It's time to set aside the philosophy and kick some behind with your weapon of choice; this is gladiatorial combat, boys and girls, 23rd century-style. Kirk and two key officers, Chekov & Uhura, are shanghaied from the good ship Enterprise while about to beam down and whisked a dozen light years away to a planet ruled by so-called Providers, disembodied prime brains whose only means of diversion is kidnapping various aliens for their amusement as space-age gladiators. This could have been a serious indictment of slavery, represented by those intense collars-of-obedience, but, despite Kirk's seething display of resentment as he finally rips his off near the end, this episode is best known for its cheese factor rather than any deep commentary on such a provocative issue. If anything, it reminded me of a typical, action-oriented episode of the "Lost in Space" TV show - cheesy and somewhat laughable. It's best remembered now for the outfitted gladiatrix Shahna, played by actress Pettyjohn, who went on to adult-film roles.
There are a lot of different aliens on display in this one, with the usual limitations of the make-up FX back then; to get a truly distinctive alien in the sixties, they would cast a giant actor (Morton), for example, but Ruskin as Galt manages to be truly alien in a creepy, eerie fashion, sometimes seeming to glide along rather than just walk around. Overall, it's average escapist fare, with sometimes silly dialog, Shatner over-emoting ("You're Killiinnng Herrrr...!") and not much thought put into such issues as what these all-powerful brains do with their version of money, quatloos (I assume, hearing their betting frenzies, it's their version of monopoly money), boiling down to a final combat where Kirk breaks all the rules and wins anyway. It's also typical of the episode that Kirk spends a lot of time seducing Shahna, his, uh, drill thrall, in almost touching scenes, but ends up clocking her. Despite the cheesy entertainment, for my quatloo, the best scene is on the Enterprise with Spock, McCoy and Scotty. There, Spock shows he's ready to be a full time commander when McCoy & Scotty try to team up against him.
