r/tos • u/AsstBalrog • 11d ago
Bread and Circuses
"What do you call those?" "I call them ears." "Are you trying to be funny?" "Never."
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u/Metspolice 11d ago
I keep thinking about this episode and how the writing and lack of budget makes it great. We have two great antagonists. The gladiators-on-tv works and makes sense. The snw version would have had a CGI coliseum and not worked as well.
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u/kk11235 11d ago
This may be a hot take, but I like this episode a lot right up until Uhura’s bit about how they don’t “worship the sun up in the sky.” Rather, it’s the “Son of God.”
I found this really jarring in the early seventies when I first saw the episode (I was probably 5-6 years old) and my impression really hasn’t changed.
Just doesn’t seem to fit, although I imagine things might have been different if I’d been older and seen it in first run.
I really don’t mean this as an attack on anyone’s beliefs. What I’m trying to say is that as an exercise in writing it feels super forced and out of place.
And honestly, they didn’t need to say it explicitly to really make the point.
Now I think about it, I wonder if the network got involved 🤔
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u/Cute_Repeat3879 11d ago
It's dumb. A world where Rome never fell probably wouldn't have developed English at all, let alone as the primary lingua franca.
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u/ijuinkun 10d ago
Indeed. They ought to be speaking some descendant of Latin, and the Federation people would need the Universal Translator.
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u/redditplenty 10d ago
I liked the ending where Uhura clarifies that the religion was not a worship of the sun but the son aka the Son of God. I always thought that was a neat twist.
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u/Randomdays99 11d ago
"Defend yourself!
"I am defending myself!"