Star Trek TOS S01E15 – Shore Leave
Dir. Robert Sparr, Wri. Theodore Sturgeon
The Summary: In an…interesting follow-up to Balance of Terror, the crew needs a break, so they head to a supposedly lifeless Eden planet, but find that it’s not as uninhabited as they thought.
The Good: Some of the cinematography is a cut above Trek’s usual–the tracking shots as they run across the field are super exciting. Sulu’s grinning madly as he wildly fires a gun is a great example of how crazy they sometimes get with his character. There is a surprisingly good chance for some actual character development in showing people what they’re thinking about—this is used to…ok effect here. Horndog Bones is great and always funny. Kirk shooting a charging Knight off his horse with a revolver is simultaneously one of the strangest and coolest images I can think of. Spock’s bemusement at all of these idiot humans and their crazy passions is fun again.
The Bad: Hoo-boy, the weirdness is off the charts here. We got bunny suits, samurai, knights, all kinda stuff, and that zaniness is going to rub some people the wrong way. The amount of time it takes them to figure out what is going on beggars belief—they literally say what is going on verbatim multiple times, but seem to still not understand—this grows increasingly frustrating as the episode continues. It is seriously at the 42 minute mark when they actually seem to realize it and begin to respond in a remotely reasonable way. Also, I simply don’t believe that Kirk continues to be tricked by what he sees—all other Trek to this point has assured me that his will is stronger than science, by God! Finnegan is the worst, although I suppose that’s kind of the point. The tiger is a little too obviously stock footage. It’s super weird (and credulity-straining) how they all think of things from the 20th century or earlier… The fight with Finnegan takes like 15 ridiculous minutes and is in its entirety set to jaunty Irish jig music, which may make you want to jump out a window.
The Review: This is another episode in the proud tradition of Star Trek where brains are best left checked at the door. No trace remains of the dignified and elevated science fiction to which this series sometimes lays claim. No, this episode is a complete lark, bordering on farce. Thinking too long about pretty much any part of it will give you a headache, but if you’re willing to go with the flow and let its craziness play out, you can have a really good time with it. The basic premise is incredibly straightforward. The crew is really stressed out, and needs a break, so Enterprise heads to a lifeless but beautiful planet to give them some R&R off the ship. The problem is, once they get there they all begin seeing some pretty insane stuff, seemingly conjured from stray ideas or passing thoughts that they have while down there. Curiosity is aroused and things get sketchy when some of the daydreams turn deadly.
What follows is basically an entire episode (a half hour of it at least) of the crew of the Enterprise dealing with knights in shining armor, samurai, tigers, fully grown men in bunny suits, and all manner of other completely insane threats pulled from the backlot and whatever spare costumes Roddenberry could scrounge up for that day. It is constantly strange and frequently hilarious, both intentionally and accidentally. The intentionally funny parts are actually quite well done, and showcase the ensemble’s capabilities at comedy. Bones is an absolute standout here, and DeForest Kelley deserves special mention for an absolutely scene-stealing and scenery-chewing turn as some kind of demented Southern sex god. It really has to be seen to be believed. I was smiling or outright laughing for most of the end of the episode, and it was entirely thanks to his smarmy performance.
I absolutely get why many people probably don’t love this episode. If the reason a person likes Star Trek is for its lofty insights or its chance for interesting science fiction, this is absolutely not going to be for them. It is largely a waste of time, and does much less than it could to examine the psychology of its characters. Such fans will see a missed opportunity here to make a dark reflection of this episode where man’s seething id is laid bare and grappled with. So much the worse for those fans. I personally really enjoy this episode, but if someone told me they despised it, I wouldn’t begrudge them the opinion, or really even argue it. Even I question my love for it at times. It is certainly one of the dumber episodes of season one, but it’s dumb in a fun and endearing way, and that earns it a recommendation from me at least.
The Score: 
God, this is just such a weird one.
I wish Star Trek consistently invented alien or future literature to draw this kind of episode from. We get “generational epics” or whatever Cardassian thing from Garak once, but that’s about it.
God, I agree. It’s an area with so much wasted potential. It’s explored with some regularity in written science fiction, so it’s not even like they don’t have anything to pull from.