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Who Mourns for Adonais? (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
"Who Mourns for Adonais?"
TOS, Episode 2x04
Production number: 60333
First aired: 22 September 1967
Remastered version aired: 12 January 2008
← 34th of 80 produced in TOS →
← 31st of 80 released in TOS →
← 53rd of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 31st of 726 released in all →
Written By
Gilbert Ralston

Directed By
Marc Daniels
3468.1 (2267)
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The Enterprise is captured by an alien claiming to be Apollo, the Greek god of the sun.

Contents

[edit] Summary

As the Enterprise nears the planet Pollux IV, a huge, green hand made of energy materializes in space, catching and holding the ship. Then, on scanner 57, a new image: the ghostly, laurel-wreathed head of a man. Claiming the eons have passed, he welcomes the Enterprise crew, congratulating them for leaving their plains and valleys and making a "bold venture". Among other things, this being claims familiarity with Earth, from five thousand years ago, tossing about the names of individuals alive then. Captain Kirk's repeated demands for freedom finally irritate him, and he threatens to "close his hand" and crush the ship – a threat that seems very real. This threat finally prompts Kirk to agree to visit the planet with his officers, except for Spock. Spock evidently reminds this being of Pan, who always bored him.

The landing party consists of Kirk, McCoy, Scotty, Chekov and Lieutenant Carolyn Palamas. Palamas is trained in archaeology, anthropology, and ancient civilizations -- all fields likely to be of some use here. There, they meet the being responsible for their capture. A being familiar with ancient Earth, and who introduces himself as Apollo. Despite his claims, McCoy's scans show him to be a "simple humanoid".

Apollo claims he and others – Zeus, Athena, Aphrodite, Artemis – were a "gallant band of travelers" who visited Earth five thousand years ago. He demands to be worshiped, and in return offers a simple, pleasurable life. He reveals himself as petulant, arrogant, and accustomed to obedience. All these qualities correspond with his depictions as a god. But he controls a power that also makes him very dangerous, as the crew discover in a number of ways: phasers are fused, individuals are injured by lightning strikes, or other acts of directed will. And, he has developed a romantic interest in Palamas.

Despite his array of tricks, the Enterprise landing party refuses to believe Apollo is a god. Aboard the ship, Spock is proceeding under the same assumption, and the crew there may be making headway: Uhura busys herself rigging a subspace bypass circuit to restore communications. And Sulu discovers a strange radiated power with no clear source.

Apollo, meanwhile, has taken Palamas away from the rest of the Enterprise people. During a conversation, she discovers that the gods left Earth when mankind turned away from them. They returned to their home, an empty place without worshipers. But they lacked the strength to leave, and so they waited. And over the course of time, all but Apollo discorporated. Apollo claims the gods are immortal, and can't die, at least, not the way humans understand death. But even they eventually reach a point of no return; they "spread themselves upon the wind... thinner, and thinner, until only the wind remained..."

The landing party has also discovered the energy flow, but, like Sulu, they cannot isolate it. Chekov's theory is that Apollo can channel this flow of energy through his body without harm to himself. Finding the source of this energy is top priority. McCoy adds something very interesting: while generally a standard humanoid, Apollo has an extra organ in his chest that so far defies understanding. Chekov makes a key observation: as Apollo vanishes, he appears tired or pained. It seems that Apollo has a limited reservoir, and when he expends too much energy, he must retreat and recharge. Aboard ship, as Uhura and Sulu work, Spock has devised a method he hopes will penetrate the force field, at least in a few places; he proposes to generate M-rays on selected wavelengths.

On Apollo's return, the landing party attempts to goad him into attacking someone; their goal is to force him to expend his power, and weaken him so that he might be overpowered. But Palamas, who was not part of the plan, ruins it in her well-meaning attempt to save Kirk from Apollo's wrath.

The attack on Apollo's temple.
The attack on Apollo's temple.

Attempts to foil Apollo's plans are hampered by Palamas, who has fallen in love with the god and whom Apollo decides will be his bride. This is a problem, because Kirk's final plan requires her to spurn Apollo; if she does this, depriving him of the love and adulation he needs, it may weaken him. If she chooses Apollo, the Enterprise crew had better be prepared for a radical change in their lives.

Spock determines that the god's powers come from his temple. The Enterprise has used his technique to pierce the force field around the ship. When Kirk tells Palamas to reject Apollo, which she reluctantly does, the captain orders Spock to use the Enterprise's weapons to destroy Apollo's temple. Apollo, rejected by a mortal woman and bereft of his powers, spreads himself upon the winds to join his fellow gods. After he is gone, McCoy and Kirk regret what they had to do, but what Apollo demanded, mankind could no longer give.

[edit] Log entries

  • Captain's log, stardate 3468.1. While approaching Pollux IV, a planet in the Beta Geminorum system, the Enterprise has been stopped in space by an unknown force of some kind.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

"Am I seeing things?"
"Not unless I am, too. Captain! That thing's a... giant hand!"

- Chekov and Sulu


"Approach me. I said approach me!"
"We're busy." (sotto voce) "Look after the girl."
"You will gather laurel leaves! Light the ancient fires! Kill a deer! Make your sacrifices to me! APOLLO HAS SPOKEN!"

- Apollo and Kirk


"The eons have passed, and what has been written has come about. You are most welcome, my beloved children – your places await you!"

- Apollo


"Captain Kirk; I invite you and your officers to join me. But do not bring that one – the one with the pointed ears. He is much like Pan, and Pan always bored me. No sad faces – let your hearts prepare to sing!"
"Let's go, Bones; you in good voice?"
"Jim, are you sure this is a good idea?"
"If we don't accept his gracious invitation, we'll have a crushed egg shell where this ship used to be."

- Apollo, Kirk, and McCoy


"Insulted, Mr. Spock?"
"Insults are effective only where emotion is present."

- Kirk and Spock


"Your fathers knew me, and your fathers' fathers – I am Apollo."
(sarcastically) "And I am the Czar of all the Russians!"
"Mr. Chekov –"
"I'm sorry, sir; I never met a god before."
"And you haven't yet."

- Apollo, Chekov, and Kirk


"Apollo, we're willing to talk... but you'll find we don't bow down to everyone who has a bag of tricks."
"Agamemnon was one such as you, and Hercules; proud and arrogant. They defied me – until they felt my wrath."
"I would like to point out that we are quite capable of some 'wrath' ourselves."

- Kirk, Apollo, and Scott


"To coin a phrase: 'fascinating'!"

- McCoy, after seeing Apollo change size.


"Apollo's no god. But he might have been taken for one... once. Say, five thousand years ago, a group of highly advanced space travelers landed on Earth – somewhere around the Mediterranean."
"Yes! To the simple shepherds and tribesmen of early Greece, creatures like that would have been gods."
"Especially if they had the power to alter their form at will, and command great energy. In fact, they wouldn't have been taken for anything else."

- Kirk, McCoy


"You will dismantle your ship for the supplies you will need; then I'll crush its empty hull. I have been too patient. I shall be patient... no longer." (vanishes)
"Captain, we've got to do something!"
"We were doing something, until our brave lady stepped in and saved us."
"Got any more bright ideas, Jim?"
"Yes, I do, Bones – one more, and it depends on the lieutenant's loyalty. If she fails us... we'd better get used to herding goats."

- Apollo, Scott, Kirk, and McCoy


"Reject him, and we have a chance to save ourselves. Accept him... and you condemn us all to slavery – nothing less than slavery; we might never get help this far out... Give me your hand... your hand! Now feel that: Human flesh against human flesh. We're the same. We share the same history, the same heritage, the same lives. We're tied together beyond any untying. Man or woman, it makes no difference, we're Human. We couldn't escape from each other even if we wanted to. That's how you do it, Lieutenant. By remembering who and what you are: a bit of flesh and blood afloat in a universe without end. And the only thing that's truly yours is the rest of Humanity. That's where our duty lies. Do you understand me?"

- Kirk, eloquently but firmly reminding Palamas whose side she is on


"Where's Apollo?"
"He disappeared again! Like the cat in that Russian story..."
"Don't you mean the English story – the Cheshire cat?"
"Cheshire? No, sir; Minsk, perhaps..."
"All right, all right, all right..."

- Kirk and Chekov


"Zeus. Hermes. Hera. Aphrodite. You were right. Athena. You were right. The time is passed. There is no room for gods. Forgive me, my old friends. Take me. Take me. Take me..."

- Apollo


"Besides, you stiff-necked thistle-head, you could have gotten yourself killed!"
(sighs) "Aye..."

- Kirk and Scott


"Captain, some creatures can pass energy through their bodies with no harm to themselves; the electric eel on Earth. The giant dryworm of Antos IV. The fluffy-"
(dryly) "Not the whole encyclopedia, ensign."
"The captain requires complete information."
"Spock's contaminating this boy, Jim."
"Are you saying that he, Apollo, is able to channel his power from another source?"
"That would seem most likely, sir."
"Mr. Chekov, I think you've just earned your pay for the week. But where is the source of that power?"
"Number one on our list of things to do."

- Chekov, McCoy, and Kirk


"Perhaps if I assisted?"
"How old are you?"
"Twenty-two, sir."
"Then I'd better handle it."

- Chekov and Kirk, upon the return of Carolyn Palamas


"I wish we hadn't had to do this."
"So do I. They gave us so much. The Greek civilization, much of our culture and philosophy came from a worship of those beings. In a way, they began the Golden Age. Would it have hurt us, I wonder... just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?"

- McCoy and Kirk, on the "death" of Apollo


"I can give life or death. What else does mankind demand of its gods?"
"Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate."

- Apollo and Kirk


"All right, mister! You want worshipers? You've got enemies! If you want us to bow down...!"

- Kirk

[edit] Background Information

  • The title is taken from Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats by Percy Bysshe Shelley. Line 415 reads with "Who mourns for Adonais?". Shelley's Adonais is derived from Adonis, a male figure of Greek mythology associated with fertility. It has also been noted that the name approaches Adonai, a Hebrew term for God in the Judeo-Christian tradition. As such, Adonais, on a mythological level, may refer both to fertile beauty and lordship.[1]
  • This is the only time in TOS that a star is both referred to as its Bayer designation and ancient name, specifically β Geminorum / Pollux.
  • In the trailer, the phasers fired by the Enterprise at the temple are blue. In the episode itself, they are red.
  • In the teaser, Spock affirms that "sensors indicate no life-forms" on Pollux IV, but he should have meant "no animal life forms", since the planet has many vegetable life-forms (which are not an illusion created by Apollo, as they remain after the god goes away).
  • Fred Steiner's score for this episode was re-used many times in subsequent episodes, with the exception, however, of the music played by the horn as Kirk philosophizes with Carolyn Palamas.
  • A traveling matte was used to allow a giant Apollo to appear with the landing party in the foreground at the end of act one.
  • The huge hand keeping the Enterprise from moving in the beginning of this episode is, in fact, Gene Roddenberry's.
    (citation needed • edit)
  • In the scene where Apollo zaps Scotty with the lightning bolt, James Doohan did the stunt himself.
  • Chekov comment about the Cheshire Cat being Russian is self-contradicted soon by him saying it is from Minsk, so from Belarus. Belarus was unlikely to have been perceived by the 1967 American script writers as having a separate identity from Russia, however.
  • The premise of this episode – that ancient mythological figures were powerful extra-terrestrial beings – would later become a driving premise of the science-fiction film Stargate and its television spin-offs.
  • In the middle of the episode, Spock refers to Apollo by name, but no one on the ship could know about him – when Kirk and his team beamed down to the planet, their communicators had been disabled and Apollo had not identified himself before they beamed down. Although Spock would probably run a computer database check, so he could easily identify the entity.
  • The second season blooper reel shows Michael Forest parading very effeminately in his Apollo costume. Mr. Forest was supposedly displeased with his costume, and this was his way of showing it.
  • According to Allan Asherman's Star Trek Compendium, an abandoned ending to this episode would have revealed that Palamas was pregnant by Apollo (see Apocrypha). In fact, James Blish uses this ending in his adaptation of the episode in Star Trek 7.
  • The British band Apollo 440 sampled Kirk's line "If you wanna play God and call yourself Apollo, that's your business, but you're no God to us" as well as Ltn Parrish's line "You really think you're a God?" in their 1991 single Destiny.

[edit] Production History

[edit] Apocrypha

  • In Peter David's Star Trek: New Frontier, character Mark McHenry is a descendant of the child of Apollo and Carolyn Palamas (revealed to have been impregnated during the events of this episode), and has at least some of the Apollo's powers.

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Starring

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Featuring

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

[edit] Stunts

[edit] References

A&A officer; Agamemnon; ancient civilizations; anthropology; Antos IV; Aphrodite; Apollo's temple; appendage; archaeology; Athena; Artemis; artisan; atmospheric disturbance; bacteria; Beta Geminorum system; bow; cartographic detail; cartographic section; cartographic standard; Cassandra; Cheshire; Cheshire Cat; communications system; class M type; coffee; culture; Daphne; deer; Earth; eggshell; electric eel; encyclopedia; English; energy; evolution; flock; force field; giant dryworm; goat; God; Golden Age; Greece; Greek gods; GSC; Hector; Hêra; Hercules; herd; intelligent life; laurel; Leto; lyre; m-rays; Mediterranean; Minsk; Mount Olympus (Olympus); myth; mythology; neural damage; nitrogen; nuclear electronics; Odysseus; Olympian; organ; oxygen; Pan; percentages; phaser bank; philosophy; Pollux IV; Pollux V; pulse rate; relic; Russia; Russian; Saracen; scientist; sheep; shepherd; slavery; social development; space normal; standard orbit; Starbase 12; subspace bypass circuit; tractor beam; tribesmen; tsar; wine; Zeus


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Previous episode aired:
"Amok Time" 		Next episode aired:
"The Changeling"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"Day of the Dove" 		TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
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