Star Trek – The Omega Glory

★★★1/2 March 1, 1968 Season 2 Episode 23

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This show was written by Gene Roddenberry

***I’ll be starting a new series called “Through The Years” starting after this post.***

This episode has been called really good and the worst of the series. I don’t think it’s the worse by any stretch of the imagination. For me it was a little convoluted but a good episode to watch. 

Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to produce this script early in the first season, along with Star Trek: Mudd’s Women, but NBC thought the script was weak and ordered the staff to ‘shelve’ it for an indefinite time to be possibly reworked and produced later on. Despite NBC still objecting against it, Roddenberry finally had his way to make “The Omega Glory” late in the second season.

The Enterprise comes across the U.S.S. Exeter, and finds its entire crew dead — victims of absolute dehydration resulting from a plague contracted from the surface of the planet the Exeter was orbiting. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet’s surface and learn that the inhabitants are immune and that the newest inhabitant is Ron Tracey, captain of the Exeter. Unfortunately, the inhabitants of the planet are divided into the urban-dwelling “Khoms” and the more rustic “Yangs,” each in deadly combat with the others.

They find themselves in a town where relatively backward villagers are preparing to execute two captives who are apparently savages. The execution is stopped by the sole survivor of the Exeter, Capt. Ron Tracey. He explains that they are in a Kohm village and the savage Yangs are waging a war against them. It turns out Tracey has broken the prime directive by arming the Kohms because he has learned that not only are people living on the surface immune to the condition that killed his crew… they also live to a great age… he intends to find out how then make a fortune with the knowledge.

Tracey has Kirk, Spock and McCoy locked up, Galloway is dead by now, and while confined Kirk is put in a cell with a Yang. After a fight the Yang escapes and warns his people about a Kohm ambush. They are then victorious and take the village; it is then that Kirk learns that the Yangs have some shocking similarities with the United States… only this society lost a war and forget the meanings of its familiar ‘holy words’.

This episode is not a veiled observation on communism…it’s in the open completely. 

From IMDB:

This is the second of three times the Enterprise encounters another Constitution-class star ship with the entire crew dead. The other two were in Star Trek: The Doomsday Machine (1967) and Star Trek: The Tholian Web (1968).

NBC announced that Star Trek would be renewed for a third season during the closing credits of “The Omega Glory,” broadcast on 1 March 1968. In the announcement, they also wrote “Please do not send any more letters”, responding to the vast amount of mail received during the protests organized by Gene Roddenberry and Bjo Trimble.

This was one of three scripts submitted to NBC (along with Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966) and Star Trek: Mudd’s Women (1966)) when they were seeking to do a second pilot for the series. They ultimately chose to kickstart the series with “Where No Man Has Gone Before”.

Only episode where a victim of the Vulcan neck-pinch actually makes a sound at the time of the pinch. Normally, the neck-pinch incapacitates the victim before he/she can make a sound.

This episode marks the first and only time in the original series that a reference is made to phaser “power packs.”

The original 1965 script draft named the missing starship as the USS Argentina. The Enterprise landing party consisted of Kirk, Spock, a young navigator named Lieutenant Commander Piper, a helmsman called Lieutenant Phil Raintree, and the ship’s doctor named Milton Perry.

A letter reprinted in Inside Star Trek: The Real Story reveals that Gene Roddenberry personally submitted his teleplay for consideration for an Emmy Award.

Here the USS Enterprise visits another world possessing a parallel-Earth culture. Other such examples include Star Trek: Miri (1966) and Star Trek: Bread and Circuses (1968). There are also Earth cultures in Star Trek: A Piece of the Action (1968), Star Trek: Patterns of Force (1968), Star Trek: The Paradise Syndrome (1968), and Star Trek: Plato’s Stepchildren (1968), but they were introduced deliberately or accidentally by people from Earth and/or the Federation, and did not originate organically.

Scenes from The Omega Glory were featured in a set of View Master (3-D) slides. In this adaptation, the Yangs were renamed the Meraks.

Morgan Woodward (USS Exeter Captain Ronald Tracey) had previously played another wild-eyed madman, Simon Van Gelder in Star Trek: Dagger of the Mind (1966).

This is the first time the chief medical officer of another Federation star ship, Dr. Carter, is seen. Although he is sitting in the command chair on the bridge, it is unclear if he is in command of the Exeter or is merely recording his warning. Not until Star Trek: The Next Generation: Descent, Part II (1993) would a doctor clearly be in command of a star ship. (Star Trek: The Next Generation: Remember Me (1990) had teased viewers with the possibility.)

The Kohm guarding Dr. McCoy can be seen in green coveralls in Star Trek: The Man Trap (1966), both in the corridor and in the turbolift, and as one of the miners in Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967). He can also be seen extensively as a background character in Kung Fu (1972) and Hawaii Five-O (1968).

Spock attempting to telepathically “suggest” Sirah to pick up the communicator was reminiscent of the early concepts that Spock has special powers over women.

The remastered version of “The Omega Glory” aired in many North American markets during the weekend of 30 June 2007. The episode included dramatic new effects shots of the Enterprise and the Exeter in orbit of a more Earth-like, computer-generated Omega IV. Among the fine details inserted into the show, a small glimpse of the Exeter appears on the Enterprise viewscreen as it approaches the planet at the start of the episode.

Roy Jenson’s voice was electronically altered. The preview trailer contains unaltered dialogue for Cloud William which doesn’t have the “slowed down” effect.

It is learned that the Exeter had a standard complement of four shuttlecraft. During the search for survivors, Galloway informed Kirk that “all four of the craft” were still on the hangar deck. Whether all Constitution-class vessels were equipped with that number of shuttles is not made clear.

The shot of Sulu manning the helm station with an empty captain’s chair in the background in mid-Act One is recycled from Star Trek: Arena (1967).

This takes place in 2268.

Empty phasers make a click noise just like an empty gun. (When Tracey tries to shoot Kirk a second time.)

When Sirah holds the communicator while hypnotized by Spock, the lid/antenna appears to open by itself, without being flipped open in any way. In actuality, Sirah is seen using her right index finger to pull the right top hinge; thereby opening the cover.

Wu was born in 1806.

Scotty and Chekov do not appear in this episode.

Wu’s father was born well before 1268.

A canned female scream is also heard in Star Trek: A Private Little War (1968) and Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968).

For the scenes involving the American flag Fred Steiner, the original “Perry Mason” theme composer, provided the only original music written for this show.

McCoy gives the prognosis that an Omega lV serum can’t prolong alien life. And that the Kohms’ & the Yangs’ vast prolonged lifespan is evolutionary. However, Spoke is a product of genetic engineering. So at least offspring might enjoy “immortality.” And with 23rd century science & medicine, “adulthood” gene splicing is feasible.

Roy Jenson (Cloud William) and Irene Kelly (Sirah) both appeared in different shows of “Mission: Impossible”, another initial Desilu production. Jenson appeared in the “The Killing” of season two, and Kelly in “The Elixir” of season three.

Summary

As the Enterprise approaches planet Omega IV, they find another starship, the U.S.S. Exeter, in orbit. Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam aboard to find the ship abandoned but strewn with uniforms and crystals. The last log entry from the ship’s surgeon tells them they have been infected with a deadly virus brought aboard from a returning landing party. Kirk’s party beams down to the planet’s surface and finds there is one Exeter survivor: Captain Ron Tracey. He has apparently ignored the Prime Directive and has taken sides in a local dispute supporting the Kohms against their arch-rivals, the Yangs. As McCoy tries to find a cure for the virus, Spock and Kirk try to make sense of the situation. They eventually realize there is an odd parallel with Earth’s own history.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Morgan Woodward … Captain Tracey
Roy Jenson … Cloud William
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Irene Kelly … Sirah
Morgan Farley … Yang Scholar
David L. Ross … Lt. Galloway
Lloyd Kino … Wu
Ed McCready … Dr. Carter
Frank Atienza … Kohn Villager
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Security Guard (uncredited)
Ed Fury Ed Fury … Guard (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Adele Yoshioka … Kohm Servant (uncredited)