The Magicks of Megas-tu

"The Magicks of Megas-tu"

"The Magicks of Megas-tu" is the eighth episode of the first season of the American animated science fiction television series Star Trek: The Animated Series. It first aired on NBC on October 27, 1973, and was written by Larry Brody, who would later go on to write the Star Trek: Voyager episode "Tattoo".

Set in the 23rd century, the series follows the adventures of Captain James T. Kirk (voiced by William Shatner) and the crew of the Starfleet starship Enterprise. In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise are transported to the planet Megas-Tu, where magic and witchcraft are normal by an alien named Lucien.

Plot

On stardate 1254.4, while exploring near the center of the galaxy, the Federation starship USS Enterprise is caught inside an energy/matter vortex and all her computer systems fail. A being named Lucien appears on the bridge, repairs the ship's systems and takes the crew to explore his planet, Megas-Tu.

On this planet, magic and witchcraft are quite normal. The Megans are an ageless species that had, at one time, lived on Earth, and were responsible for the legends about witches. Lucien, their guide, is in reality the Lucifer of Earth mythology. During this time, the Enterprise crew begin to experiment with magic: Lt. Sulu conjures up a beautiful woman while Science Officer Spock creates a Vulcan chess game. Lucien then warns the crew that their experiments would draw unwanted attention, but it is too late. The crew are transported into Salem during the middle of a witch trial where Lucien is the creature placed on trial by the Megans.

The Megans are determined to put humanity and the Enterprise crew on trial for what humans did to their people during the Salem witch-trials. Kirk comes out in support of Lucien's life and says that killing him would make the Megans just like humans. Lucien's punishment is to be condemned into limbo for eternity for bringing humans into the Megans' world. While Kirk states that humanity has progressed infinitely since 1691, the Megans ignore his words. At the end of the trial, Kirk offers his life to save Lucien's and the Megans are so impressed by the captain's gesture that they spare Lucien, and tell the Enterprise that they would welcome future human visits to their planet. They also return the Enterprise to its proper universe, while Lucien is revealed to be Lucifer.

Production

Writer Larry Brody later wrote the episode "Tattoo" for the second season of Star Trek: Voyager.

Commentary

Mark A. Altman and Edward Gross, in their book Trek Navigator, consider "The Magicks of Megas-tu" to be one of the best animated episodes. They explained that while it was quite ambitious and heady for a Saturday morning children's program, "it's somehow appropriate that Star Trek is able to pull it off successfully." They compared this episode to the live action Star Trek show "Plato's Stepchildren" where Kirk and his crew also gain superpowers, saying its "a better episode, as Kirk pleads humanity's case to the Megans." They highlighted that the episode depicts Kirk successfully defending Lucifer from banishment and noting that he will not fall prey to legendary superstitions and at the end of the episode following Kirk's successful defense, Spock says ironically to Kirk: "This is the second time Lucifer was cast out and, thanks to you, the first time he was saved."

In his column "One Trek Mind" for the official Star Trek website, Jordan Hoffman described the episode as "quite beautiful to look at", even if he found the activity in the episode quite hard to recite. Hoffman said that the magical battle between Kirk and the Megan prosecutor was "indescribable", and compared one scene to having Kirk "trapped inside a giant wrapper of Fruit Stripe gum". He thought that the revelation of Lucien as the devil and the punchline ending to the episode could not be repeated in modern television.

It should be noted that at the time of production, the nature of the center of the Milky Way was not well understood by astronomers. The luminous feature at galactic center known as Sagittarius A* (Sgr A*) was not discovered until February 1974, and it would not be until 2002 before Sgr A* was confirmed to be the location of a supermassive black hole, a feature now known to be at the center of the vast majority of observed galaxies in the universe.

References

• Altman, Mark A.; Gross, Edward (1998). Trek Navigator. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN 978-0316038126.
• Brody, Larry (2005). Turning Points in Television. New York: Citadel Press. ISBN 978-0806526430.

External links

• "The Magicks of Megas-tu" at IMDb
• Template:Tv.com episode
• "The Magicks of Megas-tu" at Memory Alpha
• Template:StarTrek.com link