"The Return of the Archons" is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #21, production #22, and was first aired February 9, 1967. It was repeated by NBC on July 27, 1967. The screenplay was written by Boris Sobelman, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Joseph Pevney. Image File history File links STArchons. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Screenwriters, scenarists or script writers, are authors who write the screenplays from which movies and television programs are made. ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American scriptwriter and producer. ... A television director is usually responsible for directing the actors and other taped aspects of a television production. ... Joseph Pevney (born September 15, 1911, New York City) is a prolific film and television director, with a directing career that spanned over 80 productions from 1950 to 1984. ... Harry Townes (September 18, 1914 – May 23, 2001)[1] was an television and movie actor. ... Torin Thatcher was an actor born 15 January 1905 in India to British parents. ... Xenia Gratsos is an actress who has worked both in film and on stage. ... Sid Haig Սիտ Հայկ (born Sidney Eddie Mosesian,Սիտնի Էտի Մոսեսիան on July 14, 1939) is an American film actor of Armenian descent. ... Jonathan Lormier (May 7, 1906 - March 19, 1986), more commonly known by his stage name Jon Lormer, was a French-American actor. ... Eddie Paskey-is an actor who is primarily known for playing the uncredited Lieutenant Leslie in the original Star Trek. ... This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... Court Martial is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ... Space Seed is a first-season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, that was first broadcast on February 16, 1967 and repeated on August 24, 1967. ... The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... February 9 is the 40th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... NBC (a former acronym for National Broadcasting Company) is an American television network headquartered in the GE Building in New York Citys Rockefeller Center. ... July 27 is the 208th day (209th in leap years) of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 157 days remaining. ... 1967 (MCMLXVII) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar (the link is to a full 1967 calendar). ... Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American scriptwriter and producer. ... Joseph Pevney (born September 15, 1911, New York City) is a prolific film and television director, with a directing career that spanned over 80 productions from 1950 to 1984. ...

Overview: The crew of the Enterprise encounters a world controlled by an unseen leader. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...

Plot

On stardate 3156.2, the starship USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, arrives at the planet Beta III where the USS Archon was reported lost nearly 100 years earlier. This article or section is not written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. ... One of the fictional ships called the Starship Enterprise from Star Trek, one of the most famous fictional starships. ... James Tiberius Kirk, played by William Shatner, is the main character in the original Star Trek television series and the films based on it. ...

Only Sulu comes back from the first landing party, exhibiting strange behavior, and Kirk sends another party down to investigate. They find the inhabitants of Beta III (who seem to be modeled after 19th century Earth) are a very static culture, with little or no individual expression or creativity. The entire culture is ruled over by cloaked and cowled "lawgivers", controlled by a reclusive dictator known as Landru. The only time the people "let loose" and become a violent mob, is at the coming of "The Red Hour", a festival which seems to be the only time Landru doesn't have control over them. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Kirk's landing party beams down just before the festival, and they seek shelter from the mobs at a nearby boarding house. Landru seems to be "all-seeing" and "all-knowing" with spies everywhere, one of whom turns the party in when he doesn't recognize them as members of "The Body", the telepathic collective beings, ruled by Landru, that most of the inhabitants belong to.

Kirk and his team are eventually captured. However, Reger, the owner of the house, is a resistance member and offers protection to Kirk and his team. Reger reveals that Landru "absorbs" selected people into The Body, which was the fate of the Archon's crew, and will also be the fate of the Enterprise's landing party. The Enterprise itself is now stuck in orbit and is being pulled down toward the planet by a mysterious force.

Kirk and Mr. Spock, his first officer, discover that the reclusive Landru is actually a computer sealed inside an ancient chamber, created 6000 years ago by a Betian scientist also named Landru. The Landru of that time only wished to create a way to help his failing society achieve peace. The computer was the solution but it performed its job soullessly and ruthlessly. Spock, commonly called Mr. ...

Kirk and Spock manage to convince the machine that running the planet as it has been is wrong and the people are being kept as meaningless slaves. They manage to convince it that it has violated its own prime directive. The machine realizes its mistake and self-destructs, thus freeing the people of Beta III. Unfortunately, millennia of dominance under Landru have them confused and unable to proceed on their own.

Kirk agrees to send Federation advisors and educators to the planet to help the civilization along. This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Trivia

• The Archons was the name of a debating society Gene Roddenberry belonged to in college.

• An episode of the short lived 1990 science fiction series Super Force called "Come Under the Way" had references to this Star Trek episode. The villain for the episode was a cult leader called Doctor Landru. Most notable were references by his cultists to being "part of the body" and a "Red Hour".

• The outdoor shots were filmed on "the back forty", Desilu Studios' film backlot, which was also used for shooting "Miri" and "The City on the Edge of Forever."

• Landru was the name of a late 19th-early 20th century French serial killer.

• Throughout this episode, Kirk addresses McCoy as Doc rather than by his usual nickname Bones.

• Harry Townes (Reger) also played Dell Frye on The Incredible Hulk TV series, where a scientist accidentally changed Frye into a Hulk-like creature 30 years prior to David Banner. Frye was cured shortly thereafter, but upon the death of the scientist, Frye kept searching for the means to recreate the process, and waited for Banner to arrive, so that he would be able to change again.

• Ben Stiller named his film production company "Red Hour Films" after this episode.

• From the outside, on the backlot, the doors to Reger's house from the street have curtained windows inset; from the inside, on a studio set, the doors are solid.

• This is one of many TOS episodes with a dystheistic theme, where a "divine" being with "supernatural" powers seeks to control and enslave living beings, but where Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise fight back to stop this from happening (e.g., Who Mourns for Adonais?, Day of the Dove, The Squire of Gothos).

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Gene Roddenberry Eugene Wesley Roddenberry (August 19, 1921 – October 24, 1991) was an American scriptwriter and producer. ... MCMXC redirects here; for the Enigma album, see MCMXC a. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Super Force is an action-adventure TV series about a former astronaut who uses an advanced combat suit and motorcycle to fight crime in Los Angeles, California during the year 2020. ... A 1965 aerial view of the back forty. Other names used were 40 acres and Pathe 40 Acre Ranch. ... Desilu Productions was a company jointly owned by American actors Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. ... A backlot is an area behind or adjoining a movie studio with permanent exterior sets for outdoor scenes in motion picture and/or television productions. ... Miri is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, that was first broadcast October 27, 1966, and repeated June 29, 1967. ... The City on the Edge of Forever is a first season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ... Henri Désiré Landru (1869- February 1922) was a notorious French serial killer and real-life Bluebeard. ... The Incredible Hulk was an American television series loosely based on the comic book character of the same name. ... Benjamin Edward Stiller (born November 30, 1965) is an Emmy-winning American comedian, actor, film producer and director. ... Dystheism is the belief that God does exist but is not wholly good, or that he might even be evil. ... Who Mourns for Adonais? is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ... Day of the Dove is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast November 1, 1968 and repeated June 17, 1969. ... The Squire of Gothos is an episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. ...

External links

• The Return of the Archons article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.
• The Return of the Archons on StarTrek.com