Star Trek Volume 10
featuring the episodes Arena and The Alternative Factor
There are few examples of Classic Trek action as fine as Arena, and it may rank next only to Amok Time as the undisputed king of action episodes from the original series. Based loosely on Frederic Brown’s classic pulp sci-fi tale (and yet close enough that Brown got a screen credit after the fact), Arena is no “Enemy Mine”, but it’s also one of the defining universe-building moments of the first season, as Kirk refuses to kill his Gorn antagonist after a fierce battle. Once again, the too-often-used chestnut of godlike beings testing humanity is dragged out, though that particular card is at least played with a little bit of finesse. The Metrons do a great job of showing the conflict between Kirk and the Gorn captain to the Enterprise crew, covering the event from multiple angles and even zooming in on the action - an element of the episode in question that has always cracked me up. (I mean, what did they do, send a live sports broadcast crew down to the planet?) In light of the Gorn fight, it’s easier to overlook the action in the episode’s first half, with Kirk and company locked in a fierce ground battle with the Gorn after the destruction of a Federation Starbase - some of the all-time best action scenes in the series. That all this action encompasses an interesting story doesn’t hurt either; Arena is a highlight of Classic Trek from any season.
Sadly, from Arena we go to one of my least favorite segments of the entire original series, The Alternative Factor. Hollywood history is rife with retellings of the story about actor Robert Brown being drafted at the last second to replace John Drew Barrymore, who simply didn’t show up for work as the chief guest player, Lazarus. Barrymore was fiercely sanctioned by the Screen Actors’ Guild and wound up paying for his breach of contract by spending six months being frozen out of any other work by the union. Still, as much as people blame Alternative Factor’s shortcomings on the production tribulations, I’ve always been of the opinion that the episode would’ve been a mess, Barrymore or no Barrymore. It barely hangs together in the script, and it seems better suited to an Outer Limits-style anthology series since it relegates the main Star Trek players to the back burner. I’ve never really liked this one.