Product Details

• Actors: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Lee Bergere, Barry Atwater
• Directors: Herschel Daugherty
• Writers: Gene Roddenberry, Arthur Heinemann
• Producers: Edward K. Milkis, Fred Freiberger, Gene Roddenberry, Gregg Peters
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: CBS Paramount International Television
• VHS Release Date: April 15, 1994
• Run Time: 46 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6300988732
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #291,255 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Perhaps best known as the episode in which Abraham Lincoln is seen, rather absurdly, floating through space in a big ol' presidential chair, "The Savage Curtain" is one of those death-match shows in which a busybody alien wants to witness true human(oid) mettle in an arranged battle. Lincoln asks Captain Kirk (William Shatner) and Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) to accompany him to a planet where Excalbians have organized a fight between good (Kirk's party plus a Vulcan icon) and evil (Genghis Khan, Kahless the founder of the Klingon Empire, and two guys you never heard of). The derivative, obvious story was half-written by Gene Roddenberry and dumped on another writer, Arthur Heinemann, after Roddenberry pulled back from Star Trek in its third season. Heinemann added some interesting moral underpinnings, but this is one of those instances in which a good television show seems to be mimicking itself. On the plus side, the show gives Sulu (George Takei) a rare opportunity to command the Enterprise bridge--experience that surely served him well later as a Starfleet captain in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. --Tom Keogh

From the Back Cover

Kirk, Spock, Abraham Lincoln and Surak must fight four of history's greatest tyrants in a battle of good and evil staged by the Excalbians.

TREK TRIVIA
Lee Bergere (Lincoln) later appeared as Joseph, the head of the household staff, in TV's long-running series Dynasty.
In this episode, Sulu is left in charge of the bridge, foreshadowing things to come in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Is that a pile of rocks or a pile of poo?, November 8, 2004

By 

Shelley Gammon "Geek" (Kaufman, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 77: The Savage Curtain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Looks like the latter to me! While surveying a planet that has a poisonous atmosphere and is covered with molten lava, sensors reveal an artificial atmosphere and a patch of ground that resembles earth. What their eyes see on the view screen and what their sensors read are not jibing.

Uhura sends hails in all frequencies with no response. Just as they're ready to break orbit, the ship is probed by some sort of beam whose source is unknown. Then, without explaination, Abraham Lincoln is right in front of their ship, wearing his stove pipe hat and sitting in a large chair reminiscent of the Lincoln Memorial.

There he is, floating in space, talking to Kirk like he knows him. Lincoln is not freaked out by being in space and encountering a space ship with aliens and even knows the crew by name without being introduced, but is freaked out by taped music he hears aboard the ship when he is beamed over. Pulleease!

Kirk is trippin' - here is his childhood hero, President Linoln - he knows that Lincoln has been dead for over 3 centuries (in Star Trek time), but believes that this image of Lincoln believes that he is Lincoln. Whatever! Kirk makes everyone get in dress uniform. For some reason, this means Scotty wears a kilt, purse and the whole Scottish regalia. This simply doesn't make sense - unless someone wants to explain it to me. I know Scotty is supposed to be Scottish, but he's a member of the Federation, not the Scottish Space Agency. You don't see Sulu wearing a Samurai uniform or Spock in a robe. The dress uniforms are extremely cheesy, but they do look a tad dressier than their normal dress. They really improved the look of the dress uniforms on Next Generation, thank goodness.

After touring the ship and visiting with the crew, Lincoln manages to persuade Kirk and Spock to beam down. Scotty and Bones try to reason with Kirk that this is madness and they could get beamed right into a pile of lava, but Kirk doesn't care. They don't even bother to try beaming a plant over first to make sure it survives.

When Scotty beams Lincoln, Kirk and Spock down, their tricorders and phasers are left on the transporter pad. When the party lands and realizes they are unarmed, they try to use their communicators but can't reach the Enterprise. The crew on Enterprise doesn't know if Kirk and Spock are even alive because their sensors are going crazy.

Soon a pile of living rocks materializes - it actually looks like someone emptied a gigantic diaper and brought the baby-poo to life. It is baby-poo brown and looks about the right consistency, too. It has glowing things in its "head" that I guess are supposed to be eyes that blink when he talks.

The rock-poo dude explains that his culture doesn't understand concepts of good vs. evil and instead of just asking for an explanation, this rock-poo-man would rather pit Spock & Kirk against 4 well known evil characters. Interesting. One is Ghengis Khan, another is an evil doctor from the 21st century, another is an evil alien woman who has some really bad hair and the fourth one is Kahless. Very interesting. We learn in The Next Generation that Kahless is equivalent to a prophet, nearly a diety to the Klingons. He is revered, almost to the point of worship - but in this early episode, Kahless is supposedly the epitome of evil. Why not use Hitler instead? Granted, Hitler was more of a dictator than a warrior.

In addition to Lincoln, Spock now has a legend to admire - Surak, the most revered Vulcan of all times, who changed Vulcan culture to one of peace and logic. Now the four of them are to battle to the death against their evil counterparts so that the rock-poo can learn if it is evil or good that is more powerful. They must fight to the death - for if they refuse to fight or if they are killed, the Enterprise will subsequently be destroyed.

Spock & Kirk know that Lincoln and Surak are just illusions, but seem to take offense at being forced to fight to the death with the 4 evil folks - who must also be illusions. There is certainly no guilt in killing something that isn't even real. There are always holes big enough to drive a Mack truck through in these early episodes, but they make broader points.

Star Trek was such an innovative show - a Russian, an Asian and an African - a woman at that, are major characters. At the heat of the civil rights movement, Uhura was the first black woman on a TV show that wasn't a maid - a risky move for risky times.

Lincoln, who found slavery morally reprehensible and paid the ultimate price for ending slavery, meets Uhura on the bridge and shakes her hand and appears to be smitten by her beauty. Equals. As easy as it is to look back nearly 40 years at these shows and giggle because of how cheesy some things were, I can barely fathom how some folks must have gasped when they saw such a display on the show, when there were separate bathrooms and water fountains for blacks and whites.

Our culture owes a debt of gratitude to these early ground-breaking shows on many levels and even though the ultimate nemisis literally looked like a pile of crap, the show was pretty monumental.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Deserves Better, November 23, 2002

By 

"[e-mail]" (Vancouver BC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 77: The Savage Curtain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This is a difficult episode to rate. It is very uneven, seems rushed, maybe everyone was having a bad week but any Trek fan will know the third season was hell for all involved.

But I think it is better than most think. It is actually a wonderful story, it is just limited by budget and admittedly heartless acting. This could have been a masterpiece if done better , but it still deserves a look.

I lo ve the spooky music <tho it is somewhat repeptitive, one of Star Trek's greatest faults I think> and Yarnek is pretty spooky looking if you are in a dark room and not taking things too seriously.

If you are a Trek fan, I believe this is worthy of collection. This episode seems to air very rarely; I don't know why. Give it a chance.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Lincoln infests, but helps the Enterprise, September 21, 2000

By 

jasenao (Dothan, Alabama, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 77: The Savage Curtain [VHS] (VHS Tape)

"The Savage Curtain" is actually a pretty good episode. When I first seen it and when someone claiming to be Abraham Lincoln first appeared on the Enterprise, I thought this episode would be crazy, but it proved me wrong. Kirk and the Enterprise crew must team up with Abraham Lincoln and go to a planet to fight off other famous figures in history.

When you first start to watch this episode, it might make you think that it won't be any good, but if you watch the whole thing, you'll probably like it pretty well. I recommend anybody to get this episode. It has an intriguing plot and some good effects.