Return to Star Trek Classic main page Talk directly to Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) Trivia (click here): what is t name of the captain Help rescue Captain James T. Kirk (William Shatner) from slavery! (click here) TV-Commentary - Star Trek Classic "This Side of Paradise" an episode against marijuana usage? The very first episode of Star Trek to deal primarily with the drug issue was "This Side of Paradise". In the episode the crew beams down to a planet to investigate what happened to a bunch of colonists. But in the process they get shot with spores and become very smiley and carefree. After most of the crew gets shot with spores, they abandon the ship to live down below on the planet surface, including Mr. Spock, who dons colonists' pajamas and has wild sex in the grass with the beautiful but tragically air-headed Lila, played by the sultry Jill Ireland. This turn of events left Captain Kirk alone on the ship. Unfortunately, Captain Kirk gets shot with the spores as well, and for a time seems destined to join his smiling friends on the planet surface. But after looking at his service medals, Captain Kirk summons up all his energy to fight the influence of the spores, and the side of him that is devoted to duty, to his ship, overcomes the side of him that is under the control of the spores. This episode covers a lot of ground in a very short time. First of all, drugs are portrayed as something that can have a very seductive effect on society. First it is Jill Ireland who seduces Spock into being taken over by the spores, then it is Spock who maneuvers Sulu into being taken by the spores, and all the while Doctor McCoy is arranging for spore plants to be beamed up to the ship to infect more people. What Star Trek is saying here is that peer pressure can be a strong influence in the spread of drug use. That's why the "just say no" campaign gained such vogue in the 1980's: many like Nancy Reagan believed that if people just refused to try drugs, "just saying no", that drug use wouldn't spread so much throughout our society. The second point in this episode is how stagnant the society has become. Kirk & co. are surprised when they beam down to find that in all the years the colonists have been there, only a very small area of land is plowed for farming, just enough to feed the colonists but nothing more. The pajama-clad leader of the colonist says as much when he is freed of the spores' influence at the end of the episode, telling Kirk how sorry he feels that he and his fellow colonists have wasted so much time. What Star Trek is saying here is that people on drugs are less productive members of society, and, if enough people are on drugs, society becomes stagnant too. After all, the show reasons, how can a person concentrate on a job if he is stoned out of his mind? That's part of the reason that the show takes such a stern attitude against drug use. A third lesson of the episode is that drug addiction can be fought if those who are addicted have the willpower to fight it. Captain Kirk tapped on his personal strength to fight his "addiction", and if others want to get off drugs, they need to exhibit some personal willpower too. Kirk personally "counseled" Spock to get him off his addiction (he attacked him in the transporter room with a steel bar), but realized that the crew and colonists on the planet would need some form of drug treatment if they were to return to the fold. So he and Spock created a subsonic noise which would irritate them enough to shake off the spores' influence (and it did). What Star Trek is saying here is that if drug addicts are given treatment that they can be returned to the fold as useful members of society. Click here to post a message        Spock posts on 4/30/2008 5:09:07 PM Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar. Maybe you should leave literary and television criticism to someone else... Click here to post a message Other Recent Star Trek Classic Discussions Getting to know the Horta Spending quality time with Abe Lincoln and Sureck Another look at the Galileo 7 Ultimately, did Vejur really want to be fixed up on a blind date? Nomad seeks perfection.... "The Naked Time"--an episode of the evils of alcohol? 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