MR. SPOCK KIDNAPS HIS OLD DISABLED CAPTAIN FORCING BOTH HIM AND HIS CURRENT CAPTAIN TO WATCH AN EPISODE OF STAR TREK

Episode Title:  The Menagerie Part 1

Air Date: 11/17/1966

Written by Gene Roddenberry

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Hagan Beggs as Lieutenant  Hansen                   Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Sean Kenney as Fleet Captain Christopher Pike (disabled)         Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Guard                    Julie Parrish as Miss Piper                    Brett Dunham as Guard        Tom Lupo as Security Guard          Malachi Throne as Commodore José Mendez           James Holt as Starfleet Officer              George Sawaya as Chief Humboldt               Jeffrey Hunter as young and healthy Captain Christopher Pike          Majel Barrett as Lieutenant Commander Una Chin-Riley         John Hoyt as Dr. Phillip Boyce       Peter Duryea as Lieutenant José Tyler        Laurel Goodwin as Yeoman Second Class J. M. Colt       Clegg Hoyt as Transporter Chief Pitcairn          Ed Madden as Enterprise Geologist            Adam Roarke as C.P.O. Garrison              Susan Oliver as Vina             Meg Wyllie as The Keeper           Malachi Throne as The Keeper (voice)         Georgia Schmidt as the First Talosian            Robert C. Johnson as the First Talosian (voice)         Serena Sande as the Second Talosian         Jon Lormer as  Dr. Theodore Haskins            Leonard Mudie as the Second Survivor            Anthony Jochim as the Third Survivor               Michael Dugan as The Kaylar                 Robert Phillips as Space Officer (Orion)              Joseph Mell as Earth Trader

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Starbase 11, Shuttlecraft  SB11-1201/1

Planets:  unnamed planet that hosts Starbase 11, Talos IV

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins on Starbase 11 where the big three of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy beam down for a surprise visit.  They are greeted by a young woman who says that the Starbase’s commander, Commodore Mendez, is wondering why they are here.  I would wonder too if I were them, considering everything Kirk went through here last episode this should be the last place he would want to hang out.  Captain Kirk however is surprised at their surprise.  He says that the Enterprise was summoned here from a transmission from his predecessor, Fleet Captain Pike.

Yeoman confused at their presence

                The trio goes to see the Commodore, who has changed since last episode.  I suppose Commodore Stone received a promotion and transfer for his excellent handling of the Finney incident.  The new commanding officer, Commodore Mendez, is shocked at their claims.  Kirk doesn’t see what’s so amazing about getting a message from Fleet Captain Pike. Commodore Mendez says it’s impossible.  Kirk asked why that is the case, Mendez then gives him a look which would probably be the same if Kirk told him that Spock had received a communication from Santa Claus.  Mendez then says, “You really don’t know do you?”  He finds it strange that Kirk doesn’t know the latest news on Pike seeing as there has been some subspace chatter about it for months, and not to mention he was just here last week when he was court-martialed.  Granted Kirk might have been distracted at the time but one expects a highly respected decorated Starfleet Captain to be up on current events.  Mendez then has to tell Captain Kirk the horrible truth of what happened to his predecessor.

Commodore shows the Enterprise crew Captain Pike

                The Commodore takes the trio down to the medical facility, while there they talk about Captain Pike.  Mendez describes Kirk as being around Pike’s age.  I guess in the Commodore’s world “around the same age “means 15 or so years distance.  The Commodore is right however describing that Kirk and Pike’s share very similar traits; it’s almost like their fictional characters who were created by the same man who was basing them on Horatio Hornblower.

                Commodore Mendez explains that Pike was inspecting an old class J starship that was being run by a number of Starfleet cadets.  The plates ruptured exposing the crew to delta rays. Pike ran in there and pulled every cadet he could out of the ship, but he overexposed himself wrecking his body.  Captain Pike is now completely paralyzed and horribly disfigured.  He has to be kept in a life-support wheelchair that can be slightly controlled by his brain waves.  He can move the chair forward and backwards a little bit, with his vocal cords burnt out the chair allows him to communicate by signaling yes or no.

                When the four of them enter the room Captain Pike is looking out a window, he then turns his wheelchair to face his guests.  His heavily scarred face is stuck in position the only thing that gives away his emotion is his eyes.  Mendez informs Pike that he has visitors and Pike refuses to see them in his depressed state he’d rather just stare out the window all day than being surrounded by men who can talk to him but he can’t talk back.  Spock asks to remain a request Pike grants.

 

                When the two of them are alone Spock tells Pike that it is only four days at maximum warp from here.  Pike starts flashing “no” with his wheelchair but Spock is determined to help his former Captain, even if the Captain does not want him to risk it.

Ever the hero, Captain Pike does not wish Spock to risk his life to save his.

                Later in the conversation amongst Captain Kirk and Commodore Mendez the subject of Talos IV comes up for no other reason then is about to be important in the plot.  Kirk mentions that General Order 7 prohibits any starship for any reason going there.  Commodore Mendez reminds Kirk that is the only death penalty they have left on the books.  He then says only Starfleet command knows why, however even though he’s only a Commodore he actually has access to it and will share it with Kirk.  When the Captain opens the top secret document he must be really disappointed because this isn’t much interesting written except for the fact that the Enterprise actually went there when it was under the command of Pike.

                Why is this penalized with the death penalty? That seems a bit extreme.  I realize the crew did not have a fun time when they were there and I also understand the Talosians can be a little dangerous, maybe even a lot dangerous given their telepathic and illusion making abilities, but killing people just for going there seems to be rather over-the-top.

                The Captain and Commodore also argue about the origin of the communication received by the Enterprise.  Kirk says if Spock claims to have received a communication that he did and Mendez is saying that’s all but impossible.  Mendez is willing to look a little harder but the deck is going stacked against them.

                Unfortunately for Kirk, it turns out he’s wrong.  Spock did lie and he goes into the communication room, assaults some Starfleet personnel, and then tricks the Enterprise to think Captain Kirk is sending it on a secret mission.  Spock then abducts Captain Pike, tricks McCoy into returning to the Enterprise so he can care for him, and takes off with the ship stranding Captain Kirk at the Starbase.

Spock revealing to McCoy that Pike is on the ship

                Captain Kirk doesn’t take such a thing lying down.  With Mendez he takes a shuttlecraft and heads after his ship; it is a hopeless effort but Kirk still has some faith in Mr. Spock’s devotion to duty.  That faith is rewarded Spock stops the Enterprise in order to pick him in the Commodore up.  Then Mr. Spock places himself under arrest with the security personnel and admits that he stole the ship.  But he has sabotaged the ship’s system enough that they are headed to Talos IV on auto pilot and cannot be manually overridden.

                What a strange is Mr. Spock hands temporary operational command to this week’s replacement for Lt. Sulu as opposed to Mr. Scott who last I checked is technically next in command of the ship after Mr. Spock.  It’s a moot point as Kirk arrives to take command of the ship right away.

                Kirk now has to hold a hearing into the actions of Mr. Spock which is ripping him up inside especially since just last week Mr. Spock testified so elegantly at his own court-martial.  And court-martial is what Mr. Spock wants.  He waives his right to a hearing altogether and asks to just move to the court-martial phase, Kirk refuses because it has to be at least three officers of command rank to conduct a court-martial.  Spock reminds his Captain that there are such three.  For Captain Pike is still on the active-duty list. 

                So the court-martial opens up with poor old Captain Pike dragged out to participate.  The Commodore demands to Mr. Spock explain why he is doing this.  Spock asks if that question is officially part of the record, the Commodore acknowledged that it is.  With that we come to the point of this episode: Mr. Spock pulls out “The Cage.”

When being court martialed on Star Trek make sure to have another episode to watch

                As the episode-in-the-episode begins the Commodore objects right away, claiming that no such recordings have ever been made on a starship.  I find that to be an odd claim considering just last week in Kirk's court-martial we saw video very similar to the bridge scene that we’re seeing right now.  One thing is clear however the person who decided the paint scheme for the bridge of the Enterprise in the time of Captain Kirk is a far superior talent then the person who is designed it back when Captain Pike was in charge.  Kirk probably just makes better personnel choices.  Mr. Spock has Captain Pike confirm that what we are seeing is genuine and that the images that are being shown are being shown as they happened.  Mendez does not want to continue, but Kirk wants to see more and Pike breaks the tie in Kirk’s favor.

                So to discuss what happens next I will use excerpts from my own review of “The Cage.”

“The first scene opens on the bridge of the USS Enterprise, the crew notice sensor reading of some unknown object out in space but they can’t pick it up on their view screen.  It turns out that it wasn’t an object at all but a radio waive designed to fool ship sensors to think it was an object.  Captain Pike says that it was an old-fashioned distress call that was designed to track attention.  Spock is able to trace the signal to planet Talos IV.   He reports that is an M class planet[1] and it is possible that there are survivors.   Pike however doesn’t think this is likely given that the message was very old.  Whoever sent it probably died or was rescued long ago.  Pike said they had their own “sick and wounded” and decided they should stay on course to the starbase they were already headed for.  Once that was settled they could come back just in case.”

            Notice the line about ‘not use to having a woman on the bridge’ was edited out.

The Bridge of the Enterprise for the first time.

“Captain Pike suddenly realizes he is being way too dark and moody to stay on the bridge and decides to go be dark and moody in his quarters instead.  While there he calls the Doctor to come see him.  Not because he is sick but because he knows Boyce will bring booze.  Doctor Boyce brings the booze and Pike pretends to be surprised.  The two drink and Pike starts crying in his martini  about how his last mission went and how he lost people under his command.  He feels guilty and wants to quit his job and go retire back to Earth or become a merchant.  He wants to do something other than what he is doing, while the Doctor thinks he just needs a vacation.   Just then a call from Mr. Spock interrupts their drinking to tell them they have located survivors.  It’s a good thing that Pike only had one drink because now he has to organize a landing party.

"So I heard you were being a dink on the bridge?"

“ Captain Pike organizes his landing party and leaves Number One in command of the Enterprise.  The away team uses the transporter, a mode of transportation that would become the staple of the series being used for the first time.   They transport far enough way as not to startle the survivors and then they walk to the camp.  When they get there they find a group of old scientists and a young beautiful woman named Vina.  

"Pike really likes Vina and she feels similarly about him.  She is not at all shy coming outright and saying what a fine specimen of a man he is.  The lead scientist explains Vina was a child when they landed and she spent her whole life among aging scientists”

            I have to admit when the camera cuts to the Talosians Commodore Mendez comments about not being real footage starts to make sense.

“While everyone is packing up, Vina takes Pike over the hill.  Pike probably thinks he is about to get lucky and is completely unaware of these large headed Talosians who have been watching him this whole time.   In an instant the camp and all its survivors disappear.  One of the Talosians appears from under the hill and zaps Pike with a weapon knocking him out.  They take him underground while the remaining landing party, led by Lts. Spock and Tyler try to free him by blasting the hill with their hand lasers, but to no avail.”

 

Vina wants that fine specimen of a man she is looking at!

         

"You can't take our Captain!  Oh, you can."

                As we come to the end of the episode it is revealed that the images are coming from Talos IV itself.  The Commodore uses that as an excuse to stop watching “The Cage.” Captain Kirk is removed from his command because his ship is in contact with the forbidden world.  Mr. Spock objects pointing out that Captain Kirk knew nothing of what was going on.  The Commodore points out to Mr. Spock that the captain is responsible for the actions of his men.  Which is a rule that they must’ve made up yesterday, because when Ben Finney was caught sabotaging the ship nearly killing everyone aboard after he faked his death no one thought of holding Captain Kirk accountable for it.  If anything they thought he was vindicated.

                This episode ends with Mr. Spock begging Captain Kirk to please watch the end of the episode because it was a great episode that should be viewed.  Or because he needs it understand one or the other.

Additional thoughts: As you can guess when it comes to two-parters I’m going to be reviewing them with each part being its own episode.  The only exception to this will be in series premieres and finals.  This will be useful for later series are going to use two-parters for their season finals.

                I have a special place in my heart for this episode when I first watched Star Trek as a kid I would occasionally catch episodes on the sci-fi channel.  In my day when I first started watching it was Star Trek: The Next Generation that was on all the time, from seeing the films however I myself preferred the original series but only got to watch it rarely.  Then came Columbia House, and I was able to order the entire series.  I got one tape a month with two episodes on it in the first one they sent me was The Menagerie parts 1 and 2.  So for brief while this episode was the only episode of Star Trek I had and I ended up watching quite a bit.

                I do think that the episode is a clever way of including the events from "The Cage" to be incorporated into the greater canon of Star Trek.  Otherwise it would have just gone down as a forgotten and failed pilot. 

                I have a theory that they were not paying attention to the Starbase numbers in each of these episodes considering this is supposed to be the exact same Starbase that we encountered in the immediate previous episode.  Although in some ways it could be made to make sense.  In this episode Kirk seems behind of the times or least not keeping up with Starfleet gossip.  Since space does not allow for instant communication in the same way we have in the 21^st century where we are all on the same planet, living in the Federation is more like it was during the old West where news may take months to spread.  It could’ve been their trip in the previous episode to this very Starbase is where Spock learned of Pike’s condition.  After all it looks like Spock had been planning this for quite some time.

                 As with all two-part episodes we don’t have the complete story and we have to wait for next week to find out how this is all resolved.  However it is a good cliffhanger and it should keep the viewer interested.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

CAPTAIN KIRK IS IN SERIOUS TROUBLE SO NATURALLY HE GETS A LAWYER

Episode Title:  Court Martial

Air Date: 2/2/1967

Written by Don M. Mankiewicz and Steven W. Carabatsos

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              Richard Webb  as Lieutenant Commander Ben Finney        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley                  Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                     Hagan Beggs as unnamed Helmsman      Nancy Wong as Ensign who was  Personnel Officer              Tom Curtis as Crewman Corrigan                  Winston DeLugo as Timothy          Elisha Cook Jr. as Samuel T. Cogley, Esq.        Joan Marshall as Lieutenant Areel Shaw               Percy Rodriguez as Commodore Stone         Bart Conrad as Captain Krasnovsky               William Meader as Captain Lindstrom               Reginald Lal Singh as Captain Nensi Chandra            Alice Rawlings as Jamie Finney         Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer 

Ships and Space Stations: USS Enterprise NCC-1701,  Starbase 11, unnamed Constitution Class Starship, several unnamed shuttle craft

Planets:  unnamed planet that hosts Starbase 11

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with Captain Kirk at Starbase 11 reporting to Commodore Stone about the death of one of his crew members.  The lost crew member is Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney.  The Enterprise had encountered ion storm.  While in the storm Cmdr. Finney was in a pod that had to be ejected by Captain Kirk himself.  The whole story itself is rather weird why these pods are necessary is never really quite explained nor is it ever understood why before going into a dangerous ion storm someone would have to board one of these pods to begin with.  

Kirk meeting with his superior officer

It’s at this point that Mr. Spock shows up.  He beams down with the official computer records and presents them to the Commodore.  Stone looks at them then asks Kirk if there’s anything about his story he wants to change, Kirk says no, and then Stone tells Kirk he’s either mad or willfully ignorant for Finney’s pod was ejected before the red alert siren.

Something is not adding it up

With the computer now against him Captain Kirk has to tell his story on the record officially for Commodore Stone.  Kirk tells a story of him and Ben Finney that Finney had been an instructor at Starfleet Academy when he was just a cadet, in a way is their relationship was the reverse of him and Gary Mitchell.  They formed a tight friendship and Mr. Finney even went so far to name his young daughter in honor of James Kirk.  During a period of time where they’re both serving on the Republic, the then Ensign Kirk relieved a Lt. Finney of duty and noticed an open circuit.  That circuit should’ve been noticed and corrected by Lt. Finney but Kirk corrected it himself and logged what he did.  This caused Finney to get in trouble and drop him to the bottom of the promotion list.  The two men eventually got past what had happened to recover their friendship but since then Kirk rose all the way to become one of the greatest Starfleet captains and Finney was still waiting for his first command.  Kirk  repeats the story about how they were heading into the ion storm so the plot demands that a member of the crew has to be put in danger and the list said it was Finney’s turn.  Kirk warns him when the yellow alert came on he warned Finney that he had to get out of their or he would be dead.   Kirk then activates the red alert and few moments later jettisoned the pod.  

However since the computer is against Kirk and the computer is never wrong Commodore Stone tries to talk Kirk into accepting a desk job, he feels that Kirk was probably stressed and panicked and doesn’t think he should be sent a Federation Penal Colony because of it since we know how bad they can be.  Kirk refuses and demands a court martial.

After Captain Kirk gives his deposition to Commodore Stone, Jamie enters the room.  His namesake is infuriated she looks at him and calls him a murderer, Jamie’s reaction breaks his heart he tries to give his sympathy and explain but she has no intention of listening to the Captain.  And she is not the only one who is upset, when Kirk visits the bar on Starbase 11 he is confronted by number of officers some of whom he went to the Academy with all of them upset over the death of Lt. Cmdr. Finney.  It’s understandable considering at this point the computer records all say that he did it, Captain Kirk elects to leave the bar rather than confront men over the accusation that they have already made up their minds.

Kirk's namesake and Finney's daughter

As Kirk leaves McCoy runs into a beautiful woman and attempts to flirt letting her know that she had just past the famous Captain James T Kirk.  She said she is quite familiar with Kirk and McCoy asks if she’s a friend or foe to which she replies friend.  McCoy wonders how Captain Kirk and have so many beautiful women amongst his circle of friends.   She introduces herself as Lt. Areel Shaw and she asked Dr. McCoy if you’d be kind enough to arrange for Kirk to meet her.  McCoy agrees to let Kirk know that she is here.

Captain Kirk meets with Lt. Shaw and they get caught up on old times. It is very clear that the two of them at one point had a real romantic relationship and they still generally cared about one another.  She gives him advice on how the prosecuting attorney’s most likely to proceed and what he needs to defend himself.  She has even gone out of her way to contact an attorney on his behalf a civilian named Samuel T. Cogley, Esq.  Kirk is pleased to see that she still cares and is taking an active interest in this case not to mention believing him as well.  In a moment where Captain Kirk forgot there is such a thing called judicial ethics he asks Lt. Shaw why she can’t be his lawyer.  Then Lt. Shaw shows Kirk and the audience that there are no legal ethics in the 23^rd century and that she’s already involved in the case as the prosecuting attorney.  That’s right in the United Federation of Planets is perfectly acceptable for one’s former significant other to be their prosecuting attorney and no one thinks the wiser.  Dr. McCoy’s earlier suggestion about possibly hooking up with Yeoman Rand no longer seems odd at all.

When you meet your old girlfriend and she tries to send you to jail

Captain Kirk enters the quarters that he’s been assigned to on Starbase 11 and finds Samuel T. Cogley Esq. has already moved in.  Yes he’s moved in, in the 23^rd century when you need an attorney your attorney comes to live with you.  He also brings with him stacks upon stacks of books, mostly law books, to help him in his case for Captain Kirk.  Kirk wonders why he does doesn’t use a computer like normal people,  Cogley responds by explaining to the Captain that the law is in the books and you if you want understand the law must you read in the books.  That doesn’t make any sense to me but I suppose a crazy lawyer has some advantages when it comes to courtroom strategy.

Kirk's new lawyer and roommate

The court-martial begins Kirk is asked if there’s any person involved in the court-martial the he feels prejudiced against him to which he says no.  Lt. Shaw calls the USS Enterprise’s personnel officer to explain the history that we already heard of why Finney didn’t like Kirk.  Then she has Dr. McCoy testify with his knowledge of space psychology and asks him if Kirk knew that Finney hated him then he might also hate Finney.   That seems like some awfully bizarre logic and Dr. McCoy says so at the time.   Shaw has Spock testify to what happened on the bridge to which Spock then declares that Captain Kirk is innocent in the computer is in error because Captain Kirk cannot do what it is that he is accused of doing.  It seems to me at this point things are going Kirk’s way: the motive Shaw assigns Kirk is highly in doubt and the two of three witnesses were fans and friends of Captain Kirk who testified that the evidence against him was faulty and against the nature of his character. 

Cogley never cross-examined any of the witnesses that strikes me as fine as I think things were going his way anyway and then he does something really bizarre: he has Captain Kirk take the stand.  Now most lawyers try to keep their clients from testifying in their own cases however as we already demonstrated:  Cogley is somewhat crazy. Captain Kirk’s long list of rewards is read out for the record and Kirk confidently testifies to what happened on the bridge.  Then Lt. Shaw delivers a devastating piece of evidence she has a videotape of Captain Kirk ejecting the pod on yellow alert.  It looks like Kirk is toast.

Ex-girlfriend with her game face

As Captain Kirk’s fate is still being decided Jamie now feeling guilty asks Captain Kirk to take a plea deal and just accept the ground assignment.  The Captain is happy that Jamie no longer hates him but he’s going to take his chances. Then Spock calls to let Captain Kirk know that he went over the computer one last time hoping to find an error and he couldn’t, Kirk thanks him for his efforts and lets him know he may be able to beat his next Captain at chess.  This makes Mr. Spock think and he goes to play chess with the computer.  Dr. McCoy finds him and is surprised that he’s playing a game when the Captain’s career is on the line.  I personally don’t see why so surprising people do lots of things in distress to distract themselves particularly when there’s nothing they can do about with is happening, however Mr. Spock had a plan and he is able to use the computer’s chess program to proven an error. 

Spock and McCoy show up in the courtroom just as Cogley rests his case.  They explain they have new evidence and Cogley turns the tribunal and tells that to the Commodore.  Commodore Stone shows some general interest in what this evidence might be, then Cogley goes on to a long rant which is completely pointless.  Now I’m sure the two writers probably thought that the speech by Cogley about rights was the greatest part of the episode and were so happy and proud to put it there. However it doesn’t make any sense for Cogley to go on his rant when the Commodore has already asked about the evidence instead of pointing out that Cogley had rested his case, which when you want to get technical about meant that their time to present evidence was now over.  Nevertheless we get to hear his rant about rights and about how unfair it was that Captain Kirk was not allowed to confront the computer.  

The court-martial moves to the Enterprise where Mr. Spock explains to the tribunal that he programed the computer with an equal amount of skill as his own.  Therefore if he played it and he made no error the best he could hope for be a stalemate after a stalemate.  Yet when he played the computer he beat it five straight times, more times than would be logical to suggest he had just gotten better.  Someone had sabotaged the computer and is only three people on the Enterprise who had the authority to do that: Kirk, Spock, and Finney.

  

Spock outsmarting the computer

The court-martial then moved to the bridge of the Enterprise and nearly the entire crew is transported to the Starbase with exceptional of the court-martial tribunal, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Lt. Uhura, unnamed helmsman, and Lt. Shaw.  Dr. McCoy and Mr. Spock take over the use of technology of the Enterprise to track the heartbeats of all who remain on the ship they find there is one extra heartbeat hiding in engineering room.  This is bad because from there Finney has managed to sabotage the ship making it difficult to turn back on and prevent it's orbit from decaying.

Tribunal on the bridge, imagine being Lt Uhura normally there is only one captain!

Captain Kirk leaves the bridge and heads to engineering to confront Finney.  When Kirk arrives Finney gets the drop on him with a phaser.  Finney confesses to everything how he framed Captain Kirk for his death in revenge for him stalling his career.  Kirk tells Finney that they need to restore the ships power and stabilize the orbit for if they don’t they will all die and Kirk lets Finney know that his lawyer Cogley brought Jamie aboard ship. Finney begins the panic in this gives Kirk an opening.   Kirk attacks Finney with his amazing set of fighting skills that are unmatched anywhere the side of the galaxy.  Finney shows that he can fight too but his skills are nowhere near as amazing as the graceful and vicious attacks that Captain Kirk can impose on opponent.  Kirk defeats Finney and then goes to undo this to sabotage the Finney did to the ship saving it in the nick of time.

Finney looking good for a dead guy!

The episode ends with Kirk now fully exonerated saying goodbye to his former girlfriend and former prosecutor, Lt. Shaw, he gives her a parting kiss.  It’s a good thing we established that there are no legal ethics the Federation or conflicts of interest for that matter because she leaves telling him that Samuel D Cogley is now representing Lt. Cmdr. Ben Finney in his court-martial.

Additional thoughts: When I went to watch this episode again for the review I was determined from memory that I was going to spend a good deal of time discussing what is portrayed about Starfleet’s unrealistic and rigid standards for story purposes. We often hear about that Starfleet Academy is so difficult that only the best of the best can possibly get through it, yet we encounter incompetent officers from the Academy all the time.  In this story Ben Finney makes a terrible mistake early in his career and because it is logged on his record it makes it near impossible for him to get his own command, at least according to Finney.  I remembered how silly I thought that was when I first watched the episode when I was a teenager.  In real life Chester W Nimitz, when he was an ensign, was in charge of small ship that was run aground.  As a consequence he received a letter of reprimand entered into his record.  This is did not stop him from becoming one of our great leaders of World War II and one of the few naval officers to rise to the rank of fleet admiral.  It would seem to me is organization that would still hold onto a mistake made by officer decades after the event despite other achievements in his career would tell me something very negative about that organization. However as I re-watched this episode a new question emerged in my brain: was Finney’s career as negatively impacted as he thought?

Let’s view this from Finney’s perspective for second.  He first meets Captain Kirk when Kirk is only a cadet and he is a lieutenant serving as an instructor.   Later when serving together on the Republic the incident happens and ever since then Finney received only a single promotion to the rank of lieutenant commander while Kirk rose all way to captain it is now Finney’s boss.  It is easy to see why this might rub somebody the wrong way.  But is Finney making a huge error by comparing his career to Captain Kirk’s?  One of the things we know about Kirk is that he’s an exceptional officer, he’s considered to be the very best, and his rise the position of Starfleet captain is unparalleled for its speed.  Any officer comparing their careers to Captain Kirk is going to view their own career probably negatively. Picture a normal eighth-grader meeting a five-year-old child genius and then being shocked when that same child genius graduates high school before him. 

McCoy, a lieutenant commander just like Finney

 Now lets compare Finney’s career to other officers around the same age.  Finney is in his late 30s possible early 40s.  So he is about the same age as Mr. Spock, Mr. Scott, and Dr. McCoy.  Finney holds the rank of lieutenant commander, the exact same rank as the three other characters mentioned.  Also where is he in the command structure of the ship?  I mentioned in my review of “Where No Man has Gone Before” that while the traditional Star Trek command structure for the Enterprise is Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock as first officer, Mr. Scott as second officer, and Mr. Sulu as third officer.  However up to this point in the series we have yet to see command of the Enterprise fall below Mr. Spock.  So I’m not sure if that is command structure is set up yet.  As I said about Gary Mitchell I thought it was a very high probability that he in “Where No Man” may have been the second officer.  It would make narrative sense command of the Enterprise to have started Kirk/Spock/Mitchell/Scott, after losing Mitchell, Kirk still early on in his command wanted, to have someone familiar in his command structure and he was still getting to know Mr. Spock and Mr. Scott.  So he asks for Ben Finney to transfer over, a gold shirted lieutenant commander, to serve as the ship’s second officer as well as records officer.  Then after the events in this episode Mr. Scott is bumped up to second officer and invites Mr. Sulu to be the third officer. 

Mr. Spock, also a lieutenant commander like Finney 

So Ben Finney was a lieutenant commander and the second officer of starship, it doesn’t look like his career is suffering that much.   In addition, he also wears the rank insignia of a full commander not a lieutenant commander.  Now this could just be a wardrobe design error or maybe, like our dear Mr. Spock, Finney is frocking because a promotion is already scheduled.  This guy looks like he’s headed for full commander and most likely a first officer job somewhere.  It doesn’t look like his career is doing so badly after all. That is until he ruins it himself by focusing on the success of Captain Kirk.

That look on your face when you wreak your career and Kirk still lives!

One of the great unanswered questions of this episode is: was Jamie involved and how much did she know and when did she know it?  In one moment she’s angry at Captain Kirk blaming him and later she’s playing for mercy for him.  I just felt in every scene that she was in on it but this is never answered. Finney’s goal was not for Kirk to be convicted but for him to take a plea deal and accept the ground assignment.  This would complete his revenge for Kirk would now have a reduced Starfleet career just like he was forced to endure (at least in his mind).  I think there’s a third Jamie scene the needed to be shown.

Kirk and his lawyer

So about Captain Kirk’s chair, in the altered recording we get a good look at what the top Captain Kirk’s chair looks like.  Now I always assumed that the buttons on the captain’s chair just represented communication.  This allows him to talk to engineering or talk to the science department.  I didn’t realize he could just do red alert/yellow alert from his chair.  If this is the case why does he always order someone else to do it?  Wouldn’t be faster for him to the push the button himself rather than tell someone else to push a button?  Also he can jettison the pod from his chair?  Shouldn’t that be an order he gives to another station?  It seems to me this is a one-off deal for this rather poorly written episode.

On a positive note, I would like to note the social forward thinking that often make Star Trek great.  Star Trek’s rather casual commitment to diversity is part of what makes a show legendary.  We know through Nichelle Nichols, that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was a fan of the series for that reason.  Now Star Trek was aired out of order, however when you watch the series in production order—as I choose to for both myself and this blog—this is the first episode where we encounter a Starfleet officer who’s higher than Captain Kirk.  We met a Federation official in the previous episode but he himself was not part of Starfleet.  Since the show takes place on a starship the captain is typically speaking the highest ranking official we ever see on an episode to episode basis.   In this episode however we get Commodore Stone, the first Starfleet official we see Kirk reporting to.  Not only does he outrank our Captain, but he himself has held that position.  He lectures Kirk on the pressures of being a starship captain, as something they have both experienced. Commodore Stone is an African-American, shown as a high ranking Starfleet officer in the episode that aired a little under three years after the Civil Rights Act was passed.  In addition to the Commodore, when Kirk is court-martialed there are three more captains who join the tribunal one and they are quite a diverse panel.  Although I should point out they are all men.

Kirk's Tribunal 

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5

MR. SPOCK LEARNS IMPORTANT LESSONS ON COMMAND, WHICH IS GOOD SEEING AS HE IS ALREADY THE FIRST OFFICER

Episode Title:  The Galileo Seven

Air Date: 1/5/1967

Written by Oliver Crawford and Shimon Wincelberg (under the pen name "S. Bar-David")

Directed by Robert Gist

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Don Marshall as  Lieutenant Boma            Peter Marko as Lieutenant Gaetano            Rees Vaughn as Lieutenant Latimer                 Grant Woods as Lieutenant Kelowitz          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Phyllis Douglas as Yeoman Second Class Mears       David Ross as the Transporter Chief         Ron Veto as Crewman          John Crawford as High Commissioner Ferris           Robert ‘Big Buck’ Maffei as the Creature of Taurus II          Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer

  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo NCC-1701/7, Columbus NCC-1701/2

Planets:  Taurus II

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise on a mission to deliver much-needed medical supplies to Makus III.  However on their way there they discover a quasar-like formation identified as Murasaki 312.  Kirk, with standing orders to study such a phenomenon, decides to stop by and check it out.   This is extremely irritating to the Enterprise’s guest High Commissioner Ferris, who dresses like he just came out of one of the more modern Star Trek shows that take place in the past.  He does not like this delay and feels the primary mission should be more important.  Kirk explains they have five days to get there in the rendezvous point is only three days away therefore they have two days to study Murasaki 312.

Wants Captain Kirk to share his priorities. 

I have to say right from the start I actually agree with High Commissioner Ferris.  I mean shouldn’t the medical supplies receive top priority?  The quasar -like formation doesn’t look like is going anywhere and it also looks like they could spend a lot more time than just two days studying it.  So instead of doing a rushed research job why don’t they drop off the High Commissioner and the supplies then had back and take their sweet time looking over the formation?  I think I would be a great senior officer for Captain Kirk with my advice he can avoid all sorts of plot driven irrational decisions that might cause problems for him his crew.  Of course that might make for more boring TV show.

Crash landing everyone out of the boat!  Why aren't shuttlecraft called star boats?

Given that the formation would interfere with transporter signals they decide to use the shuttlecraft, which Lt. Sulu should remind them about the time they forgot about those helpful shuttles while he was stuck on a freezing planet waiting for Captain Kirk to put himself back together.  They send a team of seven led by Mr. Spock in the shuttlecraft Galileo to explore the Murasaki 312.  Mr. Spock’s team consists of Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, three lieutenants, and a yeoman.  How much must it stink to have to be that poor little Yeoman?  You’re the only enlisted personnel with three lieutenant commanders, and three lieutenants.  Talk about being a low person the totem pole.  I hope the ship doesn’t crash somewhere and she has a spend time as everyone’s personal servant seeing as everyone outranks her by several levels.

Crashing unfortunately is what they do as the Murasaki 312 causes them to lose control the shuttle and they end up crashing on the planet Taurus II.  On the ship High Commissioner Ferris is furious at the situation he reminds Captain Kirk that he is on a deadline that medical supplies need to be delivered.  Kirk understands that he is on a deadline but he swears he will use his full two days to try to find his missing crewmembers.  Kirk has his crew work double time to try to restore the ships functions so they can be adapted to be used in the quasar -like formation.  He sends out a second shuttlecraft, this one Columbus, to help search for their missing companions.  Throughout the rest of this episode we get cutbacks of the ship where High Commissioner Ferris is pointing at the clock to Kirk telling him that he needs to get a move on.

In between a rock and a hard place for Captain Kirk

On the planet surface the crew the shuttlecraft recovers from the crash.  Spock of has the two lieutenants in gold grab phasers and secure the area.  While he has the lieutenants searching he and Mr. Scott set about fixing the shuttle.  Unfortunately Scotty discovers that in order to lift off the shuttle is going to have to lose some weight about 500 pounds.  This means that three grown men will have to stay behind.  Lt. Boma wonders if they’re going to draw lots, to which Spock says that the final decision will be up to him.  I wonder if Mr. Spock now feels as judgmental as he did on our last adventure about Kodos the Executioner.

The two lieutenants are attacked by natives and one of them is killed.  In addition to that problem many in the shuttlecraft crew are starting to take issue with Mr. Spock’s rather cold handling of the matter.  Dr. McCoy at the start of this mission tried to give Spock a pep talk encouraging him about his first command, and tried to advise him on dealing with humans.  Spock at first is not intimidated by the situation of being in command he explains the McCoy that it just is. Spock is under the mistaken impression that he’s dealing professional Starfleet officers who can set aside emotion, follow their orders, and perform their duty with pure professionalism all the time.  Spock fails to appreciate that some people crack under pressure in fact in this case is everyone who is not a series star or a yeoman seems to break whenever the pressure gets tough.

When the times get tough break under pressure.

Spock in order to keep the natives away comes up with a more nonviolent plan of simply scaring the natives with their superior weapons, as opposed to more violent situation that his subordinates want him to do.  Spock’s plan doesn’t really work and the names will eventually come back and try to harm them.  In the fighting the other yellow shirted lieutenant is killed.  His death makes one thing a little easier: they no longer have to leave anyone behind.  They started needing to strain three but by ditching some equipment on the shuttle they could spare one.  With the death of two crew members it eliminates the problem of having to leave anyone behind.  They could have escaped sooner but the overly sentimental crew member, Lt. Boma, keeps insisting they need to risk their life in order to properly bury their comrades.

In attempting to repair the shuttle Scotty discovered that their fuel was completely drained when they accidentally tried to bypass it.  Later Scotty working his normal miracle skills of engineering is able to use the phasers’ energy recharge the engines.  The natives almost prevent them from escaping by climbing on to the shuttle but Scotty is able to electrify the surface of their shuttle causing them to back away without permanently hurting them.  The shuttle takes off and is heading into orbit.  Unfortunately the Enterprise has run out of time and High Commissioner Ferris has ordered Kirk to leave.  Kirk showing some passive aggressiveness decides to leave at the slow speed legally possible.

Repairing the shuttle

Spock now realizing the situation is desperate ignites the fuel which will light a flare he hopes the Enterprise will see.  This will speed up their deaths if it doesn’t work but to be fair they probably would die anyway if left to their own devices.  The gamble works and Kirk sees the flare he turns the Enterprise around to rescue his comrades.  The engineers who work under Scotty have done their jobs well and adjusted the ship’s equipment so that transporters will work even of the conditions of the phenomenon.  At the last moment the survivors of the party of the Galileo are beamed back aboard the Enterprise.

As the Enterprise is heading towards Makus III to deliver the medical supplies, the bridge crew led by Kirk confronts Spock about his decision to ignite the fuel.  Kirk asked Spock if this was a decision that was of the result of emotion.  Mr. Spock said it was not in fact he had simply carefully and analyzed the problem from all directions and concluded that the situation was hopeless.  Kirk then says that he logically concluded that it was time for an act of desperation.  The bridge crew has a laugh at the expense of the First Officer. 

Additional thoughts: The theme of this episode was supposed to be about Mr. Spock learning how to command amongst us illogical humans.  Unfortunately this is something that Mr. Spock should’ve learned of before now.  Mr. Spock is the first officer as such he should already have plenty of experience commanding others.  In fact in Mr. Spock’s very first appearance in “The Cage” he is giving orders to members of the bridge crew.  If you’re watching the series in air date order the first scene of “The Man Trap” has Mr. Spock sitting in the command chair.  I think a story such as this would work better if were presented in a series of flashbacks in an episode where Mr. Spock was recalling an early point in his career.

McCoy trying to talk with Spock

                Another place where this episode loses its point is the people in the shuttlecraft, or should I say primarily the lieutenants, come off as complete jerks.  They’re always hampering on Spock for the littlest of things.  Spock breathes incorrectly and they are ready to be down his throat about it. They’re always watching him to see if he screws up to so they can use it as an excuse to pounce on him.  The other three members are fine; Dr. McCoy picks on Spock a bit but Dr. McCoy’s always doing it from a good place.  McCoy is trying to help Spock lead the crew better with his goal being an improved situation for everyone, where the three lieutenants almost seem to take some particular joy in harassing him.
 

No, will not get away!

                This is not to say that Mr. Spock does not make some mistakes.  For example critiquing a weapon’s efficiency after it just killed a member of your crew is not exactly very tactful.  However the excessive second-guessing and questioning of loyalty from some of the shuttlecraft crew carries far beyond reason. When Mr. Spock says that three men may have to be left behind is there really a doubt on any of our minds that Mr. Spock would’ve chose himself as one of three? I knowledge my own personal bias after all I like Mr. Spock and I don’t like these one-off characters who won’t be here next episode.  Nevertheless the level of insubordination that is distributed by them seems to be way off base for Starfleet officers.  They’re constantly questioning his decisions; they often seem to forget that in these military type environments decisions aren’t made in a democratic fashion.  

The problem doesn’t seem to be Mr. Spock the problem seems to be these lieutenants.  It reminds me of the real life adventures of John Paul Jones he probably would’ve been much more successful if only had a crew that was equally committed to the tasks that he was.  Captain Jones had to deal with the crew were closer to pirates than they were the officers and men of the U.S. Navy.  Yet Mr. Spock is serving with Starfleet officers whose character should be of a higher ideal than what we saw.  Often they are more concerned about how they were burying their dead than they were with surviving.  Which I guess would’ve ultimately led to quite the conundrum when the last one died after all who is good to give him a proper burial?  Yet the episode shows this to be a problem of Mr. Spock failing to take the cause of corpses over living breathing people.

The Flare!

Another place episode tried to critique Mr. Spock is a decision to try to be as gentle with the natives as he most possibly could.  It should be pointed out that the crew shuttlecraft Galileo crashed into their home and the strange creatures popped out of it.  Why shouldn’t they be scared?  Why shouldn’t they try to defend themselves?  Because Mr. Spock chose to try to scare them is implied that he made the wrong decision because they didn’t scare away so easily.  There is no guarantee that had Mr. Spock responded more violently then they would have stayed away.  Who knows, they may have come back with even greater numbers and more quickly if Mr. Spock a chosen to draw blood.  That point is never brought up, is simply implied that Mr. Spock for not listening to his crew caused people to die.  That is a load of crap.

On a brighter note, I did enjoy seeing Mr. Scott’s engineering skills given a chance to shine.  Mr. Scott had been missing from a number of episodes and to be fair there wasn’t much on those episodes for him to do anyway, no engineering miracles were needed.  The last time those skills were needed credit might’ve gotten more to Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock than Scotty.  It’s great that we get see Mr. Scott be the miracle worker.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5