In the fifteenth episode of the first season of Star Trek, the crew attempts a shore leave on an Earth-like planet, and it is THE WILDEST SHIT EVER. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.Â
Well, goddamn, that was a lot of fun.
I’ve found that when Star Trek takes a single plot and waits to reveal the source of conflict at the end, it’s often one of my favorites. This was done with “The Corbomite Maneuver” and, to an extent, “Balance of Terror” and “The Menagerie.” And this episode in particular is a hell of a slow burn, mostly because IT’S SO ENDLESSLY SURREAL. Despite things getting too real for me in one scene, it’s largely just a really fun episode!
So! The team scouts an unnamed planet that has no life forms on it, which I initially took to mean no animals or creatures. But there were plants everywhere??? OH. IT WAS A CLUE. And there are a lot of interesting details that make this episode such a rewarding experience. It’s clear fairly early on that whatever these people think about is manifested nearly immediately. The writers then toy with us, though, by making these creations undeniably real. They’re not hallucinations, as far as I could tell, because they interacted with the physical world in ways that felt far too real. How could Sulu shoot a gun and others hear it if it’s just his hallucination? How could Lt. Martine’s hallucination tear her uniform? And then Kirk’s hallucination of an old Academy bully PUNCHES HIM IN THE FACE.
Like “The Naked Time,” I did enjoy that this episode explored aspects of the various characters through the things this world created for them. The story highly suggested that the crew of the Enterprise works for months at a time without ever stepping foot on a planet for leisure. Their work exploring and categorizing the universe might bring them to new places, but if these past fifteen episodes have shown us anything, it’s that they encounter drama, intrigue, and a whole lot of exhaustion along the way. So, we’ve got Bones flirting, Sulu shooting a gun, Kirk reminiscing about a past love, and Yeoman Barrows desiring her own fantastical time with a man. There’s a decidedly sexual tone to parts of this episode, though I have to admit that it pretty much always involves the sexualization of women. (Bones’s final manifestation of the cabaret dancers is clearly the most egregious example of that on one end of the spectrum. On the other end, you’ve got Barrows more or less being assaulted by her Don Juan creation? The implications of that one are kind of a mess, too.) And throughout all of this, the characters are increasingly frustrated by the reasoning for this phenomenon.
I think Kirk’s vicious fight with Finnigan was definitely the best way of showing us the dynamic at work here. It’s a brutal thing to watch at times, and I kept wondering why Kirk was engaging with a being he knew couldn’t possibly exist. He’d already questioned the appearance of Ruth, since he knew that she couldn’t have stopped aging and then magically appeared once he thought of her. Yet he still kisses her and he still fights Finnegan. At the root of this absurd experience is desire. The eventual reveal – that the Enterprise found a planet designed to be the most personal amusement park ever – actually explains this super well! What would happen if your ever dream or desire became real but you weren’t told this was going to happen? I think it beautifully explains the conflicting and confusing reactions the crew has. They know this can’t truly happen, but you know what? This is the crew of the Enterprise. DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH WEIRD SHIT HAS HAPPENED TO THEM? On top of that, what if something you’ve always wanted is suddenly right in front of you?
But the disturbing aspect of this part manifests when people start thinking of shit they don’t actually want. The tiger; the World War II fighter jet; the knight who IMPALES BONES AND KILLS HIM AND THIS WAS GENUINELY SHOCKING TO ME. I WAS NUMB WITH SHOCK BECAUSE HOW THE FUCK CAN YOU DO THAT. HOW CAN YOU KILL ONE OF THE MAIN CAST MEMBERS IN THE FIFTEENTH EPISODE. HOW?!?!?!
If there’s anything here in “Shore Leave” that sells this episode, though, it’s the use of the first open-air setting in Star Trek. I eventually recognized the rocks where Finnigan taunted Kirk, though I had to look up the name of the park (It’s the Vasquez Rocks!) The use of the setting in this story is EVERYTHING. Getting to see the cast run about this place gave a sense of realism to the episode, but it was also cleverly used to accent the surreality, too! But holy shit, this is just so gorgeous. I realize that part of the appeal of this is the fact that the episode wasn’t filmed in a sound studio, but I don’t want to denigrate what a great experience this was otherwise.
Let’s also not forget that Spock never once gets his desires manifested by this place because, as it turns out, his ultimate amusement is watching Captain Kirk and Bones make utter fools of themselves. THIS IS 100% CANON. So is the fact that Kirk thought he was getting a massage from Spock. JUST?!??!?! WOW, THAT WAS TOO MUCH.
The video for “Shore Leave” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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