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'The Way to Eden' is the twentieth episode of the third season of the American science fictiontelevision seriesStar Trek. The episode was written by Arthur Heinemann, based on a story by Heinemann and D. C. Fontana (using the pen name 'Michael Richards'). It was directed by David Alexander, and first broadcast on February 21, 1969.

In the episode, the Enterprise is hijacked by a hippie-like group obsessed with finding a mythical paradise.

Plot[edit]

The Federationstarship Enterprise is in pursuit of the stolen space cruiser Aurora. In trying to escape, the Aurora overloads its engines and its six passengers are safely beamed aboard the Enterprise just as the Aurora explodes. The group consists of Tongo Rad, son of the Catullan ambassador; Irina Galliulin, an acquaintance of Ensign Chekov; Dr. Sevrin, a noted electronics researcher; Adam, a musician; and two other women.

In responses to Kirk's questions, Dr. Sevrin says their destination is the planet 'Eden', which Kirk responds is a myth. The group refuses to co-operate with Kirk, but are impressed by First Officer Spock, who is familiar with their movement. They are persuaded to go to Sickbay for a medical examination which reveals the party to be in good health, except for Dr. Sevrin, who is a carrier of a bacterium that is a product of artificial environments. Sevrin is quarantined in the brig, and tells Spock that the planet Eden will somehow 'cleanse' him. Spock attempts to reason with Sevrin and offers to help him find Eden in exchange for his cooperation, but concludes that Sevrin is not sane.

The rest of the group plan to take over the ship. After putting on a music concert, during which Tongo Rad frees Sevrin, the group takes over Auxiliary Control and put the Enterprise on course for Eden. On arrival at the planet, Sevrin renders all Enterprise crew unconscious with an ultrasonic frequency broadcast through the intercom.

When the crew regain consciousness, they discover that Sevrin and his followers have stolen a shuttlecraft.^[1] Kirk deactivates Sevrin's sonic device, and then joins Spock, Chief Medical Officer Dr. McCoy, and Chekov in a search for the group.

The planet surface is lush and beautiful. However, all the plant life secretes a powerful acid, as Chekov discovers when he touches a flower. The team soon finds Adam, lying dead from poisonous fruit. Sevrin and the other survivors are then found in the shuttlecraft, all with burns on their feet. Kirk says they must leave, but Sevrin runs from the shuttle, bites into one of the fruits, and dies.

Back on the Enterprise, Irina comes to the bridge to say goodbye to Chekov. Spock advises her and her friends not to give up their search for Eden, as he believes they will either find it, or create one for themselves.

Production[edit]

Originally, the teleplay was titled 'Joanna', and was written by D. C. Fontana, the title character being Dr. McCoy's daughter, who would become romantically involved with Captain Kirk. Later, she was changed to Irina, and Chekov was made her foil.^[2] Fontana's script was so heavily rewritten that she asked for her name to be removed from it and replaced with her pseudonym Michael Richards, which she also used for the episode 'That Which Survives'.^[3]

In a 2009 interview with The A.V. Club, Charles Napier recalled auditioning for the part of Adam, which was his first guest starring role. He won the part by jumping onto a table and singing 'The House Of The Rising Sun' in front of others trying for the part.^[4]

Reception[edit]

The episode has generally been seen as one of the weakest in the show's history, but its portrayal of characters representing the counter-culture of the late 1960s has produced widespread comment. Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a 'C-' rating, describing the 'space hippie' characters as 'too strange and irritating for me to view them sympathetically' and finding fault with the singing, which he described as 'the worst kind of padding'. Handlen noted as a positive aspect that the episode did allow for the voice of dissent against the 'utopia' portrayed by Star Trek.^[5] In their compendium of Star Trek reviews, Trek Navigator, Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross both viewed the episode negatively, describing it as having aged badly because of the hippie characters and also noting the poor musical parts of the episode.^[6]Grace Lee Whitney, who had played Janice Rand in early episodes of the show, described the episode as a 'clinker' on a par with another third season episode 'Spock's Brain;' and actor James Doohan, who portrayed Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott, often called it 'a nothing episode.' ^[7]

Several writers have discussed the way the episode represents the 'space hippies'. Aniko Bodroghkozy touched on the topic in her book Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion. In it, Bodroghkozy noted a negative and positive portrayal; on one hand Sevrin's followers have been duped and must return to 'civilization, apparently contrite, chastened children'. On the other, they challenged the supposed benefits and superiority of the Federation, which Bodroghkozy described as a 'reading of the counterculture.'^[8] Timothy Brown argues that Dr. Sevrin is 'a clear stand-in for Timothy Leary.' Like the acolytes of Leary, Charles Manson, and other counter-culture leaders, Sevrin's followers are 'under the spell of charismatic but dangerously unhinged leaders' and 'stand for a sixties generation in the thrall of misled idealism.'^[9]

WhatCulture ranked this episode the number one worst episode of the Star Trek franchise.^[10]

In 2015, W.I.R.E.D. magazine suggested this episode was skippable in their binge-watching guide for the original series.^[11]

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In 2017, Den of Geek ranked this episode as the number one 'best worst' Star Trek episode of the original series, noting its unique entertainment value.^[12]

In 2016, TVline ranked this as having one of the top twenty moments of Star Trek, in this case the 'space hippie' concert in the Enterprise sick bay (a sort of spacecraft medical facility).^[13]

Legacy[edit]

In Star Trek[edit]

The original script, as written by Fontana, would have provided much background on McCoy, including an unsuccessful marriage which led him into Starfleet (which was later incorporated into the alternate reality of the 2009 film Star Trek). Joanna herself was mentioned in the animated Star Trek episode 'The Survivor'. McCoy's backstory was later incorporated into the non-canon novels Planet of Judgment, Shadows on the Sun, Crisis on Centaurus, and also in the Marvel Comics Star Trek book (1980), married to a Vulcan and still hostile to her father.

In a 2009 interview with The A.V. Club, Charles Napier recalled being invited to star again on Star Trek, as part of an anniversary celebration. He agreed to appear only if he could play a military character and not 'wear that silly shirt again'.^[4] His next Star Trek character would be General Denning in the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode 'Little Green Men'.

In music[edit]

Deborah Downey, who played the blonde singer 'Girl #1', co-wrote the music with Charles Napier (Adam). She released a version of the song 'Heading Into Eden' on her album Painting Pictures.

Dialogue from the episode was sampled in the song 'Starface' (1992) by American heavy-metal band White Zombie. McCoy's line 'All this plant life is full of acid, even the grass' provided the title for the debut album by Alice's Orb: Even The Grass Is Full Of Acid (1992).^[14] The song 'Long time back when the galaxy was new', sung by Adam and Mavig during the concert, has been covered by Gaye Bykers on Acid on their 2001 album Everything's Groovy, under the title 'Golf Trek'.

References[edit]

1. ^Galileo II on 'Eden'
2. ^Joanna the precursor to 'The Way to Eden' report & analysis by Dave Eversole
3. ^D.C.Fontana on IMDB
4. ^ ^abRabin, Nathan (May 18, 2009). 'Charles Napier'. The A.V. Club. Retrieved September 14, 2010.
5. ^Handlen, Zack (February 19, 2010). ''Requiem For Methuselah'/'Way To Eden''. The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 28, 2010.
6. ^Mark A. Altman; Edward Gross (1998). Trek Navigator. 261: Boxtree. p. 286. ISBN0-7522-2457-3.CS1 maint: location (link)
7. ^Grace Lee WhitneyLeonard Nimoy Jim Denney (1998). The Longest Trek: My Tour of the Galaxy. 113: Quill Driver Books. p. 202. ISBN978-1-884956-03-4.CS1 maint: location (link)
8. ^Bodroghkozy, Aniko (2001). Groove Tube: Sixties Television and the Youth Rebellion. 320: Duke University Press. pp. 87. ISBN978-0-8223-2645-8. star trek way to eden.CS1 maint: location (link)
9. ^Brown, Timothy, 'United States of Amnesia: 1968 in the USA' Memories of 1968: International Perspectives, Ingo Cornils, Sarah Waters (eds), Peter Lang, 2010, p.142.
10. ^Kmet, Michael (January 26, 2014). 'Star Trek: 20 Worst Episodes Ever'. WhatCulture.com. Retrieved July 18, 2019.
11. ^McMillan, Graeme (January 28, 2015). 'WIRED Binge-Watching Guide: Star Trek'. Wired. ISSN1059-1028. Retrieved July 24, 2019.
12. ^'The 15 Best Worst Episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series'. Den of Geek. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
13. ^Mason, Charlie (July 19, 2016). 'Star Trek's 20 Most Memorable Moments'. TVLine. Retrieved July 4, 2019.
14. ^Joachim Gaertner, They could have been bigger than EMI: a discography of now defunct independent record labels that released vinyl, Gaertner, 2007, p.483

External links[edit]

• 'The Way to Eden' at StarTrek.com
• 'The Way to Eden' on IMDb
• 'The Way to Eden' at TV.com
• 'The Way to Eden' at Memory Alpha (a Star Trekwiki)

The Enterprise is ordered to pursue a group of anti-establishment idealists who have stolen a space cruiser and made off for the mythical planet Eden. When the group pushes their stolen ship beyond its limits, the Enterprise is forced to rescue them by transporting them aboard. This merry band of space-hippies includes an insane leader (Dr. Sevrin), an academy drop-out and former love interest of Chekov (Irina), and the son of a Catullan ambassador (Tongo Rad). With the Federation undergoing fragile treaty negotiations with the Catullans, Kirk is ordered by Starfleet to treat the dissidents with 'extreme tolerance.' Kirk finds the group and its leader too difficult to deal with while Spock maintains a deep curiosity about their ideals.

Kirk appoints Spock as liaison for the group during their stay on the Enterprise. Sevrin demands to be taken to Eden, but Kirk refuses on the grounds that his orders from Starfleet dictate that the group be taken to the nearest star base. I agree with other reviewers that this is a poor example of original Star Trek, but for different reasons. It's quite clear that the scriptwriters or producers were hostile to the youth culture movement of the day. The ridiculous way the space hippie tribe is depicted make them little more than a caricature.

Worse, they are shown exhibiting all the behaviour of cult members. This is hardly what the hippie movement was about. Most were just looking for a way to reconnect with the planet.

Here they are shown as delusional and even dangerous, which of course is the way authorities saw them in the '60s. Fortunately the scriptwriters make Spock an excellent foil to this all-out hostility toward anyone who questions authority. (Was that Roddenberry's contribution?) If there's a redeeming quality to this episode, it's Nimoy's performance. That the most logical mind in the universe could fully understand the urge to find a way to create a better society proves it's hardly a delusional concept. How else does the human species progress, but by striving for better?

Ignore the snarls of the social Darwinists. They just want excuses for their bad behaviour. In reality there were many complex social factors that created the ferment that was the 1960s —a protracted, bloody war; a suddenly booming economy; higher education for the masses for the first time in history; an incredible explosion of creative genius in most of the arts; racial tensions; emerging gender equality, etc. To oversimplify the stated aims or visions of such a generation is to do them a grave injustice. To depict them as foolish, deluded children is just plain ignorant. After all, Roddenberry pushed the envelope from the very start of Star Trek.

That was hardly establishment thinking. In his own modest way he was as much a part of the social changes sweeping society as any of the other change agents. For a start, he showed women as capable, professional, highly competent and intelligent—besides being sexy. Just look at what else was being made in television and film at the same time and see how many shows you can say that about. I mean, besides Rod Serling and The Twilight Zone. So as songwriter Nick Lowe once said, 'What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?'

Is it attainable? Probably not. Does that mean we stop trying? 'A man's reach must exceed his grasp or what's a heaven for,' the poet Browning reminds us. Which is precisely what Roddenberry's Star Trek was all about.

Reaching further. Either Roddenberry stumbled on this one, or Heineman had a bad hair day. Or the producers just didn't get it.