star trek in search of eden

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The Way to Eden

• A group of idealistic hippies, led by an irrational leader, come aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise.
• The Enterprise is ordered to pursue a group of anti-establishment idealists who have stolen a space cruiser and made off for the mythical planet Eden. When the group pushes their stolen ship beyond its limits, the Enterprise is forced to rescue them by transporting them aboard. This merry band of space-hippies includes an insane leader (Dr. Sevrin), an academy drop-out and former love interest of Chekov (Irina), and the son of a Catullan ambassador (Tongo Rad). With the Federation undergoing fragile treaty negotiations with the Catullans, Kirk is ordered by Starfleet to treat the dissidents with "extreme tolerance." Kirk finds the group and its leader too difficult to deal with while Spock maintains a deep curiosity about their ideals. Kirk appoints Spock as liaison for the group during their stay on the Enterprise. Dr. Sevrin demands to be taken to Eden, but Kirk refuses on the grounds that his orders from Starfleet dictate that the group be taken to the nearest star base. While investigating this strange group of free spirits, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock discover that not only is Dr. Sevrin insane, he is also the carrier for a potentially lethal disease. His desire to abandon technology and join the "primitive" inhabitants of planet Eden could well result in their destruction. As a precaution, Dr. Sevrin is quarantined, but Spock agrees to plot a course to the mythical planet of Eden in exchange for his cooperation. Meanwhile, Chekov inadvertently gives away some vital information about auxiliary control to his former classmate, Irina, and she and the rest of the followers soon free Sevrin and hijack the Enterprise. The group takes the Enterprise to Eden (which, to complicate matters, happens to be in Romulan space), establishes orbit and steals a shuttle craft to land on the surface while the Enterprise crew is incapacitated and left to die. But the planet, while as beautiful as any of them imagined, also has a deadly side. — Anonymous
• The Enterprise intercepts a stolen spacecraft heading directly for Romulan space. Its occupants are six space-age hippies who refuse to accept authority and are unconventional in their thinking. Led by the renowned Dr. Sevrin, they are in search of paradise - the mythical planet Eden. Kirk cannot relate but Spock does and agrees to help locate the planet. Spock also concludes that Sevrin is insane. For Chekov, it's a chance to re-unite with Irina, with whom he was in love while they were students at the Academy. When the travelers manage to take control of the Enterprise, they realize their dream and arrive on Eden, which has surprises of its own. — garykmcd
• The Enterprise is ordered to pursue a group of anti-establishment idealists who have stolen a space cruiser (the USS Aurora, with 6 occupants on-board) and made off for the mythical planet Eden. When the group pushes their stolen ship beyond its limits, the Enterprise is forced to rescue them by transporting them aboard. This merry band of space-hippies includes an insane leader (Dr. Sevrin (Skip Homeier)), an academy drop-out and former love interest of Chekov (Irina (Mary Linda Rapelye)), and the son of a Catullan ambassador (Tongo Rad (Victor Brandt)). With the Federation undergoing fragile treaty negotiations with the Catullans, Kirk is ordered by Starfleet to treat the dissidents with "extreme tolerance." Kirk finds the group and its leader too difficult to deal with (Sevrin wants to be taken to the planet Eden, while Kirk is under orders to take them to the nearest Starbase) while Spock maintains a deep curiosity about their ideals (that there is a planet named Eden where life originated. Spock says that Sevrin is a research engineer in fields of acoustics, communications & electronics. He is an educated man. He was dismissed from his post when he started this movement. Tango is an expert in space studies). Kirk thinks of them as irresponsible children. Chekov reconnects with Irina. It is evident that Chekov has feelings for Irina and is still haunted by her leaving him suddenly when she dropped out of the academy. Kirk appoints Spock as liaison for the group during their stay on the Enterprise. Dr. Sevrin demands to be taken to Eden, but Kirk refuses on the grounds that his orders from Starfleet dictate that the group be taken to the nearest star base. Sevrin does not recognize the Federation regulations, but Kirk disregards Sevrin on this matter. While investigating this strange group of free spirits, Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock discover that not only is Dr. Sevrin insane, he is also the carrier for a potentially lethal disease. Humans are immunized against it, but not every species is. McCoy wants Sevrin to be isolated immediately. Sevrin claims he didn't know he was a carrier of this disease. Kirk orders Sevrin's isolation against his wishes. His desire to abandon technology and join the "primitive" inhabitants of planet Eden could well result in their destruction. Spock agrees to plot a course to the mythical planet of Eden in exchange for Sevrin's cooperation. Sevrin claims that his infection is a result of science and advanced tech and hence only the primitives can cure him. But Spock argues that Sevrin's presence will kill the people whom he is trying to find. Meanwhile, Chekov inadvertently gives away some vital information about auxiliary control to his former classmate, Irina (Chekov tells Irina that in the event of damage to the main bridge, the entire ship can be run from Auxiliary control room. Also, the computer banks contain the sum total of all human knowledge and the entire ship can be run by computer orders, even if the people running the ship have no knowledge of what to do. Irina seduces Chekov and they kiss), and she and the rest of the followers soon free Sevrin and hijack the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock try to convince Sevrin's crew that he is a carrier of a deadly disease and that Sevrin is insane, but they would not listen to any of it. The group takes the Enterprise to Eden (which, to complicate matters, happens to be in Romulan space), establishes orbit and steals a shuttle craft to land on the surface while the Enterprise crew is incapacitated (Sevrin changed the circuits and used ultra-sonic frequencies to attack the entire spaceship, allowing him time to escape) and left to die. Irina is worried that the frequencies being used by Sevrin will destroy humans, but Sevrin lies to her that it will only stun them. Rad knows that Sevrin is lying. The frequencies are set to kill. But the planet, while as beautiful as any of them imagined, also has a deadly side. Meanwhile Kirk disables the ultrasonic and puts together a landing party to pursue Sevrin and his crew. Kirk and his landing party determine that the entire vegetation on the planet is full of acid. They find Sevrin injured (his legs burnt by the acid in the grass) but he refuses to leave the planet, eats a fruit (which was also poisonous) and dies, but rescue the rest of his ragtag band and bring them back to the Enterprise and get the hell out of Romulan space.

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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Recap/StarTrekS3E20TheWayToEden

Star Trek S3 E20 "The Way to Eden" » Recap

Original air date: February 21, 1969

Kirk and the Enterprise are in hot pursuit of the stolen spaceship Aurora . The Aurora isn't giving up easily and leads them on a high speed chase. The cruiser's engines become strained from the chase and the whole thing goes ka-blooey! Fortunately (or not), Scotty manages to beam aboard the six miscreants before the cruiser explodes.

The six spaceship jackers are a group of young idealists in search of the mythical planet Eden and led by the brilliant but insane engineer Dr. Sevrin. Among them are Tongo Rad, the son of a Catullan ambassador ( which prevents Kirk from simply throwing them all in the brig ), Adam ( Charles Napier ), who mostly sings Protest Songs , and Irina Galliulin , a New Old Flame of Chekov's.

Kirk wants to bring this group to the nearest starbase, but of course they have other ideas. They've come up with a Zany Scheme involving pressure points, ultrasonic sound waves, the Galileo , and a musical hubcap.

The Way to Tropes:

• Actual Pacifist : Tongo Rad and Irinia briefly balk at Sevrin's plan to use sound waves to knock out everyone but them, noting that ultrasonics have the potential to cause harm, but he assures them he'll be careful.
• Alien Food Is Edible : It's really, really not. The "apples" are so acidic that a single bite can kill.
• All Planets Are Earthlike : A planet that was technically habitable (right sunlight and air quality), but all the flora secreted a deadly acid, and the fruit was lethal.
• Artistic License – Botany : Flowers would not form on a planet unless they were meant to attract pollinators. Flowers require a fair amount of resources and water to develop and maintain. One might make a similar argument about the fruit, except that some fruits disperse seeds via exploding fleshy capsules.
• Bald of Evil : Dr. Sevrin.
• Belief Makes You Stupid : The hippies' belief that Planet Eden existed and that it was a perfect place leads to Adam and Sevrin's death by alien fruit and painful injuries for the others.
• Beware the Silly Ones : Sevrin and his followers go from being a nuisance singing nonsense music to knocking out everyone on the ship and taking control. Kirk should've really had a talk with security after this fiasco.
• Contemplate Our Navels : The space hippies are into the philosophy of "One", from which all is derived, and seek to return to the beginning. You reach?
• Culture Clash : Starfleet may only be Mildly Military , but still military enough to seriously clash with the way of life and the attitudes of the space hippies. Ironically, Spock of all people is the crew member who has the least problems dealing with them. Adam, in particular really takes a liking to Spock.
• Deconstruction : A rather anvilicious one, of idealistic societies framed outside accepted social norms. A blatant Take That! at hippies.
• Didn't Think This Through : Picking the first vaguely Earthlike planet you stumble across to settle and going down with no supplies or equipment whatsoever, then going barefoot and eating random plants? Bad idea, it turns out.
• Dramatic Irony / Foreshadowing : One of Adam's songs, early in the episode, proclaims proudly that he is "gonna live, not die". In the one he sings just as the group prepare to land on "Eden", he declares that he will "eat all the fruit and throw away the rind". After arriving, he does indeed eat a fruit... and he dies, he doesn't live.
• Driven to Suicide : Dr. Sevrin had to have known the fruit was poisonous, but he was so distraught that he indirectly caused one of his followers' death he just didn't care.
• Evil Luddite : Dr. Sevrin. And wouldn't you know it? He's a carrier for a disease that makes it dangerous for him to visit any world that isn't sufficiently scientifically advanced.
• False Utopia : Eden, as the plants turn out to be acidic, and the fruit is poisonous.
• Flowers of Nature : You can't have hippies without them! Irina wears violets in her hair. Sevrin has a daisy painted on his bald head. Body artist George Barr did body painting for all the hippies.
• Foreshadowing : Spock's sensors indicate a total lack of animal life on Eden. Turns out that all of the vegetation on the planet is toxic and acidic.
• And if you don't like it, you're a total Herbert!
• That Vulcan instrument in Spock's quarters is real now!
• Good Is Old-Fashioned : Sevrin believes this.
• Gotta Get Your Head Together : Dr. Sevrin uses ultrasonics to stun the Enterprise crew. Even The Spock can't bear the pain and Kirk mimes turning his head into a Large Ham sandwich.
• The one Red Shirt assigned to watch Sevrin gets too caught up in listening to music to do his job. Meanwhile, nobody else is bothering to keep an eye on the other hippies.
• "Eden" turns out to be located in Romulan space, which naturally worries the hell out of Kirk after Sevrin and company take over; before beaming down, he tells Scotty to try and explain the situation if they show up * because that would clearly go SPECTACULARLY well — "Sorry, laddies, it wasn't our fault; our ship was hijacked by hippies!" . Somehow, though, the Romulans — who usually show up to surround the Enterprise the moment they stray into the Neutral Zone, and who would probably love to get their hands on Kirk after " The Enterprise Incident " — never show up. Presumably, everyone at the border monitoring stations was on break that day or something.
• Irina and Tongo Rad, both who used to be Star Fleet students, express concerns over Sevrin setting the speakers on a certain frequency, remembering their studies on high ultrasonic frequencies being fatal to humanoid life forms. They shrug off their concerns in favor of reaching “Eden”.
• Ignored Expert : Spock tells the hippies (who've stolen a shuttlecraft) that Sevrin is both dangerously ill and insane, even telling to them to look up Starfleet's files on him. Unfortunately, by this point no one's listening.
• Literary Allusion Title : Gene Roddenberry may have been a proud atheist (if not antitheist), but he was fond of alluding to themes from The Bible .
• Make Some Noise : Sevrin uses an ultrasonic tone to knock out everyone on the Enterprise so the hippies can make their getaway.
• Meaningful Name : The Space Hippie who ate the deadly fruit was named Adam. Also, the name "Irina" means "Peaceful". Good name for a hippie chick.
• My God, What Have I Done? : It’s implied by Sevrin’s expression that he realized he led his group to a dangerous and uninhabitable planet that resulted in the death of one in their group.
• New-Age Retro Hippie : Well, hippies weren't retro when the episode first aired!
• New Old Flame : Irina, one of the hippies, is an old girlfriend of Chekov's, whom he's never mentioned before and will never mention again.
• Out-of-Character Moment : Chekov's character (which in the original story, was meant to have been Kirk's character) is portrayed in this episode as a rigid, rule-quoting straight arrow, in contrast to the writers' initial concept of the character as a younger, less authoritarian character who might appeal to teenage viewers. Walter Koenig has called the episode "badly written" partly because of this. He also called this episode the low point of his character's tenure on the show.
• Pressure Point : Spock isn't the only one who can neck pinch! Tongo Rad used his knowledge of human anatomy to knock out an Enterprise crewman by squeezing the nerve pressure point at the back of the jaw, just under the earlobe ( Truth in Television , though it causes great pain and delayed unconsciousness rather than instant).
• Protest Song : Adam's raison d'etre, and he plays a bunch of them on an odd-looking guitar-stick thingy.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits : The Space Hippies see themselves as this. Spock sympathizes with their feeling of not being able to fit in, and is much more tolerant of them than Kirk is, which is why they take an immediate shine to Spock and immediately distrust and dislike Kirk. Spock : Miss Galliulin... it is my sincere wish that you do not give up your search for Eden. I have no doubt but that you will find it, or make it yourselves.
• Recycled Soundtrack :
• Rhymes on a Dime : That Adam's a real character. Adam: Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy; I got a clean bill of health from Dr. McCoy !
• Secretly Selfish : Sevrin is the carrier for a deadly disease which endangers the lives of those around him unless he's in a controlled environment, which he refuses because he hates technology. He hasn't told his fellow hippies, with whom he travels in close quarters with and hangs out about this little problem. His search for Eden is also implied to be more motivated by his desire to get away from technology than the "return to the beginning" the others seek.
• Some Kind of Force Field : Protects the door to the isolation cell that holds Dr. Sevrin.
• Soundtrack Dissonance : In an especially eerie moment, once Dr. Sevrin and the hippies have control of the ship and have knocked everyone else out, Adam plays one of his upbeat little folk songs... as we pan across all the unconscious crew members.
• They re-use the footage of Nurse Chapel being knocked out from " Spock's Brain " at the beginning of the season. That's why the lights go out in that shot whereas they don't anywhere else in the scene.
• A brief shot of the surface of Eden is reused footage of the lakeside from " Shore Leave ". A shot of the surface of Gamma Trianguli VI from " The Apple " is also recycled and used in the same scene.
• Strange Salute : The Space Hippies greet people by making an oval with their fingers; the future equivalent of the peace hand sign of the 60s. The oval is also seen in the ceramic egg-shaped pins they each wear. The egg represents their philosophy of "One," which Spock understands, as these people "seek the beginning".
• Subculture of the Week : Hippies In Space
• Want to live in an ideal society outside the established norm, hippies? Too bad, it will turn out to be a dystopia all along.
• The insult "Herbert" was apparently aimed at a real-life person, but it's still unknown exactly who. The most common theory is that the show's former production executive, Herbert F. Solow was the target, though others have suggested it was Herbert Hoover .
• Temporary Substitute : Uhura doesn't appear in this episode, her duties assumed by Lt. Palmer, played by Elizabeth Rogers.
• That Reminds Me of a Song : We spend quite a lot of time with Adam singing his songs.
• Too Dumb to Live : "Well, here I am on an unexplored planet! What will I do first? I know! I'll eat this fruit about which I know absolutely nothing!" Especially since the fruit tree is so far from the shuttlecraft that Adam must have been able to see and hear the others getting their feet burned by the grass.
• Tractor Beam : The Enterprise tries to take the stolen ship in tow with a tractor beam.
• Typhoid Mary : Dr. Sevrin, carrier of the Synthecoccus novae bacterium who was crazy more than he was malicious. While the episode had no reported infections, having to isolate him to ensure that did really tick off his followers.
• Utopia Justifies the Means : Reaching Eden justifies killing everybody on the Enterprise .
• Well-Intentioned Extremist : Dr. Sevrin and company see themselves as such.
• You Fool! : Kirk shouts this as Sevrin takes a bite out of the poisoned fruit. (Incidentally, the image of him yelling this is obviously flipped. His insignia is on his right instead of his left.)
• You're Insane! : A line that's blunt even for Spock. Spock (to Kirk): Dr. Sevrin is... insane.
• Star Trek S3 E19 "Requiem for Methuselah"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek S3 E21 "The Cloud Minders"

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“The Way to Eden”

Air date: 2/21/1969 Teleplay by Arthur Heinemann Story by Michael Richards and Arthur Heinemann Directed by David Alexander

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

"The Way to Eden" is an example of trying to fit an elephant into a birdcage, and it comes off looking about as silly as a visualization of the said analogy. For starters, whoever came up with the idea of "23rd-century hippies in space" was stretching the idea of allegory beyond even Trek 's abilities. (Does this strike only me as a Federation oxymoron?)

Maybe a new view of the Federation could've theoretically been revealed, but the episode is far too inept to come up with one. Instead, the "insanity" of Dr. Sevrin (Skip Homeier) becomes the driving force of the story's impenetrable plot involving the search for "Eden." And what about "Eden," anyway? Is it supposed to be a myth or a planet? The episode can't seem to decide. One wonders if the search becomes one for a charted planet that simply happens to be named "Eden."

Characterization is also way off: Chekov as a stolid, conservative, by-the-books Voice of Starfleet doesn't make any sense given his character, and Spock being absorbed by the hippie cause lacks dramatic payoff, instead seeming like an excuse to warrant his presence in several annoying musical numbers. Honestly, I'd rather watch "Spock's Brain" again, because at least it's dumb enough to laugh at. "Eden" is not particularly laughable. But it is rambling, unenlightening, misconceived, mischaracterized, pointless, and requires sheer endurance to sit through—comprised of yet another plot where a group attempts to commandeer the ship for its own purposes. It's like "And the Children Shall Lead" with older children; the meanings behind the hippiedom aren't considered for a moment, resulting in zero digestible substance.

Previous episode: Requiem for Methuselah Next episode: The Cloud Minders

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96 comments on this post.

Myth or reality, season 3 was the worst season. It didn't lack quality episodes, but it did have by far the most phoned-in-turkeys. One of those I'd like to discuss here is "The Way to Eden". In a transparent attempt to be 'relevant' (a catch word of the day) they give us future hippies! I'm going to disagree with Jammer here in that Chekov, though young, hip and brash relative to the other Enterprise officers would indeed come off as conservative compared to his anti-establishment, hippie ex-girlfriend. After all, he is still military. Also, Spock being somewhat sympathetic to their cause is also in character IMO. Besides, it allows him to walk in and jam albeit uninvited with the space hippies! It's the message that irked me back when I saw it in its original run as a kid. Keep in my mind that one of the target demographics were middle aged, middle class people of the late 1960's. It's to these sensibilities that this (and many other) epsiodes were meant to appeal. Though it clung to a standard TOS theme echoed in so many episodes - humanity was not meant for paradise and if you find one, it's a false one - this one has an insidious edge to it. The message to the youth was: Come back to us! Cut your hair, shave, change your clothes back to grey, put your bras back on and throw away your rock records! Your paradise (peace, love?) is a fallacy, and though it may appear beautiful it is dangerous and even deadly (drugs?) and your leaders or older mentors (Timothy Leary?) are actually insane and will only lead to you ruin! Hmm, exactly what parents of the late 60's wanted to hear.

karatasiospa

The "way to eden" is perhaps the only really "reactionary" episode in the history of star trek. whatever the faults of the youth movements in the '60s these were the people who ended the war in vietnam and fought for civil rights. They deserved a better treatment. And perhaps the "middle aged", "middle class" people were the demographic target (aren't they allways?) but they were not, in the end, the people who liked and supported star trek.

I extremely disagree with your rating on "The Way to Eden" - I thought it was one of the best episodes of the season. I also really liked the musical numbers. "And what about "Eden," anyway? Is it supposed to be a myth or a planet?" - Well that was the point of the story: if the myth is just a myth or if it also reality. "Chekov as a stolid, conservative, by-the-books Voice of Starfleet" He wasn't portayed like this at all, kissing and making out during work time.. His anger towards his ex girlfriend was obviously out of frustration about their break up. I also found Spock's fascination with the space hippies' quest plausible. The episode had very funny moments like the flowers being full of acid and Scotties look during the sit-in and also quite beautiful metaphors like the sickness of the doctor which was caused by technology and which also circumvented him from returning to a simpler life - or the databanks with all the knowledge of the world which Chekov had and he still missed something: love. I also disagree with another poster's notion that this episode has a reactive message. The space hippies (exept the crazy doctor) where all extremely sympathetic and likeable. In the end Kirk says, they did what they had to do and Spock encourages them not to give up their way of life and their search and added that he believed that they will someday succeed.

Jeffrey Bedard

"The Way to Eden" is one of those frustrating episodes for me because if you rip away the silliness and the goofiness there is some great stuff here which is unfortunately not presented well. I wish DC Fontana's original script could have been made. It would have been great to see Joanna McCoy. It's a shame she couldn't be included later on in TAS or in one of the films, but oh well. This is a definite 1 star episode. But there are aspects of interest here. 1) I love the extra focus it gives on Chekov. While the "former love interest" subplot isn't new at least it gets Chekov away from the navigation station for a time and opens up his character more. I've heard that Koenig wasn't happy that Chekov was written as being rigid, but to me it makes sense. I don't think Chekov comes across as rigid. But Starfleet is a para-military organization based on the US Navy and Chekov would know that going in. I also like how the character of Irina provides a window to a part of TREK society we rarely see: those people who not only aren't in Starfleet, but who DON'T want to be in Starfleet. 2) Through the character of Doc Sevrin we have a slightly sympathetic villain. Until he contracted his disease Sevrin was probably a pretty nice guy. He most likely never had any desire to visit or live in a more primitive environment, but from the moment he found out he never could I'm sure that's when his transformation began. The concept of this disease is fascinating to me and had it been presented in a better story I think it would make for a great sci-fi concept. His scene with Spock allows us to see past the silly costume and make up and see a person who now loathes the very type of 23rd century environment so many TREK fans (myself included ) wish was real. 3) Tongo Rad is interesting because he seems like the type of spoiled son of a famous father. Being the son of an ambassador probably gave Rad license to do a lot of bad things and get away with it and we see it here in the fact that none of them get arrested for stealing a shuttle. Also, Rad doesn't appear to be upset (unlike Irina) with the idea that Sevrin's manipulation of the Enterprise's acoustics will kill the crew. It's a hint of a dark streak behind the facade of love and peace. I wish it had been developed more. 4) Adam is the one tragic character in all this. Unlike Irina (who seems to allow herself to be convinced by Sevrin that he won't really kill the crew) Adam appears to believe heart and soul in the idea of Eden and Sevrin's message. He befriends (to a degree) Spock and then fails to listen to Spock when Spock tries to convince him of Sevrin's true intentions. He hides behind his music. Once Sevrin starts tampering with controls what does Adam do? Start singing a song about the beauty of Eden. For him to be only one of Sevrin's followers to die makes sense. While we don't see the landing of Sevrin and his followers I can picture Adam being the first one to leave the shuttle and go running onto the field and grabbing that piece of poisonous fruit. 5) It's not touched upon much but I like how Kirk is seen to at least attempt to give Sevrin and his group a chance. His initial conversations with them are rather heated, but once Spock explains to Kirk what a Herbert is Kirk says "I'll try to be a little less rigid." And we get to see a bit of follow up with that. Kirk allows the jam sessions to be broadcast across the ship (I can't imagine Picard ever allowing such a thing). And when Scotty complains about the followers Kirk recalls doing a few reckless things in his youth. So he's at least trying, until of course the crew and ship are threatened. And the final line of the episode is Kirk saying "We reach" to Spock. And he's not saying it in a patronizing or mocking tone. He's learned a bit from this experience. "The Way to Eden" is definitely one of the worst TOS episodes which is a shame. Had they stripped away the space hippie theme and the protest songs, it's possible that some of these other themes could have been explored more fully and with a more interesting story. Oh well...

In the 1960s, the counterculture movement (which shared some of Roddenberry's ideals, albeit not all), was omnipresent. Many shows wanted to have their own 'hippie' episode. Even "Get Smart" had "The Groovy Guru". "Trek", mixing a moral play with sci-fi, making it experimental for the time, did clearly stretch things too far. I can handle a bunch of rogue malcontents being led by another, stealing a ship, et al, but the hippie allegory is way too direct. Chekov is rewritten as a lapdog for Kirk, obeying every order like a good little tin soldier. This is at odds with his previous persona of being a loose cannon, campily championing Russia at every turn. Chekov as a serious character without the camp was great, but this episode altered his personality solely for the sake of the story. Stories are made for characters; not the other way around. Especially in a long-running show with established character types, even in the 1960s when each episode ending was its own 'reset button', meaning there was no real continuity to move forward with. On the plus side, when the full TOS soundtrack comes out, the music from this story is the first I will be listening to. :) I liked the inconsistency of Eden. It meant Spock had to do research and for Kirk to take a chance on such information. It sweetened the pot that the planet was, you guessed it, in the Neutral Zone, but given the pacing of the story there was no time to fill it with angry Romulan birds... I also enjoyed Jeffrey's analysis above on the miscreants. While I disagree re: Chekov's newfound personality, I do like how he pointed out the side of people we don't see... He nailed the point of Severin perfectly. The story itself is almost a scary precursor to AIDS in a way, and Severin himself is a proto-TNG villain (shades of gray; a villain having a sympathetic side is not easy to do, and TNG would often play with this sort of moralizing.) With Severin, as he said, there was potential for a good story, which failed to materialize. I too wish the facade of love and peace was explored more; especially as that was one of the goals to this story and discussing the hippie movement. John Lennon was not identical to the songs he wrote for sure, and the counterculture participants were - arguably - too idealistic. Or, perhaps, high at the time. Real peace takes commitment and effort. Drugs are means to escape commitment and effort. As such, Rad does make for an interesting - and dangerous character. Had this story, here we go, been a two-parter and given some gravitas, the creators could have really put out a strong story. Season 3 often put out very strong messages with strong contention-based concepts ("Battlefield", "Cloud Minders", "Plato's Stepchildren", etc), but "Eden" was a missed opportunity to really say something. Sadly, a certain affair at Kent State University a few years later would have - more loudly - end the counterculture and, perhaps, evolution as we know it... Adam definitely comes across as a total acolyte, devoted to the cause. He hides behind his music and, man, does he have a good signing voice. But that's Charles Napier, a known character and voiceover actor. And even as a mixed bag of a story, the coherence of Adam being the total acolyte of this Severin cult figure and being the only one dying does pack a certain punch. Picard, the one who fired a volley of photon torpedos over a planet just to inanely scare the entire inhabitants of the planet, wouldn't entertain any ideas. While I adore the music, the ideas in this story could have been better if the story was not so strongly hippie-themed, without the padding of the music, some of these ideas could have been a little more effectively explored... Still, it's not bad because it's mere rubbish, it's bad because the ideas could not be fully explored.

Sorry, Jammer. You're way too hard on this one. It's better than "That Which Survives", "Mark of the Gideon" and the absolutely horrible "And the children Shall Lead." The worst of the third season are the boring episodes where the cast and creators apparently were mailing it in. "The Way to Eden" is a misfire, but there's some good stuff in here. I actually liked Spock's part. It was in character. And I thought Checkov was overcompensating, more than anything. I actually liked some of the ideas here -- the rebellion against the "sterilized worlds and controlled atmospheres." You're right that Sevrin's insanity cheapened the drama, but it didn't ruin it. It was annoying that the Romulans all seemed to be on vacation.

This episode struck me as an analogous to the Jim Jones People's Temple movement. Lead by an insane rejector of civilized America, seeking utopia, and a mass suicide was preferable to life in the sanitized, civilized world. It's allegorical to all utopian movements, which are all doomed to failure because of the frailties and failings of man. Sevrin could easily be Jim Jones, Marshal Applewhite, or David Koresh.

The Romulans never showed up because they knew better than to get involved in this horrible pile of crap. Still, two of the hippies die horribly at the end and the rest suffer severe burns, so the ep isn't a total loss.

I was a teen in the late 60's when this episode aired. So I liked the premise of "The Way To Eden" Although it was a lot different from most of the rest of the series it had at least one good point, the dream of brotherhood still lives. The character of Adam to me represented The musical soul of his generation. I have always wondered if the song "Heading Out To Eden" was ever recorded in full. It would have been a good hit.

I respectfully disagree, Jammer. I thought this episode was hilarious. I put it right up there with Sharknado as one of the campiest, most unintentionally hysterical things I have ever seen. Now I just need to watch it high! XD

I wouldn't call this episode "reactionary". Honestly, I feel it gave the hippies a fair shot at expressing their opinions. They were clearly illusioned, their views were allowed to be demonstrated. Even though I dislike hippie culture, I find that kind of tolerance pretty refreshing. Nowadays when someone expresses a negative view on television, they're automatically wrong no matter what. Crap, the most tolerant of the Treks is TOS. I don't mind the music too much. While it does take up time that could have been used on the themes, it's funny as crap and fits in with the 60s. I bet if someone played this to someone of my parent's generation and said it was by the Mamas and the Papas, they would like it. That being said, the hippies were annoying, the costumes were awkward, and it's entirely implausible to actually find Eden, as there are no characteristics given as to what Eden actually is. On the plus side, the most annoying hippie died, and I actually like the direction things took in the end. Though I find it highly implausible that a hippie would go so far as to steal a starship.

I just can't get past the Enterprise getting easily taken over yet again. First there was Riley, Charlie X, Khan, the Kelvins, Commissioner Biel. At least that group had superpowers.

I thought this episode was ok, actually. It certainly sparks interesting discussions/debates regarding the quest for "simplicity" and whether it is well- or ill-advised. (Simpler feels easier, but reality and nature are complex, requiring complex technologies and solutions to problems.) To each their own. I'd have given this ep 2 stars.

Interestingly I really enjoyed this episode, and much more than 15 years ago when I first watched it (one reason is the terrible German synchronization voice of Adam, the English is much better). Aside from the annoying music, these silly Herbert-shoutings, the forced Russian dialect of Irina and the once again insanity of the villain, I found it quit compelling - much more so than the similar fifth ST-movie. I especially liked Spock's role here. What was a bit

Contra Jammer, I think this episode *is* nearly as funny as "Spock's Brain." I'd rather watch this a few more times than watch "And the Children Shall Lead," "That Which Survives," "The Alternative Factor" or "The Lights of Zetar," and probably more than "The Omega Glory" (though that one is almost as funny as this and "Spock's Brain" too). It's ridiculous throughout, with a few highlights for me being: * the way Chekov basically flat-out tells Irina that it's possible to take over the whole ship from auxiliary control even with having no prior knowledge because the computer banks are so good, as if in casual flirting conversation * "yayyyyyyyy brother yayyyyyyyyyy" * the repeated shots of Sevrin smiling evilly! * bizarre editing glitches, including several shots of Kirk which are mirrored! (you can see his insignia on the wrong side) * great little moment: after Spock starts to suffer from the acoustic attack, and then it hits Kirk, while Spock and Kirk are stumbling around the camera widens to reveal that Scotty is already unconscious. Something about that just kills me. * that redshirt on the bridge who can't help but toe-tap along to the music! * Spock saying "His name was Adam" with a serious voice after Adam has died eating fruit to shove home the Biblical allusion, which...doesn't make any sense? (Like, the problem with the Garden of Eden was not that the fruits were poisoned.) * Sevrin running out to eat a fruit himself like a madman. Anyway, buried under layers of ridiculousness the episode does have something to say: hippies have an understandable and even admirable desire for a better world. Their counterculture trappings are maybe weird and silly, but Spock's admiration for them drives home that there are things about the movement that are worth preserving: their emphasis on peace and art is something that I think does make sense as something Spock would appreciate, although it's pretty weird that Spock doesn't at least mention that their total lack of self-discipline seems like a bad idea, considering how much Vulcans emphasize discipline as absolutely central. But anyway, the problem is that by believing that Eden is a place they can actually get to, they can fall prey to charismatic (or "charismatic" as in this episode) leaders who are either charlatans out to exploit them, or simply madmen who have lost touch with reality. And once they get to that "Eden," it's poisonous because, uh...well, okay, it's poisonous because it's very possible that when they get to the kind of society that their counterculture leaders insist they should try to make, it may have problems they hadn't anticipated. This is the most in-your-face way of showing that. Anyway, the episode is held back by the hippies' really unconvincing lingo, which really sounds like old guys trying to either match or satirize hippiedom, though it may be that some of the counterculture's excesses are parody-proof. Whatever. The songs just go on forever. The ship is ridiculously easy to take over. That acoustic weapon seems like it might in fact be a weird metaphor that the hippies can knock out the squares with their awful sounds? No explanation is ever given for what Eden is supposed to be, and Chekov's explanation that they check for planets based on the orbits, positions etc. of other planets (inferring what other gravitational forces must exist) consist of an explanation of how to find new objects/planets in space, not how to find the specific "planet"/place/whatever which is "Eden." It's lazy, grating, painful, frustrating, and incredibly the "crazy charismatic leader spreads his peace by taking over the ship to bring it to paradise" was repeated for Star Trek V. Probably 1/2 star.

Oh yeah, having just watched sfdebris' takedown of the episode, I have to agree that the hippies' switching from peacenik to murdering the entire crew is really awful, too. I think Jammer's right on Chekov, I should also say. The whole subplot feels so out of place for Chekov's characterization, such as it is.

Couldn't agree more, this episode was pure stupidity. The writers and producers must have just finished a pot-smoking session when they dreamed up this mess. Bad, bad, and more bad.

Dutchgamer1982

I disagree with the low ranking this recieves by most. in fact I find this one of the best TOS episodes of them all. I give it a solid 4.25 stars Why? *well the story is unique and plausible, and starts quite logical : -group steals ship and runs away with it. -normally that would involve space-police, not the pride of the army (what the enterprise is) -however this is a political incident, so they might like to show force, to gain the upper hand in the negociations. This is a totally logical story, and one of the few ones like it. I usually hate TOS because like 95% of all episodes are "yet oneother earth" "kirk falls in love with a woman" and "kirk outsmarts the computer" non of that here. Than there is the issue TOS is FAR to focussed on sex, with the ridiculous dress-uniforms, kirk frigging around and such. That makes me dislike TOS a lot. So when this apeared to be a hippy-episdo, I feared the worste of it. But I was totally pleasantly surprised, this is one of the few TOS series without sexism, just a sensible talk between two people who deeply love eachother, but know their love is impossible, a nd logically make the right call and go their seperate way. A nice fresh breeze What looses it halve a point though is how a buch of space-hippies are able to take controll of the ship so easely. That it only looses halve a point is because they actually have this explained in the little talk between chekov and his ex. Also they pointed out how they are geniusses, and not average joes, and they planned this muteny in much detail ahead. Still I find it hard to figure that there would not be needed any passwords to transfer bridge-control, or to even get controll at all. A comment like -dang we should have installed security codes- or checkov giving away his code, by having his ex distracting him and looking down on his fingers.. would have prevent this star loss. (perhaps he did, as he takes blame in the last shot, but than he would have done so off-screen, as all he did say on screen is : the computer fills in the blanks if you ask it what you want it to do and is in full control and you can controll the ship from here too) And than there is the moral-plot of the story (all TOS are moral-story's and I am ok with that) : *don't follow leaders blindly *don't trow away wise teachings because they are brought by the wrong teachers (catholic priests come to mind) *hold on to your idealism and dreams. *adapt a little bit to society in order to change it. Still stands strong today, good message. There are a few dated-events though. Giving the leader space-typhus, was not neccecairy for the story, even though it helped he was insane and a treath against his own preaching. only to have him commit suicide some time later, when he discovers he is wrong. such insane leaders that refused medical treatment, and suicide commiting when prooved wrong, was however quite common in the 60's, so I let this get away with that. Than there is the computer locating eden. Nowever is explained what defines for them eden, do they really believe they can find the place God kicked us out from? Or do they just look for a pristine planet that fits their idea of eden, and they can live their desired way of life on. This is not explained enough, and looses it quarter of a point. That spock later sais eden is still out there at least admits that what they found was not eden, and their search-algoritm was wrong, this in some small way fills in this hole, but I'd liked a little more information. FInally there is the whole acid-point of the planet, and them hiding in fear inside of the shuttle. acid burns on touch, but adams body lies wit bare chest on those plants without the acid having damed his skin? And why are they hiding in fear inside the shuttle (for the acid?) but run out without problem when the enterprise crew arives? (if they were hiding FOR that crew, what would be logical, they left them for dead after all, punishment is to be expected, why would they come out?) I am sorry but I will have to pushing with halve a point deduction for these clear contractions to this story It would have had 5 stars would those last plotholes fixed and the space-typhus part cut out.. but those were minor plotholes and some attempt was done to closing them. making this one of the best and well-written TOS stories of them all. Finally What gains it a bonus +0.5 stars are the nice songs in this episode, I really love them, and the atmosphere it makes.

Enjoyable, funny, chaotic, great music. But definitely not a Standard TOS. Beware of that both Kirk and especially Spock are very tolerant. Kirk do understand that he is not the right person to deal with this, he takes Spock's advice. The crew get a great time. They (the establishment) though identifies the false prophet, they try to warn, but the followers does not listen. A theme valid also today. In the end Kirk and Spock shows great understanding. "let the sun shine in" I believe this is a Episode I will re-watch soon.

Spock Van Halen

I figured I had to be in the minority here but several of the comments seem to agree. This episode has such a negative reputation I expected it to be awful, but shock & horror...... I really enjoyed it. I thought it was an interesting look at the characters, and how they could well be viewed by outsiders who don't idolise our heroes. The look at counter-culture was respectful and I felt the views of the characters were on point. Chekov reminded me of Riker. Within the system he's a player, he's charming and loves the ladies - but to to those opposed to the ways of Starfleet he will defend the system, structure and ethos to the hilt. It really helped that I dig on the music, man :-) I enjoyed it far more than other Season 3 episodes that I found rather thin such as Troiyus, Children shall Lead, Zetar, Battlefield etc. I'd go so far as to say 3 stars. I have to also say, I think Season 3 is a little undeserving of it's poor reputation - there are some really interesting ideas around here - Spectre, Enterprise Incident, Empath, World is Hollow, Wink, Gideon, this one, I've enjoyed them all. Only a couple more to go in this season. Looking forward to the last 4 :-)

'Star Trek' meets 'Lost in Space.'

I think Jammer's rating is low. I agree this is a bad episode - probably 1.0 star. However, at least it is not boring, unlike The Alternative Factor (which Jammer to my surprise gave me two stars). I also think it is better than That Which Survives and The Lights of Zetar. My main problem with this episode is the implausibility, which James Doohan discussed in his book "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Doohan said you could respect bad guys like Khan and his crew (at least for their abilities, if not for their morals). But a bunch of space hippies taking over a starship? Also, as Doohan pointed out, how much patience would Kirk have with this bunch of fools? The 1st time they shouted "Herbert", he should have thrown them in the brig and been done with it. Doohan correctly stated that Kirk had no trouble telling ambassadors where to go, much the less the obnoxious son of an ambassador. Doohan originally did not want to appear in this episode. However, the producers changed his mind. Doohan said he should have gone with his original instincts.

Ahahahaha! I think I finally get what "Herbert" means, after all these years! I just realized it must be a reference to Frank Herbert, whose book "Dune" had come out just a few years prior. That book contains a setting where a huge amount of technology is banned, especially computers. The Dune series is also largely about not trusting authority figures, a theme that was particularly important to Frank. I guess that would make "Herbert" a fitting epithet coming from a group of anti-technologist hippies in the presence of a technocrat authority figure like a Starfleet Captain.

I'm confused - if Frank Herbert wrote about and cautioned of the dangers of modern technology wouldn't the space hippies want to be "Herberts".

Well I never said they were smart...

One of the worst episodes of 60's Trek, but I actually think Jammer's review is too harsh and his rating is definitely too harsh. This is not the worst TOS episode. The premise is poorly conceived, being blanketed in this hippie nonsense. But the idea of a renegade group trying to go out on their own is fine. Searching for an "Eden" is fine as well as a purpose, given that the leader is insane and has some kind of a hold on his followers. Kirk has to treat them with kid gloves because one of them is the son of some big shot and that creates an interesting dynamic. The episode gets silly with too much time spent on the music and the crew being unprofessional -- how about the red shirt on the bridge snapping his fingers and grooving out while Scotty stands right beside him? I don't have an issue with Spock trying to understand them and even jamming with them -- actually made for some fun scenes that have some purpose as the takeover of the Enterprise gets underway. I like Chekov in this episode -- he falls for the ladies typically and it's nothing different here. He regrets his actions in the end. Anyhow, I think "The Way to Eden" gets notoriety for the wrong reasons. There is an attempt at social commentary for the 60's and I wouldn't call it boring. It's definitely one of the turkeys in 60s Trek but not as bad as "And the Children Shall Lead" or "Spock's Brain". I give it 1 star out of 4.

Space hippies... what did we do to deserve THIS? Honestly it's not the worst episode of TOS or Season 3, so I think the zero stars is unwarranted in this case. This plays more like a 1.5 or 1 star episode to me, nothing substantial or particularly worthwhile, but not blatantly horrid. I commend the writers for *trying* to give Chekov some sort of history/storyline with that one girl. The supporting characters (Sulu, Chekov, Uhura) usually feel way underutilized in TOS, so I appreciate when they actually use them. But... definitely one that I would skip if I were to ever rewatch this season. Friggen space hippies.

Hated this episode as a kid but it has certainly grown on me as an adult. I even find Adam's songs to be catchy but as some have said, many great possibilities in this story that were never fully developed. The sequence on the planet seems rushed and poorly directed. I do enjoy "Eden" a lot more than the other original series stinkers. If played for laughs, they could have had a bikini-clad Goldie Hawn dancing in the background and a surprised Kirk ask, "Sock it to me?" Yeah, brother!

When I was young, I disliked this episode for the harsh comeuppance the idealistic hippies receive in the end, but now that I'm older and a bit wiser I've come to really enjoy it as an allegory about the dangers of seeking Eden (paradise in this life) without working for it. As such, much like "This Side of Paradise," this episode actually epitomizes the classic Trekkian belief that easy utopias are illusions, because the enlightened future envisioned by Roddenberry is the result of centuries of human struggle and hard work to make progress as a species. As a respectful exploration of the hopes and limits of utopian societies, I give it 3 stars. The counter-culture movements of the 1960s and 1970s accomplished much in terms of non-violent protest, but they also made many mistakes, seeking easy comfort in sexual license and recreational drug use that altered users' perceptions more than their realities -- and not always in a good direction. To be honest, the reality is that most 1960s hippies ended up cutting their hair, raising families, and quitting drugs to become productive members of society. And the rest -- those few who kept living the hippie life without "selling out" to society -- ended up sick, homeless, and addicted. Having lived in Berkeley CA, I can show you where they live in People's Park or on Shattuck Avenue any day you please. But preferably not at night, because they ARE violent and they ARE dangerous, just as this episode shows in Dr. Sevrin. Disease and drug use really *do* make people dangerous over time. Perhaps that's putting things too harshly, because "The Way to Eden" actually treats the hippie movement with tremendous respect, as Spock even says at one point that Sevrin's madness does not alter his respect for the cause at all. I love how Spock, totally in character as a cultural outsider himself, is the simpatico one with the hippies here. It's great to see him jamming with the musicians led by Adam (the great character actor Charles Napier of "The Blues Brothers" and "Austin Powers" among many other films) on his Vulcan lute here. It's cool seeing Spock as the most hip and sympathetic to the hippie outsiders who have abandoned technological society. I also love Chekov's back story here as he encounters the Russian hippie, a Starfleet Academy dropout and former romantic interest. Honestly, I'm not sure why Jammer finds Chekov's defense of Starfleet and anger that the girl he wanted turned her back on it out of character here, as his character on the show has been defined entirely by his DEEP pride to be in Starfleet and his STRONG love of technological knowledge. He's always been a know-it-all who loves all of humanity's technological accomplishments -- i.e. the grain in "Tribbles" -- which are precisely the things these hippies scorn. And he's angry that Irina turned her back on the things he loves. Of all the TOS shows, this one is the biggest "Chekov episode," as his thread actually runs through the whole show from start to finish, and he even gets a cute exchange of advice farewell scene with his crush. Too bad TOS was cancelled: It would have been great to see Uhura and Sulu get stories like Chekov got here. And Spock gets a nice line at the end, telling Chekov's girl to keep looking for Eden, which again defies the "reactionary" tag some people give this one. Good touch of continuity here, too, with the reference to Sulu's love of botany and other skills. And I *love* the teaser where we watch the hippies (presumably stoned) fly their stolen spaceship into ruin, then promptly form a drum circle on the Transporter Room floor when the Enterprise beams them aboard. It's just a lot of goofy fun to see contemporary hippies on the ship, fitting for the age, and somewhat thoughtful as well when we consider that someone in the 23rd century might one day revive the old hippie movement for a new generation of space travelers. In the end, the message of "Eden" is that we all have to grow up sometime, resisting the urge (which is dangerously infantile according to all modern psychologists) of returning to a womblike state of childlike innocence and freedom from responsibility. To be a healthy and mature adult is, ultimately, to take responsibility for our own actions and make hard choices in life. And folks, this message of "Way to Eden" is PROFOUNDLY in line with *everything* we've seen on TOS, even if the style makes it feel different from the rest of the series: Much like "The Apple" (where the "Eden" planet is likewise poisonous) and other episodes earlier in TOS, the Federation here encourages people to think for themselves rather than seek easy answers in messianic groupthink, and so "Eden" is perfectly consistent with Trekkian ideals. If "Way to Eden" is reactionary for saying we all have to leave the Garden of Eden to overcome infantile dependency, then so is pretty much every TOS episode where Kirk refuses to let alien races be the pawns of charismatic leaders seeking artificial utopias. (See also "Return of the Archons.") Having said all of that, I was sorry the Romulans were teased without actually showing up, as I was totally game for the kitchen sink to drop in our laps. Yet the concept of paradise being a poisonous planet in Romulan space, so useless that even the Romulans don't patrol it, makes for a memorable ending where the hippie named "Adam" (as Spock reminds us with irony) dies from eating a poison apple in "Eden." Even the hippies here have to grow up, except of course for Dr. Sevrin who takes the Jim Jones-style exit. The hippies turning evil through Sevrin's influence isn't a total loss, as the episode maintains respect for them and their cause despite their crazy leader. And it's not like Sevrin is trying to kill the crew, take over the ship, or conquer the universe: He just wants to go to this planet he's obsessed about and stay there with his people. So the hippies here are dangerous, but not necessarily murderous, and the episode raises good questions about well-meaning people who give up their best judgment to charismatic visionaries with mixed motives. Incidentally, it amuses me that some people get upset at TOS for too often making that charismatic leader a computer, but also get upset when TOS makes that leader a hippie or a Nazi. Is there someone else you had in mind to exemplify the excesses of groupthink? Perhaps Paris Hilton? Anyway, "Eden" isn't a top tier episode for me, as it's a bit too weird/atonal to feel truly satisfying, and it kind of meanders in the shipboard scenes for a while without advancing the plot. But I like it. And like several commenters here, I don't understand why some people are okay with Trek criticizing religion or AI run amok in a society, but self-righteously hate on "Eden" because Trek dares to take the counter-culture to task for the same problems. The truth is that any big social movements, even a counter-cultural or justice-oriented one, is vulnerable to the unhealthy whims of a charismatic leader -- it's not just religion and computers. Hitler also started as a social reformer: We tend to forget that the National Socialists (like the German Communists and others who favored government ownership of property) were liberals/progressives in 1930s Germany, not conservatives like the German Republic group or reactionaries like the pro-Kaiser German monarchists. So let's not throw the word "reactionary" at Trek so easily.

Poor but not as bad as the review makes it out to be. (IMHO) A beautiful planet with acid plants? Interesting concept.

I guess weed still exists in the far future. And is probably universally legal. That's all I take away from this epidode.

Gonna crack my knuckles and jump for joy. I got a clean bill of health from Doctor McCoy.

I’m seized with a desire to make a felt infinity egg and slap it on. Who’s with me?

Other Chris

Not good, but not the worst of the season.

Not good, but not the worst of the series or season. Requiem, right before this, was much worse. It's just one more silly episode, in a sea of them.

So, here’s another DC Fontana script about technology, except this time the episode seems to be pro-technology - or, at least against rejecting technology for the sake of ideology. While I’m on the subject of ideology, here we have the big anti-religion episode of TOS. I think the idea is that the hippies (who Roddenberry must relate to on some level) have a pure and true vision about what paradise should be, but they’re taken in by Dr. Sevrin, the local preacher/cult leader/kool-aid drinker. The episode spends enough time emphasizing the strengths of the philosophy of the non-Sevrin hippies that we get a sense that the hippies might be onto something. At the very least, I agree with William B that Spock’s character was used well to help us try to understand the benefit of hippie beliefs. At first I was a bit surprised at the rating by Jammer, but having read about all the technical glitches of the episode and mischaracterizations (Walter Koenig called this the low point of his career as Chekov) I can understand why we reach zero. Personally, I thought it was nice that Chekov got something else to besides be the naive kid, yet the episode still played that card as needed. One thing that screamed at me, though. DS9 missed a golden opportunity for the Maquis to be people still searching for Eden. That would’ve given them a righteous enough cause in the same vein as the Native Americans, instead of just making them petulant children. Peter G. wrote: “I think I finally get what "Herbert" means, after all these years! I just realized it must be a reference to Frank Herbert, whose book "Dune" had come out just a few years prior.” Weird, yeah, Memory Alpha says that the slur is a dig at one of the original executive producers, Herbert Solow, who was replaced by the third season. I don’t know, your idea is probably better. But the episode itself leaves the audience in the dark about this and many other things.

@Chrome No way does this episode deserve zero stars -- the music of the hippies alone is almost worth 0.5 star on its own. Seriously, Charles Napier is a good singer and I these are cool lyrics: "No more trouble in my body or my mind Going to live like a king on whatever I find Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind Yeah brother ... yeah" Granted -- listening to "pop" music is not what Trek is supposed to be about but this episode deserves props for coming up with some good tunes that many people love to this day. TOS music was just fantastic. The little sorrowful music at the end as they find Adam dead -- actually quite a touching moment. And I actually liked Chekov's part here -- granted he was unprofessional and later regretted his actions, but his character got a bit of development in that we learn he's uber-dedicated to Star Fleet and could not understand why Irina would go off pursuing Eden. But objectively and critically speaking, to me it's a 1* episode -- it has a ton of flaws and is a weak premise that is poorly executed. But I have a soft spot for it!

@Rahul I thought the music was pretty catchy too. One thing that's fun about this one is it's sort of a period piece (a 1960s show based on a popular movement of the 1960s), so you feel like you're seeing a little slice of history here. It's also pertinent to Trek's history as Roddenberry is known to have affection for the philosophy of free love. Sure, It's cheesy, but I think it engages counterculture and anti-authority on an intellectual level. What's more, there's a surprisingly large amount of meat to delve into with the planet Eden analogy, although it's all a very rough idea. Still, compare this to say, TNG's "Up the Long Ladder" which included some of the most horribly stereotypical cliches of a "primitive" race with no redeeming value, and I think you'll find this one comes out way ahead.

@Chrome That's one of the "virtues" of TOS is that you get these period pieces -- the sci-fi analogies of real world issues (counterculture, cold war, Vietnam, etc.), which became a hallmark of Trek. And some of them are different for TOS than for the later Treks. And yes, this episode is plenty cheesy but I actually think it fails to really engage in a sensible discussion of the counterculture movement or the aspect of a group following an insane cult leader. It gets lost in plenty of goofiness and the takeover/regaining control of the ship is just a mechanical exercise -- not particularly riveting. And with the Eden planet popping up right at the very end, there isn't much chance to reflect on the deaths of Adam & Sevrin. But I suppose you could also argue that it's left for the viewer to come to his/her own conclusions. Interesting comparison with "Up the Long Ladder" -- I also see that as a 1* episode but overall I rate that a tad higher due to the presentation of cloning and rights of the individual. It has a modicum of more intelligence to it. But the Irish group were worse than the space hippies!

@Rahul Yeah, unfortunately there’s too much dialogue given to the actually crazy guy about his motives so we aren’t given a lot to think about the hippie movement. There is something interesting about the protest in the med bay and the crew getting caught up the music that I think works well. But to be clear, this is plenty silly. One funny thing was how they kept bringing up the Romulans and — they actually invaded Romulan space which, you know, should have some huge repercussions. But the episode kind of forgets about that in the ending and they’re just kinda hanging out speechifying.

This was my favorite episode as a gradeschool kid—because of the music and the costumes. Adam was my favorite character, for reasons others have noted above. My issues with it (because "favorite" doesn't mean "best"—by a longshot!) include: For a crew on a ship traveling the galaxy, seeking out new civilizations and encountering a multitude of ways, mores, and cultures, it makes no sense for them to find this group so strange—certainly no stranger than most other groups. And with humans from earth already living on maybe tens or even hundreds of planets by then, certainly the already widely-varied cultural expressions found on earth over the millenia would have further splintered into more and more variation. I agree with comments above about Tong (or is it Tongo?) Rad's darkness. He's just a spoiled privileged a$$. Re: Irina and Chekhov, I found it kind of a chilling commentary on Federation society for him to express such horror at her ostensibly throwing her life away, just because she decided not to use her education/talents as part of the Federation's military industrial complex. Surely in their century, there are myriad streams of professional and personal opportunities. If only a military one is really respected as a "success"... ugh. Dr. Sevrin is of course not the only time in TOS we see a well-respected genius type figure losing his or her mind. In his story, it's especially sad as he acts like a selfish and greedy colonizer. As far as looking for the planet Eden... I think the perfect planet for this group would have been Omicron Ceti III (from "This Side Of Paradise.) No Indigenous animal life forms to be hurt by synthecoccus novae disease. The plant sports would protect the hippies from any harm from the Berthold rays. And, the laid back vibe created by the spores' influence on human behavior is, frankly, no different from how Sevrin and his gang were already striving to live as, as a value system. In fact, they wouldn't even need the spores (though they'd probably find a way to smoke them, lol.) That planet truly was a paradise for anyone who desired that lifestyle. Then, for the Romulan element... I did find the hippies dismissing of that threat highly... illogical. Even by their hippie logic. They were all citizens of the Federation (even if they reject its norms.) Surely all know that crossing the Neutral Zone is a BIG F*ing DEAL. Surely they would know, with 100% certainty, that the minunte Romulans discover Federation citizens colonizing one of their planets would bring swift attack and they'd all be killed. At most—even if the plants weren't filled with acid poison!—they'd get a few weeks or months, then they'd be killed. None of them seemed to understand their journey to Eden as comprising a suicide trip. Therefore, why do what they did? Kirk wasn't trying to keep them from that "Eden" to be a d*ck. He forbid them from going because (a) The Romulans would come and kill them all, and (b) it could spark a war with the Federation. There was no possibly scenario in which they would get to go to this Eden to actually make and live a life. Despite all that, despite it being silly often enough, it's still an episode I always enjoy watching. For the singing (yes, the sining!), for Adam, and for Chekhov finally getting some action! Yay, yayeeee.... brother :)

Sarjenka's Brother

Adam = Matthew McConaughey Yeah, brother! This could never legitimately top a "best of" list, but worst of all 72? Nah, it ain't that bad. And I thought some of the music was pretty cool.

John E Brengman

^.^ The high points of this episode really didn't save the episode very much. As ti a cimment made earlier ... "The "way to eden" is perhaps the only really "reactionary" episode in the history of star trek. whatever the faults of the youth movements in the '60s these were the people who ended the war in vietnam" Actually nope! Although the youth movement and the entire anti-war element put pressure on the government, in reality, after Tet, the communists had momentum, and that was sealed after the US removed their support for the South Vietnamese military. " and fought for civil rights." Not really. Martin Luther King was not part of the youth movement. The youth were more interested in sex, drugs, rock music, stepping off, and dropping out ... of society. More than a few adults in the room did what they could to push the US to get out of Vietnam, and it was adults in the room who pushed civil rights. However, the anti-modern stance of the episode is kinda interesting. How many people nowdays remember when there was not an Internet? I was at Subway earlier, and I saw a couple, but rather than talking to each other, the guy was engrossed in his smart phone, rather than talking to the girl sitting across from him. John B. John B. They deserved a better treatment. And perhaps the "middle aged", "middle class" people were the demographic target (aren't they allways?) but they were not, in the end, the people who liked and supported star trek.

David Strobel

A little 60's sci fi TV trivia: this episode wasn't the only one with space hippies. Lost in Space did it at least twice. First was a bit over a year before "Eden" with "Collision of Planets," then a few months later in "The Promised Planet."

I've read that the original concept for this show had, instead of Irina, divorced Dr. McCoy's daughter, Joanna, in whom Kirk takes a romantic interest. If only they'd made that one instead. Another irony... The parallels between this episode and Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, where a madman leads his followers on a quest not for Eden, but for God's home planet. What were they thinking?

Sleeper Agent

Except for the somewhat foggy main plot, I don't see the critique here. On the contrary the crew felt very much in line with the personalities we have gotten to know over the past 3 seasons. It was indeed very nice with an episode focusing on Chekov and Spock. I also really dig the music, which felt fresh and daring to include so much of in a Trek episode. Would watch again. II I/II of IV

Would have given it three stars if it wasn't for Uhura's complete absence.

SouthofNorth

Hippies get their comeuppance? Nothing less than 3 stars from me. "I'm gonna snap my fingers and jump for joy, I got a clean bill of health of Dr. McCoy" and Spock's jam session puts it in the 3 1/2 stars range.

This episode absolutely rocks. Stupid hippies--who accomplished absolutely NOTHING and didn't (and fundamentally couldn't) help humanity or the earth in any way but were just self-indulgent masturbators all get blown the hell away in this wonderful rejection of hippie culture by Gene Roddenberry and crew. I just wish they all died.

I hate this episode. It’s giving something of the middle finger to the entire premise of original Trek, in essence saying “remember all that Roddenberry stuff about how humans had evolved beyond the petty differences that plagued it in the relative dark ages of the 20th century, such as Sulu saying there was no such thing as the ‘primitive thinking’ of racism? Remember how the show commented on social problems by have the enlightened Earth people encounter beings on OTHER planets with those problems? We’re going to JUNK all that. Not only does Earth still have social problems, it has a social problem that’s practically IDENTICAL to that of 1968-69, which just happens to be when the episode airs”. The ripping away of the “enlightened 23rd century” veneer in order to engage in naked pandering to the then-current hippie movement is revolting. None of the hippie characters is at all interesting or worthy of admiration. Also, teenagers TODAY are so joined to their smart phones that the line by Chekov’s ex girlfriend about never doing what a computer says is ludicrous. BTW, I have quite a different perspective on the whole “Herbert chanting” business after watching the Youtube video “Inside Star Trek The Real Story Herbert Solow Robert Justman”.

Terrible episode but the blonde hippie who jams with Spock is stupid hot, 4 stars

This isn’t so bad, though it is flawed. It’s fascinating to see Spock here, considering the Final Frontier revelations about his brother. While I doubt Shatner spent a moment’s thought on this episode when writing that, it does compliment this well. From this, it makes it look like Spock was far more than just aware of Sybok’s activities, and may have been strongly drawn to them or even participated to some degree.

Haha, wow I spit out laughing when Spock sat down to jam with that blonde hippie. Did they realize they were creating a classic meme when they filmed that? Anyway, there are interesting ideas with some flaws, as many here agree. Not the worst episode by a long shot.

The Way to Eden Star Trek season 3 episode 20 "If a man tells another man: out of my way, he piles up trouble for himself all day. But all kinds of trouble come to an end, when a man tells another man: be my friend.” - Adam 3 1/2 stars (out of 4) [For the record, the review at the top of the this thread from 2009, is not me] As we approach the final five episodes of The Original Series, it gladdens my heart to see one true classic Trek ere the end. Here is a simple tale of a mad man with sane thoughts, SEVRIN: This is poison to me. This stuff you breathe, this stuff you live in, the shields of artificial atmosphere that we have layered about every planet. The programs in those computers that run your ship and your lives for you, they bred what my body carries. That's what your science have done to me. You've infected me and his outcast followers of high birth. But first I have to say how much of a pleasure it is to see both Shatner and Nimoy at absolutely peak performance. Scotty and Bones do good work too. And this is really a splendid Chekov outing as well. When things clicked on TOS, they really clicked! Kirk is an incredible leader. There is a scene when he notices Chekov is uneasy, and he places his hand on Chekov’s arm, and asks just as gently as a Captain can be expected to be, KIRK: Do you wish to see her? Permission to leave your post. CHEKOV: Thank you, sir. Kirk’s tenderness towards Chekov continues to be a highlight of the episode through its very end, when poor Chekov, obviously embarrassed that he let his guard down around an old flame, presents himself for a flogging, CHEKOV: Captain, I wish first to apologize for my conduct during this time. I did not maintain myself under proper discipline. I endangered the ship and its personnel by my conduct. I respectfully submit myself for disciplinary action. But Kirk again understands that youth is, after all, inexperienced, KIRK: Thank you, Mister Chekov. You did what you had to do. As did we all. Even your friends. You may go. CHEKOV: Thank you, sir. Indeed. Next vote of commendation for an exemplary performance goes to Nimoy. His connect with the kids, especially with Adam through music, was such a delight! When Spock tries to convince Adam to check the computer’s files on his mad, mad leader, it damn near broke my heart, SPOCK: Adam. You know I reach you. I believe in what you seek. But there is a tragic difference between what you want and what he wants. ADAM: You're making me cry. Adam tries to blow it off, but these are good kids led astray by an insane adult. Irina is scared the ultrasound will do more than stun the crew ("Sound pitched that high doesn't stun, it destroys. I remember when we read in the text”). Rad, the ambassador’s son fears the same, but blows it off. But kids are stupid. Or not stupid per se, but naive. That’s why we protect them. Because otherwise they’re likely to be led astray and get themselves killed. The episode piles on a needless biblical narrative, both with the “Eden” episode title, and and fruit, as foreshadowed by the key line from Adam’s song in the control room, ADAM: Headin' out to Eden. No more trouble in my body or my mind. Gonna live like a king on whatever I find, Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind. And for sure that’s what they do. And that’s what kills them. Nimoy’s stunning line at seeing the dead boy rings all the more true given the real-life name Nimoy chose for his son, who at the time this episode aired, would have been almost 13, and probably going through a rebellious phase of his own, SPOCK: His name was Adam. There is no doubt Nimoy did Reach. For the life of me I cannot fathom how @Jammer has scored this one so low. My only guess is that he was a Herbert when he wrote it ;) Maybe now that @Jammer's kids are older, he’ll give this episode another look see. KIRK: I used to get into a little trouble when I was that age, Scotty. Didn't you? This is the Star Trek I have loved all my life. One with a rich message (@Chrome) and good music (@Rahul). https://youtu.be/z2MEYMMDhKk?t=35 Like Voyager’s “Living Witness,” TOS’ “Way to Eden” is an enduring tale that will continue to stand the test of time.

Did anyone else notice that the orderlies who take Dr. Severin away to Dr. McCoy for a medical examination are identical twins?? Whoa!

Say what you like about the space hippie music. This episode is worthwhile, if for nothing else, for the piece of advice that makes a great life motto: Be incorrect (occasionally).

I can't help but laugh thinking about a casting director looking at Charles Napier and saying "yep, we found our space-hippie."

Loved the opening scene. Talk about “Drive it like ya stole it!” Lol. And the Space Antifa hippies? Throw in a set of Viking horns on Brother Adam, and he would be right at home in a 22nd century Federation Capital building riot. Nothing has changed. Some people are born to serve, others are going to be starving artists because there is no way they are doing nine to five. And of course Chekov is conflicted. It takes a good 10 years for the military to stomp the Liberal out of you... The sabotage during the Spock Jam is going to be a tough one for him to live down. Spock with his eye off the ball. Disappointing Mr. Spock. Dr. Sevrin fooling his followers into believing in Utopia, just another dashing young Castro. The Left always ends up becoming the Right. Of course he was “diseased. “ The highly intelligent psychopath Pied Piper, leading his followers on the path to Totalitarianism...Thank goodness he got Kirk Blocked. If only they could have got Spock to go full Snoop Dogg, they might have had a chance. Maybe next time Galactic Flower Power...

Beard of Sisko

Well, I'm not going to say Jammer is "wrong" even I think "The Children Shall Lead" is the absolute worst. But it's not hard to see why some would pick this as the worst

Ultimately a good episode with flaws. Pros (from most important to least): • Makes its message clear without hitting you over the head. o A group of people looking for Eden continue to be flawed individuals. Severin in particular is focused on his own interests above others. Thus, Eden won’t let them in. The acidic plants are the same idea as posting an angel to keep Adam and Eve out of the original Eden. o According to the Trek writers, you don’t get to live a perfect life by separating yourself from society; usually, you have to help improve everyone around you. So Spock encourages one of the characters to keep looking for Eden, but any Eden they find will likely still be within the larger society. • Spock is able to look outside himself and relate to someone whose thoughts don’t conform to his rigid Vulcan logic. • We are given more back story for someone in the Checkov-Sulu-Uhura group. • In some season three episodes, I would have spent the entire episode wondering why the guest characters aren’t just thrown into the brig. The reasoning behind this was written into the episode satisfactorily. • We are given more glimpses of Federation society outside of Starfleet. • Kirk’s initial annoyance with the counter-cultural people and his move towards being understanding is an incremental enough change to be believable. Cons (from most important to least): • The guest characters realize that their supersonic attack may actually “destroy”, but we don’t see follow up to that. In my head cannon, I chose to help the episode out by assuming that most of the ship’s crew did suffer hearing impairments. Even the away team had to speak louder than usual to one another than we saw on camera. McCoy had technology on the ship to help most recover. But some had to go back to Earth to get proper treatment, remaining effectively deaf for months. • Even though some guest characters have above-average intelligence and education, it’s still hard to accept that they could take over the ship. • The mythology of “oneness” is not sufficiently explained. We never learn what attributes it predicted Eden would have, so what was the computer looking for? • The music served its purpose of extending the illusion that the characters were counter-cultural people, but it failed to create the illusion that the music was from the future. • The guest stars’ costumes weren’t great, but that’s pretty minor. The most annoying episodes for me are the ones where I spend the entire episode thinking that this isn’t how the characters would act. That didn’t happen to me here.

@ benji, It's interesting you see the ending as Eden not letting them in because they're unworthy. Admittedly this interpretation never occured to me. Knowing TOS and its extreme wariness about so-called paradise, I always assumed the ending meant that Eden wasn't what they thought it was. That is what a poisonous idea in the way they conceived it. The similarity to David Koresh's cult comes to mind, of trying to reach paradise by escaping the world. It's a death wish by another name.

S3 continues its political themes with The Way To Eden, obviously inspired by the hippie/student unrest of 1968. Produced pre-Woodstock, it reflects American society’s unease with certain elements of youth culture of the time; which didn’t just include hippies but also the more violent groups like The Weathermen. I always found the episode’s lampoon of hippie culture to be unintentionally hilarious. Take the lyrics of one song: No more trouble in my body or mind Be the king of all I find Eat all the fruit and throw away the rind LOLOLOL It’s a confused episode, never quite sure of what message it’s trying to convey. Spock as krypto-hippie was inspired; Chekov’s love interest less so, though Koenig did his best. It was also interesting that the Typhoid Annie bug had been caused by the artificial way human society had constructed “ideal” environments; so far, so sympathetic to 60s hippie concerns. There was never an outright condemnation of 60s youth, and even a nod to some of its more “digestible” (qua middle-class values of the era) ideals. It’s quite a hilarious episode though the ending is predictably tragic. In all though, it’s not a ‘no stars’ (unfair!) ... I’ll give it 1.5, perhaps a bit more for the musical interest and the occasional belly laugh.

A planet full of food containing acid? Far out, man, I’m there!

Hah, Tidd, it never occurred to me the “acid” of the plants might have been a dig at LSD. Or maybe this planet is the true origin of the Xenomorphs?

So Chekhov got the show’s Uber hottie this time , hooray for him. She was something. The rest of the episode was pure fluff. That 6 space hippies could take over a ship of 430 crewmen should have had Captain Kirk up on competency charges. The part that made zero sense was that Eden was not only in Romulan space but 3 hours inside Romulan Space!!! What, did Kirk have a “Get 3 hours into Romulan Space Free Card”? The Romulans have been quick on the scene every other time a federation ship enters their space. If this doesn’t scream that the show’s budget is toast, I don’t know what does. Why did they mention the Romulans at all if they were not going to even show them? Eden could have been anywhere. This episode is the worst in my book, the only F I’ve ever given out.

Jeffery's Tube

Does this episode benefit from being a cultural curiosity, now in retrospect? Not really. Would the episode have benefited had Nichelle Nichols shown up that week to sing a few songs with the hippies as Uhura? Undoubtedly. But would that have saved it? No. I do find it funny that of all the episodes, THIS is one she's absent from, though. Spock hanging out with the hippies reeks of a desperate attempt by the network to say "See, kids? Spock isn't a square. Spock is cool! He's a counter-cultural symbol! Watch us! Support us! Ratings. RATINGS!" An ill-advised attempt to correct a perception issue with the character that was never there. Chekov, on the other hand, is obviously defending his decisions here. His girlfriend left Starfleet Academy to do . . . well, this, I guess. He had the same opportunity to leave Starfleet with her and do something else with his life. He must have been tempted. He must not be all-the-way sure, on some level, that he's made the right choices in his life. So this is why he's so defensive of Starfleet and its worth--his lifestyle--even if it's otherwise somewhat out of character. I read this in the subtext just fine. We could alternatively attribute his behavior to suits at the network wanting the young "cool" character to be seen conforming and behaving respectably, as an example to other young people of the time to model. But I don't credit this. I just don't think that much thought went into it, frankly. Let's also not forget that Chekov will later become security chief/tactical officer. A more military-minded Starfleet man than most. It tracks. Third worst TOS episode after The Alternative Factor and And The Children Shall Lead, followed on by Catspaw, Spock's Brain, The Omega Glory, and then The Lights of Zetar. For my money, anyway.

To add, even best case scenario, the space hippies’ plan to colonize Eden would have never worked and had zero chance of success. Even if the fruit had been edible and the grass, trees, etc. been non acidic and suitable for humanoid life, the Romulans would have discovered the settlement sooner or later. They would have interpreted it as an invasion and killed everyone there. So the whole idea was senseless from the beginning. I guess that is what following a madman is all about.

Contumacious

Adam reminds me of a live action version of Beavis from Beavis and Butthead.

I agree with the defenders of this episode. It was funny (Adam was a hoot!) and an interesting reversal to see Kirk (The Great White Captain) so completely unable to control the situation and looking diminished, while Spock has the insight and nuance to be able control the group. The Chekhov /Irina back story and relationship was well scripted and acted. True, the taking over of the ship was silly and the costumes were bad, but that is par for the course in this series. I liked the common understanding that was reached in the end between the characters who initially disapproved of each other so vehemently. And Kirk’s final statement, tongue in cheek, that “We reach, Mr. Spock” was perfect. I give this 2.5 stars.

Not sure if this deserves zero stars, but it's definitely one of the worst episodes. Hippies annoy me, especially ones who lip sync, although John Rambo would eventually punish his bad singing in Rambo II. It was fitting that some of these cultists met an untimely end due to their foolish actions. As in all Trek series, civilians can walk into sensitive areas of the ship (which are not locked, guarded, etc.), operate the controls without any training, and also lock out the crew. What are all the security red shirts doing when they are not getting killed on away missions? They can't spare two guys to watch the secondary control center? No login/password to access a console or a shuttle? And why does anyone goto Starfleet Academy if you can learn how to drive a starship on your first try? It makes you scratch your head as to how mankind can travel faster than light but hasn't figured out how to lock a door.

Not an easy episode to love, but hardly the worst. It does make the interesting point that the Federation, as glorious as it takes itself to be, had its detractors. Dr. Sevrin is the guru of a whole 'reject artificiality' movement and at one point he speaks powerfully about this. Consequently, I diverge from Jammer's caustic judgment, which leads him to remark that: "the meanings behind the hippiedom aren't considered for a moment, resulting in zero digestible substance." There is plenty here to digest. Spock tries to be, what he later becomes in Trek, an ambassador, here using music to somehow build a language of understanding with these rebels. It's about relying on trust and trying to subdue self-protective cynicism in dealing with unlikable people...obstinate people who reject your way of life. This is actually what many hippies were back then, an angrier variant of the nihilistic Beat generation critical of all the squares. It is a far more coherent episode than, say, The Alternative Factor, which no matter how many times I see it still confuses me. At least in The Way to Eden, we see a realistic battle between generations being waged. I think that it gives a solid look at how the 'disingenuity of the few' (understand a small cabal of 'bad actors' at the leadership level) can doom a utopian project. I like it for that message.

Lawrence Bullock

Yeah, I suppose if you didn't see this as a kid, it would push yer "suck" button quite a lot, but I did see it as a kid, and me and most of my friends didn't mind it, but we just thought the "hippies" were corny because we knew real hippies and most were cooler than these dweeb. But what I really want to know is, who the hell was that red shirt who stopped to horn in on the conversation in the passageway between Chekov and an old gal friend from Starfleet Academy days? I would said, "Buzz off, away team meat, you weren't invited." Ha!

Had to laugh at this exchange given the times we live in. Dr. Severin was definitely an anti-vaxer MCCOY: I don't know. They all had full spectrum immunizations before boarding. Now my guess is that his friends have had their shots too. But a regular program of shots is necessary. I'll have to check everyone on the ship. There could be some skips. In the meantime, he should be placed in total isolation. SEVRIN: This is outrageous. You're not isolating me, you're imprisoning me. You invent a crime, find me guilty and sentence me! MCCOY: Would you like to run the test, Doctor? You knew you were a carrier before you came aboard, didn't you? SEVRIN: No! MCCOY: Then why did you fight the examination? SEVRIN: It was an infringement on my rights. KIRK: Put him in isolation.

EventualZen

No good sci-fi theme but entertaining episode. Nothing special but not as bad as Jammer says, I don't see how you can justify rating this as low as "Threshold" which is in a league of it's own. I think there are some Herberts amongst the reviewers. Over all score: 4/10

The character of Dr. Severin had potential, imo. A man who is a danger to a squeaky clean anti-septic civilization because he is a modern Typhoid Mary turns his back on society. His natural desire for companionship leads him to recruiting young naïve followers even though his search and maybe even his existence poses a threat to them. Severin seeks to "return to nature" only to find his personal Eden is inimical to him. If the "space hippie" stuff had been dialed way back and Severin had been treated more sympathetically so that the tragedy of his situation was more obvious this would have been a much better episode. Say what you will about TOS, but many of even the worst episodes had an interesting idea at the heart of the story. It's just that you sometimes couldn't see it because a mini-skirt wearing Charles Napier gets in the way.

Maybe 1 or 1.5 stars An underlying theme of TOS is the progress human civilization has made in the past 300 or 400 years Then why are these proto hippies no different definitely not progressed from the hippies of the 1960s Were our hippies Luddites? Funny how Kirk appoints Spock to be the primary interface with the group Spock’s dealings with them seems out of character for him Illogical Kirk immediately starts out on the wrong foot with them after he’s called ‘Herbert’ LOL Come on be a little tolerant and diplomatic

I saw this in syndication when I was 10, and it was one of my favorite episodes back then, because I liked seeing the crew (as in Charlie X) hang out, and I enjoyed the music. Joining cults led by charismatic leaders can often turn out badly; it's a reasonable message. I never got the impression in prior episodes that just because Chekov had an amusing shtick in his "Russia did it first and best" comments and was the youngest regular that he was supposed to be especially hip compared to, say, Sulu or Uhura, so I didn't feel he was acting in any way out of character. It's not the most subtle episode, but it sure didn't bore me, and it is way ahead of something like Turnabout Intruder.

In a way this episode is prescient, in that in 1966-68 it was characterizing a Charles Manson type hippie leader (coming to public attention in 1969-19700 with a music-based following, who promised a utopian future and fed it on cultic behavior & violence.

Funny to see the comment above - maybe it's anachronistic but I can never watch this episode without being reminded of Manson and his followers. Of course, Star Trek didn't start to be broadcast by the BBC until 1969 so by the time this episode was shown in the UK the Manson atrocities must already have happened. The hippies in this are culpable - they all are complicit in their leader's planned murder of the whole crew which he admits he is doing to prevent anyone following them down to the planet. So people they have been befriending are all expendable. Really they are all accessories to attempted mass murder.

This is truly an aggravating episode, but not because it features hippies. In fact it's irritating precisely because it does not feature hippies, but rather cultists in mock--60's costumes. I would not have minded at all watching an episode showing common ground between peaceniks and a Vulcan dedicated to peace. Too bad that's not what we get. I checked out the story writers to see if I could understand what they were thinking, and on Heinemann I cannot glean anything useful on a quick search. But to my surprise I learned that "Michael Richards" (not Kramer) was in fact a pseudonym for D.C. Fontana. I really can't understand what kind of story Fontana thought she was authoring here. The episode, both through costume, music, and Spock's point of view, tells us again and again that these are anti-establishment peace-lovers who just want "the man" to leave them alone. Yet time and again in the episode they're portrayed as being knowingly criminal, using violence to get their way (and being good at it), and not caring at all how many get hurt or die for them to get what they want. And all of this surrounding the buffoonishly insane Dr. Sevrin. When I was a kid I wrote them all off as weirdos, but it becomes pretty clear to me now, for example through their violent attempt to get to their leader when he was being medically examined, that they are very reminiscent of the Charles Manson cult. And those people were neither hippies nor peace-loving. Yes, they may have had the trappings of 60's folk who used terms like "brother" but these were not the flower children who just wanted to smoke weed and protest war at Berkeley. That Sevrin's people are at heart a death cult is shown pretty clearly by Sevrin committing suicide at the end rather than be taken alive. The only thing it was missing was him getting the others to do the same first. The writing here is so mixed up I can only surmise that the writers either thought that hippies were all essentially murderous cultists, or that they lacked even the slightest nuance of the difference between anti-establishment students and manipulative sociopaths. The worst part is there is just literally no way we're going to accept someone's POV that Kirk is a narrow-minded fascist, so even if the writing was better there would be zero chance that we'd accept the proposition that trying to take over the Enterprise is some kind of liberation from tyranny. The escape from technology angle is not new, but a curious McGuffin is present in the story in that Sevrin has a disease legally forcing him to stay in the technological society he hates, therefore requiring him to become a criminal just to get away. But this tidy formula is contrived to the extreme, even putting aside that it results in him wanting to be a mass murderer and therefore making him a loony even if he didn't act like such a maniac. In passing, the story also expects us to accept that somehow living in a technological society is the only reason he's infected with some disease. Naturally we might ask how many diseases he'd have without any technology. But never mind that, the episode isn't about such logic, it's about how he misled his well-intentioned followers... or something. Even though Irina knew full well the sonic attack would kill everyone and went along with it. But actually it didn't kill anyone, so was Dr. Sevrin meant to be telling the truth when he said he was "going beyond" the textbooks? Earlier we're told he studied acoustics, so I suppose this is plausible, but then why have Irina's friend also chime in saying it would kill, as if we're meant to understand Sevrin knows this? And if Sevrin really is an acoustics master, why have him deliver this plan as if he's playing Dr. Evil? None of this story writing makes any sense. Was Heinemann so drunk on delusion juice that he thought we'd connect everyone being alive with Sevrin really being able to produce a stun effect, and conclude that he never meant anyone any harm? I can also fall back on a more simple analysis, which I also used in thinking about This Side of Paradise: if we're to accept even for a moment that these people believe in something legitimate and are misunderstood, why are they all complete assholes? Adam's beliefs don't inspire much more in me than a desire to punch him in the face every time he shows off his impudent smile. Dr. Sevrin is about as charming as a mushroom. Which leaves Irina, who honestly (and I hesitate to say this) just comes across as an airhead who was too dumb to make it through the Academy. Chekhov has text implying that she was too independent to ever listen to anyone, and maybe it's the casting and the direction, but she comes across as really the opposite of that; just a mindless follower without a thought in her head. I'm being a bit mean, and I'm not trying to be acerbic but rather trying to communicate the visceral feelings I get when these people are in scenes. They are really unsavory persons, and I would not want to be friends with them. They are really rather scary, even on an interpersonal level. It's almost shocking that Chekhov and Irina have a makeout scene at the end - on the bridge!! - after what she pulled. Can you imagine your ex trying to kill you and everyone on the ship, stealing the Enterprise, and on a personal level lying to you and using you to gain intelligence to undermine you? And you'd feel all nostalgic after that and wish you were still a couple? Wow. These are different kinds of complaints than I had when I was 8. Back then I didn't like that Sevrin was so mean, I didn't like the music, and I didn't like that these people were so bad to people trying to be respectful toward them. Now I see other things, but still cling to this idea that they're just not nice people. You're going to stamp your feet and shout stuff when someone is trying to talk to you respectfully? What ideal is that suppose to exemplify, other than being a rotten brat? Interestingly, when they do think they've found Eden, they have this glee on their faces like the biggest orgy ever is about to happen. It doesn't feel peaceful, but more like gluttons about to satisfy the craziest lust for desserts ever. Is the writing supposed to suggest that 'Eden' is really a place where you just stuff your face and have all your desires satisfied all the time like a little emperor? Or is the writing condemning people who think of paradise as having the world bow to them and their whims? But this is a stupid question because the story just doesn't care. On the positive side, I think this is the first truly Chekhov-focused episode, and he's really great in it. I don't think we see him play a dramatic part at any time prior to this, other than maybe Spectre of the Gun, but in that one the setting is rather too theatrical to give him a serious scenario to act. I can actually see Koenig's turn as B5's Bester having a precedent here, in the more introspective and brooding side of his talent. I don't know whether they knew he could do this when they originally cast him, but it's just one more reason for me to conclude that the talent level of this cast was by far the best of any Trek. Every person cast on this show is good enough to steal scenes and captivate my attention.

Yet another ghastly 3rd season practically unwatchable episode. Truly painful to try to watch this, and I am a fan of Skip Homeier. Take into concert this episode with others like "Plato's Stepchildren", and you realize how Star Trek got canceled. Nothing could save it.

Yeah, "trying to fit an elephant into a birdcage" sums it up pretty well, but I don't think this a zero stars. It was funny, and one thing I like is that they didn't just "take over the ship"; instead, we actually saw them working on the crew, charismatically convincing them for the cause. Unfortunately the resolution for this plot was just "well, the leader was crazy and the utopia was poisoned" so we didn't had Kirk actually having to win back the heart of his crew, nor a more profound debate about hierarchy vs anarchy. But still a fun episode, at least 1 star for the beautiful hippie ladies and actually groovy songs.

I saw this as a teenager when it first aired. It was hilariously over-the-top then; it is the same now. I don't suggest watching it more than once.

Another hour that I'll never get back. Closest thing to a saving grace is watching a young Charles Napier going against his eventual type. You wouldn't hear Adam saying, "You're gonna look pretty funny tryin' to eat corn on the cob with no f***in' teeth!" Deep in Romulan space, and no Romulans show up. 1/4

This episode breaks the cardinal rule of avoiding cultural clothing, hairstyles, music and language of the time period in which it was produced. While all TOS episodes reflect women’s clothing of the 1960’s, this episode literally screams 1960’s instead of circa 2266–2269. I can hear the space hippies saying “groovy” and “I can dig it” when they utter their futuristic equivalent sayings. This episode does NOT stand the test of time. One more thing: the music, while attempting to emulate 1960’s music, is a million times more painful to listen to than anything else I’ve heard from any time period.

Man, you herberts just don’t reach man. I mean, I’m not saying this episode is really now, you know, it doesn’t totally sound or anything, but if you don’t have too hard a lip it can really make you bleed, you know? Yeeaaa brother. Cough, hack, ahem, whoa sorry about that. I got caught up in the spirit of oneness there for a sec. But seriously, this isn’t the worst episode ever, in fact if you strip away the incessant singing it had the potential to be a very good episode. I appreciate that Star Trek made the attempt to deal with the contemporary social movements and issues of the 60s. The idea that there’s a segment of society that rejects the techno-utopia of the federation is a pretty interesting concept that of course paralleled similar notions of discontent in the late 20th century. If anything the tech rejection idea at the heart of Eden has become more prescient as we become more technologically intertwined as a society. There’s a particularly strong premise at work given that Dr Sevrin is at least partially driven by a sense of victimhood due to being a carrier of a disease literally created by the thing he wishes to escape, he’s essentially a prisoner of the technology he hates. It’s a tragic circumstance that, given the proper expression, could have been quite poignant. Unfortunately, they went with a much sillier means of expressing the point of view of being “one”. I also found the general attitude of the “space hippies” to be unfortunately inadequate, whether you agree with counter culture philosophies or not, generally if you engage with people of that mindset they’ll give you better arguments than sarcasm and condescending petulance. It would have been nice to have less spontaneous jam sessions and more exploration of ideas in this outing. It’s a missed opportunity that also heavily dates the episode, which makes it interesting from an historical artifact standpoint but doesn’t make for pleasant viewing. I don’t see Spock as out of character in this episode at all, quite the opposite actually. These space hippies might have ideas that run counter to what most of us would prefer, they hate technology and want to return to “the simple life”, which to most people, just sounds naive. Personally I think paradise seekers are missing crucial data points which results in a loss of perspective. But just because I don’t generally agree with their ideas doesn’t mean their ideas don’t exist. If their ideas exist, they can have a measurable impact, if they have a measurable impact they represent a phenomenon that can be considered when constructing a logical framework. Spock doesn’t extol their worldview, he simply acknowledges it and seeks to understand it better. As a logical being I find this approach most appropriate. Lastly, it’s so very weird to me that of all the episodes to inspire a movie, THIS was chosen. It’s no surprise that ST:V was a bit weak. Also, Tongo Rad is a douche bag. 1.5/4 fields of acidic foliage.

My first comment; Chekov's hair. Could they have made that hairpiece even more obvious or horrible than it was? They should have talked to Shatner about hairpieces. He got it right, even back then. I have been streaming 'Upstairs/Downstairs', the British aristocracy/British servants depiction series of the early 1970's. Surprisingly, I came across an episode which reminded me so much of this one. The characters, however, were not referred to as hippies, but instead, bohemian. The daughter of the aristocratic side of the story finds this group and is so entranced by them, she immediately changes her style of clothing and joins up. I wasn't exactly sure what this group was trying to accomplish, but from her perspective, she wanted to help the poor. This group did not travel or live together as Sevrin's group did, but met at different places to quote their poetry or dance. Speaking of costumes, the women dressed in flowing, colorful kaftans. And the daughter very diligently searched for attire that would allow her to fit in with the group. Like Eden, they sang, and danced, quoted poetry, and ate at the aristocracy's expense. Of course the aristocracy was appalled but these bohemians were just as appalling to the servants. Eden mentions that several members of Sevrin's group are highly intelligent. I had to wonder why, then, they went about barefoot and scantily clad in space. I know this is Star Trek, but these people are supposed to be seeking paradise, presumably one on a planet somewhere. The clothing they were wearing wasn't exactly that which would aid in protecting them. Then there was that white and yellow (was it a rock?) on the lapel area of their costumes. It made me think of a little fried egg with glasses, lol. I have no problem with a group of people taking a different outlook on culture and so, they look for the new and different. The issue I have is that, for all of these brilliant members, they have a very skewered perception of how things work. Not one of them has any idea that they might have to work to get what they need to find their Eden. It'll just come to them. I watched this episode today, and was surprised at Kirk's attitude toward Sevrin's group. Although I thought it was dumb that the guy on the bridge was almost dancing to the music, I liked that Kirk tried to reach by allowing it to be piped over the ship and treating the group as guests. It falls right in with the whole concept of exploring strange, new worlds. Even though Kirk took a likeable approach, I do find it idiotic that these people were able to so easily take over the Enterprise. As for the music, the only tune I really liked was the one Spock and the blonde hippie girl played together. The rest I could have done without. Star Trek continues to make errors with their music, which started with Uhura's tune in Charlie X. I would not give this episode zero stars. It was not a bad episode. It had some bad elements that pulled it down, but also had some very good plot points as well. It'd certainly rate a 2.5 in my estimate.

Marlboro wrote: "The character of Dr. Severin had potential, imo. A man who is a danger to a squeaky clean anti-septic civilization because he is a modern Typhoid Mary turns his back on society. His natural desire for companionship leads him to recruiting young naïve followers even though his search and maybe even his existence poses a threat to them. Severin seeks to "return to nature" only to find his personal Eden is inimical to him." It's too bad that Star Trek once again tediously attempts to explain the antagonist's thought processes by pinning a label of insanity on him. Spock is not a doctor, and insanity is not a diagnosis. I'm not trying to be picky here, but this is an annoying part of the episode, and dampens the whole idea of this group seeking an Eden like planet, which happens to be a planet in Romulan space. Star Trek has never explained how anyone, or even a group of people, go about "owning" a planet. The actor who played Dr. Severin also appeared as Melakon in Patterns of Force. I wonder if the episode would have been among the better ones if the two stories had somehow been intertwined.

Not quite the infamous disaster it's remembered as. At least the equal of Spock's Brain as being redeemable just for being entertaining. It's endlessly quotable... you know what I mean., brother. Charles Napier! A tough guy in everything else, but not here. Spock's speech about "aliens in their own worlds, a condition with which I am somewhat familiar" is a genuinely memorable Spock character moment which later got sampled by at least one punk rock band later... it struck a chord. Nimoy sells it. Sevrin's ears are dumb. Even a Vulcan or Ferengi would agree. Star Trek can't seem to let go of the stupid "Eden" planet idea. What does that even mean? And just making everything acid and killing everyone was stupid. Hippies! Beware of Acid! The 1960s current events angle is somewhat redeeming even though every other show on TV was also doing something like this at the time, to varying degrees of silly. It was at least better than "Dragnet"

I suspect the end result would have been better had TWtE retained the counterculture theme, but ditched the ersatz hippies. That would have required more writing effort at a time when TOS was slogging through its final few productions after having learned there would be no Fourth Season. Perhaps because I don't mind the music, I find TWtE more watchable than several other "Turd Season" entries. One of a handful of episodes to air only once on NBC. 1.5 of 4 jumps for joy

I'm surprised to see no reference to Space Seed, a cultish leader takes over the ship by deploying his followers to gain knowledge of ship functions, then pirates the ship toward a destination. The fact that the participants commit criminal acts, the Enterprise seems to forgive in order assist the culture in locating a favorable habitat. I got a laugh out of the crew members being distracted and tapping along with the hippie jam band broadcast only to be easily overcome by a Spock like nerve pinch. There is also a bit of Mudds Women where the ship overtakes a smaller rogue or stolen vessel and is forced to transport its occupants just as the craft is destroyed in the effort of trying to escape. And the shock of the crew upon seeing how those transported appear. And Yes they were told to sick Chekhov with kissies since the audience (that by now was still left) supposedly connected with him. Well, at least I tried to make an un-dumb opinion of the episode instead of just saying it's stewpid. But that is hard to do because the episode is stewpid. Scott is the most "square" of the bunch, always looking disapprovingly of the space hippies and not enjoying their entertainment, no wonder Doohan tried to get out of getting filmed in it.

Gideon Marcus

Well. Maybe it's because I live in the context (Galactic Journey, natch), but I just watched this show with a whole bunch of folks who just started watching Trek this season (and some who have been along since Season 1). We watch it with original episodes. Not streamed. Not binged. Not edgy. Not ironic. Not trying to be the coolest folks in the room. Just watching it as it was. The ages of the folks watching ranges from 19 to 61, and we actually loved the episode. It was extremely timely (not dissimilar to a Mod Squad episode from this same season) and very much a return to 1st season form and characterization, save for the subject matter. We really dug the music, too—it's the first real music we've heard on the show. Again, it made the world feel lived in. And how cool that we have a rejection of the antiseptic utopia of the Federation. The first inkling that all is not perfect in this perfect future. And Spock reaching the hippies because he's an alien? That sounded, man. So yeah, bag on this episode all you want. But I've got a dozen folk with fresh eyes who gave it 4 or 5 stars out of 5. It doesn't objectively suck

Gonna post a comment to share my views This episode got a zero on Jammers Reviews! That chad guitarist was the best part of the episode to give you an idea of how bonkers this episode is.

Eastwest101

Man you Herberts are going to harsh out my peace man! There is just something so naive and yet unintentionally hip, silly and charismatic about this rather silly but charming fumbled incomplete counterculture comedy/satire with possibly some darker Manson overtones. Some great guest performances and fantastic music, I can understand why some view it as being the 'reactionary' episode of Star Trek and certainly some technical and characterization flaws by the squares in the writing room. Does have some major problems though with leaps of logic and poor use of the main cast as noted above.

I do have a number of problems with this episode and I agree it's one of the worst ones (and I actually liked Spock's Brain because it shows Kirk's bond with Spock is such that he'd grasp at any straw to try to restore him, even engage in a potentially wild goose chase across the galactic sector, a mirror of Spock's bond for Pike in The Menagerie). But I think people here are perhaps being a little harsh with Tong Rad. Dr. Sevrin meant for the crew of the Enterprise to die, and yet they didn't. Which means that somebody sabotaged Sevrin's deadly follow up. It could have been Irina, trying to protect Chekov, or it could have been Rad. But if Rad really didn't care if the crew died, he probably wouldn't have said anything instead of confirming Irina's suspicions and countering Sevrin's claim that it would have no long term harm. To me, Rad looks troubled when he says that, but Sevrin is behind him and can't see it. Now if you suddenly realized that your leader is a would-be mass murdering psychopath/loonie tune, your best shot is probably not to confront him in front of his other followers with questionable alliegiances but to appear to play along and let someone else you think might be sympathetic know what's afoot. It was Adam who heard that exchange and was so cool with it that he smiled and started to play another song. So my head canon is that one of Rad or Irina worked an off-screen diversion that allowed the other to sabotage Sevrin's homicidal plan (probably Rad doing the sabotage because he seemed more familiar with both the theory and the controls, and Sevrin would have been more suspicious of Irina). That would explain the morality of Adam being the one who dies from consuming the fruit, if Irina and Rad saved the crew while Adam would have stood by. Adam is deliberately made sympathetic with his music playing but he seems to be Sevrin's second-in-command and loyal follower. Rad's attacks on crewmen are like Spock's nerve pinch: quick, mostly painless, and with no long term side effects. Ha also was raised by an ambassador which would probably have stressed the importance of peaceful negotiation - perhaps a stifling environment encouraging rebellion but at odds with a lackadaisical response to mass murder. Sevrin's suicide at the end also makes sense. The crew's presence meant his trap had been sabotaged and whoever did it (Irina and/or Rad) eventually would have confessed his homicidal plot, ensuring his imprisonment for criminal insanity - a fate he would have considered worse than death. (And kudos to the poster who pointed out Sevrin was an anti vaxxer, and probably also a conspiracy theorist when blaming computers and technology for the creation of the virus he was carrying, with no evidence offered). Overall, though, for me the childish yells of Herbert were too reminiscent of the childish yells of the children in Miri. These are supposed to be grown, smart, accomplished adults? Between that, tarring counterculture with the cult brush, and the musical numbers taking too much screen time (while at the same time being mostly snippets of music with limited musical complexity) and resulting in a threadbare condensed plot, this episode failed in a lot of ways and lost my interest. There were interesting ideas that could have made for a very good episode with some more rewrites, but the poor handling had the opposite effect for me.

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The Way to Eden (Episode)

Stardate 5832.3 : A charismatic leader and his followers hijack the Enterprise in their search for "Eden."

Captain Kirk sights a stolen spaceship, the Aurora , and orders pursuit. The strain of the chase overheats the Aurora's engines, and everyone aboard is beamed to the Enterprise just before the Aurora explodes. The guests are a group of young idealists seeking to begin a new life on the mythical planet Eden . Their leader is a brilliant engineer, Dr. Sevrin , who is also quite insane — as well as a carrier of synthococcus novae , a disease deadly to those not immunized against it. Sevrin seeks to gain control of the Enterprise and find Eden. Among his followers are Irina Galliulin , a young woman who was once involved with Ensign Chekov , as well as the son of a Catullan ambassador to the Federation . The latter's presence results in Kirk receiving instructions to handle the group gently and to allow them freedom of movement aboard the Enterprise.

While Sevrin is placed in protective confinement, Spock begins a search for Eden — which he surprisingly discovers. Once the Enterprise is in orbit , Sevrin's followers arrange for his escape, and before they leave, the mad engineer rigs an ultrasonic device that nearly kills Kirk and several crewmembers. Stealing a shuttlecraft , the group flees to the planet below. Kirk and a landing party follow, only to discover that Eden's soil and vegetation are highly toxic: one young man is already dead. The others agree to leave, save for Dr. Sevrin, who commits suicide by eating a nearby piece of fruit.

Image Gallery

Surface of Eden

musical instrument

Spock makes the "we are one" symbol

Command division officer

Enterprise crew

Irina Galliulin

Roger Lemli

Medical techs

Security officer #1

Security officer #2

Security officer #3

Dr. Sevrin and his followers

S.S. Aurora

Shuttlecraft Galileo II

Related Data

Created by Gene Roddenberry

Starring William Shatner

Also Starring Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock and DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Teleplay by Arthur Heinemann

Story by Michael Richards and Arthur Heinemann

Directed by David Alexander

Produced by Fred Freiberger

Executive Producer Gene Roddenberry

Associate Producers Edward K. Milkis Gregg Peters

Guest Star Skip Homeier as Sevrin

Also Starring Charles Napier as Adam and Mary-Linda Rapelye as Irina

James Doohan … Scott Walter Koenig … Chekov George Takei … Sulu Majel Barrett … Nurse Chapel Victor Brandt … Tongo Rad Elizabeth Rogers … Lt. Palmer Deborah Downey … Girl #1 Phyllis Douglas … Girl #2

Story Consultant Arthur H. Singer

Theme Music by Alexander Courage

Additional Music by Fred Steiner

Art Director Walter M. Jefferies

Director of Photography Al Francis

Film Editor … Fabine Tordjmann Unit Production Manager … Gregg Peters Assistant Director … Gene DeRuelle Set Decorator … John M. Dwyer Costumes Created by … William Ware Theiss Photographic Effects … Howard Anderson Co. Sound Effects Editor … Douglas H. Grindstaff Music Editor … Richard Lapham Re-Recording Mixer … Gordon L. Day , C.A.S. Production Mixer … Carl W. Daniels Script Supervisor … George A. Rutter Sound … Glen Glenn Sound Co. Casting … Joseph D'Agosta Makeup Artist … Fred B. Phillips , S.M.A. Hair Stylist … Pat Westmore Gaffer … George H. Merhoff Head Grip … George Rader Property Master … Irving A. Feinberg Special Effects … Jim Rugg

A Paramount Production

In Association With Norway Corporation

Executive Vice President in Charge of Production Douglas S. Cramer

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The Way To Eden Stardate: 5832.3 Original Airdate: 21 Feb, 1969

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The hit sci-fi series is actually one of the reasons we gave Paramount Plus a big thumbs up when we compared it against other streaming giants such as Netflix and Prime Video , because it has a huge offering when it comes to Star Trek shows and movies – not sure where to start? Check out our guide to how to watch Star Trek in order .  

Here's everything you need to know about where you can watch the first episodes from hit Star Trek shows for free online, and which ones of the best Paramount Plus shows are available. 

How to watch Star Trek for free

Celebrate #StarTrekDay by streaming these episodes and more for FREE! Find them on the @ParamountPlus free content hub starting today. https://t.co/uSyJ9MwKgq pic.twitter.com/c33PqN78PY September 7, 2024

The free Star Trek episodes are available via Paramount Plus' official YouTube channel in the free content hub on the app but please note these are only available in the US. Trekkies watching elsewhere in the world can still stream the episodes with a regular Paramount Plus subscription. 

For those watching in the US, the beloved episodes will be free between September 7 – 13, so you've got plenty of time to enjoy some classics before they disappear. 

The complete line-up of free episodes is as follows:

• Star Trek: The Original Series : The Cage
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II
• Star Trek: Voyager: Caretaker, Part I & II
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: The Emissary, Part I & II
• Star Trek: Enterprise: Broken Bow Part I & II
• Star Trek: The Animated Series: Beyond the Farthest Star
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds : Strange New Worlds
• Star Trek: Lower Decks : Second Contact
• Star Trek: Discovery : The Vulcan Hello
• Star Trek: Picard: Remembrance
• Star Trek: Short Treks :  The Girl Who Made the Stars, The Trouble with Edward, Ask Not, Runaway, and Ephraim and Dot

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Lucy is a long-time movie and television lover who is an approved critic on Rotten Tomatoes. She has written several reviews in her time, starting with a small self-ran blog called Lucy Goes to Hollywood before moving onto bigger websites such as What's on TV and What to Watch, with TechRadar being her most recent venture. Her interests primarily lie within horror and thriller, loving nothing more than a chilling story that keeps her thinking moments after the credits have rolled. Many of these creepy tales can be found on the streaming services she covers regularly.

When she’s not scaring herself half to death with the various shows and movies she watches, she likes to unwind by playing video games on Easy Mode and has no shame in admitting she’s terrible at them. She also quotes The Simpsons religiously and has a Blinky the Fish tattoo, solidifying her position as a complete nerd. 

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Set Phasers to Stream: Here’s Every ‘Star Trek’ Show and Movie You Can Watch on Paramount+

By Sage Anderson

Sage Anderson

If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, Rolling Stone may receive an affiliate commission.

From low-budget romps to high-energy blockbuster films,  Star Trek  has become one of the most influential sci-fi franchises of all time. While  Trek  has decades worth of TV, film, and animated iterations that might rival  Star Wars , it also has its own unique legacy and long-time, passionate cult following (and merch ).

In the past few years, the Trek television universe has become one of the highlights of original programming on Paramount+ . Helmed by Alex Kurtzman, series like  Star Trek : Lower Decks  and  Picard  have pushed the boundaries of what can be done with the universe’s canon in their first seasons so far.

This year for Star Trek Day, with the premiere episodes of several Trek series and “Short Treks” will be available to view for free from Sept. 7-13. The episodes can be watched from Paramount+’s partner platforms Amazon, Apple and Roku, their official YouTube page, Pluto TV and the Paramount+ free content hub (U.S. only).

From the new releases like the second season of Strange New Worlds , to the old adventures of the Enterprise ,  Deep Space 9 ,  Voyager , and more, here’s how to watch Star Trek in order online.

How Can I Watch Paramount+ Free Online?

When you sign up for a Paramount+ subscription , you can actually choose between two plans to watch Paramount+ online. Pricing for Paramount+ plans include Essential (with limited commercials) for $7.99/month, or ad-free with Showtime for $12.99/month. But if you’re still not sure about committing to a full subscription, you can always stream Paramount+ for free with a 7-day free trial .

For a limited time, the streamer is also slashing the price on its annual plan by 50%, bringing the cost down to just $29.99 a year . Normally $59.99, the new Paramount+ deal gets you access to its full library of content  for just $2.50 a month . Check out the latest Paramount+ deals here .

Buy Paramount+ Free Trial

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What  Star Trek TV Shows Are Available on Paramount+?

Premiering on September 8, 1966 on NBC-TV,  Star Trek  brought in a new era of programming for the science fiction genre. Though it wasn’t a critical success at the time it aired, with all 79 episodes of the original series running in syndication, a devoted fan base grew. Decades later, there are eight TV series with hundreds of episodes, all currently streaming now on Paramount+ .

Here’s an updated list of all the  Star Trek shows on Paramount+. Note that this isn’t the official timeline for when these shows take place in canon — Enterprise  is actually the “earliest” Trek series—but we’ll cover that below.

• Star Trek: The Original Series  (1966-1969)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series  (1973-1974)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation  (1987-1994)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  (1993-1999)
• Star Trek: Voyager  (1995-2001)
• Star Trek: Enterprise  (2001-2005)
• Star Trek: Discovery  (2017-Present)
• Star Trek:  Short Treks  (2018-Present)
• Star Trek: Picard  (2020-Present)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks  (2020-Present)
• Star Trek: Prodigy  (2021-Present)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2022-Present)
• Star Trek: Section 31  (TBA)
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy  (TBA) 

What  Star Trek Movies Are Streaming on Paramount+?

Paramount+ is the home to all the films featuring the cast of the Original Series, while many other Trek films are also hosted on other streaming services. Here are the  Star Trek movies streaming on Paramount+ right now. 

• Star Trek: The Motion Picture  (1979)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (1982)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock  (1984)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home  (1986)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier  (1989)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country  (1991)
• Star Trek: Generations (1994)
• Star Trek: First Contact  (1996)
•   Star Trek: Insurrection  (1998)
• Star Trek: Nemesis  (2002)
• Star Trek  (2009)
• Star Trek Into Darkness  (2013)
• Star Trek Beyond (2016)
• Building Star Trek  (2016)  —  Documentary
• Woman In Motion  (2021) — Documentary 
• Trekkies 2  (2004) — Documentary 

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• Star Trek: The Original Series: “The Cage”
• Star Trek: The Next Generation: “Encounter at Farpoint, Part I & II”
• Star Trek: Voyager: “Caretaker, Part I & II”
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: “The Emissary, Part I & II”
• Star Trek: Enterprise: “Broken Bow Part I & II”
• Star Trek: The Animated Series: “Beyond the Farthest Star”
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds: “Strange New Worlds”
• Star Trek: Lower Decks: “Second Contact”
• Star Trek: Discovery: “The Vulcan Hello”
• Star Trek: Picard: “Remembrance”
• Star Trek: Short Treks: “The Girl Who Made the Stars,” “The Trouble with Edward,” “Ask Not,” “Runaway,” and “Ephraim and Dot”

How to Watch Every Star Trek Movie and Show In Timeline Order

Figuring out chronological timeline of  Star Trek  over can be overwhelming for even the most seasoned of Trekkies. With over 50 years of mirrorverses, time traveling back and forth, alternate timelines and spin-offs, we’ve created a guide for how to watch every  Star Trek  series and film in order. We’ve organized it by Stardate instead of year of release for optimal accuracy, but note that some series like  TNG  and  DS9  run concurrently.

• Star Trek: Enterprise  (2151-2161)
• Star Trek: Discovery Seasons 1 and 2  (2255-)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds (2255-) 
• Star Trek: The Original Series  (2265-2269)
• Star Trek: The Animated Series  (2269-2270)
• Star Trek: The Motion Picture  (2273)
• Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan  (2285)
• Star Trek III: The Search for Spock  (2285)
• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home  (2286/1986)
• Star Trek V: The Final Frontier ( 2287)
• Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country  (2293)
• Star Trek: The Next Generation  (2364-2370)
• Star Trek: Deep Space Nine  (2369-2375)
• Star Trek Generations  (2371)
• Star Trek: Voyager  (2371-2378)
• Star Trek: First Contact  (2373/2063)
• Star Trek: Insurrection  (2375)
• Star Trek: Nemesis  (2379)
• Star Trek: Lower Decks  (2380)
• Star Trek: Picard  (2399-)
• Star Trek: Discovery Season 3  (3155?)
• Star Trek: Short Treks  (2239-3300 Prime Timeline)

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• Star Trek  (2258 Kelvin Timeline)
• Star Trek Into Darkness  (2259 Kelvin Timeline)
• Star Trek Beyond  (2263 Kelvin Timeline)

Every Star Trek Series Coming To Paramount+ This Year (And Beyond)

• Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 (2024)
• Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Season 3 (2024) 
• Star Trek: Prodigy Season 2 (2024) 
• Star Trek: Lower Decks  Season 5 (October 2024)
• Star Trek: Section 31  (TBA)
• Star Trek: Starfleet Academy  (TBA)

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Published Sep 8, 2024

An Exclusive Look and Poster for Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Debuts on Star Trek Day

Produced by CBS Studios, the fifth and final season will premiere with two episodes on Thursday, October 24!

StarTrek.com

In celebration of Star Trek Day , Paramount+ today debuted an exclusive clip and the official key art for the fifth and final season of its hit animated comedy series Star Trek: Lower Decks .

The new season will premiere with two episodes on Thursday, October 24 in the U.S. and internationally. Following the premiere, new episodes of the 10-episode long season will drop every Thursday leading up to the series finale on Thursday, December 19.

In Season 5 of Star Trek: Lower Decks , the crew of the U.S.S. Cerritos is tasked with closing "space potholes" — subspace rifts that are causing chaos in the Alpha Quadrant. Pothole duty would be easy for Junior Officers Mariner, Boimler, Tendi, and Rutherford... if they didn't also have to deal with an Orion war, furious Klingons, diplomatic catastrophes, murder mysteries, and scariest of all — their own career aspirations.

This upcoming season is a celebration of this underdog crew who are dangerously close to being promoted out of the lower decks and into strange new Starfleet roles.

Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 key art poster by Matt Ferguson

Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated comedy series that focuses on the support crew serving on one of Starfleet’s least important ships, the U.S.S. Cerritos . The Starfleet crew residing in the "lower decks" of the U.S.S. Cerritos includes the voices of Tawny Newsome, Jack Quaid, Noël Wells, and Eugene Cordero; the bridge crew is voiced by Dawnn Lewis, Jerry O'Connell, Fred Tatasciore, and Gillian Vigman.

Star Trek: Lower Decks is produced by CBS' Eye Animation Productions, CBS Studios' animation arm; Secret Hideout; and Roddenberry Entertainment. Executive producers include Alex Kurtzman, Mike McMahan, Aaron Baiers, Rod Roddenberry, and Trevor Roth. Titmouse, the Emmy Award-winning independent animation production company, serves as the animation studio for the series.

The Star Trek franchise on Paramount+ also includes Star Trek: Strange New Worlds , and the upcoming original series Star Trek: Starfleet Academy , which recently started production, and Star Trek: Section 31 , an upcoming original movie with Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh. All seasons of the award winning original series Star Trek: Discovery starring Sonequa Martin-Green and the critically acclaimed original series Star Trek: Picard , starring Patrick Stewart reprising the iconic role of Jean-Luc Picard, are also available to stream.

Get Updates By Email

Star Trek: Lower Decks streams exclusively on Paramount+ in the U.S. and is distributed by Paramount Global Content Distribution. In Canada, it airs on Bell Media’s CTV Sci-Fi Channel. The series will also be available to stream on Paramount+ in the UK, Canada, Latin America, Australia, Italy, France, the Caribbean, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Ireland and South Korea.

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‘Eden’ Review: Ron Howard and His All-Star Cast Mount a Darkly Funny Adult Spin on ‘Lord of the Flies’

Dr. Friedrich Ritter (Jude Law) is loathe to repeat anyone else, so when his writer’s block finds him spitting out quotes from bigger, better, far more well-known philosophers, he knows things are going badly. Things have, in fact, been going badly for a very long time , as is prone to happen when someone moves to an uninhabited island and attempts to carve out a new world order. Still, had Friedrich — a very real person — been a bit more comfortable with the idea of repeating someone else, he likely would have found plenty of comfort in Jean-Paul Sartre’s perpetually prescient observation that “Hell is other people.”

Such is the thrust of Ron Howard’s darkly funny “Eden,” a fact-based story that follows what happened after Friedrich and his partner Dora Strauch (Vanessa Kirby) moved to a Galapagos Island (Floreana, to be precise) after the end of World War I (and the start of all the stuff that would lead to World War II) in search of a very different way of living, only to find that they simply can’t shake the stuff that tends to make society so unbearable (read: other people). Frederich likes to act as if he’s above it all, but at a certain point, he started sending out missives to the outside world touting the paradise he and Dora have created, so they shouldn’t be so surprised when people start showing up , seeking a similar life.

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Oh, but are they ever. Frederich’s dream is to, by his own admission, “save humanity,” but the furthest he got in that process was to move away from the entire world to bang away at his typewriter, dreaming up nonsense philosophy he’s completely (and hilariously) unable to live out himself. While he and Dora (who has MS, which they try to clear with meditation, sex, and hard living) have carved out a bit of a living on Floreana, it’s precarious by every measure. “Everything on this island can kill you” Dora tells their newest visitors, and it’s perhaps the most true thing anyone says throughout Noah Pink’s clever screenplay.

Those new visitors? The Wittmer family: father Heinz (Daniel Bruhl), second wife Margret (Sydney Sweeney, who gets one hell of a go-for-broke sequence in this film), and ill son Harry (Jonathan Tittel). The family has been enthralled by what they’ve read in the German papers of Friedrich and Dora’s adventures, and they want in. They show up in kicky little camp clothes, toting butterfly nets, starry-eyed at the whole affair. Friedrich and Dora promptly send them up the hill to a notoriously infertile slice of the island — Dora’s beloved burro helps, and that will be the last time that happens — and expect they’ll abandon the whole affair in weeks. They don’t.

Things are already feeling “Lord of the Flies”-y enough already, but with a distinctly adult bent and plenty of unexpected humor, and that’s before “Baroness” Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn (Ana de Armas, a scream in a cast filled with standout performances) shows up, all delusional big talk about building the world’s most luxurious hotel (for millionaires only!), most of it helped along mightily be her dedicated cadre of manservants and lovers (including Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace). On an island filled with blinkered people (and that’s being generous), Eloise is queen. Well, that’s the plan.

As she starts pulling strings between her friends and neighbors — all of it both obvious and understandable, and truly entertaining enough that you’ll laugh out loud when Law proclaims “deus ex machina!” at a plot twist that is precisely that — Eden collapses. “Eden” does not. Howard and his stacked cast keep the entire thing chugging right along toward the inevitable, and even that doesn’t feel so expected, if only because of how damn funny this trip straight to Hell feels.

A certain amount of creative license helps — goodness knows, no one on Floreana looked quite this good as they were coming undone in increasingly dark manners — even as occasionally bloodless drama feels like a whiff. Listen, for a film in which Sydney Sweeney fights off a pack of feral dogs while giving birth by herself , things could (and maybe even should) feel a lot more fucked up than what we get in “Eden.”

But what we do get from Howard’s latest is a strong reminder of his handle on not just craft and casting, but also story and tone. No film about the utter demise of a supposed utopia — a real one, to boot! — and the utter infallibility of human beings should be this fun, but we’re lucky this one is. It helps the hard truths go down easier, especially about who we all are as people (you know, hellish ).

“Eden” premiered at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

Want to stay up to date on IndieWire’s film  reviews  and critical thoughts?  Subscribe here  to our newly launched newsletter, In Review by David Ehrlich, in which our Chief Film Critic and Head Reviews Editor rounds up the best reviews, streaming picks, and offers some new musings, all only available to subscribers.

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Star Trek: Lower Decks Season 5 Clip Shows Tendi In Pirate Mode, And It's Exactly What I Expected

Isn't she the best?

It's been a long summer for Star Trek fans, to say the least. While it was great to receive the Section 31 trailer and learn about the big legacy castings in Starfleet Academy , I'm excited to get back to watching actual shows soon. On that note, Lower Decks' final season is just around the corner and, in honor of Star Trek Day , Paramount+ shared a new clip of D'Vana Tendi with the Orion pirates. Needless to say, the situation plays out exactly as I expected.

Amid fans' wait for upcoming Trek series to return, I definitely appreciate the folks at Paramount+ dropping a snippet of Tendi running a pirate raid with the rest of the Orions. I wondered how she'd adjust to the notably more violent methods of her people after spending so long in Starfleet. I'm not surprised to see she's managed to mellow out her team and prevent them from "only leaving one alive" to instill fear, and how she diplomatically allowed someone to rip out the decorative face jewelry. Sure, it's not perfect, but she's making it work! See the clip for yourself:

I'm thrilled to see Tendi with the Orions but, with Lower Decks ending with Season 5, I'm a little nervous that this isn't a scene confirming she'll have plenty of time with her friends back in Starfleet. That said, showrunner and creator Mike McMahan previously said this LD season will have a conclusive ending . So I'll remain hopeful that he knew what he was doing, and fans won't be on the other side of this season feeling disappointed.

Not that I'm too worried about that, as the clip above is loaded with the TNG-era references from Star Trek that so many franchise devotees love. I'm also hyped that the latest poster for this season clearly takes inspiration from Star Trek V: The Final Frontier :

As cool as it is to have new Star Trek to streaming soon, it's also an incredibly bittersweet moment. LD 's conclusion means the end of the set of shows set in the TNG era, at least for now. Many are still crossing their fingers for more announcements about shows on the way, and Alex Kurtzman teased surprises are on the way as more projects see the light of day.

It's known that Lower Decks star Tawny Newsome will remain part of the franchise via a new live-action comedy series she's developing with Justin Simien, but it remains to be seen how involved the rest of the cast and showrunner Mike McMahan may be. I would love to see the Cerritos crew continue to work in the universe and make random appearances but, as mentioned, there apparently isn't a TNG-era series in active development at the moment. (Perhaps if we can get Netflix to pick up Prodigy for Season 3 , that will change!)

But, all that aside, I'm still hyped that we still have one more set of episodes to look forward to before the animated series takes its final bow. With that, the clip of Tendi's pirating makes me excited for what's to come. Here's hoping that the series ends on a high note for her and her allies.

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The two-episode premiere of Star Trek: Lower Decks drops on Thursday, October 24th and will be streamable for Paramount+ subscription holders. Be sure to also check out other upcoming titles that are on the 2024 TV schedule .

Mick Joest is a Content Producer for CinemaBlend with his hand in an eclectic mix of television goodness. Star Trek is his main jam, but he also regularly reports on happenings in the world of Star Trek, WWE, Doctor Who, 90 Day Fiancé, Quantum Leap, and Big Brother. He graduated from the University of Southern Indiana with a degree in Journalism and a minor in Radio and Television. He's great at hosting panels and appearing on podcasts if given the chance as well.

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'Eden' Review: Ron Howard Goes Dark With an Impressive Cast in This Uneven Thriller | TIFF 2024

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For the last few years especially, Ron Howard seems to be fascinated by bringing true stories to the screen. Whether that comes in the form of fictionalized retelling of actual events, like Rush , In the Heart of the Sea , Thirteen Lives , and yes unfortunately, Hillbilly Elegy , or frequently shifting his focus to documentaries like The Beatles: Eight Days a Week - The Touring Years , the José Andrés -focused We Feed People , or this year’s Jim Henson Idea Man . But while many of these show the resilience of what humanity is capable of, or those who make the world a better place, his latest true story, Eden , couldn’t be further from that. In fact, in his half-century as a director, Howard has yet to make a film quite as dark as Eden , a wild shift for a director that often relies on hope and the beauty of humanity. For a director like Howard, whose work can sometimes be a bit too sterile, Eden is a curious experiment in search of a purpose.

What Is 'Eden' About?

Jude Law is Dr. Friedrich Ritter, who left 1920s Germany with his partner Dora Strauch ( Vanessa Kirby ) in order to start a new way of living on the island of Floreana in the Galápagos. The doctor plans on writing his manifesto for his way of life, as Dora attempts to cure her multiple sclerosis via meditation. However, their life alone on the island is interrupted when they’re joined by Heinz Wittmer ( Daniel Brühl ), his wife Margaret ( Sydney Sweeney ), and their son Harry ( Jonathan Tittel ), who are also looking for a way out of their life and took the doctor’s lead. However, the real wrench in this island life comes in Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn ( Ana de Armas ), who joins the island with her two male companions ( Felix Kammerer and Toby Wallace ) and has plans to turn this island home into a vacation paradise, with plans to build an exclusive resort for the wealthy. With these three different groups on the island, the harsh island living is no match for the conflicts that start to arise from what each of these groups wants from their new way of living.

In setting up this new paradise, Howard, working with a script by Noah Pink , takes his time building this world and the dynamics of this slow-growing island community, and at times, this can be a bit of a slog. At one point, Law’s Dr. Ritter is working on his book, and gets stuck on the sentence, “Our purpose is…” and it feels like Howard and Pink are also in search of finding a purpose, beyond Howard’s excitement over this bonkers story. It’s an important construction that the second half certainly needs, but the muted cinematography by Mathias Herndl and the day-to-day machinations often feel in need of some direction.

Daniel Brühl Digs Into the Not-So Utopic Story Behind Ron Howard’s Upcoming Movie ‘Eden’

Ron Howard’s latest production will also feature performances from Jude Law, Felix Kammerer, Vanessa Kirby, Ana de Armas, and more.

But it’s in the second half where Howard truly finds his groove , embracing the darkness with a violent, pulpy direction that feels like Howard attempting to push himself in a way we haven’t seen in quite some time. After all these years, it is exciting to see Howard attempting material so unlike anything he’s done before, and it’s a tone that looks good on the veteran director. From a horrifying medical emergency to fights that go further than are expected, Howard is playing with a new set of tools, and it’s almost cathartic in a way, not just for the viewer, but for Howard to let loose after staying in a certain box for so long.

'Eden' Works Because of Its Excellent Ensemble Cast

Eden is also an opportunity to have a lot of beautiful actors doing really fun work in performances unlike we’ve seen from them. The biggest delight here is Ana de Armas as the deceptive Baroness, who is threatening to destroy this new paradise, but whose entire life is built on a series of lies. What at first seems like a somewhat vapid character soon becomes a master manipulator who knows how to play everyone off each other by using every tool at her disposal. Also quite good in a more reserved performance is Sweeney as Margaret, who has voiced concern over coming to this island with her husband, and tries to make the best of it. Sweeney’s arc might be the most intriguing, as we watch her take command over this situation in her own way, the quiet person in the background who puts the pieces together before acting. Sweeney gets one incredibly harrowing scene where she must suffer through a medical emergency, while fighting off all manner of other threats. It’s a great showcase for her ability to knock it out of the park with big, emotionally and physically draining scenes.

Yet it’s when Eden has these factions clashing that the film is at its dark best , where Jude Law, who is probably losing it, faces Brühl’s war vet, and de Armas’ army of lovers. How these allegiances shift and change over time is quite a bit of fun, and every character has such a unique perspective on their situation that it’s hard to believe such rich characters actually existed. Eden lives or dies by its ensemble, and Howard found a great blend of actors to each bring something new to this wild ride.

'Eden' Proves Ron Howard Should Take More Chances

But for as much fun as Eden does eventually become, it’s still a mostly uneven thriller that doesn’t really take off until it embraces its darkness. While Eden seems to be attempting a story that shows normal people (well, 1920s Germans who decided to live on a desert island) fighting against fascism after running away from the world, that mostly gets lost to dive into the more base desires of these characters. Like many of Howard’s most recent narrative films, Eden just feels like a cool story that Howard wanted to retell, much like how Thirteen Lives was Howard simply turning the documentary The Rescue into a narrative feature while barely diverting from the source material. There’s absolutely nothing wrong with Howard following stories that he has a definite passion for, but it can often feel like a recitation of a cool story rather than having a larger point.

That being said, it’s great to see Howard branch out in this way and push himself into the darkness in a way that feels entirely different from his other work. Hopefully, this is the beginning of further attempts at trying something new for Howard , as experimentation is a great look for him, and not just an outlier in his filmography. With a great cast and an intriguing story that he’s passionate about, Howard could do great things with this new tone. Let’s just hope he finds a purpose for his next dark tale.

Eden (2024)

Eden has Ron Howard diving into his dark side with an uneven true story backed by an excellent ensemble cast.

• Ron Howard trying out dark material works surprisingly well for the director.
• A great cast, especially Ana de Armas and Sydney Sweeney, bring this wild story to life.
• The first half drags before it gets going in the more bonkers second half.
• The dull cinematography can sometimes make this idyllic island seem colorless.

Eden had its World Premiere at the Toronto International Film Fesival.

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