Star Trek: The Original Series Featured One Of The Worst TV Fights Ever

In the "Star Trek" episode "Arena" (January 19, 1967), the Enterprise arrives at a Federation outpost on the planet Cestus III to find that it has been completely destroyed. While shuffling through the rubble, the Enterprise's away team is attacked by an unknown alien force. Up in orbit, the Enterprise itself is also attacked by an enemy vessel. Captain Kirk (William Shatner) doesn't know their foe, and can't explain the attack. Eventually, both the Enterprise and the alien ship retrieve their crew fighting below, and the alien ship flees. The Enterprise chases it, and they end up in a previously unexplored region of space. 

But, in a twist, the unexplored region of space belongs to a protective species of godlike beings called Metrons. When the Enterprise and the aliens invade their territory, the Metrons scold them all, and tell them to work out their beef another way. A Metron representative (Carole Shelyne) uses her magical abilities to abduct Kirk and the captain of the alien ship and teleport them to a nearby desert world where they can solve their problems in hand-to-hand combat. The alien captain, Kirk learns, is a Gorn, a dinosaur-like humanoid with an aggressive streak.

But the resulting fistfight between Kirk and the Gorn ... well, by any measure, it's ridiculous. The Gorn mask is inarticulate, making it look like a Halloween costume, and the stunt performers inside of it (Bobby Clark and Gary Combs, alternately) couldn't move very quickly. The Gorn could only slowly swipe at Kirk, as if moving in slow-motion, while Kirk's two-fisted counterpunches were clearly being pulled. It's one of the most notoriously silly fights in "Star Trek" history. 

Vice once wrote an entire article on the ineffectiveness of Kirk's two-hand punch, and how one of the worst fights in "Star Trek" history spawned one of its most frustratingly persistent fight moves. 

Why is the fight in "Arena" so awkward? The Gorn actors moved slowly, arcing their arms more like Frankenstein's monster than a killer lizard. And why does Kirk punch back with that balled-up two-fisted maneuver? Surely a strong forward jab with one fist would do more damage to a foe. It looks as if the fight was shot with the actors moving in slow-motion, and was meant to be sped up in post-production. Maybe the quick movement paired with swiping sound effects would have ... no, actually, that wouldn't have saved it either. It's a silly fight all around. The Gorn is a scary design, but its completely unmoving face doesn't make it look like a living alien. 

The Vice article cited an interview with a boxing analyst named Corey Erdman who understood the use of Kirk's two-fisted punch, a move he called the double ax-handle. When one clasps their hands together and swings them in an ax-swinging motion, it actually diminishes one's ability to put their weight behind it. Sure, it wouldn't be fun to be punched in such a fashion, but it wouldn't actually do much damage. The makers of "Star Trek" likely knew this about the two-fisted punch, and instructed their actors to perform the maneuver knowing that they couldn't put any serious hurt on their co-stars, even if they accidentally swung too hard. It was a dramatic looking move that didn't actually do any harm.

The double ax-handle used to be common in the world of pro-wrestling, but it was abandoned when fight choreographers realized it looked silly. Weirdly, though, "Star Trek" has gone to great lengths to include the move in multiple episodes, lasting all the way into 1990s episodes of "Star Trek: The Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine." I guess the double ax-handle is a standard martial arts lesson at Starfleet Academy.

Vice reached out to stunt coordinator Dennis Madalone, one of the stunt choreographers on '90s-era "Star Trek" shows, to get the skinny on the Gorn fight and on the consistent use of the double ax-handle. Madalone noted that "Star Trek" fights needed to look futuristic by mandate, leaving out a lot of traditional fight moves like forward jabs or dramatic haymakers. He recalls seeing "Arena" as a kid, and the double ax-handle stayed in his memory. He understood, even at the time, that a sci-fi show like "Star Trek" had to look different from the Western shows that ran concurrently with it. 

"When you're doing something in the future, you can't show the old cowboy punches. [...] It was something I saw as a kid; when I saw Kirk fighting back then, that was the one move that stuck in my mind. [...] That was a move that looked more realistic [for 'Star Trek'] than the old cowboy punches, because those didn't work for me in any futuristic context." 

Madalone noted that the double ax-handle looked "modern, futuristic, and not barbaric." This was totally appropriate for "Star Trek," whose characters were purported to be enlightened and sophisticated. Even when they fought, they had to fight with a gentle elegance. Madalone also noted that the double ax-handle has become a tradition, not just in "Star Trek," but across all media. It's a good "movie move" that audiences understand. It looks cool, but it isn't dangerous. It's showy, not effective. 

Does it make the Gorn fight look silly? You bet. But it's certainly memorable. And, heck, maybe there's an in-canon explanation for why Starfleet officers use it all the time. Perhaps, by the 23rd century, subtle new techniques have been invented that increase the double ax-handle's effectiveness. Maybe we're all wrong about it. 

But probably not.