Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 19: Arena [VHS]

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This episode begins with what appears to be a low budget version of Balance of Terror. We don't even get to see the Gorn ship, which takes some excitement out of a high-speed chase, which Kirk believes is important to the Federation.

As soon as the Metrons step in, however, the action picks up considerably. Kirk is forced to battle the leader of the Gorns, and the resulting combat is fun, exciting, and suspenseful.

The Gorn is well-done and effective, slow, but too strong for Kirk to overcome using his standard Federation Judo that usually serves him quite well.

The final showdown between Kirk and the Gorn is a classic Star Trek scene that is not to be missed.

When I was a kid, I loved this episode because it features Kirk fighting against a dinosaur-looking alien. As an adult, I can appreciate it even more. Unlike so many Star Trek epsiodes where Kirk is lecturing some other species about justice or equality, here Kirk is taught an important lesson about his own prejudice.

The episode begins with the Enterprise finding a Federation colony under savage attack by an unknown species. Countless men, women, and children -- all civilians -- have been slaughtered. Kirk is enraged and chases the attacking vessel across space. Spock tries to talk some sense into Kirk but he will have none of it. He pushes his vessel past safe limits in an attempt to catch the aliens. When when the two ships travel into space claimed by the Metrons -- an advanced, pacifistic species -- the situation changes considerably.

Realizing that both the Enterprise and the aliens are running on pure adreneline and not thinking things out, the Metrons decide to let the two sides satisfy their thirst for violence through a one-on-one battle between the captain of each starship. Kirk and the captain of the alien ship are transported to the surface of a barren world where they are to engage in hand-to-hand combat to the death. To Kirk's horror, he finds that his opponent is from a species of incredibly strong reptiles named the Gorn. Kirk quickly discovers that he is physically outmatched.

What makes this episode so fascinating is how Kirk changes during the course of the conflict. At the start, he is openly hateful of the Gorn, even going so far to as to admit that he has a natural revulsion towards reptiles. He considers them lower lifeforms. However, he is aware of his prejudice against them and forces himself to remember that his opponent is every much his equal intellectually. Late in the battle, he communicates with the Gorn captain through the universal translator device and discovers that the Gorn attacked the Federation colony because they believed it was an invasion. For the first time, Kirk is able to see the situation from the other side. The Gorn were acting in (perceived) self-defense.

By the time that the battle has finally reached the final confrontation between the two, Kirk has come to the conclusion that he is not qualified to judge the action of this species nor dispense justice. His surprising resolution of the conflict impresses the Metrons, who have been overseeing the battle.

The ambition of this episode -- airing in the 60s and with a limited budget -- is staggering in retrospect. Shooting a battle between Kirk and a reptile running around in the desert is impressive enough. But the fact that Kirk, the quintessential hero, is able to admit that he may have been wrong is something that is rare even in today's popular TV shows and movies. This episode was well before its time.

"The Arena" is one of the most exciting and adventurous of the original Star Trek episodes because it pits Captain Kirk up against a mysterious, lizard-looking alien called a Gorn. The U.S.S. Enterprise is following another terrestrial body in pursuit, not knowing what it is. It turns out to be an alien ship that thinks the Enterprise is threatening it. Another source makes Shatner go up against a huge reptilian on a barren land of rocks and mountains. The voice tells Shatner that whichever one of the captains survives can go back to his ship and the loser will be terminated. The gorn chases after Shatner trying to kill him. Shatner hits the Gorn and even climbs to the top of a mountain and makes a rock fall on the Gorn. However, he finds out that he can not kill the gorn with his fist or even with a huge rock. Shatner remembers the voice telling him that the necessary items are provided on the land. He eventually finds a bazooka-shaped tube and combines items such as sulfur, coal, and diamond and mixes them to make gunpowder. He shoots the Gorn and it nearly kills it. Shatner picks up the big, arrowhead-looking spike and starts to finish the Gorn, but stops himself saying he can't do it and he tells the voice that he will not kill the Gorn. Finally, the voice comes to life. It looks like an angel and it tells Shatner that he's real impressed by his not finishing the Gorn and that he misjudged the humans on the U.S.S. Enterprise. Shatner gets to go back to his ship and his ship is free to go where it wants. The voice tells the crew that the Gorn was also returned to his ship.

If you like the original Star Trek series, "The Arena" is one of the best episodes you could get. I highly recommend it. Watch it to see how William Shatner will get out of the battle alive. "The Arena" goes to prove that brains are sometimes over brawn.

This episode is one of the best of the original series and shows james kirk learning a lesson, having him confront his own predjudice towards an alien lifeform. The final scene where kirk shows mercy towards his alien opponent is a prime example of roddenberry's vision of the future where humanity has overcome their baser frailties.

The older the wine, the better. same with "old" american films: the scenography or make-up might appear funny nowadays, but the approach of the film directors was maybe - more human. I liked the film, I liked the conclusion, and consider this TOS episode not the best one, but one of the well-made beginnings od s-f as we know it now. Actually - the one who has perhaps the most connotations with the golden era - 50ties sf... Enjoy!

Some reviewers have complained that Gene Coon ruined a story with such potential. Some say that the Metrons acting like chaperons was stupid. So if we don't have the Metrons what do we have? We have nothing but a space chase and lots of action. Like I have said, good Science Fiction is action and didactic. Well done Gene Coon.

The Enterprise is lured to Cestus III and when the landing party materializes on the surface, they find the colony has been destroyed. Shortly after that, the landing party also comes under attack and after some spirited defense by Kirk and his team, the alien ship beams up their landing party and flees the area. Kirk orders pursuit at all costs, and they enter unexplored space where they are immediately scanned by forces on another planet.
The scanning has been done by a very technically advanced species that decides to settle the matter. Kirk and the captain of the Gorn ship are transported to a planet where they will engage in a fight to the death. The only weapons they have will be what they can find, although they were told that each side would be able to find weapons there that will be powerful enough to destroy their opponent.
Although slower in movement, the Gorn proves to be physically more powerful and capable of taking greater punishment. Kirk at first struggles in the battle and then begins to use his mind, creating gunpowder and using it to create a primitive cannon. While it does not kill the Gorn, it renders him defenseless and Kirk has the opportunity to kill him. However, in an example of understanding, he refuses to do so, an act that spares the lives of the Enterprise crew and the Gorn ship. Kirk is then allowed to see and communicate with the Metrons, who are impressed with Kirk's expression of the high trait of mercy.
This is without doubt one of the best episodes in the series. As the late Carl Sagan wrote, humans seem to have a genetic aversion to reptiles; he speculated that it is a vestige of the time when mammals and reptiles were in competition for the position as the dominant species on Earth. It is a near certainty that when humans encounter other species, each side will consider the other to have a repulsive appearance. This is a situation that will have to be faced and solved very quickly, as the consequence could easily be a brutal interstellar war.

This is the famous Gorn episode that features a slow-walking lizard man chasing Kirk around a planet. It has a strange history. Producer Gene Coon wrote it as an original episode, but then someone discovered that sci-fi author Frederic Brown had written a story that was in some ways similar, so they gave Brown credit.

If you read Brown's story, you can see the similarity: an Earth man (though not Kirk) is pitted against a malevolent alien in hand-to-hand combat. If the Earth man loses, all humans will be destroyed. In the Trek version, Kirk is forced to fight the much stronger Gorn captain, and the Enterprise will be destroyed if he loses.

Both stories have an anti-war slant. Super-advanced aliens decide it is better to stage a one-on-one battle rather than let two angry races carry on an interstellar war threatening the general peace. But in Coon's version, the anti-war slant is much stronger still. The Gorn race acts and appears savage indeed (what are humans more predjudiced against than reptiles?), but near the end Kirk starts to suspect that the Gorns were only defending their home territory when they blasted a Federation outpost.

One of the virtues of the episode is that is one of the few "hard science" shows in Star Trek or any other televised sci-fi show. Actual knowledge of real science is used at an important plot point (as opposed to the meaningless technobabble that often ruined TNG). Kirk calls upon genuine knowledge of basic chemistry to make gunpower with the materials found on the planet. The Gorn captain is much too tough to be hurt otherwise. As a small child, I was really scared by this lizard man.

Arena or We Morn for the Gorn....

This one is based on a classic SCI fi short story that pits man against monster. In this case it's Kirk against the Gorn. He uses gun powder and a makeshift cannon; which by the way I find hard to believe he'd be able to do this in the desert. If you can forget that it's still nail biter of an episode. We see Kirk against a foe he can't stop with his fists so he has to blow him off the map. We see a wispy alien from above who is experimenting with humans to see how they react under the stress of getting killed by a dinosaur creature called the Gorn. It stands up to the repeated viewing test but I'd have to say you have to suspend your belief in the logic department.

This episode showed two sides of the story for once. The Enterprise and humans aren't always the good guys. It concerns no one, until the end that the Gorns were invaded and they were merely defending themselves. So nyah nyah nyah!