This is one of the more violent and grim Trek stories from the original series. Whenever any story is overly unpleasant, the viewer (or reader) has to ask himself a) is the story good enough to make it worth dealing with the unpleasantness throughout and b) is the violence simply gratuitous or is it an integral part of the story? My answers are a definite yes to the first and the latter to the second.
The story begins as the Enterprise comes across wreckage from the SS Beagle, a Federation space ship which had disappeared six years earlier. Following the path of the wreckage, Kirk and company discover a planet remarkably similar to Earth, not only in atmosphere and land to water ratios, but in social evolution..well, almost. As they intercept a TV newscast, the bridge crew looks on in horror at a 20th century Rome, complete with institutionalized slavery and televised gladiator matches.
There are a number of elements to the story, some of them gut wrenching. Kirk is forced to watch as Spock and McCoy are sent to fight in the arena. Yet unlike the cowardly Captain Merik, the commander of the Beagle who sent his own men to die in the arena to save his own skin and obtain a high political position, Kirk will not hand his ship's crew over to the proconsul, Claudius Marcus, even though refusing to do so means certain death for all three of them. You see just how brave and gallant Captain Kirk really is when held up next to Merik, who for most of the episode is nothing but a pathetic craven coward. The contrast becomes quite evident to Claudius, who in one telling scene asks Merik to leave the two of them alone, stating that the thoughts of one man to another "couldn't possibly interest you."
Another element this episode explores is the spread of Christianity ("Son" worship) in Rome, which for some reason was successfully suppressed in this version of Rome until some 1600 years later than the one on earth. It hints that Christianity brought down the empire, although in truth there was much more to it (not going into an all out history lesson here)
You see the complexities of the relationship between McCoy and Spock on display as well. The two of them snipe at each other in the jail cell, yet Spock risks his neck to save McCoy's life in the arena.
One aspect I find interesting (and disturbing) is not how this 20th century Rome is differs from our modern society, but the way the two, in fact, parallel each other. Rome fell essentially because it got fat, lazy, and complacent. The socio/political philosophy of "bread and circuses" is really the same today as it was then. Keep the people fed and entertained. For example, the "modern" Rome had televised gladiator matches. We have football and boxing. Granted, people don't often get killed from these things, but the point here is the entertainment factor from seeing people beat the you-know-what out of one another. Food for thought.
There's also the issue of that pesky prime directive once again (OK, I actually defend Kirk when he's "violated" the prime directive for the simple reason that there never seemed to be a consistent set of guidelines for when it was supposed to be applied, but I digress). In this particular situation, the prime directive was in force, and Kirk wouldn't violate it even if it meant death for him and his two closest friends. (you got the idea he REALLY would have liked to though).
Part of the reason Roddenberry gave for doing Star Trek in the first place was that he wanted to talk about things that the network censors at the time wouldn't let him talk about (i.e. sex, war, politics, religion), and he saw telling these stories using "polka dotted people from a far off planet" as a way of getting past the censors. Never did he do a better job of that than in this episode. Again, Bread and Circuses (written by Roddenberry and Gene Coon) is violent (although tame by today's standards) and very grim, but it's a very intense and well crafted story with great dialogue, acting, character development, and some good action sequences thrown in.
And it makes you think.
The story begins as the Enterprise comes across wreckage from the SS Beagle, a Federation space ship which had disappeared six years earlier. Following the path of the wreckage, Kirk and company discover a planet remarkably similar to Earth, not only in atmosphere and land to water ratios, but in social evolution..well, almost. As they intercept a TV newscast, the bridge crew looks on in horror at a 20th century Rome, complete with institutionalized slavery and televised gladiator matches.
There are a number of elements to the story, some of them gut wrenching. Kirk is forced to watch as Spock and McCoy are sent to fight in the arena. Yet unlike the cowardly Captain Merik, the commander of the Beagle who sent his own men to die in the arena to save his own skin and obtain a high political position, Kirk will not hand his ship's crew over to the proconsul, Claudius Marcus, even though refusing to do so means certain death for all three of them. You see just how brave and gallant Captain Kirk really is when held up next to Merik, who for most of the episode is nothing but a pathetic craven coward. The contrast becomes quite evident to Claudius, who in one telling scene asks Merik to leave the two of them alone, stating that the thoughts of one man to another "couldn't possibly interest you."
Another element this episode explores is the spread of Christianity ("Son" worship) in Rome, which for some reason was successfully suppressed in this version of Rome until some 1600 years later than the one on earth. It hints that Christianity brought down the empire, although in truth there was much more to it (not going into an all out history lesson here)
You see the complexities of the relationship between McCoy and Spock on display as well. The two of them snipe at each other in the jail cell, yet Spock risks his neck to save McCoy's life in the arena.
One aspect I find interesting (and disturbing) is not how this 20th century Rome is differs from our modern society, but the way the two, in fact, parallel each other. Rome fell essentially because it got fat, lazy, and complacent. The socio/political philosophy of "bread and circuses" is really the same today as it was then. Keep the people fed and entertained. For example, the "modern" Rome had televised gladiator matches. We have football and boxing. Granted, people don't often get killed from these things, but the point here is the entertainment factor from seeing people beat the you-know-what out of one another. Food for thought.
There's also the issue of that pesky prime directive once again (OK, I actually defend Kirk when he's "violated" the prime directive for the simple reason that there never seemed to be a consistent set of guidelines for when it was supposed to be applied, but I digress). In this particular situation, the prime directive was in force, and Kirk wouldn't violate it even if it meant death for him and his two closest friends. (you got the idea he REALLY would have liked to though).
Part of the reason Roddenberry gave for doing Star Trek in the first place was that he wanted to talk about things that the network censors at the time wouldn't let him talk about (i.e. sex, war, politics, religion), and he saw telling these stories using "polka dotted people from a far off planet" as a way of getting past the censors. Never did he do a better job of that than in this episode. Again, Bread and Circuses (written by Roddenberry and Gene Coon) is violent (although tame by today's standards) and very grim, but it's a very intense and well crafted story with great dialogue, acting, character development, and some good action sequences thrown in.
And it makes you think.