TOS-0214 Bread and Circuses
The Original Series-1966
Season:02
Episode:14
Overall Score: 80.00 / 100
Star Trek Values: 5.00 / 5
Inspiring: 4.00 / 5
Story Development: 5.00 / 5
View Episode (Imbd)
I’m very proud and satisfied at the end of the story. Let’s start steadily to explain;
During the opening scene, player’s frozen situation was an example of limited technological production capabilities at the time of the 60s. Limited but delightful in a way… And it’s nice to consult to present-future ideas, I mean taking a recording from today’s world as a fiction scene, for a cheaper production.
Gene Roddenberry’s rich references on Rome Imperium is fascinating to follow, like this one. The hypothesis was a continued version of Rome Imperium during the 20th century, in another world-like planet.
I smiled a lot while learning more of the institutionalization of slavery, such as supplying pension to slaves. :)
At the end, we see two interesting things;
- The captive captain, first citizen, risks his life to saving the Enterprise team, and he has defended the “Prime Directive”. Even by complying to their brutal traditions.
- In the planet, “Words of the Sun” belief becomes replaced by the belief of Christ. As showed in Ben Hur movie, collapse of the Rome and martyrdom of the Christ intersects, and Enterprise team had chance to witness the occurrence in real-time.
There are still some poor points like how the first citizen, former captain, couldn’t develop a plan like Kirk did? Still, it depends on how the spaceships reaches to the points. When a ship is crashed on a planet, the captain might not be as resourceful and forethoughtful.
When we build our own starships, we shouldn’t send the ships alone. We might schedule a follow-up mission to visit and validate the first ship’s findings. :)
From 60s to futures, Star Trek says a lot…