The Omega Glory
Kirk discovers a renegade starship captain taking sides in a planetary war. As parallels with Earth history grow clearer, Kirk decides to teach the tribal Yangs the meaning of their "sacred words."
The writers seem really fascinated with removing all the fluid from Starfleet officers’ bodies, between this and the white blocks in the last episode. An odd dilemma, but things get worse. The search for immortality, the Star crazed captain, the threat to the Prime Directive, the unexplained parallels with Earth history: all Trek cliches, please report for duty! We could have foreseen the concluding fight, but I'll bet no one saw the American flag and Constitution coming! Unlike the equally awful but removed-from-reality Spock's Brain, this has some disturbing racial and cultural implications. First there is the division of Khoms and Yangs into Asiatics and whites (appropriating Native American costuming), and then that American artifacts in themselves have the power to create a peaceful and democratic society. Fortunately TOS never revisited that notion, using the banner of the Federation banner instead. This episode lacks the banality of the series's very worst installments. It's more like a spectacular train wreck that might sabotage all TOS ideals - that is, if anyone gave it a second thought.
Spock Saves the Day: Spock pinches one of Kirk's Yang opponents and hypnotizes a young woman into signaling the ship with a communicator.
Oops: Now aliens are comparing our poor Vulcan to the devil! He should resolve to always travel with hat camoflague.
Developments: Spock can keep time precisely, as we see when he's stuck in the cell, and use his gaze to have others do his bidding. We've seen these abilities in Catspaw and A Taste of Armageddon respectively, but nice to see them carried on and used appropriately. The scene with natives analyzing him to see if he’s a devil nods at continuity too, with his heart located much lower in his body than that of a human.