The Enterprise crew once again encounter highly advanced/highly evolved aliens, who, in this case, wish to study the concepts of good and evil (a bit ironic as I thought humanity had evolved beyond the simplistic notion of such concepts by the 23rd century) and use crew members as pawns in their inquiries. This episode, a morality tale, borrows elements from some of the better episodes of the past, such as "Arena" and "Day of the Dove," as well as "Spectre of the Gun" and even "The Devil in the Dark," which had another silicon-based lifeform. The better scenes, however, are not the later action sequences, but when Abraham Lincoln beams aboard the ship and gets acquainted with Kirk and the crew. It's an excellent guest appearance by actor Bergere, who is given some entertaining dialog, mirrored later by actor Atwater, who plays the famous Vulcan, Surak. The crew reactions to such famous personages and their debates about the nature of these obvious aliens-in-disguise is what elevates this above the average 3rd season episode. Doohan, as Scotty, steals a couple of scenes here, as usual.
In the last two-thirds of the episode, Kirk & Spock, along with Lincoln, beam down to the planet, meet Surak, and then are forced to confront four other famous, er, infamous figures from the past: Colonel Green, Kahless the Unforgettable, Zora (who?) and Genghis Khan. Col.Green made his name in some genocidal war in the 21st century (probably related to the 3rd World War brought up in later Trek series). Kahless, of course, is the famous/infamous Klingon, reinterpreted on the TNG series. The plot, at this point, is fairly simple: with no advanced weapons, using whatever resources are on hand in the primitive setting, such as spears, the two quartets must fight it out until one side is the victor. It's very basic, very primal, with our heroes and villains reduced to chess pieces on the cosmic board of some higher powers. There are no astonishing revelations towards the end, with Kirk & Spock merely showing that their Starfleet training can be put to use, if required. Even so, it seemed to me they were lucky in the end - that Green miscalculated and didn't press on to victory when he had the chance, due to, I suppose, cowardice. This episode also showed, again, the ingenuity necessary to come up with unusual-looking aliens when you have almost no budget for special make-up and FX.
In the last two-thirds of the episode, Kirk & Spock, along with Lincoln, beam down to the planet, meet Surak, and then are forced to confront four other famous, er, infamous figures from the past: Colonel Green, Kahless the Unforgettable, Zora (who?) and Genghis Khan. Col.Green made his name in some genocidal war in the 21st century (probably related to the 3rd World War brought up in later Trek series). Kahless, of course, is the famous/infamous Klingon, reinterpreted on the TNG series. The plot, at this point, is fairly simple: with no advanced weapons, using whatever resources are on hand in the primitive setting, such as spears, the two quartets must fight it out until one side is the victor. It's very basic, very primal, with our heroes and villains reduced to chess pieces on the cosmic board of some higher powers. There are no astonishing revelations towards the end, with Kirk & Spock merely showing that their Starfleet training can be put to use, if required. Even so, it seemed to me they were lucky in the end - that Green miscalculated and didn't press on to victory when he had the chance, due to, I suppose, cowardice. This episode also showed, again, the ingenuity necessary to come up with unusual-looking aliens when you have almost no budget for special make-up and FX.