In Bread and Circuses did they forget to rescue the remaining federation officers from the planet?

Question

In Bread and Circuses Merik states that if the other members from his ship had adapted they are still alive.

From here

"MERIK: And as for my men, those that were able to adapt to this world are still alive. Those who couldn't adapt are dead."

In the end Enterprise leaves the planet. Did they forget to rescue the remaining crew? Maybe they thought it was too much trouble without interfering with the Prime Directive (which I also thought was ridiculous because Merik had told the proconsul everything about Starships, but I guess by the time Kirk knew about this he was already prisoner and didn't get the chance to use any more advanced technology [though it was surprising when he was told to beam down the Enterprise crew he said condition green, I would have thought there would be a "condition red" which meant covertly send help, which would be ok at this point since Merik had already interfered with the Prime Directive]). In the end Enterprise leaves orbit of the planet. I was a bit surprised to see this episode got a high rating on IMDB, I guess there were some good speeches made.

Answer 1

On the TV broadcast Enterprise received at the beginning of the episode the announcer said "In the second heat a slightly more professional display in the spirit of our splendid past when gladiator Claudius Marcus killed the last of the barbarians William B. Harrison in an excellent example of ..." The barbarians were implicitly Merik's crew, who Merik ruthlessly traded to ensure his own survival and relatively cushy existence.

I think Merik was speaking euphemistically about adaptation; what he really meant was that the crewmembers who were a quick study of close combat with primitive weapons were still alive. Those who "adapted" poorly, i.e. did not accept their new life as a gladiator and skimped on training died quickly in the games. I don't think anyone off SS Beagle except Merik was allowed to move about freely. The Proconsul was too concerned about his society being corrupted by external influences to permit Merik's crew to roam about fomenting a possible revolution.