Star Trek: Arena

Episode: "Arena"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 18
Original Air Date: January 19, 1967

via Memory Alpha

In my first semester of college, my freshman writing seminar was entitled "UFOs in American Society."  Among other topics covered, we discussed the changes in the depiction of alien beings in science fiction movies, changes that reflected prevailing attitudes toward foreign cultures in general.  Star Trek was just one step in the path between the monstrous invader images of the 1950s and the kinder, gentler entities in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  "Arena" is one episode that seeks to push that evolution along.

The Enterprise arrives at Cestus III Outpost expecting a warm reception only to find the installation destroyed, apparently by an unprovoked alien attack.  Our heroes pursue the offending ship, bent on vigilante justice.  Suddenly, an unseen third party identifying themselves as the Metrons, seize both vessels, freezing them in space.  Both Kirk and the captain of the opposing ship are instantly transported to a desert plan where they are instructed to fight to the death, the fate of their ships resting on the outcome.

The Captain's adversary is a Gorn, a reptilian humanoid species.  With all of the grunting, roaring and stumbling around, the Gorn is very much the image of the old B-movie alien, the sort that must be destroyed immediately and without remorse.  But of course, this is Star Trek and despite Kirk's initial vengeful anger, all shakes out quite differently.

As with the last episode (reflection here), there is some Q foreshadowing in this story.  The Metrons stand in moral judgment of both ship crews just as Q will in his tales.  The idea of a superior civilization deeming Earthlings unworthy of survival is actually a fairly common one in science fiction well beyond Trek.  If the scary, green otherworlders aren't out to kill us, probe us or build an interstellar highway through us, surely they'll condemn us for our many sins: Cosmic Ethical Darwinism.

*****

via Memory Alpha

Carolyne Barry (credited as Carolyne Shelyne) plays the Metron who finally appears to Kirk near the end of the episode.  Her voice, however, is performed by Vic Perrin.  Barry was born Carole Stuppler on July 20, 1943 in Brooklyn, New York.  In addition to hundreds of acting credits, she is a professional dancer and dance instructor.  She majored in dance at UCLA with a minor in theatre arts.

via Memory Alpha

21 years after "Arena," Barry appeared in the Next Generation episode "Home Soil" as an engineer.