The Omega Glory
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| Star Trek: TOS episode | |
| "The Omega Glory" | |
 The landing party encounter Captain Tracey |
|
| Episode no. | 52 |
|---|---|
| Prod. code | 054 |
| Remastered no. | 36 |
| Airdate | March 1, 1968 |
| Writer(s) | Gene Roddenberry |
| Director | Vincent McEveety |
| Guest star(s) | Morgan Woodward Ed McCready Roy Jenson Irene Kelly Lloyd Kino David L. Ross Morgan Farley Frank Atienza Paul Baxley Frank da Vinci Eddie Paskey William Blackburn |
| Year | 2268 |
| Stardate | unknown |
| Episode chronology | |
| Previous | "By Any Other Name" |
| Next | "The Ultimate Computer" |
"The Omega Glory" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast March 1, 1968 and repeated July 26, 1968. It is episode #52, production #54, written by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Vincent McEveety.
There is no reported stardate for this episode.
The story was one of three outlines submitted for selection as the second pilot of Star Trek: the others being "Mudd's Women" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before".[1]
Overview: Captain Kirk must find the cure to a deadly disease and prevent a meaningless war.
[edit] Plot
The episode begins with the USS Enterprise responding to a distress call from the USS Exeter, which is in orbit around the planet Omega IV. Captain Kirk forms a boarding party with Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, and Lt. Galloway, and beams over to find the ship deserted, save for scattered crew uniforms with a crystalline substance piled around them — the total mass of body chemicals when all water is removed. The team learns from the ship's logs that the Exeter's landing party contracted a strange disease and spread it back to the ship. The logs warn they have been exposed and will die unless they go down to the planet before returning to their own ship (doing so would also expose their ship's crew to the disease).
Kirk's party beams to the last coordinates of the Exeter's landing party and find themselves in what appears to be a Tibetan-like village where two fur-clad prisoners, a man and woman, are being prepared for a beheading by warriors of Asian appearance. Leading the warriors is the Exeter's Captain Ron Tracey who stands down the execution and greets Kirk. Tracey explains he was stranded when his crew succumbed to a disease, and only remaining on the planet confers immunity. He assures the landing party they will be safe, but only if they stay on the planet. Tracey then explains the prisoners are from a group of savage barbarians called the "Yangs" who wage war with the villagers called the "Kohms".
Soon, the Yangs attack the village and Galloway is injured. McCoy takes him into a hut for treatment while Spock investigates a pile of Yang bodies. He finds drained phaser power packs, clear evidence that Tracey helped in a previous battle in a blatant violation of the Prime Directive. Kirk tries to contact the Enterprise, but Tracey suddenly interrupts him and forcibly takes his communicator. When Galloway tries to defend Kirk, Tracey disintegrates him. He defends his actions, saying the planet offers valuable medical benefits — not only are the people immune to the disease, but they also have incredibly long life spans. He presents a villager who claims to be 400 years old with a father who is over a thousand.
Tracey orders McCoy to get to work on solving the secrets of their longevity and has Kirk and Spock taken away. The two are placed in a crude jail with Spock in one cell and Kirk thrown in one with the two Yang prisoners. The Yangs savagely attack him until Spock manages to nerve pinch the female into submission and the male stops in concern. When Kirk plots an escape, he mentions the word "freedom" to Spock and the Yang male suddenly objects to an "enemy" uttering a "Yang worship word". Kirk convinces the Yang to help loosen the bars of the cell window. Once an opening is created, the Yang knocks Kirk out and takes the woman with him out the window. When Kirk recovers, he and Spock make their own escape.
Reuniting with McCoy, Spock works at modifying some medical equipment into a makeshift communicator. McCoy believes the natives' immunity to disease and longevity was simply the result of natural evolution; the inhabitants developed disease-resistant, hardy physiologies as a result of a cataclysmic war. As such, there is no isolated agent to find and any infected visitor naturally acquires an immunity in a short period of time on the planet.
Suddenly, a maddened Tracey bursts in and destroys the communicator with his phaser. He demands that Kirk order down a supply of phasers from the Enterprise to help fight off another wave of Yang forces. McCoy and Kirk try to explain that there is no Fountain of Youth, adding that the natives live such long lives because it's natural for them to. Kirk declares that Tracey's interference with the war between the natives has been for nothing. Tracey's mind snaps at this invalidation of all his efforts. He forces Kirk outside and demands that he order down the weapons. Kirk calls Lt. Sulu; however, Sulu insists on finding out the captain's situation before complying with the order, asking Kirk if he should have a security team beam down. Kirk refuses to explain why the arms are needed and tells Suly the security team is not needed. Once again, Kirk tries wrestle Tracey's phaser away, but fails. He escapes Tracey, momentarily, but is captured. Tracey's about to disintegrate Kirk, but he discovers his phaser is out of power.
The two fight over a nearby axe when Yang warriors suddenly arrive and take everyone back to their village, which appears as ruins of an ancient building. Their leader, Cloud William, turns out to be the prisoner, who was in the cell with Kirk. Cloud curiously produces a very old American Flag and removes ancient manuscripts from a box where he begins to recite words — a poorly pronounced version of the Pledge of Allegiance. When Kirk completes the pledge, the Yangs are shocked. McCoy questions how they know the pledge, and Spock surmises that the cultures may have developed along very similar lines to Earth. Kirk speculates that the Kohms were originally "Communists" and Yangs originally "Yankees". Apparently, the Omegans had a Cold War much like the one between the United States and the Soviet Union, but unlike Earth, their war heated up and a conflict was fought many centuries ago. Even Spock found the parallel between the two worlds to be "almost too close."
The Yangs decide that Kirk and his companions will be executed, but Tracey tries to save himself by claiming that Kirk and the others are evil. Tracey tries to convince Cloud that Kirk and his party were cast out of Heaven, implying that Spock is "Satan." In order to add credibility to his claim, Tracey informs Cloud that Spock "has no heart," knowing that the Yang chief is unaware of Vulcan physiology and doesn't realize the Vulcan's heart is not located in the chest cavity (as it is in humans and apparently Yangs, as well). Despite McCoy's and Kirk's attempts to convince Cloud that the Vulcan is no devil, but just physiologically different, Cloud is not fully convinced and has Kirk prove himself not to be evil by reciting the "sacred words, 'E Plebneesta'" from an ancient document he produced. Unfortunately, Kirk cannot quite decipher the words, despite their familiarity, and suggests instead that he and Tracey duel to the death — stating good always triumphs over evil. Kirk and Tracey begin to fight, while Spock notices a communicator near Cloud's female companion. Spock uses a mental suggestion from a distance to make her pick it up, bring it to Spock, before activating it and its emergency-alert signal (although this latter action is not specifically shown, it is implied, since the female nor Spock speak into the communicator). Soon, just as Kirk subdues Tracey, Sulu and a security detail beam down to investigate the situation. Kirk spares Tracey's life and has him taken into custody to face Federation charges.
The Yangs now bow to Kirk as a deity, but he orders them to stand and face him. He looks over the ancient, crumbling document, which appears to be a distorted version of the American Constitution. Kirk finishes the sacred speech and rebukes the Yangs for allowing the document to degrade to mere shibboleth. He declares that the words were not just for the Yangs, but for Kohms, as well, declaring that they "should apply to everyone or they mean nothing." Cloud doesn't fully understand, but swears to Kirk that the "holy words" will be obeyed. Kirk smiles at Cloud, convinced that the Yangs, along with the Kohms, will now rebuild their ruined world. Before departing, Kirk stops to take one last proud look at Old Glory.
[edit] 40th Anniversary remastering
This episode was re-mastered in 2006 and was first aired June 30, 2007 as part of the remastered 40th Anniversary original series. It was preceded two weeks earlier by the remastered version of "Plato's Stepchildren" and was followed a week later by the remastered version of "Return to Tomorrow". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:
- The planet Omega IV has been given more realistic Earth-like detail.
- A new opening shot of USS Exeter and Enterprise in orbit together where the Exeter has been replaced by a CGI model identical to the Enterprise yet with its own nomenclature, including the vessel name and the registry number "NCC-1672".
[edit] Notes
 |
Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones. |
- This story was originally offered by Roddenberry as an option for the second pilot, following a trip to Washington, D.C. where he was profoundly moved by seeing the original U.S. Constitution at the National Archives. He also submitted this teleplay for Emmy Award consideration after the show aired.
- In the original script, Dr. Carter of the Exeter was to be actually shown dissolving onscreen.
- The original script for the pilot version of this episode, while not significantly different in tone and message, did have some significant differences in characterization and background information. As the character of Dr. Leonard McCoy had not been created yet, the ship's surgeon is named Milton Perry, and in one version of the script it is Perry who attempts to use a "Medi-Scanner" to signal the Enterprise for rescue, only to be killed when Captain Tracey destroys the scanner with his phaser.
- This episode was also adapted for View-Master in the 1970s. In the accompanying booklet, the Yangs are called the "Meraks" (Americans), making the connection more obvious. [1] However, some early draft scripts for this episode reference Cloud William's people as the "Meraks" , so there remains some question as to whether the VM booklet used an early draft script, as was common practice at the time. Note that the first seven Original Series novelizations by James Blish were written from early draft scripts, and were produced and published around the same time as the VM booklet.
- In this episode, Spock telepathically commanded a woman to obtain their confiscated communicator from the guards and use it to summon Sulu. While Vulcans were established as having the ability to mind meld (physical contact being required) for the purpose of sharing thoughts, Spock has demonstrated that he possessed an ability to telepathically manipulate someone in this manner only twice before (in the preceding episode "By Any Other Name" with the alien woman Kalinda, and in the first-season episode "A Taste of Armageddon", where he uses it through a wall to trick a guard in order to escape from confinement), and this ability was never seen again.
[edit] References
- ^ Whitfield, Stephen E and Roddenberry, Gene (1968). The Making of Star Trek. Ballatine Books.
[edit] External links
- The Omega Glory at StarTrek.com
- Remastered "The Omega Glory" at Trekmovie.com
- The Omega Glory article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki
| Last produced: "The Ultimate Computer" |
Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 2 |
Next produced: "Assignment: Earth" |
| Last transmitted: "By Any Other Name" |
Next transmitted: "The Ultimate Computer" |
