From Newsgroup: alt.tv.star-trek.tos   
   From Address: jphalt@gmail.com   
   Subject: Who Mourns for Adonais?  my review   
      
   WHO MOURNS FOR ADONAIS?   
      
   THE PLOT   
      
   The Enterprise is trapped when a huge green hand made of energy   
   materializes in space and grabs hold. A man appears on the scanner,   
   threatening to crush the ship, and extending an "invitation" for Kirk   
   and members of his crew to beam down. Kirk beams down with McCoy,   
   Scotty, and the pretty young Lieutenant Palamas, an anthropologist.   
   When they meet the man in person, he claims to be the ancient god   
   Apollo. He is offering the Enterprise crew a life of simple pleasures,   
   in exchange for their unquestioning worship of him. But he also offers   
   the vengeance of a god if they refuse him!   
      
      
   CHARACTERS   
      
   Capt. Kirk: Unable to abide captivity, he sets about trying to find a   
   way to free his crew from Apollo's grip from pretty much the instant   
   the hand appears. He is not foolhardy. He recognizes Apollo's powers,   
   and urges the others to behave cautiously and courteously, retaining   
   courtesy even in his own direct defiance. But he also remains keenly   
   observant, probing constantly for weaknesses, and using the resources   
   of his crew and his ship to find a way to break Apollo's grip on them.   
      
   Spock: Completely in sync with his captain, and operating - like Kirk   
   - from the starting point of Apollo not being a god, but simply an   
   alien with an energy source. He uses the ship's sensors to find that   
   source, while directing Uhura to work around Apollo's interference to   
   restore communications.   
      
   Scotty: This is the first of a couple of "Scotty in Love" episodes,   
   with the object of his affections being the noticeably-younger Space   
   Babe of the Week. For Scotty, this means that his common sense, and   
   the bulk of his IQ, trickle down out of his ears in gray, gooey lumps,   
   being generally stupid and useless and putting himself repeatedly in   
   jeopardy. Kirk finally has enough of his middle-aged engineer behaving   
   like a mooney 16-year-old, and gives him an appropriate dressing down.   
   Still, even with Kirk finally snapping at him to "do (his) job" and   
   even with James Doohan's best efforts, there is nothing in any episode   
   to date to suggest that Scotty is prone to the level of   
   unprofessionalism, and even outright idiocy, on display here. I might   
   also idly suggest that Scott find a more age-appropriate object for   
   his amorous pursuits (at the risk of seeming a hypocrite, as I had   
   absolutely no problem with the even less age-appropriate McCoy   
   relationship in Shore Leave. But somehow, that pairing sold me while   
   this one didn't - perhaps because McCoy actually remained McCoy in   
   that episode, and not "pod-McCoy").   
      
   Hot Space Babe of the Week: Leslie Parrish is Carolyn Palamas, the   
   anthropologist who is pursued by both Scotty and Apollo. Palamas gets   
   a rather central role in the episode, with her choice near the climax   
   being the key to the crew's escape. The Scotty/Palamas relationship   
   isn't convincing for a second, save perhaps as a middle-aged man's   
   unrequited midlife crush, but the Apollo/Palamas one works far better.   
   Palamas' background, and Apollo's approaches to her, make it   
   convincing that she would be attracted, and Parrish plays the   
   rejection scene quite well.   
      
   Villain of the Week: Michael Forest does a solid job as Apollo,   
   capturing the mix of the powerful and the pathetic the episode   
   requires very well. He's a bit stiff in the person-to-person   
   interactions on the planet's surface. Then again, I suppose a god   
   would be used to rather one-way conversations. He plays well opposite   
   Parrish, adequately opposite Shatner, and manages to extract just   
   enough sympathy to be something other than a black-and-white baddie.   
      
      
   THOUGHTS   
      
   An episode I delayed approaching, in part because I haven't been   
   enjoying the Season Two episodes very well thus far (as noted in my   
   previous review), and in part because I found this particular episode   
   interminably dull as a child.   
      
   As with a few Season One episodes, I liked Who Mourns for Adonis?   
   significantly better as an adult than I did as a child. The episode's   
   musings on what was gained when ancient superstitions was abandoned,   
   and what was lost at the same time, hold a distinct appeal to me. I   
   enjoyed the presentation of Apollo as a being who is past his time and   
   unable to accept that he no longer fits in the modern age. In the late   
   1960's, with technology starting to run away with itself, more than a   
   few slightly older viewers of the time could probably relate to that   
   on some level.   
      
   The episode is very well-directed. Marc Daniels was almost certainly   
   Trek's best director, and his confident hand anchors the episode,   
   lending a peaceful and pastoral air to the forest during early scenes,   
   and a very menacing atmosphere to the same setting later. Daniels does   
   a particularly strong job with what had to have been a problematic   
   scene, by late 1960's standards. After Palamas rejects Apollo - on   
   Kirk's orders, and against her own desires - Apollo takes his revenge.   
   We get the usual storm effects, and see her mounting fear. Then we see   
   Apollo's form appear, his face pushing forward toward a screaming   
   Palamas in a series of quick, close shots. The staging of the scene   
   suggests a rape, but does so in a way that some viewers (particularly   
   younger viewers) won't catch the suggestion at all, thus sidestepping   
   potential censorship issues. At the same time, it's extremely   
   effectively executed, an eerie scene.   
      
   The episode did apparently have two alterations imposed on it by the   
   networks. One was the removal of a tag which would have revealed that   
   Palamas was pregnant with Apollo's child. The other was a slight   
   alteration to a line in which Kirk offers his initial dismissal of   
   Apollo, telling him, "We have no use for gods." Apparently, in the   
   original script, that was the end of the line. The network asked for a   
   slight follow-up, however, so in the televised episode Kirk adds: "The   
   one is quite sufficient." I have mixed feelings on the first   
   alteration. On the one hand, the cut scene certainly backs up my   
   reading of the scene in which Apollo assaults Palamas. On the other   
   hand, it was clearly a jokey tag scene... and I'm just as happy not to   
   have Trek be among the late '60's/early '70's shows that were a bit   
   too happy to find humor in rape scenes or rape threats.   
      
   The change to Kirk's dialogue is one that I actually favor. It may   
   work against Gene Roddenberry's vision of a future in which humanity   
   has discarded all of its superstitions. But, much like J. Michael   
   Straczynski and Babylon 5, I never can quite buy that utopian future   
   in which humanity is free of crime and conflict, let alone religion.   
   Besides which, the addition is just a better line, far snappier and   
   more quotable than what would otherwise be a throwaway. And in drama,   
   one should never let one's worldview get in the way of a good one-   
   liner.   
      
      
   Rating: 7/10. The first Season Two episode I've actually liked. Though   
   given that Amok Time is next, I find myself optimistic about the   
   future...   
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