Star Trek Bread and Circuses (1966–1969) watch online HD
- Original title:Bread and Circuses
- Category:TV Episode / Action / Adventure / Sci-Fi
- Released:1966–1969
- Director:Ralph Senensky
- Actors:William Shatner,Leonard Nimoy,DeForest Kelley
- Writer:Gene Roddenberry,Gene Roddenberry
- Duration:50min
- Video type:TV Episode
- Rating 7.3
- Votes 910
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Short summary
The caves where the Children of the Son hide out are one of the most-used locations in television and movies. In addition to being the entrance to the Batcave, they are also seen in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, Kung Fu and various police and western shows. They are located right below the famous Hollywood sign.
During the location shooting for this episode, the new producer John Meredyth Lucas visited the set, accompanied by Gene Roddenberry. Lucas was struck by the tension and bad atmosphere among the cast. "Shatner came around the corner, and when he saw Gene, he turned around and went the other way. And the cast was fighting too. All the actors complained to me about all the other actors."
The title "Bread and circuses" is a translation of "Panem et circenses", an ancient Roman metaphor for people choosing food and fun over freedom. It first appears around AD 100 in the Satires of Juvenal, which also provided the title of another Star Trek production about 20 years later: Star Trek: The Next Generation: Who Watches the Watchers (1989).
The coat of arms on the clothes of the Proconsul Claudius Marcus is the coat of arms of William Shakespeare.
One of several "parallel Earth" plots in the series, contrived to save money by avoiding the necessity for "alien" sets, costumes, and makeup.
The episode parodies the television industry in several ways. Fake applause and catcalls are used to simulate a studio audience, and the race for high television ratings is lampooned several times. The TV station manager threatens the now-pacifist runaway slave that he had better fight convincingly: "You bring this network's ratings down, Flavius, and we'll do a special on you!" Later, the Proconsul sneers at Kirk about the captain's impending death, to be televised from the arena, by telling Kirk that "You're centuries beyond anything as crude as, television." Kirk replies, "I've heard it was... similar," an oblique reference to the series' own ratings difficulties. Comic relief is in the scene where McCoy and Spock heckle each other on the TV Stage during the gladiatorial duels.
The DVD and earlier VHS editions of this episode contain what is probably the best McCoy/Spock dialogue of the series, which was always edited out in syndication.
The Jupiter 8 car was actually the Reactor, a custom aluminum show car designed by Gene Winfield and completed in 1965. The Reactor was based on a 1956 Citroën DS chassis and powered by a Chevrolet Corvair engine. It also made appearances in Mission: Impossible and Bewitched.
This is one of only two TOS episodes featuring dialog between the credits and the episode title card. The other episode is Star Trek: A Private Little War (1968).
Gene Roddenberry revised the shooting script as the episode was being filmed. Director Ralph Senensky remembers picking up the day's script pages when arriving to the set in the morning.
This was one of the first second-season episodes filmed, but the penultimate one aired.
This episode marks the final appearance of Kirk's second season green wrap around tunic. Beginning in Star Trek: Assignment: Earth (1968), which followed, and when the series returned for its third and final season Kirk goes back to wearing his standard gold and black v-neck tunic full time.
One of the shots of the planetary capital (in the opening of Act II) is of the Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose words can be read (somewhat) above the pillars. The next shot shows the Legion of Honor on the Left Bank in Paris. Its motto honneur et patrie is not Latin but French.
When Kirk and Spock are breaking out of their cell, two phalanxes of about 5 machine-gun-armed guards each run to block off each end of the corridor which would lead the flag officers to freedom. In the blooper reel, the lead guard of the group closest to the camera reaches his 'mark', but is unable to stop; his feet slide out from under him and he falls and goes sliding toward screen-right, after which everyone breaks out in laughter. When you watch the aired version of the scene closely, it has been edited in such a way that you never see that Roman trooper come to a complete stop. It seems they USED the 'take' and cut the embarrassing part (for the extra) out.
Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon wrote this episode's teleplay from a story by playwright and television writer John Kneubuhl. However, Roddenberry and Coon received sole writing credit for the episode.
Consistent with the Roman themes throughout this episode, the escaped slaves which Kirk, Spock, and McCoy first encounter are references to and representative of the Spartacus group of gladiators and slaves in rebellion against ancient Rome.
The automatic weapons that the Roman guards wield are Danish Madsen M-50 sub-machine guns.
The name of Merrick's merchant vessel, the S.S. Beagle, is a reference to the vessel famous for carrying Charles Darwin on the mission to chart South America, the H.M.S. Beagle, which would, coincidentally, turn into a five year mission, and the early basis for Darwin's "On the Origin of Species."
George Takei does not appear in this episode. He was shooting The Green Berets (1968) at the time.
This takes place in 2268.
The S.S, Beagle had a crew complement of 47.
Claudius Marcus recommends the sparow broiled in garum. Garum was a sauce made by salting the intestines of fish and collecting the fermented juices that dripped out. It was very popular in classical Greek and Roman cuisine.
The final twist involves the similarity between the words son and sun in the neo-Roman culture. Ironically, this pun only works in Germanic languages such as English. It could never work in Latin (the real Roman Empire's primary language) nor its Romantic derivatives such as Italian, where the words for son (filius/figlio) and sun (sol/sole) do not sound the slightest bit alike.
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| Episode complete credited cast: | |||
| William Shatner | - | Capt. Kirk | |
| Leonard Nimoy | - | Mr. Spock | |
| DeForest Kelley | - | Dr. McCoy | |
| William Smithers | - | Merik | |
| Logan Ramsey | - | Claudius Marcus | |
| Ian Wolfe | - | Septimus | |
| William Bramley | - | Policeman | |
| Rhodes Reason | - | Flavius | |
| James Doohan | - | Scott | |
| Nichelle Nichols | - | Uhura | |
| Walter Koenig | - | Chekov | |
| Bart La Rue | - | Announcer (as Bart Larue) | |
| Jack Perkins | - | Master of Games | |
| Max Kleven | - | Maximus | |
| Lois Jewell | - | Drusilla |
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