Star Trek
The Savage Curtain
TV Flash files “The Savage Curtain” as hour 77 of 79 in the TV Flash guide — Star Trek (1966–1969) on NBC, season 3, episode 22, aired 1969-03-07, 60 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S03E22: listed hour 77 of 79 in the Star Trek guide, hour 22 of 24 in season 3. It aired 1969-03-07 (60 min). The listed hour before it is “The Cloud Minders” (S03E21). Next is “All Our Yesterdays” (S03E23).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
The Enterprise surveys the planet Excalbia. As its surface is the temperature of molten rock, no landing party is possible, so when the orbital survey concludes, Kirk orders the ship to leave. And then... Abraham Lincoln appears, and at the same time a region forms on the planet suitable for human life. Kirk and Spock beam down and discover Yarnek. It seems the Excalbians are struggling to understand the concepts of good and evil; the help themselves they have constructed an experiment: four examplars of good, including Kirk and Spock, will battle four exemplars of evil, notorious figures from history. And if good loses, the Enterprise will be destroyed...
Viewer FAQ
Where does The Savage Curtain sit in the Star Trek guide?
S03E22 is listed hour 77 of 79 — hour 22 of 24 in season 3, season 3 episode 22.
When did Star Trek S03E22 air?
The Savage Curtain aired 1969-03-07 and is listed at 60 minutes.
Where should I start if I have never seen original Star Trek?
The aired opener is “The Man Trap,” but many first-timers prefer “Where No Man Has Gone Before,” the second pilot and a cleaner crew contract. Either is fair. Do not start at season three.
In the series
Why this series still plays
Watch it for the fandom operating system still running: letter campaigns that saved a starship, ship wars before we had the word, and hours the timeline still litigates. Cancelled is not dead if the group chat refuses to log off.
So about last night's group chat: someone said "The Man Trap" is a fake start, someone else dropped a Kirk/Spock still captioned canon, your honor, and a third person announced that season three is optional like that is a personality. This is not new discourse. This is 1966 with better lighting and worse sleep. NBC tried to bury a space opera on a Friday, then a Tuesday, then wherever the schedule could hide a show it did not understand. The audience refused to log off. (I said spoiler-free. I lied a little: the…
Filed against
- William Shatner as Capt. James T. Kirk
William Shatner’s Capt. James T. Kirk commanded Star Trek into cancelled immortality — fandom’s founding text, letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars before we had the word, and the doctrine that dead shows can live forever. Staccato…
- Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Leonard Nimoy’s Spock is Star Trek’s coworker who will not do small talk — a cancelled space opera that invented the fandom operating system. Letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars, the doctrine that cancelled can still mean immortal.…
- DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard McCoy
DeForest Kelley’s Dr. Leonard McCoy was Star Trek’s group chat that said the quiet part — ship’s doctor as workplace heat on a cancelled space opera that refused to die. Letter campaigns, conventions, ship wars before we had the word. TV…
- Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Nichelle Nichols’s Uhura is Star Trek’s communications officer as a fandom operating system — bridge presence that letter campaigns and convention culture refused to let NBC bury. Original Trek invented ship wars before we had the word;…
- James Doohan as Scotty
James Doohan’s Scotty is Star Trek as the miracle in the engine room — a cancelled space opera’s practical magic, beamed up from a three-season NBC run that fandom refused to let die. Conventions, letter campaigns, and the idea that…