Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 75: The Way To Eden [VHS]

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

 

 

'...Found he had to eat and he found he had to drink, A long time later he found he had to think, aha...'

This is a lyrical excerpt from one of the highly amusing songs that are performed on the Enterprise - supposedly to enable better communication and mingling between the Enterprise crew members and the Space Hippies who, as it turns out, have ulterior motives.

This has to be one of the funniest Star Trek episodes ever, and for those of you who have been devotees of the Spock/ Kirk screen relationship over the years you will love this episode for the new understanding it affords us of their relationship.

Spock, who is usually Mr.Logic, Mr. Sensible, in this episode is the more sensitive of the two - This is the role normally reserved for Kirk. Instead Kirk is the 'Herbert' of this episode - the name that the space hippies brand him with. As Spock ammusingly informs Kirk (clearly much to his annoyance), 'Herbert was a minor official, notorious for his limited and rigid thought patterns'. It is Spock who plays the more sympathetic character, more in touch with the hippies desires and goals....'They hunger for an Eden, where spring comes'. Kirk replies rather dismissively:'That planet, it is a myth'.

An unusual, at the time it was made - very topical, sometimes moving, often funny, fantastic looking episode. Do not miss this one if you enjoy the light hearted side of Star Trek.

In "The Way To Eden," Captain Kirk and the crew bring aboard a group of very strange people. The people are like rebels and are headed by a relentless leader named Sevrus. These strange guests are wanting to get to a place called Eden real bad. However, Captain Kirk is not all that willing to take them to Eden since they are on his ship and because Eden is basically a myth, so it might not even exist. The rebels like Spock and he's the only one on the Enterprise that can reach them, but not even he can stand in the way of their idea of getting to Eden. Will Captain Kirk lose control of his ship to these rebels, or will he once again keep his ship and make some peace?

"The Way To Eden" isn't a bad episode. It's not one of my personal favorites, but it's pretty good. The enemies in the episode are somewhat intriguing, the episode is interesting, and the acting is pretty good. The best part of the show to me was the part where you'll find out that Spock knows how to play a musical instrument very well. The last 10 minutes of the episode was also well done.

I recommend "The Way To Eden" to anybody who likes episodes of Star Trek where the crew of the Enterprise mainly just deals with some enemies onboard the ship that want to take control of the ship.

this episode is not some simple silly trek making fun of the youth. yes, it's a social commentary, but not just of the counter-cultural movement. it's a commentary on cultist religious movements, of the stifling crush of society, of our society's....well, of our technological...whatever it is we do. Humans like to play God, and that's what the Federation was doing, and that's what the idealists had a problem with. the youth are not villanized, as some reviewers suggest. it is as much a criticism of Starfleet as the idealists. that Sevrin mislead the people is only tragic, because the idealists, in many ways, were correct (at least, in my opinion).

the music is also fantastic. great stuff. I love this episode, for its relevance, its plot, its great singing, and...hell, it's just all around wonderful.

Want to see "Star Trek the Musical"? Wait no more! "The Way to Eden" has singing and dancing hippies right out of Haight Ashbury of the 1960s, doing super-groovy pseudo rock and roll. Or is it pseudo folk? Spock joins them in a jam session. Spock it to me!

The embarrssment reaches warp factor 9 as the music is pumped through the ship's speakers, and the crew starts swaying and snapping their fingers to show how hip they are. This enables one of the hippies (named "Rad" -- get it?) to sneak up behind people and take over the ship.

You may wonder who was taking drugs when they produced this episode, which unintentionally satirizes the 60s. Every cliche of the Youth Movement is used. One of the young people -- Irina, a Russian beauty who went to school with Checkov -- dropped out of Starfleet Academy. There's another, Rad, the rebellious son of a powerful man. There's the cheeky lead singer named Adam (rather obvious, given the Eden theme) played by Charles Napier. "Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy / I gotta clean bill of health from Doctor McCoy!" Then there's their guru, Dr. Severin, who inspires them all to drop out and groove.

There is the germ of a good idea here. The hippies call themselves "the Primitives," and they seek a way of life free of the artificial atmostphere and life support that dominate every planet in the 23rd century. This artifical environment even breeds new viruses. This is a good sci-fi premise, giving Star Trek an ecological bent it needed. The environment may not be so wonderful by the 23rd century if we are not careful.

Another theme is the cult leader gone mad, which turned out to be prophetic. Under the influence of their insane leader, Dr. Severin, the hippies steal a spacecraft. As in "Mudd's Women," Kirk orders the Enterprise to give chase and so becomes the hated authority figure. (Kirk, usually a beacon of enlightenment, is relegated to the unrewarding role of The Man, and the hippies label him "Herbert," another word for "square" or possibly "jerk.") Later, the hippies go along with Severin's plan to kill everyone on the Enterprise so that they can travel unhindered down to their ideal planet, "Eden." Severin's plan to have 400+ people die, and his ability to get otherwise well-meaning young people to go along with it, recalls no one so much as Charles Manson.

It's a shame that Jimi Hendrix wasn't asked to be the guest star on this episode as the hippie leader. Jimi and Spock could have put on a show that would have made Monterey look like child's play. So what are a bunch of 23rd Century hippis to do? Seek the planet Eden. They's have nothing to do all day but stay dirty, have free love, smoke space grass, and listen to 8-track recordings of Spock jams.

It's a dang shame the whole planet is poisenous. I smell 'The Man' behind this one! Rock on Spock.

This is Star Trek at its simplest but best! The Enterprise crew who usually have center stage take a sideline to the central search for "Eden, where spring comes". This original version surpasses the digital remake that cuts out music and revealing dialogue. The seeking is almost primal and timeless although the music is typical of 1960's. The heart is reached and with all abandon, the group gets a grip on hope, but some die with the fruit in their hand. Worth seeing indeed!

This is one of the lowest spots of TOS. The Way to Eden was the "Jumping the Shark" moment for Star Trek. Even though the rest of Season Three would be excellent, the Season Three slump probably convinced the executives to pull the plug on Star Trek. Question of the day: If a blade of grass or a flower is too hot to handle, wouldn't it have been too hot for Adam and Dr. Sevrin to hold a piece of fruit? Very dumb. Also, how did Dr. Sevrin climb up an acid tree? Avoid this episode.

Every society contains misfits, malcontents and rebellious nonconformists. While some are the social equivalent of parasites, they are often the ones driving social progress, intellectual advancement and new technologies. One only needs to look at the history of computing technology to verify this. A small percentage of these people will reject the technological aspects of society and yearn for a simpler, more pastoral life. In the 1960's these people dropped out and were often called hippies. Therefore, the group of people in search of the "mythical" planet Eden could be called the Kirk's era version of hippies.
In this case, the members of the group cannot be considered misfits, but as highly intelligent people who have made the decision to reject society and drop out. Their leader is Dr. Severin, an accomplished scientist that has gone insane. While Kirk gets nowhere with the group, they greet him with the chant "Herbert", Spock is able to "reach" a modus vivendi with them. In exchange for their peaceful behavior, Spock agrees to use the Enterprise's computers to search for Eden and manages to locate it.
After he succeeds, the members of the group render the Enterprise crew unconscious and steal a shuttle craft and fly to Eden. When they get there, they discover that the plant life is extremely toxic to human tissue. The Enterprise arrives and rescues the survivors, but Dr. Severin commits suicide by eating a poison apple.
This episode is yet another in the series where the message is presented so blatantly that it loses some of its power. The supposedly idealistic "space hippies" are ruthless in pursuing their goals, even to the point where they are willing to kill the Enterprise crew. However, the worst aspect of the episode is one that recurs in the last season as the plot requires that a sinister force be able to take control of the Enterprise. As a starship designed to explore deep space and encounter alien life, there would be multiply redundant safety and security features built into the ship. These features would make it nearly impossible for any sinister force, either human or alien, to take control. Yet, this small band is able to do so with simplistic ease. It is a sign of the demise of the show that such an absurdly trivial plot device was used so often.

I hate this episode, because I am really Herbert (courtesy my mother).

I have set myself a goal. I want to see every episode of the Original Series. I feared "The Way to Eden" would be a clunker because I saw a review giving the show ZERO stars. But still, I went in, loyaly, though not expecting much. I'm sorry to say I came away agreeing with that review. There are about ten million things wrong with this episode. I honestly believe they could make all the faults in this story a category on "Jeopardy." For starters, Chekov is just way off. The Hippies are incredibly goofy--both in concept and in execution. And this "Eden" planet that they're looking for, what is it supposed to be? I just don't know. There is nothing in this worth seeing. I am pleased, however, that while trying to accomplish my goal, I ran into episodes FAR superior to this one.