Star Trek: Spectre of the Gun

Episode: "Spectre of the Gun"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 6
Original Air Date: October 25, 1968

via Memory Alpha

Most of the American television audience wasn't quite ready for Star Trek in the late 1960s.   Westerns, on the other hand, were huge.  Two of the great small screen leviathans of that or any era were Bonanza, weighing in at 14 seasons, and Gunsmoke at 20 plus 9 on radio.  Only The Simpsons has been on prime-time television longer than Gunsmoke.  Therefore, it is no surprise that Trek - never shy about cheesy costume dramas - devoted one of its third season episodes to the Old West.

The Enterprise and her crew are sent to make contact with the Melkotians.  When their prospective friends shoo them away, Kirk orders our heroes to push onward.  Miffed, the Melkotians grab the landing party and punish them by placing them in an O.K. Corral dreamscape as the ill-fated Clantons.  Toss in the Earps and Doc Holliday and the outlook is not great for our favorite galactic travelers.

While several of the Trek's principal actors had western appearances on their resumes, none had better credentials than Deforest Kelley (Dr. McCoy).  He had, in fact, already appeared in two other versions of the O.K. Corral story.  In 1955, he played Ike Clanton in an episode of You Are There.  He was Morgan Earp in the 1957 film, Gunfight at the OK Corral.

The Western set has a surrealist feel, using only the facades of buildings.  The choice, however, was driven by an effort to keep costs down rather than by artistic inspiration.  The vermilion red sky however, must have been a deliberate choice and I found it delightfully unsettling.

*****

via Memory Alpha

Charles Maxwell (Virgil Earp) was a veteran of television westerns.  He was born December 28, 1913 in Long Island, New York.  He made ten total appearances on Bonanza, four on Gunsmoke and four on Rawhide among many others.  His was also the (uncredited) radio announcer voice on Gilligan's Island.  Maxwell died in 1993.