KIRK MAYBE A JERK BUT HE IS STILL THE BANE OF ALL AI

 

Episode Title:  The Practical Joker

Air Date: 9/21/1974

Written by Chuck Menville

Directed by Bill Reed

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”, Lieutenant Arex, unnamed Crewman                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                    Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Majel Barrett as Lieutenant M’Ress and Enterprise computer        Norm Prescott as Romulan Commander              Lou Scheimer as Romulan Crewman

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, 3 unnamed D7-R class ships

Planets: none

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is doing a routine survey of some type-4 asteroids.  Just as they are about to complete their relatively boring task, they are ambushed by three Romulan D-7 cruisers.  Suddenly boredom doesn’t look so bad as they are chased across space by this act of unprovoked aggression.  (Or, maybe it was provoked I bet the Romulans haven’t gotten over Kirk stealing that cloaking device a few years back.) Kirk decides that since they are outnumbered three to one trying to out maneuver them and escape is their best bet.  It is at this point that the Enterprise’s sensors pick up a strange energy field.  Kirk decides that is their best bet and heads straight for it.  Not wanting to follow them in and possible surrender their advantage, the Romulans back off.

Ambush

Later as the ship’s senior officers are having a meal and discussing the day, they discover all their glasses have holes causing their drinks to spill over their shirts.  It reminds most of a Starfleet Academy prank but no one comes forward as the culprit.  As the mission goes on other “jokes” start plaguing the crew. Forks bend, Mr. Spock gets eyeliners applied when using a science monitor, the food synthesizers start making random things and one of them throws items at Scotty, and the final straw is when “Kirk is a jerk” is written on the back of Kirk’s uniform and one of the decks was frozen in ice.

The jokes are going to begin.

The crew begins to accuse each other of being the one responsible however Mr. Spock makes the accusation against one that no other even suspected.  Mr. Spock thinks the prankster is the ship itself and that is the laughter being heard over the intercoms is the voice of the ship’s main computer. He concludes that something akin a virus effected the ship’s main computer when they passed through that energy field.

At this point McCoy, Uhura, and Sulu decide to spend some time in the rec room.  The rec room is capable of simulating other environments.  They go over a few before settling on one, however their enjoyment is short-lived when the computer decides it would be fun to change the environment on them.  So instead of a nice day at the beach or a walk in the woods they are instead put into an artic climate, or as McCoy would say “he means it’s cold!” 

"He means it's cold!"

Scotty tries to free the ship’s crew from the main computer’s mercy by detaching its reasoning circuits.  However, while he is attempting to do that the computer cuts the ship’s gravity sending everyone to the roof of their decks.  Scotty wiggles away from the main computers hardware and the gravity turns back on giving everyone a hard fall to the floor.  They manage to free McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura from the misfunctioning rec room the old-fashioned way: with crowbars.

A bad day for Mr. Scott.

It was around this time that the Romulans stuck their Vulcan-looking heads back in.  However, the computer of the Enterprise decided it was time for some revenge. It constructs a balloon duplicate version of the Enterprise that has the ability to make itself appear as a regular ship to enemy sensors.  It is doing this realizing that the Romulans value honor above all else and once the Romulans discover that the ship they thought was the Enterprise was in fact a fake it will be humiliating for them. 

The Enterprise creating its own fake!

The Romulans are humiliated just as the computer intended and come gunning for revenge.  Captain Kirk, realizing that the half-hour show plus commercials is just about up and he is really tired of dealing with the self-aware starship, Kirk then uses some good old reverse psychology acting like he is scared to reenter the energy field.  The computer hears this and decides to fly straight at it.  Kirk now wins as going back through the energy field undid the changes and the Enterprise has a normal functioning computer again.  The poor Romulans however are not so lucky as they followed the Enterprise in, the crew of those ships now have some practical jokers of their own.  

Now its his turn to suffer

 

Additional thoughts: Well, this episode was a blast and probably the most fun Majel Barrett has since “What Are Little Girls Made Of?”  The show balanced the seriousness of a Romulan ambush with some comedy elements similar to “The Naked Time,” “I’Mudd,” and “The Trouble With Tribbles.” This episode also did not feel rushed due to its run time, unlike other episodes of this series where things seem to resolved to quickly after lots of  build up.

Poor Scotty!

I am going to break my rule about only commenting on Star Trek that existed when the reviewed episode came out.  It’s just for this small moment however.  I want to talk about the Rec Room/Holodeck.  This does appear to be the origin of the concept.  However there does seem to be one major key difference: the Rec Room does not appear to create characters just environments, where the later can create people who look and feel real.  Either way this is the first “holodeck breaks down and becomes dangerous” troupe episode.  My only real issue with this is McCoy, Uhura, and Sulu should be smarter than this.  Do you really think that during a time where the Enterprise computer has gone rogue you want to keep your Rec Room/holodeck appointment.  It seems to me like you are asking for trouble.

These three probably should have waited!

"Its cold!"

Once we knew the Enterprise had somehow gained a type of sentience it was only a matter of time before Kirk defeated it.  Captain Kirk has proven time and again he is the Bane of All Artificial Intelligence. No AI is a match for him especially one that was born less than an hour ago.  Heck if Kirk had fought Skynet then it never would have got off the ground, as Kirk would have just talked into sending a terminator back to kill its own creator instead of Sarah Conner.  I do wonder though was it an AI or a strange entity that lived in the energy field that simply hopped on board the Enterprise as it was passing though.  The reason I ask this is it took time for the computer to build up to its greater pranks while on the Romulan ships they get there right away.  Maybe it was an energy creature that jumped into the Enterprise’s computer system that then took the opportunity to trade it out for three Romulan ships when such an opportunity presented itself.

"Must really hate Captain Kirk"

The Romulans must really hate Captain Kirk.  He must have such a negative reputation in the Romulan Star Empire.  He destroyed their scout sent to judge human weakness in “Balance of Terror,” his ship for no real reason flies into the Neutral Zone bluffing his way out of capture in “The Deadly Years,” and then he does it a second time and when he is caught, he fakes his death to steal the new cloaking device in “The Enterprise Incident.”  Now he survives an ambush that should have killed him and while doing so messes up three Romulan ships.  On a side note, I am assuming the reason they didn’t take the Romulans prisoner at the end is the Enterprise crew is unsure if the infection in Romulan the computers can spread.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5