“The Squire of Gothos”

I've been reading through your reviews, Jammer, and once again you've got this one pretty spot on. Personally, I'd probably add half a star as it kept me consistently entertained. There's no real depth or substance here aside from the basic theme that intelligence and power without discipline is destructive, which is applied pretty obviously. It's obvious that Gene Roddenberry drew Q from the character from Trelane, but I actually prefer The Squire of Gothos to Encounter at Farpoint, due to EaT being "a little all over the place". My major criticism of this episode would be the ending. I thought it was just a little overdone, with Trelane literally acting like a spoiled little brat. It kind of reminds me of the ending of Day of the Dove, where the crew members and Klingon's break in to bouts of laughter to rid the ship of a disruptive entity; not an episode breaker, but it did leave me with a bit of a bad taste in my mouth.

It's Melllvar!

Review is pretty much dead on except I would not give it 2 stars... Maybe not even 1.

I have to point out that ya'll are saying that Trelane "had the mind of a child'and was "acting like a spoiled little brat",when in fact,Trelane WAS a child. His parents showed up and apologized for their child's selfish and immature behavior and even went so far as to assure Kirk that he would be punished for his bad behavior. The female parental figure even takes some of the blame saying they "spoiled" him. I think this justifies the characters' behavior completely. He acted like a child because he was a child.

I agree with the rating pretty much, but I had fun watching this episode. Trelane is a delightfully spoiled brat, and the actor plays that role well. I didn't mind the ending. Yeah, it's not as good or nearly as tragic as "Charlie X", but it was fun nonetheless.

As an aside, I'm also glad that the Wiki for "Trelane's Parents" confirmed that the voice of the father was NOT James Doohan. I'd heard that it was, but it didn't sound anything at all like his voice.

Just watched this episode last night, and it was better than I remember* (*my experience with TOS as a whole so far, really - maybe I've mellowed out, but when I watched TOS last time, and read Jammer's reviews, I thought his scores were too high, now i feel the opposite... but that was like a decade ago?).

Anyway, this time through, having watched the rest of Star Trek canon with me, my wife was apt to point out the similarities with Trelane and Q. Like Q, (in his 2nd appearance), Trelane is dressed as a French Military commander facinated by Napoleonic Era France. Also, later he plays the part of a Judge. I thought these were pretty good observations.

Finally, I would add, that in Voyager we see that the Q do have children. Could Trelane be a young Q (or even, *the* Q, as played by John De Lancie)?

Q de Lancie does, after all pull the same stunts, and is likewise reprimanded by "the Q continuum" - maybe the continuum thought his parents were doing a poor job of raising him, and took him away, or he's an adult and Q societies problem now instead of his parents.

This was a weak episode, very similar to "Charlie X" but worse. The plot is simplistic and does drag on and the ending is extremely similar to "Charlie X". Otherwise there's no way for the Enterprise to get out of their pickle -- an even more superior power (parents) is needed to restore order.

Trelane is an interesting character and does turn out to be a child of the advanced life form that he is -- but he still throws a tantrum in front of his parents and Kirk at the end.

I don't think the episode goes far enough with making the point about wise use of tremendous powers or whatever the point is. Not an episode to generate enough intrigue, tension, entertainment for me to watch again. For me, 1.5/4 stars.

"Anyway, this time through, having watched the rest of Star Trek canon with me, my wife was apt to point out the similarities with Trelane and Q. Like Q, (in his 2nd appearance), Trelane is dressed as a French Military commander facinated by Napoleonic Era France. Also, later he plays the part of a Judge. I thought these were pretty good observations. "

There was a Peter David book as I recall called "Q Squared" that had Trelane as an infant member of the Q Continuum.

After having re-watched this episode, I too enjoyed it more than I expected. William Campbell really imbues the Trelane character with a combination of childish exuberance, petulance and creepy menace that yields a really compelling performance. I actually prefer him to Delancy as Q, at least in the early appearances in STNG season 1. The story in this case is nothing special, but I do enjoy watching this character in action, even if there is little else compelling about the episode.

Re-watching this episode for the first time in many years while on a bit of a TOS nostalgia tour, I found the similarities between Trelane and Q from TNG to be very uncanny. Perhaps the writers of TNG were, ahem, inspired by this episode when they wrote "Encounter at Farpoint" and "Hide and Q"? I seem to remember hearing about an expanded universe Trek novel confirming that Trelane was an infant Q. It would certainly explain a lot!

I thoroughly enjoyed this episode on second viewing - William Campbell was great! I feel that Jammer sometimes takes TOS eps too seriously - some eps are just supposed to be pure fun and not meant to be overanalyzed. Then again, I guess everyone has that one series they view through rose-colored glasses. For me it's TOS (I was born in the 90s and was hooked on TOS via my dad, who grew up watching TOS in 70s reruns), and for Jammer it's TNG/DS9. I don't mean this as a criticism - it's inherently subjective, and everyone brings their own perspectives and biases to the party - that's part of the fun!

I think it goes without saying that Q in Season 1 of TNG is directly inspired by Trelane.

#1 - The Napoleonic military uniform. Seen in 'Hide and Q'.
#2 - The trial. Seen in "Encounter at Farpoint".
#3 - The playful aspect of the character.
#4 - The ability to transform energy to matter and vice-versa via thought.

I think the TNG writers took Trelane and adjusted it. Q would be a peer in his realm, not a child. Also his concerns would be broader than mere game playing.

Rahul - agreed that Trelane seems repititous of Charlie X. However the big difference is Trelane meant well, while Charlie would have murdered millions due to his unbalanced mind. Charlie was not really interested in humanity like Q, more of a sociopath, a 'user'.

Hi Alex,

I've never heard/read anywhere if Q was inspired by Trelane but your point about the direct inspiration makes a lot of sense to me. That's the great thing about TOS -- it left plenty of ideas on the table for future series to flesh out.

I'd actually say the difference between Trelane and Charlie is more subtle. They're both immature. Trelane would have killed Kirk and then presumably tortured/killed other members of the Enterprise when they refused to cooperate. Charlie was just even more immature and short-tempered, so he'd make people disappear or murder them at the snap of his fingers.

But yes, it's true that Trelane is interested in humanity (like Q) whereas Charlie just wants to be accepted etc. so that is the main difference in the episodes. The Trelane episode plays out as a bad Q episode (reminds me of TNG's "Qpid") whereas there is more substance to "Charlie X".

Some people have already pointed out the similarities between this and Charlie X. However, I must say that the first season of TOS have too many episodes with the "the crew gets saved from powerful being that can do anything at will by some Deus Ex Machina or by something not really consistent to the adversary being all powerful". Charlie X and Squire are already pointed out, but The Cage, Where No Man Has Gone Before, The Corbomite Maneuver, all fit to the description.

Besides, did anyone else think that one of Trelane's statues (that he phasers away) look A LOT like the creature from The Man Trap?

This is the original "Q" episode -- bear in mind that nearly everything in first half of TNG is a direct lift from TOS, from the ship models to the themes it picks up and develops further -- and it's a lot of fun. William Campbell, also known for his Klingon captain Koloth in "Tribbles" and DS9, turns in a terrifically fun performance as the iconic Squire of Gothos Trelane. The games get a bit repetitive before we finally get some insight into Trelane, but I dig the TOS universe where humans struggle to survive as a lower species on the food chain, and I like how the "Squire of Gothos" continues to explore encounters with powerful beings who mean well but lack the emotional maturity needed to temper their hostile instincts -- a nice critique of our own cultural hubris. It's not top tier Trek, as the crew's powerlessness to escape Trelane becomes repetitive without advancing the plot, but it's good stuff and an iconic hour of Star Trek. I give it 3 or 3 1/2 stars.

Spock has some zingers in his considered distaste for Trelane, including his response to the question of whether Vulcans are predatory: "Not normally, but there have been exceptions." And the little nods to continuity, like McCoy's double-take on seeing the stuffed and mounted Salt Vampire ("Man Trap") on Trelane's trophy wall, are fun. Also nice to see Uhura make it into the landing party, albeit unintentionally when Trelane snatches her and the yeoman -- Nichelle Nichols has wonderful physical expressions, especially the look she gives Trelane when she pulls her hand away after his "Nubian princess" insult. Trelane's stereotyping of the crew according to their ancestry (African, German, French, Asian, etc.) is presented as distasteful to Kirk and his officers, underscoring the racial harmony of TOS that remains one of its strong suits.

Overall, I loved this one and the Q episodes of TNG/DS9/VOY as a kid because I grooved on the pure ID of Trelane and Q, but now that I'm older I share the crew's irritation (Kirk and crew lay the template for all the later crews who find Q annoying) at these childish supreme beings. It's an interesting shift in perspective for me; part of me still enjoys "Squire of Gothos," but not as much as I used to like it. And yet it's still pretty good as an archetypal and quintessentially Trekkian story.

Trek fan makes an excellent point: this episode is far more enjoyable for children than adults - and none the worse for it.

It is a quirk of human development that intelligence develops before compassion. Intelligence without compassion is what we usually label "evil". The things that prevent us from labeling children as evil are (a) they don't have enough power over outcomes and (b) we are psychologically programmed to love them more than adults (to find them cute).

Through a brilliant artifice, this episode removes both the reasons above, thus blending our perception of evil and child. Let us not underestimate the brilliance of Campbell's portrayal of Trelane. He manages to portray him in such a manner throughout that we will think of him as an evil psychopath, or (in a second viewing) an innocent child at play. The shock to us is that without the crutches of (a) and (b) above, we cannot tell the difference. This episode, bordering on the philosophical, asks whether "innocence" and "evil" (which we naturally would classify as far apart, if not polar opposites) are in fact one and the same thing.

= = = =

Observation 1

One may ask, isn't Spock similar? Isn't Spock all intelligence, no compassion? We may ask, if Vulcan's are purely logical, not emotional, why do they not turn out to be evil? Spock answer's the question in a very matter of fact and brief manner in this episode. His answers are "discipline" and "purpose". Discipline, to rein in the natural needs of the mind, and purpose to create new goals in its place. This is a wonderful exposition of the Vulcan society. A "purely logical" being is still free to maximize whatever he chooses to, such as his own enjoyment over others'. In what Vulcans deem as logic, seems to be embedded a meta-logical approach to choosing goals.

= = = =

Observation 2

Many TOS episodes have trivial resolutions. Parents take the child away. It was all a dream. The computer explodes due to a logical paradox. Aliens were just testing you. The mad scientist falls prey to his own doomsday device. Good adventure stories are where the resolution comes about through a charming and novel combination of the protagonists' heroics, and yes, some luck. Many TOS resolutions seem to come about through pure luck, no heroics. Not very satisfying.

A good way to watch TOS is not to consider the episodes as adventure stories at all. The adventure is incidental, the philosophy is core. With a mind not hooked on seeing an adventure every week, these episodes can be enjoyed more. When TOS does do adventures / escapades, they do them very well. The brilliance of these episodes causes the other episodes to pale in comparison, but only because we insist upon extracting only a particular kind of enjoyment out of it.

It irritates me that Spock comes out with such garbage. Less than a minute in and he defines a desert as a "waterless, barren wasteland." That is not at all the definition of a desert, which depends solely on the amount of precipitation--it can be teeming with life, such as in the Australian outback, or somewhat sparse, as in Antarctica. But sheesh! You'd think Spock wouldn't yammer unless he were sure of his facts!

Aside from that, this was a fun romp. I too thought Trelane must be a Baby Q, and William Campbell played him to perfection!

@ grumpy_otter,

"Less than a minute in and he defines a desert as a "waterless, barren wasteland." That is not at all the definition of a desert, which depends solely on the amount of precipitation--it can be teeming with life, such as in the Australian outback, or somewhat sparse, as in Antarctica. But sheesh! You'd think Spock wouldn't yammer unless he were sure of his facts! "

To be fair, the word desert literally connotes that a places is "deserted". I mean, it's right in the title. The fact that our "deserts" do have life in them sort of means that they're only 'sort of deserts' if you catch my drift. Although there appears to be no place on Earth that is truly deserted, presumably on other worlds and by the 23rd century they will have discovered places that are 'true deserts' and are utterly devoid of life. By that standard the Earthen deserts might well be redefined into "arid zones" or something, and actually that would make sense.

Isn't the whole of Vulcan basically a desert? You would think Spock would know a thing or two about them.

Silly in the extreme.

TOS version of a bad Holodeck ep.

Below average.

Ah I'm round to this one. Q Beta (or Discord Alpha, for those who follow deLancie's equine appearances)

This HAD to be the inspiration for Q, no doubt about it.

I do give it a great deal of credit for being watchable twice - the first time with Trelane as malevolent, and the second time with him as a child playing with "pets". Also a very early take on the argument of having pets to begin with.

Very enjoyable, mostly because of Campbell's extremely solid acting.

3 Stars.

One of my favorite episodes, yes trelanes castle has 101 inaccuracies in it but it still is great and once again a great job of casting campbell as trelane.
my review--simply smashing!!

One of my favourite TOS episodes. Far more alien, even eerie, than many that were more impressive in production values. And far superior to Q in almost every way. Trelane would have made a much better Q than Q. At times the episode had the tone and atmosphere of one of the more disconcerting Twilight Zone episodes. The lion’s share of the credit for that belongs to the excellent William Campbell, whose mercurial Squire was unpredictable, friendly, ingratiating, wheedling, incredulous, hurt, tantrum-throwing, and terrifying by turns.

I would visualize this as Q having a daydream, as a young Q. Specifically our De Lancie Q so as to keep the theme working later in development. Otherwise there’s no real place for this in the modern Star Trek galaxy. Q would need to be looking at Trelane in a snow globe, ready to shake it. Similarl to his absence during Species 8472, I think it’s more a convenient writer miss.

I liked William Campbell's nice mix of menace and whimsy, which I think keeps this episode from being a total dud. Shatner had some great moments where he called off the bluff and talked down the squire. You can really see that Shatner is a much better actor than the material he was given.

While I agree with others with the comparison between the Squire and Q, I think people oversimplify Q's role on TNG. Unlike the squire, Q has a specific agenda of teaching his opponents a lesson. Q isn't just a playful superbeing that's curious about humans. It's the latter reading of the character that leads to his butchering in Voyager, unfortunately.

2 stars.

@ Chrome,

Especially interesting about Trelane is that he requires technological devices to amplify or even create his powers. Does that mean that he's not really godlike but is just part of a race with godlike tech? Or does it mean that being godlike and having advanced tech are essentially the same thing, and that bio/tech/evolution all amount to the same thing if you trace it forward millions or billions of years?

That being said, while it's fun for Trelane to have a mechanical weakness here, it works because he's portrayed as a child and we're not supposed to really have any respect for him. In VOY the same premise turns out to be poison for the mythos of the Q, where "Q guns" being used by humans ends up being one of the most preposterous writing choices in Trek history, probably up there with Threshhold and Profit and Lace in terms of the ball being dropped in the writer's room. We're left to ponder whether Trelane's parent's also need tech to power them, or whether the tech wasn't so much what he was reliant on, and more they were just his toys to play with before he knew how to use his real powers.

@Peter G

That's a good point that Trelane's power seems to be technology-based akin to Ardra or the like. The nature of his existence gets a little murky towards the end because we see these pulsating energy orbs in the sky representing Trelane's parents. It could be that Trelane's people have evolved past their corporeal forms and that's why they at once find human beings recognizable yet interesting. And -- what we're shown might just be advanced technology.

It is to the episode's credit that it leaves the door open on the subject, and like you said we get a certain "Wizard of Oz" feeling to Trelane's abilities. The whole thing is just smoke and mirrors and you need someone like Kirk who can navigate calmly and peacefully through it.

Q was also called a "flim-flam man", but not because his powers were fake, but what he was offering as a "gift" to humans was hollow. I get the feeling that after Q was humiliated by Picard/Riker he upped his game quite a bit so he could show that he is the real deal - not just in terms of power but in wisdom.

As for the magical Q guns - yeah - it was just a slapdash way to make Voyager come to the rescue in a vaguely Civil War manner, and I try not to think about that episode too hard.

I agree with Jammer's 2 star rating.

I recently re-watched this episode, hoping it would be better than I remember. Unfortunately, it wasn't. It starts off with an intriguing premise, and has a nice twist at the end, but the material in-between is, as Jammer says, repetitious. Also, as Jammer points out, this episode meanders between being a comedy and a drama, never really establishing itself as either one. As a result, it only partially succeeds at either. This episode is better on initial viewing than on subsequent viewings, due to the repetitive nature and because a lot is taken away once you know the surprise ending.

There is one huge plot hole. It is stated they are 900 light-years from Earth, and therefore Trelane is viewing events 900 years in the past. However, he knows about Napoleon and Alexander Hamilton, persons who lived in the last 1700s / early 1800s. So the time is off by about 400 years. However, I'm not sure at this point in the Star Trek canon if it had been established when the Enterprise voyages were taking place.

Is it just me or did they name-check Discovery?? At the beginning: “Uhura, notify the discovery on subspace radio”

Yes, @Comment, I believe they do. And what's more, Discovery is a science vessel. To wit,

SPOCK: Inconceivable this body has gone un-noted on all our records.

KIRK: And yet, here it is. No time to investigate. Science stations, gather data for computer banks. Uhura, notify the Discovery on subspace radio.

But seeing as our intrepid crew on Star Trek: Discovery have embarked on a one-way trip to the 32nd century, I have to imagine that in the 10 years between ST:D's "Such Sweet Sorrow" and TOS' "Squire of Gothos", Star Fleet has commissioned a new science vessel named Discovery. It's the new vessel that Kirk has Uhura contacting.

I wonder if the new next-generation Discovery in Kirk's time will also have a spore drive??? Or holographic communications systems? Seems odd to send a message by "subspace radio" to a ship that might very well be able to receive a full-length holographic projection of Kirk onto it's bridge to let them know they the Enterprise has discovered a brand new planet!

Oh that's right, Pike had holographic communications ripped out of the Enterprise during the time it spent in dry-dock getting repaired. Thank god for that little piece of continuity. I feel much better now ;)

All kidding aside, given the promising direction ST:D has finally moved in, I find myself actually looking forward to the new Pike/Spock/Number One show under development.

I wonder if Strange New Worlds will treat us to red-SKIRTs of the week? Or was that just a special perk the brass pulled out for James T. Kirk?

Recall, that in The Corbormite Maneuver, Kirk says,

KIRK: When I find the headquarters genius that assigned me a female yeoman...

MCCOY: What's the matter, Jim, don't you trust yourself?

In any case, this episode's red-skirt of the week, Teresa Ross, does not give Kirk any back rubs on the bridge. Her ministrations are limited to dancing with Trelane whilst wearing a pretty dress. Those who twirl and gait, also serve.

A very silly but lighthearted and quite enjoyable episode, yet instantly forgettable in the TOS canon.

Did anyone else notice the big error near the beginning? Kirk says Trelane’s viewer shows him Earth “900 years in the past “, yet the set is probably early 19th Century, therefore only 400 or so years.

^ There is more than one instance where the date is "wrong" on those early episodes of TOS. It seems that they hadn't nailed down just what century they wanted the series based in yet.

Interesting that Michael Barrier had such a substantial part during the first half of this episode. Wonder if William Shatner had a fit over this when he read the script. I also liked the fact that the landing party was made up of two minor characters in addition to McCoy giving the viewer the impression that the Enterprise actually had a capable crew other than the main cast.

Trelane is playing a pretty cool double-manual harpsichord (the kind with two keyboards). Nice quality. Hard to date it, but it resembles instruments manufactured in Passau, Germany by Kurt Sperrhake (whose work was contemporary with TOS). I thought that it might have been the one played on the Addams Family by TV Trek alum Ted Cassidy (Lurch), but it isn't. Lurch's harpsichord has far more surface decoration and really looks like an 18th century antique.

Harpsichord music seems to have seen a resurgence in the 1960's ...its use in Squire really sets a nice mood.

The problem with doing “all-powerful beings” in a show like Star Trek is it immediately reveals the limitations of the writers’ paltry imaginations, calls attention to the necessity of having none of the regular characters suffer any ill effects despite being at the whim of instantaneous and incredible power, and obviously highlights the barriers that come with 1960’s production values. Essentially we get a cheap European villa set and historical-film costumes from the studio closet down the hall, a sparse courtroom set for Trelane to aimlessly mock Kirk in, and a plot that degenerates into an obvious and tiresome cat-and-mouse staple (“With us as the mouse!” offers Kirk helpfully). I guess Kirk and the crew are lucky that Trelane is an all-powerful “mischief maker” and not an all-powerful psychopathic horror villain.

William Campbell tries his hardest to make unctuous Trelane compelling and interesting, but unfortunately he just comes off as annoying. I zoned out at the halfway point, with nothing engaging to pay attention to, other than Uhura and that yeoman who was also pretty hot. As for the verbal sparring between Kirk and Trelane--what should have been a battle of wits ends up being nothing but a battle of whining and accusations. “Sallies of wit” these are not, but I appreciate that Kirk was pretty much as bored and annoyed at Trelane's games as I was. The way Kirk delivers the line, "Are you ready?" before the pistols-at-dawn duel was perfect.

The revelation of Trelane being essentially a bratty child falls flat, because that’s exactly what he’s been acting like throughout the entire show--a child playing with his “toys,” and now because there’s only a minute of airtime left, Mommy and Daddy show up to shoo him inside to eat his dinner.


Best Line:

Spock -- “I object to power without constructive purpose.”

(If only he had been in the writers’ room)


My Grade: F

I’ve always liked this episode for being visually impressive, and I also think it’s really well directed. For filming, it must be a nightmare to have such a big mirror in a room because sooner or later, some piece of filming equipment will be seen in it. I really paid attention to that but I didn’t see anything, so kudos to the camera team – that can’t have been easy. The setting looks really good, at least the interior of the castle which is luxurious and unsettling at the same time.

Overall, there are quite a few fairytale elements here: the story taking place in a castle; the forest around it being a dangerous, forbidden place; Trelane using magic with the mirror (!) as a catalyst; the ball gown Ross is wearing and Kirk’s comment on the “glass slippers”. I wonder if this is meant to underline the childish, playful character of Trelane; it fits quite well. He’s a most unusual antagonist; not a complex character, but rather elusive and difficult to describe: lively, capricious, temperamental, his character is as half-formed as the food without taste and the fire without heat which he created.

Another thing I find quite remarkable about this episode is how it casually deconstructs stereotyping. Spock says: “Trelane knows all of the Earth forms, but none of the substance”, meaning that the appearance of someone or something is only one aspect, a fraction of what they are really like – and by pointing out that the fire isn’t really a fire without the heat, the episode is meant to show that judging by appearance alone can be deceiving and incomplete. Then Trelane starts judging the crew by their appearance and names, applying national stereotypes. The reactions go from amusement (Sulu, de Salle) to indignation (Uhura) and embarrassment (Jaeger on Trelane’s Prussian parade: „I’m a scientist, not a military man.“), but they all make clear that in their time and society, such attributions are anachronistic and insignificant. Another example is Trelane’s annoying fascination for the military: “I want to know all about your campaigns, your battles, your missions of conquest.” As much as Kirk insists that they are on a peaceful mission and only fight to defend themselves, Trelane keeps dwelling on the subject until it gets on the viewer’s nerves as much as on Kirk’s… I think it’s quite clever to convey criticism in this way, making something look silly by displaying it.

Lannion, great points. I would even submit that this was TOS's best commentary on racism. You know what the message is, but the whole thing does not hit you over the head with it (For what it is worth, I don't think Last Battlefield was bad at all), and the message has teeth. The fake Abe Lincoln handling of race was awful by comparison. (For its time, great, but very milquetoast by standards of 1980s and beyond: "diversity is great and it is great when you don't even know shame iver skin color.") By default, Squire is the best on this.

It’s worth noting that Trelane is really the first “god-like being” episode in what would become a very regular trope for Star Trek. There was of course Charlie X and Gary Mitchell, but they were humans imbued with unnatural powers played as tragic figures, both with an aura of mystery and gradual reveal. Trelane is what he’s supposed to be, he’s the first super being to put our heroes under a microscope. As such it’s sort of hard to judge this episode fairly, it helped to spawn an often derided cliche in the trek universe and honestly it doesn’t compare well to its “god-like” trope followers, but it’s also basically the original and deserves to be given that sort of mulligan rich consideration. In that sense Trelane is like the whole of TOS, rough around the edges because it’s out there on the cutting edge.

Overall I think Trelane has some worthwhile ideas going on, the twist at the end was pretty clever. I mean, once you know the big reveal it has diminishing returns, but upon first viewing, the idea that this villain who had been tormenting our TOS crew in such distasteful ways, driving us to really dislike him, must be reevaluated as an ignorant and playful child is a pretty nice switcheroo. Plus William Campbell’s performance is engaging and enthusiastic, imparting a fun sense of goofiness into the proceedings. But at the same time, it all comes across a bit too silly for its own good, it vacillates between comedy and horror and becomes a little tonally confused. I’d say 2.5 stars is about right.

A few passing observations/ideas:
- Are Trelane’s parents the same weirdos who gave Charlie X his powers? Do these meatheads have wild kids running all over the galaxy causing mayhem? If not then you have two god-like species in relative close proximity to one another, seems kinda weird.
- Was the machinery behind the mirror a red herring, or was it actually tied to Trelane’s powers? I wasn’t clear on that.
- Nice bit of continuity with the salt monster cameo.

Anyhoooo, not a bad episode, just a bit of zany fun.

This episode always fell kind of flat for me, partly because of the annoying edge to the Trelane character, and partly, I think, because of the Deus ex machina ending. Trelane snatches them; Jaeger tries to fight him, but Trelane is too powerful for him. Spock beams them up, but again Trelane is too powerful, and again snatches them to his planet. Kirk tricks Trelane into a duel so he can break Trelane's "instrumentality," but Trelane has back-up equipment of some sort and puts Kirk on trial. Kirk again tricks Trelane into individual combat, but Trelane, willing to use his powers unfairly, is unbeatable. Nothing our captain or noble crew can do will break them free, just the arrival of Trelane's almighty parents, who had nothing to do with the story until they swooped in to save the day for our heroes whose heroics had accomplished nothing.

@trish

It normally bugs me when the protagonist of a story lucks out in the end. It would certainly have been better if the enterprise crew had played *some* role in their eventual salvation, rather than just being the beneficiaries of Trelane’s bed time. But I will say that in this episode’s case, that was kind of the point. The idea that our beloved TOS crew were essentially in way over their heads with this whole exploring the galaxy thing, and they were basically just insects to be toyed with in the shadow of powerful beings well beyond their comprehension does serve a purpose. The episode is a series of perspective shifts with Trelane morphing from loathsome antagonist to clueless child and our heroes transitioning from the vanguard of evolution to the back of the pack. All told through the enthusiasm of a community theater stage production:)

@Idh2023

Yes, it reminds me a lot of the TNG episode "Q Who," when Picard claims that Starfleet is ready for whatever the galaxy may hold and Q tosses the Enterprise into their first encounter with the Borg, only rescuing our heroes when Picard admits they are out of their league.

Helplessness in the face of an overwhelmingly more powerful foe is an all too common reality, but it's not a very entertaining fantasy.

I love this episode for two reasons:

#1, the twist makes sense and makes re-watching very enjoyable. The episode walks the line between giving clues and not spoiling anything. When I first watched it, I did not expect the twist, but I didn't feel cheated. I was upset at myself for not figuring it out earlier.

A big #2, the acting was great. George Takei nailed the "this is offensive and unbelievably stupid" reaction without winking at the camera. He gave a powerful reaction that was needed, but it was not look into the camera and give hashtag labels as to why this faux pas is not in fashion. But, oh man, the actor for Trelane. I am glad they cast a man of about 30. It is young enough to make the immaturity not farcical, but old enough to hide the character's relative youth, and the acting pulls it off. It works. He behaves perfectly in character, and you appreciate on rewatching. What always got me about the Willy Wonka movie from the 1970s, that made me not enjoy it, was that the child actors were all awful. "Spoiled brat" is not just be "loud and annoying." Even the main kid was godawful. In that way, the "cheat" of casting the older actor worked out better than having a young Stranger Things actor.

This episode hung entirely on the performances and I believed Trelane.

An actor of about 40*, I meant. The immaturity is believable, at the stage of its beung very unsettling, but nit cartoonish as it would be if casting a 70-year-old man.

Trish wrote:
> Helplessness in the face of an overwhelmingly more powerful foe is an all too common reality, but it's not a very entertaining fantasy.

Most times, I wpuld agree whole-heartedly, but some stories can go against this. If I am watching this as an onlooker, not as someone imagining himself or herself in that role, it works. If it were not a space show in the 2300s, but a show set in Halifax circa now, I would feel frustrated. I liken it to the unlikabke characters in Seinfeld or It's Always Sunny. I usually hate anti-heroes, but because I am never exoected to empathize with or root for the characters (in early Sunny), I can enjoy the misadventures of deplorable people.

For whatever reason, I never felt "if I were Kirk in this situation, I would ..." To TNG's detriment, episodes focused on supporting cast usually fell flat because I *could* put myself in their shoes and get frustrated at their mistakes.

Episodes are conceived and written intending to emphasize certain plot lines, but adapting them into a TV show required much shuffling (not to mention recycling) by the producers, apparently. The protagonist having observed Earth's warring "predators" from centuries of light years past (without being aware of it) conveniently allows the use of available props, costumes, the castle stage, and figures from previous episodes. But Kirk for some reason decides to beam down by himself to confront Trelane for the last third of the show, obviously a way to feature Shatner and Campbell while saving the budget that took a beating over the 1800's period set construction. It seems like overanalyzing this cheapens the product for me after decades of viewing this episode as entertaining with Campbell's strong performance. To a novice this is "the guy like Liberace episode" ....... Other reviewers say the Charlie X repeat ending bothers them, but serialization requires a wrap in the last two minutes of every episode. I'm sorry, the notion of serialization did not exist at the time, they just did not want "continued" plot episodes because a portion of the TV audience might not have seen the first portion and tune out. (even though the one instance where a continued episode was compelled, turned out to be a success) the network proclivities ruled the roost. Curiously, the feed of syndicated episodes I'm watching are being run in their original order now, whereas decades ago they would be done more or less at random. Season 2 episodes have matured, settled on their big 3, and not yet succumbed to even worse budget limiting toward the eventual scuttling.

Have to disagree with Rahul. Trelane was steadily growing more and more violent as kirk showed him the way in a sense with the sword fight in which kirk was unarmed, and if I recall correctly, tralane even implied that once he finished with kirk, he would do the same with the other staff of the enterprise.

@Dee -- not sure what you are disagreeing with me on.

Here's what I said in my most recent comment on this episode:

"Trelane would have killed Kirk and then presumably tortured/killed other members of the Enterprise when they refused to cooperate."

And that's basically what you just said.

I don't understand how Trelane's ability to transmute matter allowed him to give Uhura the ability to play the harpsichord.

Trelane had a mirror. For me, TOS has become a mirror of sorts. I watched and developed initial opinions on these episodes many decades ago. Now I can view again and discover how those opinions have changed. The episodes are the same, of course, so I have changed.

I used to find Squire of Gothos dull, almost a chore to watch. Now I'm amused and entertained. Has that been the influence of TNG's Q? Perhaps. SoQ is visually interesting and introduces the first superbeing character that can relocate entire planets, among other feats. Cool! The story manages to avoid the long dull stretches that are a bit too common in preceding episodes. The cartoonish sound effects upon destruction of his mirror machine feel out of place given the still-looming threat Trelane represents at that point.

2 of 4 Greetings and Felicitations

An actually fun episode compared to Shore Leave, which only pretends to be. And I'd take the faux-charming antics of Trelane over that greasy petulant tryhard, Charlie X any day.