ALL SCI-FI

[Bogmeister]

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___________TOS 3x13 'Elaan of Troyius' Trailer


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In the earlier classic episode, Journey to Babel, the Enterprise hosted about 100 ambassadors from various alien cultures. In this latest venture into Federation politics and diplomacy, there is only one ambassador — Petri is his name, from Troyius.

Oh, and also there's a creature known as the Dohlman, from the planet Elas. A Dohlman?

Quick, the universal translator, please! Translation: Elaan, spoiled brat of a princess, i.e. more trouble than 200 ambassadors.

Ambassador Petri's task: train her in preparation for her role as wife to the Troyiun prince. Some ground rules to observe when hosting a Dohlman:

(1) Kneel in her presence.

(2) Do not speak unless permitted.

(3) Do not leave without permission.

(4) Provide her with the best quarters on the ship.

(4a) Failing that, find other quarters.

(5) Provide breakable objects for her, but no pillows.



The sophomoric attitudes we see here do provide more entertainment than the average 3rd season episode. I guess I like this one for similar reasons to my appreciation for the crazy Whom Gods Destroy — the yelling and the hysterics.

This one again borrows from Shakespeare (as with a few other episodes) — in this case, from The Taming of the Shrew. So in a sense, it's meant to be somewhat comedic. There are added elements of another touchy mission for Starfleet to bring peace to a region of space, as well as an unexpected attack by a Klingon warship.

The warlike Elasians make even the aggressive Klingons seem a bit laid-back by comparison (see also the description of the Capellans in Friday's Child). The story holds together well with all these plot turns in the first couple of acts, and this episode is not boring — that's a given.




There's a switch to even more silly plot contrivances in the 2nd half of the episode, when Kirk becomes infected by Elaan's tears.

According to legend, and 23rd-century biochemistry, tears of such a female enslave all men, causing the man in question to fall hopelessly in love (or in lust?) with the female. This plot turn almost moves the story into childlike fairy tale territory, though I suppose one can liken such an effect to a viral infection.

This also provides another excuse for Kirk to, uh, fraternize inappropriately with an alien woman who is generally regarded as off-limits. It's similar to his tryst with the female invader in Wink of an Eye only a few episodes later. Kirk really got going in this area of interstellar relations during the 3rd season.


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BoG's Score: 7 out of 10


BoG
Galaxy Overlord Galactus

[Bud Brewster]

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Bogmeister is right about this episode being sort a "guilty pleasure", because we get to see our favorite macho captain teach a lesson in manners to a sexy, immature brat who is a "royal pain in the ass"!

And then our brave captain takes her to bed and completes his conquest! (Go, Jim, go . . . )

I love the scene when McCoy and Spock open the door to her quarters and catch Kirk red-handed snogging the lady with great enthusiasm!

This is followed by a conference in the corridor between the three men, when McCoy explains why Kirk has suddenly gone crazy over this hot-blooded gal.

As story concepts go, the explanation is solid! The alien lady's tears are like liquid pheromones which penetrate the skin of a man and make him want to "do what comes naturally" . . . even MORE than he normally does!

This episode reveals something about James T. Kirk that we see in several other episodes, although this one does it best; Captain Kirk is in love with the Enterprise, and no woman can ever compete with that love.

So, just seconds after McCoy and Spock inform Kirk that the effect of the woman's tears is powerful and permanent, a Klingon warship threatens the Enterprise, and Scotty discovers that a saboteur has planted a device in engineering that will blow up the ship if they use the warp drive!

The key moment in this episode is when the sexy princess walks onto the bridge just when it's being threatened by the Klingon ship, and Kirk has to focus his thoughts on saving the ship instead of his powerful urge to lay the lady down on the deck and give the entire bridge crew something shocking to write home about!

At that moment, Shatner has a magnificent moment in which he demonstrates the strength and intelligence a starship captain needs to make wise decisions and defeat the Federation's enemies.

The Klingon ship reveals that it was simply trying to goad the Enterprise into using it's weapons or warp drive, and thus blowing itself up! But Kirk heroically resists the urge to fire on the Klingon's, barely avoiding a disaster.

But wait . . . Kirk's magnificent display of his command abilities goes one step further.

He leaves the bridge with the princess to take her down to sickbay so McCoy can analyze her tears and create an antidote for poor Jim's artificial devotion for this wacky women. But while they're in the tubolift, she does everything she can to convince him that he should marry her and rule her planet as a king!

Kirk muster all his will power and rejects her tempting offer just before receiving a call from Scotty, who informs the captain that the saboteur's device has completely destroyed the ship's dilithium crystals. This is when we learn that the ship can't use either it's warp drive or it's weapons! Kirk's earlier restraint when the Klingons staged their fake attack saved the Enterprise.

So, now they're sitting ducks for the Klingons!

The princess promises Kirk she will go to sickbay while he deals with this new threat, and we see McCoy and Nurse Chapel working diligently to find an antidote for Kirk's Love Potion No. 9!

Back on the bridge, Kirk is told that the Klingon ship now demands that they surrender or be destroyed. Scotty tells Kirk that without the dilithium crystals, the ship's shields, weapons, and warp drive are all dead!

And right here is where this episode proves itself to be one of the best in the entire series. Several short scenes in different sections of the ship lay the foundation for the magnificent climax.

The necklace the princes has been wearing turns out to be unrefined dilithium crystals, and Scotty manages to adapt them to the ship's needs. After Scotty restores partial power to the ship with the jury-rigged crystals, Kirk's brilliant use the limited power to attack the Klingon ship, causing them to flee like the proverbial scalded dogs!

It's the most satisfying military engagement between Kirk and his enemies in the entire series, simply because Kirk deals brilliantly with the enemy while his ship is virtually incapacitated and he's under the influence of something that impairs his judgement!

The episode ends with Kirk mastering his emotions and resisting the princess' charms with no help from the antidote Dr. McCoy developed. In the final scene, Spock explains to McCloy that the Great Love of Kirk's life is . . . his ship.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

________________________________

Bogmeister is right about this episode being sort a "guilty pleasure", because we get to see our favorite macho captain teach a lesson in manners to a sexy, immature brat who is a "royal pain in the ass"!

And then our brave captain takes her to bed and completes his conquest! (Go, Jim, go . . . )

I love the scene when McCoy and Spock open the door to her quarters and catch Kirk red-handed snogging the lady with great enthusiasm!

This is followed by a conference in the corridor between the three men, when McCoy explains why Kirk has suddenly gone crazy over this hot-blooded gal.

As story concepts go, the explanation is solid! The alien lady's tears are like liquid pheromones which penetrate the skin of a man and make him want to "do what comes naturally" . . . even MORE than he normally does!

This episode reveals something about James T. Kirk that we see in several other episodes, although this one does it best; Captain Kirk is in love with the Enterprise, and no woman can ever compete with that love.

So, just seconds after McCoy and Spock inform Kirk that the effect of the woman's tears is powerful and permanent, a Klingon warship threatens the Enterprise, and Scotty discovers that a saboteur has planted a device in engineering that will blow up the ship if they use the warp drive!

The key moment in this episode is when the sexy princess walks onto the bridge just when it's being threatened by the Klingon ship, and Kirk has to focus his thoughts on saving the ship instead of his powerful urge to lay the lady down on the deck and give the entire bridge crew something shocking to write home about!

At that moment, Shatner has a magnificent moment in which he demonstrates the strength and intelligence a starship captain needs to make wise decisions and defeat the Federation's enemies.

The Klingon ship reveals that it was simply trying to goad the Enterprise into using it's weapons or warp drive, and thus blowing itself up! But Kirk heroically resists the urge to fire on the Klingon's, barely avoiding a disaster.

But wait . . . Kirk's magnificent display of his command abilities goes one step further.

He leaves the bridge with the princess to take her down to sickbay so McCoy can analyze her tears and create an antidote for poor Jim's artificial devotion for this wacky women. But while they're in the tubolift, she does everything she can to convince him that he should marry her and rule her planet as a king!

Kirk muster all his will power and rejects her tempting offer just before receiving a call from Scotty, who informs the captain that the saboteur's device has completely destroyed the ship's dilithium crystals. This is when we learn that the ship can't use either it's warp drive or it's weapons! Kirk's earlier restraint when the Klingons staged their fake attack saved the Enterprise.

So, now they're sitting ducks for the Klingons!

The princess promises Kirk she will go to sickbay while he deals with this new threat, and we see McCoy and Nurse Chapel working diligently to find an antidote for Kirk's Love Potion No. 9!

Back on the bridge, Kirk is told that the Klingon ship now demands that they surrender or be destroyed. Scotty tells Kirk that without the dilithium crystals, the ship's shields, weapons, and warp drive are all dead!

And right here is where this episode proves itself to be one of the best in the entire series. Several short scenes in different sections of the ship lay the foundation for the magnificent climax.

The necklace the princes has been wearing turns out to be unrefined dilithium crystals, and Scotty manages to adapt them to the ship's needs. After Scotty restores partial power to the ship with the jury-rigged crystals, Kirk's brilliant use the limited power to attack the Klingon ship, causing them to flee like the proverbial scalded dogs!

It's the most satisfying military engagement between Kirk and his enemies in the entire series, simply because Kirk deals brilliantly with the enemy while his ship is virtually incapacitated and he's under the influence of something that impairs his judgement!

The episode ends with Kirk mastering his emotions and resisting the princess' charms with no help from the antidote Dr. McCoy developed. In the final scene, Spock explains to McCloy that the Great Love of Kirk's life is . . . his ship.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

ELAAN OF TROYIUS was a homage to Helen of Troy with a few twisty turnabouts.
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Pow]

"Elaan of Troyius Trivia } "Helen of Troyius" was an early title for the episode.

Beautiful France Nuyen also was a lead in the movie musical "South Pacific"(1958). On Broadway she and William Shatner were the leads in "The World of Suzie Wong."

WS recounted in his autobiography that he did not have a good working relationship in the play with FN.

She was in a tempestuous relationship at the time with Marlon Brando. So she was coming to work upset, distracted, unfocused on her role. In general she just did not want to be there performing, wrote Shatner.

When they worked together on "EOT" years later he found her initially to be lovely and charming. However, as time went on she became demanding and autocratic. Much like her character of Elaan.

Bill was left bewildered.

Jay Robinson (Petri) was a tremendous actor. He is best remembered as the insane Emperor Caligula in 1953's "The Robe." He would star in the 1954 sequel as Caligula again in "Demetrius and the Gladiators."

When you can be in a scene with the great Richard Burton and own those scenes, you are one hell of an actor.

Sadly Jay was arrested for drug use and jailed. Once he was released he found that he was blackballed by Hollywood (where there is no illegal drug use whatsoever at any time). Jay admitted that his ego grew to the size of Alaska when he first encountered fame.

He became very difficult to deal with on productions.

Jay slowly made it back into the industry, primarily in television. He has a nice turn as a scientist in "The Wild Wild West" episode "The Night of the Sedgewick Curse"

Tony Young who played Kryton, who was Elaan's guard (lover) and a spy for the Klingons, was married then to actress Madlyn Rhue, who played Marla McGivers on the classic Star Trek episode "Space Seed."

It was during production of "EOT" that the cast and crew first heard about the report of Senator Robert Kennedy's assassination at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

France Nuyen was in shock over the news and went screaming out of the make-up room. She and her husband at the time, actor Robert Culp, were active in the civil rights movement and supportive of Senator Kennedy.

This episode marked the first appearance of the brand new model for the Klingon battle cruiser.

On earlier episodes it was depicted as blobs of light in the distance.

Not too bad an episode for the third season.

The highlight is seeing the terrific looking Klingon starship for the first time. Its design rivals the Enterprise.

It gave the Klingon Empire a formidable look for the Federation of Planets.

I only wish Jay's part could have somehow been longer.

Never cared for the uniforms of the Troyius guards at all.

Always liked the dilithium crystal units added to the Engineering section floor.

Found it ironic that Senator Kennedy was shot at the Ambassador Hotel and that his father, Joseph P. Kennedy had been one time ambassador to England.

[johnnybear]

As a youngster back in the seventies I had false memories of there being a Klingon ship in orbit around space station K-7 too in Trouble With Tribbles yet later on discover this was the first use of what is now known as a D-7! The newer versions have Klingon warships in every episode now but their rendition of the ship in Elaan is very poor in comparison!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Pow, that's a great post, packed with interesting info. Thanks.

[Pow]

Tidbits } John Meredyth Lucas both wrote and directed this episode which was a first for ST:TOS.

In a scene that was cut, Mr.Spock is playing the Vulcan harp in the ship's arboretum and the music is being sent down to the Dohlman's quarters in the hope it will calm her down.

Mr.Spock notes that he lost an all Vulcan musical competition to his father.

Scotty refers to the events from this episode on ST:TNG episode "Relics" that James Doohan guest starred on.

Elaan's guards armor was made out of red & orange plastic place mats. They can eat their meals while on the job?

The Enterprise security officers now wear new wide black belts that are not under their tunics.

This episode debuts the new emblem for the Klingon Empire. And a darn good one it is.

This episode was filmed early in the season but aired later due to the new visual FX required for it.

Producer Fred Freiberger stated that EOT was intended to appeal to females who were generally not big fans of sf films, novels or TV.

The Pocket books novel Firestorm was a look at what happened to Elaan after her marriage on Troyius.

[johnnybear]

It still jars me to this day that the Klingon ship — which was first seen in this episode and made three such appearances during the third season of Star Trek — was relegated to the thirteenth spot of the series!

Here it is for us to see, instead of a glowing blob of light, and with it's surfing and graceful moves in space following the Enterprise looking astounded. But the suits in their wisdom decided to leave this one till much later, and the Enterprise incident with the Romulans using Klingon technology and Day of The Dove with a damaged Klingon vessel soon vaporized on Kirk's command come before Elaan, and make those scenes seem not as good as they should have been somehow!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ The story includes elements of both Homer's "Iliad" (Helen of Troy, represented as Elaan of Troyius) and William Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" (the battle between the clever rational male and the unreasonable temper-tantrum-throwing female).

Note from me: Hey, I'd never thought of this episode in comparison to those stories! Obviously that's the why the unpleasnat Miss Elaane is from TROYlius!

She was "The Bitch that Almost Launched a Thousand Starships!"

~ Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Perfect Mate (1992) is essentially a retelling of this story.

Note from me: I realized this when I saw the TNG episode in the 1980s. And it just occurred to me that the "perfect mate" was played by Famke Janssen — Jean Grey from The X-Man! Hardly a perfect mate, all things considered.
_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[johnnybear]

The original effects for the Klingon warship in the episode are far superior to the cartoon job in the remastered edition!

Here we get the Klingon ship comparing itself to the Enterprise and coming across space to confront them back and forth — while in the new effects we get a weird angled view of the D7s nacelles and it looks more silvery grey, compared to the more azure hue that the vessel had in space! The Tellun star system had people of a blue skin residing there too!
JB

[Bud Brewster]

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Well damn, you got me cold, Johnny! I certainly can't defend the poor job the CGI guys did on this episode.

All but a few of the new FX they created are inferior to the original ones — and for exactly the reasons you described! I've never liked the slate-gray color of the Enterprise in the CGI versions, and in this episode they also make the Klingon ship look far less appealing than it is in the original FX!

If Scotpens had cited this episode as an example of why he dislikes the CGI FX, he'd have completely shattered my claims that they're better than the orignal FX!

~ Folks, watch the YouTube video below and you'll see how right JB is in his post above.

_____ Visual Effects Comparison - Elaan of Troyius


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_________________
____________
Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Gord Green]

We didn't see the D-7 until AMT produced the plastic model to accompany their ENTERPRISE model. In fact the model was used to film many of the early apperances. A cheap way to go and effective.
_________________
There comes a time, thief, when gold loses its lustre, and the gems cease to sparkle, and the throne room becomes a prison; and all that is left is a father's love for his child.

[Krel]

I remember reading that the Klingon ship was made by making a pantograph of the filming miniature.

David.

[Pow]

From the Nitpicker's Guide.

When Elaan walks onto the bridge in this episode's finale she's wearing a necklace containing several crystals which become crucial to the plot.

The necklace appears to look like the same one that Ambassador Petri of Troyius had offered her earlier in the episode.

Mr. Spock discovers that the jewels in the necklace are dilithium crystals.

Elaan acts as if the necklace comes from her home planet of Elas and that the stones are practically worthless there.

So did this necklace come from Elas or Troyius?

Item: If these crystals are considered of little value then how come Elaan consented to wear them? She's an entitled diva of the first order. I sure don't envision she'd allow such a necklace to be worn by her.

After seeing the pursuing vessel on the viewscreen, Kirk emphatically states that it is the Klingons.

How does he know this? Don't the Romulans now fly ships of Klingon design as established on the episode "The Enterprise Incident?"

Item: True. The only thing I can think of is this episode takes place near Klingon occupied space and not Romulan.
Not that anyone states this fact in this episode.

I would have had the Romulans paint their Bird of Prey symbol on their Klingon owned star ships as a way to tell the two civilizations apart.

Seems like it'd be the natural (and proud) thing that the Romulans would do.

When the Elasians beam into the Enterprise transporter room at the beginning of the episode, Mr. Scott's hands operate the transporter console controls.
Yet we see the chief engineer standing across the room.

Elas is a warrior planet in a long line of warrior civilizations that pop up an awful lot in ST:TOS.

Item: I realize such worlds provide drama for episodes but it does get kinda old hat after a time.