Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Star Trek: Let That Be Your Last Battlefied

Episode: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3, Episode 15
Original Air Date: January 10, 1969
via Memory Beta
As the series was winding down, NBC and Paramount executives wanted to use every available Trek script.   The story for "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" had originally been pitched and rejected for the show's first season but now it was exactly the sort of material required for the death spiral.  The episode is a heavy-handed racism fable, best-loved by the devoted for the guest appearance by Frank Gorshin who had played The Riddler on ten episodes of Batman.

While on a mission to decontaminate the planet Ariannus, the Enterprise encounters a stolen Federation shuttle craft.  The tractor beam brings the vessel into the hangar deck and Lokai, the injured pilot/thief within, is brought to sickbay.  Meanwhile, Bele (Gorshin), another being, has boarded the ship in his pursuit of Lokai.  Bele identifies himself as a police commissioner and has long sought Lokai as a political dissident.  Both men are white on one side of the face, black on the other.  Wouldn't you know it, they're exactly opposite.  Bele is black on the right side, Lokai is white on the right.  Thus all the trouble.

Eye roll inducing moments are definitely on the increase but there is still fun to be had.  During red alerts, the camera zooms in and out on the signal at a tilted angle.  This was allegedly done in tribute to The Riddler.

*****
via Batman Wiki
Frank Gorshin was born April 5, 1933 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  He got into show business as an impressionist, having mastered the mannerisms of film stars while ushering at a movie theater during high school.  He went to college at the school now known as Carnegie Mellon.  He was drafted into the army in 1953, serving a year and a half in Germany.

Gorshin's acting career took off after his army discharge.  Film gigs included Between Heaven and Hell, Hot Rod Girl and Invasion of the Saucer Men.  Apart from Trek and Batman, he made television appearances on Hawaii Five-O, Charlie's Angels and Wonder Woman among many others.  He debuted on The Ed Sullivan Show the same night The Beatles did. 

The impressions continued to the end.  In 2002, Gorshin played George Burns in Say Goodnight, Gracie, a Tony-nominated one-man show.  A notorious chain smoker (five packs a day!), Gorshin died in 2005 from lung cancer, emphysema and pneumonia.

17 comments:

  1. He really was a versatile actor. Thanks for the rundown.

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  2. Ha !
    Finally, I remember this one !

    cheers, parsnip

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  3. I remember him as the Riddler in Batman. I used to love that show as a little kid. It was required watching.

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    1. I loved it as a kid, too. In recent years, I've gotten to know the comic book character better. It would be fun to revisit the old '60s show now from that perspective.

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  4. I thought the episode's merit was in its moral: when hatred is permitted to direct one's life, it is all one has left.

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    1. The moral is sound, of course. It's worthwhile to consider it in context of the time period, too. Our societal dialogue about race has evolved a great deal since the 1960s. The assertion that our differences are insignificant seems naive now but I realize that for many, still, getting past dehumanizing those who are different is the first step.

      So much of Trek, I have come to realize, is about confronting the other. More on that to come soon.

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  5. Sometimes it takes a hammer to nail the absurdity of a situation.

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    1. Sure, and this was a more significant challenge to conventional thinking at the time than it is now... I hope.

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  6. My favorite episode of Star Trek TOS because of the racism analogy and Gorshin was a brilliant actor. Great post

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    1. Thanks, Maurice. As I said in my response to Geo., so much of Trek is about confronting the other, from the casting of the show to the story lines. I'll be writing about that more when I reach the end of TOS.

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  7. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  8. Frank Gorshin was always a favorite of mine! I remember the facial make up on this episode, but had forgotten the main story line (I'm selectively senile, apparently).

    No one did the Riddler (TV Batman) like Frank.

    (I slipped and said "joker" at first...duh...delete that one, re-post.)

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    1. Batman seems to have the broadest crossover with Trek in terms of fan base, cast and crew.

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