Writer: Gene Roddenberry
Director: Vincent McEveety
Producer: John Meredyth Lucas
"The Omega Glory" is real bad, everybody.
The script for this episode had been in development for a long time, since before a single frame of Star Trek was even shot. It was considered as a potential pilot, twice. For some reason Gene Roddenberry really thought he had a winner with this one, and there may be a kernel of something interesting in here, but it's buried under massive piles of dreck. You'd think that the four years this script had to be worked on would have improved it, but no, it was just four years of everyone telling Roddenberry not to do it, until we come to the end of the second season, where everybody with the balls to cut this thing down -- Gene Coon, Herb Solow, etc -- had left the show.
Probably the biggest problem with "The Omega Glory", other than its ideas are bad, is that it has too many of them. This episode has so little focus that it basically changes what it's about with every act break. At first we have a mystery story about finding another starship with the crew all dead (not the first time we've seen this), then a story about a starship captain who's abandoned the Prime Directive on a primitive world for his own gain (not the first time we've seen this), then a story about a world with parallel Earth development (not the first time we've seen this), that serves as an allegorical statement on Cold War hostilities (not the first time we've seen this).
Just when you think the episode has settled into an interesting track to talk about, it tends to switch into something even stupider. But it still has to balance all the previous threads, even when they're no longer the focus. The plot, such as it is, takes place on a planet where a nuclear war has resulted in a dominant race called the Comms (who look like Asians) and then a savage barbarian race called the Yangs (who look Germanic). Get it, yet? Anyways, everyone on this planet lives to be thousands of years old, so the evil starship captain thinks he can find the secret of longevity on the world and market to everyone else. Turns out its just a natural genetic result in the people who managed to survive the radiation fall-out, and all the crimes he's committed were for nothing.
If there's a reason to watch this thing, it's Morgan Woodward's unhinged portrayal of Captain Tracey. He's chewing scenary any which way he can, moving from commanding to intelligent to raving to hysterical and back again through the episode. It's a joy to watch if you like seeing these kinds of utterly unlimited performances. He makes Shatner look subdued and reasonable.
If there's a moment when "The Omega Glory" transcends bad to go for plain stupid, is when it takes the entire "parallel Earth" gag too far. Yeah, we get it, the Yangs are Yankees, but when Captain Kirk proves his inherent goodness to them by being able to clearly recite the slurred "holy words" they use - the United States' Declaration of Independance - and the Star-Spangled Banner itself gets brought out complete with anthem on the soundtrack, it just all gets a little bit overbearing in it's inappropriate patriotism.
The thing about "The Omega Glory" is everything it does that's interesting has been in done in other, better episodes. And everything unique to it is uniquely garbage.
Rating: 1 out of 4
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