Who mourns for Adonais, explained

Key takeaways

• Star Trek
  Dive into Gods vs. Aliens with Apollo disguised as a Greek god.
• TOS
  Episode “Who Mourns for Adonis?” Sees Apollo as an alien, but admits that he was perceived as a god by the ancient Greeks.
• Star Trek: The Lower Deck
  Introduces Demigod Ensign Olly.

Since its premiere, Star Trek has taken complex subjects and raised questions that make its fans think about the world in a different way. Although Gene Roddenberry, Star Trek The Creator, not a religious man, followed him and other minds The Original Series (TOS) The story saw power in raising questions about spirituality and the existence of deity or a single God.

They addressed this topic in depth in the second session TOS With the episode “Who Mourns for Adonais?” This episode became famous, or perhaps infamous, for the scene where a giant, green, floating hand grabs the Enterprise and tries to crush it. That dismembered hand belonged to none other than the Greek god Apollo, the god of light and purity.

Time Kirk meets God

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

Captain Kirk leads a landing party to the planet's surface, known as the Pollux IV. When he, Lt. Scotty, Dr. McCoy, Ensign Chekov, and Lieutenant Palamas arrived, greeted by a handsome man wearing a golden laurel crown, golden robes, and golden sandals. Her beauty was reminiscent of the ancient Greeks, as was the architecture on the planet. He introduced himself as Apollo.

Of course, the members of the landing party didn't actually believe he was a Greek god. Actually, Dr. McCoy's tricorder scan showed that he was basically human, although he had an extra organ on his chest that McCoy couldn't explain. Enraged by their suspicions, Apollo transforms into a giant version of himself and BOOM:

Welcome to Olympus, Captain Kirk!

Apollo demanded their worship and devotion, just as the ancient Greeks gave him. He spoke in precise detail about that time period, and his personality matches the portrayal of Apollo in Greek myths. When the crew refused to worship him, he shot them with lightning bolts, a force Apollo was known to be the son of Zeus.

Was Apollo really a god?

Although the members of the landing party could not explain Apollo's supernatural abilities, they still did not believe that he was actually an ancient Greek god. Then, Kirk posed one of the most interesting questions Star Trek The franchise has ever healed—what if the creatures people perceive as “gods” were actually aliens?

He proposed that if they accepted the story of Apollo, detailing how he and the rest of the Greek pantheon were visitors to Earth thousands of years ago, it was logical that the people of the time would interpret these alien visitors as gods. After all, they had supernatural powers the Greeks had never seen, and they had no concept of life beyond Earth. How could they explain the alien visitors, if not as God?

The landing party concluded that, although Apollo was clearly not a god, he was actually known to the ancient Greeks as Apollo, the god of light and purity. After some research, they discovered that Apollo was able to channel energy from any energy source into his body to create “lightning bolts” that he shot from his fingers.

Star Trek The franchise has taken on this concept of aliens being worshiped as gods many times. The TOS Cast addressed this topic again Star Trek V: The Final Frontier When they discover an alien who presents himself as a Judeo-Christian version of God. in The next generation In the episode “The Watchers,” Captain Picard visits a pre-warp society that discovers a Starfleet observation post on their planet and begins to worship the Starfleet officers as gods.

Undoubtedly, “God-Aliens” took place in the deepest and most subtle explorations Deep Space Nine With “Wormhole Aliens / Prophets”. In the first episode of DS9Commander Benjamin Sisko discovered that the Bajoran “gods,” the Prophets, were actually non-physical aliens living inside a stationary wormhole in space outside Bajor's orbit.

Spoilers for Star Trek: The Lower Deck Season 5, Episode 6 onwards.

Star Trek: The Lower Deck god

The latest episode of Star Trek: The Lower Deck“Of Gods and Angles” introduces a new character named Ensign Olly. The first thing people see when they see him is his laurel crown, which is called Apollo, which Captain Kirk met a century ago. Turns out, she's related to Apollo. Zeus is his grandfather, and like his family members, Ensign Olly can channel electricity from any source around him through his body and direct it at a target.

Unfortunately, Ensign Olly doesn't have as much control over his electrical powers as Apollo does. She's channeling energy from the ship and creating energy surgeons that destroy the very thing she's working on, which isn't a great skill for an engineer. Because of this, Ollie is kicked out of several ships when they arrive in Cerritos.

As a former Washout herself, Lt. Mariner acts as Ollie's mentor and helps him figure out how to use his powers for good. Seeing Mariner, the perpetual rebel, as a mentor is another nod to how far the Lower Deckers have come since the show began.

It is unclear if Ensign Olly will appear in any of the remaining episodes lower deckBut his appearance in this episode marks the first demigod in Starfleet. However, as Captain Freeman points out, Starfleet does not condone the use of the term demigod.

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