star trek abraham lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln was a 19th century Human politician who served as the 16th President of the United States of America . As one of his duties as president, he served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Union Army from 1861 until 1865 during his country's civil war . ( TOS : " The Cage ", " The Savage Curtain ")

After Jonathan Archer restored a damaged timeline, Abraham Lincoln signing a document could be seen in the time stream as the timeline realigned itself. ( ENT : " Storm Front, Part II ")

A photograph of Lincoln was scanned by the Talosians as they reviewed the library computer files on board USS Enterprise in 2254 . ( TOS-R : " The Cage ")

As a boy , Lincoln grew up using a sling , was accomplished at wrestling , and became well developed as an experienced backwoodsman . ( TOS : " The Savage Curtain ")

The painting entitled First Reading of the Emancipation Proclamation of President Lincoln , depicting an image of Abraham Lincoln surrounded by his Cabinet members, Salmon P. Chase , Gideon Welles , Caleb B. Smith , William H. Seward , and Montgomery Blair during the first reading of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862, was contained in the library computer aboard the Enterprise . A second image overlaid the painting representing Lincoln's signature of the document. These images were also flashed on the viewscreen when the Talosians scanned the Enterprise computer in 2254. ( TOS-R : " The Cage ")

In 2259 , Pelia owned a print of Lincoln's Gettysburg Address . ( SNW : " Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow ")

Voters celebrate his victory in 1860

Scenes from Lincoln's election victory were among the images of Human history on Earth displayed by the Guardian of Forever . Contained in these images were voters carrying signs that read such slogans as: "Lincoln Wins!", "Lincoln and Liberty", and "Old Abe Lincoln: Came Out of the Wilderness." ( TOS : " The City on the Edge of Forever ")

Lincoln was a personal hero of James T. Kirk . In 2269 , the USS Enterprise encountered an image of Lincoln while in orbit of Excalbia , created by the Excalbians to help their understanding of the Human concepts of " good " and " evil ". After witnessing that Lincoln's "death", Kirk felt he understood something of what Earth had to endure before achieving "final peace". ( TOS : " The Savage Curtain ")

Paintings depicting portraits of both President Lincoln and Surak were hung in the USS Enterprise -A 's officers' mess in 2293 . ( Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

When Berlinghoff Rasmussen made clear that he couldn't tell Captain Jean-Luc Picard about the future, he compared the captain's situation to that of Abraham Lincoln, who might have changed his theater plans had he known what lay ahead of him. ( TNG : " A Matter Of Time ")

In 2380 , when Lieutenant O'Connor ascended, he mentioned Abraham Lincoln. ( LD : " Moist Vessel ")

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Appendices [ ]

Background information [ ].

A retconned drawing of Lincoln from "The Cage"

Lincoln on Mount Rushmore (right)

A matte painting created for a deleted scene from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier featured Lincoln's face on Mount Rushmore monument.

The script of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " The Homecoming " describes Li Nalas as having "a quiet self-effacing Abraham Lincoln/ Gary Cooper charisma."

Abraham Lincoln served as a visual inspiration for the look for David Warner 's character of Chancellor Gorkon in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country . According to Richard Snell , " Nick [Meyer] told me, 'When people look at Gorkon, I want their brain cells to go, "Abe Lincoln, because he's the savior of this race.'" The resemblance is almost subliminal. Warner's face was actually pretty conducive to Abe's distinctive beard and eyebrows. In fact, there's also a tie-in on set during one of the sequences where they're having a formal stated dinner, and you see a portrait of Lincoln on the wall. " ( Charting the Undiscovered Country: The Making of Trek VI , p. 91)

Kirk and the Enterprise crew encountered Abraham Lincoln again in the 1971 Gold Key comic book story " The Legacy of Lazarus ".

According to the Star Trek Encyclopedia  (4th ed., vol. 1, p. 465), Abraham Lincoln was born in 1809.

External links [ ]

• Abraham Lincoln at StarTrek.com
• Abraham Lincoln at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• Abraham Lincoln at Wikipedia
• 1860 presidential election at Wikipedia
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Recap / Star Trek S3 E22 "The Savage Curtain"

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Original air date: March 7, 1969

The One With… Abraham Lincoln IN SPACE!

Another day on the Enterprise , another new planet to explore. Excalbia will be explored from afar due to excessive amounts of volcanic activity. Kirk asks Spock if he detects any life forms. He actually detects a few, though there should be none. Oh well, obviously a computer error. Time to pack it in and call it a....is that Abraham Lincoln hovering in space? note  We are not making this up, okay?

He's posed just like his statue in the Lincoln Memorial, armchair and all. Somehow, he can not only exist in space but speak in the vacuum of space . He politely requests to be beamed aboard. Kirk beams him aboard with full presidential honors. He realizes there is no logical way this should be the Great Emancipator himself, but he'll play along anyway. Lincoln, still charmingly polite, requests Kirk and Spock to beam down to Excalbia with him. He cannot explain why, only that they must. Bones and Scotty think this is a very dumb idea. So of course Kirk's willing to do it! Spock declares he will accept the invitation too. And so they do.

On beaming down, they meet Surak, a Messianic Archetype from Vulcan history who makes Spock look like a Keet . They also meet a Rock Monster called Yarnek who wants to know if Good or Evil is stronger. To find out, he becomes Teddy Long and makes an 8-person Tag team match, pitting Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak against Genghis Khan , Zora (a Mad Doctor from Tiburon), Colonel Phillip Green (ecoterrorist and genocidal maniac from World War III ) and Kahless the Unforgettable ( Hero of the Klingons ). Why? Eh, why not?

The Savage Tropes:

• Yarnek is never named in dialogue, but is so named in the script. Even in the closed captioning, he's merely identified when speaking off-screen as "Excalbian."
• This episode would get a sequel of sorts in the novel Savage Trade , which develops the mindset of the Excalbians and reveals their true motives for staging this fight, as well as the aftereffects that set in after the Enterprise leaves.
• Artistic License – Biology : The rock monsters are stated to be carbon life forms, where silicon based life would make much more sense. Even more baffling is that silicon based life has appeared on the show earlier.
• Artistic License – History : The historical characters, most notably Lincoln, do not look or act much like their real counterparts. Justified, since they are based on Kirk's and Spock's images of these historic figures.
• Badass Pacifist : Surak refuses to take part in battle, even though Kirk insists the war they're fighting is for a just cause. Still, Surak insists on a peaceful negotiation with Col. Green. Even Kirk is moved to remark to Spock that "your Surak is a brave man", to which Spock replies "Men of peace usually are, Captain." Unfortunately, it gets him killed.
• Black-and-White Morality : Sums up the whole episode, with Yarnek the super power who wants to know if Good or Evil is stronger. Ultimately subverted — at the end, Yarnek expresses confusion because the distinction between the two isn't as clear as he'd been expecting, since Kirk's team also resorted to violence to win. Kirk explains the difference was in what motivated them: the villains were offered power, while Kirk and Spock were fighting for the lives of the Enterprise crew.
• Blatant Lies : Green tells Kirk that he would like to peacefully team up with Kirk against their common foe. It's all a deception to attack him when his guard's down.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality : Yarnek does not understand the concept of good and evil.
• Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu : Kirk decides he's going to slug Yarnek for what he put Spock and himself through. Yeah, punch the monster made of lava rocks, Jim. You'll have third degree burns on top of that broken arm!
• Captain Obvious : Yarnek tells Kirk "If you and Spock survive, you return to your vessel. If you do not... your existence is ended." Thanks for telling us, Yarnek! That's right up there with "People die if they're killed!"
• Characterization Marches On : Kahless is based on the Federation's conception of the Klingon hero, and it is (due to the political climate) both not terribly favorable and comparatively ignorant. If this episode were to be made in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Kahless would undoubtedly be on the good side along with Lincoln and Surak. Especially if Worf were one of the participants. note  The tyrant Molor, established as the true Big Bad in Klingon mythology, would have been a likely candidate for the evil side.
• Combat Pragmatist : Lincoln advocates fighting just as dirty as Colonel Green and his friends.
• Door Jam : Yarnek disables the Enterprise 's transporter until they show whether good or evil is stronger. This leaves Kirk and Spock stranded on an alien planet without the support of their crew, with only a pacifist alien and Abe Lincoln to aid them in fighting history's greatest villains.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good : Col. Green expects Surak's peace talks to be a trick. That's what he'd be doing if he tried to talk peace with someone. (In fact, he just did a few minutes ago.)
• Colonel Green to Kirk - Cunning human officers who easily take charge of their respective packs
• Zora to Spock - Alien scientists
• Kahless to Surak - each the greatest influencer of his race
• Genghis Khan to Lincoln - commanders-in-chief from human history
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : Of the six "historical" characters in this episode, only two are known to modern day humans. The others got their characterization expanded on in future Star Trek incarnations, save for Zora. Pity. It would've been interesting to see what a female Josef Mengele of the future would be like.
• Faux Affably Evil : Col. Green seems quite polite and soft-spoken, despite freely admitting to at least some of his bad historical reputation. His good behavior is quickly shown to be a diversionary tactic.
• Forced into Their Sunday Best : Bones and Scotty rankle at getting gussied up for someone who is probably not Abraham Lincoln.
• Good Cannot Comprehend Evil : Surak, Spock and President Lincoln have a hard time understanding the motives and actions of the opposing "evil" side. Only Kirk seems to have a grasp of their potential for deceptiveness and duplicity.
• Historical Domain Crossover : The Hero team is Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Abraham Lincoln and Surak of Vulcan. The villain team is Genghis Khan, the Klingon Kahless, Colonel Green and the Mad Scientist Zora. Everyone except Kirk and Spock are actually alien rock creatures masquerading as humanoids.
• Historical Hero Upgrade : Kirk's idealized picture of Abraham Lincoln is mostly based on the simplistic, idealized version of Lincoln that was popularized up to The '60s or even into The '70s . The dialogue at the end of the episode actually lampshades as Kirk acknowledges that the image of Lincoln was created out of his own idealization of what he wanted the man to be, not necessarily ignorance of actual history.
• Impromptu Fortress : Kirk and company find a raised outcrop of rock that he says will be their base of operations, because "it's defensible."
• Innocuously Important Episode : While the episode takes place too near to the end of TOS's run to count for anything in terms of that series, its introduction of Surak and Kahless (and to a lesser extent, Colonel Green) would have far-ranging implications for future spin-off shows.
• Innocently Insensitive : Lincoln casually refers to Uhura as a "charming negress". He quickly apologizes though Uhura isn't offended since bigoted terms like that are now only a thing of the distant past.
• Involuntary Battle to the Death : As in in "Arena", "The Gamesters of Triskelion", "Bread and Circuses", "Spectre of the Gun", and "Day of the Dove", Kirk is forced to fight for an alien's amusement.
• Kirk Summation : Kirk can't punch Yarnek, but he can give him a piece of his mind, demanding "What gives you the right to do this?"
• The Knights Who Say "Squee!" : Kirk and Spock are both pretty honored to meet their personal heroes. Spock even admits to showing emotion at the sight of Surak (albeit some of which was simple shock).
• Leitmotif : When Lincoln is beamed aboard, one of the security officers blows a bosun's whistle and they play a recording of "Hail To The Chief". Lincoln looks around and asks where the band is.
• Mirroring Factions : Played with. Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak represent Good; Colonel Green, Kahless, Khan, and Zora represent Evil. Yarnek complains afterward that he can't see the difference between them; Kirk responds by pointing out that they fought for different things: the evil side fought for power, while he and Spock fought for their ship and its crew.

• "Not So Different" Remark : Yarnek insists his method of exploration is no different from Kirk's. That's Blue-and-Orange Morality in action, folks.
• Patrick Stewart Speech : Kind of odd to have an example of this twenty years before Star Trek: The Next Generation began, but that's what it is: Yarnek complains that he doesn't see the difference between 'good' and 'evil'; Kirk points out that he and Spock fought to defend life, while the evil side fought to gain power.
• Rock Monster : The aliens who set up the morality play are made of carbon-based stones.
• The Silent Bob : Neither Genghis Khan nor Zora have any dialogue between them, with Colonel Green and Kahless being the only members of the Rogues Gallery who actually speak.
• Truce Trickery : Kirk points out to Colonel Green that he was notorious for striking his enemies while in the midst of negotiating with them.
• Two of Your Earth Minutes : The Excalbian recreation of Abraham Lincoln asks if they still measure time in minutes, to which Kirk responds that they "can convert to it". (Lincoln consults a pocket watch as he says this.)
• Voice Changeling : The fake Kahless is able to perfectly mimic the voices of both Surak and Lincoln. Possibly Justified in that all three are Excalbian impersonations and thus all their voices are "fake".
• What the Hell, Hero? : Relatively gently, but Bones and Scotty call out Kirk for being a fawning fanboy over Lincoln and not using common sense.
• We Come in Peace — Shoot to Kill : Green pulls this and assumes Surak is doing the same.
• White Male Lead : Col. Green instantly takes command of the villain team, with no less than Genghis Khan obeying his orders. There seems to be no reason for this except that he's the one white dude. The real Genghis Khan and Kahless (a member of a race that considers humans inferior) would not approve. Of course, their uncharacteristic behavior is slightly justified because they're not the real Genghis or Kahless.
• Would Hit a Girl : Spock has no problem laying his fists on Zora. Wouldn't you slug Ilsa Koch if you got the chance?
• Star Trek S3 E21 "The Cloud Minders"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek S3 E23 "All Our Yesterdays"

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Published Jan 27, 2013

One Trek Mind #60: Trek's Take On Lincoln

“It is a magnificent work of duplication.” So said Spock himself concerning Lee Bergere's representation of President Abraham Lincoln, as drawn from the collective memories and historical records aboard the USS Enterprise.Daniel Day-Lewis is currently on a grand tour of awards-collecting, getting all sorts of recognition for his portrayal of Abraham Lincoln. In his version, written by Tony Kushner and directed by Steven Spielberg (whoever those two are!) Lincoln is an ends-justify-the-means chess player with a determination to evolve society at whatever cost. He's a raconteur and a kind-hearted man. He also wears a ridiculously ostentatious hat. And, as it is in so many other ways, Star Trek had nailed this down over 40 years earlier!

Star Trek 's third season is loaded with land mines. Alas, the antepenultimate episode to air, “ The Savage Curtain ,” is one of them. I can't lie. It kinda stinks. (Nota bene: “ Spock's Brain ” does not! Look for a future One Trek Mind column defending this oft-maligned work of tremendous entertainment!) The episode tries to rehash an “ Arena ”-style battle on a strange planet, but this time as some sort of tag team between the forces of Good and Evil. It doesn't really work – but it isn't for lack of trying.After an opening that peeks behind the curtain of “just another day on the Enterprise,” Kirk is about to throw in the towel on his current assignment. The planet they are observing is just molten rock with no breathable atmosphere. “There's no intelligent life here,” Bones declares. Sulu gets the order to break orbit, but then… sensors go off. The ship is being probed. And an image appears on the viewscreen that is sure to make Star Trek skeptics snicker.Abraham Lincoln, seated as though he were in his Washington D.C. monument, is floating in the inky blackness of space. Indeed, I have a wisenheimer friend who doesn't much care for the “jumpsuit-fest,” as she calls it, that is our beloved franchise. “Is that the one where they hang out with Ben Franklin?” whenever I mention any episode.

It's not really Abraham Lincoln, obviously, but a projection from the highly advanced Excalbian rock creatures on the planet's surface. (And something of a prelude of forthcoming holodeck adventures.) Kirk demands that the “being,” whose scans read as human, be treated as though he were actually the savior of the Union. He certainly looks like Honest Abe, and acts the way we expect him, too. In the transporter room he shows wide-eyed fascination at taped music and politely, but deliberately, urges the security detail to put away their phasers. He's insistent in his position (that he is real, and not a facsimile), but is thoughtful enough to recognize that that is how others see him. (“For an illusion, my opponent carried a considerable punch. Oh, I forgot. You consider me an illusion, too.”)There's also a bit of business on the bridge that may give modern viewers pause, but in 1969 was absolutely on the right side of progress. Lincoln refers to Uhura as a “charming Negress,” then jumps to apologize for his time period's attitude toward people of color. Uhura (and Kirk) don't miss a beat. That business is so behind them that no offense could possibly be taken.

Soon the meat of the episode is laid out. Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and the Father of Vulcan philosophy, Surak, must play a deadly game of cowboys and Indians opposite projections of Genghis Khan, Kahless the Unforgettable (a character who'll get the second biggest retcon after Zefram Cochrane,) Zora of Tiburon and 21st Century World War III villain Colonel Green. (Notable is how much Colonel Green looks like a space ranger straight out of Tom Paris' Captain Proton holonovels.)

Lincoln and Kirk quickly slip into roles of Commander in Chief and General. Kirk darn near blushes when compared to Ulysses S. Grant, and we get a peek at some of Lincoln's tactical thinking. (Okay, “sneaking around back” isn't exactly genius, but they've got to express these things quickly and efficiently.) What's amazing is how, once we're in the heart of it, you actually do kinda buy that it is Abe Lincoln on the planet's surface.

Lincoln's demise comes with an axe to the back. Not a bullet, mind you, but a weapon thrown by Kahless, who was previously impersonating the voice of Surak. (So, he was an actor just like John Wilkes Booth, if you really want to extend the metaphor.)According to legend, Mark Lenard was originally offered the role. This would have made his third appearance after the Romulan Commander in “ Balance of Terror ” and Spock's father Sarek in “ Journey to Babel .”The role ultimately went to Lee Bergere, who would later find great success on TV's Dynasty . He was a journeyman actor, appearing in guest appearances on many shows as well as theater in New York and Los Angeles. He also pushed the envelope for gay rights playing one of the first openly homosexual characters on a television program, the short-lived 1975 situation comedy Hot L Baltimore .Did Daniel Day-Lewis crib everything for his portrayal of Lincoln from this episode? We can never know for sure. But I say yes. I also say he based There Will Be Blood 's Daniel Plainview on Gul Dukat and prepared for The Boxer by studying the sport of Anbo-jyutsu. Then again, I'm insane. Does Lee Bergere's performance as the 16th US President hold any special meaning for you? Sound off in the comments below.

_______________________________

Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com , ScreenCrush and Badass Digest . On his BLOG , Jordan has reviewed all 727 Trek episodes and films, most of the comics and some of the novels.

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Star Trek – The Savage Curtain (Review)

This July and August, we’re celebrating the release of Star Trek Beyond by taking a look back at the third season of the original Star Trek . Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the latest update.

Gene Roddenberry returns to Star Trek , to put the show to rest.

Two of the final three episodes of this third season originated with Roddenberry, putting paid to the idea that the veteran executive producer was entirely absent from the year. Roddenberry had departed the show at the start of the season, after issuing NBC with an ultimatum regarding the scheduling of his series. He had moved out of the Star Trek production offices and across the lot to develop his own projects. The standard narrative of the third season suggests that Roddenberry was no longer around to keep the show on the rails.

Holy space! Lincoln…!

This is untrue, in a number of respects. Roddenberry was involved in the production of the third season, just not as actively as he had been. He was responsible for commissioning and championing a number of early third season episodes inherited by Fred Freiberger, including Elaan of Troyius and The Paradise Syndrome . He had even used his remaining leverage to shamelessly try to shoehorn merchandise into Spock’s Brain and Is There in Truth No Beauty? He was also drawing an executive producer salary and nabbed two late-season production slots.

Of course, this argument also relies on the assumption that Roddenberry understood Star Trek better than anybody else. Roddenberry had created Star Trek , but he was not the singular vision behind it. Writers like Dorothy Fontana and producers like Gene L. Coon were as responsible for shaping the show as Roddenberry in many respects. Roddenberry might have talked a good game, but he was also a producer who believed that The Omega Glory would have made a good pilot for the show.

Legion of Doom!

If anything, there is something faintly damning about Gene Roddenberry’s triumphant return to the series at the end of its third year. Neither The Savage Curtain nor Turnabout Intruder are good episodes. In fact, the best thing that can be said about Roddenberry’s two final contributions is that The Savage Curtain probably isn’t quite as bad as And the Children Shall Lead or The Way to Eden . Still, both episodes feel regressive and awkward. Roddenberry’s writing is a reminder of just how far the show had come in the care of other producers.

However, at least The Savage Curtain is memorable.

Topping it all off.

Watched in quick succession, the third season of Star Trek can often feel like a fevered dream. It is a collection of iconic and memorable images, many of which lodged in the collection subconscious and which provide a frame of reference for both casual viewers and long-time fans. The third season often feels like a set of trivia rather than a sequence of stories, a mass of back story and iconography that fleshed out the Star Trek universe while providing very little in terms of classic episodes or memorable instalments.

The half-black/half-white aliens from Let That Be Your Last Battlefield . The kiss from Plato’s Stepchildren . The D-7 battlecruiser from Elaan of Troyius . The Romulan Commander from The Enterprise Incident . The space! hippies from The Way to Eden . The IDIC from Is There in Truth No Beauty? Kang as the prototypical Klingon in Day of the Dove . Memory Alpha from The Lights of Zetar . Kirk making out with an Orion Slave Girl in Whom Gods Destroy . The title of For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky .

Sulu perfectly captures the sensation of watching the third season.

The third season is packed with concepts and ideas that are often far more memorable than the episodes themselves. Three episodes from the end of the season, The Savage Curtain doubles down. This is an episode packed with ideas and concepts that would endure for the next fifty years of the franchise, fueling fandom’s imagination and stoking decades of conjecture. There are enough ideas suggested in this episode to inspire thousands upon thousands of pages of fan fiction, not to mention official Star Trek .

Three of the characters featured as minor players in this episode go on to make appearances in later spin-offs; Kahless the Unforgettable returns in Star Trek: The Next Generation while Green and Surak appear in Star Trek: Enterprise . The Savage Curtain has a phenomenally large footprint, especially for an episode that revolves around a plot as basic as “Kirk and Spock get involved in a Star Trek version of celebrity death match.” Its influence is keenly felt on the rest of the franchise, providing a lot of what modern audiences would call “world-building.”

“Doctor McCoy, make sure that the messhall hasn’t been serving any more of those space! hippie brownies again.”

“World-building” is a particular fascination for science-fiction, largely owing to the fact that many science-fiction stories unfold on planets or in times imaginary (or conjectural) to readers. It is not so much that other genres neglect the art of building a world, simply that they approach it in a different manner. As Brian McHale argues in En Abyme :

What science-fiction is particularly self-conscious about, moreover, is world-building. All fictions, of all genres, build worlds, of course – it is a minimal condition for their being considered fictions at all – but many types of fiction are obliged by genre convention to dissimulate their world-building, to pretend that their worlds are found, not made. Science fiction, by contrast, flaunts its world-building operations. It does so sometimes by conducting these operations in plain sight of the reader, through explicit exposition, and at other times by calling on the reader to undertake more or less complex inferential work – world-building by implication.

Star Trek built a world quite skilfully, laying out a blueprint in this original three-season run that would support hundreds of hours of spin-offs and a feature film franchise, to say nothing of licensed tie-in material. In short, Star Trek managed to build quite a world, one that is surprisingly robust and enduring. At times, it occasionally even seems like the writers might get lost inside that world.

Spearheads from space.

Jeff Prucher’s Oxford Dictionary of Science Fiction traces the modern use of the term back to the publication of Richard A. Lupoff’s Master of Adventure in 1965, but the concept predates that example by quite some margin. Lupoff was applying the phrase to the fiction of pulp writer Edgar Rice Borroughs, who wrote at the turn of the twentieth century. Other great examples include fantasy authors like C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien. However, the term’s cultural cache has increased significantly in the twenty-first century, as “franchises” and “universe” have become standard.

To be fair, Roddenberry was not the first writer to insist on world-building in Star Trek . Indeed, the early episodes of the show overseen by Roddenberry are notable for their relative lack of coherence; the crew never seems to know for whom they are working from week to week, while Vulcan is described as subjugated world at one point. It was only really with Gene L. Coon as producer and Dorothy Fontana that there came to be some measure of continuity between episodes and stories. ( The Enterprise Incident is a great example of organic world-building.)

Rocking their world.

Roddenberry’s approach to world-building was remarkably heavy-handed, in that The Savage Curtain literally dumps out a set of “defining” figures from three major Star Trek cultures through the plot device of a fight to the death between the forces of good-and-evil. It is not an approach that feels especially natural, not one that flows smoothly in the way that D.C. Fontana’s characterisation of the Romulans in The Enterprise Incident does or the way that Star Trek: Deep Space Nine fleshes out its Cardassian characters.

There is something inelegant in the way that The Savage Curtain just dumps out a whole host of key figures into the narrative, as if acting like a collection of footnotes to the franchise. The Klingons seem to be a pretty iconic part of Star Trek , so here is Kahless the Unforgettable resurrected without any context. The Vulcans had to have learned logic from somebody, so here is Surak. Star Trek has repeatedly and heavily implied that mankind had a pretty rough time of it in the later twentieth century, so here is Colonel Green.

Mean Green Machine.

In some ways, Roddenberry’s approach to world-building (in contrast with that of Coon or Fontana) speaks to his interests as a writer. Roddenberry’s interest in science-fiction is very old-school, as reflected in his writing. After all, Roddenberry had been very insistent that Star Trek feel like classic science-fiction, to the point of courting established and veteran science-fiction writers like Richard Matheson, Theodore Sturgeon and Harlan Ellison to write for the show. His influence would have been classic literary science-fiction, devoting pages to exposition and world-building.

This hints at one of the more interesting facets of Roddenberry, particularly in terms of the contrast between the mythology and the reality. The mythology of Roddenberry casts the writer as a progressive and liberal, somebody genuinely interested in new ideas and a better future. There is certainly ample evidence to support this reading, particularly in his later years. Indeed, Roddenberry’s novelisation of Star Trek: The Motion Picture comes close to being a utopian manifesto. However, there is also something very conservative in Roddenberry’s writing style.

“Captain, I certainly hope we can dedicate at least the first two acts to your protocol for visiting heads of state from countries that no longer exist.”

This conservatism is sometimes political in nature, as demonstrated by his scripts for A Private Little War or The Omega Glory . However, this conservatism was also reflected in his writing style and how he approached concepts like world-building. Roddenberry is particularly interested in detail and procedure as a way of making the world seem more tangible, perhaps reflecting his own military and law enforcement background. As Josh Marsfelder observes :

This is maybe Roddenberry’s fatal flaw as both a writer and a person: His positionality granted him a reverence for both the nuts-and-bolts of military procedure and of pulp science fiction, and he was frequently too self-absorbed and arrogant to realise that simply would not gel with the utopian idealism he rightly came to respect and value in Star Trek, and would not let anyone tell him otherwise. His further conflation of Star Trek’s idealism (really, the idealism of the Enterprise and her crew) with the idealism of the Federation and its world-building minutiae, a fallacy shared by the overwhelming majority of his fans, reveals the problem with science fiction and larger genre fiction writ large: Roddenberry thought the details and trappings were more important than the ideas (or perhaps it would be more accurate to say he thought they were one and the same), and that’s what blinded him to how much he hamstrung and held back Star Trek in spite of his noble intentions.

The Savage Curtain is a great example of this. The episode takes a surprising amount of time to get to the pulpy “Star Trek celebrity death match” premise, spending a significant amount of time on the processes and procedures that the Federation has in place for greeting an artificial construct of the sixteenth president of the United States. The episode revels in the dress uniforms and salutes, the diplomatic greeting and the guided tour.

“You know, we’d solve this a lot quicker if we hadn’t all had to go and get changed into our dress uniforms.”

Then again, the opening premise of “Captain Kirk meets Abraham Lincoln” is perhaps interesting enough to merit a few minutes of airtime by itself. Indeed, the most striking image of The Savage Curtain has nothing to do with Colonel Green or Kahless the Unforgettable. It is the teaser, which finds the Enterprise hailed by none other than President Abraham Lincoln. More than that, it gets hailed by President Abraham Lincoln positioned exactly like the Lincoln Memorial and seemingly floating in space .

It is an absurd image, one of the most ridiculous images in the fifty-year history of the Star Trek franchise. It is a moment that is easily mocked, to the point that it is almost impossible to do the image justice through description. The very concept of “Kirk meets Lincoln” is silly enough on its own terms, but nothing can prepare the viewer for the experience of sitting down, staring at the television set and watching an apparition of Lincoln who appears to fly through space on a rocket-propelled chair in his most iconic of poses.

Lincoln… IN SPAAAACE!

However, for all the absurdity, there is a lot to like about that image. Again, it is a reminder of just how iconic the third season of Star Trek can be, even when the show was hardly firing on all the thrusters. “Space rocket chair Abraham Lincoln!” has not latched on to the public consciousness in quite the same way that Bele and Lokai from Let That Be Your Last Battlefield , but it is an unforgettable image. No modern television show hoping to be taken seriously would attempt such a thing. However, there is an earnestness to the scene that is strangely appealing.

In many ways, this is both the strongest and the weakest aspect of Roddenberry’s writing. There is a sense that Roddenberry genuinely believes in what he is writing, and there is a complete lack of cynicism or irony to his work. In real life, many of Roddenberry’s decisions were highly questionable, from casting his mistress in a leading role in The Cage through to trying to shoehorn a piece of merchandise into Spock’s Brain and Is There in Truth No Beauty? through to drawing down an executive producer’s salary from a show that he knew to be in financial trouble while remaining distant.

The Green team.

However, there is very little irony or self-awareness in Roddenberry’s writing. The Savage Curtain is a great example of this. The first act effectively amounts to Roddenberry gushing over Lincoln through the character of James Tiberius Kirk. Roddenberry’s affection for the sixteenth president feels entirely genuine; after all, his mail-order company was called “Lincoln Enterprises” and Roddenberry’s interest in concepts like equality and utopian thinking suggest that Lincoln was always going to be a subject of fascination.

As strange as these early sequences are, there is something endearing about them. Kirk seems genuinely chuffed to have the opportunity to shake the hand of Lincoln, even though he is well aware that it cannot be the real Lincoln. Kirk pulls out all the stops, has his crew change into dress uniforms, and extends every courtesy to the being claiming to be Lincoln. Although the dialogue is suitably clunky and Lincoln seems like he wandered in from a postcard version of the nineteenth century, there is a certain hokey charm to the episode’s Lincoln worship.

All President and accounted for.

Interestingly, actor Mark Lenard was reportedly considered for the role of Lincoln. That would have been some interesting casting, if only because Lenard would have the played a different (and very distinctive) character in each of the show’s three seasons. Sadly, as Lenard told Starlog , it was not to be:

“I was doing a series at the time called Here Come The Brides in which I played 80-year-old Aaron Stemple, the resident bad guy/rich man. The Lincoln  segment came up about Christmas time when we had a slight hiatus, and I thought I could work it in. I had already played two roles on Star Trek and they were well received. But it turned out we just couldn’t work it in. I think we went back to work on the other series too soon, and instead of having the six or seven  days I would have needed to do the role, I only had three or four days.”

It is a shame, because it would have fueled years of fans (and pundits) tying Spock’s father together with one of the most beloved presidents of the United States; the juxtaposition would have been fascinating. Sadly, it was not to be.

All the President’s men… and Vulcans.

The veneration of Lincoln in The Savage Curtain serves to demonstrate Roddenberry’s limitations as a writer. Everything in the episode is drawn broadly, as one might expect in an episode about how an incredibly powerful alien has decided to explore the concepts of good and evil by staging an elaborate brawl using exemplars of each. This is an episode that assumes there is such a thing as absolute good and absolute evil , and that those two forces can be thrown together into a fist fight that will decide once and for all which idea is stronger.

The obvious inference from all of this is that the Excalbians (and Gene Roddenberry) have determined that Abraham Lincoln is an absolute good, that the sixteenth president stands as the very embodiment of virtue. The truth is naturally more complex than that. Lincoln is one of the most important Presidents of the United States. He is one of the nation’s most beloved leaders, whether among historians or political scientists or the public at large . However, he was not absolutely and unquestionably good.

“Captain, why did you suggest I put on a red shirt before beaming down?” “No reason, Mister President.”

Lincoln was a leader who was arguably more pragmatic than principled. Lincoln was responsible for suspending habeas corpus , the foundation of any democratic legal system . Lincoln deported his political opponents without due process . Lincoln arranged for the arrest of “irresponsible” journalists and the shuttering of newspapers critical of his administration . During the Civil War, the Union was responsible for any number of highly questionable acts. The conditions at Camp Douglas in Chicago were barbaric .

Lincoln becomes even more problematic in terms of race. Lincoln genuinely believed that white and black Americans were incapable of living together peacefully . Lincoln supported an original draft of the Thirteenth Amendment that would have prevented the North from outlawing slavery in the South . Lincoln wanted to deport freed slaves to British colonies . Lincoln was responsible to dislocating the Navajos and Mescalero Apaches from New Mexico, forcing them on an almost five-hundred mile march to their reservation in Bosque Redondo .

Whether or not he really is Lincoln is ultimately immaterial.

It is possible to qualify these criticisms. Lincoln did preserve the Union. Lincoln was a product of a different time. The Civil War truly was a singular moment in the history of the United States, and it is a minor miracle that the country survived the experience. Lincoln was a very important figure, who was responsible for a lot of great things and who defined his country. However, it is up to the given individual to weigh these various facets of Lincoln against one another; to decide how the scales balance in this case, if they can be balanced at all.

The Savage Curtain buys completely into this idea of Abraham Lincoln as the Platonic ideal of leadership. “I cannot conceive it possible that Abraham Lincoln could have actually been reincarnated,” Kirk confesses in his log at the start of the episode. “And yet his kindness, his gentle wisdom, his humour, everything about him is so right.” Lincoln’s biggest flaw in the episode is his use of the term  “negress.” While clumsy and awkward, it is certainly not the worst word that Lincoln ever used to describe an African American .

“Quick, reverse course before Nixon shows up.”

The portrayal of Lincoln in The Savage Curtain in some ways distills the character down to his most iconic attributes. Lincoln is funny, rugged, dynamic, charming. He even arrives with a top hat. If the audience at home were asked to conjure up a version of Lincoln from their imagination, it would likely resemble the version of the character who befriended Kirk in The Savage Curtain . To borrow a reference from another iconic part of the American popular mythology, Roddenberry has very much decided to “print the legend.”

In fact, the version of Lincoln introduced in The Savage Curtain is so very close to the popular conception of Lincoln that some people have trouble distinguishing this iteration from the real deal. space! Lincoln’s observation that “there is nothing good in war except its ending” has been repeatedly attributed to the real Abraham Lincoln. Governor George Ryan famously cited it in his address to Northwest University College of Law in January 2003 . Israeli television host Bar Refaeli made the same error in July 2014 .

Peak performance.

The truth is that the real Lincoln was not absolutely perfect. The truth is that “absolute good” does not actually exist, and the belief that it can take human form is potentially dangerous. A willingness to critically engage with the past is necessary if a society is to move forward. The only way to improve is to interrogate the past, and accept that things were never (and still are not) perfect. The notion of “absolute good” cannot be treated as something tangible, but instead must be seen as an aspiration; it is a journey, and not a destination.

If Lincoln is the episode’s conception of absolute and unquestioning good, it is worth reflecting on the depiction of absolute evil. With the notable exception of Colonel Green, there is an uncomfortably racial subtext to the foes assembled to oppose our heroes. Genghis Khan is treated as the worst human ruler in history, ahead of other obvious candidates like Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin. The episode’s most underdeveloped antagonist is Zora, who is presented as an Asian caricature with yellow skin and arched eyebrows.

Yes we Khan.

And then there is Kahless the Unforgettable. Day of the Dove worked very hard to suggest that the Klingons were a fully-formed culture, that they were a society with their own moral values and social codes. Kang was the first Klingon who seemed like a truly decent person, a fleshed-out character who existed as more than just an opponent for Kirk. Day of the Dove would inform the development of Klingon culture in later stories like Heart of Glory or Sins of the Father . However, Gene Roddenberry seems to have missed that particular memo.

The Savage Curtain seems to operate upon the assumption that the Klingons are incontrovertibly and undeniably evil. Kahless the Unforgettable is simply the blueprint model for Klingon treachery and violence. He is introduced as “the Klingon who set the pattern for his planet’s tyrannies.” There is no room for nuance here. Kahless is completely evil, and the Klingons are completely evil. By that logic, if Lincoln is completely good, does that mean that the United States is completely good? After all, Colonel Green’s origin is left decidedly ambiguous.

“The Kahless said, the better.”

All of this leads to a gloriously ridiculous and corny battle royale between the forces of good and the forces of evil. To be entirely fair to Roddenberry, he was not entirely responsible for the episode’s climax. As Arthur Heinemann explained to Starlog :

“Gene Roddenberry wrote half a script,” recalled Heinemann, “and I don’t know if he couldn’t figure out how to end it or got tired and had other things to do. He was in and out of the show at the time. His script was handed to me and I wrote the last two acts, and rewrote some of the first two. “I thought it was interesting, because the four greatest heroes in the history of the  universe were put up against the four worst. How could you end that thing except by having them fight? I tried to inject some sort of moral underpinnings to it by saying that  the good guys were fighting for the safety of  other people, whereas the bad guys were just fighting for the sake of fighting, for the  game. It was written toward the season’s end, and the final fight was supposed to take  place in a huge canyon, but they figured the daylight hours at the time weren’t long enough to shoot on location. So, they had to build rocks out of canvas and paint, and nobody could climb on them because you  would fall through. Maybe it was the only way to do it. Who knows?”

Still, it is not very hard to reconcile the climax of The Savage Curtain with Roddenberry’s other work. Episodes like A Private Little War and The Omega Glory had made it clear that Roddenberry believed that sometimes it was necessary for good to fight evil on its own terms.

… and carry a big stick.

After all, Roddenberry had repeatedly condemned outright pacifism through his work on Star Trek . Although nominally about the necessity of the Second World War, Roddenberry’s rewrite of The City on the Edge of Forever was also a defense of the United States’ involvement in Vietnam. As far as Roddenberry was concerned, there were cases where the ends justified the means, when violence and aggression had to be met in kind by those with the power to act. Roddenberry seemed skeptical of pacifism.

The Savage Curtain shares this view. The forces of good are represented by Surak and Lincoln. Lincoln is presented as a pragmatic hero, a man willing to lead a war in pursuit of what he believes to be right. In contrast, Surak is presented as a true pacifist. He is a man who abhors violence and believes that peaceful resolution can be found. Surak would have the members of his team line up like lambs to the slaughter, marching into the enemy’s den in the hope that they might broker a meaningful peace.

“Peace in our time.”

Naturally, Kirk sees that this approach cannot work. When Surak explains how his methods brought peace to Vulcan, Kirk simply responds, “Circumstances were different then, Surak.” Surak offers a principled objection, stating, “The face of war has never changed, Captain. Surely it is more logical to heal than kill.” Kirk is insistent, “I’m afraid that kind of logic doesn’t apply here.” However, Surak steadfastly refuses to compromise. “I will not harm others,” he states simply. It is a laudable idea.

However, Surak’s brand of pacifism is no match for true evil. Surak leaves to negotiate with the enemy, but is brutally murdered for his efforts. More than that, his attempt to negotiate is cleverly manipulated by Colonel Green. Kahless imitates Surak to call for help. Begging for help from Kirk and Spock in the voice of Surak, Kahless is able to lure Abraham Lincoln into a trap. The logic in all this is quite clear. Surak’s pacifism is a danger to everybody , not just to himself. It is a rather bleak and cynical message for a future Roddenberry would describe as utopian.

“I take my hat off to you, sir.”

To be fair, The Savage Curtain does temper its criticisms of Surak. It is clear that Roddenberry has some measure of sympathy for pacifism as a political doctrine. “Your Surak is a brave man,” Kirk confesses to Spock. Spock agrees, “Men of peace usually are, Captain. On Vulcan, he is revered as the father of our civilisation.” When Kahless imitates Surak so that he might lead the three remaining heroes into a trap, Spock at least credits Surak with more integrity. “A Vulcan would not cry out so.” Surak would not betray them as such.

Still, there is something uncomfortably absolutist in the way that The Savage Curtain embraces the idea of pure good and pure evil, arguing that anything that absolute good has to do in order to triumph over absolute evil can be justified as a necessary evil. This is the logic that underpins many of the show’s deeply uncomfortable Cold War episodes like Friday’s Child or A Private Little War or The Omega Glory , stripped back to its purest philosophical essence and expanded across forty-odd minutes of television. It is unsettling.

Spock ad-dresses the issue.

It is another example of how Roddenberry seemed to view the Star Trek universe in black-and-white, in contrast to many of the other better writers who had fleshed it out and developed it. As Eric Greene argues in The Prime Question , it is interesting to compare the version of Kirk written by Roddenberry to that written by Coon:

Roddenberry’s version of Kirk here was consistent with his Kirk in A Private Little War, who saw no solution but escalation. And yet this Kirk was a stark departure from the more resourceful and courageous Kirk who, in Gene Coon’s hands, found a way not to kill the Gorn in Arena, the Horta in The Devil in the Dark and Earp in Spectre of the Gun, who declared in A Taste of Armageddon that “We can admit that we’re killers, but we won’t kill – today.” It was Coon’s Kirk who so often ingeniously managed to “trick his way out of death” – who, fifteen years later, would so famously reject that “no-win scenario” and change the conditions of the test. By contrast, the Kirk in The Savage Curtain passively accepted the rules that had been made for him. When told he must kill or be killed, he killed. Put bluntly, Gene Roddenberry’s Kirk lacked the moral imagination of Gene Coon’s Kirk.

It is a reminder of the nuance that Gene L. Coon brought to the character of James Tiberius Kirk; a man who struggled with his own darker impulses in episodes like Errand of Mercy . In contrast, Gene Roddenberry’s script afford Kirk little opportunity for introspection or reflection; Kirk does what needs to be done, and never doubts.

Ready and Abe-l.

That said, there are some interesting elements to The Savage Curtain . One of the episode’s more underdeveloped ideas is a criticism of contemporary lowest common denominator television. Television was a subject of great interest to Roddenberry, who was frequently involved in very high-profile struggles with NBC and had already incorporated those struggles into his script for Bread and Circuses . Some of those same ideas play through into The Savage Curtain , with the suggestion that the Excalbians are effectively staging their own entertainment.

The theme is never properly explored, but it is definitely there. “Before this drama unfolds, we give welcome to the ones named Kirk and Spock,” the Excalbian boasts, putting an emphasis on the performative aspect of the conflict. Kirk responds by repeating the descriptor “drama” , inquiring, “What do you mean drama about to unfold?” The Excalbian treats the entire world like set, asking,  “You’re intelligent life form, but I’m surprised you do not perceive the honour we do you. Have we not created in this place on our planet a stage identical to your own world?”

Rocking their world…

There is something decidedly postmodern in all of this. When the Excalbian refers to the “planet” as a “stage” , he is entirely correct; the whole show is filmed on a set. When the Enterprise watch the drama through the viewscreen, they are cast in the role of the audience at home. As the villains sneak up behind Kirk, Sulu jumps right out of his chair as if the characters on screen might hear him. “Captain!” Sulu gasps. “How can we warn him?” There is an emphasis on the crew as observers, and on Kirk as an actor.

In many respects, this is a recurring theme bubbling through the third season as a whole. The third season is fascinated with the idea of performance and theatricality. Kirk is cast as Ike Clanton on what looks like a half-built set in Spectre of the Gun . The Dohlman must learn to act like a lady in Elaan of Troyius . The abstract sets in The Empath are theatrical. Kirk and Spock are treated as actors or props in Plato’s Stepchildren . Garth of Izar plays various roles and stages his own coronation in Whom Gods Destroy . The audience staring in The Mark of Gideon .

“He’s behind you!”

This metaphor and social commentary was more pointed in Roddenberry’s original outline for the episode, as quoted in These Are the Voyages :

The “Thing” has faceted insect eyes, strange fur, talons, etc. It speaks and introduces itself as “THE PLAYWRIGHT.” And from it, Kirk and Spock learn that they are here as part of a strange but very real drama which is now ready to begin. More than simply amusement, this alien form of theatre is the way in which the inhabitants of this planet get their knowledge, study other forms of life, educate their young, and decide what is usable and what is false in “alien” philosophies such as represented by the group of “actors” now on stage.

In the original outline, the idea that the Excalbians are staging their own version of network television is much more pronounced than in the broadcast version of the episode.

Planet terror.

Of course, there is something quite muddled in the metaphor at the heart of The Savage Curtain . The episode never entirely condemns the Excalbians for staging such a brutal and sadistic form of theatre. After all, Kirk does not subvert or undermine their expectations like he did in Arena or Spectre of the Gun . Instead, Kirk plays along and everything works out for the best. Good is proven to be stronger than evil through brute force, which almost serves to justify staging the conflict in this manner.

Indeed, if The Savage Curtain is to be considered a criticism of network television, then it is also a criticism of Star Trek itself. After all, the Excalbians bring Kirk to the planet so that he might impart a valuable moral lesson to them through a theatrical display. “We offer you an opportunity to become our teachers by demonstrating whether good or evil is more powerful,” states the Excalbian. Isn’t this exactly what Star Trek does at its most philosophical? Josh Marsfelder very effectively summarises the franchise’s approach to social issues as “children’s television for adults.”

Sticking it out.

This sense of confusion is perhaps reflected in the rather sterile nature of the violence on display. The Excalbians never seem like monsters because they never actually kill anybody. They threaten to kill Kirk and Spock, not to mention the Enterprise. However, the characters who actually die are all artificial constructs. It is suggested that the “actors” like Lincoln and Green are actually fashioned from rock, little more than puppets in some crooked entertainment. The Excalbians never hurt anybody and they learn a lesson? Where’s the harm in that?

This is reinforced by the rather tame nature of the violence on display in The Savage Curtain . The episode seems to revel in the action as much as the Excalbians, which makes any attempt at criticism seem shallow and hypocritical. More than that, the actual violence on display is fairly tame; even by the standards of the original Star Trek . There is nothing in The Savage Curtain quite as visceral as the fight between Kirk and Khan in Space Seed or Kirk and Spock in Amok Time . It all feels very tame, almost like playing.

“Spock, when you record this in your log, please don’t mention that I got Lincoln killed.”

To be entirely fair to Roddenberry, the writer actually vocally advocated for more powerful portrayals of violence on television as part of his larger objections to violence in real life. He told Penthouse :

I’m not against violence. I think violence is a part of our life and our world. I’m against its being used for violence’s sake, improperly motivated and improperly depicted. I am not against depicting a fight between two men in which one man gets hit in the mouth by the other man because that is part of the life we lead and that is a dramatic subject and can be part of a statement you’re making. What I am against is the fact that in a typical Western a guy gets hit in the mouth and he reels back and he hits the other guy in the mouth and they go at it. I know from my own life, when a large man hits another man full in the mouth with his fist, teeth are going to break, lips are going to be cut open, and I think if this happened the ugliness of it would tend to eliminate violence.

Of course, The Savage Curtain is nowhere near as violent as all that, owing to network censorship and contemporary sensibilities. But the point stands; Roddenberry was not himself opposed to violence as a tool of commentary.

Klingon to power.

To be fair to Roddenberry, he has a legitimate point. Television and film frequently sanitise violence so as not to upset audiences at home. Violence is considered quite acceptable in family entertainment , much moreso than sexuality . However, the violence favoured for these sorts of films is inevitably clean and death is quick. Gunshot wounds are not messy in these films and television shows, there is no lingering upon the consequences of these acts. Audience members are encouraged to accept violence as something with which they might be comfortable.

To pick an example, The Hunger Games features a young girl is impaled with a spear, but who dies in a clean and respectable manner. The scene is shot and edited so as to ensure minimum discomfort for the audience watching the film, ignoring the fact that such a death should be visceral and shocking and nightmare-inducing. It should be harrowing and unsettling, rather than something that is normalised. It is interesting to wonder, for example, if the place of the gun in American popular mythology has some correlation to the country’s high levels of gun crime .

Putting the “man” in Emancipation Proclamation.

If The Savage Curtain is to play as a criticism of violence in media, it needs to be willing to commit to the idea. Instead, The Savage Curtain occasionally feels like a very strange live-action role-play in which a variety of players have decided to show up as classic Star Trek characters and figures from world history. There is a certain goofy charm to the idea, but certainly not enough to exist the weight that is hung on the idea either as statement on the eternal battle between good and evil or as a criticism of contemporary television.

The Savage Curtain is also notable for Roddenberry’s decision to firmly embrace the utopian themes bubbling through the third season as a whole. The first two seasons of Star Trek were not necessarily utopian in outlook; mankind had survived into the twenty-third century, but there were still problems to solve and challenged to face. In contrast, the third season adopted a much more optimistic outlook, repeatedly suggesting in episodes like The Empath and Day of the Dove that mankind had evolved to a point where every problem had been resolved.

“Spock, I couldn’t help noticing that you didn’t wish that I live long and prosper?” “Well, the odds seem to be against it.”

When Lincoln accidentally refers to Uhura as a “negress” , she is very cool with that. “But why should I object to that term, sir?” she asks. “You see, in our century we’ve learned not to fear words.” Mankind has fulfilled its potential. Human beings are truly unique and special. In fact, the Excalbians are hoping to learn from human example. The Savage Curtain seems to imply that concepts like “absolute good” and “absolute evil” are exclusively human and that Kirk and Spock can be comfortably slotted in the “absolute good” column.

It is very much a short hop from this perspective to the approach that Gene Roddenberry would take in his novelisation of The Motion Picture . It is also a short hop from there to the suffocating preachiness of The Next Generation episodes like The Last Outpost , Lonely Among Us and The Neutral Zone . With all of that in mind, The Savage Curtain is notable for being the first Gene Roddenberry script to really embrace that aspect of the franchise that has been bubbling through the third year as a whole.

“Well, at least Gene Roddenberry’s next script has to be better. Right?”

The Savage Curtain is a memorable and distinctive episode of Star Trek , like many of the episodes around it. However, it is also not very good, also like many of the episodes around it.

You might be interested in our other reviews from the third season of the classic Star Trek :

• Spectre of the Gu n
• Elaan of Troyius
• The Paradise Syndrome
• The Enterprise Incident
• And the Children Shall Lead
• Spock’s Brain
• Is There in Truth No Beauty?
• The Tholian Web
• For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
• Day of the Dove
• Plato’s Stepchildren
• Wink of an Eye
• That Which Survives
• Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
• Whom Gods Destroy
• The Mark of Gideon
• The Lights of Zetar
• The Cloud Minders
• The Savage Curtain
• All Our Yesterdays
• Turnabout Intruder

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: colonel green , gene roddenberry , kahless the unforgettable , moral absolutism , racism , star trek , the savage curtain |

25 Responses

The person who interviewed Leonard Nimoy for the Archive of American Television talked excitedly about “the episode where you got to meet Lincoln,” and Mr. Nimoy gently replied, “Er, yes, but that wasn’t one of our better episodes.” Too true. 🙂

I really wish that Surak had been handled better. Here he is, the founder of Vulcan as we now know it, and he’s portrayed as someone too stupid to know that bad guys are bad. We’ve had people on Earth who used non-violent resistance to effect change; show us a Surak who resembles Martin Luther King or Gandhi, not one who doesn’t seem to truly understand the situation.

I see so much veneration of Roddenberry that your reviews are quite refreshing. Yes, we wouldn’t have had Star Trek without him, and we are quite grateful to him for that. But the episodes that he, himself, wrote were mostly awful; it took Coon and Fontana to enable Star Trek to live up to its promise. Thanks for giving us a more nuanced version of Star Trek history than the Roddenberry worshipers do.

Ah Nimoy. Harsh, but entirely fair.

Every once in a while, I do worry that I might be too harsh on Roddenberry. After all, Star Trek is his show. However, I think think about The Omega Glory and Assignment: Earth, or The Savage Curtain and Turnabout Intruder, and I don’t feel so bad.

I do think that he had some genuine epiphanies in later life. I do believe that he created something that means a lot to a lot of people. I do believe that his vision of a future in which mankind has not blown itself up is inherently worthwhile. However, all of that is weighed against his reactionary tendencies, his constant screwing over of the people around him actually doing the hard and good work, his weak storytelling instincts, and the cult of personality that he built around himself.

I do hope that I don’t seem overly malicious towards him, but I do think that there needs to be some readjustment of the public perception of Roddenberry.

No, I don’t think you’re too harsh on Roddenberry; your reviews usually have that “more in sorrow than in anger” tone. 🙂

And public perception wouldn’t need so much adjustment if Roddenberry himself hadn’t propagated the “lone visionary” view of Star Trek , rather than the “it takes a village” view of Star Trek . People wouldn’t HAVE to set the record straight if he hadn’t been shading the truth so much to begin with!

I guess Roddenberry’s portrait of himself is consistent with his portrait of Kirk — a great hero — whereas our view of him is more like Coon’s portrait of Kirk — a man who truly was great in some ways but who was deeply flawed in other ways. I figure this is totally consistent of us. 😉

Ha! I think there’s more than some measure of truth to that.

I always found it amusing how Kirk and Spock’s idols are killed so easily. I can’t help but wonder if this is Gene Roddenbery’s way of telling fans that the show will be over soon, and thus their heroes will also soon be gone. It would fit with the season’s focus on mortality that you have observed. “This conservatism is sometimes political in nature, as demonstrated by his scripts for A Private Little War.” This might be a conservative episode now, but my dad said that at the time to see on mainstream television a depiction of the Vietnam War as not the clear cut right thing to do was startling. The episode aired just three days after the beginning of the Tet offensive, and up until that point the vast majority of Americans supported Vietnam unquestionably. I believe the number was around 70%.

Yep. In a way, Lincoln and Surak are ersatz Kirk and Spock; all-American hero and cold logical Vulcan. So there’s probably some truth to that.

A Private Little War doesn’t necessarily say that Vietnam is the right thing to do, but certainly says it’s the necessary thing to do. It makes Kirk’s compromises seem noble, sacrifices of his own conscience for the greater good. It’s like In the Pale Moonlight, in a way, but without the layered irony of that brilliant closing scene in which Sisko lies to himself and the audience.

Very interesting review Darren.

I was going to complain that ‘Turnabout Intruder’ is very memorable too, but on reflection that might be more because it took a popular and still much used sci-fi and fantasy comedy subgenre (the ‘body/gender swap’) and played it bizarrely straight. ‘The Savage Curtain’ is probably much more tied into ‘Star Trek’.

The depiction of Lincoln chimes very much with some of the Silver Age comics I’ve read where historical American heroes are essentially saints. I’m thinking espcially one Superboy story from 1960 where young Clark Kent travels back in time to save Lincoln and bumps into Lex Luthor who is hiding out in the past. Lex paralyses Superboy with a gizmo, unintentionally dooming Lincoln. Once he realises what he has done Lex is stunned and horrified, mumbling about how sorry he is to have Lincoln’s blood on his hands – in other words Abraham Lincoln is so saintly even the diabolical supervillain/cake thief Lex Luthor would never dream of hurting him.

I like the “comic book Lincoln” comparison. Indeed, you could argue that the entire episode is basically “Secret Wars” for the Star Trek universe.

All that matters is whether you believe the legend of Abraham Lincoln. If you believe the legend, then there can be no doubt Scotty welcomed him aboard the Enterprise while wearing a kilt. If you do not believe the legend then he was just a man and it does not matter what Scotty wore.

A curious way this episode has lived on is via MST3K, where they frequently quote “Help me, Spock” in a flat monotone.

Considering all that Next Gen and DS9 revealed about Kahless, wherein he is the depicted as the epitome of Klingon honor, it’s very tempting to consider his appearance here a manifestation of Kirk’s prejudices against Klingons – that to him the greatest Klingon must be one of the most evil men who ever lived. Similarly, Kirk’s hero worship of Lincoln removes all blemishes from his character; how would the Excalbians know any better? I think this is something you were alluding to.

… and people say that the racism Kirk demonstrates towards the Klingons in The Undiscovered Country is out of character!

(Also, those people have clearly not watched Kirk interact with Klingons in episodes like Errand of Mercy or Friday’s Child. And that’s BEFORE his son was brutally murdered by a Klingon.)

Someone else previously made a comment along the lines of “Season Three seems almost geared towards young viewers, and some episodes probably left such a positive impression because they were first seen by most people when they were young.” Or something like that. Sorry, I’m paraphrasing.

I definitely identify with that sentiment. I remember watching “The Savage Curtain” in the early 1980s when I was around six or seven years old, and I thought it was great. Kirk and Spock team up with Abraham Lincoln to fight against the greatest villains in existence! How could you possibly get any more awesome than that?

And then, of course, I re-watched this episode a decade or so ago, and I realized that it was NOT actually all that good. The Excalbians come across as, I don’t know, naïve or simple-minded or unimaginative to believe that A) good and evil exist as absolutes and B) you can figure out which one is “stronger” by staging a massive fist fight.

It’s very clear, as Michael Hoskin comments above, that Lincoln, Surak, and the various “bad guys” are all conjured up by the Excalibans solely based on the information, and subjective opinions, in Kirk and Spock’s memories. How do the Excalbians expect to create accurate simulations of figures who have been dead or hundreds of years based solely on what Kirk and Spock happened to have read in some history books? As we would later find out when we meet his clone in TNG, Kahless is absolutely nothing like the figure manifested here. It’s obvious that the “Kahless” created by the Excalibans is based solely on the fact that Kirk has heard that this guy founded the Klingon Empire, and since regards the Klingons as a bunch of savage conquerors Kahless must have been a treacherous monster.

Likewise, as you observe, Lincoln was not a figure of pure good. Many of his actions are still hotly debated by historians today.

It’s such a ridiculous idea, thinking you can prove what’s stronger, good or evil, by conjuring up simulations of historic figures from flawed, biased memories, and having them slug it out. I mean, just imagine if the Excalbians had kidnapped a member of the Tea Party for their little experiment. The result probably would have been “good” represented by Ronald Reagan in full cowboy regalia heroically riding around on a while horse, and standing in for “evil” would probably be a cackling Hillary Clinton drinking the blood of newborn babies while gleefully deleting top secret e-mails.

I think I made a similar point about TOS S3 having a very “children’s television” quality to it and that perhaps explaining how it became iconic while not always being very good, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some of my regular commenters beat me to the punch.

And you’re right about about the goofy childish appeal of the premise. As much as I dislike The Savage Curtain – and I really dislike it – it gave us the image of Abraham Lincoln travelling through space in his rocket chair. Okay, that’s not what the image was supposed to literally represent, but it’s how I remember it.

This is definitely “Masters of the Universe” style children’s entertainment here. It’s baffling how Roddonberry desperately wanted Star Trek to be taken seriously while writing an episode about an archetypal Lincoln in space involved in a good vs. evil fight that would’ve fit just fine in a contemporary DC or Marvel comic book.

Hi, I recently discovered your blog, and I appreciate your detailed commentary on the Trek episodes, and I agree with many of your opinions. Personally, though, I’m quite fond of The Savage Curtain.

I disagree that it promotes the idea of absolute, universal good and evil, or that it claims Lincoln was perfect or Kahless wholly evil. The whole premise is that the Excalabians do *not* share humanity’s (or Vulcans’) notions of morality, and are curious about them — and of course the characters they conjure up are not historically accurate, because they are culled from Kirk and Spock’s imaginations. If memory serves, Kirk even lampshades the question of how such characters could be anything but exactly what Kirk and Spock expect. Naturally, Kirk and Spock consider themselves to be on the side of the angels. And even if they are not bigoted against all Klingons (that would come after Star Trek III for Kirk), it’s not surprising that they hold the violence- and vengeance-ridden Klingon philosophy in contempt (especially in the politically tense days of the original series), and would literally embody that philosophy in a caricature of Kahless. It’s similarly not very shocking that Kirk and Spock hold Genghis Khan in contempt

For the producers to have dressed up actors as Hitler or Stalin would have seemed unthinkably awkward or tasteless so soon after those real world events. Personally, I’ve always considered it a cop-out that Genghis is the only real world figure on the baddies’ side, but this was no doubt done to keep offensiveness to a minimum. Rightly or wrongly, to an American audience at that time, the name Genghis Khan, like Attila the Hun, would have been synonymous with “ruthless conqueror.” And it’s notable that he is really given nothing to do in the episode, except be prent as the token real world figure that Kirk and Spock both deeply dislike.

I agree that the moral of the episode, that in time of war, good and evil use much the same tactics, and their respective goals are the chief distinction between them, is both troubling and highly debatable. And yet, the way the Excalabians have set this up, I think Kirk is right that there isn’t much alternative. His opponents were created specifically to be evil — you can’t appeal to the better nature of an artificial being specifically designed not to have a better nature, as Surak discovered. And even that part is logical — Surak and the other phantasms act on the assumption that they and their opponents are real, while Kirk and Spock are the only ones who know better.

Oh, and as for Zora, it really didn’t strike me that she was supposed to be Asian. I always thought she was supposed to be look like a stock Halloween witch (hence, of course, “obviously evil”).

I don’t know, though. I think there’s a marked difference in the way that Arena approaches the same concept as The Savage Curtain. And I do think that Arena does it a lot better. I just don’t see a lot in Roddenberry’s work (before the novelisation of The Motion Picture) that is willing to call Kirk out or challenge him, or to present him as anything other than an absolute good. Which I think pushes the episode towards that discomforting absolutism; yes, the historical characters are exactly as Kirk imagines them, but Kirk is a good and reliable guy, so why not go with that?

On a minor point, I do think there’s a debate to be had about whether Kirk is/was bigotted towards Klingons before/after Star Trek III. As with a lot of TOS (and television in general), it varies from episode to episode. However, there is certainly some suggestion of it in episodes like Errand of Mercy or Friday’s Child; particularly in the way that Errand of Mercy makes it clear that Kirk is as guilty of perpetuating the hate as the Klingons. (On the other hand, I freely admit that episodes like The Trouble With Tribbles or Day of the Dove suggest that Kirk may have something closer to a “live and let live” approach.)

At the same time, I don’t want to sound too harsh on The Savage Curtain. I do genuinely and unironically love space! Lincoln.

As for calling the Excalabians out for their actions, it’s hard to condemn someone for wrong behavior when they admit up front that they don’t understand the concepts of right and wrong, and want to learn.

That’s fair, but “I want to learn” only goes so far as an excuse. “… so I thought we’d talk about it,” seems a reasonable response. Albeit one that makes for much less satisfying television. “… so I resurrected a bunch of historical figures, threw you into a fight to the death, and threatened your entire ship,” seems a bit… less so. I like to imagine a version of the episode where Kirk casually responds, “So… you were asking about evil, then?”

🙂 Yeah, that would have been a good response to them. “Well, you’ve provided yourselves with a nice example of evil.”

At risk of reading too much into it (heaven forfend), the fact that the crew keep getting sensor readings off the historical figures that look like the native rock creatures, while the figures appear to believe they’re the real articles, makes me wonder if the Excalabians have quite the same concepts of individuality and identity that we do. If they do not, that would go a long way toward explaining why our morality seems strange to them.

For what it’s worth, even as I defend Kirk’s actions in these particular circumstances (after all, as in Specter of the Gun, is the well-being of illusions even worth considering?), I’m not comfortable with the story’s claim at the end that our ends define our moral rightness more than our means do — but I give the story credit for making me think about the matter.

Yeah, I’d agree that Kirk had some level of prejudice against Klingons in the original series, but the death of his son made it much worse.

Oh, and one totally unrelated thing that I like about this episode is that, unlike the Horta, the Excalabians are temperature extremophiles, something a silicon-based biology would probably require.

If Lincoln and company were all created by rock man, why do Kirk and Spock have to be real? This was the flaw in the scripting. There was one aspect of ST writing that grew tiresome: the superpowered aliens with god-like mental abilities. Trelaine, the Metrons, the aliens in Spectre of the Gun, the various energy beings (the hate sucker in Day of the Dove, the Gamesters, Sargon, etc.)

I’m hesitant to defend the episode too much, but I think that it’s all drawn from Kirk and Spock? As in, Kirk and Spock are the focus of this experiment and everything else is extrapolated from them? That’s why the characters they face are all drawn from their own frame of reference. At least, as far as I can tell.

The worst episode of Star Trek for far, it is a shame!! Terrible script, nonsense, anticlimax, absourd fight, Nothing have any sense…

I don’t know if I’d go that far, especially considering that Turnabout Intruder is right around the corner.

this episode is the most embarrassing of the entire season; a bug-eyed rock creature with clippers, ie a foam rubber costume with a guy inside, is laughable, to the pt of crying at what the show has descended to; a parody of sci-fi, the worst that for 3 yrs ST tried, often with sublime success, to overcome; almost saying, if this is what u think sci-fi is all about, then that’s what we will give u; depressing, a sick joke, a sad penultimate ending, a blight that is seemingly unrecoverable (except that as 1 out 79, pure garbage, totally forgettable and loseable, it can be mostly erased from thought as Errand of Mercy, Last Battlefield, Amok Time, Deadly Years, Taste of Armageddon, Ultimate Computer and so many other brilliant, inspired, excellent episodes will forever be able to impress us.

Oh, it’s bad. But I’m hardpressed to consider it that much worse than, off the top of my head, Elaan of Troyius , The Paradise Syndrome , … And the Children Shall Lead , The Way to Eden , Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and other stories in this season.

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Trek Tapestry

“the savage curtain”.

After encountering Abraham Lincoln ( Lee Bergere ) floating in space (for realz) the crew beams him aboard. He sort of seems like the genuine article and he vaguely tells Kirk that the answers about him are on a nearby planet the ship was exploring. Upon beaming down, Kirk, Spock and Lincoln are joined by Surak ( Barry Atwater ), the father of the Vulcan people. Then, some weird rock things who live on the planet tell our heroes that they have to fight recreations of four evil figures from history. The bad guys include Genghis Khan ( Nathan Gung ) who really likes to throw rocks; some weird witch woman, Zora ( Carol Daniels ) not to be confused with a witch-ay woman ; Kahless the Unforgettable ( Robert Herron ) essentially, the Klingon messiah who apparently doubles as a voiceover actor; and Colonel Green ( Phillip Pine ) a notorious figure from 21st-century Earth. All the historical figures are recreations (I guess?) and the rock creatures want to examine the difference between good and evil. After a bunch of by-the-numbers fight scenes where Kirk and Co. win, but don’t kill the bad guys, they learn that it’s mercy or something.

Why it’s important

As goofy as this episode is — it seems like something straight out of The Animated Series — it introduces two (possibly three) key figures in the history of Star Trek. Both Kahless and Surak appear in second-generation Trek (Kahless in TNG’s “Rightful Heir” and later references and Surak in the fourth-season Vulcan arc in “Star Trek: Enterprise”). Colonel Green, while certainly not a messiah figure, is an important guy in Earth’s history. He pops up in a recording in “Terra Prime” at the end of the fourth season of “Star Trek: Enterprise,” and it turns out he’s a sort of hero to the Earth-for-humans movement because he euthanized a bunch of people deformed by radiation during World War III. Yay!

Now, I’ll give the creators props for sticking with some continuity. It wouldn’t be unheard of for a character like Surak or Kahless to be introduced (particularly in the waning days of TOS) only to be forgotten. Garth of Izar , was introduced in TOS’s third season as the “model” for starship captains and an important historical figure. But we never hear of him after that episode.

(In another example, Kirk, Spock and McCoy meet the  immortal human  Flint — who had been Solomon, Alexander the Great, Merlin, da Vinci, Brahms and possibly others — in “ Requiem for Methuselah ,” arguably the weirdest episode of TOS. We won’t review it as it’s not part of any additional Star Trek lore. But it’s worth a watch because its premise surrounds a very, very interesting concept. Unfortunately, the creators decided to take it in a bizarre direction, in which the immortal Flint builds an android to be with him and tries to use Kirk to get her to learn to love, or something. Kirk and the android fall for each other, Flint and Kirk fight over her, the android dies and Spock later removes Kirk’s memories to help with his heartbreak! Oh, and all of this happens in the span of THREE HOURS as Kirk, Spock and McCoy work with Flint to get a drug from his planet to save a dying Enterprise crew. Even stranger, there appears to be no effort after this episode to contact Flint. Given Spock’s statements in other episodes about the opportunities for research, like the planet killer in “The Doomsday Machine” or the weird aliens in “Catspaw” , it’s odd that they just walk away from Flint. Of course, they did something similar in “Metamorphosis.” )

Of course, Surak, Green and Kahless are all very different the next time we see them — with a special emphasis on Kahless …

What doesn’t hold up

Surak sure looks different (and dresses differently) than he does in Enterprise as does Green. But that’s really not a big thing. The transformation of Kahless, however, is kinda nuts. Here, he dresses like the 23rd-century Klingons we see in TOS, he doesn’t have forehead ridges or long hair (undermining the genetic experiment explanation for Klingon foreheads from Enterprise) he can mimic voices in the stylings of Lt. Commander Data and (probably most importantly) he’s characterized as an evil dude who inspired all the “tyrannies” the Klingons would go on to commit. Oh, and he’s totally subservient to Colonel Green. Weird.

By the time we see Kahless in TNG — or, rather, a clone of Kahless who is made to act like the genuine article — he’s not an evil guy, he has forehead ridges and dresses in garb that’s not out of a 23rd century JC Penney on Kronos. And he has no (apparent) ability to be the Klingons’ very own Mel Blanc . This is actually a case example of how Klingons went from mostly evil, treacherous bastards in TOS and the movies (think Kruge in “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock” ) to honorable warriors in TNG and DS9 (Worf, Martok, etc.). There were some tweeners over the years, like Kang, Gowron and Gorkon. But retconning a character previously equated with Genghis Khan into a mostly good dude? It’s pretty laughable.

I’ve heard the theory that the rock dudes in this episode generated Kahless from what Kirk thought Kahless would be like — which means Kirk heard the name and drew his own conclusions or read a very biased history on the Klingons (does D’Nesh D’Souza write about Klingon history?). But writing the Kahless inconsistencies off as a flaw in Kirk’s version of him is weak sauce, especially because the rock dudes generated Surak, someone Kirk had never heard of (which, by itself, is pretty ridiculous, as it makes Kirk look like a real idiot). Did they pull Surak from Spock’s mind but everyone else from Kirk’s?

Final thoughts

Well, we say it in our About Us page . Reviewing an episode doesn’t mean we endorse it. “The Savage Curtain” certainly isn’t the worst episode of TOS and it’s arguably not even in the bottom five of TOS’s infamous third season. As hokey and goofy as some of it is, it has some zip to it and some decent dialog. It’s not dreadfully dull AND preposterous like “The Lights of Zetar” or “And the Children Shall Lead.” It’s really just preposterous.

Why did the creators decided to put Lincoln in a chair IN SPACE to start the episode? Why did the creators allow a recreation of the father of Vulcan logic to get killed and Lincoln to be impaled by a spear? Oh, and in another ridiculous moment, Kirk tells Lincoln that the Enterprise can “convert” to minutes. WTF? Was Kirk making a really lame joke at the expense of one of his personal heroes and a key figure in Earth history? Kirk and Co. have used minutes since the very first episodes of the series. They use HOURS later in this episode!

This episode also features the really stupid cliche where the bridge crew watches some fight to the death along with the audience — complete with (groan) the same camera angles. This only happens a few times in TOS ( “Arena” “The Gamesters of Triskelion” and here) but it’s one of my least favorite TOS devices. Naturally, it shows up in “Star Trek V: The Final Frontier,” the worst of the Trek films.

All that said, I did kinda like the moment where Lincoln says Kirk reminds him of Ulysses S. Grant — and equates Grant with drinking whiskey.

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“The Savage Curtain”

Air date: 3/7/1969 Teleplay by Gene Roddenberry and Arthur Heinemann Story by Gene Roddenberry Directed by Herschel Daugherty

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

The Enterprise crew finds itself face to face with an entity that appears and claims to be Abraham Lincoln (Lee Berger). Lincoln invites Kirk and Spock down to the surface of a planet, where they all find themselves the pawns in a game of "good versus evil," courtesy of a rock-like creature that wants to learn the difference between the two powerful forces. Surak (Barry Atwater), the master who forged the peaceful Vulcan ideology milleniums ago, joins Kirk, Spock, and Lincoln to engage in a battle to the end against four nefarious figures from history.

This poorly conceived episode might've been better titled "Arena VII: The Abe Lincoln Factor." Seriously, was it really in remotely good taste for this episode to use Abraham Lincoln as a character in such a silly adventure? I'm inclined to say no. Who really wants to see President Lincoln reduced to a hollow supporting character—especially considering that in the end he takes a spear in the back?

"The Savage Curtain" is a routine, bland hour of TOS , with the same themes we've seen over and over again. It's another in a long line of Trekkian outings where the humanity of Kirk's crew is tested—but less enlightening than most.

Previous episode: The Cloud Minders Next episode: All Our Yesterdays

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Comment Section

71 comments on this post.

Col. Green "led a genocidal war early in the 21st Century on Earth"? That's funny, I always thought George W. Bush did that (hey, somebody had to say that, so it may as well be me).

This episode has a lot of bad TOS cliches -- Kirk in a fight to the death, the bridge crew helpless and forced to watch, bad-guy aliens playing puppet master, weak fight scenes and over-the-top-look-how-far-they've-come moments ("In our century, we've learned not to fear words."). But ... I still don't hate this episode and I would rate it at least 2 stars, maybe 2 1/2. The dialog between Kirk and Lincoln makes for some good moments (I love when Lincoln compares Kirk with General Grant). The episode is also an origin tale for both the Vulcans and the Klingons (admittedly, Kahless is done badly here, but Surak is interesting). And Colonel Green has some presence as a villain. My biggest problem with the episode is Kirk and Spock willfully beaming down to the planet, though McCoy and Scotty have a good scene where they try to talk them out of it. Scotty really grows as a character in season 3, actually. Probably the most important thing: This episode, while goofy, isn't dull like so many other season 3 offerings. Last thing: This is the final episode where the main cast appears together. We only hear Scotty's voice in "All Our Yesterdays" and Uhura isn't in "Turnabout Intruder".

So, what did the rock creature learn about good and evil by episode's end? Nothing - zero-which also describes the amount of watchable content this offers.

This episode is pretty dumb. Getting two sides to fight one another is not how you get to know these two sides. You need to see them when they're not under extreme pressure. That being said, I actually love the beginning of this episode. If this were just an episode where Lincoln comes aboard and helps the Enterprise do something, that would have been really fun. Surak could have come along too.

For me the most absurd a spect of the episode is the glimpse of Lincoln seated like he is in the Lincoln memorial monument floating around in space.It is intention getting at the beginning, but surely there was no one in the audience who thought it really was Lincoln or who did not think it was an illusion, or some alien in Lincoln clothing. How does he manage to breath in the vacuum of space? Yet Kirk and his crew apparently think it is real. Most of us know that Lincoln was well and truly dead by the 23rd century, and by assassination. Logically he could not have been the real Lincoln but Kirk and the crew put on their best full dress uniforms and practically genuflect to him. If, I remember rightly, no one asks him how he survived assassination, and how he swiped the chair from the Lincoln memorial and blasted off into space with it. A stronger degree of scepticism by Kirk, and if if the writers could have come up with a more convincing way of introducing Lincoln in the story, then the rest of the story premise might have been more acceptable too,even if we had seen the duel in the area used too many times already The Lincoln in space made for a striking visual opening teaser for the episode, but someone among the producers or writers should have realised how dumb or stupid it was.

This episode would have fit right in with season 1TNG

Lol at Jammer's second paragraph. I think they could have made a whole series out of shamelessly killing history's noblest figures! At least this inspired a pretty good Futurama episode.

213karaokejoe

Interesting that one of the villains chosen for the battle of good vs evil is the one and only Kayless(sp?)the father of Klingon Warriorism acting like an unhonorable cheater.

Home stretch! I think Jammer's review basically says most of what I want to say. There is an interesting, maybe not entirely developed, philosophical debate between Surak and Lincoln about how best to respond to evil: Surak recommends leading by example, passive resistance, pacifism in general, and Lincoln basically argues that they have to be as devious and ruthless as the enemy in order to beat them. As it turns out, neither survive the hour. Surak's being butchered because he puts up no fight at all is something of a cautionary tale. Valuing peace is noble and honourable, but it might get you killed if it's not counterbalanced. I also get a feeling that this episode's FICTIONAL Lincoln's being stabbed in the back was meant as some sort of weird poetic justice for his especially "sneaky" campaign suggestion. Or, maybe not. In general, WHO IS BETTER -- GOOD OR EVIL?!?! FIGHT! -- is one of the dumbest ideas to come out of this series. At least "Arena," for its flaws in execution, had the point more or less be that Kirk had to show he could use his brains rather than brute force, and so the point was something more akin to what Q tested Picard with in "All Good Things" (on a much smaller scale): not "are you good?" but "can you expand?" The episode's closing conversation comes down to, "good" and "evil" actually use similar tactics to each other in war, so what is the difference? The difference is fighting war for protection of oneself and people one cares about, and fighting for the sake of spoils. Great. You know, there are a lot of "aliens try to understand human concepts through testing them out" episodes in various series, and not many of them are good. Still, in an episode like TNG's "Allegiance" or "Liaisons," neither of which are exactly classics, for the flaws in the aliens' methodology it's more or less clear at least to an extent what information they think they're gaining. Not only do the aliens pit "good versus evil," but they actually pit...two real people and two imaginary people created out of whatever likely limited understanding those people had of the real versions of those people, again four imaginary people who are viewed as the worst of the worst, and thus are also presumably not really understood all that well. I'm not saying that "the genocidal Col. Green" was probably a great guy and Kirk just doesn't understand him, but I think if one is going to pit opposite philosophies (as if "evil" was a philosophy), one should at least make sure one gets real representatives. Kirk is surprised that Col. Green acts like a reasonable person (at first), even though Col. Green is a) not real, and b) is based on Kirk's (or maybe Spock's) imagined version of him. If the aliens can really just create whole people with the ability to self-determine, why do they need Kirk and Spock to fight at all? Can't they just scan their brains and then run simulations to their hearts', or rock-creature equivalent of hearts', content? Kirk also says: "It was so hard for me to see him die again. I feel I understand what Earth must have gone through to achieve final peace." I mean, this statement seems to imply that "final peace" came about as a result of Lincoln's death, which is ridiculous even if the episode didn't also introduce a 21st century genocidal dictator. It is an interesting footnote that Kirk's version of Kahless is pure evil. At the end it's more or less stated, in case it hadn't been clear, that the various monsters and heroes were created out of the minds of Kirk and Spock -- so that Kirk views the Klingon messiah as a figure of pure malice reveals, in retrospect, something interesting about Kirk's cultural biases against the Klingons, understandably since their warlike expansion is being as destructive as it is. In reality, I think it's true that Kahless' philosophy is damaging -- he does seem to value war and expansion and glory -- but the "real Kahless," whether it's the clone we eventually encounter or the mythological one Worf describes, would view treachery and stabbing someone in the back as the worst of transgressions. It highlights the way the 1980s-90s Trek complicates the assumptions in the original series, and retroactively both TNG and The Undiscovered Country suggest that Kirk's earlier perspective on Klingons was distorted, if not wholly inaccurate. I took a few weeks trying to think of something to say about this episode, and I'm still coming up mostly empty. 1 star.

This episode could have been better had the writers actually come up with a reason for Evil losing to Good other than Kirk being amazing at hand to hand combat. Evil has a tendency to turn on itself and it seems reasonable to me that at some point, possibly with the right push from the Good group, the Evil group would have self-destructed due to infighting.

I kind of liked this episode. Most of it. It was interesting seeing Kirk and Spock meeting their heroes. I wish Col. Green had been telling the truth when he offered to work with Kirk instead of fighting, maybe making the evil guys more 3 dimensional rather than cardboard cutouts. What bothered me was the ending. They have the good guys 4 on 2 but they lose because Kirk beats them up and they run away? That was weak. Guess the writers ran out of ideas.

George Bush

Col. Green "led a genocidal war early in the 21st Century on Earth"? That's funny, I always thought Osama Bin Ladin did that (hey, somebody had to say that, so it may as well be me).

Some people need to purchase a dictionary and look up the word "genocide".

@Jason - To be fair, Osama Bin Laden was TRYING to kill all the infidels, he was just really bad at it (with the notable exception of 1 good day followed by years and years of hiding in holes).

I don't understand the philosophical idea behind this episode. The question the episode posed was whether good will prevail over evil. At the end of the episode the creature said that the methods behind achieving peace (the good) were the same as the methods behind evil, both being murder. Seriously, how is that an answer to the question which of the two would prevail? Or did I misunderstand? When the creature said ''which of the two is stronger'', did it mean 'will fighting for evil (selfishness) lead to victory, or will fighting for good lead to victory?' If that's what it meant, then, well... this whole episode must've been about how survival instinct overpowers selfish goals. But that's not the idea I got from the episode, as it kept going on about good VS evil. At the end, Spock gives a pointless summary of the facts, rather than insight into what it was all about. Not only that, but the philosophical idea that good and evil often use the same methods isn't reflected upon either. It seems like the episode didn't know what theme to go with, and what story to tell. Such a shame.

Andrew Taylor-Cairns

Well in the midst of a lot of season 3 episodes that were fluff/out of character/ridiculous/boring (delete as applicable), The Savage Curtain was OK. I was certainly entertained, but there just wasn't much substance here. It was much better than watching The Way to Eden last night before bed, where I was worried about having song montage nightmares. Now that is a monstrosity of an episode, and I would advocate giving it a minus score.

At the point that they introduce evil historical figures I actually thought that they would have a philosophical debate and wondered if the episode just gets bad rap for the inherent silliness of the concept. Once it turn out it's another battle to the death... Yeah. I do give credit for developing Vulcans but this isn't just a silly episode, it's rather pretentious one as well.

Things I learned from this episode: Genghis Khaaaan attained his empire and military victories by throwing rocks from the bushes. He's reduced to a "Sneaky Asian" here instead of the complex and intimidating figure he really was. This is the kind of thing that probably annoys George Takei. Why include him if you aren't going to try to do it right? The rock alien costume and its voice effect was pretty cool, though. Arena + The Omega Glory + Catspaw = This (and many episodes in subsequent series especially those with Q)

zzybaloobah

The one saving grace is the interaction between Lincoln and Uhura, when he says "What a charming Negress", then immediately apologizes for calling her that. And she responds (I'm paraphrasing) "why should I take offense at a word? [regardless of how it was used in the past] I'm happy with who/what I am." That's a classic Roddenberry vision of the future. Yeah, the "let's examine good and evil by making them kill each other" is absurd. It's possible a truly alien race wouldn't know any better, but surely KIrk or Spock could have quickly pointed out the flaw in their experimental design. Kirk: "Both sides can fight -- to find meaningful differences, you need to examine *why* they fight..." or something to that effect would have been a good start. @JPaul - I like your notion of having the evil group implode with infighting. Maybe that's what was shown at the end. The good guys don't "win because Kirk is a good fighter" (and how lame is Spock here? you'd think he could easily kick butt of any of his foes, but can't seem to get the upper hand....); the good guys win because, despite a nominal 4 -to- 2 advantage, the "bad guys" weren't willing to commit their own skin to battle. Col Green comes across as a classic "lead from the rear" commander. Though I'm not sure history indicates that the "good guys" exhibit bettery unit cohesion than the "bad guys".....

This was a wonderful episode that gives an excellent insight into the decline in writing as Star Trek came to an end. Star Trek (2009) started that way only to get worst with with the Into the Darkness improving with Beyond minus the rubbish intelligence insulting villain plot and forced queers onscreen.

"forced queers"?

@MadBaggins - Don't feed the trolls :P (It apparently offended Why? so much that Sulu was gay and that they threw it in our faces for all of 5 seconds that he needed to associate it with the decline of all Trek).

One of the first TOS episodes I saw as a kid -- and I don't remember liking it. Over the years, I've wavered between grooving on it and finding it awful, but now I've come to decide that I like "The Savage Curtain." I'll give it 3/4 stars. While Lincoln's initial appearance on the viewscreen is campy, and soured me on this one as a kid, the story actually develops into a fairly serious, thoughtful, and well-scripted exploration of violence and pacifism. And at this point in my life, I've seen so much brainless and tasteless Star Trek episodes since I first saw this one -- including dozens of bad TNG, DS9, Voyager, and especially Enterprise episodes -- that I've softened on "Savage Curtain" quite a bit. For me, it's rather refreshing to watch "Savage Curtain" after seeing the 100th shuttle crash episode on Voyager or the 50th Archer-is-held-hostage episode on Enterprise. This show gets points from me for being consistently intriguing, attention-holding, and even compelling at times. The crew interaction, banter, and debate in the early scenes when "Lincoln" comes aboard is especially sharp -- I particularly like the idealism of the classic Roddenberry-scripted exchange between Uhura and the president about race. Scotty and Bones are delightfully combative, Chekov and Sulu get a bit of screen time as they cover for Kirk and Spock on the bridge, and the Excalbian rock alien is cool. This episode is important in Trek lore for introducing some major characters who later recur in the franchise's fictional universe. Although Kahless hardly makes an impact, being a fairly one-note projection of Kirk's negative image of Klingons, Colonel Green -- later seen on Enterprise as an inspiration for the xenophobic separatist group led by Peter Weller's character at the end of Season 4 -- makes a pretty strong impression as a symbol of humanity's dystopian past in a series that's normally very idealistic about humanity. But above all else, I really treasure the sensitive and thoughtful exchanges between Kirk and Spock with Lincoln and Surak, as they try to make sense of the situation and respond to it. It's a nice touch that the characters projected from the minds of Kirk and Spock, both good and evil, think themselves real despite not quite understanding their situation. Ultimately, I can't go higher than 3 stars because the concept of aliens forcing the Enterprise crew to do battle was already a cliche on TOS by this point in the series run, and had arguably been done better on earlier episodes. Also, the climactic victory moment of Kirk and Spock is underplayed to the point of being well over before you realize they've succeeded. But the intelligent characterization of Lincoln and Surak, who the plot takes very seriously, makes the show worthwhile -- the expanding of Vulcan's backstory with the introduction of Surak is a uniquely strong highlight of the show. While the final lesson that good fights for others while evil fights for selfish gain feels a bit obvious in the end, I also like how "Savage Curtain" concludes on a note of moral ambiguity, with the Excalbian rock creature remaining skeptical of the human distinction between good and evil even as he grasps it and frees the crew as promised. On that note, it's nice to see a TOS episode that ends with an alien who exists somewhat beyond our categories of good and evil, rather than being merely a good alien or bad alien or bad alien masquerading as good alien or good alien masquerading as bad alien. If you watch this episode closely, getting past the initial goofiness of the Lincoln reveal, there's actually quite a bit of substance and nuance in the plot. Incidentally, the Lincoln stuff reminded me of Voyager's "The 37s" episode, which began with a Chevy '57 appearing on the viewscreen and proceeded to discover Amelia Earhart and other figures from earth history living in stasis on a Delta Quadrant planet where they had been kidnapped. The difference is that Voyager took the idea of human historical figures living in outer space seriously, whereas this unfairly maligned TOS episode treats the same notion rather more sensibly as an illusion that is nevertheless real for the crew.

The 'message' of this show? Don't try for peace. Tell Edith Keeler that too.

While I agree with a lot of the above, e.g. That the fight was silly and it didn't really prove anything, I thought this episode had some very well written and performed scenes. I really like the way the Abraham Lincoln actor interacted with Kirk and similarly Surak with Spock.

I didn't hate this episode as much as I had remembered it. I think the guest performance by the Lincoln actor and some of the dialogue with Surak elevated it a bit for me. Where the episode falls flat on its face of course is in the conclusion. Obviously as others have noted, attempting to discern the nature of good and evil through physical combat is just silly. But beyond that, it's apparent the writers just haven't the foggiest clue how to resolve things at the end, so they just have Kirk and Spock flat out beat up the four villains in a fist fight. That's right - after Lincoln and Surak die Spock and Kirk just straight up kick the asses of the bad guys despite 2:1 odds. No cleverness, no twist (a la Kirk outwitting the Gorn) they're just better fighters.

I just re-watched this episode. While I still don't think think it is great, it was better than I remember, of course, sometimes when you see something again that you did not particularly care for, it seems better since you aren't expecting much. One thing about this episode I always liked was lee

To continue from above: One thing I have always liked about this episode is lee Bergere's potrayal of LIncoln.

Gene Roddenberry, an old white dude, uses Uhura to tastelessly lecture the audience on political correctness. I notice she didn’t turn and call Sulu a cocksucking g*** or refer to President Lincoln as a crusty cracker. No no instead she almost looks right into the camera and says (to the mainly white male audience) it’s okay for them to go up to black women and call them “charming Negress.” I suppose it’s meant as a compliment. Uhura has basically no lines or meaningful development in three seasons (much less this stupid episode). Why they didn’t have Lincoln ask to touch her hair and examine her behind for good measure is beyond me. Avoiding rudeness is not about fear of words, it’s about respect. Speaking about someone in the third person while they are standing right in front of you is rude and so is making undue comments about their physical attributes. Kirk says they’re “delighted” with what they are yet no one on the bridge dares call him a sweaty, brawling womanizer.

I thought that there was plenty of difference between good and evil regarding their tactics which the Excaliban should have picked up on: 1. Good tried to make peace with evil; 2. Good only fought when attacked by Evil; 3. Evil used deception to harm Good; 4. Evil captured and killed two unarmed members of good, whereas Good would not have done that 5. The motives of Good and Evil were opposite - personal survival vs. attaining power over others.

@troll.BLT LOL Sure, sure. And sane people everywhere summarize Seinfeld's essential characteristics as a thin, neat "womanizer." After all, nearly every episode in over three-times TOS's run (9 years v. 3 years) directly had or implied he was bedding yet another woman. So nah, he's not a comedian. The essential summary anyone now needs to know in 2017 about Jerry Seinfeld is that he's a "womanizer." LMAO Did someone recently read some snippets from Alinsky? 11. "If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive." 13. "Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it." Oh, you'll have to do better, my dear little SJW--you and your silly finger-wagging while you're blind to those three other fingers on your same hand pointing back at you. Go virtue-signal somewhere else after you learn the meaning of respect. And while you crack the books, pick up some grasp of context, too. Until then, thanks for the amusement! Bill

There's a good idea in here (the bluring of good, evil, and the ways in which progress oft depends upon covert and overt violence), and a cool rock monster, but the action sequences are a bit too silly and devoid of tension. Imagine if this episode unfolded like Darmok instead; Lincoln, Kirk, Surak and Kahless on a planet, around a fireplace, simply talking and vying with one another via ideologically-loaded dialogue.

Definitely a goofy episode that fails to achieve the lofty goals its premise lays out. Gene Roddenberry himself with another ultimately below-average episode that attempts to come up with some kind of reasonable examination of good and evil. Along with "The Omega Glory" that's at least 2 weak episodes for the creator of Star Trek. Some padding here -- spent way too much time on Lincoln's veracity, his arrival on the Enterprise, and the prelude to the confrontation. And we have another all-powerful alien with undefined powers that can twist and turn the episode to whatever the writer needs. Kirk and Spock need motivation to fight -- so why not set the Enterprise to blow up in 4 hours? In terms of an experiment for an alien race to understand good vs. evil, it's is stupidly conceived. The alien rock creature doesn't seem to consider the peace motive of the good guys and thinks it can learn which is stronger -- good or evil -- in a fight with primitive weapons. I suppose maybe 1 lesson is that evil disperses when faced with a strong opposition although, in the final battle, 2 of the bad guys didn't even try and just gave up. So the whole thing was pretty poorly executed as well as conceived. Still, seeing Kahless, Surak -- and touching on the backstory of 2 of the most famous Trek races is cool. Some interesting philosophical debates among the good guys whereas 2 of the bad guys, aside from Col. Green and Kahless, don't do anything. The rock creature says it has the right to dish out life and death as Kirk has the right to explore the planet...OK then. Barely 2 stars for "The Savage Curtain" -- compare the experiment Kirk/Spock are subjected to here with that of "The Empath", which was a much stronger episode in which the live laboratory actually taught Gem self-sacrifice, loyalty etc. "Arena" is another episode that comes to mind that is similar but much stronger for the actual "fight" and the mercy shown by Kirk at the end. Here, a potentially interesting examination of good vs. evil just fizzles out.

What's wrong with me? I'm re-watching season 3 and finding my estimation of several episodes going up. This episode's introduction is wonderfully bizzare and Twilight-Zoney. It's a tone subsequent Trek, in its drive for "realism", too readily avoids. Then we get several wonderful utopian conversations with Abe Lincoln, prior to meeting Surak. His introduction is a haunting and powerful sequence. There's something so sublime and eerie about his presence. From here on, the episode shifts gears; something that promised to be high-brow SF becomes low-brow, on-the-nose pulp. But the attempts at embedding the episode's violence with philosophical ruminations now feel edgy in light of contemporary Trek. The rock-monster is also pretty neat visually, though his motivations and dialogue are poor.

Abe Lincoln floating in space? Strange and unconvincing, but the ep was kinda fun. The lava monster was fun, even if his reasoning made no sense. Surak was a nice addition. Average as average can be.

Rewatching this episode made me think about it more deeply. The rock creature’s experimental design was ridiculous. Trying to determine whether good is preferable to evil by staging a fight between representatives from history is laughable. They could have just as easily made Mother Teresa and Josef Stalin face off in a boxing ring. Which made me wonder if that wasn’t a form of misdirection on the part of the alien. There had been a “deep probe” of the Enterprise (presumably including its library banks) as well as of Kirk’s and Spock’s historical heroes. Perhaps the alien was really observing how the Federation representatives would try to reason with their enemies first, before resorting to violence. In other words, to see if their actions would live up to their ideals. Still, the execution was lacking somehow, with the story and side characters (especially two of the four villains) never quite coming together cogently.

@ Peter, Lolled at the Mother Teresa line. I agree that the episode never gives us a reasonable explanation for what this contest was supposed to show. On the surface it looks like a cheap excuse for us to be shown some famous historical characters, and to essentially allow us to backtrace to an extent how all of us got where we did. Some parts of Earth's history, in other words, seem to favor Klingon ideals (like Ghengis Khan or Eugenics people) whereas others like Lincoln seem to have a lot in common with Vulcan ideals like those of Surak. So as an 'arena' in which to see these threads this is a really good one. And I confess that even as a kid I was impressed with the implicity mythology element in the episode. As to the actual combat, maybe the alien was concerned with whether being a peaceful people would cripple one's ability to be strategically successful? Certainly in the case of Surak we see a failure case, but as we know Lincoln wasn't afraid of fighting, nor is Kirk. It's a bit unclear since we don't get to see all that much tactical games going on, but I guess the idea is supposed to be that certain pacifist types really are at a disadvantage, while others like Kirk and maybe Lincoln are completely capable of being both peaceful and fierce. This episode is actually a very small sample of a theme that would later be developed in DS9. If you haven't seen that series I won't spoil anything, but this issue does arise there.

Arena: Kirk is forced by an alien to fight the Gorn while the crew can only watch from the ship. The Gamesters of Triskelion: Kirk is forced by aliens to fight the thralls while the crew can only watch from the ship. The Savage Curtain: Kirk (this time along with Spock) is forced by an alien to fight simulations of historical bad guys alongside historical good guys while the crew can only … Once might have been creative. But every single season?! I'm a fan of Trek, but I can't deny its flaws.

Sleeper Agent

Perhaps the intention was well and good, but the "What a charming Negress!" dialogue felt really blunt. As someone already pointed out, would Sulu react the same if a historical character greeted him with "What a charismatic G***!"? Shouldn't Kirk have stepped in a explained that "With all due respect Sir, we would prefer it if you refrain from derogatory terms of such kind." Yeah whatever, a part from that I liked the episode enough to put it on my re-watch list. II I/II of IV

"Shouldn't Kirk have stepped in a explained that "With all due respect Sir, we would prefer it if you refrain from derogatory terms of such kind."" It wasn't a derogatory term in Lincoln's time or even at the time the show was made. But yes, Lincoln's fixating on her race is jarring. But then again, he came from a time when race was a big deal. Not sure what would be gained by lecturing the Lincoln apparition.

@Jason R. "Not sure what would be gained by lecturing the Lincoln apparition." Thanks for this, I found this line indescribably funny. I can just imagine "Piss off, ghost!" @Jason and Sleeper Agent My brief research suggests some black activists, like Malcolm X, viewed it as derogatory in the 1960's, but there seems to be disagreement (Martin Luther King Jr. famously used Negro in his I Have a Dream speech earlier in 1963). I don't know if anyone was saying "Negress" in the 1960's though. I think here there's a difference between in- and out-of-universe. The scene was probably there to make a point that in the post-racism future, Lincoln needn't worry about unintentional offense because race is no longer a sore spot with anyone. Whether or not this is a good point for the writers to make is its own issue, separate from what the appropriate thing for Kirk and Uhura to say to an alien space ghost hologram of Abraham Lincoln about to do battle with villains to demonstrate to a lava monster which is best of good and evil. In-universe, I think it's pretty reasonable to just slide past whatever antiquated gibberish is being said by Lincoln. It's not even like he's somebody's grampa who hasn't updated his terminology and so embarrasses himself; he's a five-century-old mirage probably about to disappear, so it seems probable that it's best for everyone to move on without bothering to do much comment or bringing him up to speed. Out-of-universe we can question the scene on various grounds.

It seems pretty clear to me they included that line just to provide the opportunity to say something about how racism is gone in the future. They used someone from the civil war to make that point, and someone with a reputation for trying to help the black population. So it ends up being rather apt. while not risking offending us because we do know that Lincoln was still from an era with a different way of talking. I don't know that 1960's accepted terms is necessarily the arbiter, but rather that they intended a civil-war era mentality that was forwarding-thinking to meet the result of his ambitions, far in the future. I suppose something similar would have been a phantom Ghandi meeting up with futuristic pacifists.

To chip in here. I wouldn't be surprised if the term negress, as the term negro, was pretty standard in the 1860s. To quote from Oxford Dictionary:"It remained the standard term throughout the 17th–19th centuries and was used by prominent black American campaigners such as W. E. B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington in the early 20th century." And I remember that DuBois used the term negro in his works. Here is one quote which I remember quite vividly from back then (got it from wiki):"Between me and the other world there is ever an unasked question: ... How does it feel to be a problem? ... One ever feels his two-ness, – an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder ... He would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American, without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of Opportunity closed roughly in his face." Written in 1897.

Negress was much less commonly used than Negro in the United States. Note that negro can be used to mean any black person whereas Negress has a specific exotic black female connotation. If we were applying today's standards, we'd have to ask "would a black woman consider "Nigress" to be an endearing word?" to which I'm sure the answer is a resounding no. Actually, it is an interesting choice here because we usually consider Lincoln a progressive visionary but the writers purposely gave him antiquated politcally-charged jargon. The fact that he apologizes quickly afterwards shows that he was still struggling to get used to a situation where the inferior status of Africans he fought against was no longer status quo.

@Peter, I wasn't so much bringing up the contemporary 1960's usage as the absolute arbiter of how the scene goes, as to the comparison to the use of "G***" that Sleeper Agent suggested. To the extent that it was being viewed as derogatory in the 1960's, it was not to the same extent as something that began as and was always a racial slur. If some activist against American involvement in the war in Vietnam, for example -- like Martin Luther King, for that matter -- used a similar term in the future to a Korean crew member, I don't think it would be possible for the scene to play the same way.

@ William B, I agree, but that's also because g*** was always an insulting slur, whereas negro was at some points used by all concerned as simply the correct term to refer to black people. So g*** is more similar to the N-word in this sense. Not sure if the writers really wanted negress to be jarring, or if they just wanted an out-of-date reference to seeing each other according to color. I think it was the latter, and that it was supposed to mean Lincoln saw her - in a positive way - as a black woman, whereas in the 23rd century your first reaction to seeing a black person wouldn't be "oh you're black!" His apology may make it sound like he realized he said something dirty, but maybe it's just that he himself is a bit confused about the era, having the knowledge of a 19th century guy but also being quite aware that he's been summoned to participate in a 23rd century game.

Just to mention it: Either say G word and N word or just write anti Asian racial slur. Or write G**** and N*****. It bothers me a little that we have to read the word G*** now several times. In a rational debate about offensive word usage you can mention slurs. It's not like anybody here condones using racist language (I hope). Let's hope that at some point humanity will become enlightened enough to no longer discriminate based on skin pigmentation. *fingers crossed*

"Let's hope that at some point humanity will become enlightened enough to no longer discriminate based on skin pigmentation. *fingers crossed*" How unprogressive of you.

"How unprogressive of you." How so?

@Peter, That was sort of the point I was trying to make -- that Lincoln wasn't using a term that was originally designed to be offensive. @Booming, In terms of the repetition of the slur, I was trying to take the "you should just say the word you're referring to rather than dance around it," but I went back and forth. I'm not positive I made the right call.

OmicronThetaDeltaPhi

That Lincoln/Uhura dialog sure makes me long for Star Trek's future. Imagine that: A future without EITHER racism or the PC garbage that's going on right now. (I wonder how many people are going to misinterpret the previous paragraph as me being racist. What a surreal world we live in, these days)

Commodore Dubs

Fascinating to see everyone argue about whether negress was used as an offensive term in the og series. Now in modern trek everyone either hates a different race or species or economic class or whatever you can think of. And we have star fleet members dropping swear words left and while completely disrespecting captains and others in authority. Give me space Lincoln over modern trek everytime. I can't agree more with Omicron.

"In our century, we've learned not to fear words" - Uhura We gotta give Roddenberry props for writing an actual clever scene for once. Progressive Lincoln using an outdated racist term and Uhura who lives in a utopian society doesn't even know why she should be offended. If that same scene was in Star Trek Picard: "What a charming woman". "actually I'm gender fluid. HOW DARE YOU oppress me with your Patriarchal tyranny!!!"

The Savage Curtain Star Trek season 3 episode 22 “Human?” - Bones “All too human.” - Lincoln quotes Nietzsche 3 stars (out of 4) Given that the Nietzscheans are the key antagonists on Gene Roddenberry’s Andromeda, we should hardly be surprised that Gene was interested in what the philosophy of Nietzsche had to say about man. Particularly about what it might have to say about man of the future. Khan was of course the most direct depiction of the Übermensch on the show’s original three year run. Unsurprisingly, the Augments (as we later learned to call them on Enterprise) were a product of genetic manipulation, which of course is how the universe in Andromeda got the Nietzscheans also. Here, Gene has penned a story that examines the core question of Nietzsche’s book, “Beyond Good and Evil,” in which he asks is there really any difference between good and evil men, or is it merely that what makes man man is expressed in purer form in evil men, while men we consider good, are those who temper those same instincts. In a lot of ways, this episode reminded me of DS9’s “Heart of Stone,” where shapeshifters similar to the rock creatures here, manufacture a situation for Odo, through the creation of a fake Kira, in order to teach Odo something about himself. Aliens who have no common moral reference frame for understanding humans, and yet can create human forms? Me thinks the Changelings owe a lot of their character to Yarnek. This episode marks the first time we see Surak of Vulcan. Spock is of course beside himself. Season 3 has been quite a journey of exploration for our favorite science officer. He’s played music with hippies. He’s fallen for the beautiful daughter of the administrator of an entire world. He’s played an original Brahms and coveted an original Da Vinci. He’s been offered power, love and glory in The Enterprise Incident. And now here, he meets his greatest hero. I’d say that if this is where The Original Series wanted to leave Spock, they did quite a fine job. On a side note, when watching Surak, I couldn’t help but think of T’Pol. Some of the smirks, some of the speech patters were very similar. Maybe Jolene Blalock was a lot better actress than I’ve given her credit for? For those who haven’t seen it, the Vulcan trilogy in ENT season 4 is really good. https://youtu.be/zBD6nKUYPNM Yeah, hard to imagine, but ENT had easily the best examination of Surak’s philosophy in Trek! We also meet Kahless, or at least as @William B points out, Kirk’s idea of Kahless. Suffice to say that for such a fantastic figure, a white man in black face was not exactly an auspicious beginning. Rounding out the baddies is Zora, aka Deathwalker from Babylon 5. https://youtu.be/braDD-4ZYQk And of course Col. Green, who we don’t ever really hear about again on Trek until, as @Trek fan notes, the end of Enterprise, on Terra Prime. https://youtu.be/aPKOhXVC6xQ Then there’s Ghengis Khan. I’m not sure why he’s on team evil, unless it is because Kirk thinks of him as evil? If you want a more nuanced portrayal of the great Khan @P, I’d recommend the incredible Kazakh movie Mongol, https://youtu.be/nHaYiA6u3Co?t=14 Really an epic movie. Highly recommended. That said, @P, don’t feel bad about Khan throwing rocks. Throwing rocks has sometimes been the sign of an epic warrior and leader of men https://youtu.be/Po3HbErxC-c Let’ see, did the episode give us anyone else from history? Oh yeah, they also bring back honest Abe. Or least they bring Abe back long enough to stab him in the back with a spear! Oh I know, I shouldn’t kid. These are revered figures for so many. I’ll only say, that this is the one piece of the episode that was 50 years ahead of it’s time, and only now, in the 20’s, starts to make perfect sense to me. After all, Kirk knows how to respect an alien who presents as a man, and he orders everyone on the ship to use Abe's chosen pronouns: MCCOY: Jim, do you really believe he's Abraham Lincoln? KIRK: It's obvious he believes it. Doctor McCoy, Mister Spock, full dress uniforms. SCOTT: Full dress? Presidential honours? What is this nonsense, Mister Dickerson? DICKERSON: I understand President Lincoln's coming aboard, sir. SCOTT: Ha! You're daft, man. DICKERSON: All I know is what the captain tells me, and he says he'll have the hide of the first man that so much as smiles. SCOTT: I'd have expected sanity from the ship's surgeon, at least. President Lincoln, indeed. No doubt to be followed by Louis of France and Robert the Bruce. KIRK: If so, we'll execute appropriate honours to each, Mister Scott. Scotty, dude, get with the program! OTOH, @Paul and @zzybaloobah point out the key note of 23rd century sanity from Uhura, UHURA: But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century we've learned not to fear words. I fear, as perhaps @Britz94 does, that we are still very, very, very far from that future. There are obvious flaws in the episode. And while I liked the fight sound track a lot, as @Jammer says and @Trish really elaborates on, they could have easily called this one Arena part III. Finally, I’ll admit that when I was reading @Strejda’s comment, and she says “bad rap,” I immediately thought that this episode would have worked better as an Epic Rap Battle of History. Good vs. Evil. Who wins? You decide. https://youtu.be/0N_RO-jL-90 How’s that, @JPaul, for the group turning on itself and imploding? Weirdly, I have zero recollection of ever having watched this episode before. But like @Trent, I quite enjoyed it.

Lots of potential here. Would have benefited from some good rewriting though

Jezzzuuuss. They really jumped the shark on this one. Abe Lincoln in his Lazy Boy? I was wondering what Bones really meant when he said “there’s no intelligent life here, let’s go Jim. “ WTF. Full dress uniforms? If that had been Trump, “MAGA hats to the transporter room gentlemen. “ Kirk all fan boi over Lincoln was a good illustration of the power of celebrity. Kirk: “I’m beaming down”. Scotty: “Don’t do it Captain. “ ( Besides Kirk you dumbass, can really trust ANY politician?) Jabba the Rock was well done. And then it gets serious Excellent prelude to fight scene and the internal conflict with ones beliefs. This is the exact internal conflict you go through pre-deployment, once in country, and waiting for the inevitable failure of negotiations and initiation of war. You have got to compartmentalize your fears and scruples. Breathe deep than jump in! Sirak’s logic was flawed. Unfortunately there is a time to fight. Lincoln’s oratory was succinct. Kirk and Spock are very mature about war. Freedom is not free. A very heavy topic for a play and brilliantly handled. Well written episode. Glad I survived the Service and retired! Phew.

Jillyenator

I love how Uhura doesn't even know why she should be offended. It's that much of a non-issue. I always remembered this small scene from when I saw it in childhood, and it was a part of shaping my beliefs and hopes going forward -- that we could have a future like that. I never remembered the rest of the episode because I had no real context for Surak, Kayless, or Colonel Green. Now, after doing an entire TNG, DS9, VOY, ENT, and feature films rewatch, I'm going through TOS. I was delighted to see these founding historical figures brought to life and it's cool the other series ran with them. I wish they did more with Kayless, but if Kirk perceived him as just a thug, I can live with that. He really hates Klingons. Speaking of which, did the shows ever have a racial slur for Klingons? They had two for Cardassians -- Cardies and Spoonheads. The Andorians called us Pink Skins (which, okay, the cast in question was not entirely White, but I get what the intent was: to show that Blueness was considered normal and correct to Andorians). Which brings me to Bones calling Spock a ton of seemingly anti-Vulcan racial slurs. I understand it's all meant with underlying affection, but they did make a point of Bones being a man from the South. I think that's notable. I'd love to see the series bible on McCoy. But the Uhura comment to Lincoln always stuck with me. In times like these, it's especially refreshing. There's no need to bend yourself into a pretzel trying to get the terminology right to not offend, when offense isn't an issue.

I really wanted to like this episode - and in some respects, I really did! The early moments featuring Lincoln on The Enterprise were both charming and mysterious, especially his meeting with Uhura; surely aimed at a viewing audience who so recently had witnessed MLK's peaceful mission for universal racial harmony, apparently achieved by 23rd Century. There were also some very interesting philosophical insights into war versus peace, the latter charismatically put over by the Vulcan Surak. So far, so 3.5 stars. But oh, the flaws! 1. The Animated Turd that was the rock monster... Even the Horta was better and less laughable, in fact so was the ridiculous oil slick that did for Tash Yar in TNG. Surely a being whose natural form was apparently an inert rock, but which could interfere with all The Enterprise's functions and create realistic self-aware copies of figures from history, could have projected something more acceptable to Kirk and Spock and Trek's viewers? 2. The Animated Turd told Kirk it was their first encounter with humanity. Er.. so Vulcanity didn't count then, and Spock's presence was a complete waste of time? 3. The staged battles were a nadir of unbelieveable hokum. Ok, I can accept they only had trees and bushes to use, but are we supposed to believe that Genghis Khan and Kahless were silent but obedient subordinates to "Colonel Greene"? Oh please! Tactically alone, Genghis would have wiped the floor with Kirk's party, thus setting up a battle royal between himself and Kahless. 4. Who was temporary second in command on the Enterprise? We saw both Sulu and Scotty in the captain's chair. Now, my understanding is that Scotty - a Lieutenant Commander - is 3rd in command when Kirk and Spock are both absent so I'm wondering what Sulu was doing in the chair. For these reasons I cannot award 3.5 stars, or even 3, but 2.75 seems fair. By the way, did anyone spot Kirk performing the Picard Maneouvre for maybe the only time? Ok, I think the dress uniform was rather tight over the Shatner belly, so there was an excuse, but I laughed out loud when I saw him do it!

So all that Kirk, Spock and the Enterprise did was survive. Nothing really resounding happened. This episode had potential but floundered badly. It seemed like they had no idea how to end it, so they abruptly did. Interacting with President Lincoln was probably the best part. He did not really have a full beard as depicted. Mainly just the chin whiskers. The dress uniforms were a nice touch, once again making an appearance. The episode seemed slow and was holding back. I give it a D+.

We learn in this episode that good is stronger than evil because evil takes its fighting principles from Monty Python. When it gets scary, “RUN AWAY! RUN AWAY!”

Horrible episode with Uhura's best line: "We do not fear words." I wish the sensitive cancel culture snowflakes would take that to heart.

C'mon. Not the best of TOS but the idea is still way above the tripe that passes for science fiction nowadays. Very imaginative.

What was a thin story from the outset gets overstretched. The best aspects are the interaction between characters and the cultural history mentioned. Of the four humanoids out of billions chosen to represent Good, two come from the Enterprise, wow, how lucky for us to know them! And, did they have to pick an old Lincoln? Why not the young Abe who built log cabins by hand? Who was the backup selection, FDR from his Potsdam days? I concur with JPaul from 2015, "This episode could have been better had the writers actually come up with a reason for Evil losing to Good other than Kirk being amazing at hand to hand combat. Evil has a tendency to turn on itself and it seems reasonable to me that at some point, possibly with the right push from the Good group, the Evil group would have self-destructed due to infighting." No one has yet mentioned that Col. Green's red uniform was resurrected for Robin Williams as Mork.

On the face of it one wouldn't think an episode like this one had that much of interest in it. But there are several gems scattered throughout this strange and abruptly-ended story. Maybe one thing I can note is that I've always loved the Abe Lincoln performance. Having seen other characterizations of him, including Daniel Day Lewis (the master himself), I still like this Lincoln the best. As my wife put it, he has a charming twinkle in his eye, and like Kirk, it feels like this Lincoln is somehow 'real' rather than a representation of a historical figure. Another nod should go to the performance of Surak, which held more gravity and focus than one would expect from a tertiary character. The small subplot of his moral position in the adversarial situation is quite compelling, considering the obvious fact that he's 'letting his team down' in the strategic side of things. Another interesting thing is the juxtupose of Lincoln with Surak, which has a double effect. For one thing, since we know Lincoln this helps inform what we're supposed to make of Surak: Vulcan's Abe Lincoln, the guy who ushered in unity. But it also works in reverse: by telling us that Surak is the most honored of his people, embodying peace and logic, it creates a mirror effect that ends up suggesting that Lincoln was Earth's Surak! That's quite a statement; I suppose historians in a few hundred years can weigh in on that one. Also interesting is the first mention of Kahless, in this case cast not as a great warrior or a hero but as a despicable villain, "notoriously evil." I suppose from a Vulcan's point of view anyone dedicated to violence would be 'evil'? Not sure why Kahless is worse than other Klingons, though. It's also interesting to put Genghis Khan in that category as well rather than, say, Alexander the Great, as both of them were conquerors. Either way, generating famous historical figures we know alongside some we don't does create some mystique and intrigue about famous people from the future. If I'm not mistaken, this episode also gives us our very first instance of Spock outright admitting he had an emotional outburst upon seeing Surak. Fascinating! Finally, there's a detail I never picked up on before, which is when the rock creature refers to his people as being spectators to the event. We already know from the scan in the transporter room that something funny was going on with Lincoln: SCOTT: Locked on to something. Does that appear human to you, Mister Spock? SPOCK: Fascinating. For a moment, it appeared almost mineral. Like living rock with heavy fore claws. It's settling down now to completely human readings. So Lincoln and the other historical figures are in fact members of the same race as the rock creature. Not sure why I never noticed that before. And it appears that they can change their form and even take on knowledge and memories collected from the minds of others, Kirk and Spock in this case, while forgetting whoever it was they were before. Presumably this also means that Surak and Lincoln didn't really die, since they would (I expect) just revert to being the rock creatures they were before. So some of that race not only spectate but also participate, to round out the numbers. The ending is just goofy since it ends up as a 4-on-2 that appears easy for Kirk and Spock to win. The only conclusion the rock creature is able to draw is that 'evil retreats easily' or something lame like that. I *think* the episode was trying to say something like that it's not so easy to tell good people from evil when looking at their methods alone; winning after all is a matter of strategy and power. Is that the 'savage curtain' we're meant to see is thin, diving up good and evil? The question is lame and so is the answer, but at least we do get to meet Surak and Kahless.

That's a zero stars episode for me. Everything was just too lame. I mean, c'mom, the alien ends saying he did all this dumb crap based on the "same right that brought the Enterprise there": the need to know new things. Fuck, the guy just compared Kirk visiting places peacefully with his "handing out life and death in dumb tournaments" AND THE EPISODE SEEMS TO THINK THIS IS WAS A LEGIT RESPONSE. Argh, I don't even want to talk more about this.

Projekt Kobra

Screw YOU, Genghis Khan!!! Runs off like a girl.

I thought it was okay. 2/4

One of the more commonly rerun episodes from my 80s childhood, I think “goofy” is a word I’d have applied even back then. The initial image of Lincoln sitting in a chair on the bridge view screen, intentionally, it seems, being reminiscent of the Lincoln memorial is definitely one of those “GuhWhaaa??” TOS moments. If you can get past that bit of silliness tho, there’s a great deal of potential in the episode. The exploration of good and evil, and the idea that good and evil are concepts of value tied to the human condition, are pretty rich areas for philosophical pondering. What we assume is intuitive about the good/evil dynamic might, to a lava monster, be seen as some bizarre oddity. Creatures who evolved in such extreme conditions might not have nuanced value structures, their philosophical framework might be built around pure pragmatism and as such, concepts like compassion or respect might seem suicidal to them. However, what they do evidently possess is curiosity. They want to understand the anomalous behavior of these squishy, space fairing, cold-goop creatures. Can beings representing two vastly differing perspectives achieve mutual understanding? It’s a good premise for discussion, and personally I’d have preferred more exploration in that direction. Unfortunately the episode doesn’t quite get us there, we instead get a bit lost in the whole fun-with-historical-dudes stuff. What I find most confusing about the episode’s setup is the nature of Lincoln, Surak, and all the other “illusions”. Are they projections of Kirk/Spock’s mind, imbued with agency but guided by our heroes preconceptions? Or are they manufactured by the rock monster, or even transmogrified rock monsters themselves, positioned to goad Kirk and Spock to play the game? Surak in particular is baffling given that he willingly dies for his beliefs; is he just fulfilling Spock’s ideal of how Surak would behave? Without knowing what, exactly, these historical figures actually are it’s difficult to gage the magnitude of Surak’s sacrifice. It’s also apparent that the strength of Surak’s commitment to peace and reason flies over the rock monster’s head. It seems that that form of inner strength, the courage of one’s convictions and the willingness to give all for the greater good, is lost on Yarnek. As is the willingness of team “good guys” to risk all to rescue Surak. Perhaps lava blob’s inability to grasp that sort of nuance was the point, but if so, then there seems to be something missing from the episode’s ending. It seems like we really could have used one of Kirk’s “big picture” speeches to wrap things up. I will say this tho, I was entertained. A few random observations: -Yarnek, the rock monster was a pretty cool, genuinely alien effect. Maybe he’s related to the Horta? -There was mention of “those old space legends” pertaining to this lava planet, implying that there’d been some previous contact with Yarnek’s civilization. Perhaps SNW should have explored that instead of revamping the xenomorp..I mean, Gorn. -“Do you still measure time in minutes?” “We can convert to it, sir.” Say what? -James this, James that, sheesh, I guess we’re on a first name basis, huh ABE? -I wonder if Kahless was “unforgettable” because he was so good at impressions. He must have been a real hoot at parties. 2/4 rough and tumble wraaslin’ Honest Abes.

The rock creature costume is kind of cool, even though it can only stand in one spot. Looks like it was made out of old Horta skins grafted onto an antique diving suit. The smoke and the lights-blinking-when-it-talks effects are suitably bizarre.

The confines of the set make this episode even weaker. A location shoot to any of the usual places would have helped it at least look less terrible. All the "sneaking around" shots amidst the fake rocks are laughable. I never thought "The Hand of Apollo" on the viewscreen would be topped for weirdness but Abe in his monument chair and with a stovepipe hat like he's a Disneyland robot got weirder (but not better)

David Fineberg

I watch several episodes of TOS as ways to help me fall asleep. They are like comfort food. This may be my most played. The episode is hot garbage, but entirely watchable in a way The Way to Eden , Turnabout Intruder, or And the Children Shall Lead are not. The surrealism reminds me of Spectre of the Gun, another turdburger I, for some reason I cannot fathom, enjoy immensely. Abraham Lincoln, a rock monster with claws and Scotty busting out the kilt- the absurdity of it is the reason it works.

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Abraham Lincoln

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By 1972 , Lincoln was considered by many people to be the greatest Republican president. However, his fellow Republican president Richard Nixon did not agree with this assessment. ( TOS - Star Trek: Assignment: Earth comic : " Too Many Presidents ")

In the 20th century , Lincoln was immortalized with a carving of his likeness on the face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota . That monument survived at least until 2287 . ( TOS movie : Star Trek V: The Final Frontier )

In 2154 , Captain Jonathan Archer and Daniels saw an image of Lincoln signing a document in the time stream as the timeline reset itself. ( ENT episode : " Storm Front ")

An image of Lincoln was among the files in the USS Enterprise library computer accessed by the Talosians in 2254 . ( TOS episodes : " The Cage ", " The Menagerie ")

Starfleet Captain James T. Kirk greatly admired Lincoln, so much so that the Excalbians recreated Lincoln to interact with Kirk and the USS Enterprise crew in order to further understand the concepts of good and evil. ( TOS episode : " The Savage Curtain ")

Prior to Stardate 10:26.3, Alexander Lazarus also recreated Lincoln, along with many other famous figures from Earth's past, using Lincoln's actual memories and thought patterns. How he obtained those is unclear. This Lincoln was an android who resembled the original perfectly. Kirk also met this version of Lincoln and hesitated to shoot him when all the androids were attacking the landing party. Lincoln was killed again when the planet was destroyed. ( TOS comic : " The Legacy of Lazarus ")

In 2293 , a portrait of Lincoln hung in the dining room of the USS Enterprise -A . ( TOS movie : Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country )

Benjamin Sisko once told Curzon Dax a story about one of Lincoln's cases as a lawyer. ( DS9 novel : Fallen Heroes )

In 2376 , Julian Bashir quoted a line from Lincoln's Gettysburg Address speech, " The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here ". ( DS9 novel : Trill: Unjoined )

Alternate realities [ ]

In an alternate timeline , Lincoln served as commanding officer of a starship , working alongside an Andorian and a Vulcan . ( Last Unicorn RPG module : All Our Yesterdays: The Time Travel Sourcebook )

Appendices [ ]

Connections [ ], external links [ ].

• Abraham Lincoln article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• Abraham Lincoln article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.
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Abraham Lincoln

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Lincoln in space

A simulacrum of Abraham Lincoln was created by the Excalbians in the 23rd century out of the mind of James T. Kirk . He was constructed as part of the first trial of good vs evil, alongside a simulacrum of Surak , to assist Kirk and Spock against the simulacrums of Kahless , Colonel Phillip Green , Zora and Genghis Khan .

Lincoln was killed during the trial, but his simulacrum was recreated as the Excalbians continued to debate good vs evil. During the second trial, in 2411 , he assists the player in navigating the trials and dealing with Yarnek . He is shown as a moderating influence on the Excalbians, defending the player when their choices are criticized.

• 2 Missions involved
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Notes [ | ]

• Despite being a simulacrum, Abraham Lincoln is the first real-life person to appear in Star Trek Online , as he is based on the 16th President of the United States .

Missions involved [ | ]

• “The Measure of Morality (Part 1)”
• “The Measure of Morality (Part 2)”

References [ | ]

• ↑ For those of you who asked on the stream, the voice of Lincoln is Mark Dodson. Who, according to IMDB, is also the voice of Salacious Crumb.

External links [ | ]

• Abraham Lincoln (Excalbian) at Memory Alpha , the Star Trek Wiki.
• Abraham Lincoln at Memory Beta , the non-canon Star Trek Wiki.
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Star Trek (TV Series)

The savage curtain (1969), nichelle nichols: uhura, photos .

Quotes 

Abraham Lincoln : [interrupting]  What a charming negress. Oh, forgive me, my dear. I know that in my time some use that term as a description of property.

Uhura : But why should I object to that term, sir? You see, in our century, we've learned not to fear words.

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Chris Pine Was Surprised by New ‘Star Trek 4’ Writer Hire Because ‘I Thought There Was Already a Script…I Was Wrong or They Decided to Pivot’

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Chris Pine was taken by surprise when news hit that Steve Yockey, creator of the Max series “The Flight Attendant,” had signed on to write the script for “ Star Trek 4.” Why? “I thought there was already a script,” the actor recently told Business Insider during an interview on his “Poolman” press tour.

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“I honestly don’t know,” Pine told Business Insider when asked about “Star Trek 4” updates. “There was something in the news of a new writer coming on board. I thought there was already a script, but I guess I was wrong, or they decided to pivot. As it’s always been with ‘Trek,’ I just wait and see.”

Steve Yockey is the latest screenwriter to get a chance to pen the script for “Star Trek 4.” Attempts over the years to get the sequel off the ground have included an R-rated idea from none other then Quentin Tarantino. Another version of the project was to be directed by Matt Shakman (“WandaVision”) and written by Lindsey Beer (“Sierra Burgess Is a Loser”) and Geneva Robertson-Dworet (“Captain Marvel”). Shakman left the project to direct Marvel’s “The Fantastic Four” instead, and it fell apart soon afterwards.

In his Business Insider interview , Pine also said that it wasn’t until the third movie that he finally felt comfortable on set playing Kirk. The character was made famous by William Shatner.

“It’s interesting. Karl Urban decided to go head first into McCoy because Karl loved ‘Star Trek,'” Pine said. “With Spock, you have to do Spock-like things, plus Zach [Quinto] kind of looked like Leonard [Nimoy]. And then Kirk is a tricky one. You are the lead of the band of characters, so you don’t want to occupy too much space. It’s fine if they are doing a thing, but you don’t want to. And J.J. [Abrams] never asked me to do a thing, though I did do little nods to Shatner because it was fun.”

“But I would say I felt most in his shoes in the third movie. By that point, I think I mellowed into it and didn’t feel like I was trying too hard,” Pine added.

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“T-shirts weren’t allowed, only dark shoes, no paper cups”: Daniel Day-Lewis Had Strict On Set Conditions For Playing His Oscar-Winning Role in Lincoln

Daniel Day-Lewis demanded "no anachronisms" on the set of 2012's Lincoln.

• Tim Blake Nelson revealed in a podcast interview that Daniel Day-Lewis demanded no modern items on set.
• The Oscar-winning actor used method acting to portray former US President Abraham Lincoln.
• Day-Lewis said he took a year to prepare for the film and revealed his own approach to the role.

Daniel Day-Lewis is known to be  an effective method actor, and in one of his famous roles, he pushed himself to the edge and demanded a lot from the team in order to deliver an exemplary performance.

Tim Blake Nelson costarred with Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg’s 2012 war drama film,  Lincoln . The actor revealed every single thing that the latter requested on set, as well as shared what it was like to act alongside the Oscar-winning star.

Daniel Day-Lewis Prohibited Modern Items On The Set Of Lincoln

In a podcast interview via Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum , actor Tim Blake Nelson shared his experience working with Daniel Day-Lewis . He said “ the transformation is so comprehensive, molecular ” that he did not even feel he was with an actor.   “ It felt as though I were with the president of the United States ,” he joked.

Nelson enumerated all the things Day-Lewis demanded on the set, including “ no anachronisms, T-shirts weren’t allowed, only dark shoes and no jeans, no paper cups .”

He said that it was not “ neurotic ” but more like “ I don’t want overt anachronisms .” They could have a porcelain cup on the set, just not a paper cup. Nelson carried a tin cup with him since he drinks espresso every morning.

No cameras, no phones, obviously, and I found that actually to be very salutary. It was really helpful, and it made all of our performances better. It made all of us more disciplined. It made you more enthusiastic to be on the set because it was a special and sacred place .

Even though there were a lot of rules on the movie set, Nelson claimed it came in very handy in instilling order and creating a more focused work ethic. It also helped Day-Lewis internalize his role as United States President Abraham Lincoln .

“That was a beautifully directed story”: Steven Spielberg Was Floored By Kate Winslet’s ‘The Mare of Easttown’ After Revealing He Wanted Lincoln to Be a Series

Apart from forbidding the use of modern articles, Day-Lewis also read about 100 books on Lincoln, lost weight, and worked with a makeup artist for almost a year to transform himself in a way that he would have a striking physical resemblance with the former president.

Daniel Day-Lewis Made Himself Believe He Was Abraham Lincoln 

In his interview with film producer Husam Asi , Day-Lewis shared how he prepared for his role in Lincoln .

My approach was the same approach I have to any piece of work which is to try and to create an understanding for myself in a very personal way of a life. I had a year to prepare, and at a certain moment, the books are put to one side and the real work begins .

The actor claimed it would be “ preposterously arrogant ” to say he had any similarities with Lincoln, though he was surprised to discover the humor behind the impenetrably sympathetic image of the former president.

Daniel Day-Lewis Builds a Reputation For Himself Outside of Acting in Another Industry With His Rare and Eclectic Taste

It took him a year to fully prepare for the movie which he finds quite a pleasurable experience. According to the actor, he would “ choose to believe for a period of time ” that he was Abraham Lincoln. “ It really is just that simple game of make-believe ,” he quipped.

Lincoln is available to watch on Amazon Prime.

Daniel Day-Lewis Lincoln Steven Spielberg Tim Blake Nelson

Written by Ariane Cruz

Ariane Cruz, Senior Content Writer. She has been contributing articles for FandomWire since 2021, mostly covering stories about geek pop culture. With a degree in Communication Arts, she has an in-depth knowledge of print and broadcast journalism. Her other works can also be seen on Screen Rant and CBR.

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