Parallel Worlds

Budgetary restrictions meant that creating new planets for the Enterprise crew to beam down to every week was a constant problem. One solution was clever lighting of a Paramount soundstage to create lurid orange or green skies over a landscape of styrofoam boulders. Another was the idea of the parallel development of planets where human-like races would independently (or sometimes because of accidental contamination by Starfleet) take on characteristics familiar from Earth history, replicating the rise of Nazism or the Roman Empire. And, if all else failed, a spot of time travel allowed for further use of leftover sets and costumes from other Paramount productions!

Bread and Circuses
Making use of leftover sets and wardrobe from Cecil B DeMille epics like Cleopatra and The Sign of the Cross, this episode uses the parallel worlds notion to imagine a planet on which the Roman Empire has continued into a 20th century technological future and where gladiatorial combat is relayed to the masses on live TV. As much a Swiftian satire on mass entertainment and the lowest common denominator approach of the television industry as anything else, this is Trek biting the hand that feeds – and it has some classic Spock/McCoy moments too.

A Piece of the Action
100 years before the arrival of the Enterprise, the isolated planet Iotia was visited by the USS Horizon, which left behind a copy of the book Chicago Mobs of the Twenties. In a space-age version of the Cargo Cult phenomenon, the imitative Iotians modelled their society on ‘The Book’; the result is that Kirk and Spock find themselves caught up in a gang war on a planet resembling an episode of The Untouchables. It’s played for laughs, and the spectacle of a pinstripe-suited Spock brandishing his “heater” or of Kirk attempting to drive a vintage car make this one of the funniest Treks.

Patterns of Force
It’s Captain Kirk versus the Nazis in this cautionary tale of a Federation cultural observer gone bad and what happens when you ignore the Prime Directive. Kirk’s old college lecturer John Gill has decided that the planet Ekos needs a touch of order and efficiency, and so recreates Nazi Germany – as you would, obviously. Hardly Trek at its subtlest, but McCoy complaining that his jackboots are too tight and Spock telling Kirk that he makes a most convincing Nazi are treasurable moments. Oh, and the Nazi HQ is actually the Paramount Producers’ building!

Spectre of the Gun
The Enterprise landing party find themselves re-fighting the gunfight at the OK Corral in this third season gem. No, the planet hasn’t undergone a parallel development into the Wild West, it’s just the Melkotians messing with our heroes’ heads, although it takes them a while to figure that out. The bizarre juxtaposition of leftover Western sets and alien red planet make this a truly surreal-looking episode, and Dr McCoy’s meeting with ‘Doc’ Holliday is great fun.