Star Trek TOS Requiem for Methuselah. S3 E19

Synopsis: McCoy needs a supply of the rare element Ryetalyn, to combat a virulent epidemic on board the Enterprise.  Three crewmen are dead and 27 others are in the grip of Rigellian Fever.  However, the crew has located a supply on an isolated planet.

Beaming down to the surface, the trio are met by an unwelcoming man who demands that they leave immediately.  After a brief bit of posturing, Flint, apparently moved by memory and compassion,  invites them to his home while his robot gathers the ore.

Spock and McCoy remark on Flint's extensive collection of original literature and artworks, while we see Flint conferring with a young woman, Rayna, who wants to meet the crew against Flint's better judgement.  As McCoy oversees the ryetalyn purification, Kirk and Spock become acquainted with their host, with Kirk becoming increasingly enamored with the lovely Rayna.  Spock again remarks that the music he played was an original work by Johannes Brahms, though it is unknown.  McCoy declares that the ryetalin has been tainted by impurities and a new sample must be procured.

Kirk meets Rayna in the laboratory and begin to kiss, when M-4, the guardian robot attacks Kirk, who is only saved by the intervention of Spock with a phaser.It becomes apparent that Flint has an ulterior motive for allowing Rayna and Kirk to interact, but the relationship has gone to far, as Kirk urges Rayna to leave Flint and go with him on the Enterprise.

Searching for the processed ryetalin, Kirk discovers in Flint's lab a copy of Rayna, who is apparently an artificial life form that Flint has made to appear human.  While Kirk is enraged by this discovery, Spock puts together the fact that the long-lived Flint actually is Brahms and DaVinci and other geniuses as well, who has grown weary of life on Earth.  Rayna was to be his perfect and undying bride.  However, now that Kirk and the others know his secret, Flint is unwilling to let them leave.

Kirk and Flint struggle in a symbolic contest for the affections of Rayna, who, unable to make a choice, dies of uncertainty. Later, on the Enterprise, the plague is under control though Kirk is still in the throes of love-sickness.  McCoy announces that Flint has once again resumed the aging process and will eventually die, leaving us with a bittersweet ending as Spock engages in a brief meld with the sleeping Kirk, instructing, "Forget..."

Analysis

One of the recurring problems with Early Trek deals with the fundamentals of storytelling.  The erly series ws more interested in creating a tableau, a vista of a troubled world or a troubled future, without offering any kind of story development or resolution  The creation of the scene is all that the episode offers, and once it has detailed the last corners of this new reality, it leaves us there to contemplate the wonder and despair that such a scene engenders.

So this episode spends most of its time carefully explaining the situation that Flint faces, drawing on the medieval tale of the undying Roman Centurion.  Flint does not age and so has lived several lives, and particularly notable lives of great creators in Earth's history.  His one tragedy is that his companions are doomed to grow old without him, and he has watched several of them die while he is helpless to prevent it.  Now, he has created an android to be his companion, but he needs Kirk to awaken the spark of love within the automaton.  It's an interesting concept to contemplate, but it isn't a story on its own.

And there are fascinating ramifications.  Flint creates the perfect Rayna, and spends decades instructing her in all the knowledge he has accumulated, but he cannot stir in her the emotions of love, emotions he needs from her to be his perfect mate.  But he discovers that Kirk can spark those emotions and though he is playing with fire, he goes ahead with the experiment because it is the one thing that Rayna lacks.

This episode always reminds me of Data from TNG, because of the obvious parallels.  It is one of the iconic references for much of science fiction:  the undying man, the perfect artificial intelligence with the potential for vast repositories of knowledge, the sentient android, the robot who doesn't know that she isn't human, shades of Blade Runner.  The same considerations are explored with Data's mother Juliana.  There is the seeds of many sci fiction elements present.

Unfortunately, there are also some regrettable elements present as well, the most obvious one being Kirk's behavior.  Knowing that the lives of the entire crew of the Enterprise are at stake, why does Kirk insist on pursuing some inappropriate romantic relationship with Rayna?  With the responsibility of the ship on his shoulders, his choices are completely unreasonable and nearly inexplicable.  And Spock reminds him of this on more than one occasion.

Sure, Kirk is a soft touch for a pretty face, but he has always put the good of the ship above his own needs.  Why then is he antagonizing the one person who has the cure for the plague that has cursed his crew?  Rayna is beautiful and intelligent, but that doesn't give Jim some license for flirting with her, for taking advantage of her obvious naiveté.   This is so out of character for Kirk that it defies  belief.

Of course it is selfish to jeopardize the lives of 400 people for his own desires, but it also seems particularly ungentlemanly of him; primarily to force kisses on this obviously innocent woman ("you are the first men that I have met...") and more generally to consider all females in the galaxy open game to his hunting season.  I also feel a little bit of sympathy for Flint.  Even before he fully understands the current relationship between Flint and Rayna, Kirk has already started to break the two apart, wearing that wolfish Lothario grin as he moves in. Normally, we'd call someone like him a homewrecker.

We all know that Kirk is married to his ship, from the string of broken relationships he's left across the galaxy.  Some of his trysts escape with their lives or their sanity, while many of the others aren't so lucky.  So why does he think that things will be different with Rayna?  He's just going to drop her off on the nearest starbase after he's bored with her, so he can go back out to the stars.

I picked up on a background vibe that was subtly condemning Flint.  It was somehow inappropriate for him to create an android to be his companion.  Kirk suggested that he was saving Rayna from the clutches of this evil creator, and there's a suggestion that somehow Flint got what was coming to him at the end when he was once again fated to resume the normal aging process.  But I was never convinced that Flint deserved our censure, or that Rayna was some kind of an abomination, or that Flint shouldn't try to create another incarnation of her. She was a creation that rivaled the triumph of Dr Noonian Soong in his creation of Data, and Data is not diminished at all by that fact.  I can only imagine what a holy union there could be between Data and Rayna.  They are truly soulmates who would be perfect for each other. 

I squarely blame Kirk for Rayna's death.  He's a captain who's lost his way like so many of the others we've encountered in the series.  Logically, Spock should not only question his actions but also report him for his irresponsible behavior and possibly try him for murder.

Star Trek TOS The Way to Eden. S3 E20

Synopsis
The Enterprise is sent to retrieve a small group of idealists who have stolen a space ship intent on finding the planet of Eden, a mythical idyllic location that is free from the technological influence of the Federation.  Among the group is Tango Rad, the son of a Federation ambassador, and their leader Dr Sevrin, a famed for his research in acoustics, communications, and electronics.  The Enterprise does locate the stolen ship but the group refuses to acquiesce when they are caught in a tractor beam.  Scotty is able to transport them off the ship before it explodes.

Once on board, they prove to be an unruly and unreasonable group, but Spock seems familiar enough with their traditions to begin a conversation.  Kirk sends them down to sick bay for a thorough checkup but they prove resistant.

  
Analysis
In reviewing the original series, I have specifically avoided any cultural context from the 60's when they were written and broadcast.  While these episodes would be appreciated differently in the context of what was happening at the time, I can only understand them from my own personal perspective.  The goal is not to attempt to appreciate them for what they represented to previous audiences, but to explore what they offer to me, in the present day.


For their time, they reflected the struggle of the culture, but they also represented a relatively young medium.  Serialized television of this style was young, since the 1950s.  Color television was an innovation of the middle 60's.  Realistic science fiction was an inspiration of the 60's, with imaginations fueled by the Apollo space program.  And the cultural awareness of race, war, equality, and youth was reaching an importance that was novel for the 20th century.

But to a viewer in 2017, the medium has had decades to explore how to tell stories in this medium, and has educated audiences in conventions and practices that were unknown to naive audiences huddled around their small, usually black and white screens. The amount of story we can tell to modern audiences in an hour is much greater than the 60's audience was accustomed to, and the mere novelty of showing colorful and bizarre images on the screen was an entertainment that just doesn't hold the same appeal to modern audiences.

All the preceding is why I find it so difficult to analyze this particular episode.  This more than any other seemed to rely on the understanding of the day