I haven’t watched a lot of the original Star Trek because there’s too much
good bad stuff to get through first, but I made an exception for
The Way To Eden, after seeing a picture of Spock
jamming with a woman on what at first glance appeared to be a small bicycle wheel.
We begin the episode with a doomed ship on the viewscreen. We can tell it’s doomed due to patented redshirt technology.
Scotty beams the curious hippy lifeforms to safety.
Spock speaks hippy.
One of them, Irina, is a former Academy classmate / love interest of Chekov’s. Kirk can relate.
Their swami, apparently of Ferengi heritage, wants to lead them to Eden. He’s thrown in the brig.
The rest of them are given the run of the place. Along with their insouciance, they bring music. Here we get our first good look at the bike wheel harp (deep section rims are for squares, man). Is that a truing stand?
Lead singer Adam admires Spock’s Fender Stratocaster.
Meanwhile Chekov considers his options. Is Starfleet really worth the severe constraints on his libido? (Kirk usually gets first shot. Rank hath its privileges.)
Little do they know, all Enterprise CCTV footage is piped to the captain's private ready room.
Adam warms up. The gigs are so few and far between out here among the stars.
Later everyone in the quadrant will claim they were there, like Woodstock.
The music is thoughtfully broadcast over the intercom. Scotty grumbles that the captain never allows him to play his bagpipes. A lewd rejoinder is left on the cutting room floor.
Deep within his logical mind, Spock knows that chicks dig musicians. He does a set, secretly hoping it goes viral.
Bones stays on call for bad trips, and re-inventories his stock of the morning after pill. He also discretely handles cases of the clap: "Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy! Got a clean bill of health from Dr McCoy."
Thinks: if only I'd dropped out of guard school and joined that boy band. Little does he know he’s about to be subdued by a hippy who took a course in Vulcan nerve pinches so the swami can escape and they can commandeer the ship using flower power.
After the concert the hippies make their play, which involves
cruel torture that I'm surprised network censors let through.
Anyway, they end up on Eden, which promptly kills Adam ("Even the grass was full of acid"), shattering their dreams.
Irina returns to the Enterprise. She tells Spock that his harp touched her like no other man could, and asks for his personal stamp of approval to start a fan club.
The captain's voice suddenly booms over the intercom, summoning her to his ready room. Checkov remains stoic.
The End