Script: Boris Sobelman
Story: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Joseph Pevney
Producer: Gene L. Coon
This is one of those Trek episodes that almost has too much going on for its own good. The Enterprise is investigating a planet where a ship called the Archon disappeared a century ago (wow, way to look into those missing people promptly Starfleet) and that a) has a culture apparently equivalent to 1880s Earth, allowing for cheap costumes and sets, b) whose population is apparently peaceful and docile to an almost robotic degree except c) once a year on Festival, when the entire planet explodes into uncontrollable violence, and d) have a seemingly religious devotion/fear to a man called Landru, and his force of Lawgivers.
The planet's population is referred to as "The Body", and those who are "not of the Body" are forcibly converted, becoming as docile and placid as everyone else. It turns out they've been under the rule of Landru for centuries, and the planet is utterly without war, violence, theft, assault, etc, except for the night of Festival. So, y'know, it's a Purge Planet.
Beaming down, Kirk and co. become involved with a resistance movement on the planet that opposes Landru in secret. Eventually it's determined that Landru was indeed a man who brought peace to the planet, but then to ensure the continuation of his message, programmed a computer with his personality and knowledge and set it in charge of the world, bringing technology and culture back to an earlier "simpler" time and leaving all advanced technology in the hands of the Lawgivers. The computer runs the whole planet, appearing as Landru in the form of holograms.
Kirk decides to take Landru down, at which point Spock brings up Starfleet's Prime Directive of "non-interference", the first mention of this concept on the show. So of course the first time the Prime Directive is mentioned, Kirk shoots it down, and proceeds to violate it under the argument that as the planet is a computer controlled culture that hasn't changed in centuries, it's development is arrested and the culture is stagnant and thus the Prime Directive doesn't apply as it refers to living, growing cultures. See kids, the trick to rules isn't breaking them, it's knowing where the loopholes lie.
That brings us to this episode's next major contribution to Trek lore and tropes, as Kirk decides the best way to defeat Landru is to argue it into self-destruction. By reasoning that the computer's role is to do what's best for the people, and that hindering the culture's development and taking the "soul" away from civilization, it itself has been harming the people, Kirk convinces Landru to destroy itself for the good of the planet. It's the first of many instances of Kirk "arguing a computer to death" and while I've always thought it a much more satisfying way to defeat an enemy than simple violence, this also isn't the best example of the trope.
In the end "Return of the Archons" has a lot of sci-fi ideas, but perhaps suffers for having too many of them. A stagnated culture stuck in the past rather than moving forward is interesting. A Purge Planet, where there's no violence except one day a year, is interesting. A world controlled by a computer that has elminated freedom in service to safety is interesting. A world where a starship disappeared and was never heard from again, is interesting (and despite being the source of the title, is also the least explored idea in the show). All of these together and it leaves the episode rich in ideas, but perhaps spread too thin.
Rating: 3 out of 4
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