Star Trek: 0015: "Shore Leave"

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0015

The Original Series (1966)
Season 1: Episode 15: “Shore Leave"

Stardate: 3025.3 (2266/01/09 - 05:37:42)

Written by: Theodore Sturgeon
Directed by: Robert Sparr

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PLOT INTRODUCTION

When McCoy sees the White Rabbit from 'Alice in Wonderland', the crew begin to realise that the planet they are visiting seems to have the dangerous power to turn any thought into reality.

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REVIEW

"The more complex the mind, the greater the need for the simplicity of play"

In my opinion, this is exactly the kind of the episode that the series needed at this point. After six rather mentally engaging episodes, it’s good to finally be able to kick back and enjoy a bit of fantasy with the characters we have –by now- grown to love.

Penned by the great Theodore Sturgeon, ‘Shore Leave’ is Trek’s first story with a comedic edge since the brilliant ‘The Naked Time’. Perhaps not as interesting or as involving as the previous episode, but nevertheless makes up for any lack of serious themes with a good dose of light-hearted comedy. This episode also has a great deal of characterisation told similar to that of ‘The Naked Time’, using both recurring characters and guest stars and living out their ‘fantasies’ or even desires. Not only does this build our cast and help flesh out those guest characters to be more than death bait, but it creates a very interesting and fantastic story that allows pretty much anything to happen. In this way, it holds the attention very well and has an irregularly fast pace for an original Trek episode. All of which, work in the show’s favour.

As mentioned above, this style not only works for the story, but for developing our main characters too. We get to see Kirk being reunited with a long lost love, getting into an elaborate fist fight with an old nemesis (more on that later!), McCoy becoming a bit of ladies man and chasing a six foot rabbit, and Sulu firing off a 6-shooter and running away from a samurai. The one problem I had was that Spock was pretty much left alone to smirk at the rest of the crew. Aside from that though, as you can see, there’s plenty of character construction going on here, even if much of it is based upon pre-established ideas. It’s still good see development of those characteristics and Sturgeon does a good job of doing so.

For anyone who is reading this and thinking that it all sounds like a bunch of baloney, then fair enough, it is baloney, but I enjoyed it. Thankfully if you’re still looking for nice character writing however; it’s all there, even in the scenes that don’t involve knights and WWII fighter planes. In fact, I probably enjoyed such scenes more than the wacky surreal ones. The simple banter between Kirk and McCoy down on the planet before things turn really weird, and Spock tricking Kirk into taking leave, amid others all work magnificently and indeed rather hilariously on screen.

And how about that Finnegan guy! Bruce Mars does an absolutely brilliant job of bringing the animated bully from Kirk’s academy years to life. I loved every scene he was in (as inherently annoying as he was written to be) and found the interaction between him and Kirk to be both informative about Kirk’s past, and just plain fun. Not only this but it also makes way for one of the best and most memorable fight scenes to be used in the series. This is because there’s decent conflict between these characters (this isn’t just some guard or obstacle in Kirk’s way) that’s developed before we meet him: though hearing Kirk’s tales with McCoy, and at the beginning of the episode where Kirk is feeling the strain of getting old (although not admitting to it).

Speaking of memorable scenes, I realise that it was very unlikely to be permanent but nevertheless I still found the ‘death’ of McCoy to be well performed, written and directed. Perhaps not as touching as say, Star Trek II, but still quite a bit of heavy character work early on the series. It’s also quite ambitious in that it relies on you being connected to these people, and of course it does work because we do care thanks to episodes like these.

The final conclusion and “ah-ha!" explanation given in the last five minutes wasn’t as bad as I was anticipating. In fact, I couldn’t really find that much of a problem with it. It does provide good food for thought and for anyone with an imagination, it’s quite an attractive premise; A planet where your dreams come true? I wouldn’t say no.

In addition to all this (I’ve really went on and on with this one), we also have a fantastic episode for the eyes and ears. The planet itself on which the crew find themselves taking their break is full of wonderful colours and natural beauty that is so seldom seen aboard the Enterprise and indeed, any of the constructed planet sets made in the studio. This outing also has a very original score that I’m not sure is used later on in the series. This offers a nice break, and helps the viewer connect with the story, taking a vacation you could say, from watching the rather tired sets of the ship. Sure, we’ll be glad to see it back in the next episode, but it is good to give it a rest every now and again. Especially as we haven’t gone elsewhere in around six episodes!

So with all this you’d think I’d be giving the episode a perfect score, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. As entertaining as it can be, ‘Shore Leave’ is nevertheless just that; a vacation. It’s a nice break and a fun episode, but lacks any real substance. There are also a few low points in the story here and there that don’t really work. However, as I say, at mid-point in the season, the episode was sorely needed, and it does its job well, without sacrificing the show’s integrity by never really taking itself too seriously. All in all, a great light-hearted and well developed episode for character and plot.



Written by Jamie Robert Ward, 08/11/2007.