Star Trek episode "The Paradise Syndrome"

"The Paradise Syndrome"

Season 3, Episode 3.

I think that if I had been watching Star Trek as it was first running, this episode would have made me turn it off and never turn it back on, sort of like my feelings towards the killing of another of my favorites, the UPN TV series Seven Days and its third season premiere episode was so stinking bad that I never watched it again. I think this episode would have done it for me.

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to an idyllic little planet similar to Earth. An asteroid is due to hit the planet in two months and they have been ordered to divert it.

(Now, that is the part I don't understand--

1) isn't it the part of Starfleet not to interfere--imagine if someone had diverted the asteroid on Earth 65 million years ago

2) if they were going to divert the asteroid anyway, why did they go check out the planet first???)

The lifeforms of the planet are so basically like Native American Indians that we might as well call them that. Although, there is a strange obelisk on the planet that Kirk falls into unwillingly and gets knocked out, losing his memory. Meanwhile, Spock and McCoy have to get back to the Enterprise to rendezvous with the asteroid while there is a better chance of deflecting it way out in space.

SIDEBAR: The Enterprise is said to be using maximum warp speed for several hours to reach the rendezvous point. That seems like the writers didn't do a lot of real calculation. Remember, the asteroid is two months away from hitting the planet.

Anyway, Kirk comes out of the obelisk and is sort of seen as a god, especially when he saves a drowning boy with CPR, seeming to breathe life into the kid. Kirk unwittingly then usurps the medicine man role, making an enemy whom he will fight later. Kirk marries the priestess-girl now. Yep, gets married. Is it really a marriage if it is under amnesia?? Wow, now that's a debate!

Meanwhile, the Enterprise looks like it is attacking the asteroid head on and losing. It drains most of its power and has to limp back to the planet for a two-month journey with the asteroid right on its ass. Ah, Scotty, what the hell? Two months isn't enough time? Two months. Spock though learns about the markings on the obelisk, saying it came from a race known as The Preservers who have seeded the galaxy. Bones notes how he always wondered why there were so many humanoids in the galaxy. This gets brought up again in a Next Generation episode entitled "The Chase."

So Kirk has been busy back on the planet--the wife is now pregnant. Kirk is the medicine man and when the asteroid apparently starts causing massive winds on the planet (I know, ridiculous), he must be the one to turn on the obelisk and save them. But he doesn't know how. They stone him and his wife. Bones and Spock beam down just in time to stop the stoning, although the wife dies, and deflect the asteroid using the obelisk. Spock cures Kirk's amnesia with a mind meld.

What a stupid episode. The biggest question is barely addressed--The Preservers. "Seeding" the galaxy? That is like huge news, archaeologically, metaphysically, religiously, etc. How can you just glance over that??