‘THE WHITE IRIS’ (TSC)
Please feel free to comment on my review.
Believe it or not, this was the first ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode I saw via YouTube. It was the episode that made me aware of the fan-made series in the first place. This is because a certain ‘Doctor Who’ actor appears in the episode, and I was very keen to see him in it.
I’m of course talking about Colin Baker who plays Minister Amphidamas of the planet Chalcis in the episode. Colin Baker is well-known for playing the Sixth Doctor in ‘Doctor Who’, both in the TV series and the Big Finish audios. It was a delight to see him in this. 🙂
I was about to see Colin Baker along with Sarah Sutton and Peter Davison at the ‘GEEKS Salisbury Comic Con’ in July 2017. I did some research on Colin’s career and discovered that he guest starred in this fourth episode of ‘Star Trek Continues’. It was so fascinating.
Finding that the episode was freely available to watch on YouTube, I couldn’t resist checking it out whilst preparing my convention notes for ‘GEEKS Salisbury Comic Con’ in July 2017. 🙂 I got to share with Colin how much I enjoyed him guest starring in the episode.
Colin’s character in this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode mostly appears on the viewscreen of the Enterprise bridge. But that doesn’t matter, as it was a joy to see a ‘Doctor Who’ star in a ‘Star Trek’ episode made in the original TV series style. It was worth seeing back then.
Now I’m revisiting this episode as a full review, I can share more thoughts on what I think about ‘The White Iris’ in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series. It’s interesting that it has plenty of callbacks to previous ‘Star Trek’ episodes featuring characters that Kirk has met before.
The episode begins with Captain Kirk, Scotty and Uhura on the planet Chalcis, welcoming it people, led by Colin Baker as Amphidamas, to the United Federation of Planets. The Federation has also promised the Chalcidians a planetary defence grid during a time of war.
Essentially, the Chalcidians are being threatened by their warlike sister world Eretria and the defence grid is to provide them protection from missile attacks. Unfortunately, Kirk is struck severely in the back of the head by an Eretrian dissident during the negotiations. 😐
Scott contacts the Enterprise for an emergency beam out, distressing Colin Baker as Amphidamas. In sick bay, Dr. McCoy attends to Kirk’s injuries whilst Spock suggests that he use an experimental drug called alkysine to save Kirk’s life. McCoy is very reluctant to.
Just to go off on a sidenote, I really like Chuck Huber’s interpretation of Dr. ‘Bones’ McCoy in ‘Star Trek Continues’. Nothing against Larry Nemecek who played him in the first two episodes, but Chuck Huber sounds more like DeForrest Kelly when he’s playing Bones. 🙂
As Kirk suffers in sick bay, he sees an hallucination of Rayna, the android girl from ‘Requiem for Methuselah’ (played by Gabriela Fresquez in this episode). Spock erased Rayna from Kirk’s memory in ‘Requiem of Methuselah’ to prevent him suffering emotional turmoil.
Kirk demands that McCoy use the alkysine drug to save him. Whilst advising caution to Kirk, Bones eventually uses the drug on him and he makes a full recovery. I like that conversation Kirk has with Spock about Rayna and that he recalls everything about her. 🙂
Proceeding to the Enterprise bridge, Kirk establishes contact with Colin Baker as Amphidamas and is about to activate the defence grid for the Chalcidians with his own personal password. But it transpires Kirk forgot the password and he begins to see things.
Specifically, he sees the image of a woman in an old Starfleet uniform. This woman happens to be Nakia Burrise as Nakia, an old flame of Kirk’s when he served aboard the starship Farragut. 😦 She got killed with others by the cloud-like creature from ‘Obsession’.
Incidentally, Nakia Burrise is well-known for playing Tanya Sloan in the ‘Power Rangers’ series. Specifically, she was the Yellow Zeo Ranger in ‘Power Rangers Zeo’ and the first Yellow Turbo Ranger in ‘Power Rangers Turbo’. It was nice to see Nakia Burrise in this story.
Whilst Kirk can’t seem to remember the password, Chekov and Scotty try to help out by initialising the grid themselves. As the episode progresses, Kirk begins to see more women of his past other Nakia that have appeared in the series and have had tragic ends.
This includes Edith Keeler from ‘The City on the Edge of Forever’, played by Adrienne Wilkinson in this episode, and Miramanee from ‘The Paradise Syndrome’, played by Tiffany Brouwer. 😐 Kirk struggles to keep focus whilst he’s seeing images of these women.
With help from Dr. McKennah, the ship’s counsellor, it’s suggested Kirk has been feeling a tremendous amount of guilt for losing the women he loved. The feelings of griefs have been buried for so long and have come to the fore that Kirk needs closure with these women.
Very soon, Kirk goes to the holodeck aboard the Enterprise, which was introduced in ‘Pilgrim of Eternity’, and he recreates the scenes in which he encountered each woman. Marina Sirtis is once again the ship’s computer voice when Kirk makes his holodeck requests.
First, he reunites with Edith Keeler in the 1930s. He shares with her that he let her die in order for history to be restored properly so that her dreams for a better future would come to pass. Understanding, Edith tells Kirk to be at peace before he can move on with his life.
We then have Kirk reuniting with Nakia where she’s in sickbay aboard the starship Farragut. He tells her how he feels guilty for what happened when the cloud-like creature attacked the Farragut crew, but she tells him he needs to forgive himself when taking risks.
Then, we have Kirk reuniting with Miramanee on her deathbed in the American Indian village from ‘The Paradise Syndrome’ episode. Kirk tells her he was never happier than when he was with her, and Miramanee assures her that he made her very happy as well. 🙂
As the holodeck grid reverts to default, Kirk then sees the android girl Rayna appear before him. She silences him and simply smiles, saying nothing and indicating that she’s at peace as well. Intriguing Rayna didn’t say anything in this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode.
Kirk also encounters a little girl, played by Sarai Duenas, who has been appearing in the corridors of the Enterprise a few times. Kirk asks her name and she tells him he never gave her one. It’s revealed she’s Miramanee’s child – the one she bore when she and Kirk were married.
When hugging the little girl, she whispers the word ‘Irises’ to him. This prompts him to remember the password and he’s able to activate the defence grid for the Chalcidians. Colin Baker as Amphidamas is grateful. The Eretrians also make peace with the Chalcidians.
With the crisis averted, Spock and Bones speculate on why Kirk chose ‘Irises’ as the password for the Chalcidians’ defence grid. The word comes from the painting by Vincent van Gogh called ‘Irisis’, where there’s this one single white iris in a field of purple flowers.
The white iris is to symbolise his loneliness, which reflects Captain Kirk in his career as the captain of the Enterprise. Bones notes that despite him suffering heart failure in this episode, Kirk preserved because part of his heart belongs to another lady – the Enterprise.
‘The White Iris’ is a very enjoyable episode in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series. The highlight for me, of course, is seeing Colin Baker make a guest star appearance in the episode. It’s also nice to see this episode provide follow-ups to previous ‘Star Trek’ episodes in the original TV series.
It’s an enjoyable showcase for Captain Kirk’s character when he finds closure for the women he lost and felt guilt over their deaths. It’s an impressive episode that’s well-put together in terms of character development as well as the visuals in making it all possible.
‘The White Iris’ (STC) rating – 9/10
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