Who Mourns for Adonais? by: Gilbert Ralston and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“Who Mourns for Adonais?” is written by Gilbert Ralston and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 33, was the 2^nd episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 31^st episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on September 22, 1967.

 

There is something fascinating about episodes of Star Trek that are so clearly reflective of the culture and attitudes of the 1960s but also attempt to show how attitudes have completely changed in the far future.  “Who Mourns for Adonais?” is one such episode, opening with a scene where one of two female characters, episode guest star Leslie Parrish playing Lt. Carolyn Palamas, is objectified by Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty after turning in a report.  Palamas will be this episode’s object of desire as the Enterprise is stopped in orbit around a planet where the Greek god Apollo, played by Michael Frost, demands to be worshipped specifically by the humans on the Enterprise.  This is the only episode written by Gilbert Ralston and there is a very good reason as to why that is, mainly it’s an episode that has only about 20 minutes of plot that has been stretched out to an hour.  The central idea of the gods of myth being aliens while not an unknown trope at the time of this episode (Doctor Who had played with variations of the idea in the serials The Aztecs, The Myth Makers, and to a lesser extent The Daleks’ Master Plan in 1964, 1965, and 1966 respectively), it would be the publication of Chariot of the Gods, a piece of pseudo-history, and its subsequent documentary in 1970 that would catapult the trope to popularity.  Star Trek has already done several instances of god-like aliens in episodes like “The Squire of Gothos”, among others, which have far more interesting things to say about the idea of god like aliens than “Who Mourns for Adonais?”.

 

The title of the episode is taken from Percy Shelley’s Adonais, a reflection on the death of Keats, which is something the episode lacks.  Apollo as a character is quite shallow, a relic of a bygone era which has been replaced by one god, heavily implied to be the Christian God in line with the cultural norms of the 1960s.  It actually feels quite out of place for a show like Star Trek to even imply the Christian god, as the show itself has been very secular in its philosophy and presentation up to this point and Ralston clearly has no interest in exploring any of the implications of Christianity being the dominant religion in the future, just transplanting the fact of it being the dominant faith in the time and place he is writing in.  A lack of exploration is the principle error with “Who Mourns for Adonais?”, while the god presented is Apollo, there is no characterization beyond general god, not even a member of the Ancient Greek pantheon if we are being honest.  While there shouldn’t be an expectation for one ‘canonical’ portrayal of these mythological figures, this episode fails to define Apollo’s place in the pantheon so he is more presented as a man with the powers of a god, lusting after a woman like every other human man in this episode.  This could be a statement on the nature of the gods and their many affairs with mortals, but it doesn’t work as Apollo while certainly having affairs isn’t Zeus, the king of affairs.

 

Bringing this down further is the clear budgetary restraints of the episode, cutting between three locations: the bridge, a small temple, and a small grove, the later being a brief setting.   The episode is primarily set at the temple so there is actually very little cutting away to be done and the pace of the script drags everything out.  As soon as things cut away to the Enterprise, the episode actually improves simply based on the charisma between Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols, and George Takei, the three essentially sharing a subplot about trying to fix the ship with some genuinely great character moments, but they also amount to just filling time.  Walter Koenig as Chekov also gets to have some actual character defining moments after being a background player in “Amok Time”, his Russian heritage and youthful sense of humor bringing some much needed relief.

 

Overall, “Who Mourns for Adonais?” proposes a far more interesting question than Gilbert Ralston is interested in examining.  It’s an episode that plays its premise completely straight and limits itself to only two major locations so the pace drags out to the full hour runtime with Marc Daniels being unable to liven things up with his usual directorial skill as well as treating its major female character as an object, dating the episode terribly.  There are a couple of good performances and some of the initial scenes are genuinely great, plus whenever we’re back on the ship things pick up, but it’s an episode that just doesn’t come together at all well.  4/10.