Who Mourns for Adonais?

Even though humankind is no longer wearing animal skins, tending sheep and have arrived at his home in space in the Starship Enterprise, the Greek God Apollo demands worship as if it was back in the days of Socrates and Plato. That is something that Captain James T. Kirk is not willing to do nor are any of the rest of his crew.

Michael Forest who did a few peplum pictures back in the day guest stars as a really great physical specimen who claims he's Apollo. And he's certainly performing some feats that would make one think he's got some powers and abilities far beyond those of mortal man. It's the job of the Enterprise away team to find his Kryptonite.

William Shatner theorizes that back in the day a race of super beings did land on earth, maybe gathered at Mount Olympus and certainly would have appeared to have been Gods to the shepherds. And these Gods had all the human vices as well. For that Shatner is depending on archaeologist Leslie Parrish with the away team to help out. And there certainly is a mutual attraction though Jimmy Doohan who kind of likes Parrish himself ain't ready to worship and ain't ready to give her up.

Just as humankind advanced I would have thought that those beings that were labeled Gods also would have advanced a bit and taken account the evolution of humans. It's the main weakness of this episode which makes it impossible for me to give it top rank in the Star Trek tradition.

I remember seeing this episode as a child and never thought much of it. It was one of the ones I didn't really like. I'm older now and I watch things like ancient aliens a lot. Anyone who has watched ancient aliens knows who Erich Von Daniken is!!! Yes he's the guy that seemingly knew that the gods that the ancient world believed in were simply just aliens!!!! So something I find fascinating is that he wrote his most memorable book about this 1 year after this episode of Star Trek Was aired!!! 🤔

Alright, where to start. We have on the surface a pretty standard sci- fi theme of old-historic power meets modern man. The two meet and things happen.

We've got this highly self centered and egotistical (and I should add abusive) "god" from Earth's past wanting adoration just like the olden days. But the days of mans' "oohing" and "ahhing" over things like fire, storms and earthquakes are over. Man is the master of his domain (the odd Klingon not withstanding), and needs little for super natural beings to interfere in his life.

But Apollo has other plans.

What strikes me as being interesting about this episode is a notion that the author brought up. The notion that we, mankind, have this primitive nature within us, but that we grow beyond it as we mature. Apollo, as another reviewer stated, is in this essence an immature teenage boy. He's an adolescent with lots of power. So much power that he can stop one of starfleet's finest vessels cold in space.

The story comments on man's primitive instincts and base desires. They're a foundation for a lot of what human's have achieved, but in the end they're only the foundation, and not the higher modes of thought we use in everyday life. Apollo uses his classical Greek god status and powers to try to win over the higher social circle that is the personnel of Starfleet command. He has temporary success, but must ultimately be brought down lest the rest of the Federation see/hear/read about the Enterprise not returning from a mission.

In this way you could use this episode as an allegory for a lot of man's ills, and a lot of history we as humans have created for ourselves because of our inner Apollo. Though the truth is that even though we recognize all those negative or over-energetic and unregulated aspects within ourselves, we still have Apollo-like moments. The key is to not let our inner Apollo over come our inner Kirk :-)

The times being what they were we have a Russian in the episode in the form of Chekov. Scotty, for whatever reason, has beamed down completing the usual "Let's send the ship's senior staff to the planet" motif that seems to be in nearly all Trek episodes. But hey, we wouldn't have a show or story if that didn't happen.

If I had a gripe with this installment of Trek it's that the thing wasn't shot outdoors. It's got that ever oh-so Trek artificiality when it comes to alien planetscapes shot on a stage. Which is too bad because this would have been perfect if Desilu could have found an old Steve Reeves' gladiator set, and had it double for an ancient Greek god oracle. Then again who knows? Anyway, that's how I would've shot it :- )

In any event, give it a whirl. It should entertain.

*EDIT* Hmm, interesting; apparently some of this applies to myself: An egotistical self-centered "god", prone to mood sways and high opinions of his worth than he actually is, has caused some mischief and problems for the traffic ways in the UFP. However, the difference is that for Trek's Apollo, his treatment was forced. Mine was voluntary, and now I've got some sort of plot to get me to "fairer pastures"; note; not greener, but something more suitable? Sorry. It's not going to happen. No matter who is sent to plead the case.

These reviews are done.

While telling the landing party about himself, Apollo states that his father is Zeus and his mother was Lito, a mortal or human. In that case Apollo would actually be a demigod or a Titan.

Lito was actually a Titan princess, which did make Apollo a God in all sense and manner. I would consider this only a blooper by the writers of the show and did not take away much of the enjoyment.

My all time favorite was shown the other night. City on the Edge of Forever. Now that was the all-time best Star Trek episode of any of the Star Trek series. It's too bad that few of the original cast are still around.

Enterprise encounters the Greek God Apollo.

This is a fairly weak, mostly annoying, yet bizarrely compelling episode.

It has a standard Crew v God story, similar to 'The Squire Of Gothos' and gets irritating when Kirk and Apollo start posturing. Apollo wants to take life back to when Gods were worshipped by simple folk, but being such a developed society, the crew resist (all apart from Carolyn Palamas who is not as wise, for a woman, as Apollo thinks). Whilst it makes interesting observations about human nature and advancement of society, the tone of it all is a time portal to the 1960s, with gender attitudes more archaic than the visual effects.

Most characters have poor showings, with Kirk, Apollo, Palamas and Scotty all annoyingly written. Apollo and Kirk are equally as patronising when talking about Palamas. Scotty is in creepy stalker mode and shows none of his usual engineering charm. Palamas follows the Marla McGivers blueprint. Even Spock is slightly annoying in his harassment of 'Miss' Uhura's technical work on the communications system. In fact there is a pattern of male characters generally harassing the females. Chekhov does make up for things with some comical Russian cultural references.

Even though the predicament is resolved in an uninspired way, the sequence where Apollo is portrayed quite pitifully is probably the strongest part of the episode. Strangely, it's one that I always have to follow through to the end.

The costumes are camp and glittery on the planet surface and onboard the Enterprise Uhura looks more like a hairdresser than a Starfleet Officer working beneath her console. Giant hands and floating heads in space are memorable but not convincing.

Very few of the actors give likeable performances. Michael Forest does well with some fairly poor lines, as does Leslie Parrish. However, Walter Koenig is the only one of the regular crew who I actually enjoyed watching. DeForest Kelley is solid as ever, but has nothing particularly interesting to do.

I like the concept of portraying the Greek Gods as space travellers, but it could have been so much better.