Synopsis: The Enterprise chases a Gorn ship into an unknown star system, where the Metrons decide that Captain Kirk and the captain of the Gorn ship will fight to the death to settle their differences.
What is most interesting about this episode is that we are given the opportunity to see the actions of the Enterprise interpreted from the perspective of another species, two in fact. To the Gorns, by an outpost being created on Cestus 3, they saw this as an invasion of their territory – a thought that apparently had not crossed the minds of the settlers in the Earth colony. To the Metrons, the actions of both the Enterprise and the Gorns were those of two savage races.
There are also illustrations of the difference between the Logos and an Eros approach to a situation. The first is humorous. At the beginning of the episode, when Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy tells Mr. Spock about looking forward to a good meal, Spock calls McCoy “a sensualist.” McCoy replies “you bet your pointed ears I am.” A sensualist would be driven by Eros urges to love what is beautiful and what gives pleasure, be it a good meal or a clever retort to a colleague’s comment. Spock’s Logos thinking, would see his original comment as merely stating a fact, not something that needed or expected rebuffing.
But the greater distinction between Eros and Logos comes later, after the landing party returns to the Enterprise after having found the colony on Cestus 3 destroyed. The only way Captain James T. Kirk, using his Eros sensibilities – his love and protective drives for his people, even his reptilian brain as some would call it, cannot interpret the actions of the Gorns as anything but an invasion. Spock, the Logos figure, tells Kirk that there are other explanations, but Kirk will not listen. Spock also reminds Kirk that they have a regard for sentient beings, but Kirk, cuts him off, saying that there is no time for that now. Spock then accepts Kirk’s decision, and reasons that then the only logical thing to do is to make sure the Gorns do not return to their home planet. It is interesting in this scene that instead of McCoy representing the Eros, Spock the Logos, and Kirk the balancing of the two, that Kirk himself represents the Eros, and this one-sidedness has the potential to represent doom for all involved.
But then the element of mercy is introduced. First mercy from the Metrons, in that they do not destroy both vessels as they enter their solar system, although they abhor the violence that they represent. Instead, they ask the captains to fight it out among themselves. Both Kirk and the Gorn captain figure out how to make weapons; the Gorn weapon represents one that is more instinctive, the more complex weapon that Kirk is able to create is rationally thought out, more Logos. I would argue that this represents Kirk being able to go beyond his Eros. This is further amplified when he has the ability to kill the Gorn; but doesn’t. This act of mercy is recognized by the Metrons as an advanced emotion, and they offer potential friendship to humans when they grow out of their savage ways, perhaps in a few centuries or millennia.
Original post created 22 January 2021
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