This is another episode I haven't seen before, but I guessed correctly from the title that this would be the planet of the Romans. I guess having just the romulans to make roman references wasn't enough and they had to have a full on Rome planet. At least it is the planet of the 20th century Romans which was at least interesting. I think it must have been Gene himself who was so obsessed with other planets following the same progression as earth. And while he certainly gave us many of things that were great about trek, this is one piece I am pretty happy got left behind with TOS.
The episode begins with the Enterprise tracking down the debris from the SS Beagle, a survey ship that was lost six years earlier. The debris path leads them to a class M planet that seem to be at roughly 20th century level of tech. They tap into a television signal and watch a few minutes of gladiators fighting to the death. The captain beams down along with Spock and McCoy and despite starting off well outside any cities they are immediately captured by slaves on the run and they give up their phasers in a clear violation of the prime directive. From the slaves they learn that the captain of the SS Beagle is now an important Roman near the top of the hierarchy. The slaves agree to help them do something, but they are captured minutes after leaving the hideout along with the huge former gladiator Flavius.
Imprisoned Kirk demands to talk to Merikus, the former captain, and the guards don't ignore him. They return and take Flavius off to be a gladiator again. Just as they are about to fight the guards Merikus shows up along with the Proconsul who knows Merikus's secret. The Proconsul threatens to torture Spock and McCoy to death if Kirk doesn't beam his whole crew down. He even has Kirk contact the ship, but Kirk pulls the old, "code green," trick to let Scotty know he is in trouble. Spock and McCoy are forced to fight to the death against gladiators unless Kirk does what the Proconsul says. Spock defeats his gladiator and then saves McCoy infuriating the Proconsul to decides to execute Kirk. But before that he sends his personal slave girl to entertain Kirk before his death.
The next morning Kirk is to be executed on television, but just before he is killed Flavius sacrafices his life to stop the execution. Scotty knocks out power to the city buying Kirk time to get back to the prison. A sword fight breaks out and Merikus decides to help by pulling out a communicator, but is stabbed in the back for his efforts. But Scotty got the signal and beams Kirk, Spock and McCoy to safety just before they are shot.
Summation: I was pretty bummed out when I realized this was another pretty straight forward, "planet of the _____," episode, but this one managed to be pretty decent. The revelation Christianity was spreading and devastating the empire was actually kinda cool at the end. Also the modern Roman uniforms looked pretty decent for a television budget.
6 out of 10
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