Star Trek has been in my life for a very long time, but the one episode I played on repeat as a kid was “Shore Leave” from season 1 of The Original Series. A family member must have owned a copy on VHS, and those frames are now permanently burned into my memory. But while “Shore Leave” was the episode that first made me take note of Star Trek in my early years, it’s not a story I relish revisiting today.
The tellingly simple premise involves Enterprise crew members beaming down onto a paradise planet for some much needed R&R, only for their minds to be probed by the robot-making locals. Cue an episode filled with fantasy, hijinks, adventure, and the kind of wackiness you’d expect after one too many Romulan ales.
Why “Shore Leave” Got Me Hooked Onto Star Trek
Finnegan laughing in Star Trek episode Shore Leave
More than anything, Star Trek: The Original Series‘ “Shore Leave” represents boundless imagination. From the appearance of Alice in Wonderland‘s White Rabbit to Sulu being attacked by samurai, “Shore Leave” is a theme park in the shape of a TV episode, where every other step brings a fresh surprise that wouldn’t make sense in any other context.
The battle between Captain Kirk and his old nemesis, Finnegan, is just feisty enough for a younger viewer to feel like they’re watching something more grown-up than they really are, and the robotic illusions give off just enough weirdness to make everything excitingly unnerving.
“Shore Leave” feels like something a child would write, pulling disparate elements from other stories they know and love to create a mish-mash of themes and ideas. Sprinkle in some violence and a stereotypical “hero gets the girl” trope, and this Star Trek episode is akin to a bedtime fairy tale being made up on the spot.
Indeed, the behind-the-scenes reality wasn’t too far from that. As recounted by James Doohan on the VHS intro for “Shore Leave,” the original script by Theodore Sturgeon was deemed too fantastical and in need of toning down, but Gene L. Coon’s rewrite inadvertently went in the other direction, making “Shore Leave” even more madcap. As a result, Gene Roddenberry was reworking the story while filming, and this shows in the disjointed events the Enterprise crew experiences.
For a younger viewer, however, “Shore Leave” is perfect. Suited to short attention spans, it’s a whirlwind of color, action, and a kind of “lucky dip” randomness that authentically represents the boundless possibility of Star Trek‘s universe.
Rewatching Star Trek’s “Shore Leave” Now Is A Very Different Experience
Watching as an adult, the faults of “Shore Leave” push their way to the fore, and while not outright bad, it’s certainly below par for Star Trek: The Original Series. The biggest problem is simply the lack of story. “Shore Leave” is essentially a collection of vignettes, and while Kirk does eventually figure out the cause of the fantasies, his deduction is meaningless since the planet’s mysterious Caretaker bears no ill intentions.
Compare this to other “hallucination” planets in Star Trek – Talos IV from “The Cage,” for example – and there is precious little substance to back up the thrills and spills within “Shore Leave.” There’s no point to anything, besides “play is good.” Alas, that in itself becomes problematic when one examines how the Enterprise’s crew members choose to play.
Kirk opts to beat an old enemy to a pulp. McCoy can’t keep his libido in check. At no time are these rampaging vices seriously questioned or given any meaningful perspective. Even the planet’s logic falls apart under any sort of interrogation, although those hasty rewrites could be partly to blame on that count.
It’s ironic that the Star Trek episode I first remember loving in my youth now feels devoid of everything I enjoy about the franchise today. There are worse Star Trek offerings to spend an hour watching, admittedly, but “Shore Leave” is filler undeserving of a second spin – even if my younger self with his parents’ VHS player would disagree.
Release Date
1966 – 1969-00-00
Showrunner
Gene Roddenberry
Directors
Marc Daniels, Joseph Pevney, Ralph Senensky, Vincent McEveety, Herb Wallerstein, Jud Taylor, Marvin J. Chomsky, David Alexander, Gerd Oswald, Herschel Daugherty, James Goldstone, Robert Butler, Anton Leader, Gene Nelson, Harvey Hart, Herbert Kenwith, James Komack, John Erman, John Newland, Joseph Sargent, Lawrence Dobkin, Leo Penn, Michael O’Herlihy, Murray Golden
Writers
D.C. Fontana, Jerome Bixby, Arthur Heinemann, David Gerrold, Jerry Sohl, Oliver Crawford, Robert Bloch, David P. Harmon, Don Ingalls, Paul Schneider, Shimon Wincelberg, Steven W. Carabatsos, Theodore Sturgeon, Jean Lisette Aroeste, Art Wallace, Adrian Spies, Barry Trivers, Don Mankiewicz, Edward J. Lakso, Fredric Brown, George Clayton Johnson, George F. Slavin, Gilbert Ralston, Harlan Ellison
