Requiem for Methuselah

"Requiem for Methuselah"
Star Trek: The Original Seriesepisode
Episodeno.	Season 3 Episode 19
Directed by	Murray Golden
Written by	Jerome Bixby
Featured music	Ivan Ditmars Fred Steiner
Cinematography by	Al Francis
Production code	076
Original air date	February 14, 1969(1969-02-14)
Guest appearances
James Daly- Flint Louise Sorel- Rayna Kapec William Blackburn - Lt. Hadley Roger Holloway - Lt. Lemli

"Requiem for Methuselah"is the nineteenth episode of thethird seasonof the Americanscience fictiontelevision seriesStar Trek.Written byJerome Bixbyand directed byMurray Golden,it was first broadcast on February 14, 1969.

In the episode, the crew of theEnterpriseencounters an immortal human.

Its repeat broadcast, on September 2, 1969, was the last official telecast of the series to air onNBC.Star Trekimmediately appeared insyndicationon the following Monday, September 8, a full three years after its debut.

Plot

The crew of theFederationstarshipEnterpriseis struck with deadly Rigellian fever, for which the only treatment is the mineral ryetalyn.Captain Kirk,first officerSpockand medical officerDr. McCoybeam down to the planet Holberg 917-G in search of the substance and are attacked by an airborne robot, which is called off by its master, Flint. Flint demands they leave immediately, but Kirk orders theEnterpriseto fire phasers on their coordinates if they are attacked. Acknowledging a stalemate, Flint agrees to let them remain long enough to obtain the ryetalyn.

Flint offers the help of his sentry robot M4 to gather the mineral and escorts them to his home, which has an impressive art collection. Spock notices that the brushwork of the paintings is identical toLeonardo da Vinci's, but histricorderindicates that they are made with modern materials.

The party is introduced to Flint's young ward, Rayna Kapec, whose late parents, according to Flint, were employees of his. On Flint's suggestion, Kirk playsbilliardswith Rayna, and they dance to awaltzplayed on the piano by Spock. The music, apparently in the hand ofJohannes Brahms,is written with modern ink. M4 returns with a container of ryetalyn, but it is contaminated with irilium, and therefore useless. Flint apologizes and accompanies M4 on a search for more ryetalyn.

When Kirk kisses Rayna, M4 reacts as if he were attacking her. Spock destroys it with his phaser. TheEnterprisereports that no information can be found on Flint or Rayna. A tricorder scan reveals that Flint is over 6,000 years old.

Rayna comes to say goodbye to Kirk, who has fallen in love with her and begs her to accompany him. McCoy tells them that after being processed in Flint's laboratory, the ryetalyn vanished. Spock follows tricorder readings to a laboratory chamber containing not only the ryetalyn, but a number of android bodies, all labeled "Rayna" and with a different number indicating earlier versions of her.

Flint reveals the truth. He was born in 3834 BC, and after falling in battle discovered he could not die. Flint has lived "lifetimes" asMethuselah,Alexander the Great,Solomon,Lazarus of Bethany,Leonardo da Vinci, Brahms, and many others. He built Rayna to be his immortal mate and manipulated Kirk into teaching her how to love. Paranoid about the possibility that theEnterprisecrew would reveal him and his location, Flint causes theEnterpriseto disappear from orbit and reappear as a tabletop miniature in his laboratory, with the crewmembers in suspended animation. He proposes to keep them that way for up to 2,000 years. Rayna happens into the room and vehemently objects, so he restores the starship to its previous state. When Kirk professes his love for Rayna and pleads with her to leave with him, a fight breaks out between him and Flint for the possession of Rayna. Rayna stops them, claiming her right to choose her own future, and then, overwhelmed by indecision for fear of hurting either Kirk or Flint, dies.

Back on theEnterprise,McCoy reports that readings from the earlier tricorder scan show that Flint has been aging normally since he left Earth's environment, and will soon die. Kirk falls asleep on his desk after commenting ruefully on Rayna's fate, and Spock places a suggestion to "forget" into his mind.

Production and reception

Rayna's last name, "Kapec", is ananagramof Capek, afterKarel Čapek,who introduced the term "robot".

Reception

In a 2010 review, Zack Handlen ofThe A.V. Clubcriticized the Rigellian fever scenario as contrived and wrote that Flint being numerous famous men from history was both completely irrelevant and contradictory to his claim that he had kept a low profile to avoid his immortality being discovered. He said that though the final scene is a highlight, it is undermined by Kirk's obsessive love for Rayna being so out-of-character as to be unbelievable. He gave the episode a C, summing it up as "forgettable".In 2017,Den of Geekranked "Requiem for Methuselah" as the 15th "best worst"Star Trek: The Original Seriesepisode, echoing Handlen's criticism that Kirk falling so intensely in love with Rayna over the course of just four hours was highly out-of-character.

Analysis

According to fantasy and science fiction scholar Ace G. Pilkington, "Requiem for Methuselah" is aStar Trekadaptation of the filmForbidden Planet(1956).ActressAnne Francisreported thatGene Roddenberry,the creator ofStar Trek,had talked to her about lifting some ideas fromForbidden Planet.ActorLeslie Nielsennoted the similarities betweenForbidden PlanetandStar Trek,suggesting that the film served as apilotfor the television series.

Ruth Morse, a Shakespearean scholar, has written on the influence ofThe TempestonForbidden Planetand "Requiem for Methuselah".Flint, the powerful recluse, seems to be based onProsperoandMethuselah.Rayna appears to be Flint's daughter and is based onMiranda,Prospero's daughter.The twist here is that "Rayna-Miranda" (as Morse calls her) is an android, not Flint's daughter. Flint hopes that the female android will fall in love with him. Flint offers her knowledge and intellectual stimulation but Rayna falls for the "irresistible" Kirk. The female android faces new and (to her) unfamiliar emotions, having to choose between two men. The pressure causes her to short-circuit into self-destruction, her version of death.

40th anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired June 21, 2008 as part of the remasteredOriginal Series.It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered "The Way to Eden"and followed a week later by the remastered"The Savage Curtain".Changes made specific to this episode include:

• Flint's home is now a large palatial home, complete with observation tower. Originally, Flint's home was represented by a reuse of the matte painting of Rigel VII from "The Cage".
• Planet Holberg 917-G is now more realistic, with two moons orbiting behind it.
• The effect of theEnterprisebeing miniaturized from space is remastered.

In other media

In severalnon-canonicalStar Treknovels, the crew meet up again with the character Flint.The Cry of the Onliesby Judy Klass is a follow-on from both "Requiem for Methuselah" and "Miri". He is also encountered inGreg Cox'sThe Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singhas Dr. Evergreen, a 1980s scientist who discovers a hole in theozone layeroverAntarctica,inImmortal CoilbyJeffrey Lang,and inFederationbyJudith and Garfield Reeves-StevensasZefram Cochrane'sbenefactor Micah Brack.

The author of theStar Trekscreenplay,Jerome Bixby,would write a film script at the end of his life which has many plot elements of this previous story, including an ageless man who is 14,000 years old, and has been a student ofthe Buddha,while he himself was the basis for the story ofJesus.This film,The Man from Earth,was released in 2007.

In the crossover comicStar Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes,the crew of theEnterprisejoins forces with the Legion of Super-Heroes to investigate an alternative timeline where Earth has become a galaxy-conquering empire, learning that the villain is immortalVandal Savage,who turns out to be an alternative version of Flint, Flint being a Vandal Savage who turned his back on violence and conquest.

The character of Rayna appears briefly twice without speaking as a hallucination in Episode 4 ofStar Trek Continues,"The White Iris",this time played byGabriela Fresquez,Spock's removal of Kirk's memory having been loosened by a brain injury and an experimental drug. SinceStar Trek Continuesfollows directly from the end of the originalStar Trekseries, presumably "The White Iris" occurs only a few weeks after the events of "Requiem for Methuselah".

Home video releases

This episode was released in Japan on December 21, 1993 as part of the complete season 3 LaserDisc set,Star Trek: Original Series log.3.A trailer for this and the other episodes was also included, and the episode had English and Japanese audio tracks.The cover script was スター・トレック TVサードシーズン

This episode was included inTOSSeason 3 remasteredDVDbox set, with the remastered version of this episode.

See also

• The Tales of Hoffmann Act 1 (Olympia)

Sources

• Morse, Ruth (2000)."Monsters, Magicians, Movies: The Tempest and the Final Frontier".In Holland, Peter (ed.).Shakespeare Survey: Volume 53, Shakespeare and Narrative: An Annual Survey of Shakespeare Studies and Production.Cambridge University Press.ISBN978-0521781145.
• Pilkington, Ace G. (2015)."Forbidden Planet: Aliens, Monsters and Fictions of Nuclear Disaster".In Kapell, Matthew Wilhelm; Pilkington, Ace G. (eds.).The Fantastic Made Visible: Essays on the Adaptation of Science Fiction and Fantasy from Page to Screen.McFarland & Company.ISBN978-0786496198.

External links

• "Requiem for Methuselah"atWayback Machine(archived from the original at StarTrek.com)
• "Requiem for Methuselah"atIMDb
• "Requiem for Methuselah"atMemory Alpha
• "Requiem for Methuselah"Review of the remastered version atTrekMovie.com
• A Timeline of the Methuselah's life
• Star Trek Transcripts - Requiem For Methuselah