Beta 3 has a zombie like society, lost in "peace and tranquility", faces devoid of "evil and corrupt misbehavior" (only tolerated once a year during the "red hour" which is twelve hours of hellish anarchy, hedonism, riot, and violence), dressed in suits, robes, dresses, and the like similar to the old west or a temple, with this "leader" named Landru dictating a society that is all "good", intolerable to anything that would undermine his command. Kirk, Bones, Spock, and other members of their landing party try to avoid being "absorbed" (indoctrinated through a machine that applies an influence over those deemed a threat to the standards Landru set up for his society), looking to confront Landru and "rescue" the "body" (the name of those who make up Landru's "ideal" society). There are those (an underground) who look to the skies for the return of the "archons"
a race that would "guide them". With a heat beam from the surface of the planet caused by "Landru" (Spock contemplates how Landru functions like a computer, with robed security holding canes that fire rays that kill or influence the will of the leader on those considered "evil", bewildered by Kirk's defiance of them, "correcting after a gap of "reflection" or computing the information new to them) which functions like a tractor beam hooked on the Enterprise causing them to pull towards the Earth, Kirk will need to find Landru and destroy him. Landru is a figure from 6000 years ago who seems to function as a type of projection that doesn't hear Kirk or answer his questions. Soon Kirk and Spock will confront *what* Landru really is. The Prime Directive makes its appearance here and Kirk must go up against it, seeing a society without the freedom to function as a creative people, beholden to an enslavement that forces them all to abide to the will of a leader without the opportunity to oppose him (or it, in the case of a "law" that governs through mental control). Kirk and Spock once again must avoid mind control or potential slavery, which includes possible death, by examining the behavior of the society and the leader that guides them. The dilemma of the Enterprise, with Scotty in command, as the beam is pulling them to their doom, and Kirk on the surface with his landing party against a "body" that will turn you in if you are not just like them (Kirk worrying about both those above, orbiting the planet, and those alongside him, shows the pangs of being the captain exploring the great unknowns and encountering societies of all types), produces plenty of tension. Harry Townes and Torin Thatcher are members of the underground who help Kirk and Spock, but when guidance from Landru might disappear (or their actions uncovered by Landru) their tune changes. The red hour is unhinged!
Review of The Return of the Archons
