S3E20 The Way to Eden

[Admin]

Original Air Date 02/21/69

The Enterprise picks up a group of space "hippies" looking for Eden.

[Dizzle]

There's so much I want to say about this episode that is so easy to write off as the Space Hippie episode.

I think first and foremost, it's yet another episode in a line of episodes in TOS S3 that really looks at and represents some of the social tensions of the time. I like that it displays the hippies as silly hippies (which they are), but that it also shows some sympathy towards them.

The sympathy mostly comes from Spock which both ironic and fantastic, if you can reach me. God I wish the had used the word Grock. Oh well, can't be perfect. I love that Spock seemingly is really sincerely interested in the hippies and their cause. He really sympathizes with them and understands them. I can't figure out if this justifies their pursuits as having some basis in logic or if they are appealing to an odd realization of Spock's human half.

I really love when Spock explains that he sympathizes with them because he knows what it feels like to be an alien on his own planet. As someone who is a mutt myself, who can easily fit in but is always alien, I really appreciate this aspect of Spock that we rarely get to see. I don't think this alone is enough to explain how logical Spock can be so sympathetic with the people's clearly illogical behavior and goals.

Also, I love Spock jamming with the hippies. I hate that Star Trek didn't even attempt to create any cool new sounds to go with their pretty imaginative instruments. I believe by the late 60's they had plenty of technology that could make psychedelic music.

Just as a final short note on gender equality, I love that when the members of the Enterprise run to save the hippies once they realize that the planet is poisonous, only the women coming off the shuttle pod (Galileo II) are too weak to stand and need the strong men of the Enterprise to lift them and carry them from the ship.