star trek quatloos

Trek vs Trek

I watch 2 episodes of Star Trek from 2 different series, and write about them.

“A hundred quatloos on the newcomers”: The Gamesters of Triskelion (Original Series) vs. Tsunkatse (Voyager)

Star Trek: The Original Series – “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (season 2, episode 17)

Written by Margaret Armen; directed by Gene Nelson; first aired in 1968

( IMDb | Memory Alpha )

Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov beam down to an automated outpost to check on its equipment, only to find themselves on a different, unknown planet, with three suns in the sky and four alien warriors surrounding them. After a quick defeat in hand-to-hand combat, Kirk and company meet Galt, the “master thrall,” who informs them that they, like the aliens who beat them, are now “thralls,” who must fight gladiator-style for the amusement of the unseen “Providers,” unless they want a zap from the pain-collars they’ve been outfitted with. Back on the Enterprise, Spock follows up on some tenuous leads as to the location of his missing captain and crewmates, with a worried and frustrated Bones and Scotty questioning his every move until he finally advises them to either mutiny or get off the pot. Meanwhile, Kirk and company learn the disturbing ropes of life as a thrall, and Kirk gets close with Shahna, who was born into thrall-dom and has never known anything else … and whom he knocks unconscious in a failed escape attempt. When the Enterprise finally tracks down the missing crew members, the Providers take control of the ship, and reveal themselves to Kirk as three disembodied brains in jars, with nothing better to do than bet “quatloos” on thrall fights. Kirk baits the Providers into a new wager: if representatives from his crew can defeat their thralls, both the thralls and the Enterprise crew get to go free; if not, the Providers get an Enterprise-full of new thralls. They agree, but insist that Kirk fight alone against a group of thralls, including Shahna. He does, and somehow manages to defeat several seasoned, lifelong gladiators, with Shahna surrendering after the others have been killed. With the Enterprise free to go, the Providers promise to teach the thralls how to live on their own, and Kirk says goodbye to Shahna, whom he can’t take with him, for … some reason.

Star Trek: Voyager – “Tsunkatse” (season 6, episode 15)

Teleplay by Robert J. Doherty; story by Gannon Kenney; directed by Mike Vejar; first aired in 2000

We open on an arena, where two aliens, including a Hirogen, fight in front of a cheering crowd which includes Chakotay, Torres, and other Starfleet officers. We learn that Voyager’s crew are taking shore leave on the planet Norcadia Prime, and with much of the crew caught up in watching, and wagering on, “Tsunkatse” matches, Seven of Nine and Tuvok decide to take a working vacation instead, and leave on a shuttle to study a nebula. Their shuttle is soon intercepted by another ship, which beams aboard an explosive to incapacitate them. Seven regains consciousness in unfamiliar surroundings, where Penk, the Vince McMahon of Tsunkatse, is excited to have a Borg drone as his new fighter, and tells Seven that if she doesn’t fight in an upcoming “red match” – to the death – he’ll force a badly injured Tuvok to fight instead. Seven reluctantly agrees to fight, though another fighter, the Hirogen, convinces Penk to make it a non-lethal “blue match.” She fights a super-strong Pendari (played, in a bit of much-hyped stunt-casting, by Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson) to the horror of her crewmates in the crowd, who try to have her beamed out, only to discover that the fight is being broadcast by hologram. Holding back her own super-strength, Seven loses the match, but the Hirogen recognizes her as a fellow “hunter,” and offers to train her for her next fight – a red match. Seven learns that the Hirogen has been a Tsunkatse fighter for nineteen years, and has no idea what became of his son after Penk captured him. The two bond during her training, only for Seven to realize, as the match begins, that the Hirogen is her opponent; he hopes she can be the one to give him a worthy death after so long in captivity, but is willing to kill her if he has to. Thanks to a quick beam-out, mid-match, by Voyager – whose crew has tracked down and engaged Penk’s ship – neither of them has to kill the other, though Seven later admits to the Hirogen that she genuinely doesn’t know if she would have killed him or not. He leaves Voyager in search of his son, and Seven admits to Tuvok that she’s worried about losing the humanity she fought to regain, while Tuvok suggests that her feelings of “guilt, shame, remorse” only reaffirm her humanity.

If you ask a fan of the franchise what comes to mind when they hear the words “Star Trek,” you’re likely to get answers like “peace,” “cooperation,” and “optimism.”

Ask the general public that same question, and you might be more likely to hear, “shirtless Bill Shatner fighting an alien to the death while melodramatic music blares in the background.”

This is one of the paradoxes, maybe the paradox, of Star Trek as a pop-culture phenomenon. Within its fandom, Trek is often praised as a source of inspiration and aspiration, and with each new Trek TV show or film comes debate as to whether its depiction of humanity’s future is utopian enough, hopeful enough, in line enough with “Gene Roddenberry’s vision” (a common phrase in Trekkie circles, but a thorny one; yes, Roddenberry is Trek’s rightly-credited original creator, but many creative minds have shaped its fictional universe over the decades, and to treat his vision for that universe as more valid or important than anyone else’s seems both unfair and unnecessarily limiting). But in the wider culture, Trek, like most TV or film, is known more for its visuals than for its themes. And since Trek has traditionally been famously “cerebral” – heavy on talk, relatively light on action (and budget) – the visuals that have stuck most in the popular imagination have tended to be the campiest ones. Many of these come from The Original Series , and many from its hand-to-hand fight scenes: the distinctive double-handed chops; the endearingly heavy-handed orchestral scores; the tendency to part Captain Kirk from his shirt, or at least give it a good rip; and really, just the pulpy, “men’s adventure” vibe in general (and for better and for worse, this vibe also appears to have been part of Roddenberry’s vision for Trek, at least in the days of TOS , given how present it is throughout the series). These fight scenes have produced easily some of the franchise’s most widely recognized, referenced, and parodied moments in the culture at large. And they aren’t just unfair, misleading snapshots of Star Trek, either. Sure, some of these scenes, like Kirk’s fight with the rubber-lizard-masked Gorn in “Arena,” really are undeniably cheesy. But then, his emotionally charged gladiator match with Spock in “Amok Time” is not only iconic, but often cited by critics and fans alike as one of the better moments of The Original Series, and of Star Trek in general. Yes, Trek is about peaceful cooperation, about bettering ourselves intellectually and philosophically. It’s also about big, loud, melodramatic fight scenes. Star Trek is a big place, with room for lots of stuff.

And along with “Amok Time,” “The Gamesters of Triskelion” seems to have played a big part in cementing the gladiator-style fight scene, and a number of other Trek tropes, as part of the pop-cultural image of Star Trek. I’d argue that the orchestral accompaniment to both these episodes might rank among the most iconic scores ever produced for TV or film, and probably rivals Captain Kirk screaming “Khaaaaaaannnn!!!!!” in Star Trek II for the title of the most-referenced Trek moment in pop culture. We’re shown the now-very-familiar image of fighters slowly circling each other as that wonderfully melodramatic music plays, armed with weaponry decidedly lower-tech than we might expect from a show set so far in the future. We also get a shirtless Captain Kirk in “The Gamesters of Triskelion,” of course, as well as a scantily-clad woman with green hair (which, in 1968, might have seemed as alien as green skin) who will appear in exactly one episode, and whom we’re meant to see as in need of being rescued – and being taught what love is, I guess – by that very same shirtless captain. We get disembodied brains in jars and telepathically-controlled pain-inducing slave-collars, both staples of sci-fi in general, but ones that Star Trek certainly had a hand in popularizing. We get Spock approaching a life-or-death problem calmly and logically, and getting called out by Bones, and Scotty in this case, for seeming cold, for not appearing to care enough or to do all that he could be doing. And, of course, we get an alien world where a self-proclaimed supreme intelligence has imposed an oppressive, dystopian way of life, which Captain Kirk takes it upon himself to unilaterally dismantle before hopping back on board the Enterprise and leaving the locals to pick up the pieces … which might be the uber-trope of The Original Series.

The thing is, when something leaves a mark on pop culture the way that the tropes of Star Trek have, I think that almost inevitably distorts our experience of the original source material. As someone who, through shows like The Simpsons , had absorbed a million parodic references to Psycho and The Godfather long before I actually saw the films themselves, my experience of finally seeing them was undeniably affected by those references (I know I was supposed to be horrified when that guy finds a horse’s head in his bed in The Godfather , but all I could think of in the moment was Lisa Simpson finding a very-much-alive pony in her own bed, and the fact that her scream struck me as much more convincing than his). In the case of The Original Series , I grew up with reruns of it and pop-cultural references to it pretty much simultaneously, which has had the effect of leaving me with very distinct memories of certain episodes which, on re-watch, I find myself re-evaluating. Sometimes this is a positive experience, as when I recently realized that the TOS episode “The Naked Time” is much better than I remembered it, and that those memories were tainted by its unsuccessful copycat, the early Next Generation episode “The Naked Now.” But sometimes, things go the other way, and when I watch “The Gamesters of Triskelion” now, I find it to be a lot less than the sum of its nostalgic parts.

Some of this is simply due to the fact that virtually all of its super-familiar tropes have been better executed by other well-known episodes of The Original Series (which, admittedly, might not be the fairest way to judge an individual episode of television, but since I’ve typically approached these essays as being mainly about the experience of watching the episodes today , I’d argue that it’s at least fair enough). The gladiator-style fight scenes of “Amok Time” create a better sense of tension, putting much more at stake, dramatically and emotionally, by pitting two of our main characters against each other , not against one-shot characters we’ll never see again. The bickering between Spock and McCoy is much more effective in “The Galileo Seven,” where McCoy may have some valid points to make regarding Spock’s command style; in “Gamesters,” both Bones and Scotty are simply getting in Spock’s way while he pursues the only available course of action, and while I do enjoy watching Spock reason things out, he’s clearly 100% right here, and they’re clearly 100% wrong, making the time spent on their conflict feel mostly wasted. And while I’m not the biggest fan of the trope of super-smart aliens inevitably corrupted and left out of touch with reality by their advanced intellects – there’s an underlying anti-intellectualism there that I find troubling, given the rise of anti-intellectual populism in the real world of today – this trope at least made more sense, and was executed in a more visually interesting way, with the Talosians of “The Cage” and “The Menagerie.” (What do brains in jars need with “quatloos,” anyway?) As for freeing an oppressed society from a system that claims to take care of them while denying their basic rights … well, we’ve seen a whole bunch of that from The Original Series , but “A Taste of Armageddon” is one episode that comes immediately to mind as taking that premise, as simplistic as it might be, and building a significantly more coherent and satisfying story around it.

And that, I think, is my underlying issue with “The Gamesters of Triskelion”: not that it makes use of some now-very-familiar tropes, or even that it uses them less effectively than other episodes do, but that the episode feels so unfocused that those individual tropes end up seeming more noteworthy than the story they’re being used to tell. The Providers’ gambling gives us yet another iconic bit of Trek trivia through its coining of phrases like “A hundred quatloos on the newcomer,” but makes little sense, either plot-wise (again, they’re the undisputed dictators of their entire world – what do they even need currency for?) or thematically. Bones and Scotty suggest that Spock is gambling with his crewmates’ lives, but that seems like a stretch to me, given that he’s pursuing literally the only lead they have. And while Kirk does free the thralls by gambling with the Providers, he doesn’t actually outsmart them at their own game, or change the rules on them; he just happens to win, single-handedly defeating several hardened warriors whose entire lives have been devoted to training and fighting, which sure is lucky for the crew of the Enterprise, whose freedom he offers as collateral despite having no actual plan besides fight well .

But it’s when the episode gets into its bigger concepts, like “freedom” and “love,” that it really goes astray. The decision to make this nominally a story about slavery feels half-assed and ill-advised, given that the episode shows no real desire to deal with the material realities of slavery as an institution, and not just a plot device. The Providers are assumed to be honorable enough to keep their word and let their thralls go free, which is a wild assumption to make about anyone morally bankrupt enough to practice slavery in the first place, and feels uncomfortably naïve given real-world history in which slavers fought an all-out war to oppose the abolition of slavery, because slavery had made them rich and powerful, and the wealthy and powerful rarely just choose to give up much of their wealth or power. And as for “love,” Kirk’s treatment of Shahna ends “Gamesters” on a deeply strange note; after he’s spent most of the episode inspiring her with stories of the freedom he enjoys out among the stars, he flat-out refuses to take her there, and leaves her with her former (?) oppressors instead, making all that previous talk of “love” and “freedom” feel irresponsible at best, manipulative at worst. I don’t think this episode wants us to see Kirk that way – any more than it wants us to think he’s doing the wrong thing by trusting the Providers to do the right thing – but it’s how he ends up looking on screen, which speaks to the episode’s failure to form its collection of undeniably memorable moments into a story that feels meaningful, or even particularly coherent. (To say nothing of the moment in which Uhura appears to suffer an assault, off-screen, which is never even mentioned going forward, or the moment in which Chekov’s discomfort with thrall Tamoon’s deep voice is played for cheap laughs.)

But if my experience of returning to “The Gamesters of Triskelion” was disappointing, returning to Voyager ’s “Tsunkatse” was a much more pleasant surprise.

“Tsunkatse” carries on the Original Series tradition of old-fashioned fisticuffs in Star Trek, building on those fight-scene tropes with the impressive stunt work of a later era of television, and the addition of some futuristic technology to the otherwise familiar gladiator-style staging of its hand-to-hand combat. But before re-watching it recently, what I remembered about this episode from my previous viewing of it, years ago, could be fully summed up in the form of a Friends episode title: “The One with The Rock.” And I think it’s safe to say I’m not the only one who remembers it that way; Dwayne Johnson’s appearance was heavily hyped at the episode’s original release as a bit of cross-promotion with the World Wrestling Federation (which would later become the WWE), and given that this much-hyped appearance lasts less than 4 minutes in a 44-minute episode, it’s not hard to see how “Tsunkatse” gets written off, by myself and others, as a cynical stunt with no substance, a novelty not worth taking seriously. And with all due respect to Johnson, who’s credited here as simply The Rock, and who occupied a very different place in pop culture 20 years ago than he does now, his work in the episode doesn’t make a great counter-argument. He was already a well-established and undeniably charismatic presence in professional wrestling by the year 2000, and would of course go on to prove his acting chops as well, but IMDb cites only 2 acting credits for him outside of a wrestling promotion prior to “Tsunkatse” – similarly wrestling-themed appearances on TV series The Net and That 70s Show – and while his charisma and presence are plain to see here, his delivery falls surprisingly flat on standard, admittedly silly Star Trek lines like “You’re no bigger than a Tarkanian field mouse.” And with direction that has him giving The Rock’s trademark People’s Eyebrow to the crowd, and delivering his finishing move, the Rock Bottom, Johnson’s appearance here really does end up feeling like a shallow gimmick.

But, again, that appearance takes up only a few minutes, near the mid-point of an episode that really held my attention in a way I hadn’t expected. Given its cross-promotional nature, “Tsunkatse” is surprisingly cohesive, both narratively and thematically. The shore leave premise allows for some fun slice-of-life moments (even if a couple of these moments, like Neelix’s sunburn, don’t feel entirely necessary), and I’m impressed with how the episode hints at Norcadia Prime being a sprawling, diverse, and complex place that we’re only getting a glimpse of; Tsunkatse matches aren’t the entire basis of Norcadian culture, but are just one plausibly corrupt aspect of that culture, avoiding the whole “we just altered your entire society … well, seeya” problem I have with “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (and with many other episodes of Star Trek, to be fair). We don’t get a lot of information about Penk’s criminal organization, but that works in the episode’s favor, sketching out a clear enough picture of what’s going on while leaving time to focus on the character moments that really make the episode. And Penk himself is played by veteran Trek character actor Jeffrey Combs, who had previously played Deep Space Nine ’s weaselly villains Weyoun and Brunt and would later go on to play Enterprise ’s impressively complex Shran. Where Johnson may have struggled a bit with Trek dialogue, Combs is a master of taking what Trek gives him and making it believable, under a whole lot of makeup and prosthetics to boot. If Penk was, as I suspect, partly inspired by the WWE’s own Vince McMahon, it’s easy to imagine another actor playing him as an over-the-top, vamping villain, in the vein of the character McMahon often plays when performing; instead, Combs makes the more subtle and interesting choice, playing Penk as an all-business, coldly efficient capitalist … more in the vein of McMahon as the WWE’s real-life CEO.

But the real heart and soul of “Tsunkatse” are the performances of Jeri Ryan as Seven of Nine and J.G. Hertzler, another veteran of Trek character acting, as the Hirogen. Much like Combs, Hertzler continues, here, to show off his ability to give an impressively deep and precise performance even under so much alien makeup that his face (if not his voice) is completely unrecognizable from his recurring role as General Martok on DS9 . And while “Tsunkatse” might not be the most obvious choice for an essential Seven of Nine episode, it is, I think, the kind of episode that really shows just how inspired a casting choice Ryan was to begin with. Her performance here is pitch-perfect, and the character is as fully realized as we’ve seen her. She moves effortlessly between the comedic and serious sides of Seven’s “outsider” status, showing her to be just as human, so to speak, during her comic relief scenes with Paris or the EMH as during the drama of Tsunkatse matches she doesn’t want to win, and bonding with the Hirogen as he trains her. As much as her fight scene with Johnson is built on a cross-promotional gimmick, their fight choreography is well-executed and engaging, and it’s to Ryan’s credit that she never lets us forget what’s actually at stake for Seven: either she loses, and takes a pretty severe beating (which she does), or she uses her superior “Borg-enhanced physiology” to dish out the beatings herself, compromising her moral objections to hurting or potentially “killing someone for the entertainment of others,” possibly jeopardizing her ongoing embrace of her “humanity” in the process. And the stakes only get higher as the life-or-death “red match” the Hirogen has been training her for turns out to be with him – a predictable twist, perhaps, but one which caught me off guard anyway, because Ryan and Hertzler had done such a good job by that point of absorbing me in their training scenes (hence my belief that, in fiction, surprising an audience with elaborate plot twists isn’t worth anywhere near as much as engaging them with well-developed characters).

This is why “Tsunkatse” works, for me, where “The Gamesters of Triskelion” ultimately doesn’t. The stakes in Seven’s fight scenes don’t hinge on whether or not she’ll be killed – as we know that she, and Kirk in “Gamesters,” won’t be – but on what she might have to sacrifice to survive. You could argue that “Gamesters” does this by forcing Kirk to fight Shahna in the end, but I think those stakes are squandered by a) not letting her be as big a threat to him as she should be, given that she’s a lifelong gladiator, and b) allowing her to simply surrender, which doesn’t seem like something the Providers would agree to, and completely undercuts the drama of forcing them to fight in the first place. Granted, Seven and the Hirogen are conveniently beamed out of their fight before she must decide to kill or be killed, but Hertzler’s delivery of the line “Fortunately, you were right – there was another way out,” and Ryan’s reaction to it, make it clear that their rescue isn’t quite the get-out-of-jail-free card it might seem, as it leaves Seven forever wondering what, exactly, she would have done if there hadn’t been “another way out.” Unlike “Gamesters,” “Tsunkatse” has a clear, cohesive theme, which it weaves through its fight scenes and the dialogue in between them. Seven’s earlier, more comic relief-oriented scenes remind us of the “training” in everyday “human” interaction she’s been undergoing with the Emergency Medical Hologram, and later, we see her successfully bonding with the Hirogen in the way the EMH has been encouraging her to bond with her crewmates. But once she’s forced to fight him, not only does that bond make her dilemma more painful, it also allows him to goad her towards killing him in a way she might not have been by a stranger. Similarly, abstaining from violence altogether might have been easy for her if she didn’t care about Tuvok, and about Penk’s threats on his life. Where “Gamesters” sings the praises of 23 rd -century human “freedom” without ever grappling with the reality that humans are capable of the very same evils the Providers have committed – and that the effects of those evils continue to shape the world we live in today – “Tsunkatse” ends with Tuvok reminding Seven that even 24 th -century humanity, like her last-minute transporter rescue, isn’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. Human freedom isn’t freedom from consequences, but the freedom to accept consequences, and to learn from them. That “Tsunkatse” could clearly and effectively convey this message amidst gladiator fights and People’s Eyebrows surprised me, and impressed me.

Next time, we move from the wrestling ring to the holodeck, as we look at Reg Barclay’s first appearance in The Next Generation ’s “Hollow Pursuits,” and some of the late, great Aron Eisenberg’s finest work as Nog in Deep Space Nine ’s “It’s Only a Paper Moon.”

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4 thoughts on “ “a hundred quatloos on the newcomers”: the gamesters of triskelion (original series) vs. tsunkatse (voyager) ”.

Great post! I agree with you on Triskelion: it doesn’t work, it’s full of clichés which have been used in a better way in other episodes…

As for Tsunkatse, I think that it would have been much more powerful if Seven had killed the Hirogen just before being saved! But I guess the writers didn’t want to go that (admittedly darker) way…

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Thanks, glad you enjoyed it! I agree that it would have been interesting to see Tsunkatse make the bolder choice of having Seven kill the Hirogen just before getting beamed out. And Voyager was willing to go that dark occasionally, like at the end of Tuvix, which might be the darkest thing Star Trek has ever done. This ending still works for me, though, because it still allows Seven to learn that living with guilt is an inevitable part of being an individual who makes their own choices, without the guilt-free certainty of carrying out the will of the Borg collective.

You’re right when you say that Voyager did go dark sometimes (The Thaw also had a chilling ending), although when I think of dark Star Trek, DS9 is the first thing that comes to my mind. By the way, I agree on the strength of Tsunkatsu in terms of consequences for Seven of Nine, despite the choice of having the Hirogen survive the match against her.

A) We assume quatloos are a currency. For all we know they’re planets or cities or souls. B) You’ve never bet a dollar on something meaningless? The point was to be right (win).

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Published by Peter Aidan Byrne

Peter Aidan Byrne (he/him) is an educator and a writer of various things. He lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on Treaty 7 land, in Region 3 of the Metis Nation of Alberta, and he's keeping his fingers crossed for that luxury space communist future while living through the cyberpunk present. View all posts by Peter Aidan Byrne

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Bet Quatloos On The “Gamesters of Triskelion” Preview

| October 15, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 38 comments so far

Preview courtesy STARTREK.COM

I wonder if they’re going to use a different matte for the underground complex. Obviously they will update it with a CGI matte, but they can’t use the same one from the remastered Devil in the Dark.

Let me be the first to complain about the plastic brains which absolutely MUST be replaced digitally or I will not be watching or buying any of the HD disc sets or sending any Christmas cards to the Okudas. ;)

I can’t recall the dudes name with the sparkling blue eyes….the taskmaster who ever he is but they must have some killer smoke on that planet and obviously he’s hording it all to himself – cool!

Sometimes, not all of the best special effects in the world can salvage a show.

This would be one such occasion.

I, too, would like to see a different matte in the “brain room,” but rotoscoping Kirk for that long scene would be a bee-yotch.

200 quatloos they don’t digitally replace the sky with a night sky for the infamous “How can one live on a flicker of light?” scene.

I’m hoping to get a digital glimpse of the “tri-anary” sun Kirk mentions in this one.

This is a classic Trek cheese-fest. A terribly silly episode that I love nonetheless. My cousin Jim and I fought that Kirk/Kloog fight over and over as kids. My left eye is getting weak just thinking about it.

Scott B. out.

“See the triple suns…”

Cool episode, with lots of things that could possibly be tweaked.

My guess? Besides the usual Enterprise orbiting shots, we’ll get a new matte for the underground complex and not anything else.

Anyone ever see the two posters Angelique Pettyjohn had for sale back in the day commemorating her role of Shahna in this episode? One was PG-rated, the other intended for more “mature” audiences. Other than the sight of Kirk behind pink bars, they may have been the best thing to come out of this amazingly silly and pointless episode.

Same as above, hope for a new matte other than that not sure…didn’t notice anything in the trailer itself.

I did notice on startrek.com though they also have a preview trailer for the theatre showing of “The Menagarie”. I don’t think it was there in the earlier article so just a heads up.

Will they fix it where Kirk steps off his yellow section of the arena, despite being told it means death

OK, I’m a chesseball. I always liked this one. Half-naked slave women-warriors do that to me. I used to go out on Halloween as a freed Thrall graduate of Starfleet. Try explaining that at the local non-Trek costume contest:

“OK, say again. You’re a WHAT?” “I’m a freed warrior slave from the Star Trek episode Gamesters of Triskelion called a Thrall who has joined Starfleet and……….oh forget it. Just give the prize to the drunk guy dressed as an Oompa Loompa.”

#11 Ditto! LOL!!!

The Chekov s-s-stammering scene is priceless. “I am for you.” How I long to hear those four little words.

Chee-kov. what a nice name. Cheekov

much better than to hear it from that crazy projection lady from the episode “that which survives” She would give you the cold shoulder…what? …what pun? ..what are you talking about…Muhahhahahha:)

Re: #12 I AM THX-1138 you rock! Other than getting all my Trek info in one place the other reason I so love coming here is for comments like that. I always liked this one so looking forward to see what they do with it(or not do with). The matte I’m hoping for but I’ll bet all my quatloos the provider brains stay as is.

The original Star Trek satisfies on many levels, from the cool moral ambiguity of some of the first season episodes to the complete over-the-top cheese of episodes like “The Apple” and “Gamesters of Triskelion”. There’s room in my heart for both kinds. Bring on Galt of the glowing eyes and bad skin!

I agree that the matte painting in the Providers cave will probably stay untouched, unfortunately. Just as long as they don’t try to remaster Shana!

It is often asserted that CBSD is working their butts off to complete work on a horrendously tight schedule. Do we know that to be true? If, as so many assume, the folks at CBSD are so desperately rushed to get the first season episodes done in time for the HD release, then why are they taking time off working on first season episodes in order to remaster these second season episodes? Why aren’t they devoting this extra time to improving their work on Balance of Terror and other early releases?

I suspect that CBSD zipped through and completed season one some time ago. I suspect that what they do with the average episode takes less time and effort than many assume. I suspect that CBSD works at a fairly leisurely pace, does very little more than they have to and are not nearly as hard working or as dedicated as we would like to believe.

This is one of those episodes where it’s so BAD it’s GOOD!!! God, I love cheese!! Hey, if I drink a bottle of wine while watching it, I could have my own wine+cheese party!! Gottaluvit!!

Gamesters = fun!

I’d really like to see them fix that, but of course they wont. One of the reasons for doing this was to update the effects and fix some of the more noticeable goofs, but they havent really been fixing much.

Why do I suddenly envision Dexter and his friends fighting to the fight music ;)

Pure Cheese !

1 million quatloos worth of pure cheese no less.

– W – * mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm *

150,000 Quatloos that Provider 1-3 do NOT get the CG treatment

250,000 Quatloos if they fix Shatner’s mis-pronounciation of “What are you donig to Lt. You-hura!?” And I love that Uhura kicks her Thrall’s ass. I’d also love to see a not-Devil in the Dark matte in the cave of the bad brains. Now, I’m off to the net to see if I can find those posters of Angelique Pettyjohn Michael Hall mentioned.

I am MR Quatloos!

And I say they’ll replace that cheesy matte painting!

Anybody notice the reuse of those ruins from Planet M-113 (from The Man Trap)? MWAHAHAHAHHA!!!

Google Angelique Pettyjohn (with the filter off) and you will find the “mature” photo

Just saw the “mature” Pettyjohn photos……..as Sulu would say, “oh, my!”

(not that he would look in the first place!)

Here’s one guy’s eulogy for Ms. Pettyjohn. It’s an interesting read. Poor woman.

http://pages.towson.edu/flynn/In%20MemoriamAP.htm

I’d really, really hope that CBS Digital have chosen to do a new ‘cave’ matte for this one…time will tell.

Remember really liking this episode in my youth… ;)

Fun episode. Before there was Maximum Crowe, there was JTK. Are you not entertained?!

#2 – Ain’t gonna happen, Stanky. Too much rotoscoping. I’d be surprised if they replace the matte in the background that was reused from Devil in the Dark for the same reason.

Anybody know when iTunes is going to get caught up? There have been a lot of first season episodes airing lately that still aren’t available.

Well, they didn’t change the matte painting behind the brains.

They should have inserted a line by the Providers.

“YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT WE MODELED OUR POWER COMPLEX BASED ON THE ONE ON YOUR HORTA PLANET!” ——————- Hey, they completely cut out the scenes between Chekhov and his thrall-mate…

“Well, they didn’t change the matte painting behind the brains.

“YOU MAY HAVE NOTICED THAT WE MODELED OUR POWER COMPLEX BASED ON THE ONE ON YOUR HORTA PLANET!”

That would not be necessary, if they would have used a totally different painting in the Horta episde… Maybe a solution for the next time. If there are paintings which are used twice or more, then replace those which are easier to do.

They should have only aired remastered episodes of the first season the last times. So they would not need to rush on that to get those episodes ready for the DVD release. I mean, what’s the matter with that project, if they work on episodes from all 3 seasons, and then need to do that quickly for the release? They don’t have enough time to do season one, and at the same time they also work on the other episodes which are aired soon. HALLO? Does that make sense?

I’m not able to watch TOS-R, are there anyway some changes in that episode? I wonder what they will do on “The alternative factor”. They could maybe replace the bad actor and alternate the story. ;-)

Another ringed planet? Nice.

No Cheekoov!!! Oh the humanity!!!!

Ahhh… The power of cheese.

As far as scraping bottom, “Gamesters” beats the hell outta ‘Spock’s Brain”. I acted out that Kirk choke-face-with-a-wide-angle-lens shot ad nauseum as a kid. Shatner rules!

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Reading the classics.

Star Trek: Season 2, Episode Sixteen “The Gamesters of Triskelion”

Stardate: 3211.7 (2268) original air date: january 5, 1968 writer: margaret armen director: gene nelson.

<<< “The Trouble With Tribbles”

“A Piece of the Action” >>>

“I wager 15 quatloos that he is untrainable…”

The Enterprise is entering standard orbit around Gamma II, an uninhabited planetoid with an automatic communications and astrogation station (what is an astrogation station?) Spock is left in charge of the Enterprise to “mind the store” while Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov beam down for a routine check of Gamma II’s facilities. However, before they can do so, Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov suddenly disappear from the transporter room in what is presumed to be a technical malfunction. The trio spontaneously reappears on a landing pad on a strange planet (Kirk makes note of the trinary suns on this planet). Neither the communicators nor phasers now function properly, and the area is increasingly surrounded by four hostile humanoid races from all across the galaxy who slowly close in on the crewmen.

After some campy hand-to-hand combat, we meet a tall Nosferatu-esque character named Galt (Joseph Ruskin). He announces himself as the Master Thrall of this planet which is known as Triskelion. He moves slowly like a vampire with a booming, echoing voice. The crewmen are then imprisoned in preparation for their training in order to become “Thralls” or slaves who will be forced to fight in a giant combat arena as entertainment for a cohort of “Providers” who gamble on the odds of survival (they use a currency called “quatloos”). In fact, the Providers have deliberately brought Kirk and crew to Triskelion where they will spend their lives in obedience to the Providers’ whims. Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov try to escape but they are immediately strangled by newly placed “collars of obedience” which have been strapped around their necks.

Meanwhile, aboard the Enterprise Spock, Scotty, and Bones are befuddled at what might have happened to their crewmen. Scotty and Bones squabble with Spock over how to proceed, and they pursue any leads available. A fluctuating energy reading from a hydrogen cloud comes through a reading as announced Ensign Jana Haines (Victoria George) and the Enterprise heads toward it at Warp Factor 2. The nearest system is M24 Alpha, a trinary system, and so the Enterprise follows the ionization path, which is a focused beam of extremely high intensity light.

Back on Triskelion, each Enterprise crewmen is assigned a “Drill Thrall” to guide them through their daily activities. A large lurch-esque figure named Lars (Steve Sandor) enters Uhura’s jail cell and, as her Drill Thrall, he presumably attempts to rape her offscreen (this is a truly a shocking moment in the episode). Then regular “intervals” are announced for the crew, such as the “Nourishment Interval” (for eating) or the “Exercise Interval” (for training) –Kirk’s Drill Thrall is Shahna (Angelique Pettyjohn), naturally she is attractive, scantily clad, and Kirk flirts with her. Lastly, Chekov is partnered with an amusing Drill Thrall named Tamooon (Jane Ross) who was apparently made to look like a man in drag for laughs in the show.

After explaining to Shahna the nature of human love on earth, Kirk surprisingly punches her in the face and steals her key. Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov escape their jail cells just as the Enterprise helmed by Spock arrives, but the all-powerful Providers quickly take control of the situation. In response, Kirk calls them cowards and demands that they reveal themselves. Kirk is then beamed 1,000 meters below the planet’s surface to a craggy cave where he finds three colorful pulsating brains behind an impenetrable glass bubble shield. These are the Providers –they once had corporeal bodies but have since evolved over eons to become pure beings of intellect and they believe themselves to be superior to others (in a way, I was reminded of the telepathic mutants at the end of 1970s Beneath the Planet of the Apes ). Kirk plays into the Providers’ desire for gambling by posing a challenge –Kirk will battle three warriors of the Providers’ choosing. It is a tremendously risky gamble, even for Kirk. If he defeats all three, the Enterprise goes free and Triskelion must be ruled more fairly, if loses, however, the entire Enterprise crew will become enslaved Thralls. During the heat of battle in the arena, Kirk easily defeats the first two and battles an Andorian until he is wounded and replaced with Shahna. When Kirk overpowers Shahna with a knife to her throat, she surrenders –Kirk is proven triumphant and the Providers keep their word.

The Enterprise then, curiously, departs from Triskelion without rescuing any of the Thralls, and Kirk leaves behind Shahna even though she wants to board the Enterprise with Kirk. For some reason, Kirk believes the Providers will keep their word and allow the Thralls a modicum of self-governance. While the Enterprise departs for Gamma II, Shahna stares up at the sky and tearfully remarks:

“Goodbye, Jim Kirk. I will learn, and watch the lights in the sky, and remember.”

My Thoughts on “The Gamesters of Triskelion”

An endearing cliché-riddled episode, I actually quite enjoyed “The Gamesters of Triskelion” (though I recognize it often ranks among the lesser episodes of TOS by some fans). I was especially struck by the twist ending in which we meet the three disembodied brains which have been gambling on these cage-match fights. Despite being evolutionarily advanced beings, they are still remarkably savage and brutal.

In reviewing further information about this episode, I stumbled onto the fact that Paul A. Cantor (one of my favorite Shakespeare scholars) wrote about the comparisons between this episode and Hegel’s “End of history.” The Providers represent a futuristic time wherein people prevent boredom by gambling and gaming, rather than conquering and plundering. Sadly, Paul Cantor passed away just recently but I will need to mull over his analysis some more. He also wrote several other pieces about Star Trek which he interpreted as an optimistic metaphor for President Kennedy and the Cold War.

At any rate, once again in this episode we encounter all-powerful god-like beings, and once again we view them with distrust, suspicion, and contempt. Gods in Star Trek are not to be trusted. Their tyrannical power has made them in domineering and decadent, forgetting they are part of a broader galaxy, rather than masters of it. This is best demonstrated in the Providers’ desire for gladiatorial entertainment, valuing little in their fellow creature’s lives, and perhaps most starkly in their allowance for Lars to presumably attempt to rape Uhura. The ending to this episode was also somewhat unsatisfying as the Enterprise essentially abandons the imprisoned Thralls on Triskelion and leaves them in the questionably moral hands of the Providers. Can we trust the Provders to hold up their end of the bargain? Will Starfleet attempt to make contact with Triskelion again in the future? And why did the Providers choose this particular moment to kidnap Kirk? Who’s to say they may not try it again? Is it moral to allow beings with such immense power to continue autocratically governing certain activities in the galaxy?

Writer/Director

This was the only episode of TOS directed by Gene Nelson (1920-1996).

Writer Margaret Armen (1921-2003) was a scriptwriter who was involved in numerous shows throughout the 1960s and 1970s. She wrote for three episodes of TOS –“The Gamesters of Triskelion,” “The Paradise Syndrome,” and “The Cloud Minders” (she wrote the final teleplay). Later, she wrote two episodes of the Animated Series as well as an episode for the cancelled follow-up Star Trek series, Star Trek Phase II . She died of heart failure in 2003.

Star Trek Trivia:

• Margaret Armen’s original script featured a “slithering vine” called a “Delka Vine” which grabs Shahna and tosses her into a pond, leaving Kirk to rescue her. Robert Justman found this idea well beyond the series budget, and the scene was removed.
• The three colorful-brained Providers were played by: Bartell LaRue, a television voice actor who appeared in shows like Mission: Impossible and The Brady Bunch . He also voiced The Guardian in “The City on the Edge of Forever”; Walter Edmiston, a radio and television voice actor; and Robert Johnson who famously voiced the recorded mission briefings on Mission: Impossible . He also voiced various alien creatures on The Outer Limits , as well as in “The Cage” for the voice of Clegg Hoyt’s role as Pitcairn, a transporter chief on the Enterprise. He later voiced a variety of other characters throughout Star Trek .
• Actor Joseph Ruskin who plays Galt in this episode, appeared in a wide array of television shows such as The Outer Limits, The Twilight Zone, Gunsmoke, Mission: Impossible, Hogan’s Heroes , and he appeared in films like The Magnificent Seven (1960). He later returned to Star Trek appearing three DS9 episodes, episodes of Voyager and Discovery , as well as the TNG film Insurrection .
• Actress Angelique Pettyjohn, who played Shahna in this episode, appeared in a variety of television shows, as well. During the 1970s and 1980s, she became a hardcore adult film actress and a burlesque dancer as well as a Playboy centerfold. As you might imagine, she was a popular figure at Star Trek conventions. Ten years after this episode’s release, she was photographed for a poster both in and outside of her Shahna costume (she sold these nude posters at Trekkie conventions to what we can only imagine was a hoard of adoring fans). She died at the age of 48 due to cervical cancer.
• This episode was produced by John Meredyth Lucas at Gene L. Coon’s request.
• The working title of this episode was “The Gamesters of Pentathlan.”
• The original script called for Sulu, rather than Chekov, to beam down to the planet with Kirk and Uhura. However, at the timeGeorge Takei was away filming The Green Berets and he has since expressed regret at missing this episode.  
• Stuntman Dick Crockett appears as the Andorian in this episode.
• The set from M-113 in “The Man Trap” was reused for portions of this episode.
• The glass bubble encasing the providers was reused from Lazarus’s ship in “The Alternative Factor.”
• The underground dwelling of the Providers was a set reused from Janus VI in “Devil in the Dark.”
• At one point, Chekov calls the Providers “Cossacks” – a pejorative term he previously used against the Klingons in the previous episode “The Trouble With Tribbles.”
• The word “Triskelion” comes from the Greek word meaning “three-legged.” Our modern word refers to a triple spiral design, a version of which can be seen on the landing pad/arena of the planet in this episode.

Click here to return to my survey of the Star Trek series.

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2 thoughts on “ star trek: season 2, episode sixteen “the gamesters of triskelion” ”.

One of the most beautifully memorable closing quotes ever in Star Trek: “Goodbye, Jim Kirk. I will learn. And watch the lights in the sky. And remember.” – Angelique Pettyjohn as Shahna

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I remember Angelique from a Get Smart episode where she played an agent who had to have a man dubbing for the voice. I was a little disappointed by that because she had such a beautiful voice. As a guest actress in Star Trek playing such a humbled female character, and certainly when the loving charms of Captain Kirk came into the mix, Shahna was a favorite Trek memory from my childhood. Angelique’s performance remains one of the most beautiful in the classic Star Trek and a reminder of how important it is to rescue someone as special as Shahna from the slavery of an evil world like Triskelion. R.I.P., Angelique.

Thank you for your review and trivia.

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The gamesters of triskelion (1968).

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The Providers or Gamesters of Triskelion were colloquial terms given to three non-humanoid beings who controlled the planet Triskelion in the M24 Alpha trinary star system . They appeared as disembodied brains contained in a device giving them life support and communication abilities. When Captain Kirk speculated in their presence in 2268 that they were the result of " primary mental evolution " they corrected him, stating they'd once had humanoid form, but after eons of devoting themselves exclusively to intellectual pursuits they had evolved into their present form. The aliens called themselves "Providers" because they believed the term was easier for the limited intellects of their slaves, whom they called thralls , to comprehend. If their race had another name, they never revealed it.

The Providers controlled an immense power station, which they concealed a kilometer or more beneath the surface of their world. They could create and project their voices anywhere on Triskelion, and they controlled a transporter based on light that had a range of light years and operated nearly instantly. They could manipulate energy at least to the extent of neutralizing a starship 's power systems. They provided sustenance and other basic needs to the thralls, and could punish the thralls directly or through their proxy, Galt . They evidently possessed significant planetary defenses, for they did not regard the arrival of the USS Enterprise at their world as a significant threat, stating that they could destroy it and make the incident appear to be a magnetic storm.

To amuse themselves, the Providers captured humanoids and forced them to fight while they placed wagers on the outcome. Inasmuch as such fights were often to the death, they required a steady supply of humanoids. To obtain it, they practiced humanoid husbandry with their existing stock (selecting breeding partners) and kidnapped suitable humanoids from elsewhere in the galaxy via their powerful transporter. They claimed to use only "inferior specimens" but considering their own vast intellect and concomitant high opinion of themselves, it is likely they regarded all other forms of life as inferior to their own. ( TOS : " The Gamesters of Triskelion ")

When opining how Starfleet needed a rule on the books about visiting legacy civilizations, which eventually became known as Project Swing By , Captain Carol Freeman stated, " I just hate seeing a perfectly good society get destroyed by a Gamester of Triskelion or whatever, because Starfleet has a policy of some intervention. " ( LD : " No Small Parts ")

Individuals [ ]

• Provider 1 (red)
• Provider 2 (green)
• Provider 3 (yellow)
• 3 USS Antares (32nd century)

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How many quatloos?

Discussion in ' Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series ' started by Odon , Feb 27, 2008 .

Odon Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

In The Gamesters of Triskelion the alien Providers bet on who's going to win the contest. I know they bet "quatloos" - does anyone know the exact quote? Is it "A hundred quatloos on the challenger" or "A thousand quatloos on the winner" or what?  

Kryton Admiral Admiral

I have 75 quatloos balanced on the answer to this question...come on...baby needs new shoes!  

Shatmandu Vice Admiral Admiral

Odon said: ↑ In The Gamesters of Triskelion the alien Providers bet on who's going to win the contest. I know they bet "quatloos" - does anyone know the exact quote? Is it "A hundred quatloos on the challenger" or "A thousand quatloos on the winner" or what? Click to expand...

Ryan Thomas Riddle Vice Admiral Admiral

Kryton said: ↑ I have 75 quatloos balanced on the answer to this question...come on...baby needs new shoes! Click to expand...

Red Ranger Admiral In Memoriam

Wait, hear me! We can't wager on trilfles like QATLOOS! The stakes must be higher! -- RR  

cooleddie74 Fleet Admiral Admiral

100 quatloos says this thread self-destructs when someone inadvertently mentions white slavery, black market iron lungs and/or Pauly Shore's taint!  

Nerys Myk A Spock and a smile Premium Member

Thanks for ruining it!!!! Now what can I post?  

Fellas please, can anyone answer the question?  

T'Bonz Romulan Curmudgeon Administrator

From a site which has transcripts: Provider 1 bids 300 quatloos for the new comers. Provider 2, 350 quatloos. Provider 3, 400. 1,000 quatloos. 1,050 quatloos. 2,000. 2,000 quatloos are bid. Is there a challenge? The newcomers have been vended to Provider 1. I wager 15 quatloos that he is untrainable. 20 quatloos that allthree are untrainable. 5,000 quatloos that the newcomers will have to be destroyed. 100 quatloos on the new comers. 400 quatloosagainst the new comers. 200 quatloos against! 500 for the new comers. Contest by multiple elimination. Click to expand...

I've always puzzled at what disembodied brains without limbs to manipulate currency even NEED with physical coins and money. Makes no sense. It'd be like a Ferengi who's been blasted into little more than a head(yet still living)caring about gold-pressed latinum.  

Harry Captain Captain

Well, apparently the Triskelion still existed in the 24th century, and were doing business with the Cardassians and the Bajorans on DS9, judging by their logo showing up on crates there.  

True. I suppose by the 2370s the freed thralls had further developed their planet and set up trade routes with other powers in the quadrant.  

cooleddie74 said: ↑ I've always puzzled at what disembodied brains without limbs to manipulate currency even NEED with physical coins and money. Makes no sense. It'd be like a Ferengi who's been blasted into little more than a head(yet still living)caring about gold-pressed latinum. Click to expand...

Nebusj Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

Hofner Commodore Commodore

-Brett- Vice Admiral Admiral

You mean there actually was a currency called "quatloos" on Star Trek? I thought Futurama just made that up.  

MrPointy Captain Captain

How many quatloos can I get per US dollar?  

hofner said: ↑ cooleddie74 said: ↑ I've always puzzled at what disembodied brains without limbs to manipulate currency even NEED with physical coins and money. Makes no sense. It'd be like a Ferengi who's been blasted into little more than a head(yet still living)caring about gold-pressed latinum. Click to expand...

^The money or quatloos doesn't have to be physical. For all we know they could manipulate their accounts through mind transmissions or waves. Robert  

stormleader Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

-Brett- said: ↑ You mean there actually was a currency called "quatloos" on Star Trek? I thought Futurama just made that up. Click to expand...

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Star Trek: The Gamesters of Triskelion

4 comments:

This one is big favourite from childhood. Shahna and those eyes!? The way she looked at the stars at the end with tears of grief and hope... Watching now, of course, she reminds me too much of Lady Gaga but, as you said, we Kirk fans definitely got our money's worth in this episode. He was strong and sexy, just the way we like him :) I was disturbed by the assault on Uhura, though. I don't remember that scene from previously; maybe they edited it down for after-school re-runs. I am loving both your reviews, by the way.

tinkapuss wrote: "I am loving both your reviews, by the way." And we're enjoying your comments. :)

I really wasn't impressed with the attempted rape scene, especially when the rest of the episode was generic Sci-fi fare. It was an all-too-real moment in an otherwise hokie episode. Scottie and McCoy arguing with Spock was so obviously written in as some kind of fake conflict that didn't seem within their normal characterizations. (McCoy might argue with Spock just for the sake of argument, but Scottie refusing to take the ship faster and being uncooperative just doesn't mesh with what we've seen of him so far. He's always been shown to perform technological miracles under great stress and never questioned Spock's command back when he was making much worse decisions back in "Galileo Seven". He doesn't seem the type to question authority even in cases like this, and his first priority has always been the ship itself rather than the captain.) Spock for his part doesn't seem to care (no back and forth bantering or snarky asides about humans (or if there was it fell so flat I didnt notice it), he just looks tired/indifferent) and finally shuts them up by telling them that their complaining isn't doing anything for him and the only way they're turning back now is if they overthrow him. He didn't do anything wrong this time when in charge and even asked them several times what course of action they'd rather he'd be taking so their ganging up on him despite not having a clear alternative defined seemed really odd. This didn't really play out as the "Spock's callousness is upsetting the crew" scenario it was probably meant to be so much as a "we still don't trust/like Spock and are voicing our general frustration with him by giving him a hard time during a crisis" moment (which doesn't seem to be in Scottie's nature, even if he did interact with Spock enough to feel that way about the situation, he's always been a professional up 'til this point). Scottie was probably chosen to be McCoy Mk. 2 because he's a secondary character and stubborn, but it would have made more sense to have someone else in the role, who hadn't already been shown to be unphased under duress and to have no problem with Spock even when his decisions were killing off redshirts left and right and causing the rest of the crew to consider mutiny I was watching this episode with other people and someone said the exact same thing about Nimoy, that he sounded like he had a cold. I probably wouldn't have really noticed if she hadn't pointed it out, I sometimes mistake his voice for the computer's ("I thought the computer was a woman's voice, when did they change it?" "That's Spock on the intercom" "Oh"), at least not beyond a "he sounds kind of weird". Maybe he did and that's why dialogue that could have been banter-y came off as pure statements (he normally has this "I'm trying not to smile/laugh" vibe going in a lot of episodes but here he kind of looked "bleh" about everything). Good catch a casual viewer like myself might not have noticed. The germaphobe in me would so not want to be part of the bridge cast that recording session lol.

I'm never a fan of sexual assault, attempted or no, and I agree that Uhura should have gotten similar treatment to the others for balance! I do love Angelique Littlejohn here and the story about the signing Ben. She was not only awesome here (in more ways than one), but she was also in the Batman series and Get Smart! That's quite the TV pedigree! That poster looks awesome too, in either version, yes I went and looked it up! I do love how the 3 brains are gambling addicts, a serious subject in real life, and I'd hazard a guess that was part of the 'lesson' here, but I also agree that it could have been presented better, to give the story more weight and oomph. But the 3 brains wagering and counter-wagering is something I recall well over these years.

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