STAR TREK
The Deadly Years

From Wikipedia:

"The Deadly Years" is a second-season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast December 8, 1967 and repeated on August 16, 1968. It is episode #41, production #40, written by David P. Harmon, and directed by Joseph Pevney.

Overview: Strange radiation exposes the command crew of the Enterprise to the effects of rapid aging.

More here.

Well, if you're not a fan, and this is the only episode of Star Trek you've ever seen, you may wonder what all the hubbub for the last forty years has been about. But if you're already a fan, you'll definitely dig it. That is, "The Deadly Years" isn't brilliant. It doesn't cover any new ground for the show, doesn't tackle any cool or interesting issues. It's not tightly written. But it's solid. Makes you want to know what's going to happen next. A good place keeper for the second season, which is chock full of gems.

I mean, this one isn't a gem, more like a plastic ruby, but then, plastic jewels are fun, too, at least for a little while. And there's some good stuff here. Chekov, for instance, makes the absolute most of his few moments of screen time. The reaction shot of his seeing one of the dead Gamma Hydra colonists is fab. So, too, is his well known "samples" speech, which allows yet another one of those great Lenny and Carl moments with Sulu. There is a fantastic brain storming session later in the episode, which is quickly followed by a quick two shot montage of Spock, Chapel, and Kirk's former lover Dr. Janet Wallace engaged in scientific research, both moments serving as a strong reminder that first and foremost Star Trek is a show far more about ideas than action and adventure. The brain storming scene is also strange and cool because all the characters are positively decrepit at this point. Indeed, the old age makeup, generally speaking, is not too terribly good, even by my forgiving standards, but it works well enough to tell the story, and Spock ends up looking pretty darned cool toward the end. There's also a fun moment when Kirk takes the Enterprise to warp eight, something rarely done.

Kirk also has some fine moments. I'm starting to realize that he's far more interesting when he's trying not to be romantic. That is, as with last week's successful romance scene in "Mirror, Mirror," the Captain in this episode has reasons to keep his distance from a woman he ought to be totally coming onto; something about the contradictory objectives, "to love" versus "to avoid love," settles Shatner down, takes his actor bullshit out of the equation, making him far more honest and authentic than when he tries simply "to love." Or maybe he's just getting the hang of it midway through the show's run. I don't know. But this is his second good romance in two episodes. He also has a scene with McCoy, when they discuss the onset of Kirk's arthritis, that's like the good old days. That is, it has the look and feel of being very early in the first season, a surprisingly welcome development. And Shatner shows his training and experience as a stage actor with the physical adjustments he makes for the rapid aging his character undergoes. Really, the hunched shoulders and rared head remind me of President Nixon, a paranoid man with the weight of the Cold War on his back--as longtime Real Art readers know, I have an inexplicable fascination with the only US President ever to resign his office.

This might have gone down as one of the more memorable Kirk episodes, if not for the disjointed weirdness in some of the writing. For instance, the narrative establishes that Kirk's senility is manifest essentially in terms of forgetfulness. But by the time of his competency hearing, he is in full denial that this strange disease has made his command ability severely problematic. Indeed, his denial is so strident that it appears to be another symptom of his rapid aging, a sort of dementia. But he's otherwise extraordinarily rational. What gives? This could have been easily fixed, a few extra lines here and there making him out to be more irrational. Instead, the viewer is left to figure it out for himself, and the script isn't much help--personally, it confused me a bit.

But that's not the only weirdness in "The Deadly Years." Conversation between Kirk and Wallace suggest that she has some sort of old man fetish. Wallace's rebound relationship after Kirk dumped her was with a man twenty six years older than her, and she appears to be pursuing the Captain ever more aggressively as he ages. This is sexually creepy and interesting, but the story just doesn't follow up on it. It's like WTF? There is a big foil wrapped dildo in sickbay for some reason. A symbol of Wallace's sexual excitement toward old men? We'll never know for sure.

But the most disjointed aspect of "The Deadly Years" is the storyline following Commodore Stocker and the Romulans. The script takes great pains to establish that Stocker, who at first respectfully defers to Kirk and Spock, isn't much more than a desk jockey, utterly out of his element on a Starship, and utterly aware of this fact. Nonetheless, he takes command, which makes no sense at all. I mean, he's a paper pusher, not an idiot: after all, he's the guy who first figures out that Kirk is no longer fit to run the ship. And not only does he take over, when "junior officer" Sulu would have been a much better choice, he directs the Enterprise into the fucking Romulan Neutral Zone, one of the more stupid moves in Star Fleet history. Like I said, he's not an idiot; why on Earth do the writers turn him into one once he's in the captain's chair? Why on Earth do they turn him into a sniveling piece of shit, face in hands, moaning "What am I going to do?" as the Romulans pound the Enterprise again and again?

Indeed, the presence of the Romulans in this one seems to be more about providing a dramatic counterpoint to the old age storyline's climax. Just a literary device clumsily pasted onto the plot for effect. We don't even see a single Romulan, just a ship taking shots at the Enterprise. Pretty lame.

Strangely, none of this ruins the episode. I mean, it keeps it from being great and all, but it's still pretty good in spite of itself. Solid Trek. Go see.


"Hope I die before I get old."

$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$