Star Trek – Spectre Of The Gun

★★★★ October 25, 1968 Season 3 Episode 6

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, Gene L. Coon, and Arthur H. Singer

This one really caught my attention. It’s one of my favorite episodes. It’s a bit surreal and I like the sparse half-done sets. We have a few of the crew of the Enterprise visiting the OK Corral. Doc Holliday, Morgan, Virgil, and Wyatt Earp all are here.

Westerns were all the rage in the 50s and 60s, and I suppose Star Trek had to pay homage to the genre in some form or fashion. “Spectre of the Gun” offers that, just as other episodes touched on medical and courtroom drama formulas.

The Enterprise arrives in Melkotian space, Kirk’s goal is to set up relations with the secretive race. The Melkotians don’t take kindly to visitors, however, and, as a form of punishment, seemingly send Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty, and Chekov to a warped version of Tombstone, circa 1881, based on information they plucked from Kirk’s mind. To Spock’s credit…he thought they should have turned around and left but Kirk was determined. 

The buildings are there but only halfway done. You only see fronts of buildings and nothing is quite right about this version of the old west. A powerful Melkotian tells Kirk, Spock, Bones, Checkov, and Scotty they are to be punished for their “disobedience”, recreating a frontier town with only a few buildings on some fake ground representing Tombstone, Arizona.

 The Melkotian tells them they have been sentenced to death and the means of the death will be based on Kirk’s cultural memories of the Wild West town of Tombstone. The town they find themselves in is rather strange and their phasers have become revolvers and the locals believe that the landing party, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scotty and Chekov, are actually the Clanton Gang. To make matters worse it is the day of the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral where the real Clantons were gunned down.

Chekov, who is playing the part of Billy Claiborne is gunned down in a fight over a woman but the real Billy Claiborne was the sole survivor from the Clanton Gang. It becomes apparent that normal rules don’t apply here; if they believe they won’t die then maybe they won’t. As the allotted time approaches, they will find out.

A very different type of episode for Star Trek. When you watch the video below…remember…everyone sees them as the Clanton game with normal western clothes. 

From IMDB:

The original script called for filming on an outdoor location but, due to budget constraints, filming took place in the studio. These constraints also prevented the set designers from building a complete Western town and the concept of pieces of a town drawn from Kirk’s mind was developed.

DeForest Kelley appeared in other dramatizations of the same historical events, playing Ike Clanton in The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (October 26, 1881) (1955) and Morgan Earp in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957). He was also offered a role in Hour of the Gun (1967) (the movie this episode is named after) but had to decline due to his Star Trek commitment.

For the third season, the velour tunics from the first two seasons have been replaced by polyester ones, which are better-fitting but lack the luster of the original velour. The new fabric was a heavy diamond-weave nylon double-knit material akin to that used in professional baseball uniforms. The switch was made because the original velour shrank every time it was dry-cleaned. This was a problem because union rules required that costumes be cleaned before each use.

The writing of this episode was influenced by NBC executives who wanted Chekov to be featured more in the third season than he had been in the second season.

This is the only episode to end with the Enterprise heading toward a planet.

Written by Lee Cronin, the pseudonym of Gene L. Coon. Some have assumed that it was used because he was unhappy with the results. Actually, it was because he had left Paramount and was under contract with Universal, so he was not supposed to be working for Paramount as well.

Gene Roddenberry originally wanted to film ‘Spectre of the Gun’, about the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, in Arizona, either at Old Tucson Studios in Tucson, Arizona, or at Apacheland Studios in Apache Junction, Arizona. He found out that there was no budget to do it and had to rely on camera angles, bright colorful lights, and dreamlike sets, which added to the episode’s strange alien quality.

This was the first episode produced for the third season but it aired as the sixth episode of the season.

Kirk, Spock, and Scotty are all in the landing party and Sulu doesn’t appear. The storyline never states who is in command of the Enterprise while the senior ranking officers are away, although Uhura is the next in line.

According to James Doohan, NBC executives told him to comb his hair back for the third season. Doohan hated wearing his hair this way and stopped doing so during The Tholian Web (1968).

After Season 2, Star Trek was very nearly cancelled. After a fan-led campaign, a third season was finally commissioned by the network, providing a budget cut of 25% was instigated. This is why the third season has little location filming, re-used and re-purposed props, and recycled special effects. Seasons 1 and 2 already had tight budgets, so a reduced budget was always going to be noticeable This episode is one example where the budget cutbacks started to become apparent as the producers tried to keep expenditures down.

A very subtle change in the third season was the use of new sound effects for the pushing of buttons on the bridge.

The episode was first broadcast on October 25, 1968, only one day before the 87th anniversary of the actual Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.

A scene that was never filmed included McCoy/McLowery (DeForest Kelley) offering to share his medical expertise with Doc Holliday (Sam Gilman) to treat his progressing tuberculosis.

Another difference this episode brings is the “singing plant” background noise from The Cage (1966), used for nearly every planet in seasons one and two, is replaced here by a warbling sound used before in The Gamesters of Triskelion (1968). This will again be used intermittently throughout season three for example, in For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky (1968) and The Cloud Minders (1969).

In this episode, Kirk refers to the ships phasers as ‘phaser guns’.

Clocking in at approximately five minutes and 25 seconds, this episode’s teaser is the second longest in the original series, lasting 10 seconds shorter than the teaser for I, Mudd (1967).

The original title for this episode was “The Last Gunfight”.

This is The Original Series’ only foray into surrealism, with unique set designs by Walter M. Jefferies.

Some errors regarding the historical gunfight: Morgan Earp is referred to by Kirk as “the man who kills on sight” when the real-life Morgan, by most reliable accounts, was an even-tempered lawman who used his gun only when he was forced to. The gunfight in the Melkotian scenario is treated as a prearranged event when, actually, it was a more or less spontaneous affair. The gunfight took place near the hour of three o’clock, rather than the five o’clock in the episode. Finally, although it may have seemed that Chekov’s Billy Claiborne was the youngest (he turned twenty-one, the day before the gunfight), Billy Clanton, the role Scotty played, was nineteen.

Jerry Fielding’s unique score adds atmosphere. When the villains are first seen in the saloon, Fielding has the piano play stereotypical “menace” notes and a bizarre rendition of “Buffalo Gals”. Fielding’s other Star Trek contribution was his score for The Trouble with Tribbles (1967).

For the incomplete mock-up of the Sheriff’s office, the sign with the word “Sheriff” on it is written in the same font as the opening credits to the series (the Fs have the same slant in the center).

This is the second time that McCoy believes he cannot be harmed by a weapon (this time due to Spock’s convincing in a meld); the first time, when he stands his ground as the Black Knight charges him in Shore Leave (1966), this strategy was unsuccessful, as the weapon (a lance) was physically real, not merely an illusion.

Chekov is the only member of the landing party who wears a two-holstered gun belt.

Rex Holman (Morgan Earp) later played the settler J’onn in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989).

When Spock and McCoy are in the bar, discussing the tranquilizer, the table with the supplies that are used to make it also has a double-barreled shotgun on it, whose presence goes unexplained.

Although Sam Gilman (Doc Holliday) was 53 years old when this episode was made, Holliday was only 30 at the time of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral on October 26, 1881 and 36 at the time of his death on November 8, 1887.

Gregg Palmer (Rancher) previously played Tom McLowery in Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1961).

Charles Seel plays the saloon bartender. He also played a Western bartender in the series Tombstone Territory (1957), Bat Masterson (1958), Wanted: Dead or Alive (1958), and The Guns of Will Sonnett (1967) as well as the feature films The Texas Rangers (1951) and The Horse Soldiers (1959).

Abraham Sofaer, the voice of the Melkotian, also provided the voice used for the Thasian in Charlie X (1966).

Other USS Enterprise crews visited the Old West in A Fistful of Datas (1992) and North Star (2003).

The “sparkling” sound effect heard in the background while the crew is in Tombstone is also heard in the “Orson reports” at the end of most episodes of Mork & Mindy (1978).

Sulu does not appear in this episode.

Charles Maxwell, who plays Virgil Earp, was a veteran character actor on TV westerns of the era, including Bat Masterson (1958), Bonanza (1959), Rawhide (1959), The High Chaparral (1967), and others.

This takes place in 2268.

This was Bonnie Beecher’s penultimate role before retiring from acting. Now known as “Jahanara Romney”, she works with her husband Wavy Gravy (born Hugh Romney) running a performing arts camp. Beecher grew up in Minnesota where she knew the young Robert Zimmerman, now known as Bob Dylan. Beecher even sang on some of Dylan’s earliest homemade recordings, and is one of the possible inspirations for the song “Girl From The North Country.”

James Doohan voiced the Melkotian warning buoy.

When Kirk (Ike Clanton) attempts to appeal to Wyatt and Virgil Earp in their office, he is taunted by Virgil, who punches him. Kirk reacts and places Virgil in an arm lock. After Kirk releases him, Wyatt wants to kill Kirk and tells him to draw, but Virgil intercedes and tells Wyatt that, when the time comes, he will make him pay for what he did, but,during the gunfight at the end, it is Wyatt who move forward to confront Kirk.

Summary

When the Enterprise trespasses into uncharted territory, Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott and Chekov are transported to a location that has all the trappings of the American Old West. It’s October 26, 1881, and Kirk soon realizes they are in Tombstone, Arizona, on the day of the famed gunfight at the OK Corral between the Clanton gang and the Earps – with Kirk and company representing the ill-fated Clantons. If history is to be repeated, they will fairly all be killed so must use whatever resources availed to them to defeat the threat and survive. The solution, however – and the only way of escape – lies within them.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Ron Soble … Wyatt Earp
Bonnie Beecher … Sylvia
James Doohan … Scott
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Charles Maxwell … Virgil Earp
Rex Holman … Morgan Earp
Sam Gilman … Doc Holliday
Charles Seel … Ed
Bill Zuckert … Johnny Behan
Ed McCready … Barber
Abraham Sofaer … Melkotian (voice)
Richard Anthony … Rider (uncredited)
Paul Baxley … 1st Cowboy (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Charles Cirillo … Barfly (uncredited)
Roger Holloway … Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Bob Orrison … 2nd Cowboy (uncredited)
Gregg Palmer … Rancher (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)