{"id":4272,"date":"2014-12-11T13:00:26","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T21:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=4272"},"modified":"2014-12-01T19:28:23","modified_gmt":"2014-12-02T03:28:23","slug":"mark-watches-star-trek-s03e06-spectre-of-the-gun","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2014\/12\/mark-watches-star-trek-s03e06-spectre-of-the-gun\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Star Trek’: S03E06 – Spectre of the Gun"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the sixth episode of the third season of\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>, when Kirk ignores a warning from an alien satellite, he discovers that the consequences are WEIRD AS HELL. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For brief discussion of race\/colonialism in re: the Old West.<\/b><\/p>\n

This is a weird one, even for\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i>, and yet? There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a charm to how ridiculous and absurd \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spectre of the Gun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is, namely because the writers take this weird idea and run off into the sunset with it.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to wrap my mind around the premise of this episode because at times, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s almost a meta-commentary on both the adoration of the Wild West\u00c2\u00a0and<\/i> a commentary on the production of the genre. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not to say that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intent of the story; I feel like it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s more about an optimistic view of American violence than anything else. But when this all unfolds on a set that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deliberately half-built (which reminded me of Lars Von Trier\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Dogville<\/i>), when the characters on the screen are purposeful stereotypes meant to evoke specific images and feelings in the audience, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for me not to acknowledge those things. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something deeply intriguing to me about how this alternate history is composed. The Melkotians access Kirk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind for a proper execution scenario, and what they construct is a bare skeleton of the original world. You\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve got the basic facts of the\u00c2\u00a0actual<\/i> gunfight at the O.K. Corral, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s placed within a heavily fictionalized version of Tombstone, Arizona, one that you could easily say was built off of Kirk\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own stereotypical understanding of that world.<\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s here that we get a jarring exploration of what reality means for these characters. If the Malkotians are forcing the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0crew to re-live this gunfight, casting them as the cowboys who originally died, then how much free will do they have? Can they change history? Is that even how you should look at this? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the Malkotians sent the crew back in time, propping them up\u00c2\u00a0as<\/i> the actual Clantons and McLaurys. This is all fake, right? I was somewhat distracted by the fact that no one seemed to be questioning the very nature of this reality until\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, they did. The first sign of this that we see is when they all try to leave town and discover that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re physically unable to do so. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a force field around Tombstone, preventing them from an easy solution to their problem.<\/p>\n

Of course, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly fucked up about this place. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the fact that Chekov is killed by Morgan Earp and HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE. The main characters don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t die in this show, so I did not\u00c2\u00a0once<\/i> expect any of them to be harmed prior to the big showdown. And yet? Chekov is shot for defending Sylvia, and he dies, and THIS IS AWFUL, HOW IS THIS EVEN HAPPENING.<\/p>\n

Which is the key to unraveling this:\u00c2\u00a0How can any of this happen?<\/i> It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only when everyone starts openly questioning this entire reality that they begin to understand what the Malkotians have done. Actually, let me be more specific:\u00c2\u00a0Spock<\/i> questions the reality, and\u00c2\u00a0that<\/i> allows them to figure out that the Malkotians are using the crew\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s perception against them. And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00c2\u00a0Spock<\/i> who elminates the doubt within the minds of the crew so that they can truly believe that everything around them is fake. Seriously, that may have been the BEST use of the Vulcan mind meld in this whole show. IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S SO COOL. Because of it, we get an incredibly tense standoff between the\u00c2\u00a0Enterprise<\/i> crew and the Earps\/Doc Holliday. I appreciate that the show was able to pull off that kind of suspense, despite that we\u00c2\u00a0knew<\/i> at that point that nothing was real. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an effective sequence because the fear is built on the chance that at any moment, someone could doubt this reality, and they might die if that were the case. BUT NOPE, THEY ALL GET SHOT A TON OF TIMES, AND THEN KIRK KICKS WYATT EARP\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ASS.<\/p>\n

So how does this all fit within the framework revealed in the final scene? The only Melkotian that Kirk interacts with tells Kirk at the end that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re impressed Kirk did not kill any of the Earps; Kirk responds that humanity got rid of their reliance on violence to solve conflicts. Except\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the case in this episode? Or in most of this entire show? Violence is\u00c2\u00a0constantly<\/i> used to solve problems, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d even argue that the very thing that got the crew into this mess \u00e2\u20ac\u201c Kirk ignoring the Malkotian warning \u00e2\u20ac\u201c was an act of violence. So\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 no? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t buy this?<\/p>\n

But I am not necessarily concerned with the internal logic of this episode so much as I am worried that this falls in line with an endless parade of fictional accounts that refuse to demonize American expansion in the Old West. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s some truth to what we see in this episode (such as the citizens of Tombstone largely disliking the Earps), but the colonialist aspect of this expansion is utterly ignored. And when you try to write an episode that reflects the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153violence\u00e2\u20ac\u009d of the Wild West while simultaneously ignoring that the vast amount of that violence was against this country\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s indigenous population, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve lost me.<\/p>\n

I suppose that Star Trek<\/i> goes out of its way to give us a future that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, better. In some ways, of course. The cast is racially diverse, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s intentional. Women are in positions of power. The crew seeks out newness in the universe with an appreciation of the varied cultures that they come across. But this show is still a creation, an act of imagination, and that imagination was not made in a vacuum. You can see elements of American culture all over episodes like this, and the romanticization of the West is part of that. So is the claim that violence is no longer a pervasive part of humanity. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a hope on Roddenberry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s part, and while I admire the intentional re-imagining of a future like this, it falls short some times. It feels more ahistorical than anything else. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want to ignore that this is part of what the\u00c2\u00a0Star Trek<\/i> experience means to those watching it: we can imagine a future where these things might actually be possible. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just technology, which we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve exceeded in many ways, but in the ways which humans interact with one another. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a nice thought.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Spectre of the Gun\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– Mark Does Stuff is now on Facebook<\/a>! Feel free to Like the page, which I’m running myself, for updates and SILLINESS.
\n– If you would like to support this website and keep Mark Does Stuff running, I’ve put up a detailed post explaining how you can!<\/a>
\n– Please check out the MarkDoesStuff.com<\/a>. All Mark Watches videos for past shows\/season are now archived there!
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next two Double Features are now in the schedule! I will be watching <\/b>The Sarah Connor Chronicles<\/i><\/b> and then <\/b>Leverage<\/i><\/b>. <\/b>Commission away!
\n– I will be at quite a few conventions and will be hosting events throughout 2015, so check my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page<\/a> often to see if I’m coming to your city!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"