STAR TREK
The Gamesters of Triskelion

From Wikipedia:

"The Gamesters of Triskelion" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast January 5, 1968 and repeated May 3, 1968. It is episode #45, production #46, written by Margaret Armen, and directed by Gene Nelson.

Overview: Captain Kirk and his companions are sent to fight as gladiators for the gambling entertainment of three disembodied beings.

More here.

Remembering "The Gamesters of Triskelion" as being embarrassingly goofy, I haven't watched it in over a decade. It's a good thing, then, that I finally got around to revisiting these episodes before I render cyberspace judgement on them: my memory is flawed; this one's fucking great. I mean okay, it is goofy. Really goofy, laughable even, in multiple scenes. But it's also a gripping and engaging story, a creepy abduction narrative, steeped in the trappings of BDSM. Indeed, it's about as Anne Rice as Star Trek gets, successfully pulling off what the New Orleans vampire writer does best, combining the absurd with the serious making it work.

For starters, there is a nice stable of goofy but interesting guest characters. Kirk's love interest, fellow "thrall," Shahna, is dressed like she came straight out of Barbarella, and therefore more 70s than 60s scifi, as far as her overall look goes, but is engaging and authentic nonetheless, one of the main manifestations here of absurdity mixed with drama--she's a babe, too. Lars, another thrall, with a giant blond pompadour and Val Kilmer good looks, sexually menaces Uhura, attempting to rape her, even, in a very cool and disturbing moment visually depicted in shadows on a jail cell wall. Chekov's would-be sex partner is played for straight up comedy: Tamoon is essentially a drag queen--no, seriously, I think this is a guy--who can't pronounce the young Ensign's name, even while she awkwardly comes onto him. Then there's this guy; I'll just let the linked picture speak for itself--fortunately for everybody, he doesn't appear to be trying to get it on with anybody. And there is also the fascinating and mysterious Galt, the Thrall Master. With his bald head and goatee, he would be very much at home in a 1990s New York fetish club.

All these characters are, in their own unique ways, perversely sexual. I'm not saying that we actually get to see them having perverse sex or anything along those lines--this is prime time television from forty years ago, after all. But their clothing, their actions, and concerns all strongly suggest freaky fetish sex.

But it's not just the characters who make "Gamesters" into Star Trek's only S&M episode. The story itself, with slaves who wear "collars of obedience," masters who, for pleasure, watch their slaves fight each other, whips, handcuffs, imprisonment behind bars, and talk of breeding to "increase the herd," is all about fetish.

And Kirk just jumps right into the fun. Halfway through, and for the rest of the episode, the Captain goes bare chest except for his "slave harness." And he makes out with Shahna not once, but twice, the second time being so abrupt that it reminds one of a 70s porn flick. I mean, don't get me wrong. Shatner's acting here, from my educated point of view, tends toward his lazy inauthentic side, generally his Achilles' heel throughout his career. But in this episode, it is entirely welcome, if only because voyeuristic ritualized theater is such an important aspect of BDSM sex play. That is, Shatner comes off like he's acting, rather than being a real and authentic person, in scene after scene, but such acting fits in really well with the whole fetish thing. Even his always funny pain-face works here.

Indeed, the final gladiatorial thrall fight is shown on the Enterprise's bridge viewing screen, making the crew into voyeurs watching their Captain play the exhibitionist. This really is a dirty, filthy episode of Star Trek.

But Star Trek it is, and "Gamesters" delivers on that level as well. Spock spearheads the usual on-ship subplot, searching the universe for his comrades who have literally vanished out of thin air. McCoy and the first officer are, as usual, at each other's throats, producing some better than usual banter:

McCoy: You're going to leave here without them? Run off on some wild goose chase halfway across the galaxy just because you found a discrepancy in a hydrogen cloud?

Spock: Doctor, I am chasing the Captain, Lieutenant Uhura, and Ensign Chekov, not some wild aquatic fowl. This is the only lead we have.

A classic exchange. There's also a lot of kickass fighting. Lots of fighting. And then there are the Providers, the "Gamesters" mentioned in the title, disembodied primary colored brains with amazing powers who have created the entire situation. Kirk's confrontation with them is among the very best scenes in all of Trek.

Go watch this one right now. It's funny. It's weird. It's cool. I promise you'll dig it.


"Thralls govern themselves? Ridiculous!"

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