In support of my current Timeline photo and essay, I submit one of my top five favorite Star Trek episodes, This Side of Paradise, written by my absolute favorite television writer next to Matt Weiner, D.C. Fontana. The metaphors to the real world are abundant and rich. We see a carefree collective that is magically protected from strife and want by spores. They have nothing to do but be happy all day. They have long since abandoned their research their reason for being on this other world and instead they just live...happy. And then reality is beamed down to their paradise as the star ship Enterprise invades their world. Eventually even the spaceship, Enterprise is infected with happiness and yet, just before the last person aboard, Captain Kirk, leaves the ship to be abandoned forever, living in happiness on the planet below, he discovers how to break free from the spores. Negative, confrontational emotion, full throttle, causes the spores to leave the host, and one breaks free of this side of paradise. In this scene, classically hysterical yet as with all original Star Treks amazingly plausible in its absurdity, Captain Kirk asks Spock to beam back up to the ship to help him with some supplies, pretending he is still under the influence of the happy spore. He seeks to rile up, the negative energy in Spock in order to snap Spock out of it. Once negativity is beamed down to the planet using high frequencies to piss everyone off and out of their happiness, the original scientists say to themselves, Dear God, what have we done all these years...weve wasted everything... The juxtaposition of good and bad and the pure joy of reality...the yin, the yang, the context of joy as interpreted through misery...all of it is explored in this amazing teleplay. This is why D.C. Fontana is a brilliant writer and why this episode is one of my favorites! https://youtube/watch?v=wY9NkYGUEyE
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 15:03:29 +0000
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