The Mutant Pulpit
Where we sound off on anything...
By John Kenneth Muir
The original Arena first appeared in Astounding Science Fiction Magazine in 1944 and concerned the war for survival in outer space between two equally matched forces: the human race and the aliens known as "The Outsiders." During the final space battle of a long war, a human pilot named Carson is plucked from the cockpit of his one-man scouter and teleported to an arena of azure sand and bizarre, speaking lizards. He is contacted there by an omnipotent alien who informs him that the space war cannot be settled amongst the stars, but on this unique field instead. Carson is then forced to fight a deadly alien representative of the Outsiders, a repellant, round tentacled organism called "The Roller." Naturally, the battle is to the death. If Carson loses the contest, mankind stands to be wiped right out of existence. If Carson wins the fight, the human race inherits control of the galaxy.
In Arena, what followed this brilliant set-up was a tense, Darwinian tale of mental and physical conflict between two species in an arena replete with an impenetrable force field. Although author Frederic Brown was not aware of it when he penned this classic tale in the World War II era, his vignette would someday become the cherished "stock" story in science fiction TV, at least in the sixties, seventies and eighties.
Probably the first variation on Brown's Arena arrived on TV in 1964 when Robert Specht wrote his teleplay "Natural Selection" for the anthology series called The Outer Limits. The episode became "Fun and Games" for air, and producer Joseph Stefano claimed never to have read Brown's original. Specht's variation on the standard involved Earthlings who were transported away from their lives to fight a deadly alien competitor on an another planet and in a kind of arena. As in the original story, the victor in this battle (and his species) would be permitted to survive and the loser, along with his people, faced annihilation. In this case, the battle occurred on a world known as "Andera," which is a jumbling of the title Arena, isn't it?
Gene Coon, producer of the original Star Trek realized that Arena was too good a concept to pass up during the first season of that classic series in 1966-67. He authored a teleplay called "Arena" and credited Brown as his co-writer on it. During this particular voyage of the starship Enterprise, the stakes for survival had changed. If Captain Kirk lost his battle with a reptilian Gorn captain (after a massacre at the planet, Cestus III), the Enterprise would be destroyed - but humanity would still survive. And vice versa. At the end of the Trek adventure, a new twist entered the Arena mythos. Where Brown had described survival as an imperative and seen his protagonist Carlson execute the evil Roller, a creature he likened to an intelligent spider, William Shatner's handsome and dashing Captain Kirk refused to kill his lizard-like opponent and demonstrated the advanced trait of mercy. As on so many TV series, a "valuable" lesson had been learned...
The Star Trek variant also featured another important element of what has becme a stock story: the search to build a primitive weapon to defeat a stronger foe. In Trek, it was Kirk's efforts to collect raw materials to forge gunpowder and build a primitive cannon. That element also stuck
When the stock story re-appeared on Year Two of the British space opera, Space: 1999, it was deja vu all over again. This time, the story was called "The Rules of Luton." It was written by Charles Woodgrove (a pseudonym for producer Freddie Freiberger) and saw Commander John Koenig (Martin Landau) and Science Officer Maya (Catherine Schell) facing off against three alien criminals when they committed a so-called "crime" on the planet Luton - eating a berry.
On Space: 1999 there was no threat to the galaxy, or even Moonbase Alpha. At stake were the lives of Koenig and Maya if they lost. Interestingly, the three bad aliens (a teleport, an Invisible and a super strong fella), were not the real bad guys at all. Instead, the supervisors of the arena became the primary antagonist because of their blood lust. Instead of building a makeshift cannon to defeat his foes, the resourceful Koenig made a bolo.
In 1978, another British space series, Blake's 7 recycled Arena one more time. The first season episode "Duel" found freedom fighter Roj Blake (Gareth Thomas) battling his nemesis, the one-eyed, cyborg Travis, in an arena supervised by another superior (and condescending) life form. On Star Trek it was the Metrons. On 1999 the Lutons. Here it was a Keeper called "Giroc" and a guardian called "Sinofar." Sinofar and Giroc's people had destroyed all life on their planet centuries earlier in a useless war, and were now doomed to teach other battling humanoids the same lesson in destruction. In this case, Blake and his pilot Jenna forged lances and spears out of the local brush. Blake also followed the example of Kirk and Koenig before him, refusing to kill his enemy. However, In typically cynical fashion (the rule on Blake's 7...), Blake allowed Travis to live because he knew he could beat Travis, not out of any glorious human instincts or quality of mercy.
And so it has gone, over the years.
In 1979-80, Gil Gerard's out-of-time hero, Buck Rogers ended up in arena to fight a villain called the Traybor in an episode of that series, entitled "Buck's Duel to the Death." There was no superior overlord, but battle in an arena decided the fate of a society.
Even Star Trek regurgitated the Arena concept as late as 1987, when the fourth episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation did an (uncredited) re-make called "The Last Outpost.' This time, the avaricious Ferengi subbed for the Gorns, and the Metrons were replaced by an old, cloaked fellow called "Portal." As before, the Federation and an enemy were locked in hostilities over "ownership" of territory or equipment, both ships were paralyzed in space, and the answer to the riddle was to be found on a planet below. Portal sood in judgment over the combatants, and tested them for worthiness.
The core of the timeless Arena story, the idea that is resurrected over and over across the decades on genre TV, is a powerful one, which explains its longevity. Human beings are (apparently...) intrinsically violent creatures, and our violence makes us do stupid things. In the Arena template, aliens - sometimes with good motives, sometimes not, make us face the consequences of our stupidity. A superior force, like God, stops us in our tracks and makes us face the truth about our brutal natures. Instead of millions dying in a conflict organized and orchestrated by a few, only representative leaders fight it out.
Too bad the Metrons, or Sinofar and Giroc didn't show up in 2003 to deposit President George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein in an extra-planetary arena. Maybe the President could have built a weapon of mass destruction instead of a bolo or a cannon...and could have gone mano a mano with that "brutal dictator," sparing a thousand American lives, and many thousands of innocent Iraqi lives...
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