Spectre of the Gun by: Lee Cronin and directed by: Vincent McEveety

 

“Spectre of the Gun” is written by: Lee Cronin, a pseudonym for Gene L. Coon and is directed by: Vincent McEveety.  It was filmed under production code 56, was the 6^th episode of Star Trek Season 3, the 61^st episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on October 25, 1968.

 

If I had a nickel for every 1960s science fiction series whose third season had an episode focused on a pastiche of a gunfight at the O.K. Corral, I would have two nickels which is not a lot, but it’s weird that it happened twice.  Yes “Spectre of the Gun” is Gene L. Coon’s last full script for Star Trek, under the pseudonym Lee Cronin, and with his last script he decides to do a pastiche of a western.  Now the television western has a very long history, its roots of course being in the many, many western films of the period, but by the 1960s the film western was largely a foreign concept as it transitioned to the spaghetti westerns pioneered by Sergio Leone and other Italian filmmakers.  Doing a pastiche of the genre is honestly not something that one would expect Star Trek to do, but Gene L. Coon had an idea for a script involving aliens transporting the crew to a version of the Earth’s past as a trial for opening relations with the Melkotians, yet another race of seemingly god like aliens who are able to create these psychic landscapes to inhabit.  It’s essentially running on a similar theme to “Arena”, even down to the general message of anti-violence and humanity’s potential to overcome the violence revealed at the last minute of the episode.  This is also another episode where a regular character, this time Walter Koenig’s Chekov, is killed and this holds the key to the fact that it’s a psychic projection.

 

Where the episode shines is actually in its production design, something essentially forced by the decreased budget of the third season.  Coon clearly hoped to have this episode shot at least partially on a suitable location, but because of the budget the script is confined to studio sets.  Because of this, none of the built sets are complete buildings, instead largely facades while the interiors can be seen without walls.  There is a clock which is floating in midair which is essentially our countdown to the gunfight, the bar is there but there’s this constant red background.  The red background may be intended to represent the Arizona sunset, but it’s another piece of theatricality in the episode because all of this is clearly a sham.  That aspect of the episode is fascinating to watch, especially added to with the guest cast largely giving performances that feel uninterested in actually giving a performance.  It almost reflects the tired nature of the Western in ways that I’m certain production did not intend.  James Doohan and De Forrest Kelley are the standouts from the main cast here as well, largely giving in to the historical setting and theatrical nature of the episode.  Scotty gets to have fun trying good old bourbon from the period while McCoy attempts to reason with Doc Holliday to create tranquilizers to save themselves, both very fun scenes to watch.

 

The direction of the episode is the last by Vincent McEveety, a stalwart director and this time the direction is no less interesting because of the slashed budget.  Because of the half-finished sets and the studio bound nature of the episode, McEveety continues his use of interesting and rather odd shots throughout the episode to keep things visually interesting.  Obviously, the big problem with “Spectre of the Gun” is that it’s an episode where there is very little new ground to cover for Star Trek.  There is almost a hint at the end with Kirk and Spock musing about the fact that Kirk still had violent urges and was willing to kill the Earp’s, even though the climax involves Spock mindmelding with the crew to fully commit to the setting being false and the bullets being not real.  It’s a shame that it came right at the end because it feels like a logical aspect of Kirk’s character to follow up on, though because this is the last script by Coon I fear it will be forgotten in the largely episodic nature of the show.

 

Overall, despite several elements of “Spectre of the Gun” going over old ground for Star Trek, the old ground is actually traveled quite well.  Gene L. Coon is still a wonderful script writer who knows how to inject interest in a script and clearly is delighting in the historical setting.  Vincent McEveety is also having a lot of fun with injecting a surreal theatricality into the unfinished sets and the regular budget cuts of the series.  What’s really holding this one back is a supporting cast that isn’t interested in connecting with the material seriously, potentially because of how bloated the Western genre had become, potentially because Star Trek was having the reputation of an overbudget show.  The potential energy is there, but the lack of it becoming kinetic brings the episode down to a simple hour of fun and not one of the great’s it could have been.  7/10.