Arena (Star Trek TOS - S1E19)

[Hailing Frequencies Open]

This week on Treks and Tangents, we step into the rocky wasteland of Arena from The Original Series. It’s fists, homemade cannons, questionable chemistry skills, and the slowest lizard in the galaxy. Grab a bamboo tube and watch this story of the Tortoise Gorn and the Hare Captain!

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Transcript

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[Music] Alien Freakman sees open and welcome aboard tracks and tangents. I'm your co-host Brian. And I'm your co-host Jackie. I'm the Star Trek movie who tracks off on tangent. And I'm your Star Trek expert who is here to get the tangents back on track. Each episode we watch and talk about a different Star Trek episode. In this week we watched Star Trek, the original series season one episode 18. Arena. Arena. The Star Trek episode with basically two plot points in one. Thank you all so much for choosing to join us on another adventure. Thank you everyone who's been listening, liking, subscribing on the various channels, commenting where you do. We really appreciate all the support. And don't forget to share the podcast with a friend, another Star Trek fan, someone who wants to listen to two geeks talk about Star Trek, one a little more knowledgeable than the other. Very much a new geek. So thank you all so much. We'll start off this week's episode as we always do by revisiting last week's turbo lift tease. That was where we gave Jackie the title of this week's episode and Jackie without any other information gave her prediction or more like a guess to this week's plot. So computer. What was Jackie's prediction last week? Jackie's prediction last week was for arena. I think Kirk will meet someone that he has to have a bet with. And if he doesn't win this bet, someone else that he chooses from his crew has to be a stand-in for him and do an event. So Jackie, how did you think your prediction went? I did pretty well. I mean, we are doing one-on-one, except there wasn't any gambling and no one had to be substituted. The two main portions of your prediction. We're gonna have a hard disagree on on this week. He's still hard to meet someone and have a conversation, a fight. Yes, yes. I would give you more credit if you had said that Kirk was going to have to stand in for him to do an event. Kirk standing in for himself. That would have been more on target. I'm getting the feeling that Kirk wants to be involved in all the things. Yes. That's a lot of people being danger. Yes, that's it's actually an interesting comment or observation looking forward to the next generation in the pilot episode when Picard meets his second and command Riker. There definitely is a character building moment between the two where Picard is talking about he doesn't want his second and command to interfere with Picard going away on away missions and on away teams that he believes as Captain he should be going on away missions and Riker has a slightly different opinion that it is his responsibility to keep the Captain safe and the Captain should be on the ship. I agree Kirk definitely wants to be in the thick of things like a hero and it definitely establishes a theme throughout the rest of Star Trek of when the Captain wants to go off on adventures and put themselves in harm's way balanced against the responsibility of their commitment to the ship and the safety of the crew of the ship which we see in other examples we see that here when Kirk orders Shulu to do everything he can to protect the ship including the leave if necessary and abandon the away team. Exactly. I mean, and then we also see the amount of trust he puts in Sulu because he's a well educated fighter. I've educated probably the wrong word but he he's been through all the wars and fighting so he knows what to do. Right. Ignoring the behind the scenes where there was no off-branching in Star Trek where Sulu would become a Captain because William Shatner didn't want that to happen that's a fun side story we'll go down it at some point later. Sulu was gonna get promoted? Well, there was well we'll get into all the details but there was talks and discussion and ideas and brainstorming of Sulu advancing and becoming Captain and Kirk shot it down Kirk I should say William Shatner the actor not the character and it resolves itself later on in Star Trek it's a fun it's a fun character arc but specifically before we go too crazy in our tangents at the start of the episode Jackie what were your initial impressions specifically for this episode? I actually found this episode kind of boring compared to all of the other ones we've been watching. Okay but I got to see a new alien and learn about a third set of aliens who again underestimate the will and the spirit of the human that seems to be an ongoing theme also that humans are this awful predator but then we have to show that no we're nice and compassionate. Sure absolutely a ongoing and recurring theme we see that this episode with the metrons we saw that last episode to a degree with Trilane in the squire of Gothos it's the focal point of the pilot episode of the next generation with Q putting humanity on trial is going to be a trope and a theme that Star Trek returns to time and time again. It's an interesting sub plot it is I'm on the fence with arena this is an absolute timeless episode the Gorn alien and the alien suit is so iconic to Star Trek ironically enough because the Gorn would appear in this episode and we won't see them again for a very long time in Star Trek this is not going to become a regular species that they return to but at the same time as I mentioned at the top of the episode this is like two episodes and two plots squished together and crammed together into a single episode if they wanted to they could almost do this as a two-part episode where they could expand on both plots we could have a longer episode that focuses solely on the colony and the destruction of the colony by the Gorn they could escape cut new episode the fight the arena the metrons and so forth they could have even broken it up in just two separate episodes and not even done a part one and part two they could have absolutely used this and broken this up and had this is two plot points two episodes throughout the first season multiple seasons it really just does feel like two episodes squeezed in together at once I definitely see that vision but I did not think of the Gorn itself destroyed the planet I thought the metrons created this planet so both of the two captains could have life and be able to kill each other ironically kill each other so that they get over it and move on no so oh my gosh I'm wrong from the beginning does this does this completely change your perspective of the episode yeah because I really like the cute little alligator who happens to be the reptilian mascot for many cults no so the elevator pitch to the episode the planet that the earth colonies on cestus three is actually in Gorn territory or what they view is their territory in space the Gorn view that as an act of war which is why the Gorn come to the planet to destroy the colony they're driving out invaders in their mind the Federation the humans have no idea that they've done this the Gorn run away and are retreating back to some way their home planet further into their territory whatever as they are escaping in the enterprise of pursuing they enter the territory of the metrons who view them as hostile invaders themselves that is why the metrons take the captains of the two ships and put them on a planet an asteroid whatever it is and they have their fight so the wow so it really is two episodes in one the colony planet and the planet that they fight on are two completely different colonies I think they're filmed in the same place in California but they are two separate planets oh okay that makes sense why one who goes down to help the broken colony and then Kirk and the Gorn captain are suited off to another place right oh my goodness so yeah and you can see you can see where this would be in my mind ideal for two separate episodes instead of squishing everything together in one we'll get more into how this plot the script for the episode is written and where it comes from later on at the end in our triple tidbits but again I just I'm on the fence it's such a beloved episode but everyone it's beloved because of the second act or the second half of the episode the fight with the Gorn yeah no one ever thinks about or talks about the front half they don't even talk about the metrons in their in this iconic episode everything comes down to the fight with Captain Kirk and the Gorn everything else just kind of falls into the background so I'm on the fence with it no I completely see your point now and yes it could easily be in a two-parter yeah with those thoughts why don't we just jump into it so we can maybe untangle the plot of the episode further in your mind as Jackie looks worried as I've just upended her entire understanding of the episode yeah my I got a whole flight on messed us up now so we'll have some corrections along the way we'll straighten out the timeline here but it's kind of knotted up like some yarn so Jackie why don't you walk us through the episode all righty so we are actually in the transport room excited because we're going to have a feast is being prepared by Commodore Travers oh I'm sorry Commodore Travers Chef is amazing I assume because they're all happy and excited so the Commodore as we can flash back to the menagerie the Commodore is basically a person who is in charge of a colony or an outpost think of them like a mayor president not so much in charge of starships but in charge of a colony the awaiting that's about to be down has the enterprise has been invited to the colony by the Commodore as an invitation the crew that's beaming down is looking forward because the Commodore has a reputation of being a foodie is what we would call it today and so they're looking forward to great food they're joking about this idea that he would have brought his personal chef to serve with him at the colonies so that he would have access to fantastic cooking so it's less of a feast is being prepared to celebrate anything and more just we've been invited over to dinner by the Commodore and that guy likes to cook but he's being deceptive because he keeps selling Kirk that he needs to bring the tactical people right so and the enterprise crew doesn't really understand why we'll learn very quickly why but that is spark is the one who raises the question is to why it's important to bring the tactician people with the away team Kirk is dismissive of this request saying he is a Commodore of an outpost that is isolated they're vulnerable they're open to attack so just a consult McCoy who's also present does not care just is looking forward to the meal yes he's like no MREs woohoo so then off we go down to the colony so and the away team consists of spark McCoy Kirk and three other dudes they have no idea what their names are so the other three dudes the three amigos is we'll call them okay we have crew member Lang who's in a yellow shirt Keloets who's in a blue shirt and oh he or Lee who's in a red shirt so the whole rainbow of the uniform so a little question how do we know that they're tactical if they're all in different colors that doesn't make any sense to me or do they just choose their cute little outfit for the day and say oh I know how to do that they definitely don't choose their outfit for the day their colors correspond to their ship duties yellow would be command in the original series so these are going to be leaders they're going to be people who coordinate they're going to be people who lead we have the blue shirts which are science okay and then we have red shirts who are more along the lines of engineers Scotty or security security would be another example of a department that wears red shirts so why do we know that they're quote unquote tacticians we don't get into it in the episode we can surmise that whatever department they are serving under they fit that description so perhaps the yellow shirt a laying is in charge and has experience and is high enough rank to talk about navigation sensors things like that science who knows medical could be anything and the red shirt again could just be someone high ranking enough in security and arsenals and weapons and so forth so okay so they beam down all of them and they learn well and see that this colony in cestus three is rubble nothing no feast nobody's there and we have our opening credits when we come back from that as we look around all the rubble the Kirk summises that all the communication about dinner and a feast was a fake was like a trap yep specifically to lure the enterprise to the planet to the colony so Kirk sends out the three gentlemen that we've just named the two gentlemen he sends laying and Kelo it's out to look for survivors but oh here he has stay with them and Spock has a box that is called a tricorder seems to be able to do anything that they need in every episode is telling him that there's a survivor near or live person something they a survivor a human so they find the the human McHoy checks them out and reports that this poor guy is in shock he has radiation exposure he's bleeding internally he he's on it you know he's on the on his deathbed but we need to keep him alive so he can tell us what happened right it's mentioned at some point in this exchange that he's got about 30 minutes to live unless they can get him more substantial treatment than what he can receive from McHoy there in the rubble of the colony so Kirk sends out a hurly to go investigate what these cold blooded means are and then he is vaporized from missiles and other artillery Spock is using a tricorder and determines that there is life on the colony but the readings that he's getting are cold blooded beings not of the human variety so Kirk sends one of the red shirts so hurly out to investigate what are these non-human life forms and as he's out there he is vaporized by someone off screen that then the entire group is attacked by missiles coming from who knows where I think they're mortars but yeah oh yeah because they have the shells and stuff one there's the high pitch whistling as they fall right before they explode my dog really like that part Kirk calls up to the enterprise and Suly reports that the ship is also being attacked by an unknown alien ship so Kirk tells Suly to keep all the defenses up and to ensure that the enterprise is safe well and specifically Kirk is calling up to the enterprise because initially Kirk wants to be beamed up and out of the attack on the planet yes the fact that this alien ship is attacking the enterprise means that Suly had to raise its shields and the transporters don't work through the shields so they can't beam them up Suly suggests lowering the shields momentarily to beam everyone up but Kirk views it as too big of a risk to the enterprise oh like that little slip in slip in the door by some random smart so Kirk tells Suly to return fire on that alien ship with all the phaser banks but they have no effect on that other ship on the planet Kirk and the others are moving the survivor into a better area of cover then Kirk orders two members that we for author names at the beginning to spread out so that aliens don't attack them go to flank them Kirk is torn though he feels that he needs to be on the enterprise to ensure it's safety because it's his ship but then again he has stuck on that on the colony unable to do anything for his men and women Spock reminds Kirk though that Suly is an experienced combat veteran and he will keep the ship safe in the absence of Kirk being there Kirk asked Spock if he knows where the arsenal is for the colony Spock points out though that while it's a hundred yard away it may be destroyed because of the attack already on the colony Kirk decides though that he's just gonna risk it and starts to run straight out to the arsenal out of cover and he's immediately ambushed by more falling mortars she takes cover in the middle of the open space like behind giant boulders now and calls back up to salute to check in Kirk encourages to do to keep fighting and use the photon torpedoes phaser attacks everything against the alien ship so that the enterprise is safe. Suly needs to do everything he can to keep the ship safe even if that means leaving the orbit and running away Suly realizes that the fight is hopeless against this alien ship and he follows orders and takes the ship out of orbit in the rubble at the colony Spock runs and rolls I thought it was really cute that choreography and to Kirk from McCoy's patient because McCoy is still with the other colony survivor Spock realizes that the attacks have somehow connected themselves to the tricorder like he knows they know where they are so he throws the tricorder away to hopefully that attack will be guided away from them. Yeah specifically the attackers have figured out in somehow Spock gives a very muddled explanation but they locked on to the signals that were coming out of the tricorder in its scans and fed it back into the tricorder which I think partially allowed them to triangulate and direct their mortar attacks but also specifically it we see the tricorder smoking so it overloaded the tricorder. I think this is to give some kind of context and clue to the audience that when we later see who the attackers are a giant lizard wearing caveman clothing that these are actually beans that have technological knowledge and are an advanced species. Kind of like Bluetooth. Kirk though is able to find a grenade launcher within the arsenal area and they set it up to fire what looks like blue softballs at least with the grenades or shapes like and they launch one in the direction of the attacker. Boom! It's a pretty big explosion it definitely is more than just a simple grenade or mortar round it is a giant flash of light it is a very large and powerful weapon. It's such a powerful weapon that all of the attacks and mortar shelling from the attackers against the colony and the away team stop. Sulu calls down to Kirk and says that the alien ship is moving away from the planet and that Sulu in the enterprise had detected transporter beam signals from the alien ship implying that they have been all of the attackers back onto the ship and that they are running away and this is where I have a minor problem with the plot of the episode so this is this whole sequence of events implies that the attacking aliens were scared off by a single attack from this blue ball does that mean that well one it's interesting that they would be scared off by a single attack to did the colony not get to use any of these weapons in their defense is this is the first time that they've seen this weapon maybe because they caught the colony off guard I just find it very interesting that this is what would cause them to call off the attack to run away but regardless Kirk orders an away team of 30 medical personnel to beam down to search through the rebel of the colony to look for survivors and then the enterprise takes off and hot pursuit of this alien ship in the enterprise sick bay Kirk asks the survivor that they had down to first for more information his face is very badly burned and he exclaims that the beams were like phaser beams but worse I've never felt to phaser beam so I imagine that would be really hard I imagine he explains that they allow ships to use their facilities to rest stock up you know kind of like a truck stop while they're traveling but this ship didn't and do anything nice they just knocked out everything that the colony had even its protection like phasers and didn't let them surrender at all they just boom destroyed them the ship didn't even let up on it to attack when the people were begging for the lives of the women and children in the colony right they didn't allow the colony to surrender and Kirk asks about the messages that they received and the man reports that it was one and a half days ago why would the alien ship attack them it was a trap to attack actually the enterprise and it's crew since it was the only ship that can provide protection in the section of federation so giving knowledge that these aliens had advanced knowledge of the operations of the federation they had knowledge that the enterprise was in the area and some knowledge of the operation of the enterprise otherwise why would they attempt to lure the crew in the ship there I mean Spock does try to play the devil's advocate like that can't be the only reason for an attack there has to be more reasons foreshadowing and Kirk retorts they how can we be able to explain a massacre like Sessis 3 there's just no explanation thinking hard Spock finally relents and counters with locating the alien vessel before it returns to its original home base that way they can get more information Kirk plans to hide enterprises strength in order to overtake the vessel Spock that isn't really into this idea but he's listening Kirk then calls to Subaru and asked if the alien ship is still going warp five I'm assuming warp five six seven they're all like mouse power speed so warp factors or warp speed is a measurement of speed it is much faster than miles per hour so each warp factor is obviously a higher number is a faster speed and it's measured not in miles per hour but it's measured in comparison to light speed or the light the speed at which light travels so as an example warp one would be the equivalent of the speed of light you would be able to at warp one traverse the distance between the earth and the moon in 1.33 seconds wow but then it it is it increases in speed exponentially as you go up warp two is not twice the speed of light it is eight times the speed of light so the same distance from the earth to the moon would be cut down to from 1.33 seconds to 0.17 seconds crank it all the way up to warp five which at this point in the Star Trek universe as we quickly learn warp five is pretty standard you can go faster than that but it's kind of like driving a car the faster you go the more wear and tear you put on the car the more fuel and gas you use so there's kind of your typical cruising speed warp five would be pretty much that at this point in Star Trek warp five is 125 times the speed of light you make the same trip from earth to the moon now in 0.01 seconds increasing to warp six we're looking at 216 times the speed of light there's it's pretty instantaneous from earth to the moon so it increases exponentially as you go through we're gonna quickly learn warp five is pretty standard anything above that we start looking at problems exactly but Kirk is wanting to encounter that alien ship so bad he keeps going faster and faster the alien goes to six he goes to seven and he tells everybody to get to their positions and get ready to attack and red alert we come back from a commercial and we're still in hot pursuit of that alien ship the Spock does not have any update though on what alien it is like he just knows about rumors and quote unquote space legend well they don't know what the alien is Spock is reporting on the section of space that they're currently in it's foreshadowing to the next alien race that we're gonna meet in this episode side note this portion where Spock is talking about there's nothing known in the sector of space we only kind of have these legends as a way to allude to the metrions that we're going to encounter I've always thought it would be really cool to have some kind of crossover with the themes of HP Lovecraft and the old gods and the eldritch gods that dwell and exist in deep space some kind of combination so network writers and producers don't steal my idea but a sci-fi show of space travel where we the biggest threat that we can encounter are all of these old gods and elder gods that we would typically see in an HP Lovecraft setting I think that would be a really cool science fiction horror show so stay tuned coming to televisions this fall yeah from treks and tangents and we're still running after this ship though as we're going through this space Spock and Sulu are saying very fast we go it's getting more unsafe but Kirk just ignores it and says get ready for battle right at this point where at warp seven that's the speed at which they say that they cannot the ship can hit that speed but they can't maintain that speed for long they're going to start burning out their engines again as reference we are now traveling at 343 times the speed of light my skin is crawling and this is the numbers just get meaningless at this point so it was Sulu reports though that they're closing in on the ship and the navigator is able to see where they're going but it's uncharted solar systems but where's the sal from last episode they keep changing people the new navigator is a dark charred gentleman named DePaul and he reports that the alien ship has turned away from the solar system then you hear it interrupts them staying that the solar system is scanning the enterprise in Spock site well it is interesting so solar system continues to scan the ship while Sulu reports to Kirk that the alien ship they were after is just stopped in space Kirk is extremely excited that they have caught up to the alien ship and he tells everybody to get ready to attack we got him suddenly the enterprise is pulled from a warp eight down to a dead stop violently like everyone is thrown forward they all did a great job at that acting so they are now held in place just like the alien ship even by looking through their controls they everything is normal they can they just cannot move anything well they specifically go through a quick little checklist and things like life support are still operating the gravity is obviously still operating but some of these other systems like weapons and the engines those are all offline and then suddenly on the view screen instead of like the normal beautiful stars it's all colorful and a figure shows up and they they are called the metron's not really a figure it's again a funky screen saver from Windows 95 the metron talks to the enterprise telling them that both crafts are trying to enter their solar system with the goal of violence which is not permissible right so we have another example of a reaction to perceived invaders into someone's territory much like the aliens thought the enterprise and the humans were invading into their territory with their colony the metron voice says that they've studied each ship and will have the captain go to a special planet where they both will will be able to have life and they also will have a recording device that will translate what they're saying for both the other captain to hear and future ships brute strength against brute strength he says each ship will be unobtainable and the loser will also have their ship destroyed and the Kirk disappears that I assume of Jeanie's appearance they also the metrons mention to Kirk through the view screen before he's transported away to this new location that the planet that they're going to has the resources necessary to create a weapon or to use in this fight and then we learn that the alien ship is a gorn and they look like walking alligators with glittery eyes yeah specifically the metrons in their communication on the enterprise to Kirk it's a throwaway line where they identify the aliens as the gorn and that's how we as the viewers learn the name of their species but you're right once we're on the planet we get our first look at them giant crocodile alligator looking thing with glittery disco ball eyes wearing a caveman looking outfit he would fit in very well with a live action version of the Flintstones I noted that when we came back from the commercial break and we get this captain's log this internal monologue that he's given to catch the viewers a backup he refers to his location as being on an asteroid and everywhere else it's referred to as a planet so just a weird weird thing to stick out I guess he really doesn't know where he is maybe he thinks it's an asteroid maybe because it's so barren and it just has lots of different mineral deposits but it'd be very unique for an asteroid to have its own atmosphere the metrons are special that they are so Kirk comes face to face with the other captain both are weaponless but like we said the gorn is giant he is muscular but he is not agile they first try to do hand hand to hand combat and that was not successful at all running up part of a mountain Kirk find a rock and tries to throw it down on the gorn and the gorn no response he's like why are you doing that yeah bounces off his chest without effect the gorn then picks up a giant boulder himself and those at at Kirk and he does and he misses on the enterprise though Spock is checking in with Scottie and you hurrah how are their parts doing and Sky still is unable to find any alternative options and you hurrah cannot communicate because she stuck they're all stuck in the solar system we're jumping back to the planet and Kirk is using the recorder device he's just mess on Kirk starts to use the recording device that he was given and he talks about his opponent who happens to also be listening behind a rock and he says while the gorn isn't agile he is quite clever he's also confused how the planet is supposed to offer weapons but he doesn't see any weapons he just sees rocks dirt and elements basic elements like sulfur and coal we pop back up to into the enterprise they're going back and forth at this time and McCoy is questioning Spock and was planets they how can they help him if they don't know where he is back down at that special planet Kirk is able to find some greenery and tries to make a club to be able to use it against the gorn well the gorn finds vines that he can use as rope and he's just laughing and he's enjoying himself I think and then Kirk walks upon diamonds and of course they're gorgeous and they're the hardest material but how can he use an unfinished diamond to do anything as a weapon he even says he'd betrayed them all for a handpaser or a good club Kirk is still traveling up hills and mountains trying to look for things because he has this ability to outpace the gorn as it's been pointed out the gorn is extremely slow the gorn is comically slow there's no effort required by Kirk to run away from him and stay out of range to get as far away from him as he can he can certainly out last the gorn and the gorn is happy though he's just making all these primitive weapons with what he has found on the surface then Kirk finds a boulder himself on the edge of a cliff and he tries to push it off so it can hit the gorn to it'll take him out and success the gorn is able to move the boulder from being on top of it and toss it at Kirk as Kirk comes down the hill but he ends up in a vine trap that the gorn created the vine trap that we saw him making earlier as he was laughing to himself and now he hisses and then we have a commercial break coming back from that we see that the gorn has created a sharp dagger to like instrument from one of the rocks he tries a stab Kirk but because Kirk is so fast he's able to get out of the way meanwhile on the enterprise Spock is continuously trying to contact the metrons and they will not talk to him they refuse to well I don't know if he's trying to establish a connection to the metrons or if he's trying to reach out to the gorn ship oh as a way to it he's trying to in any way shape or form to do something after getting away from the gorn on the planet Kirk is exhausted I mean he's already climbed all his mountains and well and he's burned through all of his stamina fighting out of the vine trap and now he wrestled with the gorn and he pushed this giant boulder off if it was just a matter of endurance and keep away from the gorn he could have lasted a lot longer but he's expended a lot of his energy in this most recent struggle in fight but he finds that he is next to a large amount of yellow sulfur and he's trying to remember why sulfur is so important which begins one of the longest examples in history of foreshadowing leading up to Kirk's final plan it's incredibly painful to watch I think back on the enterprise the metrons tell the crew that Kirk is losing the battle on the planet and they should all start planning for their own deaths do whatever they need to do to come determines with it but they will let the crew see Kirk die they're trying to be nice yeah and so the metrons pull up on the view screen of the enterprise Kirk down on the planet so they can watch the rest of this play out this is very much in line with what we saw with the menagerie where we almost get an episode within an episode we get a lot of shots of the bridge crew of the enterprise just staring at the view screen watching Kirk we get a lot of commentary between Spock and McCoy where McCoy is rooting on Kirk Spock is starting to see the plan formulating Kirk's brain and and Spock realizes what Kirk is trying to do on the planet the Gorn is talking to Kirk the the recorder he's tired of chasing Kirk he's like just stay where you are I'll come to you and I'll kill you swiftly easy peasy he believes he is able to kill humans because they invaded the Gorns space that's his justice your reference scene that this is the moment where the Gorn explains to Captain Kirk the reason why the Gorn attacked the colony was because the planet the colony was on is in their territory and they were defending their territory Kirk goes back to that super green leafy area that he saw earlier and grabs bamboo which and also makes it a larger club and then he begins creating his own weapon it's a hollow tube of bamboo he has vines and he is using all those elements he passed potassium nitrate sulfur coal all in that order and stuffing them in the tube like a Gorn with a bayonet Kirk is creating a cannon he's making a cannon that resembles very much like the original mortar with the blue ball it's a weird little tie-in between the two weapons probably a coincidence the Gorn catches up to him and Kirk is able to fire off his cannon the Gorn falls back and Kirk runs to the reptile and he's like almost about to kill him and then he stops himself and he yells in the metron that he refuses to kill the Gorn this is not entertainment a metron appears in a white gown super young looking at surprises Kirk the metron also has sent the Gorn back to his own ship during this surprise Kirk says you look like a boy and metron says I'm 1500 years old I know more and he also tells Kirk that it surprises them the metrons that he showed mercy which is an advanced trait but if Kirk would like the metron to do so they would happily destroy the Gorn ship they don't have done they begun but Kirk refuses it's an interesting point of dialogue because the metron specifically says that he will spare Kirk's life because Kirk showed mercy to the Gorn but that wasn't the original rules of the contests the original rules of the contest that the metron set forth were that there would be a loser the loser would have their ship destroyed and the winner would be returned to their ship and that ship would continue on its journey so a little contradictory there we'll get into a little later and the metron refuses to talk with Kirk about anything I mean they still they still are savage but they'll be in contact when the humans are finally ready to talk because you're right the metron continue to view humans as savage and aggressive and the metrons are unapologetic for their decision to have this contest so they're trying to explain to Kirk that humans are beneath them and they're not willing to have any sort of contact or any sort of formal alliance with the humans until the humans have further evolved in themselves in themselves Kirk that returns to the enterprise you're her ass that he's okay and he just he just says I don't know but let's get back to our post and let's get out of here as they're getting back to their post sooloo notices that the maps have changed like the places serious and canopies they're in the wrong spots how did that happen it's not on the maps it's the physical constellations that they're using as a reference point which is how solu comes to discover that the enterprise is 500 parsecs away from where they were brought to a dead stop by the metrons so Kirk has solu char a new course to sesas three and don't worry about anything spot low is so curious to know it happened on the planet which Kirk all refuses to tell him but he does say humans are still predators but we're promising nonetheless things might change in the next thousand years and then it's also take them back to where they were supposed to be the warp factor one and role credits so Jackie what did you think about season one episode 18 arena what are your final thoughts actually enjoyed it talking more in depth I learned a lot more underneath the surface so I think that was pretty entertaining I mean and I did like the gorn that I'm glad he wasn't a frog and I again my final thoughts this is it's an okay episode it's two plot points that are squished together into a single plot point a single episode you have the entire gorn invasion of the colony in part one and then you have the contest between captain Kirk and the gorn captain and again that's the part that everyone remembers is that physical fight I don't think casual to any non-diehard fan is going to recall anything else from this episode other than that fight the appearance of the metron the conflict at the colony beforehand it's really the gorn fight that everyone remembers I think they could have done a lot of different things with the plot so that it didn't feel so broken apart so again just a okay episode for me will wrap up our thoughts with our favorite quote from the episode Jackie why don't you share yours from Kirk as he is looking at the gorn captain he says like most humans I seem to have an instinctive revulsion to reptiles and I definitely relate to that and especially amphibians yes Jackie fun fact Jackie hates frogs we'll just put it that way daily that's why she won't watch the muppet show and that is an interesting quote because he follows it up by talking about how he has to remind himself despite being revolted by the gorn that he has to remember that they are an intelligent species that they are work capable they are intelligent so it's an interesting quote my quote comes at the end from the metron that appears to Kirk and explaining quote by sparing your helpless enemy who surely would have destroyed you you demonstrated the advanced trait of mercy something we hardly expected I like the quote because it leads into the hypocrisy because the next explanation from the metron is because you showed mercy we will spare your life but again the original arrangement was whoever won the fight would be spared Kirk's already earned that he won the fight again we'll get to it in a moment but those are our quotes we pick good ones we do triple tidbits for the episode or fun facts and why do we call them triple tidbits Jackie because it's trivel triple trivel trivel trivel because we learn that Jackie doesn't really know what tribbles are she just thinks they're cute and she didn't grab the triple for the recording this time so say learn originally airing January 19 1967 the original version again we're watching the remastered version on Paramount Plus but the original version doesn't show the gorn blinking like it does in the very first moment when Kirk encounters him on the planet it's literally a tongue in cheek blink and you miss moment the blinking was added as a special effect in the remaster version it's a slightly controversial addition because at least I think so because the fact that the gorn doesn't blink is not something that some might think was a feature of the costume due to lack of ability to make him blink or like a mascot or budget constraints or anything like that if you go back and read the original script that was written for the episode the script specifically calls attention to the aliens appearance and it references the alien as not blinking as a means of making it appear more fierce and more alien and non-human so that's a good one there's several conflicting reports that I could find online but the gist of how the script came about that I seem to find most people agree with the script was written again due to short notice other writers had missed a bunch of deadlines and so the writer Jean Cune goes home and writes the initial script over a weekend however when the script was submitted for review the script review process revealed that the plot of the episode very closely almost identically mirrored a short story called arena and it was from a 1944 science fiction magazine called astounding science fiction and Jean Cune was also an avid fan and reader of science fiction so when confronted Jean claimed that he was completely unaware of the similarities at the time that his script so closely mirrored this other script even down to the name and again did the name come before did the name come after lots of conflicting reports to solve it the show reached out to the original writer of the short story that appeared in the science fiction magazine but they kind of pulled the wool over his eyes instead of admitting that they've already written the script and they're trained to avoid a lawsuit and buy the rights from them after the script was written they told him hey we really like your story we'd like to write a script about it for Star Trek oh he probably never knew that the wool was pulled over his eyes he did without any hesitation or any real pushback agreed to let them use his story and he got paid as a writer's credit and got writer's credit for this for the story so everything was made right but little deceptive my interesting part that I like the most again the metron's backtrack and tell Kirk that they're going to spare his life because he showed mercy but he already won the contest there was dropped a dialogue where in the original script the metrons admit to Kirk that they had planned to blow up both of the ships no matter who won the contest so I think that adds a little bit of depth to the metron as a species I think it's very interesting to show that they don't have the most noble intentions at heart anyway that they also are deceptive violent and not perfect like they portray themselves to be I really wish that was included that bit of dialogue stayed in the episode and wasn't dropped kind of like squid games yes they're watching very fun yes Star Trek squid games hey that's a good crossover coming soon to Netflix again we're looking for sponsors will happily take that the Gorn captain was voiced by Ted Cassidy who we all know and love he's the over was he seven feet tall but he's the actor who played Ruck in what are little girls made of and he provided the voice of Baylox puppet in the Corbinite maneuver that's super cool yeah this of course is the first episode where the photon torpedoes are used and referenced again they become very important in Star Trek lore William Shatner to this day suffers from tenitis which is traced all the way back and is assumed to have been caused by all of the explosive special effects that were used in this episode he won't be the only actor in the original series that will come to suffer from tenitis from their work on and being in close proximity to special effects on the show it's cursed and finally Jackie mentioned the navigator to Paul is a new navigator yes if he looks familiar that's because he also played the disfigured captain pike from the menagerie parts one and two he just didn't have white hair and he didn't have the the plasma burns all over his face the radiation sorry supposed to be the expert radiation burns not plasma this is awesome it's like John Wayne science entertainment using all the actors for things yep that's awesome and those are your triple tidbits and we round out the discussion of our episode by our ranking this is where we assign a rank to the episode we pretend the episode is a member of our crew of our fictitious starship and we assign a rank based on not only how entertained we were when we watched the episode but also how important of a crew member would it be to the operation of our fictitious starship a higher rank means we find the episode more entertaining but more importantly a more prominent and important crew member to our ship and a lower ranking means we of course weren't disintertained and they're disposable crew member they could wear a red shirt and die off in the next episode our ranking system runs from Ensign lieutenant junior grade lieutenant lieutenant commander commander and then we have our top spots of captain and admiral we also limit the number of episodes that can hold such a rank as an example captain we only have one of one we can only have five out of five commanders etc if all of this sounds extremely confusing because this is an audio podcast we do have a visual representation posted on our patreon at patreon.com/treksintangents we post an updated visual every Wednesday the day after each episode goes live so Jackie this week on your starship the USS Galactic Glitterbee what ranking do you give arena I'm going to put the arena in my lieutenant spot lieutenant why a ranking of lieutenant well like you had explained that we have two things happening at once and because they squished them all together it was hard for me to follow like exactly what was happening so I think it potentially could have been higher but for me I have to keep it down below because it didn't understand all of it all right and for my starship the USS cosmic shark I'm gonna be right in line with Jackie I'm also gonna assign it a rank of lieutenant very similar reasons as I've covered before two plots coming together into one episode feels very much like they should have been separate episodes and they should have stood on their own for what they were we could have easily had an episode of similar to the balance of terror the away team down on the planet being attacked by aliens the enterprise above fighting off the attacks it's half of the episode and then we get this whole other plot point where they're chasing an alien ship they meet the metrons he has this huge fight down on the planet as influential as it is to pop culture as much as that fight scene between Kirk and Gorn come up time and time again in other examples as much as its lampooned it's really just not a strong episode for me period it's entertaining for sure but again it should have been broken up into two separate episodes well he only wrote it in a weekend no he only took a weekend to plagiarize it out of a science fiction magazine exactly so hot take arena a beloved episode is gonna rank pretty middle of the road for us as of this recording on IMDB arena is currently sitting at a 7.9 out of 10 oh they liked it I think a lot of the reviews that come from this episode again are nostalgia driven a lot of people you say arena and the first thing you think of or the first thing that's described to you is that shot of Kirk and the Gorn and their initial little tussle where they wrestle with each other the rest of the episode I think falls into the background and no one remembers that that takes place more than halfway through the episode we have an entire plot point behind it of a colony being attacked we have this whole other edition of the metron being introduced metron who metron who is gonna be the theme again a lot of nostalgia for the episode but when you break it down and look it over at least for us it's gonna be middle of the road we'll be back next week to trek through another episode and this is where we give a turbo lift ease or elevator pitch to next week's episode this is where I give Jackie the title of the next episode and Jackie with no other information we'll give a brief pitch to the plot really comes down to a guess sometimes she's pretty good sometimes I'm not not so good so Jackie next week's episode is entitled tomorrow is yesterday this sounds really exciting so I think the crew will visit a new planet but I'm gonna imagine Dr. McCoy is going to touch something pick something up you know be curious and that will have like a twist on reality where he's just going to keep reliving his existence until they figure out how to procure it and tune in next week to see if Jackie gets her prediction right if you want more show information you can find and directly support our podcast on patreon at patreon.com/treksintangents besides that visual representation of our episode rankings that I mentioned we will post the podcast itself you don't have to listen to us on youtuber Spotify you can listen to it directly on patreon for our crew members we do also once a month dive into the animated series for Star Trek where each episode we will break down it's very similar to the podcast itself but on a more condensed version a lot more tangents a lot less trek and a lot more fun you can troubles and troubles we will get to troubles at some point there are no troubles yet in the animated series so I think we're gonna start going out of order to the cartoon too because some of the episodes of the cartoon are very heavily centric if not direct sequels to episodes from the original series that we haven't got to yet we might skip around so tune in see what episode we do we also have posted on there every test episode that we recorded for our podcast you can get an abbreviated deep dive of the television show fringe and stargate sg1 and see how the episodes see how the episodes themselves influence the final version or what we call this podcast and how well we grew you can also follow us on x at trex underscore tangents we're also on instagram and blue sky at trexin tangents where we try to post other things outside of the podcast means polls thoughts so follow along there if you'd like Jackie working people find you and what are you up to I am mostly on instagram as jibum j i b b o o m I've got tons of things going on there music I'm a musician I have chronic illness service dogs fashion makeup you name it it's on there and I also have a boutique on what not called good or bow boutique I will see you there and you can watch me stream of variety of video games over at twitch.tv/pyritepoundtown I take that content and on youtube I post that video game content and other random content on my main youtube channel pirate poundtown you can also find some coin collecting and other hobby videos on youtube by me under my secondary channel pirate treasure hunting I post socially on blue sky at pirate poundtown and finally I can be found on instagram under pineapple cannibal links to all social media mentioned can be found in the episode description thank you everyone for tuning into this week's episode we hope you had fun like we did we will see you all next week and we'll see you in a thousand years met John and transmission. you you(upbeat music)