‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘The Savage Curtain’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Sometimes the best stories out there, are the ones that offer up subtle commentary. The kind that doesn’t present itself immediately and needs to be pondered upon, long after the episode has come to an end. Because stories that do that, were created with incredible care, the kind where the writer genuinely wanted to express something powerful and it just so happens that the next episode of Star Trek pulls off this particular feat in spectacular fashion. For ‘The Savage Curtain’ really does offer up some interesting and powerful commentary on mankind and where we currently are as a species and how far we need to go.
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But you wouldn’t realize that in the slightest once you dive into this episode. For this particular tale uses some phenomenal deception and misdirection to keep its thoughts hidden, by offering up quite the setting and mystery and outright surprise. For when we catch up with the crew of the Enterprise here, they’re handling a standard survey over a fiery planet that will soon be known to them as Excalbia, when the surprise in question comes their way. In that, shortly after an unexpected and deep scan of the ship, President Abraham Lincoln, magically appears on the viewscreen, and asks to come aboard. A request that Kirk is happy to grant, because well, how often does something such as this happen in the void of space? 

Yet while Kirk is fascinated by having a living legend aboard his ship, he knows full well there will be a price to pay for allowing him to tour the Enterprise and eventually Lincoln reveals that he would like Kirk and Spock to beam down to Excalbia to a specially created spot for reasons that are revealed shortly after they comply with his request. For it turns out that the Excalbians are quite curious about humanoid creatures, and notions of good and evil. And they would like Kirk and Spock to show them which notion is stronger by facing off against some of history greatest monsters, alongside Lincoln and a recreation of Vulcan’s greatest hero, Surak, and that is really where this mysterious commentary that was mentioned a moment ago gets underway.

For this episode quickly slides into violent and angry territory as our heroes face off against the monsters in question, which eventually forces a stalemate and a lack of answers for the Excalbians. Which makes it seem as though there is no commentary to be found here, because neither side proved whether good or evil is stronger, just that history and the victor, are the ones that views which is which. But in reality, the whole point of this excess violence was to hammer home the fact that the whole ‘ends justify the means’ line of thinking is incorrect, and that we need to work harder as species to make peace before war and consistently prove that good is something that can overcome any obstacle. Which is a lovely message to see injected into this story.

But while it is nice to find positive commentary in Trek at any given time, make no mistake about it, this was indeed handled in messy fashion. Because you’ll notice just from that summary we had to sift through a lot of wild and over the top moments and filler in order to get to the message. Which is unfortunately par for the course when it comes to this final stretch of the series. But at the same time, it is nice to have a wacky episode stay with you for reasons outside of disdain. Plus, one really cannot fault the show for trying to do something quite special with a story, so it does get credit for certain, for adding subtext and asking the audience to give the world their best. Because that is a message we can definitely do with right now. Until next time.

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