“Bread and Circuses” is, in many ways, a companion piece to “The Omega Glory.” And while it isn’t quite as blatant as its predecessor, it is still an awkward, clumsy story that seems almost juvenile compared to the rest of the series. That the episode was written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon only makes the final result all the more unforgivable. The series creator and head writer ought to know better. That George Lucas guy should have taken lessons from this.

The premise of the episode is strikingly similar to “The Omega Glory” and “Patterns of Force” in that all three episodes feature “parallel” Earths on which a Starfleet officer has been marooned, has risen to a level of (relative) prominence, and is little more than neon-sign product-placement for high-minded, exclusionary ideology. In this case, the parallel Earth is akin to a 20th century version of the Roman Empire – complete with slaves and gladiatorial games. It’s a difficult enough concept to swallow on the surface – and the rest of the story only makes things worse.

Whereas “The Omega Glory” extolled “American Freedom” (as though there weren’t any other kind of freedom possible), “Bread and Circuses” extols Christianity (as though there isn’t any other kind of spirituality, brotherhood or love possible). This concept is at the heart of the entire story as it lays out a depraved and crumbling society on the verge of a massive revolution thanks to the “Son worshippers” (though the episode hides this for most of the episode by making the Enterprise crew believe the term to be Sun worshippers).

Instead of simply leaving the concept open for interpretation – and therefore open to anyone who isn’t overtly Christian – the episode essentially excludes audience members (the same way it excluded anyone who isn’t an avid fan of American Freedom in “The Omega Glory”). The problem is that the episode didn’t use Christianity to explore larger issues, rather it used larger issues to explicitly endorse Christianity.

And hey, there’s nothing wrong with a show wanting to position itself as explicitly Christian. But the exclusionary approach is a direct contradiction to the premise of every other Trek episode that approaches the ideas of religion, faith, spirituality, unity, brotherhood, and the like.

The rest of the episode is at best standard Trek fare with Kirk, Spock and McCoy being captured by natives, thrown into a prison, breaking out, getting into fights and being saved at the last moment by the crew of the Enterprise (in this case Scotty). The subplot about the Prime Directive is merely used as window dressing and ends up being hollow. And even the best character moment – when McCoy tries to thank Spock for saving his life – becomes an exercise in melodrama.

“Bread And Circuses” is a distinctly subpar episode. It wields its message like a club, bludgeoning the audience with ideology, a by-the-numbers plot and empty characterizations.

Filed under: Original Series