Star Trek: The Way to Eden Rewatch

January 9, 2016 12:02 PM - Season 3, Episode 20

Chasing the stolen vessel Aurora, the U.S.S. Enterprise rescues the thieves just before the Aurora is destroyed. The group is led by Dr. Sevrin in a search for a mythological planet named Eden, a planet reputed to be a paradise.

"The Way to Eden" was first broadcast February 21, 1969. It was written by Arthur Heinemann, based on a story by Heinemann and D. C. Fontana (using the pen name "Michael Richards"), and directed by David Alexander.

Memory Alpha Link

TrekToday Review

Jammer's Review

The episode can be viewed on Netflix and Amazon Prime.

posted by Benway (7 comments total)

For a really long time -- my childhood through at least my thirties -- I believed that "Adam", played by Charles Napier, was played by the country singer and actor, Jerry Reed. Which, now that I'm looking at photos and considering that Adam sang in the episode, wasn't an entirely unreasonable belief.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 12:35 PM on January 9, 2016 [1 favorite]

"Adam", played by Charles Napier

Can you reach that back in the 20th century he was Herbert? -- Or rather, he was Tucker McElroy, "lead singer and driver of the Winnebago".

They were real now, then.
 
posted by Herodios at 7:54 PM on January 9, 2016

In my headcannon, the space hippy movement actually succeeded in making drastic changes in Federation society- you can see the result in Star Trek Next Generation. Hence no money, a massive expansion of the Prime Directive, and a reply arrogant belief that they have improved humanity.
posted by happyroach at 8:08 PM on January 9, 2016 [4 favorites]

My dad is/was a huge Trekkie--as am I, as the result of upbringing--and this is the episode my mom would always reference when making fun of Trek.

She also hated Hair. Not despite being a flower child, but because of it.
posted by duffell at 5:51 AM on January 10, 2016

Spock asking Kirk if he could try speaking to the Severin & Co in the transporter room reminded me of Barbara Billingsley's "Excuse me, but I speak jive" scene in Airplane.
posted by oh yeah! at 3:59 PM on January 10, 2016 [5 favorites]

This was an absolutely incredible episode and surprisingly topical for the current state of quarantine.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 9:05 PM on May 2, 2020 [1 favorite]

A decent episode, though it does have to contort some of the characters to fit the plot. The superbug angle does job I think with medical sci-fi than the overpopulated planet in search.

Questions:

If Spock has to locate Eden, why are they headed into Romulan territory in the first place? Why keep it a secret?

Why would Eden be another planet rather than Earth?

Are the Enterprise and these space hippies really that different? They both believe in exploration in search of better land. The federation just has better away teams equipped with things like.. shoes.
posted by pwnguin at 12:13 AM on January 29