Star Trek 075: Requiem for Methuselah

75. Requiem for Methuselah

FORMULA: What Are Little Girls Made Of? + Elaan of Troyius + Plato's Stepchildren + Catspaw + The Squire of Gothos + ½ a NOMAD

WHY WE LIKE IT: The mystery surrounding Flint is interesting and well played by James Daly.

WHY WE DON'T: Kirk is positively loopy in this one. His love for Rayna just isn't credible.

REVIEW: Hey, I'm a big fan of NOMAD, as you know, but seeing him cannibalized to make M-4 isn't enough to make me recommend an episode. Now, Requiem for Methuselah has some severe problems, not the least of which is that there is no explanation for why a human being from Antiquity would be immortal, or how some of the greatest figures of history could really be the same man, the core of that story works. Flint is an immortal who has grown so lonely that he wishes to create an equally immortal android to keep him company. James Daly plays Flint's plight believably and with assurance. And Rayna (mispelled Reena in the credits, tsk, tsk) is a compelling young woman as well.

It's therefore too bad that the episode was so badly written. Its main problem is that there's no reason for Kirk to fall so deeply in love with Rayna. None. The entire crew is dying from a plague and he's that preoccupied with a girl? Don't forget that the episode takes place in the span of only a couple of hours if McCoy's deadline is to be believed (and he seems to forget about that too, at times). Kirk is so distraught over the loss of this 2-hour-long love that Spock makes him forget his pain with a telepathic touch. This would have been a good and sensitive moment after Elaan of Troyius, for example, but here, it's wasted. I don't even see why Kirk would be taken with Rayna when the first words out of her mouth is technobabble meant for Mr. Spock. All this passion for a physical connection? The whole thing is dreadful, over-played and out of character!

Spock isn't much more than a chorus in this episode, suddenly quite the expert on emotions (he's even poetic about affairs of love), on art, on music, anything the script needs him to comment on, in fact. Why he has to explain the plot even to Flint at the end is a mystery. Speaking of deus ex machinae, the pat resolution as related by McCoy (who does get a good speech about Spock never knowing love here) is a rather boring reset button. "Yeah, turns out Flint isn't immortal anymore, and he's gonna play nice." I hate being told things instead of being shown them.

There are other problems: The magical way in which Flint turns the Enterprise into an advert for a model kit (wasn't it enough that he was immortal, super-strong and super-intelligent?); the shaky camera work; the dull and over-long dancing scene... But that's all par for the course, it seems, in the series' final death throes.

LESSON: History can be summed up into a single, complete biography of Flint. I need that book.

REWATCHABILITY - Medium: Watch it for Flint and Rayna and their story. Try to ignore Captain Kirk's out-of-character behaviour (if you can). Pretty much on autopilot.