The Apple by: Max Ehrlich and Gene L. Coon from a story by: Max Ehrlich and directed by: Joseph Pevney

 

“The Apple” is written by Max Ehrlich and Gene L. Coon, from a story by: Max Ehrlich, and is directed by Joseph Pevney.  It was filmed under production code 38, was the 5^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 34^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on October 13, 1967.

 

After the first season, exploring a setting that is a lost paradise is not a new concept to Star Trek, “The Return of the Archons” and “This Side of Paradise” both deal with false utopias, but neither go so far as to directly parallel the Garden of Eden in terms of concept.  “This Side of Paradise” comes closest, with its lush agrarian planet and exploration of human stagnation under a collective control of the symbiotic flowers.  It is then interesting that the second season of Star Trek would give an episode like “The Apple” so early on, almost taking the ideas of “This Side of Paradise” and spinning them in a very different way.  The setup and general plot elements are perhaps the episode’s weakest aspect, following a fairly standard Enterprise crew arrives on a new planet and investigate where things go wrong with very obvious deductive reasoning as the episode peels back the nature of this planet.  The first half of the episode or so is fairly dedicated to just the crew of the Enterprise, a few extra guest stars taking the roles of redshirts for the episode and this planet begins to pick off characters one by one.  Ehrlich’s script, his only contribution to the series, is very much concerned with the notion of the Genesis story of the Fall of Man being integral to the episode from the title, to the setting, and to the eventual defeat of this planet’s God figure.  Yes, the god figure here is another computer that has found intelligence and taken over a planet, another tried and true Star Trek premise, but the rest of the episode plays this as standard fare for Kirk and company.

 

The people on this planet are presented as primitive, but very physically attractive, Joseph Pevney’s direction giving them this otherworldly quality, occasionally directing them out of focus to emphasize the features one would expect in a paradise like this.  They are educated with gaps in their knowledge specifically designed so they can stay in the control of their deity, Vaal, and it is that deity which has created the stagnation in the society, this stagnation physical, mental, and emotional.  The chief Akuta, played by Keith Andes, has had antennae inserted into his skull to interface with Vaal, eventually revealed to be a computer, and the society has no concept of purpose in life.  The servitude is enough, there is no need for love, connection, or even raising of a family.  This lends “The Apple” to a reading that is generally scathing of Christianity and its hold over the American public at the time of writing.  This episode aired in late 1967 and Ehrlich writes with this sense of deconstructing the idea of a Garden of Eden, paradise not really being paradise.  Despite the lush setting, the crew find several dangers sent by Vaal, poisonous plants that shoot spines, rocks of various composition that act as land mines, and eventually weather patterns designed to rain down lightning from above.  There isn’t really a forbidden fruit in “The Apple”, just our characters attempting to get through to this society as they are temporarily stranded on the planet due to Vaal’s influence on the atmosphere.  The final scene implies that Kirk is in the role of Satan, bringing awareness of morality to a society that lacks any sense of passion, positing humanity before the Christian notion of original sin barely qualifies as alive, subtly condemning the concept with one final joke.

 

The real shame about these deep philosophical questions posed by “The Apple” is that it is also an episode that is interrupted at several points with the action.  There is already an almost slow burn quality as so much of the episode is devoted to the main cast, but on the Enterprise itself is Scotty, played wonderfully by James Doohan, attempting to break the ship from the pull of the planet.  While it is a clear attempt to add tension throughout the episode, the first half of the episode especially makes it feel as if it were added to pad the runtime and keep the characters on the planet.  This is odd as the sense of exploration and interaction with a new culture and planet is a main point of Star Trek, the crew being stalked by Akuta but delaying to make contact in case the natives were not interested in interacting with the crew.  This slow build should have been used to build up tension or even worldbuild more than the episode was doing, but sadly it’s just Enterprise cutaways that feel put in for the sake of cutting away to a B plot and not having a generally well thought out B plot.

 

Overall, “The Apple” is an episode that poses some interesting philosophical actions and has clearly taken some time to deconstruct the spiritual aspects of society in a way that Star Trek hadn’t necessarily done yet, by taking one of the most pervasive Christian stories and examining its implications you have the makings of a great episode.  Sadly, the episode is brought down by a great director unable to avoid pacing problems and padding with Scotty on the Enterprise and while the building danger is great it almost takes too long to get to the interesting philosophical questions is should have been more interested in examining.  6/10.