Star Trek (TV Series)

Bread and Circuses (1968)

William Shatner: Captain James Tiberius 'Jim' Kirk

Photos 

Quotes 

• Flavius : [of Spock and McCoy]  Are they enemies, Captain?

  Capt. Kirk : I'm not sure they're sure.

• [last lines] 

  Spock : [referring to Flavius]  I wish we could've examined that belief of his more closely. It seems illogical for a sun worshiper to develop a philosophy of total brotherhood. Sun worship is usually a primitive superstition religion.

  Uhura : I'm afraid you have it all wrong, Mister Spock, all of you. I've been monitoring some of their old-style radio waves, the empire spokesman trying to ridicule their religion. But he couldn't. Don't you understand? It's not the sun up in the sky. It's the Son of God.

  Capt. Kirk : Caesar - and Christ. They had them both. And the word is spreading... only now.

  Dr. McCoy : A philosophy of total love and total brotherhood.

  Spock : It will replace their imperial Rome; but it will happen in their twentieth century.

  Capt. Kirk : Wouldn't it be something to watch, to be a part of? To see it happen all over again? Mister Chekov, take us out of orbit. Ahead warp factor one.

  Chekov : Aye, sir.

• Claudius Marcus : Guards. Take him to the arena. Oh, we've pre-empted fifteen minutes on the early show for you. In full colour. We guarantee you a splendid audience. Er, you may not understand, because you're centuries beyond anything as crude as television.

  Capt. Kirk : I've heard it was... similar.

• Claudius Marcus : So, this is a Vulcan. Interesting. From what I have heard I wish I had fifty of you for the arena.

  Merik : This other is your ship's surgeon?

  Capt. Kirk : McCoy.

  Merik : It's a pity we can't let him loose in our hospitals. Our level of medicine would improve immeasurably, I'm sure.

• Flavius : The message of the Son, that all men are brothers, was kept from us. Perhaps I'm a fool to believe it. It does often seem that men must fight to live.

  Capt. Kirk : You go on believing it, Flavius. All men are brothers.

• Claudius Marcus : Admit it, you find these games frightening, revolting.

  Capt. Kirk : Proconsul, in some parts of the galaxy, I have seen forms of entertainment that makes this look like a folk dance.

• Claudius Marcus : And you, Captain, er, which world do you prefer?

  Capt. Kirk : My world, Proconsul, is my vessel, my oath, my crew.

• Uhura : [Kirk and Spock are assessing Planet 892-IV]  Captain, both amplitude and frequency modulation being used. I think I can pick up something visual. It's a news broadcast using a system I think they once called video.

  Mr. Spock : "Television" was the colloquial term.

  Capt. Kirk : Put it on the screen.

  Uhura : Aye.

  Announcer : [static clears]  ... Today, police rounded up still another group of dissidents. Authorities are as yet unable to explain these fresh outbreaks of treasonable disobedience by well-treated, well-protected, intelligent slaves. Now turning to the world of sports, and bringing you the taped results of the arena games last night: The first heat involved amateurs. They're petty thieves from the city prison - conducted, however, with traditional weapons, it provided some amusement...

  [one contestant kills the other] 

  Announcer : ...for a few moments. In the second heat, a slightly more professional display, in the spirit of our splendid past, when gladiator Claudius Marcus killed the last of the Barbarians, William B. Harrison, in an excellent example of...

  [the picture fades] 

  Uhura : Transmission lost, sir. Shall I try to get it back?

  Capt. Kirk : [Spock returns to his scanner]  Slaves and gladiators... What are we seeing, a 20th-Century Rome?

  Mr. Spock : Captain, the one described as the barbarian is also listed here: Flight Officer William B. Harrison, of the S.S. Beagle. At least there WERE some survivors down there.

• Capt. Kirk : Captain's log, stardate 4040.7. On the surface of Planet IV, System 892, the landing party has won the confidence of what obviously is a group of runaway slaves. They dwell in caves not far from a large city, wear rags, live under primitive conditions; but they are creatures of a heavily industrialized 20th-century type planet, very much like Earth - an amazing example of Hodgkin's law of Parallel Planet Development. But on this Earth, Rome never fell. A world ruled by emperors who can trace their line back two thousand years, to their own Julius and Augustus Caesars.

• Claudius Marcus : Now, Captain, what are you going to order your men to do?

  Capt. Kirk : If I brought down a hundred of them armed with phasers...

  Claudius Marcus : ...you could probably defeat the combined armies of our entire empire - and violate your oath regarding non-interference with other societies. I believe you all swear you'll die, before you'd violate that directive. Am I right?

  Spock : Quite correct.

  Dr. McCoy : Must you always be so blasted honest?

• [Drusilla is serving Kirk, making him very comfortable] 

  Drusilla : I was concerned. I am ordered to please you.

  Capt. Kirk : I have been in some strange worlds, strange customs. Perhaps this is considered torture here.

• Dr. McCoy : [upon being released from their cell by Kirk]  What happened, Jim?

  Spock : What did they do to you, Captain?

  Capt. Kirk : [reflecting on his night with the slave Drusilla]  They... threw me a few curves...