"Star Trek" was rarely if ever true fantasy. Every episode, no matter if it tries to be true sci-fi or high concept (which borders on fantasy) incorporates some sort of rules, restrictions, and in-universe STEM-style explanation for why things are said to work the way they do.
"Stepchildren" is no exception, even if it's tapping into a prevailing theme of 60s sci-fi - that of extrasensory abilities. This time, brought about by eating alien food as an unexpected side-effect. Which is definitely fantasy, bordering on the stupid.
However, the story - which interestingly sets up the kyranide "mystery" early on - doesn't explain it until late into the story as the connection between how the Platonians got their magical abilities.
Indeed, watching this story I thought it was "Planet of the Darth Vaders" since they all seem to have Sith-like abilities and are quite sinister and in ways far more horrific than a glowing sword. Which isn't a bad thing as such, Darth Maul and Kylo Ren both have some impressive blades... but "Stepchildren" uses mental power as a knife.
The audience is quickly informed of the high concept nature of the episode, with ESP and telekinesis (moving objects with the mind) and even forcing other people to do things (psychokinetic).
And it's rather cute how they give a sci-fi explanation about eating the local produce making them powerful as opposed to total fantasy, though it's still somewhat fantasy that eating alien food gives one alien powers - the Platonians moseyed over to ancient Earth when their planet(ary solar system) novaed and then buggered off elsewhere when they got bored (or kicked off by Apollo's 50 foot chest) and created their utopia. The Platonians' ancestors must therefore be sufficiently human or humanoid for them to acquire the power and later for Kirk and the gang to get it as well.
Platonius isn't the only planet whose civilization doesn't hide itself from outsiders... Aldea had. Which raises a fun question as to which civilization was the more brutal and why. Aldea was the more scientifically plausible civilization because it didn't drink from the well of ESP-whoop-dee-dee that 1960s sci-fi was addicted to. Yep, the well's water was spiked but before I digress into a lecture about hippies and why putting 900mcg of LSD into someone's tea is a really dangerous and insipid thing to do, I'll reel myself back:
"Philosopher kings have no need of titles. " Um, there's an obvious catch-22 and hefty funky fresh irony in Parmen-with-his-lovely-legs saying that. Which reminds me, I need to make spaghetti tonight. With meatballs and tomato sauce, those little green ground up leafy things (parsley?), and gobs of that grated cheese loaded with cellulose (e.g. ground up wood chips.) The concept of philosopher king is lovely, but is impossible without the telekinetic ability. And even then it requires a lot of work to tell the brain to move the fruit over via a thought. It's all relative. I wonder what Professor X might do. We know what Karl Popper would say, however.
It stretches credibility somewhat that only Parmen's brain can prevent the Enterprise from leaving orbit (at full power). That's pretty grand.
When Spoke emotes, one listens.
SPOCK: Captain, it will be very gratifying to leave here.
Now, TOS rarely got better than the following scene:
KIRK: Alexander, where I come from, size, shape, or colour makes no difference
Trek's best ideal shines through in this episode, a number of times. A very powerful statement when thousands of years of history for humans has been fairly bad and still fairly awful in 1968AD. Times have improved but people still are divided and arguably in even more ways than before.
A scene often taken out of context by people who want to show "Trek" and/or its actors in a bad light is where Kirk and Spock are being mind-controlled by the Platonians as humiliation and cheap entertainment. Acting all that out is pretty big in of itself and the fact they all do it sincerely instead of a half-baked job is a testament. Especially as some of the mind-control torture scenes go on forever.
Never mind Leonard Nimoy admitted to writing the Bitter Dregs song. (Which isn't exactly bad, but give me some of the Way to Eden song that go-go-boots Napier's alleged to have written instead:
Barbara Babcock and her subtle smirks and nuances really makes Philana's position of menace even more compelling, especially as Philana has virtually nothing to do in the story except sit there and try to have more alluring legs than Parmen, so Ms Babcock clearly finding any little moment to add something and it helps a lot. When she has dialogue, she espouses the haughty nature of the society chillingly well.
Liam Sullivan's performance as Parmen also helps keep afloat an episode that's 15 minutes worth of plot padded out to more than thrice its size.
And Michael Dunn truly steals the show, which is no easy task given what Nimoy and Shatner have to get through while on camera and they play it utterly straight, no self-aware camp. And his entrance into the episode, using that old standby of "the shadow is bigger than the person trick", is far more effective in this story than the cat was in "Catspaw", where it wasn't effective whatsoever.
Indeed, the only thing missing from the Kirk/Spock horsing around scenes is McCoy screaming "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" as he surrenders himself to cheesy Parmen and his spaghetti society filled with meatballs.
I am really enjoying this story. Not sure why it gets ragged on. So many of mental duress scenes are poignant and downright chilling. The few that I struggled to not laugh at were largely the forced-walking scenes, some of which went on for a little too long, though Dunn had the most consistently convincing effort - rescuing and making it all more believable as a result.
But was it a clever move by the writers to sneak in a "first for American TV" kiss, as a form of duress and assault?! Perhaps, given the general nature of the 1960s (check out the first two "Planet of the Apes" movies with Charleton Heston to see what a "G" rating allowed!), but considering their lips really didn't appear to be together and at an angle higher than what we got for when Spock and Chapel lip-locked, it all seems to be more theatrics on the part of fans to make more out of a scene than was there.
And then there's the other reality in how the myth can have more value than fact. That happens constantly in real life society as well. In other words, I just countered my own argument.
How can forcing Spock to emote literally kill him? Spock forces himself to repress emotions all the time and he's half-human. There's obvious emotional torture, but McCoy's assertion that it's lethal seems a little much.
Now, I'm going to spoil my verdict at this time, hence the spoiler tag (or if any Discovery fans were keen to look back to see how the show looked 55 years and 1 day ago, which is when "Stepchildren" aired): The common perception/myth is "That story is trash apart from the groundbreaking scene." For me, it's the other way around. There is no groundbreaking scene when one actually thinks about it, and the story hits it out of the ballpark as an absolutely classic each time it sells the moral of people accepting each other regardless of size or any other attribute. Combined with sadism that's unique to season 3 and certainly ribald by the standards of the time. Did I mention the BDSM yet? No worries if I hadn't...
Kirk and Uhura were forced to kiss for the Platonians' enjoyment. They're being the butt of a joke, in essence. That's not groundbreaking. Why people try to change history and flaunt a revision of "The first televised interracial kiss!!", especially when the first interracial kiss was first shown in 1963 (but in the UK)... and under far more warming circumstances than being mind-raped by thugs on an alien planet as cheap entertainment because no Platonian ever bothered inventing a TV set.
I will say this - Nichols and Shatner would have made a beautiful couple in real life had they romantic interest for each other.
But the other incidents of torture are about as hard hitting as being at the epicenter of a 9.7 Richter Scale earthquake. The hot pokers and whips are pretty brutal and reveal an aura of violence, as well as BDSM with the whips and all, that's pretty noteworthy for the time. The only thing missing is a telekinetic choke, like what Darth Vader did only kinkier.
Never mind how patently awesome Spock's flamenco dancing around Kirk's head is. You read that right, the scene is downright gripping and frightening given the close proximity of the feet to the head. Had Parmen forced Kirk to move his head (as Parmen never needed Kirk given everything else he could do, even getting Chapel and Uhura to beam down and look zombified), Kirk could have been murdered there and then... Indeed, a later scene where Spock works to recover his mind is one of TOS' finest.
The episode is indeed high concept, but given the viciousness displayed there's no way they'd try this in a more down to earth setting. Then again, go watch "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970 and rated G for everyone's ribbed and sadistic pleasure because... well, again, being late-60s/early-80s, the oft-used reason of "they did drugs" explains an awful lot as to what compelled them to make and get away with stuff that would be rated R nowadays...)
I liked how Kirk offered Alexander the same abilities thanks to Dr McCoy. How many of us would accept? Alexander refuses, which makes the episode take a twist away from being a retelling of "David and Goliath" but with the magical fruit. And no, I'm not Bart Simpson, so stop giggling.
It's way-cool they bring Alexander on board. But it's not cool that the final line of the episode is this:
KIRK: You're very good at making speeches, Parmen. Just make sure that this one sinks in. Now move aside. Alexander. Kirk to Enterprise. Mister Scott, prepare to beam us up. I have a little surprise for you. I'm bringing a visitor aboard.
Worst. Pun. Ever. Seriously, Kirk - who's otherwise awesome when it comes to dealing Alexander - says that instead of "Prepare guest quarters, we're bringing back someone seeking asylum and I'll explain later?" Kirk's never once been the type to make such an unintentional and accidental gaffe.
How come McCoy's tricorder becomes a magic wand with Felix The Cat box containing everything needed to speed up the alien food's magical powers.
And the ending's a bit lax regarding Parmen. Just Kirk's line and somehow Parmen doesn't mentally grab and crush the ship from who knows what distance away? (Probably because the kiranide in Kirk's system was still active but that wouldn't last forever. But again, why leave just like that? If it takes hours for people to develop it, and that isn't guaranteed... the episode does a decent job at ensuring a continuity and set of rules for itself - apart from this ending, which is more wide open than DS9's wormhole. )
The episode approaches the level of "The Empath" in terms of seemingly inane brutality for brutality's sake. Whereas the latter is about determining the worthiness of a species to be saved by hoping the one random person they kidnapped can endure all that pain as representing their whole society hanging in the balance (so they show all the gory stuff instead of the brainy stuff because that always rakes in the ratings, right?), "Plato"'s big issue is about abusing others for being different as entertainment, even shaming them and laughing while doing so.
I used "seemingly" because both episodes hide "the point" in a line of dialogue while placing more emphasis on the nasty stuff for viewers to hopefully enjoy (in some ways, what the heck was Freiberger thinking, and more to the point was he drinking the same spiked tea that the Jefferson Airplane was doing at the time?!)
And yet, unlike "Empath", "Plato" just has a better construction as to why they're doing what they're doing, it's not as contrived. But it still relies on the brutality over the intellectualism to sell itself with.
Why didn't Kirk and the crew keep McCoy's superbeing concoction for later use? What happens if the Klingons or Romulans visit the planet and figure out the magical ingredient? Not that anyone's going to beg for a sequel anytime soon - like, never - but TOS loves doing this sort of thing with the cure-all formula, transporters healing mystery diseases, Genesis Device, three or four hundred definitions of "Transwarp" over the course of Trek and its spinoffs' history, etc. Heck, Kirk should just move the people to another planet and then blow up the Plato planet with the magic food. Kirk's violated the Prime Directive scores of times, usually nagging computers to death because the computer is all knowing and all the other 1960s' tropes.
Other things I enjoyed but hadn't remembered while writing this essay:
* Alexander indicating their powers could not be amplified by one another
* Spock conceding to Chapel while tongue-twisting her that he wasn't able to develop "the power"
* as usual, the color palette in TOS is lush, bold, deliberate, and exciting. Modern day palettes make me wonder why anybody bothered to develop color technology if they use palettes that are close to monotone or duotone as possible.
* Dioniyde and Eraclitus' snide comments about Vulcans, noting "Dioniyde"'s name is based on the Greek myth Dionysus, god of fertility and wine (a great combination if there was any, assuming one wanted to contract a STD as that falls into Dionysus' legendary doings of mixing pleasure with pain as well...) As for "Eraclitus", that's an alteration of "Heraclitus" (the first human who believed that the only constant was change, believed no man would step in the same river twice (but nobody's right 100% of the time), and was also known as "The Obscure" and "The Weeping Philosopher", shame the episode didn't capitalize on the latter, but his relevance to the story was fairly obscure).
* Alexander's emoting how he wanted to scratch Parmen and let the others all scramble to take over so he could do it again. That's pretty raw emotion and pretty amazing for 1968, never mind 2018
* Kirk having no choice but to use his newfound power to treat Alexander the same way Parmen had when they play "tug of war with the dagger" in what's otherwise a very tense and compelling scene. Though Alexander had alluded to the rest fighting amongst each other to take control if Parmen were to die, so why not have Kirk aim for Parmen instead? Doing that gets rid of the notion that Kirk would stoop down to their level and use Alexander as a toy. But it can also be argued Kirk was acting instinctively in a fight or flight moment since Alexander was lunging at him with Parmen's intent to kill coopting.
In short, one has to roll with the premise of "Plato's Stepchildren". It's not a perfect story, but it is very watchable for the most part and is downright creepy in spots. There is depth in the script despite being shrouded in brutality that wouldn't be given a TVG rating nowadays. The crew humiliation scenes are anything but laughable when shown in context, though some of the "forced walking" by the crew is questionable. But the good acting from everyone involved does a LOT to save this episode from what could have been one of the worst entries, and Michael Dunn's inspiring to watch on so so many levels. Freiberger's year is a mixed bag but when he got things right, he really got it right. And after watching "The Tholian Web", it's nice to see a shift in series formula that also largely holds up.
Season 3 score: 9/10, highly recommended
Overall TOS score: 7/10, recommended
"Stepchildren" is no exception, even if it's tapping into a prevailing theme of 60s sci-fi - that of extrasensory abilities. This time, brought about by eating alien food as an unexpected side-effect. Which is definitely fantasy, bordering on the stupid.
However, the story - which interestingly sets up the kyranide "mystery" early on - doesn't explain it until late into the story as the connection between how the Platonians got their magical abilities.
Indeed, watching this story I thought it was "Planet of the Darth Vaders" since they all seem to have Sith-like abilities and are quite sinister and in ways far more horrific than a glowing sword. Which isn't a bad thing as such, Darth Maul and Kylo Ren both have some impressive blades... but "Stepchildren" uses mental power as a knife.
The audience is quickly informed of the high concept nature of the episode, with ESP and telekinesis (moving objects with the mind) and even forcing other people to do things (psychokinetic).
And it's rather cute how they give a sci-fi explanation about eating the local produce making them powerful as opposed to total fantasy, though it's still somewhat fantasy that eating alien food gives one alien powers - the Platonians moseyed over to ancient Earth when their planet(ary solar system) novaed and then buggered off elsewhere when they got bored (or kicked off by Apollo's 50 foot chest) and created their utopia. The Platonians' ancestors must therefore be sufficiently human or humanoid for them to acquire the power and later for Kirk and the gang to get it as well.
Platonius isn't the only planet whose civilization doesn't hide itself from outsiders... Aldea had. Which raises a fun question as to which civilization was the more brutal and why. Aldea was the more scientifically plausible civilization because it didn't drink from the well of ESP-whoop-dee-dee that 1960s sci-fi was addicted to. Yep, the well's water was spiked but before I digress into a lecture about hippies and why putting 900mcg of LSD into someone's tea is a really dangerous and insipid thing to do, I'll reel myself back:
"Philosopher kings have no need of titles. " Um, there's an obvious catch-22 and hefty funky fresh irony in Parmen-with-his-lovely-legs saying that. Which reminds me, I need to make spaghetti tonight. With meatballs and tomato sauce, those little green ground up leafy things (parsley?), and gobs of that grated cheese loaded with cellulose (e.g. ground up wood chips.) The concept of philosopher king is lovely, but is impossible without the telekinetic ability. And even then it requires a lot of work to tell the brain to move the fruit over via a thought. It's all relative. I wonder what Professor X might do. We know what Karl Popper would say, however.
It stretches credibility somewhat that only Parmen's brain can prevent the Enterprise from leaving orbit (at full power). That's pretty grand.
When Spoke emotes, one listens.
SPOCK: Captain, it will be very gratifying to leave here.
Now, TOS rarely got better than the following scene:
KIRK: Alexander, where I come from, size, shape, or colour makes no difference
Trek's best ideal shines through in this episode, a number of times. A very powerful statement when thousands of years of history for humans has been fairly bad and still fairly awful in 1968AD. Times have improved but people still are divided and arguably in even more ways than before.
A scene often taken out of context by people who want to show "Trek" and/or its actors in a bad light is where Kirk and Spock are being mind-controlled by the Platonians as humiliation and cheap entertainment. Acting all that out is pretty big in of itself and the fact they all do it sincerely instead of a half-baked job is a testament. Especially as some of the mind-control torture scenes go on forever.
Never mind Leonard Nimoy admitted to writing the Bitter Dregs song. (Which isn't exactly bad, but give me some of the Way to Eden song that go-go-boots Napier's alleged to have written instead:
(if there's an a capalla band)
(nice remix with the Austin Powers band music, but some of the lyrics themselves are timeless. Found he had to eat and he found he had to drink. And a long time later he found he had to think. ♪♬ That's pretty good...)
And after all that, some dessert:
The only thing missing is Nancy Sinatra dancing in the foreground. No worries, Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) is... Sadly, the editor cut a second too late (look at her facial expression at 0:36, which suggests some form of boredom setting in? Though who wouldn't...)
(nice remix with the Austin Powers band music, but some of the lyrics themselves are timeless. Found he had to eat and he found he had to drink. And a long time later he found he had to think. ♪♬ That's pretty good...)
And after all that, some dessert:
The only thing missing is Nancy Sinatra dancing in the foreground. No worries, Colonel Wilma Deering (Erin Gray) is...
Sadly, the editor cut a second too late (look at her facial expression at 0:36, which suggests some form of boredom setting in? Though who wouldn't...)Barbara Babcock and her subtle smirks and nuances really makes Philana's position of menace even more compelling, especially as Philana has virtually nothing to do in the story except sit there and try to have more alluring legs than Parmen, so Ms Babcock clearly finding any little moment to add something and it helps a lot. When she has dialogue, she espouses the haughty nature of the society chillingly well.
Liam Sullivan's performance as Parmen also helps keep afloat an episode that's 15 minutes worth of plot padded out to more than thrice its size.
And Michael Dunn truly steals the show, which is no easy task given what Nimoy and Shatner have to get through while on camera and they play it utterly straight, no self-aware camp. And his entrance into the episode, using that old standby of "the shadow is bigger than the person trick", is far more effective in this story than the cat was in "Catspaw", where it wasn't effective whatsoever.
Indeed, the only thing missing from the Kirk/Spock horsing around scenes is McCoy screaming "THERE ARE FOUR LIGHTS!" as he surrenders himself to cheesy Parmen and his spaghetti society filled with meatballs.
I am really enjoying this story. Not sure why it gets ragged on. So many of mental duress scenes are poignant and downright chilling. The few that I struggled to not laugh at were largely the forced-walking scenes, some of which went on for a little too long, though Dunn had the most consistently convincing effort - rescuing and making it all more believable as a result.
But was it a clever move by the writers to sneak in a "first for American TV" kiss, as a form of duress and assault?! Perhaps, given the general nature of the 1960s (check out the first two "Planet of the Apes" movies with Charleton Heston to see what a "G" rating allowed!), but considering their lips really didn't appear to be together and at an angle higher than what we got for when Spock and Chapel lip-locked, it all seems to be more theatrics on the part of fans to make more out of a scene than was there.
And then there's the other reality in how the myth can have more value than fact. That happens constantly in real life society as well. In other words, I just countered my own argument.
How can forcing Spock to emote literally kill him? Spock forces himself to repress emotions all the time and he's half-human. There's obvious emotional torture, but McCoy's assertion that it's lethal seems a little much.
Now, I'm going to spoil my verdict at this time, hence the spoiler tag (or if any Discovery fans were keen to look back to see how the show looked 55 years and 1 day ago, which is when "Stepchildren" aired): The common perception/myth is "That story is trash apart from the groundbreaking scene." For me, it's the other way around. There is no groundbreaking scene when one actually thinks about it, and the story hits it out of the ballpark as an absolutely classic each time it sells the moral of people accepting each other regardless of size or any other attribute. Combined with sadism that's unique to season 3 and certainly ribald by the standards of the time. Did I mention the BDSM yet? No worries if I hadn't...
Kirk and Uhura were forced to kiss for the Platonians' enjoyment. They're being the butt of a joke, in essence. That's not groundbreaking. Why people try to change history and flaunt a revision of "The first televised interracial kiss!!", especially when the first interracial kiss was first shown in 1963 (but in the UK)... and under far more warming circumstances than being mind-raped by thugs on an alien planet as cheap entertainment because no Platonian ever bothered inventing a TV set.
I will say this - Nichols and Shatner would have made a beautiful couple in real life had they romantic interest for each other.
But the other incidents of torture are about as hard hitting as being at the epicenter of a 9.7 Richter Scale earthquake. The hot pokers and whips are pretty brutal and reveal an aura of violence, as well as BDSM with the whips and all, that's pretty noteworthy for the time. The only thing missing is a telekinetic choke, like what Darth Vader did only kinkier.
Never mind how patently awesome Spock's flamenco dancing around Kirk's head is. You read that right, the scene is downright gripping and frightening given the close proximity of the feet to the head. Had Parmen forced Kirk to move his head (as Parmen never needed Kirk given everything else he could do, even getting Chapel and Uhura to beam down and look zombified), Kirk could have been murdered there and then... Indeed, a later scene where Spock works to recover his mind is one of TOS' finest.
The episode is indeed high concept, but given the viciousness displayed there's no way they'd try this in a more down to earth setting. Then again, go watch "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970 and rated G for everyone's ribbed and sadistic pleasure because... well, again, being late-60s/early-80s, the oft-used reason of "they did drugs" explains an awful lot as to what compelled them to make and get away with stuff that would be rated R nowadays...)
I liked how Kirk offered Alexander the same abilities thanks to Dr McCoy. How many of us would accept? Alexander refuses, which makes the episode take a twist away from being a retelling of "David and Goliath" but with the magical fruit. And no, I'm not Bart Simpson, so stop giggling.
It's way-cool they bring Alexander on board. But it's not cool that the final line of the episode is this:
KIRK: You're very good at making speeches, Parmen. Just make sure that this one sinks in. Now move aside. Alexander. Kirk to Enterprise. Mister Scott, prepare to beam us up. I have a little surprise for you. I'm bringing a visitor aboard.
Worst. Pun. Ever. Seriously, Kirk - who's otherwise awesome when it comes to dealing Alexander - says that instead of "Prepare guest quarters, we're bringing back someone seeking asylum and I'll explain later?" Kirk's never once been the type to make such an unintentional and accidental gaffe.
How come McCoy's tricorder becomes a magic wand with Felix The Cat box containing everything needed to speed up the alien food's magical powers.
And the ending's a bit lax regarding Parmen. Just Kirk's line and somehow Parmen doesn't mentally grab and crush the ship from who knows what distance away? (Probably because the kiranide in Kirk's system was still active but that wouldn't last forever. But again, why leave just like that? If it takes hours for people to develop it, and that isn't guaranteed... the episode does a decent job at ensuring a continuity and set of rules for itself - apart from this ending, which is more wide open than DS9's wormhole. )
The episode approaches the level of "The Empath" in terms of seemingly inane brutality for brutality's sake. Whereas the latter is about determining the worthiness of a species to be saved by hoping the one random person they kidnapped can endure all that pain as representing their whole society hanging in the balance (so they show all the gory stuff instead of the brainy stuff because that always rakes in the ratings, right?), "Plato"'s big issue is about abusing others for being different as entertainment, even shaming them and laughing while doing so.
I used "seemingly" because both episodes hide "the point" in a line of dialogue while placing more emphasis on the nasty stuff for viewers to hopefully enjoy (in some ways, what the heck was Freiberger thinking, and more to the point was he drinking the same spiked tea that the Jefferson Airplane was doing at the time?!)
And yet, unlike "Empath", "Plato" just has a better construction as to why they're doing what they're doing, it's not as contrived. But it still relies on the brutality over the intellectualism to sell itself with.
Why didn't Kirk and the crew keep McCoy's superbeing concoction for later use? What happens if the Klingons or Romulans visit the planet and figure out the magical ingredient? Not that anyone's going to beg for a sequel anytime soon - like, never - but TOS loves doing this sort of thing with the cure-all formula, transporters healing mystery diseases, Genesis Device, three or four hundred definitions of "Transwarp" over the course of Trek and its spinoffs' history, etc. Heck, Kirk should just move the people to another planet and then blow up the Plato planet with the magic food. Kirk's violated the Prime Directive scores of times, usually nagging computers to death because the computer is all knowing and all the other 1960s' tropes.
Other things I enjoyed but hadn't remembered while writing this essay:
* Alexander indicating their powers could not be amplified by one another
* Spock conceding to Chapel while tongue-twisting her that he wasn't able to develop "the power"
* as usual, the color palette in TOS is lush, bold, deliberate, and exciting. Modern day palettes make me wonder why anybody bothered to develop color technology if they use palettes that are close to monotone or duotone as possible.
* Dioniyde and Eraclitus' snide comments about Vulcans, noting "Dioniyde"'s name is based on the Greek myth Dionysus, god of fertility and wine (a great combination if there was any, assuming one wanted to contract a STD as that falls into Dionysus' legendary doings of mixing pleasure with pain as well...) As for "Eraclitus", that's an alteration of "Heraclitus" (the first human who believed that the only constant was change, believed no man would step in the same river twice (but nobody's right 100% of the time), and was also known as "The Obscure" and "The Weeping Philosopher", shame the episode didn't capitalize on the latter, but his relevance to the story was fairly obscure).
* Alexander's emoting how he wanted to scratch Parmen and let the others all scramble to take over so he could do it again. That's pretty raw emotion and pretty amazing for 1968, never mind 2018
* Kirk having no choice but to use his newfound power to treat Alexander the same way Parmen had when they play "tug of war with the dagger" in what's otherwise a very tense and compelling scene. Though Alexander had alluded to the rest fighting amongst each other to take control if Parmen were to die, so why not have Kirk aim for Parmen instead? Doing that gets rid of the notion that Kirk would stoop down to their level and use Alexander as a toy. But it can also be argued Kirk was acting instinctively in a fight or flight moment since Alexander was lunging at him with Parmen's intent to kill coopting.
In short, one has to roll with the premise of "Plato's Stepchildren". It's not a perfect story, but it is very watchable for the most part and is downright creepy in spots. There is depth in the script despite being shrouded in brutality that wouldn't be given a TVG rating nowadays. The crew humiliation scenes are anything but laughable when shown in context, though some of the "forced walking" by the crew is questionable. But the good acting from everyone involved does a LOT to save this episode from what could have been one of the worst entries, and Michael Dunn's inspiring to watch on so so many levels. Freiberger's year is a mixed bag but when he got things right, he really got it right. And after watching "The Tholian Web", it's nice to see a shift in series formula that also largely holds up.
Season 3 score: 9/10, highly recommended
Overall TOS score: 7/10, recommended
5 years and a few months off. 
Plus one day. Of course, when typing that passage out earlier, I was stupid enough to look at today's date, 7/23/2018, forgot that "Plato" aired 11/22/1968, and somehow went into ADsquirrelD mode and and thought it was 11/23/1963. This is why I need to go into "Doctor Who Rehab"(tm)...
