The Omega Glory (TOS episode)
The
starship USS Enterprise intercepts a distress call and locates the USS
Exeter in orbit around the planet Omega IV. The crew tries to contact the vessel but gets no reply. Captain Kirk forms a boarding party along with
Mr. Spock,
Dr. McCoy, and Lieutenant Galloway and heads over to the ship. Upon their arrival, they find the ship entirely deserted, but then notice crew uniforms lying around with a crystalline substance piled around them. Dr. McCoy determines that the substance (which is the sum total body mass of chemicals when all water is removed), and uniforms are all that remain of the ship's crew.
Mr. Spock plays back the ship's log and discovers that the
Exeter's landing party contracted a strange disease, and spread it back to the ship. The log also warns that whoever comes aboard will have also contracted the disease and are doomed unless they go down to the planet immediately. Kirk contacts the
Enterprise and informs them of his situation and indicates the boarding party will proceed to the planet.
The party beams down to the last known coordinates of the
Exeter's landing party. When they arrive they find themselves in what appears to be a
Tibetan village, where two primitive fur-clad humanoids, a male and a female, are being prepared for
beheading by warriors of an
Asian appearance. Apparently leading the warriors is the
Exeter's Captain Ron Tracey. Tracey orders the warriors to lock up the primitive tribespeople instead, and walks over to greet Kirk.
Tracey explains that after his landing party beamed down, he stayed behind with the villagers whom he calls the "Kohms". His landing party returned to the
Exeter and then succumbed to a disease that they took with them; leaving him stranded on the planet. He explains that the disease had almost wiped out the planet's people, but the survivors were spared and developed an immunity that keeps them alive. Something on the planet provides the immunity, and the landing party will be fine only if they stay. They can never return to their ship, or they will die, and so will everyone else who is exposed. Tracey also explains the primitive prisoners are from a group of savage barbarians called the "Yangs", who have waged war with the Kohms.
Soon the Yangs attack the village, and Galloway is injured. McCoy takes him to a small hut where Galloway lies on the floor. Mr. Spock investigates a pile of Yang bodies and finds drained
phaser power packs, indicating Captain Tracey has helped out in a previous battle; a blatant violation of the
Prime Directive. Kirk decides to contact the
Enterprise before he confiscates Tracey's phaser. However, the renegade captain appears brandishing his weapon, and takes Kirk's communicator. Lt. Galloway draws his phaser in response, but Tracey quickly disintegrates him. Tracey orders his men to restrain the rest of the landing party.
Defending his actions, Tracey indicates the planet may offer valuable medical benefits, claiming that not only are the people immune to the disease, but also have incredibly long life spans. He tells his villager assistant, Woo, to let Kirk know how old he is, and Woo claims he is 400 years old. His father, who is still alive, is over a thousand. McCoy is astonished, and Tracey orders Dr. McCoy to get to work on solving the secrets of their longevity so he can make an incalculable profit from them. While Tracey makes his pitch, Kirk loosens his bonds and attacks, but is subdued.
Deciding on a more direct lesson of the need to interfere on the planet, Tracey has Kirk and Spock taken away. The pair are placed in crude jail cells with Spock in one cell and Kirk thrown in the one with the two Yang prisoners. The two Yangs savagely attack Kirk who can barely hold them off. The fight concludes when Spock manages to
nerve pinch the female into submission, which makes the male stop in concern. Later as Kirk and Spock discuss the possibility of escape, Kirk mentions the word "freedom," and the Yang suddenly voices his objection to his apparent enemy using such a "worship word."
While Kirk is surprised at this unexpected articulateness of the savage, he manages to convince him to help him escape while the Yang explains that he didn't speak before since it is considered taboo to converse with a deadly enemy. The two work together to loosen the bars of the cell window. However, once an opening is created, the Yang turns on Kirk and knocks him out, grabbing the female and making their escape out the window. Kirk later recovers and he and Spock make their own escape, rush to locate Dr. McCoy and overpower his Kohm guard.
They find McCoy has made significant progress in his research. While Spock works at modifying some medical equipment into a makeshift communicator to signal the
Enterprise, McCoy details his findings. He believes the source of the immunity and longevity was simply the result of evolution as the lifeforms of the planet eventually developed unusually hardy physiologies over time since a cataclysmic war fought with devastating
bioweapons that ruined the rival civilizations of the planet. As such, there is no isolated agent to find while any infected visitor will naturally acquire an immunity to the disease by remaining on the planet for a relatively short period of time. This time having already passed, they could safely return to the ship immediately.
Suddenly, a maddened Tracey then bursts in, wounds Spock while destroying the communicator, and demands Kirk order down a supply of phasers from the
Enterprise to help fight off another wave of Yang forces who are now at the gates. McCoy and Kirk angrily try to explain to him that there is no magic
Fountain of Youth and his interference with the war between the villagers and barbarians has been for nothing. Tracey's mind snaps at this invalidation of all of his efforts and refuses to believe that they could safely leave at any time.
Tracey takes Kirk outside and demands at gunpoint that he order down a supply of phasers and power packs. However, Lt.
Sulu on the
Enterprise, while unaware of the exact situation, follows regulations by insisting on verification of the captain's situation before complying with such an unusual order. Kirk refuses to claim the arms are needed and again tries to subdue or escape the murderously insane Tracey. Suddenly Yang warriors arrive and take everyone prisoner. They are taken back to their village, which is, more or less, ruins of an ancient city. The Yang leader, Cloud William, turns out to be the Yang prisoner who was in the cell with Kirk. Cloud produces what appears to be a very old and faded
American Flag and then removes ancient manuscripts from a box and recites their words.
The words sound very familiar; a poorly pronounced version of "I pledge allegiance...", When Kirk completes the
Pledge, the Yangs' are greatly surprised and disturbed. McCoy wonders how it is possible, and Spock surmises that the planet developed along very similar lines to
Earth, suggesting the Kohms were originally "
Communists" and Yangs originally "
Yankees". Apparently, the Omegans had a
Cold War much like the one between the
United States and the
Soviet Union, but unlike Earth, their war heated up and they fought a biological and nuclear conflict many centuries ago which destroyed the planet.
The Yangs decide that Kirk and his companions will be executed, but Tracey tries to save himself by claiming that Kirk and the others are evil, as proof calling their attention to Spock's ears being similar to those of the devil, and have instigated the conflict. Cloud decides to test Kirk by stating that if Kirk is good, he will be able to finish reciting the "sacred words": the
Constitution of the United States. Unfortunately, Cloud William pronounces the words so poorly that Kirk cannot quite recognise them, and suggests they allow him and Tracey to fight to the death instead. They will see who is the "evil one," since good always triumphs over evil.
Kirk and Tracey go at it, and during the fight, Spock notices a communicator near Cloud's female companion. Spock uses a mental suggestion to make the woman pick it up and activate it. She obeys Spock's mental commands and triggers the emergency locator. Suddenly, Sulu and a security detail, beam down to their location. They see Kirk and Tracey fighting just as Kirk pins him down. Kirk spares Tracey's life and has his security men take him into custody.
The Yangs now bow to Kirk as some kind of
deity, but he crossly orders them to desist. He looks over the crumbling handwritten document, which is in fact, a distorted version of the American Constitution. Kirk finishes the sacred speech and rebukes the Yangs for allowing the Constitution to degrade to a meaningless babble and a mere shibboleth. He declares to the Yangs that the words must apply to all, hoping they will now rebuild their ruined world. Before departing, Kirk stops to take one last look at
Old Glory.
*This story was originally offered by Roddenberry as an option for the second pilot, following a trip to
Washington, D.C. where he was profoundly moved by seeing the original
U.S. Constitution at the
National Archives. He also submitted this teleplay for
Emmy Award consideration after the show aired.
*This episode was also adapted for
View-Master in the 1970s. In the accompanying booklet, the Yangs are called the "Meraks", making the connection more obvious.
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The Omega Glory at StarTrek.com
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Five-Minute The Omega Glory — Parody version
