Wanderlust

2.5 — “The Apple”

2.5 — “The Apple”

Plot: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chekhov, a Yeoman, and four redshirted security guards beam down to a “paradise” planet, Gamma Trianguli Six. Soon the ship in orbit starts breaking, and the redshirts start dying. The landing party survivors are taken to a village, where they discover natives in happy thrall to a strange being named Vaal. Although the ship is in terrible danger, there is still time for Chekhov to teach the natives a thing or two about love. Now let’s break Vaal so we can go home.

Thoughts: Did I miss it, or did they never explain anything about Vaal? How did it get there? Who built it? What does it eat again? How does it control the natives–just through radio communication with Akuta? I’m afraid, unlike so many of the other episodes, that thinking about “The Apple” does not make it better. This episode could have been a first or second season episode of The Next Generation. Not in a good way.

The sensibility may recall early TNG, but the content is all ripped off from better episodes in Season One. The set-up with the computer controlling a subservient population is pure “Return of the Archons.” The prime directive received its first mention in that episode, and they develop the idea a little more here with the debates between Spock and McCoy and the metaphor of exile from the garden of Eden. But, just as in “Archons,” the argument for noninterference is severely undercut by the fact that the supercomputer is actively trying to destroy the Enterprise. All countermeasures are therefore acts of self-defense. Besides, I think the Enterprise crash landing on the planet like a meteorite would also provide a slight disruption to society, yes?

The spore-firing plants recall “This Side of Paradise” (also a show with mind-controlled villagers, but with copulation allowed–I choose the spore planet!). And, of course, the seemingly idyllic but secretly deadly planet hiding an underground network of machines is taken from “Shore Leave.”

Vaal is powerful enough to suppress the Enterprise‘s warp engines and transporters, and pull the ship out of orbit, but it permanently blows its fuses under 20 seconds of phaser fire on only one of its external outlets to the surface? Okaaay.

This episode makes me mad. On the one hand, it’s not that bad… watchable from one moment to the next. But it’s also lazy twaddle that cannibalizes earlier episodes for its parts and doesn’t begin to hold together. Give me an episode like “The Alternative Factor” that reaches high and falls flat on its face. Star Trek is at its worst when it tries to play it safe.

I believe this is the episode that started the meme about redshirts being walking dead men. Plus Spock gets shot, electrocuted, and attacked by natives, and it doesn’t mean a thing. Oh my God! You killed Kenny!

I think the best part was the jokes–Chekhov on Eden being near Moscow, and some other fun lines. The natives also look striking–implausible, but striking. But then this slow-moving episode comes down to being about nothing but sex, and prurience about sex, and it’s just so damn heteronormative. NEXT.

1.5 uncomfortable floral wrist garlands out of 5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Apple_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)

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8 responses to “2.5 — “The Apple””

  1. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    I know I came down hard on this one, but I like the next one very much, I promise.

    Reply
  2. Bill Testerman Avatar
    Bill Testerman

    Yeah, I’m in total agreement with you here, Kevin. “The Apple” is in my BOTTOM 10 worst episodes of the entire series!! It’s riddled with problems, the worst being that Spock reminds Kirk of Starfleet’s Prime Directive of noninterference with alien societies, yet Kirk just dismisses that. As you note, the episode does provide the cover that Vaal is destroying the Enterprise, but Kirk clearly says that even without that reason, he’s going to destroy Vaal anyway because it’s controlling the inhabitants of the planet. Does Kirk ASK them if they want Vaal destroyed? No! As Spock points out, they’re happy, free from disease, don’t age, etc., but Kirk insists that they MUST live the way he thinks is proper. And despite the fact that the planet’s inhabitants have not governed themselves for thousands of years, nothing is said about the Enterprise or Federation sending anyone there to help.  

    Now, I disagree with an absolute Prime Directive on this and later Star Treks. I think noninterference is a worthy goal but should have flexibility built into it. For instance, if we on Earth were about to start an all-out nuclear war, I would welcome some aliens showing up and stopping us from destroying ourselves. Reportedly, producer Gene L. Coon largely came up with the Prime Directive idea, so since he co-wrote “The Apple,” why did he let Kirk ignore it?

    And this episode has a lot more sloppiness in it. In addition to the ones we’ve already mentioned: 1)If Vaal was managing to keep those people from aging, why didn’t the Enterprise crew try to find out how it did this? 2)After a flower killed one of the redshirts, Kirk then stands right in front of it. 3)The redshirt who got blown up from jumping on a rock was running for no apparent reason. 4)Having 3 senior officers – Kirk, Spock, McCoy – exploring a basically unknown planet is illogical, although other episodes did this too. 5)Partly because this episode cannibalized several others it’s very predictable from the start. 6)How could the people supply THAT much energy to Vaal, and why would it be totally dependent on them? Etc. Etc.

    The best thing about the episode was the appearance of Sixties babe Celeste Yarnall as Yeoman Landon. And yeah, there are some funny lines, too.

    It’s a good thing that this rotten apple was an aberration from a normally very good second season. I give it 1 out of 5.

    Reply
  3. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    This episode dragged a bit for me in the middle, and yes it was implausible for all the reasons Kev & Bill wrote.  The Spock as Kenny thing is hilarious, and true.  I did like the fact that Kirk seemed to care more about losing crewmen than he usually does, and that he verbalized more worry than usual, I wish he would do that more as it makes the situations seem more suspenseful and “real”.  Also awesome that Yeoman Landon kicks some bewigged alien butt toward the end.  And I liked the ominousness of the giant serpent cave, that was a nice visual effect.  

    As a mom of a toddler, having Kirk just laugh and say the young woman will find out about babies soon enough I found rather annoying.  I can’ t imagine how terrifying it would be to experience childbirth without knowing what the crap it was, let alone try to raise a baby with no guidance.  It makes me think none of these episode’s writers could possibly be a woman.

    Overall I found it more entertaining than “The Alternative Factor”, but ultimately forgettable and somewhat annoying.

    Rating: 2 out of 5 invisible Spock-uniform-mending elves.  Who were obviously present in this episode.

    Reply
  4. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    Plants that spray stuff at us, again?

    The natives remind me of a mix of Eloi and Oompa Loompas.  Definitely the best hair of the series so far.

    “Do you know how much Star Fleet has invested in you?!”  “Well, there goes paradise.”  Agreed the jokes are the best part of this episode… it’s unfortunate that Kirk is written out-of-character to believe that they did a good thing for the Oompa Elois, because they needed to destroy Vaal in order to save the ship, and saving the ship is all the motivation Kirk needs.  That would have the consequence of “freeing” the Oompa Elois, which McCoy would characteristically desire. 

    Reply
  5. Bill Testerman Avatar
    Bill Testerman

    I was a bit harsh I guess, as “The Apple” does have a few good features you’ve pointed out, like Kirk voicing his concern and worry more than usual, Yeoman Landon kicking butt, and of course the funky hair. The main thing that bugs me is the absurdity that Kirk is so cool that he can do as he pleases, regardless of what Starfleet wants. I mean, do they have a Prime Directive or NOT? This Kirk-as-free-agent attitude pops up from time to time in this series as well as in the movies.

    Reply
  6. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    One of the things I’ve found very interesting in coming at this series for the first time is that Kirk-as-free-agent-womanizer is the reputation that precedes him, while Picard was the wishy-washy rules follower, so it’s actually the many episodes in which Kirk goes out of his way to not bend the rules that are eye opening for me.

    I really like the Kirk who respects the rules as necessary to a well-functioning ship and society, but knows when they’re meant to be broken.

    Reply
  7. Robert Balmer Avatar
    Robert Balmer

    Re: Red Shirts, here is a fun link:

    http://www.ex-astris-scientia.org/database/redshirt_deaths.htm

    According to that site it looks like “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” was the official start of the Red Shirt Death Phenomenon, but I agree that this episode is the one that turned it into an art form. You’ve got quantity AND quality. The variety of Red Shirt deaths here is truly awesome: poison darts, lightning, exploding rocks, and being murdered by an oversized Oompa Loompa.

    Reply
  8. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    Wow that’s a great link. I want to save that one. This confirms that the redshirt bloodbath is mostly a second season phenomenon, although some redshirts died, in roughly equal proportion to other members of the crew and in smaller aggregate numbers, in first and third season. After the redshirt who gets crushed into white powder in “By Any Other Name,” the deaths in “The Apple” are the most memorable.

    Reply

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