Horror.com Forums - Talk about horror. - Star Trek: Horror out of context

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fake Shemp (Post 1019388)

Sooo....they've been running the old Star Trek cartoon from the 70's on Sundays, which I watch when I remember it's there. It's enjoyable enough in a He-Man way, and probably one of the stranger cartoons I've ever seen as the content seems odd for children. None stranger than the last one aired; "The Magicks of Megas-tu", wherein the Devil himself appears on the ship and is defended by Kirk in a witch hunt style trial (prosecuted by Asmodeous dressed up like a Puritan). WTF-ery abounds. Witness Spock drawing a pentagram, and trippy sequences somehow augmented by the cheapness of the animation. Weirdly sympathetic to the devil, yet it was originally supposed to feature God Himself (the network shot the idea down; the replacement of Lucifer does not serve to clarify matters.)

Not fair to put this on this forum as it's not really horror-related per-se, Satan being a fun-loving fellow and not threatening in the cartoon... but I was so baffled by the whole thing (actually I was rolling on the floor laughing in an astonished way) that I had to say something about it.

However this is not the first time horror appeared out of context on Star Trek; Robert Bloch wrote three episodes, typical of him but not of Star Trek, the most Bloch-ish being "Wolf In The Fold" and "Catspaw". One wonders how these things come about.

I had thought the famous "evil Kirk" episode "The Enemy Within" was written by Bloch, but that was another horror-oriented writer: Richard Matheson.

A lot of people love Star Trek and will defend it's quality to the death; I find it entertaining but rarely as deep as some think it is. I love Matheson and like Bloch and wonder about the strange mishmash stories they wrote for a show sort of outside their sphere-- although not entirely, to be fair. Just think it's odd.

I'm a Star Trek fan. I liked the Original Series and Next Gen, and only the 2nd Season (Xindi Serials) of Enterprise. Never much liked all the others spinoffs.

I have not watched more than 2 or 3 eps of the cartoon series. The music really grates & irritates me (same music used in the Lassie cartoon), and the bizarre looking and talking alien crew member, it just repelled me.

Interesting Devil episode you've described. Sounds a bit like Devil's Due (a really good Next Ep). Of course Roddenberry was a Humanist and fairly virulent anti-christian, some eps ring that up, some don't.

I'm a fan of Matheson's work too. The Enemy Within is an interesting ep. The only problem I have with it is the mislabeling pf so many things "evil" and "good"... in that most natural impulses are good, they just have times and places for them. Humans don't require an evil side. And good men can lead. The labeling and some odd conclusions in the ep are just a mess.