‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘The Galileo Seven’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

If there’s one thing that has always been a pet peeve of mine when it comes to science fiction, specifically stories involving space travel; it’s the sheer fact that a great many stories in this genre romanticize space travel and make it appear as though it’s supremely safe and routine. Because let’s be honest, space is not a safe place to go in the slightest, and that’s something we’ve unfortunately been forced to learn in the modern times since we have lost astronauts during missions. But my problem with this choice goes beyond a mere lack of grounding in reality, it comes down to the fact that by making everything seem routine about something so powerful detracts from a story and removes one from it, since a sense of the unknown and the potential of danger invests an audience in what they’re reading or seeing and that’s why I’ve always been such a fan of Star Trek as a whole, because this franchise never shies away from the danger.
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For the good people who serve in Starfleet put their lives on the line often in these tales, and we’ve even seen crew members lose their lives in the line of duty more times than any of us can count. But while the threat of harm is often in the back of our minds when we watch these shows, sometimes the saga decides to go all out in reminding us of just how dangerous things can be in the void, by putting the characters through absolute hell. And it just so happens that The Original Series decided to do such a thing with its next episode, ‘The Galileo Seven’, since this particular tale saw Spock and McCoy and Scotty and a few other crew members of the week, stranded on a dangerous planet with seemingly no hope for survival and that made for one fascinating and harrowing tale.

Because we see genuine panic from the shuttle crew in this story, and that’s just a rarity in this franchise since Starfleet officers are trained to handle anything under pressure. But by introducing this element into the story, we’re treated to a genuine human element that we can relate to, and we share in the crew’s worry and that’s only compounded further when we come to realize they’re not alone on this world. Yet while it seems as though the appearance of the angry giants that inhabit this world are designed to serve up a brutal tale that borders on hints of horror, that’s simply not the case. For as it turns out, this twist and the stranding of the crew in general was all part of a larger plan to explore a notion that is also rarely handled in the Trek universe; the perils of command and how those in charge are forced to make some powerfully uncomfortable decisions.

All of that, was handled by Spock’s journey in this tale, since he was the senior officer on the planet, and it was up to him to get the crew off of this rock and well, this vignette taught us two key things. The first lesson is that, command is a difficult venture and not for the faint of heart since the decisions a commander must make may cost people their lives, and they did in this case, and we also came to learn that there is no such thing as a perfect scenario when you’re in charge. For your opponent or the situation may change course on a moment’s notice and that was an important lesson for Spock to learn since it allowed for him to finally change his command style and a try a few new things in order to get his people home safely and it was quite cool to see Spock get a taste of what it means to be in charge since we now know some of what he learned here, he applied later on in his career in Starfleet.

But outside of that, this was a return to form for the show, one that quickly wiped away the cheesy nature of ‘Shore Leave’ since this one once again kept me on the edge of my seat and featured more of what we love about this franchise. Because it was wonderful to see Kirk push the search to the last possible minute, and defy the jerkface on his bridge that kept demanding he abandon the crew, and I loved watching people both in space and planet-side try and work together with mixed results to save lives. If anything, I suppose my only complaint when it comes to this story is how the crew of the shuttlecraft kept antagonizing and insulting Spock at every turn because uh, you all are Starfleet officers, you follow orders and really, outside of Scotty, no one offered up any good ideas when it came to their situation. So, this story once again provided us with some out of character moments. But one can just chalk that up to nerves and fear, so I’ll let that slide since this episode offered up so much more and once again, I’m excited to see what other powerful tales await us as the five-year mission continues. Until next time. 

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