There are many out there in the Trek blogosphere who say that this episode is a hands-down case of extreme shark jumping. I gotta say “no.” Those who think so – they are Herbert. They do not reach.
If you are trying to remember, yes, this is the episode with the space hippies. It’d be easy to laugh at this episode, but I like it for two reasons. The rejection of technology among the followers of Dr. Sevrin is one of the very few instances of a crack in the perfect utopian facade of the Federation. One has to wonder — what becomes of dissidents in a perfect society? And, let’s face it, the Federation, benevolent as it is, is fascist. The other exciting thing: Spock is a fellow-traveller. Well, that’s not hard to believe. I mean, can’t you see Mr. Spock at Arbiter Ring singalongs with Theodore Bikel? Spock can “reach” with the space hippies. He is not Herbert. He, too, yearns for a world untouched by technology (or, at least, he will fight for their right to have it), while he works feverishly within it. Who doesn’t agree that Mr. Spock is among the most interesting fictional characters created?
I agree with your comments about Spock here. But this was still a dumb episode. The idea was good but why did the supposedly peace loving Hippies have to attempt to kill the whole Enterprise crew?
That’s kind of brutal isn’t it? Seems like the “true travellers” had to be such killers for the sake of peace types….
Spock is certainly one of the most interesting fictional characters indeed. You have to credit Nimoy a lot for that. But I have to make exception for the Naked Time episode. I thought him crying and apologizing for the Vulcan way was silly. How many times did Spock and his like talk about the peace of the Vulcan way? Seems silly to then turn around and act like they are really only seriously repressed folk always on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Or were they trying to say it was only Spock who was that way? Please! Silly!
When Trek tries to be contemporaneously topical, not just allegorical, it often invites laughable failure (one very heavy exception to this rule is “A Private Little War,” a taut little political-military drama that parallels our intervention in Viet Nam).
That’s what happens here. This is a two-star outing at best, though it has aged slightly better than I thought it might. If you took out the embarrassing musical jams, it might have a chance to rise to three stars.