Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 46: The Gamesters Of Triskelion [VHS]

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

 

 

Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov are supposed to beam to Gamma II, but they accidentally get beamed to a place called Triskelion instead. Triskelion is inhabited by strange looking people who love to fight.

The leader of this unheard of place tells Kirk, "This is planet Triskelion; you are to be trained and spend the rest of your lives here."

With the fact that the Enterprise trio has an item around their neck that can provide them a good bit of pain, and with the fact that Spock and the others are still onboard Kirk's ship with no way of contacting the lost trio, is there any way that Kirk can get himself and his other two mates back onboard the Enterprise?

"The Gamesters of Triskelion" isn't in the batch with the absolute best episodes of The Original Series, but unlike most of the other reviewers, I actually like it. It contains some exciting fighting sequences, great voice acting, good lines, good enough acting, Kirk womanizing a beautiful woman, and best of all, it's entertaining without being boring.

If you're an avid collector of episodes from Star Trek - The Original Series, I recommend getting "The Gamesters of Triskelion." However, if you're looking for only the very best episodes, you'll probably want to look past this one.

I have two words to say regarding this episode: "Acting Machine"

Triskelion is quite possibly the worst episode from Star Trek, TOS. Nothing wrong with that -- they couldn't all be gems, and they weren't. The later ST-TOS episodes began to get trapped in a rut in which the characters were trapped on planet surfaces and tortured by cruel captors; whereas, in the earlier episodes, the villains were not all one-dimensional.

If you enjoy sadomasochistic themes, I suggest you try the much more interesting 3rd-season episode, "The Empath." And if you're a newcomer to ST-TOS, try "The Cage," "City on the Edge of Forever," "Other Side of Paradise," "Conscience of the King." Personally I am very fond of the unjustly-maligned "Man Trap."

During a routine transport to a planet, Captain Kirk, Lieutenant Uhura and Ensign Chekov are intercepted and abducted by a powerful and distant transporter beam. Arriving, literally, flat on their backs on a planet called Triskelion in the M-24 Alpha star system, the are immediately attacked by beings from several different species, each of them wearing a collar around their necks. Kirk and his crew mates have been brought to this planet to fight as gladiators in combat games in order to entertain and provide exciting gambling for the disembodied entities called "The Providers." Each assigned a "drill thrall" of their own, Kirk and his companions are collared as well, which asphyxiate those who are disobedient to The Providers. On board the U.S.S. Enterprise, Spock, aware that the crew members are missing, attempts to locate them, and eventually finds the origin of the beam. Upon its arrival, the crew of the starship is also taken captive by The Providers. With the ship and his entire crew at stake, Kirk makes a final wager to The Providers which they cannot resist: himself against three drill thralls on the condition that if he wins, all the drill thralls go free and are taught how to live for themselves again. If Kirk fails, he promises himself and the entire crew as the most entertaining fighters ever seen. Kirk beats the three drill thralls and wins the wager, and The Providers set all the thralls free and permit the U.S.S. Enterprise and her crew to leave also.

At its worst, this episode is a parody of every bad Star Trek ever made. Kirk, Uhura, Chekov are spirited away to a planet run by aliens who enslave humanoids and make them engage in gladatorial combat. It's a bad situation except that Kirk gets to seduce his super-cute drill instructor (Anjelique Pettyjohn). She wears a silver bikini and has greenish-blonde hair. As much as any other episode, this one enhances Kirks reputation for seducing "alien babe forms."

Acting logically, Spock tracks down Kirk and company. The science isn't great... there's some nonsense about an "ion trail"... but Spock pursuing his course of action in absence of alternatives shows his persistence and cool-headedness. Naturally, McCoy tells him he's a green-blooded fool the whole time.

But wait. It gets better. Having Uhura participate in an episode about slavery, though perhaps rather obvious, hits some emotional buttons. Another slave is brought out for punishment and Uhura is supposed to use him for target practice. The slave is a very African-looking black man. Uhura refuses, and Kirk tries to help her, ultimately taking the punishment himself. This was surely a powerful statement in the 1960's.

The best scene is when Kirk finally confronts the super-advanced aliens in charge. Actually they are a trio of talking brains who sit around below the planet surface. In some ways it's silly: the brains are colored red, green, and yellow, matching the collars on the slaves they own. But when Kirk turns the tables by making them a wager they can't refuse, it's good psychology. You see, these brains have developed to the point they no longer need bodies, and they are so bored that they have nothing to do all day but wager on humanoid fights -- much like the humans who bet on dog fights today.

The "Kirk in love" stuff is better than usual. Quite smooth is the scene in which he tells Ms. Pettyjohn she's beautiful and she asks "What is 'beautiful'?" He holds a reflecting pan to her face and says "THAT is beautiful." Slick move, Kirk. The acting and writing of that moment are actually rather nice.

As humans move out into space, it is very likely that they will encounter other intelligent life forms. When this occurs, one of the key questions to be answered will be, "How much will they be like us?" While there is much to admire about the human species, there is also a great deal to be ashamed of.
In this episode, Kirk, Uhura and Chekov are kidnapped off the transporter pads and sent many light years to the planet Triskelion. Once they arrive there, they are to be trained to fight with other captive creatures for the amusement of the providers. The fighting slaves are from many planets and are known as Thralls. However, the fights are less than those of gladiators and more like that of cockfights. The providers bet heavily on the outcomes of the matches, and it is their sole source of entertainment. There are only three of them and they have given up their bodies to become brains connected to automated machinery. Naturally, Kirk and company resist all they can, but are eventually fitted with collars of obedience, which can be used to inflict great pain when the providers find it necessary.
After exhausting all search possibilities, Spock orders the Enterprise to follow a faint energy trail, which takes them to Triskelion. Along the way, Spock engages in disputes with McCoy and Scotty, as they consider his actions a pointless search strategy. Finally, Spock demonstrates a great deal of human style logic when he uses a conspiratorial tone to ask Scotty and McCoy if they are planning a mutiny. They respond with indignation, agreeing to continue the search in silence.
Once the Enterprise arrives at Triskelion, it also becomes a pawn in the game, where Kirk makes a tremendous wager. If he can defeat the Thralls, then all the Thralls are to be released and the providers will assist them in building a society. However, if he loses the entire Enterprise crew will willingly become Thralls and provide an enormous amount of entertainment for the providers. Kirk of course wins, and the Enterprise is freed.
While the premise of humans becoming entertainment slaves, thereby reversing a long human-animal relationship, is certainly an interesting one, the idea that intelligent beings having the command of such power would be reduced to being mere brains is dubious. Also, given the scope of the universe, the thought that their only form of entertainment would be slaves fighting to death was one that I found ridiculous. An advanced intelligence would quickly become bored with yet another fight and would be searching for alternative forms of entertainment. All indications are that as creatures become more intelligent, they need a greater variety of entertainment options. The bets of the providers would also be symbolic only, without bodies, their bets would be nothing more than entries in an electronic ledger. It is for these reasons that I rank this episode in the lower middle of all the episodes of the original series.

This is a great episode with a quite obvious criticism of slavery. Uhura has one of her best lines ever in this episode.

This episode has good action, but some of the plot and dialogue is pretty cheesy. You can probably afford to skip this one unless you are a Kirk fan.