The Squire of Gothos

An apt description by Spock of an all-powerful fop into whose clutches fall the crew of the Enterprise. This was one sector of space our starship should have avoided: first Sulu & Kirk simply disappear off the bridge; a landing party follows them to the surface of an unknown planet and encounter Trelane, a seemingly aristocratic man dressed in attire from an Earth of many centuries past. But he demonstrates abilities of someone or something far beyond human and doesn't register on McCoy's medical tricorder. The officers manage to escape back to the ship but, like some bad cosmic penny, Trelane keeps popping up. He brings them all back, including some female companionship, to continue his games. The dilemma now takes on elements of 'The Most Dangerous Game' out in space and there's an exasperating, even infuriating aspect to the crew's utter helplessness before such unbridled power.

What really makes this a great episode is the memorable performance by guest star Campbell as the overpowering but not all-knowing alien. His character is obviously an early version of Q, who was introduced 20 years later in the pilot for the TNG series. Trelane's confrontation scene with Spock stands out among all the strange drama which unfolds. As usual, Kirk quickly begins to look for possible weaknesses in his new nemesis, despite being quite outmatched. The answers to exactly what or who Trelane is are right in front of us the whole time so, when we do learn the truth, it makes complete sense in view of Campbell's pitch-perfect acting. He indulges himself constantly, preening before some unknown audience, remarking on things with a flair which is infectious but not quite right - we can't quite pin it down at first, but there's something missing here. Every few minutes, his tone becomes sinister and the crew now appears to be in serious danger. In a way, you can't take your eyes off him, always waiting to see what he does next. Actor John de Lancie captured that similar tone as Q on the Next Generation series.

The Squire of Gothos is another very silly episode of Star Trek. William Campbell plays Trelayne, an alien being with the power to control matter who is obsessed with Earth's history of militarism, abducting several members of The Enterprise crew so that he can study their ways and question them about warfare. Kirk, one of the abductees, isn't best pleased about being whisked away from his ship and demands that he and his crew are released; the captain's anger provokes Trelayne, who becomes increasingly hostile, eventually forcing Kirk to take part in a 'The Most Dangerous Game' style manhunt.

For some, Trelayne's stroppy foppish behaviour will be too daft to take, but Campbell plays it all delightfully tongue-in-cheek, and the final twist - that Trelayne is actually a child - makes sense of all that has gone before: the squire is like a kid teasing a defenceless animal, not yet mature enough to understand the folly of his ways. In this way, The Squire of Gothos is very much like Charlie X (S1, E2), but without all of the irritating teenage angst. Kirk even admits to have tied tin cans to the tail of an animal himself when he was young, which means that he bears no grudge. If anything, it is Trelayne's omnipotent parents, who turn up at the end to drag their child away, who are to blame for giving their offspring too much freedom and not enough discipline.

6.5/10, rounded up to 7 for Venita Wolf as Yeoman Teresa Ross. Are there no ugly female yeomans on The Enterprise? (not that I'm complaining).

General Trelayne is a super-being who wants to play a little game with the crew of the Enterprise. A lot of extremely unlikely and nonsensical stuff seems to be happening, and Trelayne seems obsessed with the human practices of warfare and murder. He seems to need to experience what he imagines to be a thrill and has created a human environment (though a few hundred years out of date) in which to play out his fantasies. The environment is subtly inauthentic, and the crew immediately begins to spot the inconsistencies. Pretty soon it becomes clear that Trelayne is not just an immature god, but a very fallible one. Regardless of how you feel about this one, stick around for the Twilight Zone-like ending. It is well worth it.

As many have pointed out, Trelayne's character inspired the more developed and amusing on-going character Q - and you can see in John DeLancie's construction of that personality more than just shades of Campbell's Trelayne. It is fun to compare how the four captains we have seen coping with Q all deal with him so radically differently.

I did enjoy watching Squire Trelane jerk around the crew in this episode, though after a while the whole thing just seemed a little too long. Sure, the histrionics were kind of funny for a while, and the ending was a pretty good way to wrap the whole thing together. I think the problem was that I enjoyed seeing Trelane when he was full of bravado and fun, the fun seemed to vanish when Trelane became vindictive and nasty. Talk about a mood killer--going from the obnoxious but affable host to the guy sentencing Kirk to death! But, despite this, the episode was enjoyable and worth my time. For die-hard Trekkies, this is a must-see, for others it's just a pretty run of the mill one.

William Campbell's performance in the title role of The Squire Of Gothos really makes this Star Trek story. Later on Campbell would play a Klingon captain in another classic Star Trek story The Trouble With Tribbles.

Some strange readings on a planet that should have no life on it make William Shatner want to lead an away team there. They land on a spot that shows earth like readings in the atmosphere and become the guests of Trelaine who styles himself The Squire Of Gothos.

He's living in a 18th century castle much like a home that William Pitt both senior and junior would feel at home in. But stuck out there in space he's lonely. He wants the Enterprise crew for company. Only Shatner and his crew have work to do.

Leonard Nimoy intrigues Campbell. He's studied earth, but he's only gotten as far as the 18th century. A Vulcan like Spock is something he can't account for. The very serious minded Spock has no time to deal with what Captain Kirk and the rest realize is an immature mind. But a very powerful one who can change matter to energy and back simply at will.

In the end of course the Enterprise crew escapes Campbell's clutches, but how they do it is something that puts the entire human and Vulcan races in its place in the universal scheme of things.