High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! "Bread and Circuses" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, broadcast on March 15, 1968. It is episode #54, production #43, written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon and directed by Ralph Senensky. Its name is a reference to the phrase "bread and circuses" taken from the Satire X written by the poet, Juvenal. In modern usage, the phrase has become an adjective to describe a populace that no longer values civic virtues, the public life and military (manly) service. Instead, the people need only food and entertainment.