Original air date: January 12, 1967
Ship’s Log, Stardate 2124.5 (First officer Spock)
SYNOPSIS
A being that controls matter and creates planets wants to play with the Enterprise crew.
CANON CONTEXT
There is nothing of note about this episode, however, I’d like to posit that Trelane is a member or past descendant of the Q Continuum. The resemblance is uncanny. I call this episode the first encounter with a Q and a damn good one.
RECAP
Could we be witnessing our first encounter ever with a Q? I’m sure there are deep discussions throughout the Star Trek galaxy of fans discussing just this about this episode. Well, let me be the first to firmly plant my flag in the “this is a Q” camp. I don’t care that he used a machine at one point to do some of what he was able to do. That changes nothing. There is too much of the same personality and need for human interaction to not see the similarities. But I digress.
In this episode, as the Enterprise is on their way to somewhere (I forget where they are headed) they suddenly see a planet appear on their radar that wasn’t ever logged as existing there before. Kirk wishes to fly right past it and simply log its existence for the federation. But whatever is on that planet has other plans.
Instead, the captain and several crew members are subjected to olden time behavior as a way to illicit emotions of anger, to which Kirk is all too eager to supply. Reminiscent of the relationship between Captain Picard and Q, the two men seem to understand one another up to a point.
Trelane clearly is bored and is looking to keep the crew for his own amusement. Even wishing to have the women from the ship aboard to dance and play with. At one point he makes Uhura play the piano while he dances with the latest yeoman.
Everything comes to a head when Trelane decides to appoint himself judge, jury, and executioner after Kirk refuses to play his games the way he wants. His punishment? Hanging until dead!
But in the end Trelane’s parents come along to put a stop to his games. At one point they even refer to Kirk and his crew as toys even though they fully admit the human are more advanced than they realized. As per the norm they don’t explain who or what they are. They simply apologize for their childish son’s behavior and set things right so the crew can go on their way.
I still don’t understand how a ship that is meant to seek out and get answers to the new life and civilizations they encounter are satisfied with the sheer lack of answers they seem to always come away with!
DID THEY REALLY SAY THAT?
Mr. Spock: Captain.
Captain James T. Kirk: Mr. Spock. Still thinking about Trelane, is that it?
Mr. Spock: For the record, Captain, how do we describe him? Pure mentality? A force of intellect? Embodied energy? Super-being? He must be classified, sir.
Captain James T. Kirk: [thinks a moment] God of War, Mr. Spock.
Mr. Spock: Well, I hardly find that fitting.
Captain James T. Kirk: Then a small boy. And a very naughty one at that.
Mr. Spock: It WILL make a strange entry in the library banks.
Captain James T. Kirk: But then he was a very strange small boy.