Star date: 2124.5
Summary: In a hurry to deliver supplies to Beta 6, the Enterprise prepares to make a high-speed sprint across a stretch of open space Kirk characterizes as a "desert". They are surprised to encounter a previously-uncharted planet. When Kirk directs Sulu to go around the planet, Sulu mysteriously disappears, and Kirk soon thereafter. An analysis of the planet determines that humans cannot survive on its surface, but lacking any alternatives, Spock orders a crew of Jaeger, DeSalle and McCoy down to the surface to see what they can find.
On the surface, the search party is surprised to find breathable air, and more than that, an ancient Earth-style castle. Inside the castle, they find a human-appearing creature who calls himself Trelane and the planet Gothos. Everything in the castle appears to be from Earth's 14th(?) century, and the crew concludes that Trelane perceives Earth as it was 900 years ago, because Gothos is 900 light-years from Earth. They also find that Trelane is responsible for abducting Kirk and Sulu, and he returns them, unharmed, but also makes it clear he wants the crew to remain with him for a while because he's "bored". Kirk objects and insists that he and the Enterprise are needed elsewhere and must be allowed to leave. Trelane demonstrates that the can make the crew do whatever he likes by briefly subjecting Kirk to Gothos' natural atmosphere. Kirk and the rest appear to be trapped, until Spock figures out a way to beam them up through Gothos' atmosphere.
Trelane transports himself to the Enterprise to express his displeasure with Spock, and instantaneously returns the entire bridge crew back to his castle on Gothos. Trelane explains that he is part of a group who can convert matter to energy and back, and change the form of matter, which is how he is able to provide an Earth-like environment on the otherwise uninhabitable Gothos. Kirk tricks Trelane into a duel, and disables a machine Trelane is using. In doing so, the crew are able to transport back to the Enterprise once more, where the crew makes a desperate attempt to fly as far as possible from Gothos. But Trelane can move the entire planet at amazing speed (or more likely, transport it, it's not clear which), always putting the Enterprise on a collision course with Gothos.
Frustrated, Kirk beams back down to the surface to offer his life to Trelane on the condition that he allows the Enteprise to go on its way. Trelane agrees to let the Enterprise go if Kirk allows himself to be hunted. Trelane chases Kirk around with a sword for a bit, until two disembodied voices --- one male, one female, presumably Trelane's "parents" --- intervene to make Trelane give up Kirk and the Enterprise.
I believe this is the very first "Q" episode in Star Trek history. Of course Trelane doesn't describe himself as part of the "Q continuum", and the voices at the end of the show suggest that Trelane is a member of a species which reproduce sexually --- though perhaps they only present themselves to Kirk that way so he will understand --- but the godlike abilities Trelane has are very much like those of the character "Q" in The Next Generation series.
I haven't seen any of The Next Generation in years --- I'm looking forward to watching them again as part of this project --- but the "Q" episodes were always among my favorites. If I recall correctly, "Q" was sufficiently important to that series that he appeared in the series opener and the finale.
But the thing I liked about the "Q" episodes in TNG was that he always appeared to be trying to help humanity along by forcing Picard and the rest to struggle to learn some greater lesson. That's clearly not the case here, where Trelane is quite literally playing the Enterprise and its crew the way a child might play with a mouse he's caught. This show would have been much more interesting if Kirk & Co. had to solve some sort of puzzle to gain their freedom. As it was, it was mostly cat and mouse with at least one rather contrived mechanism for letting the Enterprise crew escape briefly (see below).
I understand that Kirk is annoyed with Trelane because he's been abducted against his will, and because he's in a hurry to get supplies to Beta 6, but it still seems to me that Kirk is unnecessarily rude to Trelane in their first meeting. Trelane obviously has a lot of useful knowledge he might share with the Enterprise crew, and it seems all he wants in return is some company. Why couldn't Kirk have politely explained that they were in a hurry and need to go right now, with a promise to return soon? Okay, Trelane might still have acted like a petulant child, but clearly both sides stand to benefit by sitting down and chatting for a few hours --- which it seems is all that Trelane wants.
After all, look what Kirk & Co. stand to gain by picking Trelane's brain:
Trelane: We --- meaning I and others have, to state the matter briefly --- perfected a system by which matter can be transferred to energy and back to matter again.Although there weren't any serious problems with the script, there was one clunky device the writers used to get all of the crew back up to the Enterprise a second time: the idea that Trelane's power was in some way the result of a machine hidden behind a mirror. When Kirk uses his shot in the duel to cripple the machine rather than shoot Trelane, it allows the Enterprise's transporter to lock onto the crew and beam them back up.
Kirk: Like the transporter system aboard the Enterprise.
Trelane: Oh, a crude example of an infinitely more sophisticated process. You see, we not only transport matter from place to place, but we can alter its shape --- at will.
This really doesn't stand up in at least two ways. First of all, after Kirk disables the machine, Trelane is still able to move the entire planet of Gothos around space at will. He also has no trouble moving himself and Kirk, either, and making swords appear out of nowhere. And even though Spock speculates that the machine plays a role in providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, Kirk and Trelane are running around the woods later, where the atmosphere is seemingly as Earth-like as ever.
Second, if the machine is responsible for providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, then the whole crew on the planet should suffer the ill effects of Gothos' real atmosphere after Kirk shoots the machine. But they don't.
Other observations about this episode:
Yet another female Yeoman. That makes four consecutive episodes with different Yeowomen.
Does DeSalle really think he can sneak up on Trelane and shoot him when Trelane --- like the viewer and everyone else in the world --- can see DeSalle creeping up on Trelane in the mirror? If he really wants to shoot Trelane, he needs some quick-draw action.
This is the third episode so far where someone has had godlike powers --- and the second which ended with the god's "parents" coming and taking him away ("Charlie X").
The first creature Trelane zaps with the phaser is the salt-addicted creature from "The Man Trap", the first Star Trek episode ever broadcast.
The Moral of the Story: Godlike powers are no excuse for bad behavior.
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