CAPTAIN KIRK MEETS HIS OWN “CAPTAIN KIRK” AND IS VERY DISAPPOINTED

 

Episode Title:  Whom Gods Destroy

Air Date: 1/3/1969

Written by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl

Directed by Herb Wallerstein

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as 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          Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent     Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli   Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman         Steve Ihnat as Fleet Captain Garth          Yvonne Craig as Marta        Keye Luke as Governor Cory        Dick Geary as unnamed Andorian        Gary Downey as unnamed Tellarite

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Elba II

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise sets into orbit around Elba II, a rather inhospitable planet whose atmosphere could kill a humanoid in a short time, but one with an elaborate facility dedicated to treating the mentally insane.  The good news is Federation scientists have pulled together a new medicine that we are told will cure mental illness for all time.  You think this would be one of Dr. McCoy’s away missions but he is left on the ship as Kirk and Spock go at it alone.  

Hoping to aid these suffering people!

As the Captain and the First Officer beam down, they are greeted by Governor Cory who administers the planet.  That isn’t as impressive as it might sound because as already stated the medical facility is only thing on the planet.  While dropping off the medicine, the Governor tells them that they have a new patient, Fleet Captain Garth of Izar.  To Captain Kirk this as exciting as a Star Trek fan finding out that William Shatner has entered the building.  This man is Kirk’s personal hero and despite his condition the Captain would apricated the opportunity to stare at him even if it is awkward.  Cory allows this and they leave to see the once great Fleet Captain.

This is not the way Kirk imagined this meeting going!

Before they see Garth, they come across Batgirl, who is now green.   I have to pause for a moment just to appreciate the third Batman cross over in a row.  First Catwoman, then the Riddler, and now Batgirl.  Where is Adam West and Burt Ward?  Will they be here next week?  Batgirl, who is named Marta, claims Cory isn’t who he says he is.  However, they ignore her because she is crazy.  That turns out to be a mistake because when they reach Garth’s cell, they find another Cory in there.  Turns out Garth now has shape shifting powers and with pull of a switch, Kirk and Spock see that the lunatics are in charge of the asylum and they are now prisoners with the Governor.

Kirk learns from the Governor that Garth was injured on a mission to Antos IV.  The Antonians helped Garth heal himself by teaching him how to take control of his own atomic structure.  He used the ability to rebuild himself and gained the power to assume other people’s form temporally.  Unfortunately for everyone concerned it also made him insane.  His crew prevented him from destroying Antos IV by reliving him of command and imprisoning him.  Now in this asylum he managed to use his powers to take control.  In addition, Cory says that Garth has invented an explosive that can wreck the atmosphere of a planet.  

Garth takes the form of Captain Kirk with intent of taking over the Enterprise. Garth runs into a problem when trying to beam aboard.  Scotty says a chess move to him “Queen to Queen’s Level 3.” He repeats it when Kirk/Garth gets annoyed.  You see Garth is unlucky because Captain Kirk had been to a Federation Mental Institution before and was taken hostage.  On top of that he also has had copies of himself try to take command of his ship before.  So going to one these places Kirk gave Scotty a pass word for them to use in order to prevent something like what happened before.  (The hilarious part here is although this plan did successfully prevent Garth from boarding the Enterprise, it wouldn’t have stopped either of the pervious encounters.)

Kirk and Spock as Garth's "guests"

Garth has Kirk and Spock dine with him.  At their dinner they are all entertained by the beautiful Marta in all green Batgirl glory with both with dance and poetry.  There is an entertaining scene where Marta plagiarizes Shakespeare and gets called out by Garth.  The two of them have a serious Joker/Harley Quinn thing going on.  The entire time Garth is trying to get Kirk to give him the password while Kirk tries to appeal to the man Garth use to be by reminding him of the brotherhood of Starfleet officers using himself and Spock as an example.  Garth is amused but unmoved.

Back on the ship Scotty is still trying to figure out with Dr. McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura exactly what is going on.  They think the Captain maybe in trouble but they wonder why he just didn’t come out and say he was in trouble. They want to help but the facility is protected by a shield and they are afraid that if the use the Enterprise’s power against it they will destroy the outpost and everyone inside of it. Which doesn’t make any sense!  I mean if you can shift the ship’s phasers to stun to stop some gangsters then you certainly can adjust them to not kill everyone on the planet.

The Passion of Dr. Cory

Since entertainment did not win Kirk over, Garth tries a new method.  He has Governor Cory brought out and begins to misuse a treatment chair as a torture device.  This makes Kirk sad but doesn’t break him.  After all, if Spock and McCoy being threatened by duplicate Earth Romans doesn’t sway Kirk, he clearly won’t be swayed by torturing a stranger.  Garth then tries to torture Kirk directly, however this is not even the worst torture Kirk has ever had so it fails. 

Kirk's thinks "I have been in a chair like this before."

After Kirk’s torture session he awakens in a room with Marta the green Batgirl taking care of him.  She confesses her love for him and how she couldn’t allow him to suffer.  Then she tries to murder him.  She needs to kill him because she loves or so she tells Spock who comes to the rescue.  Spock and Kirk sneak into the station control room.  When they contact Scotty he asks “Queen to Queen’s level three,” Kirk orders Spock to give the pass code.  He can’t because he is not Spock.  Reverting to his Garth form he lets Kirk know that the phaser “Spock” gave him will not fire.  Now that Kirk is again his prisoner, Garth thinks a coronation will allow Kirk to recognize his legitimacy.

The Dancing Green Batgirl

Garth decides to create his own coronation ceremony.  Garth’s fellow patients, who are now his minions, take a chair and put higher level in the room so it becomes a throne.  Garth has a silly crown made up to wear on his head.  He crowns himself “Lord Garth, Master of the Universe.” He takes Marta as his consort and offers Kirk the role of his heir apparent.  Kirk still isn’t moved by this silly show.

The "coronation" of Lord Garth

To up the ante Garth decides to sacrifice Marta his consort.  He has his men through her out into the environment which alone is fatal.  However, Garth won’t allow his “consort” to suffer so he kills using his explosive material.  As soon as the explosion happens the Enterprise picks it up with their sensors.  At this moment Scotty realizes that he can fire the ship’s phasers at the station in a way that won’t hurt anyone.

You know Garth is crazy because he thinks this looks cool!

Realizing that he needs Kirk to break and the only way he can do that would be to threaten Spock. (Again, Garth wasn’t on the Roman planet so he doesn’t realize that plan won’t work.) Spock feigns unconsciousness and when he is being carried, he pulls a double nerve pinch on his attackers. Garth notices Spock has gotten the upper hand so he takes the form of Kirk.  Ironically this isn’t the first time that Spock has seen two Kirks in the same room before. This time he is sure one of them is fake, but after some false starts Spock just decides to wait for Garth to be forced to change back.  With that he tries to take a seat but one of the Kirks attacks him.  The two Kirks fight until one of them yells at Spock to stun them both.  Spock knows he is the true Kirk and stuns the other.  The real Kirk then calls the Enterprise for reinforcements and more of the medicine they were supposed to deliver from the start. When Scotty says “Queen to Queen’s Level Three” Kirk responds with “Queen to King’s Level One.” 

Later we see a recovered Dr. Cory treating Fleet Captain Garth, and as Kirk speaks with him it becomes clear that both Garth and the others are on their road to recovery. 

Additional thoughts: I don’t believe in the phrase “never meet your heroes” but if you do, please remember that they are human.  Kirk gets to meet his hero and finds himself playing the Batman role to his Joker.  I need to knock off the Batman references and I will when I stop seeing so many Batman actors.

The death of a Batgirl

The only thing I don’t like about this episode was the explosive that Garth had apparently invented.  I think it would have been better to leave that story element out.  It ended up being a Chekov’s Gun that never quite fired. I mean it did but it was quite underwhelming, it only killed one person who was already going to die.  It didn’t seem that impressive of an explosion without the Enterprise bridge crew saying it was.  

This is like the third time Kirk has had to fight himself. 

If anything, I think this is episode is a great example about how low-level threats can make episodes just as exciting as galaxy-ending threats.  Garth is hopelessly insane and very fun to watch.  You are never quite sure what he is going to do.  He can’t seem to keep a thought straight for more than a few minutes and becomes beyond enraged at stupid things. You feel that Kirk and Spock are endanger because he could randomly go off and kill either one of them.   Yet he can’t go beyond the asylum, even if boarded the Enterprise is Kirk’s form it would only be a short while before he discovered and overthrown.  That was exactly what happened on his own ship.  As soon as his insanity was made apparent his own crew got rid of him.

So, when was Garth’s time with Starfleet exactly?   Kirk said that Garth’s strategies were required reading at the Academy.  This would mean that Garth had been a famous starship captain for at least fifteen years.  However, it appears he remained a captain rather than moving on to command a Starbase as a commodore or admiral.  Although he has reached the rank of fleet captain.  (They should really get around to explaining what it is a fleet captain does.) The way his fall is discussed makes one conclude that this happened recently.  So, Captain Garth has been a starship captain for decades at this point, achieved fame, and Kirk who idolizes Garth while being a starship captain himself has never been able to meet him. 

Why is it so often that when Kirk meets a captain or former captain, they are messed up in the head?  Now to be fair I do want to give some praise here; Garth is the first former captain not to fall into the whole “my crew has died I can’t deal with it” trap.  His insanity is instead caused by an accident to him personally and nothing to do with his crew.  He may have lost his mind but his reputation as a commanding officer is still clearly intact.

Getting Better

One of my favorite moments of the episode had almost nothing to do with the plot.  When faced with the two Kirks Spock asks them what maneuver they used to trick the Romulan vessel near Tau Ceti.  One of the Kirks answers correctly “the Cochrane Deceleration Maneuver!” The other points out that maneuver is standard and any starship captain would know it.  What is so great about this scene is how it expands the Star Trek universe.  What they are referring to took place in neither "The Balance of Terror," "The Deadly Years," nor "The Enterprise Incident."  So, Spock is talking about an untold tale of a battle between the Enterprise and a Romulan vessel.  This means the five-year mission that the crew goes on is far richer than we are seeing.  These gaps of time are where many great Star Trek novels are featured.   

The only other complaint I had about this episode was the B-plot of Scotty and McCoy on the Enterprise added nothing to the overall story, except to remind us that they do have a ship. Other than that, this was a great episode.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

THE RACISM EPISODE

 

Episode Title:  Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

Air Date: 1/10/1969

Written by Oliver Crawford and Gene L. Coon

Directed by Jud Taylor

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as 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          Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent     Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli   Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov             Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman         Frank Gorshin as Commissioner Bele          Lou Antonio as Lokai      

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, da Vinci SB4-0314/2, invisible Cheronian ship

Planets:  Cheron, Ariannus

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is heading the planet Ariannus that has had a horrible accident and needs the resources of a Starfleet starship to decontaminate their planet.  However, while they are on their way the sensors pick up a Starfleet shuttlecraft.  Its markings show it to be the stolen shuttlecraft from Starbase 4.  They also show the occupant to be injured and almost dying.  The crew performs a recapture/rescue operation and brings the shuttlecraft aboard.

In sickbay Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all taken a bit aback by the stranger’s complexion.  He is half-white and half-black down the middle.  They did not think such a look was possible and concluded it was a genetic mutation and he must be one of kind.  Why they think is beyond me.  I mean they run into duplicate Earths all the time.  Strangely colored people are somehow outside the realm of possibly.

"Have you ever seen something so strange?"  "Yes, this doesn't make the top ten!"

When the man wakes up, he identifies himself as Lokai.  He claims he didn’t steal the shuttlecraft but instead he just borrowed it.  He has the right, according to him, because he needed it.  Kirk is not impressed with that logic.  We later learn that he is a member of an oppressed people, he probably should have started with that as Starfleet would be more understanding.  Since he had hung around long enough to steal a shuttlecraft, he should have figured that out.  Kirk lets him know they will be returning him to Starbase 4 where he stole the shuttlecraft from.

Lokai

 Kirk is called to the bridge and according to Chekov there is a ship that is pursing the Enterprise.  The ship that is trailing them is on a collision course.  It is also apparently invisible.  Kirk wonders if it could be a Romulan ship as the audience wonders if the season 3 budget means they will never see an alien ship again.  The invisible ship seems determined to catch the Enterprise, but then it suddenly disintegrates.

It seems the threat is over but then they see a man has appeared on the bridge.  It is the Riddler, just last week the crew had to deal with Catwoman, now the Riddler has shown up to menace them. It appears Lokai is not so unique because the Riddler is also half white/half black.  The Riddler identifies himself as Bele.  He is a commissioner of Cheron charged with seeking out traitors.  He blames his tactics on the necessity of capturing such a dangerous criminal.  

The Rid--I mean Bele!

Bele is permitted to see the prisoner and soon as he does, he and Lokai start yelling accusations of each other.  Lokai accuses Bele’s people of enslaving his, that even when the slavery ended Lokai’s people were given “rights” but made into second-class citizens.  Bele doesn’t really deny this but tries to put a different spin on it.  He also counter accuses Bele of terrorism and says he kills people.  He demands he be turned over.  Kirk reminds them that Lokai is his prisoner for stealing a shuttlecraft, and Federation has no extradition treaties with Cheron.  So, they are to resume the ship’s original mission to help the colony of Ariannus.  After that they are going back to Starbase 4 where Lokai will be arrested and will be allowed to plead his case, and Bele can try to negotiate with the Federation in his attempts to have Lokai returned to Cheron. 

Clearly not friends!

Using his natural inborn abilities Bele manages to take control of the Enterprise’s navigation system and helm control.  He sends the ship on a straight course to Cheron.  It turns out Cheronians are immune to phaser fire with self-generating shields.  Kirk demands he restore control to him.  When Bele predictably refuses, Kirk says that he will destroy the ship before he lets Bele have it.  With that Kirk with Spock and Scotty set up the self-destruct system on the Enterprise.  As the self-destruct device counts down Bele surrenders and control returns to Captain Kirk.  Kirk ends the self-destruct program.  Bele tries to get Kirk to at least consider going to Cheron but Kirk refuses saying he will have to take it up with those on Starbase 4. 

While the Enterprise preforms disaster relief on the colony of Ariannus, both Cheronians begin a propaganda campaign aboard the ship.  Lokai goes around speaking with the crew telling the about the discrimination his people suffer on Cheron for simply having a different appearance.  To the crew this reminds them of Earth history.  As his opponent converses with the crew Bele tries to convince Kirk and Spock of his case.  Kirk promises Bele he can take his case to the Federation but no promises after that.  It is during their conversation that Bele revels something about himself that he probably should have keep secret.  That his hatred of Lokai is fueled by racism.  He mentions that his people are superior and when Kirk and Spock state they can see no difference Bele becomes enraged. He points out that their colors appear on the opposite sides. 

Lokai talking to the crew!

With the situation on Ariannus taken care of Kirk prepares his ship to head to Starbase 4. However, Bele has once again uses his powers to take control of the ship and he has also deactivated the self-destruct device.  The Enterprise is then forced to go on this journey.  When they get to Cheron both Bele and Lokai are horrified to discover that racial hatred had engulfed their civilization to such a degree that their people had successfully wiped out all intelligent life on their planet.  Their civilization is gone and all their people are dead.  Bele blames Lokai and attacks him.  Bele chases him all around the ship, and Kirk orders his men not to interfere for they have nowhere to go.  The two mortal enemies beam down to their planet to continue their final battle.  The Enterprise files away.

All that is left of Cheron!

Additional thoughts: January 10, 1969 the Civil Rights Act has not even had its fifth birthday.  There were also a lot of people openly hostile to it and wished they hadn’t lost this culture war.  Still their rage powered politicians such as Jesse Helms and J. Strom Thurmond for decades and still powers right-wing politicians today.  From the point of view of the late 1960s these individuals were still going to be a political force for years to come. 

Then Star Trek aired this episode.  In the episode a scene contained this bit of dialogue:

Bele: "It is obvious to the most simple-minded that Lokai is of an inferior breed."

Spock: "The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself."

Bele: "Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me! Look at me!"

Kirk: "You're black on one side and white on the other."

Bele: "I am black on the right side."

Kirk: "I fail to see the significant difference."

Bele: "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."

              The message is striking and bold.  It is telling every single George Wallace-loving segregationist, every single white supremacist whether they wear white hoods or not that their views are not only morally wrong they are in fact intellectually stupid.  You’re a stoned moron if you have these beliefs. An utter fool whose opinions on this subject, and frankly any subject, is not worthy of consideration.  There may have been a time where intelligent people had your views but there was once a time where intelligent people thought the world was flat.  Every time you utter your stupid racist opinions you look just like this guy.  And he is a guy that you don’t want to be.

Not the smartest person in the universe!

With that said there are some definite holes in the plot that kind of undermine the message.  When we first meet Lokai he has stolen a shuttlecraft, when we meet Bele he accuses Lokai of murdering thousands.  However, it becomes very apparent that Lokai is a part of an oppressed people and it is Bele’s group that are the oppressors.  The flaw is the timeline or timelines we are given.

In one version Lokai’s people were enslaved thousands of years ago.  One thousand years ago exactly they were granted or won their freedom, but have been forced to live as second-class citizens in their society.  Lokai’s position is sympathetic except he is an alleged terrorist who has been accused of killing thousands of people.  We can sympathize with someone from an oppressed group living under systematic racism.  However, we would not condone said individual murdering people. (In reality, Americans tend to freak out even if the only thing they see Black person doing is taking a knee at a football game.) 

However, they also say that Bele has been chasing Lokai for over 50,000 years.  If these men are so long lived and they only abolished slavery 1,000 years ago, then Lokai is not a person whose ancestors had horrific crimes committed against them and is now living in a world of systematic oppression.  He is the direct victim to forced kidnapping, slavery, and forced cultural assimilation.  In which he would have every right to use any means necessary to resist Bele and his people.  So, what was supposed to be introduced as a type of dilemma is not much of a dilemma at all.  

Where your hatred got you!

Kirk has seemed to have grown as a character.  If this had been an earlier episode Kirk might have wanted to fly to straight Cheron so he could ignore the Prime Directive and try to single-handedly, with help from Spock and McCoy, fix their society in sixty minutes with commercials.  Yet this Kirk seems to have his priority’s straight he needs to help the colony on Ariannus, Bele and Lokai can wait.  If he had been like this all along Mr. Spock might have avoided at lot of trouble in "The Gallio Seven."

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5