Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 38: The Apple [VHS]

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This episode is one of the Second Season's worst. First, you have red shirt guys dropping like flies left and right. It was this episode that gave the idea that if you wore a red shirt, you were dead. You then have the stupid Vaal computer. Question: If Vaal could control lightening, then couldn't he have killed everyone? He did not need to teach the people how to kill. The crew responded by not feeding him. Question: If Vaal could drag down a might starship, couldn't he have dragged some fruits off the trees and into his "mouth"? When Scotty couldn't pull away because of Vaal's tractor beam, what does Kirk do? He fires him. This episode is bad!

At times, the Star Trek original series had a strong recurring fear of the computer run amok and this episode is one of those times. An Enterprise landing party arrives on Gamma Trianguli VI, a planet that appears to be a paradise. The climate is soft tropical and the growing conditions are ideal. However, there is a plant that shoots poisonous spikes, which kills one anonymous crewman. Shortly after this, another crewman is killed when he steps on an explosive rock.
Kirk and the landing party find that their beam-up is being blocked from the planet and they capture Akuta, a man with antennas on his head. Akuta claims to be the eyes and ears of Vaal, the "creature" worshipped by the inhabitants. When it is time for Vaal to feed, the natives take produce to the creature, which as a giant dragon-like statue around a cave.
Vaal recognizes the Enterprise crew as enemies and explains to the villagers how to kill the landing party by hitting them in the head with a club. However, when the villagers attempt to carry out their murderous plan, the members of the landing party easily defeat them. Having had no conflict in their known memory, the villagers are no match for combat trained Star Fleet personnel.
Kirk then learns that the society is static, there is no love, growth or any development, and the only purpose for the people is to serve Vaal. Sex is allowed only when there is a need for a replacement when someone is accidentally killed. Furthermore, it becomes clear that Vaal is a giant underground computer. Kirk prevents the villagers from feeding Vaal and this lowers its power reserves. The Enterprise then fires its phasers at Vaal and after some resistance Vaal is destroyed. As the episode ends, the Enterprise is preparing to leave the planet and there is a scene of a young male and female appearing to begin the process of romantic love.
The Prime Directive is supposed to be the highest point of ethical and moral conduct among Star Fleet personnel, yet in this episode it is once again ignored. Furthermore, the computer run amok story is used once too often. Whatever else we may think about the situation on the planet, the people are kept safe and protected and their ecosystem supports them. Within their bounds, they have freedom and plenty and any ethical person would view this episode with a bit of trepidation and disturbance. A functioning society is destroyed because it does not suit Kirk's ideals of what characteristics a "vibrant" culture should exhibit.

One of the troublesome situations Star Trek created when it originally aired was it's human centric attitude towards the alien societies it encountered. The prime directive seemed of little importance to Kirk; he quite often got very involved in the alien cultures `straightening matters out' or setting a culture on the right course'. Spock and McCoy would invariably have a heated debate about the virtues they have observed within the alien culture, which would regularly lead to a final moralistic and ethic punctuated passionate closing discourse by Kirk who then decides the course of proper events to follow.

But in `The Apple' we find that the prime directive doesn't apply. The Enterprise is assigned to investigate a planet by the Federation who had received reports of `odd readings' from another vessel earlier. Though the planet is idyllic in appearance there are unseen and unpredictable dangers. The away team discovers plants that shoot poisonous darts, rocks that explode if stepped on or tossed and lightening storms that can target with amazing accuracy. The present alien culture behaves like tranquil children who exist solely to appease a computer that grants all their needs. This initiates an intriguing debate between Kirk, Spock and McCoy with Spock reminding the good doctor "that humans are a small minority in the galaxy." A good point considering the assembled universe that Star Trek creates!

The reason that the prime directive wouldn't apply to this situation is this: There really is no thriving culture on the planet. The sophisticated computer, known as Vaal, has successfully eliminated disease, extended the life of the humanoids indefinitely, controls the weather, etc. The aliens have no need and therefore no desire to grow beyond what they consider to be normal. By definition then this is a stagnant and arrested development of humanoids that no one would classify as viable. If the Enterprise were to allow them to remain that way it is quite possible that another superior race of aliens could exploit this situation if they were to come to the planet as the Federation did. So in this instance Kirk does the right thing by effectively `pulling the plug' on Vaal.

Overall a well-conceived and highly imaginative episode - though some questions that don't get answered hurt some of the impact here. For instance how and why did Vaal come into being? Who could have built such a computer to completely control humanoids? Who or what installed the antennae on Akuta? There is no summary provided that might hint at an explanation, it is simply ignored and that is frustrating. One thing I noted about Vaal during the episode was his tendency toward masculine thought. Though the men and women are equal on levels of society there are a couple of noteworthy items. He selected a male, Akuta, to be the leader. This alone is not very significant but when Vaal instructs him to kill the `infestation' only the men are present - the women are not even in sight for this event, though the Enterprise away team has a female with them.

Some final notes: Spock takes quite a beating here! He gets struck down by poisonous darts; tossed considerably backward by a force field; still later he gets struck by lightening. Also, four security guards are eliminated by Vaal during the away mission - definitely not a good day for Enterprise Security. The actress playing Lt. Martha Landon, Celeste Yarnall, is one of the loveliest female costars that Star Trek was fortunate to get during it's series run in the sixties. She can also be spotted as the cover girl on Tom Lisanti's book `Fantasy Femmes Of The Sixties Cinema' - it is quite a fetching photograph!

When a landing party beams down to the planet Gamma Trianguli VI, they find what appears to be an idyllic paradise. They quickly discover, however, that the planet is deadly, sporting plants that shoot thorns, rocks that explode, and incredibly accurate lightning bolts. With a much reduced party, they encounter the planet's inhabitants. They are a peaceful, child-like people who call themselves the "Feeders of Vaal." They dress in flowers and bright paint, never reproducing because they don't age or die. Each day they "feed" Vaal offerings of food. Vaal seems to be a large, serpent's head carved of rock, but is actually the terminal for an advanced, underground computer. Seeing Kirk and his party as a threat, Vaal takes them prisoner and tries to pull the U.S.S. Enterprise from orbit. Kirk realizes that by depriving Vaal of the native's daily offerings of food, the computer won't be able to convert the offerings into reaction mass. Thus weakened,

Kirk uses the U.S.S. Enterprise's phasers to destroy Vaal. This leaves the natives on their own to discover birth, death, and the ways of human life.

Kirk, Spock, and some others beam down to a planet lush with plant life. They notice someone following them and find a way to surprise this person. Kirk punches him and the guy say's "You struck me... with your hand." He never heard of such a thing before. And he has antennas sticking out of his head. That's how he communicates with Vaul, the God of the planet.

Then they are taken to the village on this planet. The villagers are in great shape physically but have child like innocence.

This show has great dialog. Especially the part when Spock explains about reproduction on the planet to the young lady from the Enterprise. This is a great show. Star Trek fans won't want to miss out on this one.

A machine that overpowers and controls the people of its planet is holding the Enterprise ship in place above the planet's surface. Captain Kirk and the crew beam down to the planet and find people who don't know much about living because they are controlled by this machine whose entrance looks like a snake's head. The machine can control the entire planet, including making lightning strike, and making fruit on the trees for its people. Once some of Captain Kirk's people get killed by this planet's antics and he finds out that Scotty and the crew onboard the Enterprise can't figure out how to move the ship, Captain Kirk knows that he and his crew that are on the planet have to find a way to do something about the planet's machine.

"The Apple" isn't one of the best episodes of the original Star Trek series, but it is a good one. With the planet's machine, the lightning, and some of the other effects in the episode, "The Apple" does have some of the best special effects ever seen in the original series. The adventure is understandable and it's interesting, making this a good episode. If you like Star Trek, I recommend getting "The Apple." I give this episode 4 stars.