The Omega Glory

It’s the Stars and Stripes forever, even on a planet far, far away from Earth with no contact with Earth before. Who are the good guys? Who are the bad guys? This week, we put The Omega Glory in the Mission Log. For some strange reason – this episode was used as a ViewMaster reel. I have to complement you gentlemen on how diplomatic you were with this episode, with what was basically physical evidence that, as a writer, Gene Roddenberry made for a terrific producer. But I have to agree with you that, for all its scientific ludicrousness, and apparent racism, the episode has some merit. When I was growing up in the Bicentennial/Reagan Era, the overt patriotism appealed to me. When I was older, and living outside the United States and seeing the world from a different perspective, I saw the seeming jingoism, the racism and hypocrisy in it – but also the inversion of the racism, where all the racist arguments you might hear about Asian peoples – they’re savage, unintelligible, inscrutable – was being applied to the blond white people in the story. “That which you call Ee’d Plebnista, was not written for the chiefs of kings, or the warriors or the rich or the powerful, but for ALL the people!… These words and the words that follow, were not written only for the Yangs, but for the Kohms as well! They must apply to everyone, or they mean nothing!” I think if you are a Star Trek fan, then you have to love Arena, Gamesters of Triskelion and this. You have to enjoy the failure of great ambition. I think you guys are right that this was about 3 episodes shoved into one. I appreciate the ambition (and a plot-twist) but this remains one of my least favorite episodes. The biggest problem I had with it, to address to the racist undertones, is that the episode almost implied: “Let’s look at a world in which the white people are actually the ‘savages’ and the Asian society is the ‘civilized.'” Which kind of implies that in the real world, the opposite is true. That, combined with the some of the terminology thrown around, and the stereotyped appearances, made this episode really cringe-y to me. However, you totally sold me on the last part. I initially thought the end was a bit ham-fisted and preachy but the Kirk speech taken alone is really great.