WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this entry. Because this re-watch is in a slightly-subjective chronological order and not in production order, please refrain from talking about the content of other episodes or movies in this thread. If you do, please put that content inside spoiler tags. Some people here may be watching Star Trek for the first time.
#10: Star Trek: The Original Series, season 1, episode 17 “The Squire of Gothos”
Written by Paul Schneider, directed by Don McDougall.
Stardates 2124.5 through 2126.3 (March 2267)
“I object to intellect without discipline. I object to power without constructive purpose.” - Commander Spock
In an area of space devoid of star systems, the Enterprise finds a lone planet that shouldn’t be there. On that planet is an Earth-like castle, and within in they find a humanoid who calls himself Trelane (William Campbell). Trelane has been watching Earth for a very long time so he is excited to finally meet Earthlings in-person… and he doesn’t want them to ever leave.
Originally released: 12 January 1967
“The Squire of Gothos” on Memory Alpha
THE STAR TREK FRANCHISE REWATCH PARTY MASTER LIST
Check here to find out where you can stream or digitally purchase Star Trek: The Original Series in your country. Star Trek: The Original Series is also available on DVD & BluRay.
What did you think?
I love the thing they do in TOS where they meet some omnipotent character that can transform matter and they determine there has to be some power source the character is using.
My dad was friends with William Campbell. He was a funny guy. One time I ran into him at a Walmart and he had a bunch of action figures in his cart. He said they’d made one of his Trek character and he was going to give them to his grand kids. He seemed really pleased that they’d made the figure of him.
As far as anecdotes go, that’s a really good one.
I feel like I’ve contributed mightily to these posts so far, with little thanks whatsoever for my time, so in this case I’ll just add:
Q, or no Q?
I thought that SNW really tried to push the thought that the squire was a Q. Personally I would prefer if he wasn’t, I like the idea of a big universe with more then one type of near-omnipotent entities.
I’m in total agreement on that.
I don’t think I’ve watched SNW at all, but in terms of TOS, there were several other near-omnipotent beings, such as Charlie X’s people, the Metrons, the Organians, and maybe others I’m forgetting. Each of them had a certain nuance and way of getting things done, and I’d hate for them all to be Q, just masquerading, so to speak.
Also interesting that they actually found a way to bring down a couple of ‘super-beings,’ such as Apollo, the Ornithoids, Jack the Ripper, and various computer-beings.
There are a lot more consistencies between Q and Trelane than between Q and any of those others, though. From the interest in Earth’s history of warfare to the decision to appear in judge’s robes to the fact that the two actors bear a bit of a physical resemblance. Q has always felt to me like Trelane after he had grown up a little between shows.
Good points. Trelane really does emit that whimsical Q energy.
Only quibble is that ‘TNG Q’ as I understand it is one of at least a group of such beings, so ‘Trelane Q’ could have been some other Q.
Either way, I don’t have much doubt that TNG Q was heavily based on the Trelane superbeing, more than any other, even Charlie X.
Only quibble is that ‘TNG Q’ as I understand it is one of at least a group of such beings, so ‘Trelane Q’ could have been some other Q.
True, though I’ve always preferred thinking it’s the exact same entity because a lot of it comes down to personality to me. But since SNW…
spoiler
…seems to have made it canon that Trelane is De Lancie’s Q’s son, I suppose my own preferences have been overruled. And that does still explain all the similarities in its own way.
There’s something interesting in the comparison between TOS everything afterwards in the way there was a lot of “super” species that the enterprise ran in to in TOS but after that from TNG there was only Q. From TNG onwards most of the others that the federation runs into are roughly at their level or just above it. DS9 had the wormhole aliens but aside from them even the founders weren’t individually more powerful then any given human. It like after the 60’s we weren’t really interested in stories about beings greater than humanity.
It like after the 60’s we weren’t really interested in stories about beings greater than humanity.
That’s a very interesting thought. Maybe the show wanted to represent that there were more unknowns in play in the earlier stages of exploration, and therefore things were scarier, with more potential (powerful) enemies lurking around every corner of the galaxy. Even later allies such as the Klingons were pitched as adveraries in TOS.
But then along come TNG and the later shows, and it’s more a case of representing various species already knowing each other, and having worked out diplomatic relations. More of an overall political bureaucracy than ‘adventuring in to the unknown.’ Sort of like going from a Flash Gordon situation to a Star Wars (prequel-flavor) one.
I don’t know, I thought it might be more cultural in the 60’s Americans still remembered being a middle power and Europe being several older superpowers like the Federation who’s big new kid on the block but they keep running in old superpowers. Where as by the 90’s there really wasn’t a superpower besides America much like the Federation who’s dealing with the Klingon empire in decline and other middle powers growing but no superpowers
Visual effects comparison of the original broadcast & the Remastered versions.
Crazy they got the same guy back for an episode of DS9 nearly 30 years later.
For clarification, the same actor plays a Klingon in the original series episode The Trouble with Tribbles, and again in a DS9 episode as a Klingon of the same name. Not Trelane again.
