Ep. 18 The Squire of Gothos

Kirk and Sulu disappear off the bridge, and then the Enterprise receives an old style message. It is Trelane! McCoy leads a rescue party unto the inhospitable planet below, which isn't inhospitable anymore. Trelane delights in having guests, wanting to hear about military campaigns from centuries ago, and makes them his own toys. After the crew escapes, Trelane brings them back twice, even hunting Kirk to murder him for sport, until his parents show up to punish him, a clever ending.

In future books, Trelane was (in books, not canon) described as a Q, a valid assumption based on the powers he demonstrates. DeSalle was a navigator in this episode, but would later be an engineer. I do think Kirk made a mistake by not warping out the second he got back on board early in the episode, and then explaining himself later. Of course Trelane got them again when they stayed in orbit for a few minutes. Bones must have been very hungry, eating when no one else did at Trelane's estate. The machine that Trelane used works very much like a holodeck in later Star Treks, which I thought interesting, and I'm not sure why he had it, as he clearly had powers without it. Kudos to Shatner for oogling the yeoman in the old fashioned dress very convincingly. And could Kirk really break a sword with his bare hands? One can only assume that it wasn't a real sword like his other food and such. Overall, this is one of the most fun episodes of the series, made fantastic by the very talented William Campbell, who was also Koloth, a Klingon, in "The Trouble With Tribbles" and the Deep Space 9 episodes "Blood Oath" and "Trials and Tribbleations".

RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
James Doohan as Scotty / the voice of Trelane's father
George Takei as Sulu
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Michael Barrier as Lt. DeSalle

NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
William Campbell as Trelane
Richard Carlyle as Lt. Karl Jaeger
Venita Wolf as Yeoman Teresa Ross
Barbara Babcock as the voice of Trelane's mother

Quote:
"There's still not enough sport in just killing me with a sword."
"I know. That'll be quite dull." ~ Kirk and Trelane