“To have gathered a few laurel leaves” (Star Trek, Who Mourns for Adonais?)

This was the second episode aired in the second season of the original Star Trek, on September 22, 1967.

Many people remember the title as naming “Adonis”, but it is actually “Adonais”, a variant form of the same word. It means “Lord”, and it was the name of a man in ancient Greek myth who was the most perfect and beautiful man ever born. The goddess of love (Venus in Roman myth, Aphrodite in Greek myth) fell in love with him.

Director Marc Daniels did a fine job with the script that producer Gene Roddenberry wrote from the story by Gilbert Ralston.

John Winston, who played Lt. Kyle in this episode, also played Commander Kyle in the Star Trek movie The Wrath of Kahn.

Someone famous once said that any sufficiently advanced technology would look like magic to us. This episode explores that idea in the context of ancient Greek mythology.

Plot

The Greek god Apollo (Michael Forest) grabs the Enterprise with his huge hand and demands that the crew come to live on an alien planet and worship him. The immortals whom the ancient peoples once worshiped have exiled themselves from Earth because the human cultures have outgrown them. The others have dissolved themselves into formless energy in space, but Apollo remains. He feels lonely and craves worship and adoration.

Captain Kirk refuses, and the other members of the landing party resist.

Captain Kirk cannot rescue his ship and crew. Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish) must do it by refusing Apollo’s loving attention.

Memorable lines

Captain Kirk: (to Apollo) Mankind has no need for gods.

And

Dr. McCoy: I wish we hadn't had to do this.

Captain Kirk: So do I. They gave us so much. The Greek civilization, much of our culture and philosophy came from the worship of those beings. In a way, they began the Golden Age. Would it have hurt us, I wonder, just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?

Analysis

The choice of the god Apollo, rather than Zeus or any of the other gods of Greek myth, might have been due to the ongoing Apollo space program, which would not reach the Moon for another two years.

What I like

Lt. Uhura, an African American woman, has one of her best moments. This was highly unusual for the 1960s, when male chauvinism was widely accepted and acceptable, and the civil rights movement still had a long way to go.

A woman saves them all.

What I do not like

The woman uses love (sex) to attack the enemy.

The story is far too reminiscent of an earlier episode, “The Squire of Gothos” from the first season, to be mere coincidence. The child Trelane has grown into a teenager, but he is still the same playful brat.

Chief Engineer Scotty gets a few more lines than usual, but they are mostly emotional outbursts that seem out of character for his role as a scientist and technician.

Recommendation

It’s hard to recommend this episode, particularly for scenes that were quite too sexy for children in the 1960s, but which might seem tame today. However, it does have some moments of greatness.

I recommend it for adults and for teens 13 and older.

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Thank you so much for reading my review!

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Recommended:
Yes

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 13 and Older