Yar, you be here: Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 38 - Episodes 75 & 76: The Way to Eden / Requiem for Methuselah > Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 38 - Episodes 75 & 76: The Way to Eden / Requiem for Methuselah Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 9 Reviews)

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The original "Star Trek" series is cheesy at times but often fun and sometimes dramatic. However, 2 episodes per disc is a sure sign that Paramount was milking this series for all that it's worth, because they knew that the loyal "Star Trek" fans would buy every disc - all 40 of them. Paramount has now released the entire series in season boxed sets which, although still pricey, include bonus features and are a better value than these single-disc releases. Skip these discs and buy the boxed sets instead.

Leonardo DaVinci Meets the Space Hippies
Wow! Could you get two episodes more different than these?

The better of the two - though the less entertaining - is "Requiem for Methuselah," which brings Kirk, Spock and McCoy into contact with a cultured older man named Flint (James Daly) and his daughter Reena (Louise Sorel), on an otherwise abandoned planet where the Enterprise can obtain much needed Ritalin (not the kind you're thinking of). How exactly these two came to be out in the middle of nowhere - and fully self-sufficient - is a mystery for the three Enterprise principals to solve, along with that of Flint's unprecedented collection of entirely unknown and uncatalogued DaVinci paintings, Brahms and Beethoven symphonies, Shakespeare sonnets, etc. And just what, exactly, is his relationship to his "daughter," who truly is "the only girl in the world"?

This one performs much like the 1950's classic film, Forbidden Planet. The performances are quite good, Sorel especially, whose particulars are as much a mystery to herself as they are to everyone else. The scenery is sumptuous.

"The Way to Eden" was the inspiration for the equally laughable later movie series entry, Star Trek V. Truly, nothing is ever funnier than Establishment portrayals of Counterculture, and that's what this one is all about. The Enterprise picks up a handful of space hippies from a stolen space shuttle, who go around preaching, like, really groovy peace-'n-love, man, to the starship's crew - an', like, y'know, Captain Kirk is just so, I dunno, like, not receptive, man. But - WHOA! - SPOCK really groks their scene, dig? He's sympathetic to their desire to find the mythical planet Eden (our equivalent of Atlantis), even if their leader is a middle-aged mad doctor who's a real head-case (Skip Homeier). Well...things don't turn out well. (Bummer!)

A prize, to anyone who can watch more than five minutes of the Space Hippies and not crack a smile. If you're not laughing within ten, there's something wrong with you. If you're not cat-calling within fifteen, you're in severe need of medical attention.

The Enterprise encounters two wise men seeking paradise
Volume 38 in the Star Trek DVD series offers up a very uneven pair of episodes from the show's final season. "The Way to Eden" is probably the episode that most smacks of the Sixties in a blatant attempt to be groovy, hip, cool, whatever. The Enterprise intercepts a stolen spacecraft carrying Dr. Sevrin (think Timothy Leary) and his followers, all young futuristic hippie types. There are seeking the legendary planet Eden in an attempt to get away from it all and back to paradise. After Spock locates Eden on the ship's computer, Sevrin and his followers take over the Enterprise. However, when they arrive at Eden they find that the planet is as deadly as it is beautiful. The storyline in "The Way to Eden" is okay, it is the transplanted hippies following their guru that grates a bit. It was bad enough when Chekhov showed up with his Beatles/Monkees wig to cater to the younger generation. I do not see any reason to have these people be earnest seekers of a more pastoral lifestyle instead of anti-establishment types. At least they groove on Spock.

On the other hand, "Requiem for Methuselah" is one of my picks for Top 10 Star Trek episodes, although admittedly it might be my most idiosyncratic selection. Rigelian fever has broken out on the Enterprise and the crew discovers the necessary antidote, ryetalyn, on an uninhabited planet in the Omega system. However, the landing party discovers a man named Flint, his robot M4 and his ward, Rayna Kapec. Slowly but surely Kirk and Spock put together the pieces of the mystery--e.g., a "new" work written in the hand of Johannes Brahms--and Flint finally tells them his fantastic story. Born on earth in Mesopotamia in 3034 B.C., he was Akharin, a soldier who was pierced in the heart in battle but did not die because of instant tissue regeneration. Apparently immortal he has lived dozens of lifetimes as Brahms, da Vinci, Solomon, Alexander, Merlin and many others (he claims to have been both Methuselah and Lazarus, and let us just ponder the implications of the latter claim, which is probably the biggest gaff in Star Trek history). Having outlived countless female companions he has constructed a woman equal to himself: Rayna is an android. However, Kirk has fallen in love with this perfect woman and refuses to let Flint have her, with tragic results. The epilogue to this episode, in which Spock seeks to ease Kirk's pain, is one of the most touching of the original Star Trek. James Daly plays Flint and brings a nice sense of weariness to the role of a man almost 6,000 years old. I have always liked this episode and Flint is one of my favorite characters from the Star Trek universe. As much as I have ambivalent feelings towards "The Way to Eden," I hold "Requiem for Methuselah" in high enough regard to end up rounding this one up on my magic scale.

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