The Paradise Syndrome

If you can ignore the fact that an Earth-like planet populated by American Indians is unlikely in the extreme, The Paradise Syndrome should prove to be hugely enjoyable: it has excitement, it has drama, it has love, it has tragedy. And it has Kirk having lots of (offscreen) sex with a leggy native beauty (played by former Playboy bunny Sabrina Scharf), the couple blissfully unaware that a massive asteroid is heading their way.

Landing on the planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy discover a strange metallic obelisk too advanced to been created by the indigenous people; while Spock and McCoy scout the area, Kirk takes another look at the obelisk and accidentally operates a trapdoor, falling inside and activating a machine that knocks him out. McCoy and Spock cannot find Kirk and are forced to return to the Enterprise without their captain so that they can try and deal with the oncoming asteroid.

When Kirk regains consciousness, he exits the chamber, his emergence witnessed by native women who mistake him for a god. While Spock is attempting to destroy the asteroid and decipher the markings on the obelisk, Kirk is living it up as a deity, winning the heart of and marrying hottie Miramanee (Scharf), much to the annoyance of her previous partner, medicine man Salish (Rudy Solari). Of course, Kirk's happiness has to come to an end: when he is unable to re-enter the chamber and save the people from the impending darkness (caused by the approaching asteroid), the tribes people turn on him and stone him, also bludgeoning poor Miramanee in the process.

Spock and McCoy turn up to save the day, activating the obelisk (in reality, an asteroid deflector installed by an advanced race) and restoring Kirk's memory, but unable to save the life of Miramanee, who was carrying Kirk's unborn child.

8/10. Yes, there are plots holes, but for me the positives easily outweigh the negatives.

Behold the god who bleeds! (the one great line). Behold a tribe of re-located American Indians. Behold a planet with the exact same vegetation as Earth. 'What are the odds?' Kirk muses. Is Kirk kidding? I place the odds at billions to one against, but they've already found a planet with the exact same continents as Earth ("Miri") and the 'Roman Empire' planet in "Bread and Circuses." What's the big deal? The odds look pretty good in the Trek galaxy. So now we have a 'Tribal American Indians' planet - but at least with an explanation: apparently some ancient alien race likes to displace doomed cultures from Earth to other planets. Now, in a set of circumstances I calculate as millions to one against (or, in the Trek universe, very likely), Kirk accidentally opens a hidden floor panel on a mysterious obelisk with his communicator, falls inside and gets zapped by amnesia. Spock and the rest of the crew, unable to find him, have to leave the planet to head off an approaching asteroid. The better scenes, as with a couple of other episodes, turn out to be the 'B' storyline on the Enterprise, where Spock really annoys Scotty by placing too much strain on the ship's engines.

With us so far? Kirk now exits the obelisk, gets spotted by a couple of females from the tribe and is assumed to be a visiting godling (the uniform must've given it away). Some tribe members are skeptical, but on a 1 in 10,000 chance (a certainty here), he resuscitates a drowned boy, thereby assuring his super-stud, main man, head honcho, favored status. However, he makes an enemy, the former medicine man (Solari) and that's where the whole bleeding god scene comes in. About two months pass. That's right - 2 whole months for this episode! While Kirk, er, Kirok exults in his new found life of nearly carefree abandon, hugging himself in ecstasy and running around the woods with his new wife(!), the Enterprise retreats before a steadily-closing hunk of rock almost the size of our moon. The theme in this one involves placing Kirk in a scenario completely divorced from his usual duties and watch his 'other' true self emerge - the gentle, unhampered Kirk existing in all of us working stiffs. This all sounds very ambitious for a TV episode, but Shatner's over-emoting, hard-to-buy-into plotting and a slipshod pace does it in, undoing much of the tragic impact at the end. I was more interested in these unknown advanced aliens, who may be the same unseen puppeteers of "Assignment:Earth."

Captain Kirk visits a paradise-like planet populated by Native Americans.

This is reasonably good episode with a solid sci-fi concept and some decent character moments for Kirk, Spock and McCoy.

The plot is relatively enjoyable if you can get over the premise of the Native American planet. I'm guessing this was a cheap way of placing Kirk in the midst of a different culture. His scenes in a relaxed environment juxtapose well against the stress-ridden, overworked Enterprise crew battling with the planet bound asteroid. The idea regarding the Preservers and their technology is excellent and it is quite an important concept within the Trek universe.

It has to be said that the stereotyping of Native Americans as ignorant savages is as bad as you would expect from 60s television, and there is many a contrived moment as the story unfolds.

Although William Shatner strays over the top in a few scenes, this is generally a good Kirk episode. It is nice to see him away from the stress of command and briefly experience a bit of personal happiness. His romance is up to the usual Star Trek standard, but at least in this episode the falling in love takes place over what feels like a plausible length of time.

Leonard Nimoy and DeForest Kelley are on good form as ever embodying pure logic and humanity as Spock commands the Enterprise and faces a number of difficult decisions.

Scotty is okay but feels a bit more of a caricature here as he continuously reacts humorously to the demands placed on his engines.

It ends on a fairly downbeat note that is quite touching, well acted, but ultimately very convenient for the character of Kirk and his place on the show.

Visually everything works well, particularly the remastered edition with the new asteroid effects. The cinematography is good, along with the general art design.

"The Paradise Syndrome" (Oct. 4, 1968) Old TV Guide synopsis: 'On a mission to save a planet, the Enterprise crew wrestles with several enigmas, including a cryptically inscribed obelisk towering in their midst.' Perhaps the only way we could see a married James Kirk was here, accidental amnesia resulting in a new identity as 'Kirok,' new medicine man for a tribe of Native Americans on a sumptuous earthlike planet. Spock and McCoy are forced to abandon the search for their missing captain to divert an approaching asteroid from obliterating Kirk and all his people, severely damaging the warp engines so that the return journey will last two months. This gives 'Kirok' time to wed tribal priestess Miramanee (Sabrina Scharf), leaving her spurned former betrothed to seek vengeance upon his rival. A pleasant change of pace, and truly the only third season episode to venture outdoors (tighter budgets would soon make this impossible).

This episode impressed me a lot. For a start the production and soundtrack was of a higher standard than usual and it felt more like a film than a TV episode.

Also I found some parallels between the purpose of the Obelisk in this episode and the one that appears in the 1951 Arthur C Clark story called 'The Sentinel', and 2001 (which The Sentinel inspired), which I fully appreciated.

The acting is all top notch, especially from Nimoy who portrayed Spock's stressful situation perfectly.

I appreciate the way the writers used this story to explain why there are so many humanoid beings in this galaxy, which is something that the episode of Next Generation called 'The Chase' also did, and I like the simple innocence of Kirk's actions and relationship in the encampment he found himself in.

Very good episode over-all, and one of the best of TOS.