The Return of the Archons

ST episode
name = The Return of the Archons


The landing party arrives on Beta III
series = TOS
ep_num = 21
prod_num = 022
remas._num = 50
date = February 9 1967
writer = Boris Sobelman
story by
Gene Roddenberry
director = Joseph Pevney
guest = Harry Townes
Torin Thatcher
Charles Macaulay
Christopher Held
Brioni Farrell
Sid Haig
Jon Lormer
Morgan Farley
Ralph Maurer
Sean Morgan (actor)
Eddie Paskey
David L. Ross
stardate = 3156.2
year = 2267
prev = Court Martial
next = Space Seed

"The Return of the Archons" is a first season episode of "". It is episode #21, production #22, and was first aired February 9 1967. It was repeated by NBC on July 27, 1967. The screenplay was written by Boris Sobelman, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Joseph Pevney.

Overview: The crew of the "Enterprise" encounters a world controlled by an unseen leader.

Plot

On stardate 3156.2, the starship USS "Enterprise", under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, arrives at the planet Beta III where the USS "Archon" was reported lost nearly 100 years earlier.

Only Sulu comes back from the first landing party, exhibiting strange behavior, and Kirk beams down with another party to investigate. They find the inhabitants of Beta III (who seem to be modeled after 19th century Earth) are a very static culture, with little or no individual expression or creativity. The entire culture is ruled over by cloaked and cowled "lawgivers," controlled by a reclusive dictator known as Landru. The only time the people "let loose" and become a violent mob, is at the coming of "The Red Hour," a festival which apparently is the only time Landru doesn't exercise control over them.

Kirk's landing party beams down just before the festival, and they seek shelter from the mobs at a nearby boarding house. Landru seems to be "all-seeing" and "all-knowing" with spies everywhere, one of whom turns in the party when he doesn't recognize them as members of "The Body," the telepathic collective being, symbiotic with Landru, that most of the inhabitants belong to.

Kirk and his team are eventually captured. However, Reger, the owner of the house, is a resistance member and offers protection to Kirk and his team. Reger reveals that Landru "absorbs" selected people into The Body, which was the fate of the "Archon's" crew, and will also be the fate of the "Enterprise's" landing party. The "Enterprise" itself is now stuck in orbit and is being pulled down toward the planet by a mysterious force.

Kirk and Mr. Spock, his first officer, discover that the reclusive Landru is actually a computer sealed inside an ancient chamber, created 6000 years ago by a Betian scientist also named Landru. The Landru of that time only wished to create a way to help his failing society achieve peace. The computer was the solution but it performed its job soullessly and ruthlessly.

Kirk and Spock manage to convince the machine that running the planet as it has been is wrong and the people are being kept as meaningless slaves. They manage to convince the machine that it has violated its own prime directive. The machine realizes its mistake and self-destructs, thus freeing the people of Beta III. Unfortunately, millennia of dominance under Landru have them confused and unable to proceed on their own.

Kirk agrees to leave Federation advisors and educators on the planet to help the civilization along.

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired December 8, 2007 as part of the remastered "Original Series". It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered version of "The Alternative Factor" and followed a week later by the remastered version of "A Taste of Armageddon". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS "Enterprise" that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

* The planet Beta III has been given a more realistic appearance and some dramatic orbiting shots of the "Enterprise" were established.

Trivia

* The Archons was the name of a debating society Gene Roddenberry belonged to in college.

* An episode of the short lived 1990 science fiction series "Super Force" called "Come Under the Way" had references to this "Star Trek" episode. The villain for the episode was a cult leader called Doctor Landru. Most notable were references by his cultists to being "part of the body" and a "Red Hour".

* The outdoor shots were filmed on "the back forty", Desilu Studios' film backlot, which was also used for shooting "Miri" and "The City on the Edge of Forever."

* Henri Désiré Landru was the name of a late 19th-early 20th century French serial killer.

* Throughout this episode, Kirk addresses McCoy as "Doc" rather than by his usual nickname "Bones".

* Harry Townes (Reger) also played Dell Frye on "The Incredible Hulk" TV series, where a scientist accidentally changed Frye into a Hulk-like creature 30 years prior to David Banner. Frye was cured shortly thereafter, but upon the death of the scientist, Frye kept searching for the means to recreate the process, and waited for Banner to arrive, so that he would be able to change again.

* Jon Lormer (Tamar) appeared in two other roles in Star Trek: Dr. Theodore Haskins, in "The Cage" (and "The Menagerie, Part 1"), and the old man in "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky."

* Ben Stiller named his film production company "Red Hour Films" after this episode.

* From the outside, on the backlot, the doors to Reger's house from the street have curtained windows inset; from the inside, on a studio set, the doors are solid.

* This is one of many TOS episodes with a dystheistic theme, where a "divine" being with "supernatural" powers seeks to control and enslave living beings, but where Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise fight back to stop this from happening (e.g., "Who Mourns for Adonais?", "Day of the Dove", "The Squire of Gothos"). Ironically, one of the episode's stars, Harry Townes, would later become an ordained Episcopalian priest.

* Historical sense and uses of "archon".

External links

* [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68704.html "The Return of the Archons" at StarTrek.com]
* [http://trekmovie.com/2007/12/08/return-of-the-archons-remastered-screenshots-and-video/#more-1342 Review of the Remastered "The Return of the Archons" at Trekmovie.com]