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ryaning13
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Star Trek: Who Mourns for Adonais? (1967)
Neat idea, terrible execution
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.