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Title: Shore Leave
Airdate: 12/29/1966
Plot Summary
The Enterprise finds an idyllic planet for a weary crew needing some rest and relaxation. Shore leave is granted, but strange occurrences and people from their past keep showing up to their puzzlement and amusement. When things turn deadly, Kirk must find the answer to this strange world before any more crew are lost.
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk apparently is like the rest of us, still in a twist over a bully from high school. Let it go, man. He also thinks Spock is giving him a backrub and becomes uncomfortable when it turns out to be the pretty yeoman. That’s disturbing on a lot of levels actually and probably inspired a pile of slashfic.
We also get a bit of insight into Kirk’s past. A lost love and regret is a recurring theme with Kirk, even up through Star Trek: Generations where he laments losing someone named Antonia.
Logical
Spock has no interest in shore leave until the planet becomes interesting enough for him to investigate. His disciplined mind never conjures up a robot, I noticed. He does do a nice turnabout on Kirk to get him to take shore leave.
He’s Dead Jim
McCoy’s dead, Jim. But he’s gets better.
This is also one of McCoy’s few opportunities to get with the ladies. At one point coming out of a bush with the pretty lieutenant who has torn clothes should’ve had people asking a heckuva lot more questions.
Canon Maker
The shore leave planet does make a return in the animated series so I guess that makes it lore. We also get a look at the uniform of the academy student in the Finnegan robot. I would assume that since it came from Kirk’s memory, it’s probably accurate. At least when Kirk was there.
Canon Breaker
I find it weird that they chose a completely uninhabited planet for shore leave, rather than something like Risa. Not everyone wants to go camping. And sure, it turned out to be a lot more, but they didn’t know that at the time. Shore leave usually means going to a starbase or an inhabited planet with hotels and indoor plumbing and bars.
Apparently, the shore leave planet knows how to defeat death. I don’t know if they have Khan’s blood or what but you’d think that the Federation would be all over that planet trying to figure out how they do that instead of just making it a new Six Flags over the Alpha Quadrant.
Technobabble
Apparently to generate all the robots, the planet needs to suck energy from everywhere, including the ship. Talk about keeping people in the store to get at their wallets!
I Know That Guy:
Marcia Brown plays little Alice. Emily Banks plays Yeoman Tonia Barrows. Perry Lopez plays Rodriguez. He had a pretty long career playing guest roles on TV.
Barbara Baldavin plays Lt. Angle Martine. She played the same character in Balance of Terror and holy crap. She was the bride whose fiancée died in that episode! I praised her for being stoic and professional. Then in the very next episode, she’s hitting on Rodriguez. God damn, I said stoic, not heartless. The body wasn’t even cold!
Bruce Mars plays Finnegan. He looks like he’s about 35 even though he should be in his late teens or early twenties. I checked and he would’ve been 31 at the time of filming. I guess they couldn’t have Shatner punching an actual teenager.
Shirley Bonne plays the image of Ruth who is so bland, I have no idea why Kirk has such fond feelings for her. She’s by far the most robotic of the robots.
Finally, Oliver McGowan plays the caretaker.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
Shore Leave is a great episode the first time when you don’t know what the mystery is, but loses a lot on repeat viewings. It’s an interesting concept. A planet that’s an amusement park based on your thoughts is pretty interesting and does feel a little like a prototype version of the holodeck we get later.
Once you know though, it’s all pretty rote. You just keep waiting for the characters to figure it out. I don’t know if that’s something I should deduct points from but it’s certainly not one I find myself revisiting very often.
The filming on location, near Vasquez Rocks natch, is a nice touch rather than the cheap sets they usually use. It allows for the use of a knight on horseback as well some good fight scenes.
I’m also not clear on why the robots simply disappear. One minute a samurai is trying to kill Sulu and then it just wanders off I guess?
Then there’s the power of the planet taking out all their weapons and suck the energy out of everything. What good is that for visitors? Or was it malfunctioning?
McCoy getting killed was unexpected but having the caretaker come out saying “just kidding, he’s fine!” was a cop out. The federation should’ve torn apart the planet to figure out how they did that. Of course if they did defeat death, McCoy would never get to say his line again.
Also Martine gets killed too. McCoy comes back with a lot of fanfare being one of the main cast. But you you’d be forgiven if you didn’t notice she also came back in a blink or you’ll miss it moment. Still, I’m glad they included that little detail.
All in all, I’m just not a big fan of this episode but I can see why someone seeing it the first time would really enjoy it. It just doesn’t hold up on repeat viewings.
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