Great Old TV Episodes: from the Original Star Trek

 DAY OF THE DOVE from Star Trek (1968)

Day of the Dove was one of the final episodes from the original Star Trek series, consigned to be cancelled after being relegated to the "dead zone" scheduled airing time of 10 on Friday nights.  At the time I didn't particularly like this episode, largely because of what I perceived to be the flawed acting as McCoy, Chekov, Scotty...and others...all seem to be speaking out of character, very angry, fearful and vindictive.  Which was the whole point of the episode, actually, as the Enterprise under Captain Kirk finds itself manipulated by an alien life force feeding on negative feelings and conflict into open warfare with survivors of a Klingon vessel.  The entity exacerbates the passions of the crews on both sides, even creating false memories of past atrocities that never happened.  Although back in '68 I wasn't too enamored with the story, today it rings very loud as I look at the way social and mass media are doing essentially the same things as that twirling, insubstantial alien entity on this episode, whipping up folks' anger and outrage against the "other side" behind the scenes while giving time to any conspiracy theory or "alternative facts" that can provide them higher ratings or hits.  I'm sick of Facebook and Twitter for this and finally felt the need to detach myself from them, at least as far as posting links to them to this blog is concerned.  This society of ours is quickly spiraling downward as people bubble themselves off in insulated feedback loops where they only hear and read viewpoints and information that panders to their bubble's narrative...not healthy at all.  If you have Netflix you can see all the old Star Trek episodes...this one's still not exactly one of my favorites, but you need to carefully watch and listen to Chekov, Scotty, and McCoy as they go over the edge and then look around you at what's going down today with people who normally seem rational.  I recommend the documentary film The Social Dilemma, which you can also watch on Netflix...click on the title to read my review from September...