‘REQUIEM FOR METHUSELAH’ (TOS)

Please feel free to comment on my review.

I’m afraid this ‘Star Trek’ episode didn’t work for me. It has an interesting concept throughout the story, but I wasn’t happy with the ending and it was a rather over-soppy love story for Captain Kirk.

The Enterprise visits the planet Holberg 917-G in search for the mineral Ryetalyn. The crew has recently been struck with a deadly Rigellian Fever, and they need the Ryetalyn to manufacture a cure.

Kirk, Spock and Bones beam down to the planet in order to find the Ryetalyn. They then get attacked by this robotic drone that’s being controlled by its master Flint, who is an old man living on Holberg 917-G.

Flint tells Kirk, Spock and Bones to leave his planet since they’re trespassing. The ‘Star Trek’ trio plead with Flint to let them get the Ryetalyn they want. Flint seems unwilling to grant them their request.

But eventually, Flint agrees and allows the ‘Star Trek’ trio to get what they want within two hours and with any help they need. He also invites them to be his guests for dinner at his home on the planet.

Flint’s house is like a palace and this surprises Kirk, Spock and Bones. They see an array of various artefacts of Earth’s past such as paintings of Leonardo da Vinci and musical compositions by Brahms.

They also meet a beautiful woman named Rayna Kapec, who happens to be Flint’s ward on the planet. Rayna becomes very curious about the ‘Star Trek’ trio when they come to visit her and Flint.

Louise Sorel guest stars as Rayna Kapec. Rayna is very beautiful and she easily catches the attention of Captain Kirk. Rayna is very talented in many arts, since she’s been taught by Flint over the years.

She’s also a very good dancer and Rayna and Kirk dance together whilst Spock plays at the piano. Soon, Kirk and Rayna find themselves falling in love with each other and it’s a new experience for her.

James Daly guest stars as Flint in the episode. Flint is an unusual character, since he seems to be delaying the ‘Star Trek’ trio’s attempt to acquire the Ryetalyn, as he uses them for some experiment.

It turns out that Flint is an amalgamation of various people, including da Vinci, Brahms, Solomon, Alexander, Lazarus, Methuselah, Merlin, etc. I found this rather difficult to believe, quite frankly.

It also transpires that Rayna isn’t a real person at all. She’s actually an android. It seems that Kirk has been used by Flint to arouse the emotions that are within Rayna so that she can fall in love with him.

Despite being used, Kirk still feels himself in love with Rayna. I also found this hard to swallow, since I wonder how Kirk can fall in love with a woman who’s not real and that they’ve only met for the first time.

Soon, Kirk and Flint fight each other over the woman they love, but Rayna demands them to stop, as she chooses for herself who she loves. But it soon ends up with Rayna killing herself in the process.

This is an episode with a plot that seems rather far-fetched. Kirk is devastated, as he grieves over Rayna’s death by the story’s end. Spock soon makes Kirk forget Rayna using a Vulcan mind-meld on him.

‘Requiem for Methuselah’ isn’t one of my favourite ‘Star Trek’ episodes. It’s a love story for Kirk that seems far-fetched with the woman turning out to be an android and Rayna soon killing herself at the end.

But this ‘Star Trek’ episode did help to inspire me with writing one of my ‘Doctor Who’ fan-fiction Short Trips called ‘Brian and Heart’ with Zoe. So, I suppose this episode did have an impact on me then. 😀

The DVD special features for this episode are as follows. On Disc 5 of both the original and re-mastered DVDs of ‘Star Trek: The Original Series – Season 3’, there’s a preview trailer for this episode.

‘Requiem for Methuselah’ (TOS) rating – 4/10

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The previous story For ‘The Original Series’ was ‘The Lights of Zetar’ (TOS) (TV)	The next story For ‘The Original Series’ is ‘The Way to Eden’ (TOS) (TV)
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