Written by Gilbert Ralston and Gene L. Coon and directed by Marc Daniels, “Who Mourns for Adonais” sends the Enterprise to Pollux IV, the place they encounter a being referred to as Apollo. Kirk and co. study that Pollux IV is the house planet of tremendous beings who got here to historic Earth and had been worshiped as gods by the Greeks, ruling from Mount Olympus. However as humanity started to place away its superstitions, the beings grew weak and returned to their dwelling planet.
Whereas a lot of the gods allowed themselves to dissipate into some ethereal power, Apollo (portrayed by Michael Forest) retained his humanoid type and sought new worshippers among the many Enterprise crew. And he virtually discovered one within the type of Lt. Carolyn Palamas (Leslie Parrish), the skilled in historic Greek mythology that the Enterprise apparently retains round. After all, Kirk outwits Apollo and saves Palamas, sending the remainder of the god aliens into the ether.
Even for these who love foolish Trek, “Who Mourns for Adonais?” tends to rank towards the underside of Unique Collection episodes. Forest has quite a lot of enjoyable taking part in the haughty Apollo and there’s one thing pleasant concerning the impact used to make the god tower over Kirk and Chekov. However the episode is neither as goofy nor as critical because it must be. The solid performs the battle slightly too straight, which makes it tough to look previous the essentially sexist decision, by which Kirk orders Palamas to recover from her foolish crush to deceive Apollo about her attraction, thus irritating his need for worship.
Decrease Decks doesn’t trouble with dealing overtly with the issues in “Who Mourns for Adonais?” Heck, it doesn’t even trouble to clarify the place Olly got here from. In that manner, Decrease Decks differs from the non-canonical works that revisited the episode. Novelist Peter David introduced again the gods in just a few of his books, together with 2001’s Being Human, by which Palamas provides beginning to a daughter she conceived with Zeus. A descendent of that daughter turns into an everyday character in David’s New Frontier novels, Mark McHenry.
But, as a lot as these works construct on “Who Mourns for Adonais,” Decrease Decks appears to supply essentially the most compelling model of Greek mythology blended with Star Trek, a girl whose electrical powers get in the best way of her capacity to serve in Starfleet. Thankfully, Mariner is aware of a factor or two about making a multitude and coping with highly effective mother and father, and the 2 discover a manner to make use of her items to unravel a diplomatic disaster.
Does the answer reply all of Mariner’s questions concerning the gods? No, clearly not. However it does assist redeem one in every of TOS‘s lesser episodes, enriching the world of Star Trek.
