‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘Obsession’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

​There seems to be a prevailing belief in modern society, that time truly does heal all wounds, including some of the more traumatic moments from our past and there is… some truth to that. For time does indeed help to remove the raw emotions we felt on that fateful day, and as we learn and grow over the years, we do indeed come to understand more about what happened to us and what it really meant for our lives. But the only problem with this particular line of thinking, is that it leaves out one important element when it comes to healing in that, at some point or another down the line, we have to confront and properly process our pain and our trauma, or it will continue to haunt us and surprise us when we least expect it.
 
Which is a notion that quite frankly, I did not expect to see in Star Trek. But it just so happens that the next episode of this series, ‘Obsession’, took the time to dive into that concept in unique fashion since Captain James T. Kirk ran into quite the surprise from his younger years. In fact, we came to learn in this tale that early on during his career aboard the U.S.S. Farragut, Kirk and the crew encountered a strange cloud-like entity that sucked every red corpuscle out of the humans it came in contact with and since a cloud is in essence unstoppable, it took 200 lives including the ship’s captain, a man named Garrovick. Now that’s a backstory that matters, simply because whilst on a survey mission in modern day, Kirk and some of his redshirts from the Enterprise just so happened to encounter this creature once again and that put Kirk in one unique place mentally.
 
For he firmly believed that this creature survived that initial encounter with the Farragut because he hesitated in firing phasers, which meant that Kirk felt it was high time to settle the score with this being, and he immediately put every resource toward fighting it, and that brought about a touch of conflict. Because the ship was supposed to rendezvous with the U.S.S. Yorktown to transport some critical and perishable medicine, and delaying that pickup, did not sit well with McCoy or Spock. But what matters more about this part of the story, is that the captain’s desire to defeat this creature at all costs is what brought forth the grand exploration into how the past can haunt us at inopportune times. Because Kirk’s inability to properly deal with what happened on that fateful day, allowed for notions of revenge to consume him, to the point where he even projected his pain and belief in failure upon the son of Captain Garrovick in the hopes of finding that all-important peace his soul required.
 
Which quite frankly, was a fascinating and unique place for Kirk to go. Because one would assume that a man as bright and as forward thinking as he is, would have taken the time to address this trauma in order to progress as a man and as a captain. But alas, Jim did no such thing and forged ahead in bullheaded style like so many of us would and I appreciate the fact that a hero like Kirk made moves and decisions that are supremely relatable, and while the story did finally force him to handle this matter after all these years, it did so in slightly disappointing fashion. Simply because he confronted it in the most machismo way imaginable, by killing this creature with impunity with Garrovick’s son at his side and while this works and makes for a cool image in the closing minutes of this tale, it does feel like a wasted opportunity.
 
For once again, the series could have dug deep into the human psyche and really explored the power of trauma in epic and powerful fashion. But it chose the easy way out and handling this kind of stuff in a topical manner on T.V., was a product of the zeitgeist of the times, since American men didn’t bother to work out their emotional problems in the slightest in that era. They instead fought it internally, or confronted it if that option was available, never once dealing with the root cause and while its disappointing we didn’t get more powerful and insightful moments with Captain James T. Kirk, the fact that this episode made a bold attempt to do so, makes it worthwhile in my book. If anything, this just speaks to the fact that this series was indeed well ahead of its time since science fiction wouldn’t start digging into these types of more powerful concepts for decades and it really is nice to see a more modern story in a show from the 1960s. Until next time.       

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