Who Mourns Adonais, Explained

Key Takeaways

• Star Trek
  Studied about gods and aliens with Apollo, which translates as a Greek god.
• TOS
  episode “Who Mourns Adonais?” He sees Apollo as a foreigner, but acknowledges that the Ancient Greeks considered him a god.
• Star Trek: Lower Decks
  introduces the demigod Ensign Olly.

Since its first release, Star Trek took on difficult subjects and asked questions that made his fans think about the world in a different way. Even Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek's Creators, not religious people, he and others behind him The Original Series (TOS) saw the power of storytelling in raising questions about spirituality and even the existence of gods or monotheism.

They discussed this topic in depth in the second season TOS with the episode “Who Mourns Adonais?” This episode became famous, or perhaps most famous, for the scene where a giant, green, floating hand grabs the Enterprise and tries to crush it. This disembodied hand belongs to none other than Apollo, the Greek god Apollo, the god of light and purity.

The moment Kirk meets God

As the green hand held the Enterprise in its literal grip, a vision of a giant head, crowned with laurel leaves, echoed through the Enterprise. Calling his crew his “beloved children”, the giant head welcomed them to his planet, his “home”.

Captain Kirk has landed a party on the planet, known as Pollux IV. When he arrived, Lieutenant Scotty, Dr. McCoy, Ensign Chekov, and Lieutenant Palamas, were greeted by a handsome man wearing a golden crown, an embroidered golden robe, and golden sandals. Its beauty is reminiscent of the ancient Greeks, as is the architecture of the world. He introduced himself as Apollo.

Obviously, the members of the landing party didn't really believe he was a Greek god. In fact, Dr. McCoy's tricorder scan revealed that he was human, although he had an extra organ in his chest that McCoy couldn't explain. Enraged by their doubt, Apollo transformed into a giant version of himself and boasted:

Welcome to Olympus, Captain Kirk!

Apollo demanded their worship and devotion, just as the Ancient Greeks had given him. He discussed this period in detail, and his character matched the image of Apollo in Greek mythology. When the crew refused to worship him, he struck them with lightning, a force known to Apollo as the son of Zeus.

Was Apollo really God?

Although the members of the flying group could not explain Apollo's abilities, they still did not believe that he was the ancient Greek god. Then, Kirk asked one of the most interesting questions Star Trek Franchise has been fighting ever since – what if the creatures understood by humans as “gods” are actually aliens?

He suggested that if they accept the story of Apollo, detailing how he and the rest of the Greek Pantheon visited Earth thousands of years ago, it is logical that the people of that time At that time, these foreigners would be interpreted as gods. After all, they had supernatural powers that the Greeks had never seen, and they had no idea of ​​life beyond the earth. How can we interpret foreign visitors, if not as gods?

The descending party concluded that, although Apollo was clearly not a god, he was indeed what the ancient Greeks knew as the god of light and purity, Apollo. After some investigation, they discovered that Apollo was able to channel energy from all the energy sources in his body to create the “lightning” that his fingers shot.

Star Trek took up this concept of aliens being worshiped as gods several times throughout the franchise. the TOS The cast spoke about this topic again Star Trek V: The Final Frontier when they saw an alien who appeared to be the Judeo-Christian version of God. In the Next generation In the episode “Who's Watching the Spectator,” Captain Picard visits a pre-war society that discovers a Starfleet observatory on the planet and begins worshiping Starfleet officers as gods.

Of course, the deepest and most prominent research on “foreign gods” took place there Deep Space Nine with “the wormy stranger/The Prophet.” In the first episode of DS9Commander Benjamin Sisko discovers that the Bajoran “gods”, The Prophets, are actually alien aliens living in a wormhole in space outside of Bajor's orbit.

Spoilers for Star Trek: Lower Decks season 5, episode 6 preview.

Star Trek: Below Decks' Demigod

The last episode of Star Trek: Lower Decks“On Gods and Angles,” introduces a new character named Ensign Olly. The first thing people see when they see him is the laurel crown, similar to the one worn by the so-called Apollo, who met Captain Kirk more than a century before. Apparently, he is a relative of Apollo. Zeus is his grandfather, and like his family, Ensign Olly can channel electricity from sources around him into his body and direct it to a target.

Unfortunately, Ensign Olly can't control electricity like Apollo. He continues to channel energy from the ship and creates a surge of energy that destroys everything he works on, which is not a great skill for an engineer. So by the time Olly got to Cerritos, he had already been kicked out by several boats.

As a former sailor himself, Lieutenant Mariner takes on the role of mentor to Olly and helps him figure out how to use his powers for good. Seeing Mariner, the eternal rebel, as a mentor is still a nod to how far the Lower Deckers have come since the show began.

It is unclear if he will appear in any of the remaining episodes of Ensign Olly Lower decksbut his presence in this episode marks the first demigod in Starfleet. However, as Captain Freeman points out, Starfleet does not approve of the use of the word demigod.

Source: Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Lower Decks