The U.S. President Abraham Lincoln may be the most popular president when it comes to the movies so it should come as no surprise that he appears in a science fiction series such as “Star Trek.”
Lincoln makes his appearance late in the third season in episode 22, “The Savage Curtain.” In the series, it would be the 77th episode and third to the last, after “The Cloud Minders” and before “All Our Yesterdays.”
The episode begins in 2269 as the USS Enterprise is orbiting the planet Excalbia. The planet is considered uninhabitable, but the Enterprise gets a communication which shows up as Lincoln on the main viewscreen. Although he acknowledges that this speaking image must be an illusion, Captain Kirk (William Shatner) requests full dress uniforms, as if the crew were greeting a real U.S. president. “When in Rome, we’ll do as the Romans do,” Kirk comments.
Kirk, Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and Lincoln are transported to Excalbia where the molten rock creatures, the Excalbians, force a team of good guys– Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Vulcan hero Surak (Barry Atwater) to battle against the bad guys–the founder of the Klingon empire Kahless, the pale dark-haired hag on a bad hair day Zora of Tiburon (Carol Daniels DeMent), Genghis Khan (Nathan Jung), and the 21st century Colonel Green (Phillip Pine).
Although Kirk, Spock, Lincoln and Surak originally refuse to fight, the Excalbians threaten to blow up the Enterprise if Kirk and Spock do not win.
Lincoln is played by Lee Bergere who would go on to play Joseph Anders on the 1980s TV show “Dynasty.”
The assessment of historical characters is based on dated and ethnocentric concepts of evil. Genghis Khan is the opposite of Lincoln? Does this mean either Captain Kirk or Spock (or the database of the Enterprise) can find no earthling who is as evil as Genghis Khan? What about Hitler, Stalin, Rasputin, Atila the Hun, Pol Pot, Caligula or Nero?
Genghis Khan is considered a great military leader in Turkey and is one of the most honored historical figures among the Mongols. He was a man of religious tolerance and united the tribes on the central Asian plateau. Under multiculturalism, perhaps he might be accessed differently today.
The episode is available on-demand on Netflix.
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