Star Trek and Space Lincoln!!

Season three of Star Trek has one of my most favorite, albeit silliest episodes in the entire series: The Savage Curtain. The episode starts off with a bang: Abraham Lincoln (played by Lee Bergere) floating in space on his trademark chair.

From there, the Enterprise crew and in particular Kirk and Spock are confronted by some of “histories worst villains” as well as an encounter with Spock’s idol, Surak (played by Barry Atwater), father of Vulcan philosophy.

The rock aliens who force the “good” historical figures to combat the “evil” historical figures want to compare and contrast their philosophical ideas against one another to see which is better.

The premise might seem a bit silly, but it is a fascinating contrast of ideas:¹

• Surak – a pacifist, non-violent approach
• Lincoln – fight if necessary, and “on their level”.
• Col. Greene – power is all matters
• Kahless – victory by any means
• Kirk – do what it takes to save his crew
• Spock – honor his commitments to Starfleet, and fight with Kirk, even if is compromises his personal morals

Although Surak loses his life in the combat, he has some really great quotes in this episode that I think are worth sharing:²

The face of war has never changed.  Surely it is more logical to heal than to kill.

Surak of Vulcan, “The Savage Curtain” (s3ep23), stardate 5906.5

and also:

I am pleased to see that we have differences.  May we together become greater than the sum of both of us.

Surak of Vulcan, “The Savage Curtain” (s3ep22), stardate 5906.4

Lincoln’s performance throughout the episode is great as he embodies the great American president as we want him to be: gentle, but tough when needed. One can’t help but compare this to Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure, even if they are completely different movies, because Abraham Lincoln is such a beloved figure.

At the very end of the episode, there is a subtle dialogue worth sharing:

KIRK: They seemed so real. And to me, especially Mister Lincoln. I feel I actually met Lincoln.

SPOCK: Yes, and Surak. Perhaps in a sense they were real, Captain. Since they were created out of our own thoughts, how could they be anything but what we expected them to be?

Source: http://www.chakoteya.net/StarTrek/77.htm

In fact, I think there’s something very Buddhist about this. The inhabitants of the planet didn’t necessarily create historically accurate versions of Lincoln, Surak, etc, but what we wanted them to be in our minds. In a sense, we create our own gods and idols through our hopes and aspirations (for good or for ill). This isn’t always bad, but it does show how unwittingly we bend the world around us to fit our beliefs and views.

Anyhow, The Savage Curtain is such a fun, surreal episode, and a fascinating contrast of ideas and people in history, and how they interact. These ideas and philosophies are timeless in many ways, and crop up over and over again in history, but by pitting a bunch of historical figures in space against once another, it takes on a whole new dimension of weird, silly, fun.

Also:

P.S. Many reviews point out that The Savage Curtain borrows elements from older, venerable episodes, and thus judge it an inferior episode. I can’t disagree that it borrows a lot of elements, but I like to think it is a capstone to several previous “moral tale” episodes. The action sequences aren’t quite as good, but I don’t think that was the point. It was battle of ideas, not sticks.

P.P.S. I bet you could take all 8 characters, including Kirk and Spock, in the battle and somehow arrange them into a classic D&D alignment chart. The rock aliens of Excalbia would probably be true-neutral.

¹ I wish “Zorra” (Carol Daniels) and “Genghis Khan” (Nathan Jung) had dialogue, as it would have been interesting to have more contrasting goals and aspirations.

² More on witnessing war.