- [last lines]
- Dr. McCoy: I wish we hadn't had to do this.
- Capt. Kirk: So do I. They gave us so much - the Greek civilization, much of our culture and philosophy came from the worship of those beings. In a way, they began the Golden Age. Would it have hurt us, I wonder, just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?
- Apollo: I am Apollo!
- Ensign Pavel Chekov: [sarcastically] And I am the Czar of all the Russias!
- Capt. Kirk: Mister Chekov!
- Ensign Pavel Chekov: I sorry, Captain. I never met a god before.
- Capt. Kirk: And you haven't yet.
- Chekov: Sir, some creatures can generate and control energy with no harm to themselves: The electric eel on Earth, the giant dry worm of Antos 4, the fluffy...
- Dr. McCoy: [interrupting] Not the whole encyclopedia, Chekov.
- Chekov: The captain requires complete information.
- Dr. McCoy: Spock's contaminating this boy, Jim.
- Capt. Kirk: Are you suggesting that he, Apollo, taps a flow of energy and channels it through his body?
- Chekov: That would seem most likely, sir.
- Capt. Kirk: Mr. Chekov, I think you've earned your pay for the week.
- Capt. Kirk: [to Mr. Scott] Besides, you stiff-necked thistle head, you could have gotten yourself killed.
- Dr. McCoy: Got any more good ideas, Jim?
- Capt. Kirk: Yes, I have. One more and it depends on the lieutenant's loyalty. If she fails us, we better get used to herding goats.
- Chekov: [Kirk is about to persuade Carolyn] Eh, perhaps if I assisted?
- Capt. Kirk: How old are you?
- Chekov: Twenty-two, sir.
- Capt. Kirk: Then I'd better handle it.
- Apollo: I would have cherished you, cared for you. I would have loved you as a father loves his children. Did I ask so much?
- Capt. Kirk: We've outgrown you. You asked for something we can no longer give.
- Dr. McCoy: [noting Scotty's interest in Carolyn] I'm not sure I like that, Jim.
- Capt. Kirk: Why, Bones? Scotty's a good man.
- Dr. McCoy: And he thinks he's the right man for her. But I'm not sure she thinks she thinks he's the right man. On the other hand, she's a woman.
- [a beat]
- Dr. McCoy: All woman.
- Mr. Spock: [about Apollo] Verbose, isn't he?
- Capt. Kirk: Insulted, Spock?
- Mr. Spock: Insults are effective only where emotion is present.
- Capt. Kirk: Good.
- Apollo: Earth. Mother of the most beautiful of woman in the universe. That at least has not changed.
- Mr. Spock: Progress report.
- Nyota Uhura: I'm connecting the bypass circuit now, sir. It should take another half-hour.
- Mr. Spock: Speed is essential, Lieutenant.
- Nyota Uhura: Mr. Spock, I haven't done anything like this in years. If it isn't done just right, I could blow the entire communications system. It's very delicate work, sir.
- Mr. Spock: I can think of no one better equipped to handle it, Miss Uhura. Please, proceed.
- Capt. Kirk: All right, we're here at your invitation. Would you mind telling us what you want without all the Olympian generalities?
- Carolyn: What am I doing down here, Doctor?
- Capt. Kirk: Well, you're the A-and-A officer, aren't you? Archaeology, anthopology, ancient civilizations?
- Carolyn: Correct.
- Capt. Kirk: Well, we're gonna need help in all those areas.
- Capt. Kirk: Apollo's no god, but he could've been taken for one, though, once. Say, 5,000 years ago, a highly sophisticated group of space travelers landed on Earth around the Mediterranean.
- Dr. McCoy: Yes. To the simple shepherds and tribesmen of early Greece, creatures like that WOULD have been gods.
- Capt. Kirk: Especially if they had the power to alter their form at will and command great energy. In fact, they couldn't have been taken for anything else.
- Apollo: I've shown you my open heart. See what you've done to me.
- [expands his form, becoming around twenty feet tall]
- Apollo: Zeus... Hermes... Hera... Aphrodite... you were right... Athena, you were right. The time is passed. There is no room for gods. Forgive me, my old friends. Take me. Take me.
- [his final words echo plaintively as he fades away]
- Chekov: [after seeing Apollo appear weak and then disappear] Do you think he is off somewhere recharging his energy cells?