Star Trek 3x20 "The Way to Eden"

rating: ***

Memory Alpha summary

Most often contended to be the "hippie episode" (although the earlier "This Side of Paradise" more accurately represents that description; perhaps the benefit of hindsight holds the difference, where one depicts how they're remembered now while the other how they considered themselves at the time), "The Way to Eden" is something of the Charles Manson story in space.

Star Trek V: The Final Frontier later paralleled much of the same story, while Deep Space Nine explored the back-to-nature idea in "Paradise," and there's Star Trek: Insurrection to consider as well, plus similarities to "Fusion" (the start of a whole character arc) in Enterprise.  That adds up to something of a considerable legacy for the episode.

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It's also a Chekov episode, continuing the third season trend of coming up with stories for the supporting cast a little more frequently.  It's his lady friend (in the original version it was actually McCoy's daughter, and the other half of the equation was Kirk...which would certainly have made things far more interesting...!) who's caught up in the would-be Manson's plot to rediscover Eden (in this case, the title of the episode is actually pretty straightforward for a change).  Eventually Chekov's spotlight gives way to Spock, and has the benefit of giving new insights into both characters, contrasting with what we previously thought we knew. 

All that adds up to plenty going on in the episode.  "Way to Eden" is one of those episodes that's probably better now then it seemed at the time.

four quarter analysis
franchise * series * essential * character

notable guest-stars 
Majel Roddenberry
Charles Napier