The Omega Glory
The Omega Glory (Memory Alpha; Video) finds our favorite starship crew discovering the unmanned USS Exeter circling a far off planet. Aboard, the crew has turned to rock salt. Yum!
So The Omega Glory starts off strong. There’s a disease, there’s a mystery cure, there’s politics and a rogue starship captain playing with the Prime Directive, which is suddenly very, very important:
Kirk Voiceover: Although it appears the infection may strand us here the rest of our lives, I face an even more… difficult… problem: a growing belief that Captain Tracy has been interfering with the evolution of life on this planet. It seems… impossible. A star captain’s most solemn oath is that he will give his life, even his entire crew rather than violate the Prime Directive.
Captain Tracey, the only survivor of the Exeter, is trying to find the Fountain of Youth on Omega IV (not the fatty acid), and he’s bending the rules a bit. Nevermind that rule bending in extraordinary circumstances is the kind of stuff the Enterprise crew does all the time: now it’s a grave peril.
But then, half way through, the stupid drops out of the sky and ruins everything.
Begin Spoilers
It turns out that this episode is strangely familiar, and exactly as lame as it was the first time. We’re on another alternate-history Earth, and this one fell prey to bacterial warfare where the commies destroyed the world, and now the savage Yankees are coming to take it back. Weak.
End Spoilers
For all that, it’s not as bad as it could be. The back and forth between Kirk and Tracey is good, and when they play mind games on the natives it’s very clear why the Prime Directive is important.
But ultimately the stupid is an incredibly important plot point that ruins the whole thing. Spoilers Again Which is unfortunate, since Memory Alpha tells me that there’s a short aside that was edited out that neatly explains the whole thing: the people on Omega IV are humans who got off Earth during the early years of the space race. That goes a long way to making this better (even though the chronology is very confusing if you want to accept this explanation). End Spoilers
Best Dialog
[Spock does the Vulcan Neck Pinch]
Kirk: Pity you can’t teach me that.
Spock: I have tried, Captain.
Words of Wisdom From Doctor McCoy
Spock, I’ve found that Evil usually triumphs unless Good is very, very careful.
Grade as Aired
C-
Grade as Scripted
B
