Bread and Circuses (episode)

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This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
"Bread and Circuses"
TOS, Episode 2x14
Production number: 60343
First aired: 15 March 1968
Remastered version aired: 2 June 2007
← 44th of 80 produced in TOS →
← 54th of 80 released in TOS →
← 33rd of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 54th of 726 released in all →
Written By
Gene Roddenberry & Gene L. Coon

Directed By
Ralph Senensky
4040.7 (2268)
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Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured on an Earth-like planet that possesses a 20th-century civilization with a twist: a Roman-style imperial system. They learn they are not the only Earthmen who have had to deal with it as they may.

Contents

[edit] Summary

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Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to the very Earth-like planet 892-IV to find a civilization broadly similar to 20th century USA – even down to the use of the English language – an amazing example of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development. Here however, the Roman Empire has not fallen: its institutions exist still, having somehow withstood and made use of the technological advances which occurred on Earth only after the Fall and the so-called Dark Ages.

They are captured by the "Children of the Sun", a group of runaway slaves following religious teachings of peace and brotherhood. Kirk explains that they are searching for survivors. It turns out one, R.M. Merik, is known to the runaways as Mericus. The former gladiator Flavius Maximus agrees to lead the landing party to the city.

The group is spotted and captured by the Roman police, but nonetheless they meet Merik, who has attained high office here. The merchant ship he captained, the SS Beagle, was wrecked six years ago. Merik was forced to beam down all of his men, who were killed if they resisted assimilation into the society. Kirk is now prevailed upon to do likewise. He refuses, and manages to alert Scotty, in command of the Enterprise, that the party is endangered – but not requesting assistance.

Later, Kirk is forced to watch as Spock and McCoy fight Flavius and another gladiator in the arena. Spock saves McCoy's life, and both men are sent back to their cell, where McCoy realizes that Spock is insecure about his ability to hide his emotions. Kirk manages to escape his own execution when the Enterprise disrupts the power supply in the Roman city. Kirk attempts to rescue his crewmates, but is intercepted by the Romans. Merik requests a beam-out and tosses the communicator to the party. Merik is killed for his actions.

Back aboard the Enterprise, Uhura realizes that the "Sun" worshipers were actually worshiping the "Son" - of God, i.e. Jesus Christ.

[edit] Log entries

  • Captain's log, stardate 4040.7. On the surface of planet IV, system 892, the landing party has won the confidence of what obviously is a group of runaway slaves. They dwell in caves not far from a large city, wear rags, live under primitive conditions. But they are creatures of a heavily industrialized 20th century-type planet very much like Earth, an amazing example of Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planet Development. But on this Earth, Rome never fell. A world ruled by emperors who can trace their line back 2,000 years, to their own Julius and Augustus Caesars.
  • Captain's log, stardate 4040.9. Uniformed police like those of Earth, a great city like Rome with automobiles. Astonishing similarities to 20th Century Earth, down to the fine carbon steel in the bars.
  • Ship's log, stardate 4041.2. Chief Engineer Scott recording. Captain Kirk and his landing party have checked in, but they have used the code term Condition Green, which means they're in trouble. But it also prohibits my taking any action.
  • Enterprise log, Engineer Scott reporting. All banks in readiness for disruption of power sources on the planet's surface.
  • Captain's log, stardate 4041.7. Note commendation, Engineering Officer Scott. Despite enormous temptation and strong personal feelings, he obeyed the Prime Directive. His temporary blackout of the city below resulted in no interference with the society and yet saved the lives of myself and the landing party.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"Once, just once, I'd like to be able to land someplace and say, 'Behold! I am the archangel Gabriel!'"
"I fail to see the humor in that situation, Doctor."
"Naturally, you could hardly claim to be an angel with those pointed ears, Mr. Spock; but say you landed someplace with a pitchfork?"

- McCoy and Spock


"I'm trying to thank you, you pointed-eared hobgoblin!"

- McCoy


"Now I know why you're not afraid to die, Spock – you're more afraid of living. Each day you stay alive is just one more day you might slip, and let your Human half peek out. That's it, isn't it? Insecurity. Why, you wouldn't know what to do with a genuine, warm, decent feeling."
"Really, doctor?"
"I know. I'm worried about Jim, too."

- McCoy and Spock


"Where do you come from? What do you call those?"
"I call them 'ears'."
"You trying to be funny?"
"Never."

- Flavius and Spock


"At least defend yourself!"
"I AM defending myself!"

- Flavius and McCoy


"Need any help, Doctor?"
"Whatever gave you that idea?!?"

- Spock and McCoy, each fighting off gladiators


"Fight, you pointed-eared freak!"
"You tell him, buster! Of all the stupid, illogical questions... I ever heard in my life!"

- Achilles and McCoy


"You bring this network's ratings down and we'll do a special on you!"
"You bring this network's ratings down and we'll do a special on you!"

"You bring this network's ratings down and we'll do a special on you!"

- Guard, to Flavius


"And violate your oath regarding noninterference with other societies. I believe you all swear you'll die before you'd violate that directive. Am I right?"
"Quite correct."
"Must you always be so blasted honest?"

- Proconsul Claudius, Spock, and McCoy


"Angry, Spock? Or frustrated?"
"Such emotions are foreign to me, Doctor. I am merely testing the strength of the door."
"For the fifteenth time."

- McCoy and Spock, in the cell

[edit] Background Information

  • Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon wrote this episode's teleplay from a story by playwright and television writer John Kneubuhl. However, Roddenberry and Coon received sole writing credit for the episode.
  • There is a lot of subtle humor in this show. Fake applause and catcalls are used to simulate a studio audience, and the race for high television ratings is lampooned several times. The TV station manager threatens the now-pacifist runaway slave that he had better fight convincingly: "You bring this station's ratings down, Flavius, and we'll do a special on you!" Later, the Proconsul sneers at Kirk about the captain's impending death, to be televised from the arena, by telling Kirk that "You're centuries beyond anything as crude as... television." Kirk replies, "I've heard it was... similar," an oblique reference to the series' own ratings difficulties. After Kirk spends some time with Drusilla, he wryly tells McCoy and Spock, "They threw me a few curves." There are also sardonic digs at 20th century air pollution ("The word was smog!") There has been speculation that Gene Roddenberry was commenting on his own frustrations in dealing with network officials as he tried to keep his series on the air.
The second, most blatant mug
The second, most blatant mug
  • William Shatner mugs for the camera repeatedly in his two scenes with Lois Jewell, indicating some satisfaction with his co-star and the writers. When Drusilla pronounces herself Kirk's to command, he throws a glance over his shoulder to see if he's being watched; stopping directly at the camera, and not the guarded door he just came through. Later, sitting at a table sampling Drusilla's fruit, he audibly bursts a grape when his eyes meet the camera, pausing with a brief flash of the eyes. After "I'm ordered to please you," Shatner gives two final, more furtive glances to the camera.
  • This episode has a powerful McCoy-Spock confrontation in which McCoy figures out that Spock has great insecurity that he might let his emotionless facade crack and that a Human face might reveal itself. Both men then acknowledge that they are united in their worry about the captain.
  • Voice-over artist Bartell LaRue makes one of two on-camera appearances in the series in this episode. The other is in "Patterns of Force".
  • Before Flavius, Kirk, Spock and McCoy are captured by the imperial police, you can see the explosive charges in the trees above their heads that would be used to show the coming machine gun fire.
  • The Roman Gods Mars, Jupiter, and Neptune are all mentioned in the episode, called "false gods" by Septimus. That the Roman planet has gods based on Greek mythology, who are identified in "Who Mourns for Adonais?" as ancient aliens, is not explained in the episode other than it is a part of the parallel Rome society.
  • The Roman planet is revisited in the novel The Captains' Honor set 100 years after the encounter by the original Enterprise crew. The novel details how the alternate Rome conquered their world and explains that, 100 years after the events of "Bread and Circuses", the Romans have now achieved space flight, warp drive, and are on a technological par with the Federation.
  • The caves where the Children of the Son hide out are one of the most-used locations in television and movies. In addition to being the entrance to the Batcave, they are also seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Kung Fu and hundreds of police and western shows. They are located right below the famous Hollywood sign.
  • This is one of only two TOS episodes featuring dialog before the title of the episode appears on-screen. The other episode is "A Private Little War".
  • Merik's ship, the SS Beagle, is most likely named after the ship on which Charles Darwin sailed when he began forming his theory of evolution by natural selection. This name may have been chosen because of the "survival of the fittest" nature of gladiatorial combat, although Darwin himself did not coin the phrase, and actually found it misleading. Alternatively, the name could be a reference to A.E. VanVogt's novel, Voyage of the Space Beagle.
  • Many hilarious sequences from this episode made the blooper reel:
  • Jack Perkins had a line which was supposed to read, "If they refuse to move out on cue, skewer them" but instead said, "Screw them!", breaking everyone up.
  • Ted Cassidy appeared out of nowhere dressed as Injun Joe from his work on The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and carried Shatner off just before he was going to machine-gun the lock of Spock and McCoy's cell. While he was being carried, Shatner yelled out "Hey, I don't know about you, but this is not the way it should work! I want you to know!"
  • As the police closed in on the landing party after they escape their cell, one of the extras slipped and fell, causing uproarious laughter on the set. This is the reason there is a quick cut before the policemen reach the main corridor.
  • George Takei (Sulu) does not appear in this episode, because of shooting The Green Berets at the time.
  • This is the only TOS episode in which it is explicitly stated that planetary natives are speaking in English (Khan had commented that the crew was speaking English in "Space Seed"), as Spock points out that it is the language of the Roman Empire on this planet. This may be because the concept of universal translators and how they function was not firmly established, although it may have been an attempt to simultaneously add credibility (i.e. Spock is surprised that he and his crew can quickly pick up on what a local population is saying) and further cement the parallel with the United States that was the backbone of the episode's social commentary.
Claudius Marcus' insignia
Claudius Marcus' insignia
  • Look at Proconsul Marcus' insignia: instead of having a Roman symbol (a legionary eagle or a fasces) he is wearing the coat of arms of the English playwright William Shakespeare.
  • The term Bread and Circuses came about in ancient Rome, appropriately enough. It refers to the Emperor's distribution of free grain and providing entertainment in the Coliseum to pacify the unemployed Roman masses. Many of them were impoverished farmers who had lost their land due to the consolidation of senatorial estates that tended to swallow up smaller farms in the area.
  • Claudius' dismissive line to Merik ("The thoughts of one man to another could not possibly interest you!") is fraught with multiple meanings. It apparently conveys Claudius' disgust for the former SS Beagle captain, who sold out his crew and allowed them to die in the arena. It could also signal Claudius' hidden esteem for Kirk, who, unlike Merik, is willing to die for his beliefs. It might also signal Claudius' contempt for Merik's possible homosexuality – a common predilection of Earth's noble Romans.
  • Whether by coincidence or intent, this particular show originally aired appropriately enough on the Ides of March, 1968.
  • The automatic weapons that the Roman guards wield are Danish Madsen m/50 submachine guns.
  • One of the shots of the planetary capital (in the opening of Act II) is of the Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose words can be read (somewhat) above the pillars. The next shot shows the Legion of Honor on the Left Bank in Paris; its motto honneur et patrie is not Latin but French, a dialectal form of Latin evolved over the dozen centuries after the Empire's end. But the shot of the building is appropriate – the French Legion was instituted by Napoleon who, like Rome's First Citizen Augustus, oversaw the transition of a Republic into an Empire.
  • The title "First Citizen" given to Merik was – in the Rome of Earth – a position not subordinate to that of Emperor but actually identical with it (much less was he subordinate to any Proconsul). Augustus and subsequent Emperors styled themselves both princeps (usually translated as "First Citizen") and imperator (commander-in-chief or generalissimo). The former title was more meaningful inside Rome's city walls, the latter – source of our English word emperor – more meaningful outside, in the provinces and colonies held fast by the imperial military bases.
  • When Spock talks of a line of emperors stretching back to Julius Caesar, he is only partially correct: Caesar was never an emperor (Augustus, his adopted son, was the first to enjoy that honor); ultimately he was styled Perpetual Dictator. As for any royal house-style bloodline, only the first five emperors were genetic relatives.
  • Two different characters have the same name in this one episode: the primary "Claudius Marcus" is the proconsul, while his namesake is mentioned as the gladiator who slew William B. Harrison, the "last" of the barbarians.

[edit] Production Timeline

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] References

892 system; 892-IV; Achilles (892-IV); Beagle, SS; Children of the Sun; class M; Condition Green; First Citizen; Garum; gladiator; Harrison, William B.; Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development; iridium; Jupiter 8; landing party; Mars Toothpaste; Name the Winner!; Neptune Bath Salts; nitrogen; oxygen; parsec; Praetorian Guard; Prime Directive; Proconsul; Procedure Q; star sector; television; World War III

[edit] External link


Previous episode produced:
"The Trouble with Tribbles" 		Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2 		Next episode produced:
"Journey to Babel"
Previous episode aired:
"The Ultimate Computer" 		Next episode aired:
"Assignment: Earth"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"Shore Leave" 		TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"Spock's Brain"
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