The Gamesters of Triskelion by: Margaret Armen and directed by: Gene Nelson

 

“The Gamesters of Triskelion” is written by Margaret Armen and is directed by Gene Nelson.  It was filmed under production code 46, was the 16^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 45^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on January 5, 1968.

 

“The Gamesters of Triskelion” is an uncomfortable watch, partially by design, partially by how time has aged the episode to be one of the weakest episodes of Star Trek I have come across thus far.  As an episode, there isn’t inherently anything wrong with the premise of Kirk having to convince a planet that gladiatorial slavery is wrong while being forced to participate is a perfectly fine premise.  Margaret Armen as a writer had already contributed to other television series before and this would be the first of five contributions to Star Trek as a franchise so there’s clearly something that the producers saw in her work, and a writer who will be unflinching in showing a system that allows slavery is a good thing, but the execution here is off.  The best part of the episode is the B-plot on the Enterprise where Spock and Scotty are in command trying to find Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov who are transported across the galaxy to become gladiatorial slaves.  It’s not a particularly strongly written B-plot, but Leonard Nimoy and James Doohan’s chemistry is enough to sell it and cutting away from the uncomfortable A-plot just gives the viewer a break from a plot that doesn’t fundamentally work.  In a way, the A-plot of the episode is a repeat from the flashback sequences in “The Menagerie”, Kirk, Chekov, and Uhura are playing these gladiatorial games to be bought as slaves for god like aliens’ enjoyment and further understanding of different lesser species.  This is eventually resolved by Kirk giving a very long speech about life and freedom being necessary and having to go through an extended gladiatorial fight sequence where he must kill three other thralls, slightly higher slaves.  Kirk doesn’t kill one of them because it’s a woman he’s attracted to, but she surrenders so he still technically wins.  Shatner’s performance is fine, a bit overexaggerated, but he’s working with a script that at least makes Kirk human.

 

Where the plot falls apart is how it treats any character who isn’t Captain Kirk.  While this is already problematic, it’s made worse due to the slavery aspect of the episode and the choice of placing Uhura as one of the slaves without allowing Nichelle Nichols to do anything outside of being a damsel in distress at best.  The image of collaring a black woman in 1968 is already an incredibly dark image that in the hands of a different writer could have been incredibly powerful for examining the racism of the time, instead Armen just makes Uhura a prop to be beaten down.  Nichelle Nichols as an actress is iconic and incredibly talented, but episodes like this criminally misuse the asset that they have.  The costuming directly collars Uhura as a slave which is an image that Margaret Armen and director Gene Nelson clearly haven’t actually thought through on what they are doing.  Both Uhura and Chekov also have to undergo unwanted sexual advances to show how savage these people are, both scenes being incredibly uncomfortable, and of course Uhura’s goes further to show an attempted sexual assault by a man while Chekov’s potential partner/assaulter is coded in such a way to be not traditionally feminine.  It at the very least brings to mind queer coding in a particularly distasteful way for the episode to explore.  The scene with Chekov is also played for a joke about how funny it is that this young and conventionally attractive man is being given the attentions by a person who does not fit that label, an incredibly problematic joke played straight, but at least it is a joke and not the one black character being sexually assaulted to show the danger with no agency given to said character.

 

Overall, “The Gamesters of Triskelion” is the weakest episode of Star Trek so far.  The interesting ideas have already been done better elsewhere by weak writer Gene Roddenberry no less, and Armen’s script is propped up through sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic tropes just presented as normal.  This is an episode that feels like it comes from someone who has only heard about what Star Trek is and decided to make an episode that clearly wants to say something about the nature of humanity but doesn’t know how to do that.  2/10.