‘WHAT SHIPS ARE FOR’ (STC)
This is the penultimate story in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series and it’s the last single episode story before we get to the two-part finale. ‘What Ships Are For’ is a fascinating episode that explores what happens when we go beyond a black-and-white viewpoint. 🙂
And that’s literally as well as metaphorically-speaking. In the episode, the Enterprise visits the planet Hyalinus, who has sent a distress signal. Hyalinus is a world affected by radiation, which prevents its inhabitants from seeing colour. This was a surprise to see. 🙂
When I revisited this episode recently, my Dad easily made the comparison to ‘The Wizard of Oz’ by saying that Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock and Bones had ended up in Kansas. Because in that film, the world of Kansas is presented via a black-and-white or monochrome lens.
I was reminded of the original version of the pilot episode ‘The Cage’ episode, which I’ve seen on the Season 3 DVD box set of the original ‘Star Trek’ TV series. Some scenes in that episode are in black-and-white whilst other parts are shown in colour for certain scenes.
It was so unusual to see scenes in this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode being depicted in black-and-white. It’s quite clever how the episode utilises that as part of the story. I wish there was a ‘Doctor Who’ TV story where the TARDIS landed on a black-and-white world.
It’d be an ideal story for the Ncuti Gatwa/Fifteenth Doctor era of ‘Doctor Who’ where prejudice themes could’ve been addressed. Because that’s explored in this episode where the people of Hyalinus realise what happens when colour is applied to their world.
In this episode, Captain Kirk must convince an unenlightened alien species on the planet Hyalinus to embrace their most hated adversaries. This is because some of their most hated adversaries have been living on Hyalinus whilst the planet’s been devoid of colour.
An interesting thing to point out about this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode is that the script (or teleplay) is by Kipleigh Brown. She usually plays Lt. Barbara Smith in ‘Star Trek Continues’. It’s very nice to find that this episode is penned by Kipleigh Brown in the series.
A shame she didn’t do any more episodes after this one, especially as we’re coming to the end of ‘Star Trek Continues’ by this point in the series. Checking out her IMDb page, this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode does appear to be Kipleigh’s only writing credit so far. 😐
One of the special guest stars in this episode happens to be John de Lancie. For eagle-eyed ‘Star Trek’ fans, John de Lancie is well-known for playing Q in many ‘Star Trek’ spin-off TV shows. This includes ‘The Next Generation’, ‘Deep Space Nine’, ‘Voyager’ and ‘Picard’.
It was nice to see John de Lancie guest star in this ‘Star Trek Continues’ episode and play a different character from what he usually plays in ‘Star Trek’. I’m quite surprised John de Lancie wasn’t revealed to be Q at some point in this episode. Or Trelane for that matter. 😀
John de Lance plays Galisti, one of the ruling authorities on the planet Hyalinus. He’s joined by Anne Lockhart as Thaius, a fellow colleague and Galisti’s fiancée. Interestingly, Anne Lockhart played Lt. Sheba in the original ‘Battlestar Galactica’ TV series from 1978.
I’ve not seen any ‘Battlestar Galactica’ shows to know that. 😀 Anne also happens to be the daughter of June Lockhart, who played Maureen Robinson in the family space adventure TV series ‘Lost in Space’. Interesting connection between daughter and mother. 🙂
Whilst Thaius and Galisti are in love with each other, there’s something that Galisti doesn’t know about regarding Thaius’ identity. This is something that he discovers to his shock and horror once the colours are applied to the world Haylinus by the story’s end. 😐
Kirk, Spock and Bones also meet Elizabeth Maxwell as Sekara, who is like a young protegee of Thaius in the episode. Sekara reveals to Kirk, Spock and Bones that she’s been infected by a disease, which has affected her arm. Help of course is provided for her.
But of course, it means Sekara needs to be aboard the Enterprise in order for her arm to be treated. It was fascinating to see Sekara beam aboard the Enterprise and discover the world of colour for the first time, which initially has her scared before she’s fascinated.
It’s also intriguing to Sekara appearing to be a humanoid with slightly green skin and purple hair. Is she related to Gamora from the ‘Marvel Cinematic Universe’? 😀 Sekara does come across as a sweet, pleasant woman when Kirk and others interact with her. 🙂
This is despite the claims made by the people of Haylinus that the alien race she comes from attacked their world and were once aggressive towards them. Galisti and his people have quite a clear prejudice towards the people – the Abicians – whom Sekara came from.
This notion of Haylinus being inhabited by both the Haylinans and the Abicians without the Haylinans realising it is a fascinating one. It does add to the prejudice theme running throughout the episode, especially when the world of Haylinus is devoid of colour.
Imagine what our world would be like if we were living in black-and-white and there weren’t any colours. Would we behave in the same way as the people of Haylinus where colours and creeds aren’t important? Would we reject certain people among our society?
I like Kirk’s interactions with Sekara when he tries to persuade her to see beyond the black-and-white lens, revealing her to that she’s an Abician and not an Haylinan. This is especially when the Haylinans appear humans and don’t have green skin nor purple hair.
It was tense when Sekara attempted to destroy the device in the Enterprise engineering room that was to provide the colours for Haylinus to save its people from radiation. She’s afraid of being rejected by those she loves, including Galisti. 😐 Kirk manages to stop her in time.
I liked Kirk’s conversation with Dr. McKennah in the board room aboard the Enterprise where he shares his anger and frustration on how to deal with the situation when Galisti and his people have colour given to their world. McKennah does give helpful advice to Kirk.
At the beginning of this episode, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Bones and Dr. McKennah speak to Mark Rolston as Admiral McGuinness, who happens to be wearing a different Starfleet uniform to the usual ones. This is a precursor to the uniforms worn in ‘The Motion Picture’.
It was funny when Bones complained about Dr. McKennah being in Spock’s spot when standing with Captain Kirk on the bridge. 😀 More plot details are unveiled by Admiral McGuinness regarding the Hood starship that lost its crew following ‘Embracing the Winds’.
The episode does end on an open-ended note where we don’t see the resolution between the Haylinans and the Abicians. One assumes things turned out well in the episode, but then racism and prejudice isn’t something that can be easily resolved when thinking about it.
‘What Ships Are For’ is a very good instalment in the ‘Star Trek Continues’ series. It was fascinating to see the Enterprise crew visit a world devoid of colour and how it tackles prejudice among people who don’t realise that they’re living with those different to them.
‘What Ships Are For’ (STC) rating – 8/10
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