Roger Perry said, “The show is a classic, and for good reason.” (139)
30
Episode 22: THE RETURN OF THE ARCHONS
Teleplay by Boris Sobelman
(with Gene Roddenberry and Gene Coon, uncredited)
Story by Gene Roddenberry
Directed by Joseph Pevney
Return to the streets of Mayberry for “Return of the Archons” (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
From TV Guide, February 4, 1967:
Kirk’s search for survivors of a long-missing starship leads the Captain to a society where visitors are treated like infection -which must be absorbed or destroyed.
The mysterious leader of Beta III is Landru. He is both revered and feared by his subjects, a society which offers a curious paradox of its own. The zombie-like people are orderly by day, but become hedonistic and violent during an annual nighttime event called “festival.” And now some of Kirk’s crew have crossed over, turning on their Captain and becoming “one with the body.”
The theme deals with Gene Roddenberry’s belief that all men are driven by their egos and/or fears, and no one man possesses the wisdom, be it in the name of religion or government, to rightly control the will of others. Spock says it to Kirk: “This is a society organized on the physiological concept -- one body, maintained and controlled by the ones known as Lawgivers, directed by one brain.”
Taking it one step further, this episode attempts to demonstrate what can go wrong when a society submits to the unconditional rule of something less than a human.
SOUND BITES
- Landru: “You have come as destroyers. You bring an infection.... You come to a world without hate, without conflict, without fear. No war, no disease, no crimes, none of the old evils. Landru seeks tranquility, peace for all, the universal good.... You will be absorbed.”
- Spock: “All is indeed peace and tranquility -- the peace of a factory, the tranquility of the machine -- all parts working in unison.... This entire society is a machine’s idea of perfection. Peace and harmony ...” Kirk: “And no soul.”
- Kirk, to Marplon and Reger, the leaders of the resistance: “You said you wanted freedom; it’s time you learned that freedom is never a gift -- it has to be earned.”
- Landru, losing its battle of wits with Kirk: “I am Landru! I am he! All that he was, I am. His experience, his knowledge.” Kirk: “But not his wisdom. He may have programmed you, but he could not have given you his soul. You are a machine.... Without individual freedom of choice there is no creativity. Without creativity there is no life. The Body dies! The fault is yours!”
- Spock: “How often mankind has wished for a world as peaceful and secure as the one Landru provided.” Kirk: “And we never got it. Just lucky, I guess.”
ASSESSMENT
“The Return of the Archons” has much going for it. The writing is engaging, there is mystery, discovery and revelation. For its time, the direction and production values are impressive. And Roddenberry’s beloved Gulliver’s Travels template provides a vehicle for the story’s hidden political agenda.
In 1966 and 1967, with the Vietnam war raging in Asia and the Cold War still very much a part of the political climate, the world was divided between Western and Eastern, Communists and Capitalists and, in America, the Hawks and the Doves. “Archons” let Star Trek make a statement about life under the Communists’ system, where individual freedom was stifled in favor of the good of the party, or, in this case, “the body.”
Another concern -- for Roddenberry and others -- was that as technology advances faster than man’s wisdom, the very machines built to serve man will one day kill the human spirit. The concerns voiced here are still relevant today.
“Archons” marked the first time that Mr. Scott, still referred to as Engineering Officer, commands the bridge. And this episode, courtesy of a script polish by Gene Coon, introduced the Prime Directive of non-interference. Coon even built-in a loophole, that the policy only applies to living, growing cultures. This was also the first episode to bring forth what would soon be a Star Trek formula show: the landing party is captured while the Enterprise is attacked, forcing Kirk and his away team to gain their own freedom as well as saving the ship. And this was the first time we saw Kirk out-think a machine by using logic, or illogic, driving his opponent out of its mechanical mind. What soon became Star Trek clichés were, in this instance, unique and effective.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
Script Timeline
Gene Roddenberry’s premise, “The Perfect World”: March 11, 1964.
Roddenberry’s story outline “Paradise XML,” July 20, 1964.
Roddenberry’s revised story outline, “Landru’s Paradise”: July 22, 1964.
Boris Sobelman’s story outline, ST #33, “The Return of the Archons”: August 18, 1966.
Sobelman’s revised outline, gratis, August 29, 1966.
Gene L. Coon’s revised outline: September 14, 1966.
Sobelman’s 1st Draft teleplay: October 11, 1966.
Sobelman’s 2nd Draft teleplay: October 24, 1966.
Steven Carabatsos’ polish (“Yellow Cover 1st Draft”): November 1, 1966.
Gene Coon script polish (Final Draft teleplay): November 10, 1966.
Gene Roddenberry polish (Rev. Final Draft teleplay): November 29, 1966.
Additional page revisions by Roddenberry and/or Coon: November 30 and December 1, 2, 5 & 7, 1966.
Gene Roddenberry came up with the concept for “The Return of the Archons.” It was in his 1964 series proposal as a story synopsis, called “The Perfect World.” His first try at a story outline, “Paradise XML,” from July 20, 1964, was a contender for the first Star Trek pilot film. Two days later, with his second draft outline, Roddenberry changed the title to “Landru’s Paradise.” It was sent to NBC and passed over for “The Cage.”
Freelance writer Boris Sobelman picked it up from there. He worked in television throughout the 1960s, providing scripts for Thriller and Alfred Hitchcock Presents. In 1966, the same year Sobelman wrote this Star Trek, he concocted episodes of The Girl from U.N.C.L.E., The Man from U.N.C.L.E., and Run for Your Life. He had also just been nominated for a Writers Guild award for a Dr. Kildare script.
When Sobelman asked to see the series “bible” and a sample script, Roddenberry also provided a copy of his own outline for “Landru’s Paradise.” Sobelman took the hint and requested to build the story into a teleplay with a new title, also supplied by Roddenberry. The name “Archons” came from a debating club that Roddenberry belonged to during his time at Los Angeles City College. It was taken from the Greek word “archon,” meaning a ruler or a leader.
By the time Sobelman’s story outline was turned in, on August 19, 1966 (dated August 18), Gene Coon was in the middle of his first week as Star Trek’s new producer. Robert Justman responded to the material first, writing to Coon:
I find myself well pleased with the story idea contained within Sobelman’s outline. As usual, I find the contemplated production beyond our means, money-wise. (RJ22-1)
Illustrating how different Sobelman’s telling of the story was from what would eventually make it to the TV screen, Justman wrote:
On here, we discover that Landru is really a robot. His head flies off! Why does Landru have to be a robot? On the other hand, do we need Landru? Suppose that Landru turns out to be the computer that controls the civilization? If you don’t like this idea, how about having Landru [as] a human being? (RJ22- 1)
Coon opted for the computer idea.
Justman had another issue with this story that he otherwise found himself “well pleased with.” His memo continued:
I might caution you that we are starting to get an awful lot of shows that have a parallel world type of feeling to them. It seems that more and more often we get a story in which our audience will be able to recognize similar cultures to what we have already undergone. You will find this particularly in Trivers’ story called “Portrait of Black and White
.” (RJ22-1)
It was a moot point -- or perhaps a mute one. Both that story and this one were Roddenberry’s ideas and Roddenberry had made it a point in his series proposal to say that Star Trek would make use of parallel world themes and locals to help the audience identify with these places, and make production possible on a TV budget.
Roddenberry, however, had some issues with Sobelman’s take on his original story, writing to Gene Coon:
Am a little afraid of the number of sets Sobelman is suggesting. When I wrote my original of this – “Visit to Paradise” [sic], loaned to Sobelman -- I visualized using our backlot small village for the main part of the story. (GR22-1)
The backlot would be used -- not the outdoor village set Roddemberry had visualized, but the outdoor early Americana town set. Coon saw to this change and asked Sobelman to chip away at the number of sets needed, to be reflected in a revised story outline.
Sobelman sent in his new outline, gratis, on August 29. Of this, Justman wrote Coon:
I would like to again repeat that I think the original idea of this story is a gas to me. The idea that each individual is one cell of the complete organism is really a very original and daring conception. I wish I had thought of it. Boris needs a big pat on the back for this idea. (RJ22-2)
Sobelman was taking a pat that rightfully should have landed on another’s back. Justman was unaware that the story he was so enthralled with had been given to the writer by Roddenberry. Sobelman had neglected to add Roddenberry’s name to the cover page, an oversight which would not go unnoticed by the latter.
Justman still worried that the story, as told, was too costly. In one scene, he wrote how Sobelman called for the Lawgivers to use a “triple-barreled optical beam-shooting device and blast away at a couple [of] people.” This would be downgraded to the hollow-tube staffs the Lawgivers carried which emit a brief sparkle and puff of smoke, thereby saving money that would be spent on post animation. At the end of the story, Sobelman wanted Landru -the computer -- to disintegrate. Justman told Coon:
I would suggest that when the computer finally gives up the ghost, it does not disintegrate. But we can let it shoot out a bunch of sparks and smoke and come to a screeching halt and all its lights would die away and it would be silent. And I would be happy. (RJ22-2)
Somewhat happy, anyway. Justman felt the ending -- Kirk outwitting a machine and causing it to self-destruct -- was a bit much and not in keeping with the tone of the overall story. But he had heard that Coon, now in his third week on the job, hadn’t known what to make of his sarcasm in his previous memos. So Justman held his punches for the first five pages of his six-page memorandum. At the end, concerning the self-destructing computer, he wrote:
I know that NBC has a policy against portraying suicide. But I don’t think that they would mind too much, as long as this is a computer that commits suicide and not a real person. This was a sarcastic remark…. I hope you have enjoyed this memo as much as I have enjoyed dictating it. I feel it is one of my kindlier efforts in this regard. As you no doubt have read, I have made a conscious effort to be kind and not write my usual mean, nasty comments. Gently, Bob. (RJ22-2)
Coon wrote a six-page memo of his own, to Boris Sobelman. He appreciated the freebie draft, and told Sobelman:
Thanks for your rewrite. It is a much more direct storyline, cleaner and a little cheaper -- not enough, perhaps, but maybe this memo can take care of that. With this, I suggest you can go into screenplay, keeping these suggestions in mind and working them into the script whenever possible. (GC22)
Among the suggestions, Coon wanted Sobelman to prune back on the speaking parts, and wrote, “I am appalled by a script with more than fifteen speakers.” And there were still too many opticals, prompting Coon to say:
I would point out that even such a simple and prosaic matter as our regulars firing their phasers calls for animation, which is expensive, and so we don’t go around firing our phasers at any old thing; only when it is important and unavoidable…. We have done an awful lot of shows which refer to an artificial magnetic force around a planet, which may be responsible for snatching a spaceship and, if not dragging it down, at least freezing it in orbit. We will have to live with something like this from time to time, but let us try to come up with something fresher -- call it a mechanically stimulated gravitation, or a direct dimensional warp field, or some other fancy double-talk -- but not to make it sound like somebody’s down there with a large electrified horseshoe, pointing it at our ship and throwing everything into tumult. (GC22)
Those “awful lot of shows” Coon referred to included the tractor beams used to freeze the Enterprise in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” the mysterious energy field from a planet which drains the Enterprise of power in “Shore Leave,” the unidentified energy source which paralyzes the ship in “Arena,” and the planetary defense batteries which open fire on the Enterprise in the upcoming “A Taste of Armageddon.”
The solution was a “heat beam” that causes the Enterprise to channel all its power to the shields, resulting in a decaying orbit -- and in Scotty’s memorable line “You’ve got to cut them off, Mr. Spock, or we’ll cook one way or another.”
Some of the more effective and eerie moments in the episode came about as a result of an idea from Coon, who told Sobelman:
Throughout the script I think it is terribly important that we know that each person on this planet is a member of The Body and acts in concert with his fellows. I strongly suggest that when our people arrive in town we see the people of the town, those few we can afford, reacting in concert as though there is some unspoken communication between them…. To sum up, write cheap, think cheap, be cheap, a minimum of speaking parts, a minimum of extras, a minimum of optical effects and animation. Keeping these points in mind, I see no reason why this can’t be a good, exciting show. (GC22)
But it wouldn’t be cheap. Regardless, there would be no backing out. Stan Robertson, at the network, liked this one and, writing to Roddenberry, not Coon, said:
This is a splendid idea which, with proper direction and handling, has the promise of being one of the outstanding episodes in our series. (SR22)
Robertson was pleased that the premise was reminiscent of George Orwell’s 1984 and Romain Rolland’s The Revolt of the Machines. He told Roddenberry:
I find it very intriguing that the underlying point here, which cannot be minimized, is one which our contemporary society must come to grips with: that is, the dangers inherent in a culture when it becomes too computerized and its most basic needs, emotions, and functions can be “programmed.” (SR22)
In closing, Robertson cautioned Roddenberry not to allow the story to become too “cerebral.”
Coon quickly covered up for himself and Roddenberry and wrote a third draft of the story outline, dated September 14, incorporating in the notes from the network, which he then sent to Sobelman as a guide for the script he was already writing.
When the screenplay arrived on October 11, Robert Justman gave it a thumbs down. In a memo to Coon and Roddenberry, he said:
Generally, dialogue is not good and is uncharacteristic of our people. No action on the parts of Kirk and Spock for three-quarters of the script. The drama of this piece must be punched up -- involve our people in real jeopardy.... I am confused. Also bored. When are we going to stop talking and start doing? (RJ22-3)
More notes to Coon, from Steven Carabatsos or perhaps Dorothy Fontana (the “staff” memo did not identify the sender), took sympathy with Star Trek’s overworked associate producer. The unnamed staffer told Coon:
The opening scene has a mob of people in it that will have Bob J. shrieking.... Do we need so many lawgivers? I ask in the name of Robert H. Justman. (STAFF22)
Sobelman was given more notes and further requests to prune back on speaking parts, extras, and opticals. His October 24 Second Draft script addressed enough of these notes for Coon to dismiss the writer as having fulfilled his contract.
The script was handed
-off to Steven Carabatsos for a polish, making the Star Trek characters sound more like the Star Trek characters. This draft, the Mimeo Department’s Yellow Cover 1st Draft, from November 1, was sent to de Forest Research and shared with the series’ Department Heads and cast, but not given to NBC. In this version, Sulu still had a much bigger part. After being absorbed by the Lawgivers, we see him under observation in sickbay and then, phaser in hand, taking over the bridge, attempting to carry out the will of Landru by forcing the ship to enter the planet’s atmosphere.
There was no sense in sending this draft to the network. Robert Justman made that clear, writing to Coon:
I suggest that once Stan Robertson reads this and “Power Play” [a new script from Jerry Sohl, later to become “This Side of Paradise”], he will say -- with a good deal of justification -- that they have a close parallel.... Suggest we lose the business of Sulu running amuck, being strapped down, not himself, etc. It parallels “The Naked Time” and “Naked Time” was much better. Also, we have him being taken over by spores in “Power Play” in much the same manner. His nerve ends ought to be shot to a frazzle by this time. Can we involve someone else -- Scott maybe? Jim Doohan could do it very nicely.... We are also getting into the interference with an alien society business again -- how do we justify destroying it? (RJ22-3)
In another memo, Justman told Coon:
What did Bilar do to Reger’s daughter? I only ask because I feel sure that NBC will ask.... If we must see an orgy out in the street, we should only see a small portion of the orgy and let the audience create the rest of it in its mind. (RJ22-4)
The passages in the script that worried Justman so, knowing they would worry NBC, told how Bilar, with his shirt ripped open and carrying a club, runs up to Tula with an “exultant look on his face.” He yells at her to come with him, beats away the Enterprise men who try to intervene, then takes her. Later, as Kirk watches the mayhem from the upstairs window of the boarding house, the script describes what he sees as:
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 81
