Podcast Enterprise - S2E25 Bread and Circuses

In this episode of the USS Enterprise, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy beam down to the planet 892-IV to find their old friend Merik, who has been missing and is now a high-ranking official in a city modeled after an alien Rome. The crew must navigate the complex political landscape while avoiding interference with the planet's 20th-century civilization and finding their friend.
However, they are captured and imprisoned, and Kirk must use his wits to outsmart the empire and escape with his crew. Meanwhile, Spock discovers that the "children of the sun" are actually followers of a variation of Christianity, and Kirk realizes that this Roman empire will eventually fall like its Earth counterpart.
This episode explores themes of religion, power, and the Prime Directive, as the crew navigates a complex and dangerous situation on a planet with a civilization similar to Earth's past.