“The Magicks of Megas-Tu”

Very silly and dull, agreed. But I do sort of admire the whole Lucien bit. Having the Greek gods turn out to be visiting aliens is one thing, but having Kirk and Spock meet The Devil Himself, who turns out to be not such a bad guy, just misunderstood? Surprised they were able to get away with that in a Saturday morning cartoon.

Yep, whack-a-doodle and boring. I wasn't sure whether to cringe or yawn, so did both. No use just reiterating what Jammer wrote other than to say I agree 100 per cent. Best to watch this one with your eyes closed.

A lot of elements here have been used in other Trek episodes such as the power of belief ("Spectre of the Gun"), humanity on trial ("Encounter at Farpoint"), advanced beings visiting Earth ("Tattoo", "Return to Tomorrow", "Who Mourns for Adonais").

Lucien's role in relation to the other Megans isn't totally clear -- is he supposed to be an evil or anomalous element? He certainly didn't have any evil intentions and may have been condemned forever had Kirk not shown enough compassion. But he is meant to look like a devil...

The problem with a 24-min. show is that resolution must be pat and Kirk convincing Asmodeus with the ship's records happens too quickly. But there are some good elements, including of the sci-fi kind here. The story didn't feel that interesting or realistic by Trek standards.

Wonder why they made the stardate such that this episode takes place before TOS, while every other TAS episode thus far takes place around the time of TOS S3. The Salem witch trials was an interesting reference point in history -- used as this was when the Megans visited Earth and were condemned as witches, warlocks presumably.

2*

All the above notwithstanding, the shaman battle between Kirk and the other dude was fun, in a batshit crazy sort of way 😜

I agree with Jammer’s one star review. This is just a supremely boring one to sit through, with clumsy dialogue and plotting. The attempt to rehabilitate Lucifer is an amusing, mildly shocking misfire. But it’s hard to get too worked up about something so badly executed. Perhaps the worst of the original Trek cast’s opus.

I love this one. I dunno, just the fact that a kid's cartoon from the 70's had the Star Trek crew meet the actual devil and find out he's the chillest guy in the universe and then defend him. That alone is enough to get a thumbs up from me

I loved that Sulu's first impulse when doing some magic was to conjure himself up a geisha girl and Uhura's like, "Get in there, my man!" 🙂

Star Trek meets Forgotten Realms! With all the high magic involved, and Gods walking the lands!

You know what, I dig it. Not usally one to like over-the-top silly stuff, but for some reason I like this a lot. Maybe because I'm into the occult and old Pagan gods, and I like the premise how the Original Gods (demons) were the ones who helped humanity in the first place, before they were cast out. Poor Lucifer... he can NEVER catch a break!

Also Kirk learning magic and using it in a wizard-duel, was something I never thought I'd see on any Star Trek!

Fuck it. 3/4 stars. Two of those highly subjective, but that's where I stand. I liked it.

DoctorJimmy I agree. Surprised revisionist history of Satan was done. My guess is no one who would have protested bothered to watch the show.

KIRK: "Mister Scott, I'm bewildered, that's all. But that's enough."

Whatever this was, I certainly wouldn't call it boring. Good lord, can you imagine the size of the balls it took to make a Saturday morning cartoon about Captain Kirk defending Satan? In 1973!

I hate seeing the Enterprise crew using "magic" but I do think the story is kind of interesting. In fact, I like it a lot more than "Who Mourns for Adonis?" and "Encounter at Farpoint."


If you took out all the magic stuff - and whatever was going on with that goat-baby with the dreidel - this would have been a pretty good episode. But it's there, so it isn't.


Random things I liked:

Sulu and Uhura in the scene where he whips up a hot chick out of thin air.


The artwork of the weird floating demon/spirit things on the Enterprise.

Kirk and Spock chugging brews with Beelzebub.

I always think of this as the "SuperFriends" episode of TAS - just total, batshit crazy, nonsense that I unconditionally LOVE.

According to the doc on the DVD, this was originally supposed to feature GOD, not the devil. NBC ok'd the Devil for Saturday Mornings, but not ~GOD ALMIGHTY~. I guess we're pre-Satantic panic...

Star Trek has solved the mystery! It turns out that The Moment of Creation--The Big Bang--was essentially a Big Fart from an alternate universe where magic itself is the rule of the day. Well, shit, that’s a good enough explanation as any.

Jammer, your reviews are always sublime. They’re better than my rants, by far. But now, I must respectfully disagree with you. This episode was way too much fun and acid-crazed to receive anything less than a passing score. “The Magicks of Megas-Tu” is *alive* in a fever-dreamily audacious way. One star? For shame!

I too got a kick out of NBC apparently objecting to showing the conception of God but greenlighting The Devil in one of its shows. I also got a kick out of how both Star Trek and South Park conceive the Dark Prince as just a jovial, chill fellow who only wants to rollick and frolic with lots of friends, drinks beer, reads books, holds luaus and Sweet Sixteen parties, and sticks up for humanity on one or two occasions. South Park even takes this a step further, taking pains to show that the main humans who come within Satan’s orbit--Saddam Hussein, Donald Trump and “those spoiled rich girls on MTV”--are actually far worse than he is. Remember, in “The Magicks of Megas-Tu,” not only does Kirk pricelessly defend Lucifer, but Lucifer defends us as well. What a nice old chap.

That brings me to the Salem Witch Trials scene, and the second time that Kirk is accused of being a witch (see: “All Our Yesterdays”). This is quite the jarring tone shift in this episode, but considering what came before it, I’ll chalk it up to its usual crazy business (McCoy: “What in the name of sanity is going on?!” Me: “You are in a cartoon show, Doctor. Just run with it.”) As everyone hopefully knows, the Salem Witch Trials had nothing to do with witchcraft. A couple of girls ate some moldy bread and got ergot poisoning, causing them to hallucinate, and then a phalanx of other girls joined in because they wanted attention. Then the typical townsperson realized that he could say his neighbor was guilty of witchcraft against his family so that he’d then be free to seize some land. Essentially, this had nothing to do with supernatural influence and arguably nothing to do with the influence of Satan. But here comes Star Trek to set the record straight! These aliens all came along on the Mayflower and settled in Massachusetts, you see, but just couldn’t help themselves--they just *had* to show that they had special powers. Then, all of us members of “the vilest species in all the universe” (okay, no argument here) burned them at the stake. Some did because they were simply afraid, and some because the aliens wouldn’t play ball and use their powers to fund the colonists’ personal gains. Star Trek’s point here is that we don’t need no stinking Devil. We’re doing just fine being ugly on our own. But I kid.

Oh my God, where Star Trek: TAS really shows its ridiculously cheesy side here is through anything and everything to do with showing “the magic” of the Megans’ alternate universe on screen. The Spock schlock is one thing (“Power of this universe, enter my being.” / “I know I can”), but I lost it when Kirk was psychokinetically dueling with Asmodeus. First, he gamely *leans away* when Asmodeus shoots a fireball at him. (“Submit, Captain! You haven’t the power to fight us.” Maybe not, but it appears he does have the power to dodge you.) Then they use their fingers to shoot LSD-conceived bullshit at each other, complete with Kirk shown cringing and shielding himself from a fierce wind in front of a matte painting of the rainbow flag (but I kid). The *only* thing that was missing here was Eric Cartman’s vocalizations when he was engaging in a similar “psychic battle” on South Park: “Neh neh neh neh neh! Neh neh neh neh neh neh neh!” Oh TAS, how could we hate you?

I gave a grade of B to “Spock’s Brain.” I would die on a hill defending that episode’s worth. I had lots of fun laughing along with that show. As for “The Magicks of Megas-Tu,” I had lots of fun laughing *at* it. Sadly, there’s a difference. I’ll tell you what, though. This episode had me thinking big thoughts and appreciating what it tried to do a lot more than “The Survivor” or “The Infinite Vulcan” did. For sheer value as a silly diversion, “The Magicks of Megas-Tu” definitely passes. As Lucien himself said, “A toast to a new friendship!”


Speak Freely:
Spock -- “I find this scientifically fascinating.”
McCoy -- “At least I have the good sense to be scared, Jim.”


P.S. What the *hell* was that shot of Little Child Satan next to a spinning dreidel? Asking for a friend.

P.P.S. Lucien was a fair infomercial salesman: “Never settle for anything less. Do you need a room, a stable, a castle? Stop in at your friendly sorcerer-contractor.”

P.P.P.S. In the finest tradition of 70’s exploitation films, Sulu imagines himself up a beautiful charmer--but whoops! It’s really SATAN! (Uhura: “Good luck.”)

P.P.P.P.S. That “love philter” vial was clearly shaped like a penis. Clearly.


My Grade: C

@ PCP,

Wow, you made you realize that I really did watch this episode and that it wasn't a fever dream. Apparently you saw what I saw, it was a real thing on a screen for all to see. Good to know, as least *I* hadn't eaten the moldy bread.

@ Peter G.:

I'd wager that the only one who ate any moldy bread in relation to this episode would likely be its writer, Larry Brody.

I looked up the Salem Witch Trails again, and it turns out that the ergot poisoning explanation is somewhat apocryphal. Who can say what *really* happened, anyway? Maybe it really was aliens! (It certainly wasn't witchcraft, we know that.)

I'm not well-versed in the Salem story historically, although I've studied The Crucible a fair bit. One thing people forget on this topic is that there *are* witches. You may not believe in magic or evil spirits, but you can't not believe in witches because in our present day there are quite a few self-professed Wiccans, witches, magic practitioners, and other such. I'm not judging them, just saying they clearly exist, and have clearly existed for a long time. Now to what extent a judicial proceeding can prove that a woman who may even in fact have practices witchcraft can be held responsible for strange fits, I don't know. I certainly do think it's possible to use the power of persuasion to make someone else manifest symptoms, which you could call psychosomatic but that word doesn't quite do justice to it. Is hypnotism psychosomatic? If you 'curse' someone, but looking at them in a particular way, and which makes them very afraid, is it really unlikely they they could manifest severe nervous symptoms, particularly if they're already superstitious? And if they see someone else display certain symptoms, might they not be subconsciously persuaded to respond to their nervous distress by exhibiting the same symptoms? This is very, very different from a 'made up' affliction. It's a real affliction, just one that results from a psychological assault rather than a spiritual one. It's still an assault.

Arthur Miller's play seems to be quite clear about the fact that witchcraft was indeed practices, although it wasn't responsible (let's say) for the various symptoms exhibited in the town, and of course we know many of the witnesses made up their testimony, perhaps to get attention, or for other reasons. That doesn't mean no one practices witchcraft. Then the question becomes whether it's reasonable for a town to have the right to outlaw such practices and have penalties for breaking these rules. I'm not talking about torture and execution, which to me are the main issues in the story which cast a pall over the town's justice system. The mere fact itself of enforcing laws they viewed as important to public morality is much less contentious IMO.

The current public perception of the Salem story is that it was stupid because there's obviously no such thing as witches. But that's demonstrably false and a silly argument on its face. The real scandal there is that they employed violent retribution against people on scant evidence, erroneous reasoning, and felt their religious ethic entitled them to conduct any actions they wished as 'justice'. That's the main attraction as I see it. The fact that they were on hunt for witches is a side issue to me, because, hey, maybe there were witches in Salem. That's not really the point.

@Peter G.:

Sure, indeed witches exist, and for all I know they can actually summon supernatural energy (I honestly have no reason to insist that such things can't possibly exist), but you could hardly pin the 1692 hysteria on them even if they were actively practicing in the colonies. No matter what the actual trigger for all the hysteria was (sickness, moldy bread, aliens, witchcraft), it's clear that the colonies' legal systems, clouds of suspicion, climate of religious fervor, and even opportunism fanned its flames. "Megas-Tu" briefly points out how many of the colonists even lied--or were told to lie by their parents--for vindictive reasons (as you also point out).

I actually *love* "The Crucible," especially the mid-90's movie with Daniel Day-Lewis, Joan Allen and Winona Ryder (who gets to be batshit crazy--well worth the price of admission alone). My favorite scene, which gives me a lump in my throat every time, is the one where John (Day-Lewis) and Elizabeth (Allen) are quietly having a seaside chat where she tries to get him to confess to being a witch in order to save his life. The way she admits her own perceived shortcomings, and the way he immediately dismisses them and reaffirms his love for her despite having strayed, is just beautifully heartbreaking and so well acted. It's really a great film (and play) that doesn't get nearly enough attention now.

You're right. Playwright Arthur Miller certainly never denies that witchcraft exists--he even invents a scene where an actual voodoo practitioner leads a bunch of girls in a ceremonial trance in the woods--but what he drives home is that the whole sordid affair likely happened because of a combination of hysteria, autosuggestion, attention-seeking and scapegoating, for which you could hardly blame any witches themselves.

As you probably know, "The Crucible" play was written in the 1950's as a critique on McCarthyism and its, well, witch hunts being undertaken. Both it, and often Star Trek, are meant to get us to ask ourselves just what the hell we're doing on certain occasions.

Thanks for your thoughts! I always look forward to your insights.

"I actually *love* "The Crucible," especially the mid-90's movie with Daniel Day-Lewis"

There's a pretty good French version of The Crucible called Les Sorcières de Salem (1957) that's well worth a watch, imo.