutely fake.
Does anyone know where the "street footage" was shot? (The cars & Roman Empire-like buildings)
Maybe the rugs ARE fake. Even societies that routinely brutalise their higher life forms probably have a version of PETA. 
Does anyone know where the "street footage" was shot? (The cars & Roman Empire-like buildings)
Probably the back lot at Desilu or Paramount.
Oh, you guys are talking about throw rugs. When I saw the first part of kerri's line on the Last Day page, I thought you were talking about Shatner's hair.
Silly me.
PETA = People Eating Tasty Animals.
Just thought I'd add that.
When the two gladiators approach the Procouncil's throne, they salute by banging their fists on their chests and say nothing. HOWEVER, in ancient Roman times (which this planet is supposed to resemble) the gladiators are supposed to say, "We who are about to die, salute you." The gladiators in this episode did not say that.
This episode, whether coincidentally or by intent, originally aired on the Ides of March (March 15). The fact that it was placed far out of production order leads me to believe that it was intentional. If so, it was a cute touch.
"When the two gladiators approach the Procouncil's throne, they salute by banging their fists on their chests and say nothing. HOWEVER, in ancient Roman times (which this planet is supposed to resemble) the gladiators are supposed to say, "We who are about to die, salute you." The gladiators in this episode did not say that." - John A. Lang
Yeah, well, the gladiators of ancient times didn't have their battles aired on TV either, did they? I don't personally see that as a nit, John. This is another planet. There's no reason they should culturally resemble our ancient Rome to the finest detail. The fact that they have TV programs is a major difference. Why wouldn't there be minor differences?
Besides which real-life gladiators were saluting Caesar - ie the Emperor - not just the highest-ranking official who happened to show up that day. (It had to do with the Emperor being revered as a god-figure).
So it's very likely, even assuming the similarities are that exact (albeit Benn makes a pretty good point above) that when the Emperor of this planet - they're up to who, Claudius by now maybe? shows up, they go into full-bore reverence mode, but when its only a Procounsel they just do the chest-thumping thingee and leave it at that.
EXPLANATION: In "Spartacus" they did both. (Chest thumping & saying "We who are about to die...") in front of a couple of Senators & their wives. That's where I got the idea. I was under the impression the gladiators did both in front of whoever was on the throne (s) (Just a note: the incident in "Spartacus" was during the Senator's wife's birthday...so the gladiators were told to "entertain" her)
Director: We're dropping the "We who are about to die" line.
Gladiator [bursts into tears]: But it's my only line!
You are right, John A. Lang. Whoever was holding the games and providing the gladiators would receive the salute. It was not always public officials who paid for games. Gladiator games were often held by people running for public office or by people looking to celebrate something. They'd pay for slaves to be trained to fight, or they'd hire already trained profssionals. Companies existed to train and manage stables of gladiators. It was a good way to show off how important and rich you were that you could import wild animals and buy dozens or hundreds of slaves just to let them die to amuse the public. Also, not every fight was to the death, because trained gladiators were a huge investment.
About slavery, the Romans were not very racist people. They didn't assume superiority to everyone else, and happily borrowed ideas and religions from other cultures. They had slaves from all over the known world, because every culture they encountered had slavery also. It was normal to them.
Hm. Excuse me...I need to go clock a certain Grade-10 History teacher upside the head, then.
Tennyrate, Benn's explanation above still holds. This isn't the Rome of Spartacus' era, and it is more than reasonable to assume that with the advent of 'civilization' there'd be considerable deviation from the standard.
Perhaps the gladiators of this planet did say, "We who are about to die..." years ago, but had it discontinued to get "right to the action"
Sounds about right.
GUEST STAR PATROL: The guy who plays Procounsel Marcus in this episode is also the cop in the Monkees feature film "Head".
He was also a recurring character on Happy Days, playing Officer Kirk. And he appeared in the M*A*S*H episode, "The Incubator". The actor's name is Logan Ramsey.
Actually, Ed Peck played Officer Kirk (he also played Colonel Fellini in the TOS episode "Tomorrow is Yesterday").
Oops! You're right, Nove. Thanks!
NANJAO - William Smithers (Merikus) went on to do a TV series version of Executive Suite, which was based on a film directed by Robert Wise, who directed ST-TMP.
There's a blooper from this episode in the blooper reel. It's from the scene near the end where all the Roman guards race in with machine guns. One of the guards slid on his heels and took a hard fall. The finished episode looks like they used the shot anyway, and cut away just before the poor guy took his fall.
On that same reel is the Roman Guard who tells Flavius to fight or 'they'll do a special on you'. In the blooper he points at Spock and McCoy entering the arena and says, "If they refuse to move out on cue, screw them!", which is followed by Shatner and the actor playing Marcus laughing. I'm wondering if that was a botched line by the actor playing the guard, or an intentional blooper?
Another blooper classic from this episode had Ted Cassidy (who was filmed a different show on the same lot that day) grab Shatner and carry him off just as he is about to rescue Spock and McCoy from the cell. "I don't know about you, but this is not the way it was planned!" Shatner yells as he is being carried away.
Kirk tells Septimus one of his missing friends was seen in the city recently and said his name was Merik. There was never any indication of this in the episode, however. Harrison was the one they saw on TV.
Septimus tells Kirk he has to discuss Kirk's request with "the others." We then see a group of people leaving to discuss, except one person stays -- the only woman in that shot. Hmm. Well, they did say, "All men are brothers." They didn't say anything about women.
During the fight at the end, there's a shot of Spock fighting, with McCoy in the background walking over to the mattress which he throws at the guards later. But that's exactly the problem. He's walking over to it very calmly, like they're not in danger for their lives or anything.
Another explanation for how this culture began: the Platonians visited Earth and copied the Greek culture, so maybe the ancestors of these people did the same with Rome. After 2000 years, their origins got lost.
First they say the Beagle is a survey vessel, then Kirk says Merik went into the merchant service. So which is it? And was it a Starfleet ship?
Questions arose earlier about why they were taping the gladiator matches in a TV studio instead of an arena. Maybe you have to pay good money to see them in an arena, and the TV matches are a hook to get you to do that (very similar to local wrestling shows)
The Proconsul seemed to give up rather easily on insulating his planet from outside contact. He stopped trying to get Kirk to bring his crew down and decided to just execute him and the others. He didn't seem particularly bothered by the fact that they beamed away. In fact, he could have taken the communicator away from Merik, putting the landing party in a very bad position...yet he didn't.
Wouldn't this planet's TV transmissions go out into space and thereby reveal their existence to ships that happened to pick them up? He's leaving himself open to contamination there.
William Smithers (Merik) also played oilman Jeremy Wendell on Dallas.
One thing I've noticed too is that when the guards enter the cell, to get the "collapsed" McCoy, Kirk (Shatner) appears to be reaching for the cell door or something.
This episode shows how totally ignorant Gene Roddenberry was of early Christian history. For one thing pacifism was never a major part of early Christian dogma.Well it is true that
there were some Christians who did adopt a form of pacifism most wouldn't have been considered pacifists.The fact of the matter is that soldiers who converted to Christianity continued to serve without contradiction in the Roman Army.
Also the whole "Brotherhood" gibberish that is preached throughout the episode has more to do with Roddenberry's new agish theology of the time than anything to do with actual Christian theology.
That being said,the other major problem with the episode is that it presumption that persecution of the Christian church would continue in a modern version of the Roman Empire.
Uhm..didn't Roddenberry ever hear about a Emperor called CONSTATINE I? The Roman Emperor who... HALTED PERSECUTION OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH?
Or did this version of the Roman Empire NOT HAVE
A CONSTATINE?
Maybe they didn't. Or maybe they did, but he existed before this civilization's version of Christianity got started (the ep's denoument suggest it's still a very new, emerging development).
Anyhow, at no time is it claimed that this civilization is a note-perfect duplicate of our Ancient Rome; obviously it couldn't be, since whatever happened here to collapse the empire didn't there, which involves a very complex rewrite of our history.
Besides all that...Scott, c'mon, it's a TV show. Why all the vehemence?
they should have said, "for those about to die...we saluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuute you!!!"
FIRE! *boom*
No AC/DC fans in here, huh
"Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's".....
Marcus Arellius (sp) had a joke Proximo!
THAT WAS NOT IT! THAT WAS NOT IT!
That joke is going to put you on the Highway to Hell man if you dont quit being a Problem Child. But oh well if you Go Down to Sin City and Ride On you should be ok. Who knows maybe if you Shake a Leg santa will bring you a Mistress for Christmas and then you can be Back in Black for next year. Just remember Its a Long Way to the Top so Have a Drink on Me and try not to get Shot Down in Flames.