| Episode: | 18 | | | Writer: | Gene L. Coon | | | Director: | Joseph Pevney | | | Air Date: | 19-Jan-1967 |
This week on Sci-Fi Adventures, I should really finish writing about Strange New Worlds season one before the second season starts, but I felt like I should cover this episode of the classic series first, for some reason. Like there's something in here that might be relevant...
Anyway, Arena was the 18th episode of Star Trek: The Original Series in its US airing order, coming just a few weeks after the last episode I wrote about, Balance of Terror. Here's some trivia you won't find anywhere else on the internet: Arena is the only episode of Star Trek to share its name with an Elder Scrolls game, and one of two to share its name with a Wing Commander game.
I've got some better trivia for you: they gave a 'story by' credit to writer Frederic Brown even though he didn't do any work on the episode whatsoever. In fact, Gene Coon came up with the whole script by himself. But then he learned that it had similarities to another story printed 20 years earlier in Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which was also called Arena. So Coon decided to just pretend he'd based it on Brown's idea and asked him for permission.
SPOILER WARNING: I'm going to go through Arena one scene at a time, writing down what happens and I what I think about that, so if you don't know what happens in the episode now, you will do by the time you reach the end. I'll not be spoiling anything that aired after it however, so if you're watching through Star Trek for the first time there'll be no Next Generation or Strange New Worlds spoilers to worry about here.
It turns out that the others there are the Enterprise's tactical experts. They've been invited down to help solve a tactical problem, and no one's really interested in hearing Spock's concerns about putting all their tactical eggs in one basket. They're beaming down to a colony, what could go wrong?
Things looked plenty disastrous in the original version of the episode, but they've extended the destruction a bit for the remastered version. There's a new crater on the bottom left and all the buildings behind the wall are new. The walls were always there though. In fact, they were there for real on location as well. This was a huge $118,843 fortress set built next to the legendary Vasquez Rocks... for a completely different TV series called Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers. It had been built in the 50s, but it was still around 10 years later so they decided they might as well get some use out of it and add some production value to their episode.
Speaking of production values, this is a crane shot, so they must have brought trucks of filming equipment out with them on this shoot.
ACT ONE
It's at this point that we finally get the captain's log narration, which tells us what we already know, in the present tense. I guess Kirk's recording it with his mind.
Kirk sends O'Herlihy 10 metres forward to have a look, and the poor guy gets disintegrated. He was their only redshirt! The others are in trouble too as they're being shelled by artillery, and Sulu can't lower the Enterprise's shields to beam them up as it's under attack by an unidentified ship. I guess Sulu's the captain right now, but he's also the helmsman so he's juggling a lot of hats, metaphorically speaking.
Man, this is an all-action first act. Whenever people talk about this episode they always bring up the fight with the Gorn, but in any other episode they'd be talking about Kirk under siege in a fort with explosions going off everywhere.
Kirk decides to make a run for whatever's left of the armoury, getting knocked over by a nearby blast and doing an awesome roll to get back to his feet. Honestly, that was some great stunt work by Shatner. He's also got a space battle to manage though, so he calls Sulu and tells him to fire the photon torpedoes. That's the first time they're ever mentioned in Star Trek! Only took them until episode 18.
They don't recognise the enemy ship and it's too far away for visual inspection, so they have no idea what they're up against.
The Enterprise isn't having much luck against the enemy's shields right now, so Sulu warps away and leaves the landing party to fend for themselves.
But then Spock notices that his tricorder is smoking. The aliens are sending a signal to make it overload and explode! I didn't even know tricorders could explode. He throws behind a bit of debris and an explosion goes off right where it landed, making me wonder how many takes it took to get that right.
Could this be the best first act of any Original Series episode? I'm only halfway through, but it's doing pretty damn well so far.
The alien ship beams up whatever's left of its crew and makes a run for it, giving Sulu a chance to come back and recover Kirk's landing party. What's left of it. They're not done with Cestus III just yet though, as Kirk earns bonus Captain Points by ordering that a medical team of 30 personnel is beamed down to search for other survivors.
They're down in sickbay listening to the survivor they found tell his story. It turns out that Cestus III tried to surrender, but the enemy ship ignored them, and he doesn't even know why they were attacking in the first place. They didn't have anything anyone would want!
There had to be some purpose to it though.
Spock has some other ideas of why the colony was attacked, but Kirk's pissed off and doesn't want to hear them. So they're in the same situation as they were in Balance of Terror and Spock suggests the same course of action: to avert an invasion they need to destroy the enemy vessel before it can return home and report on the strength. Though they don't actually mention anything that happens in that episode as that'd be too much continuity.
Fortunately, the alien ship's only going warp 5, so they can just go warp 6 and catch it easily. Then they're going to have to blow it up.
ACT TWO
The alien ship increases its speed to match theirs, so they move up to warp 7. Spock helpfully reminds us that it will be dangerous to sustain this speed and I'm glad he did as I've lost track of what warp factors the classic Enterprise should be able to go, or any of the ships for that matter. At least they don't go into the decimal places in the classic series, so there's no danger of them reaching 9.995 or whatever.
There's lots of sound on the bridge today by the way. Things like footsteps and people moving on chairs. I don't remember it being so noticeable.
Spock was the one pushing for the Romulan ship to be destroyed in Balance of Terror but this time he's having doubts. He points out that they should have a regard for sentient... but Kirk cuts him off, saying there's no time! The music's a bit concerned about his attitude and it even causes Uhura to turn around in surprise. Kirk points out that they're the only policemen around, a crime has been committed, and they need to punish them. By blowing them up. You'd think they could at least try to hail them first though.
Then things take a turn for the weird as they're scanned by a mysterious solar system and both ships come to a sudden halt.
The Metrons have set up a planet for the captains of both ships to settle their dispute on and it contains sufficient elements to construct lethal weapons, apparently. So that's good to know. They'll also be providing Kirk with a recording/translating device... as if he's ever needed technology to record a captain's log on an away mission. The dude just thinks it half the time.
So the Enterprise chased after the alien ship to destroy them for invading their space, and now the Metrons are going to show how much more evolved they are... by destroying one of their ships for invading their space. Kirk's learning the meaning of the old saying, "There's always a bigger policeman".
It's just a transporter Uhura, you've seen them before. Though I guess she could be scared about all their lives depending on Kirk being able to win a fight, which is a very sensible thing to be concerned about. In fact Spock even raises an eyebrow. Though I'm totally deducting a point for Uhura's scream, because that was incredibly out of character and un-Starfleet. If it'd been Chekov though, that would've been fine.
Damn, that's practically a jump scare! They give you absolutely no warning about what you're going to see, no establishing shot of the planet, nothing. There's just suddenly a reptile man with sparkly eyes right in your face.
The Gorn costume doesn't really hold up to crystal clear remastered HD, to be honest, but it was filmed in broad daylight so that's not all that surprising. Even right now in 2023, people say "Don't film your rubber alien suits in bright light!" I'm not saying they made a mistake though, I'm just saying they made a ballsy choice and it's actually impressive how close they came to pulling it off. Especially considering that the mouth can barely move. The eyes do blink now though, thanks to CGI.
ACT THREE
Alright, the episode started with Kirk in a colony under attack, then he was in a remake of Balance of Terror, and now godlike aliens have brought him to Vasquez Rocks to fight a huge lizard monster in a battle of wits and fists. Who even knows what Star Trek episode this'll turn into by act four.
Kirk doesn't recognise the creature but the Metrons called him a Gorn so he's going with that. Also, he's figured out somehow that they're on an asteroid, so add this to the extremely small list of Star Trek stories that visit an asteroid. It's basically just this, an Animated Series episode, and maybe a couple of Enterprise episodes.
Oh, plus he's strong enough to snap a huge branch off of a dead asteroid tree. Kirk decides to do the same, but he only has the strength in his puny human muscles to snap off a rubbish little twig. He decides to throw it away and rely on his superior agility instead.
I don't know, maybe the Gorn actor was struggling to see what he was doing with that mask on. Or maybe he was struggling to stay conscious due to being outdoors in sunny California with a bloody rubber suit on!
Though the Gorn moves fast enough when he interrupts Kirk's kick by grabbing his leg and effortlessly tossing him aside. And he doesn't even need to dodge the rock Kirk lobs at him. It just bounces off his mighty gut.
Once he's gotten a bit of distance from his opponent, Kirk decides to record a message on the device he's been given, his instinct to record logs too strong to resist. He asks that whoever finds it passes it on to Starfleet Command, which is maybe a bit optimistic. They're in uncharted space for one thing, so people here aren't likely to know what a Starfleet Command is. Anyway, he mentions that he's physically weaker than the Gorn but he's hoping that he has the advantage in wits.
Kirk remembers that the
Kirk not doing too badly though, as he comes across some diamonds, "the hardest substance known in the universe". Spock said that rodinium was the hardest substance known to science a few episodes back in Balance of Terror, so I guess the two don't see eye to eye on the subject. Kirk says that there's a fortune in gems here, but he'd trade them all for a hand phaser or a club.
We actually learn how many hand phasers you can buy for a pile of diamonds later on in the season 2 episode Catspaw: absolutely zero, gems are worthless in the 23rd century, they can manufacture them on the ship.
Shatner does a good job of making it seem like he's pushing something really heavy as he sends the rock tumbling down onto the surprised Gorn. Doesn't work though. The Gorn's only mildly stunned and he's very pissed off, so Kirk makes a run for it... right into his opponent's trap!
While you wait, here's some fun Gorn trivia: that belt he's got on isn't part of his uniform. Kirk and the Gorn were both given belts to clip their translators onto.
ACT FOUR
I have to be honest, Kirk hasn't done much to impress so far. The Gorn's been making weapons and traps, while all of Kirk's plans have involved throwing rocks at him. To be fair Kirk's instinct to explore has given him a better idea of what his resources are, but that's not going to do him any good if he doesn't actually use any of them.
The Metrons finally call up to let them know that it's not looking good for their captain and they should make whatever memorial arrangements, if any, which are customary in their culture. I guess it'll be a memorial for themselves as well, seeing as they're all going to die if Kirk fails.
McCoy tries to argue in the name of civilization but the Metrons counter that humans aren't civilized! But they will at least give the crew a chance to watch on the big screen as their captain inevitably loses this match.
We get another reminder here that Kirk and Spock work better as a team than they do alone, as Spock sees some white power on a rock and somehow knows right away that it's potassium nitrate. This isn't the kind of live stream where viewers can give advice in the chat, but Kirk seems to be getting there on his own. He tries tasting the powder to identify it and he's apparently happy with what he's found.
It's at this point that the Gorn finally calls Kirk up with the recording device to point out that he's heard everything. Also, he can talk! He even moves his mouth a bit, which is impressive.
Spock and McCoy have to admit that they could be in the wrong here, though it will have to be worked out by diplomats. Not that we've seen any Gorn diplomats so far. In fact, we haven't had the slightest bit of diplomacy from the Gorn at all; they just came over and killed everyone with no warning or explanation, then lured the Enterprise in with a false message so they could kill them too.
Personally, I think that the Federation does share some of the blame for this tragedy, for settling a planet next to uncharted space without even going to meet their future neighbours first. But murdering a colony full of innocents is pretty much the worst way to make first contact.
We're watching the action on the asteroid/planet more from the crew's perspective now as Kirk goes back to the space-bamboo he disregarded earlier and gets to work. He collects the potassium nitrate, the sulphur, some coal, and then diamonds too.
Spock explains to an increasingly frustrated McCoy that he's making gunpowder, with the diamonds as the projectile!
At the start of the episode, Kirk defeated the Gorn by firing a mortar at them, and he's just gone and built another one! He's just in time as well, as the Gorn's found him and he's making his way over very slowly.
It turns out that mixing your gunpowder is actually pretty tricky, even if you can measure it accurately, and the MythBusters team eventually had to give up and use proper gunpowder to get it to ignite. The other problem is that even if you reinforce the bamboo, the cannon is still going to explode with enough force to make a mess of the user.
Kirk picks up the Gorn's sharpened rock and moves over to stab him in the next. But then he decides not to. Not while there's a possibility that the Gorn attacked Cestus III in an extreme form of self-defence. He yells to the sky that the Metrons will have to get their entertainment someplace else... as this episode's designed to entertain people who want to see the hero get over their bloodlust and need for revenge by the end. It's the classic 'hero throws his sword away and lets the villain live' trope.
The Gorn captain totally would've killed him if their positions had been reversed, but hey maybe he'll learn a lesson from this. Or maybe not. He's gone now anyway, beamed away by the Metrons.
He reveals that he's sent the Gorn back to his ship and if Kirk wants he could destroy them for him now. An interesting thing to ask, seeing as Kirk just spared the Gorn's life and is well aware that the Metrons were pleased with that choice. I think even the Gorn captain would've figured out that there's a correct answer here. Kirk tells the Metrons that the Federation will talk with the Gorn, maybe reach an agreement, and this gets him +1 friendship points.
The Metron's so impressed that he tells Kirk that maybe his people and theirs could also talk and reach an agreement... in a few thousand years, lol!
Well the good news is that they don't have to chase the Gorn anymore, so I guess they've got the afternoon off. There's one last surprise though: the Metrons have teleported them 500 parsecs across the galaxy, or 1631 light-years! So that's a bit inconvenient. In fact, the USS Voyager would take about a year or two to cover that distance.
I'm a bit surprised that Kirk orders Sulu to set a course for Cestus III, seeing as it's just smoking ruins now. They should take advantage of being thrown so far out and do a bit of exploration while they're out here I reckon. Oh wait, they left 30 medical personnel behind looking for survivors! I forgot. Right, yeah, they should definitely go back and beam them up.
CONCLUSION
How is it that everyone remembers Arena as being 'The one with the rubber lizard monster who fights Kirk at Vasquez Rocks?' and not 'The one where Kirk and Spock are thrown around by incoming artillery fire as they sprint through the ruins of a colony'? You'll struggle to find another episode where that happens. The rest of it, however, is a little more familiar.
One thing I've noticed about the Original Series is that it tends to repeat itself, sometimes in the very next episode. For example, this came right after The Squire of Gothos, so Kirk's been kidnapped by an alien with godlike capabilities, taken to a magic planet, and forced into a fight to the death two episodes in a row. Kirk doesn't fight a lot of Gorn in the series, but he did wrestle with an old nemesis on Vasquez Rocks just three episodes ago in Shore Leave. And the action on the Enterprise in act two was practically a remake of Balance of Terror, with the Enterprise chasing down an enemy ship that blew up an outpost before it can report back on the weakness of their defences. Though there was one major difference: Spock was trying to talk Kirk out of it this time. Possibly because he'd read ahead in the script and knew this was going to be a 'Kirk learns a lesson and also teaches aliens about humanity's worth' story.
The episode takes 20 minutes to get from the fireworks factory over to the Gorn wrestling plot everyone remembers, which is a good thing because the first couple of acts are actually pretty great and it means that the Gorn battle doesn't have the time to drag on and outstay its welcome. It also helps that the Gorn fight itself has two distinct phases, with the first half narrated by Kirk through the recording device he just can't resist using, and the second half narrated by Spock as the crew watches the event on the big screen, so it doesn't get too samey. Though this is the second time they've had the crew watching an episode of Star Trek on the big screen in season one, so they've repeated that concept as well!
There are a few things about the story that maybe came off more goofy than they were intending, like Kirk wandering around saying "They said there'd be weapons here, but where are they?" while the Gorn is clearly using stuff he's found to build a trap and a knife. Plus their battle also got a bit Wile E Coyote vs Road Runner with all the boulder dropping etc. Then there's the Gorn himself...
It took some real guts to film their 1966 rubber monster suit in the brightest of broad Californian daylight and I think the Gorn it turned out way better than it could've done. In fact, all the location filming looks fantastic and the scenes in the first act of the actors being bombarded by explosions in the ruin of a colony are kind of awesome. But the thing is still clearly a rubber monster suit made in 1966 that can't move its mouth, and the slow-motion fight scene just looks ridiculous. Even if it is the closest we'll ever get to Kirk vs Godzilla. Some people argue that the classic series should've stuck to talking instead of action, because they just couldn't pull it off back then. I disagree, I think the Original Series has some great-looking fights, most of them much better than what the spin-offs were pulling off in the 90s. Just not this time.
I still enjoyed every minute of the episode, however. It's very watchable and undeniably iconic.
COMING SOON
You're welcome to leave a comment if you feel like it.
Pine-Kirk would definitely have told the Metrons to blow up the Gorn ship.
ReplyDeleteHey, I won't have this anti-Pine-Kirk slander on my site! In fact Star Trek Into Darkness is practically a remake of this story for the first half... and I can't say any more because of spoilers.
DeleteKirk definitely gives the impression he's expecting to find a loaded gun or an axe lying on the rocks at first.
ReplyDeleteThat first cut to the Gorn always surprises me.
Now I'm imagining a shot from a different angle showing a pile of machine guns and shotguns just lying there behind a rock that he never noticed.
DeleteOf course the ammo would be hidden somewhere else.