Who Mourns for Adonais?
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 22 September 1967
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- 3468.1
- DIRECTED BY
- Marc Daniels
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 33
WRITTEN BYWritten by Gilbert Ralston
Gene L. Coon substantially rewrote the script without on-screen credit. Wikipedia lists Ralston and Coon as writers.
A giant hand seizes the Enterprise in space, and the being behind it claims to be Apollo, god of ancient Greece, who expects the crew to bow down and worship him.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
Near Pollux IV, a vast glowing hand of energy grips the Enterprise and holds it fast. A commanding figure appears and introduces himself as Apollo, insisting that the crew come down and worship him as the Greeks once did. Kirk leads a landing party to a temple on the planet, including Lt Carolyn Palamas, an expert in ancient civilisations, whom Apollo quickly chooses as his bride. Kirk comes to believe that Apollo and the other Greek gods were powerful aliens who visited Earth long ago and drew their strength from human devotion. Palamas is falling for Apollo, but Kirk persuades her to reject him for the crew's sake, and she coldly tells him he is nothing more than a scientific specimen. While Apollo rages, Spock locates his power source and the Enterprise destroys it with phasers. Defeated and alone, Apollo accepts that humanity has outgrown him and fades away, as his fellow gods did long before.
- 01The title is taken from a poem by Percy Bysshe Shelley about John Keats.
- 02Gene L. Coon substantially reworked Gilbert Ralston's story but received no on-screen credit for it.
- 03An earlier version of the ending revealed that Palamas was carrying Apollo's child. James Blish kept this in his adaptation, and Peter David later used it in his Star Trek: New Frontier novels.