Bread and Circuses (Episode)
Series | Star Trek |
Season | 2 |
Episode | 14 |
Production Number | 43 |
Release Date | 15 Mar 1968 |
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Stardate 4040.7: Spock and McCoy are forced to fight in Roman-like games.
Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy visit planet 892 IV, after they discover the wreckage of the S.S. Beagle, a Federation vessel. On the surface they meet a band of primitively-dressed people who claim to be sun worshipers before their capture by a group of well-armed individuals. Kirk and crew learn that the planet is technologically on par with 20th-century Earth, though the world's civilization closely resembles that of ancient Rome, as it might have been if the Roman Empire had lasted that long. Kirk meets Captain Merik, the commander of the destroyed Beagle, and discovers that Merik betrayed his crew, instructing them to beam down so that they could die in the arena. The Beagle's captain is now known as First Citizen Merikus, and the empire's proconsul, Claudius Marcus, is using him to convince Kirk to do the same with the Enterprise crew. McCoy and Spock are sentenced to die in the arena, and Kirk's execution seems imminent. Sensing that something is wrong, Scotty cuts off the planet's electrical power, enabling Kirk to free Spock and McCoy. Merik saves the trio, giving Kirk a stolen communicator before the proconsul stabs him. Back on the Enterprise, Uhura realizes that what Kirk thought were sun worshippers were actually calling themselves the Children of the Son: that planet's counterpart of early Christians.
Story
John Kneubuhl
Writer
Gene L. Coon & Gene Roddenberry
Director
Ralph Senensky
Starring
William Shatner … Captain Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley … Dr. McCoy
Also Starring
James Doohan … Scott
George Takei … Sulu
Nichelle Nichols … Uhura
Walter Koenig … Chekov
Guest Starring
Ian Wolfe … Septimus
Rhodes Reason … Flavius
William Smithers … Captain R.M. Merik/Merikus
Logan Ramsey … Claudius Marcus
Lois Jewell … Drusilla
Max Kelven … Maximus