(by Collin R. Skocik, adapted for this article)
Gene Roddenberry thought of Star Trek as Gulliver’s Travels in space. The alien worlds visited by the starship Enterpriseare not really scientific portrayal of the nature of extraterrestrial life or the conditions on extrasolar planets (although the show tried to be scientifically accurate), but rather allegories for various aspects life on Earth. Although that’s not my preferred way of doing science fiction, there’s no denying Star Trek’s courage in putting controversial issues on television at a time when that was not allowed, and “The Return of the Archons” is a prime example of that.
The Enterprise visits Beta III (is there really a star simply called “Beta”?) to investigate the disappearance of the starship Archon a century ago. What Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and the landing party find is a weird civilization of zombie-like humanoids walking around with expressions of “mindlessness, vacant contentment.” This entire civilization is under the rigid mind control of something called Landru, which keeps them happy and at peace, but has robbed them of their individuality and free will.
“The Body absorbs its enemies,” says Reger, a member of the underground resisting Landru. “It only kills when it has to.” The Body, of course, is society, a collective under the complete mind control of Landru. It’s a creepy scene right out of a horror movie when Landru “summons” the Body to go after the landing party—people stop in their tracks, pick up rocks, and go after the landing party like zombies. There’s one wide-eyed blonde woman in particular who gives me the willies.
Reger, Tomar, and Marplon are a triad of underground members who resist Landru, and who assist Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the others in hiding. So far, this underground seems to have been ineffective. In the end, when Kirk is prepared to mount an active resistance, Reger and Marplon are terrified at the prospect of actually doing something. “Snap out of it,” Kirk tells them, exasperated. “Start acting like men! It’s time you learned freedom is never a gift, it has to be earned.” Beta III is a planet of mindless followers, and even though Marplon and Reger have not been “absorbed,” the notion of actively resisting Landru is unimaginable. Change is frightening—even change for the better.
Broadly, this episode is about conformity and the way society “absorbs” individuality. But it also deals with religion. It’s no accident that the people of Beta III dress like Amish. Beta III was once an advanced civilization. The Lawgivers use empty sticks to control the people—it looks like magic, but Kirk pieces together that the staffs are “antennae for some kind of broadcast power.” 4,000 years ago, Landru was a great leader who “took us back to a simpler time.” When Kirk asks what became of him, Marplon says, “He’s still alive. He sees, he hears.”
Of course Landru is not still alive after 4,000 years. Spoiler alert—the “Landru” who controls everyone and who “sees and hears” is actually a computer, a sophisticated artificial intelligence programmed by Landru to act as his proxy after his death. “This entire civilization is a machine’s conception of perfection,” Spock says.
The one real narrative flaw in this episode, for me, is the way Kirk talks Landru into self-destructing. Aside from the fact that I’ve never met a computer that burst into flames when you confuse it, the logic Kirk employs should, in my opinion, not be convincing to Landru. It’s not that I disagree with Kirk, it’s simply that his conclusions don’t fit with Landru’s premises. Having established that Landru’s Prime Directive is “the good of the Body,” Kirk asks Landru to define “the good of the Body.” Landru replies, “The good is the harmonious continuation of the Body. The good is peace, tranquility.” Kirk then answers, “Then I put it to you that you have disobeyed the Prime Directive.” Kirk’s reasoning is that Landru has denied the Body the human aspect of creativity.
Well, creativity was not part of Landru’s definition of the good of the Body. All he said was that the good is “the harmonious continuation of the Body.” He has accomplished that. It’s a nightmare, but it is a world of peace and contentment. Kirk’s logic should be disregarded as irrelevant.
So I assume the real reason Landru self-destructs is because Kirk is calling upon a 4,000-year-old computer to do some real thinking. All of my computers have gone bad after about ten years. After 4,000, Landru must be all clogged with dust, grinding gears and lots of corrupt files; no wonder he blows up.
A biting commentary on conformity, religion, and the price of paradise, “The Return of the Archons” perhaps unintentionally also predicts today’s world of the pervasiveness of cell phones. Like the people of Beta III, modern-day people on Earth wander around like zombies, controlled by their little devices which receive signals from a godlike computer database that runs the world. I wouldn’t want aliens to drop in and destroy our technology, but I do wonder what modern technology will do to our civilization, whether it will be for “the good of the Body” or not. This episode contains the first reference to Starfleet’s Prime Directive of Non-Interference—and the first time Kirk flagrantly disobeys it! “That refers to a thinking. growing civilization,” Kirk justifies. “Do you think this one is?”
(Collin R. Skocik is a fan of the Star Trek franchise and has written synopses of all 79 episodes of Star Trek’s original series and the first six Star Trek films.)
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