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

PLANTS THAT SPIT ON YOU AND MAKE YOU HAPPY

Episode Title:  This Side of Paradise

Air Date: 3/2/1967

Written by Jerry Sohl and Dorothy C. Fontana

Directed by Ralph Senensky

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Michael Barrier as  Lieutenant DeSalle            Dick Scotter as Lieutenant Painter                Eddie Paskey as unnamed Crewman                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                           Grant Woods as Lieutenant Kelowitz       Bobby Bass as unnamed Lieutenant         Walker Edmiston as Transporter Chief            John Lindesmith as unnamed Engineer                Jeannie Maloneas Yeoman / Omicron Colonist     Sean Morgan as unnamed Engineer              Fred Shue as unnamed Crewman           Ron Veto as Kelowitz's Opponent       Jill Ireland as Leila Kalomi     Frank Overton as Elias Sandoval      Dick Scotter as Painter

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Omicron Ceti III

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The Enterprise is on route to the Federation colony Omicron Ceti III.   They are hardly optimistic and are preparing for a gloomy task.  For the colony had been at risk to be exposed to Berthold rays, radiation so intense that no life-form could survive if exposed for a few weeks.  The colonists had gone three years ago there is no chance of survivors.  Since it would take a week for the radiation to take effect and cause permanent damage they can send a landing party down. The away team is formed of Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy, Mr. Sulu and number of other officers.  The good news is none of them are wearing red so less chance of casualties.

When they beam down to the planet, to their shock, everything seems fine.  The colonists are all alive despite living in a place that should be killing them.  Spock and McCoy verbally spare a little bit in front of the Captain with Dr. McCoy offering his “diagnose” of life and Mr. Spock pointing out how this can’t be.  Mr. Sulu proposes that perhaps they are actual dead and are walking around as animated zombies.   Sulu’s proposal seems to be stretch but considering everything that the crew of the Enterprise has been through during their voyages it is a valid a theory as anything else. 

The crew encountering a man who should be dead!

The leader of the colony, Elias Sandoval, takes them on a small tour while explaining the colony’s three-camp structure.   Some things become immediately apparent.  The first of these is a young woman named Leila appears and she and Mr. Spock have a history together.   The history they have is clearly a romantic one from a time when Mr. Spock was on Earth.  Whatever it was and how long it lasted is not explained but it ended when Mr. Spock resumed his career in Starfleet.  Upon examining the colonists Dr. McCoy makes an interesting discovery.  They are all perfectly healthy, too perfect.  Not only does none of the colonists have a thing wrong with them but medical conditions that were reported in their files seems have all been erased.  The leader Sandoval re-grew an appendix that was earlier removed.  When Dr. McCoy tried the tricorder on himself to make sure that it was working and it properly recorded all of his medical conditions including his own missing tonsils.   The third strange thing that occurs on this planet is discovered by Mr. Sulu.  All the farm animals are gone and in addition to the missing farm animals there are no insects either.  Also the production is off, their mission was to be a agricultural colony, but they are not producing exports. 

Spock exposed

Lelia tries to do some catching up with Mr. Spock.  She is having difficulty however piercing through his Vulcan exterior which protects him from displaying emotions.   Unlike when they were on Earth, Lelia has a new tool.   She decides to show Spock how it is they been able to survive for so long by bringing him over to some plants and one of those plants spits spores on him.  This causes Mr. Spock to become overly happy and lose all sense of responsibility.

Spock and Lelia

Having received orders to evacuate the planet, Captain Kirk begins organizing his away team to begin that process.  He tried to call Spock on his communicator and is shocked when Spock answers and starts acting insubordinate.  He tells Kirk that the colony is not be evacuated this both puzzles and irritates the Captain.  Kirk then heads over was Sulu and DeSalle to see what’s up with Spock.  When they arrive they find Spock playing with Lelia.  He is smiling, laughing, and climbing a tree.   When Kirk and party approach Spock defies the Captain to his face.  Kirk declares a Spock is now in custody and  Sulu is in charge of him.  This action makes Spock lead the three men over to the plants that earlier infected him and the plants proceed to spit spores on both Sulu and DeSalle.   Instantly the two men are now smitten with the same lost look that Spock has and instantly take his side refusing to cooperate with the evacuation.

 Now realizing what’s going on in understanding the threat to his crew Kirk goes to gather the rest of the away team.  However the Captain is too late for not only has the entire away team been affected but they are potting some of the spore plants and sending them up to the Enterprise.  Kirk contacts ship and gets a reluctant transporter chief to actually beam him up.  When he gets there he discovers that so many plants have been brought on the ship that his entire crew is infected.  There is a long line in front of the transporter room as the crew wants to leave the ship to go down the service and be part of the colony.  For one of the consequences of the spores is they make everyone infected with the condition to want to be near one another and in the plants’ natural environment.  Kirk goes to the bridge but he can’t signal Starfleet for help because the infected Lt. Uhura has sabotaged the communication system.

We quit!

Captain Kirk feels defeated with all he has faced throughout his career looks like his entire command is now in jeopardy because of spore spitting plans. Then just as he feels all is lost one of the plants spits on him too.  Now Kirk is happy and wants to join the colony with his crew.  He calls down Spock to tell him the delightful news and Spock is happy to hear it.  Kirk needs to pack his bag so he goes to his quarters to proceed to do just that.  The Captain makes sure to pack his wraparound uniform as he remembers on this planet you want to be sexy.  As he enters the transporter room he suddenly forgets on how to beam himself somewhere.  Clearly the transporter chief knew how to self-transport as he is no longer there, but it has been so long since Kirk individually operated transporter that he forgot that procedure and now he can’t leave. Kirk gets angry about his situation and before he can rationalize about just calling Spock so he can talk him through the process of beaming himself down the anger overwhelms kills the spores inside him and Kirk is suddenly cured.

Kirk infected!

Captain Kirk realizing what he needs to do tricks Spock into coming aboard the Enterprise for some help.  When Spock arrives Kirk accuses him of being a deserter and insults his parents.  He calls his father a computer and his mother encyclopedia.  An enraged Spock attacks Captain Kirk, normally in the situation Kirk would apply his amazing fighting skills but Kirk is not looking to defeat Spock just cure him so the Captain is fighting with one hand tied behind his back figuratively speaking.  Spock almost kills Kirk but the rage cures him.  As the two of them calm down they come up with a plan to use a transmitter from the Enterprise to broadcast an irritating subsonic frequency to the crew's communicators provoke everyone to anger and cure all of them.  There is a humorous moment were Spock points out that their behavior of trying to strike each other should result in them both being court-martialed but Kirk rationalizes to Spock that if they’re both in the brig who will be there to build a transmitter and save the ship.

Their plan works to perfection they send a signal down allowing everyone’s emotions come to service fighting breaks out everywhere.  Everyone is cured colonists and crew member alike.  Once they all come to their senses the realize it is time to hightail it out of there. The humans and the one Vulcan voluntarily leave paradise behind.  Spock and Lelia have one last moment together before going their separate ways.

Additional thoughts:  Okay so I am going to be honest “spitting” was not actually the body function that came to my mind every time one of the spores went off.  I believe everyone who ever saw this episode all know the body function that we all thought while watching it.  However if you want to keep this somewhat family friendly we will stick to “spitting.”

Spitting

This episode was a lot of fun we got to see Mr. Spock go from his normal stoic self and allow him to let loose.   We saw him let loose once before in “The Naked Time,” in that episode the virus caused Spock’s guilt of not telling his mother  that he loved her to come to the surface and break his heart.  In this episode he was allowed to express love for woman that he knew from his past where always his rigid Vulcan nature prevent him from expressing such feelings.  It was also funny to see him climb a tree and tell Kirk to buzz off. 

Captain Kirk had a rough time this episode.  It was especially odd when once the nature of the spores was revealed to him he still acted absolutely shocked every single time he saw a crewman misbehaving.  I understand his initial reaction to Spock—although I also feel that given Spock’s history Kirk should have suspected something unusual was up when he started behaving as he did—when he directly sees what it does to Sulu and DeSalle it should then be clear to him what was happening.  Yet whenever Kirk found a member of his crew behaving in a similar manner he confronted them with, “What are you doing? Don’t you realize this is mutiny?” Then he would look shocked every time they back talked to him.

Now you've done it!

So why did Captain Kirk have such difficulty with the transporter?  I may have answered that my summary but I’m not really satisfied with that answer.   Shouldn’t he know how to operate it efficiently we saw him coach some of his crewman way back in “Dagger of the Mind” it is a minor plot hole but it is an annoying one.  

Kirk gets Spock to betray a woman he loves dearly.  When Lelia calls up to the ship, there is a moment when Kirk and Spock look at each other.  Kirk expression is one of sympathy, but I must add it does come off as the ultimate “bros before hoes” moment. 

Together again!

The spores have some advantages particularly in the medical field.  Completely curing your body and replacing lost organs, in “The Conscience of the King” one of Kirk’s friends was missing half of his face.   Maybe they should have saved some of these plants to treat injuries than once those injuries are cured make sure to anger them to free their mind.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5

POKER IS A BETTER GAME THAN CHESS (and it’s more fun too!)

Episode Title:  The Corbomite Maneuver

Air Date: 11/10/1966

Written by Jerry Sohl

Directed by Joseph Sargent

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     Anthony Call as Lieutenant Bailey       Grace Lee Whitney as Yeoman First Class Janice Rand       Bill Blackburn  as Lieutenant Hadley     Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie            Frank da Vinci as  Crewman          Ron Veto as Crewman           Sean Morgan as Crewman    Mittie Lawrence as Crew Woman        Ena Hartman as Crew Woman No. 2          Gloria Calomee as Crew Woman          Bruce Mars as Crewman No. 1     John Gabriel as Crewman             Clint Howard as Balok           Walker Edmiston as Voice of Balok      Ted Cassidy as Voice of Balok Puppet

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Fesarius of the First Federation

Planets:  None

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The episode begins on the bridge of the Enterprise, where Mr. Spock is leading the bridge crew in the picture taking of stars for the creation of star charts.  Lt. Bailey is bored out of his mind and lets the whole bridge know how useless he finds star chart making.  I have to admit there is part of me that agrees with him.  When your ship can move faster than light what is the point of stopping in a random place and take pictures?  I am sure it serves some purpose but I just can’t figure it out.

Ah...what can that hurt? It's just a cube!

                While the chart making is going on a mysterious cube appears in space and positions itself in front of the Enterprise.  When the Enterprise tries to move the cube blocks the ship in whatever direction it tries to leave.  If I want to put a cheap dad joke in here, I would say that the block keeps blocking their way.  Mr. Spock puts the ship on red alert.

                At the time all this is going on Captain Kirk is in sick bay getting his physical from Dr. McCoy.  Dr. McCoy sees the red alert but concludes the physical of his Captain is far more important to complete than for the Captain of the ship to be informed of the ship’s emergency.   This tells us two possible things either Dr. McCoy has a messed up set of priorities or the crew of the Enterprise pulls the red alert switch a little too often unnecessarily.  Captain Kirk checked the bridge when he sees the red alert is on and determines the threat is not that important so he will be able to stop by his quarters to change his clothes.

Besides firing phasers does anyone have any other ideas?

                Later in the conference room the bridge crew and senior staff are trying to figure out the best way to deal with this growing problem of being trapped by a shiny cube.  Mr. Spock makes a suggestion that what the cube could be is a type of flypaper and the ship might be in danger.  Lt. Bailey, who earlier tried to suggest the Captain to destroy the cube with phasers by telling him that’s how he would vote, starts readying the phaser crew without receiving the actual order to do so from the Captain.  Kirk, who earlier had to remind Bailey that the ship wasn’t a democracy, now has to chastise him for acting before he gave an order.

                Captain Kirk decides to try another escape but this time the cube comes closer and starts to emit a deadly radiation.  Spock informs the Captain that the radiation is about to become terminal to them in a few more seconds.  Kirk orders Bailey to fire the phasers and Bailey nearly freezes and has to be told by Kirk twice. This of course makes Bailey look bad however is not very helpful for Mr. Spock either was clearly wrong about the “we’ll be dead in a matter of seconds” statement he made because with Bailey’s hesitation destroying the cube clearly took more than a few seconds.  After the danger has passed Kirk chastises Bailey for his sluggish response.  This captures the attention of Dr. McCoy.

                Dr. McCoy believes that Kirk is putting too much pressure on Lt. Bailey and that he promoted him to the position of Chief Navigator too soon.  Dr. McCoy also thinks that Kirk sees little bit of himself in Lt. Bailey.  I think that Captain Kirk just misses Gary Mitchell and holds his present navigator to the same standards as the old one.  Which probably what McCoy feels is so unfair.  Later in Kirk’s quarters the two men continue talking about this over a couple of drinks.   Now I don’t really think is a responsible thing for the two of them to be drinking during a period of time when the ship could still potentially be in serious danger, but I suppose the two of them have been at it long enough that they understand with their own limits are. 

While continuing their conversation about Lt. Bailey, Yeoman Rand shows up to try to fix the Captain up with a bit of dinner.   Kirk is curious to why Starfleet keeps assigning him female yeomen, McCoy suggests that perhaps he and Yeoman Rand would make a good couple, which Kirk deflects by saying he already has one lady and her name is Enterprise.  It appears in the 23^rd century of Star Trek that dating one’s subordinates is considered okay.  Maybe there is some logical sense in that in the world of Star Trek the idea of using one’s powers a superior to harm or coerce someone you have romantic feelings for is considered so inconceivable that regulations against it have completely lapsed. 

The danger has not yet passed it is in fact just beginning.  For an extremely large ship arrives before the Enterprise.  The ship is a giant sphere that is so large it fills the entire viewscreen. An image so terrifying it causes Lt. Bailey to figuratively crap himself so bad that he needs Lt. Sulu to do some of his job for him such as adjust the viewscreen.  Kirk tries to communicate to the alien ship and extend greetings however his offers are rebuffed by a Cmdr. Balok who is the captain of this giant vessel that he calls the Fesarius. Balok tells the crew the Enterprise that they are trespassers and as such they will be destroyed.  He points to the destruction of the cube as evidence of their harmful intentions.  They are given ten minutes to make any religious preparations they make for death.  Kirk tries to plead with Balok but to no avail.  They try to escape but they are prevented.  Spock is able to download an image of their opponent through their communication system.  Bailey has had it, with death’s door close at hand he is the only Starfleet officer who fails to keep his cool.  He goes on a rather entertaining rant  in which he yells at his fellow crew members and Kirk has to dismiss him from bridge.

Wow! That is kind of big!

Big?  Yeah we didn't know the half of it!

Kirk, becoming desperate, turns to Spock and asks if he thought there’s anything he’s overlooked but Spock simply responds that sometimes in chess you find yourself in checkmate in the game is over.  At this point Dr. McCoy decides it is good time to tell the Captain that he seemed to be a creep with Bailey, and he should be concerned because he’s going to put that in his report. This seems utterly hilarious and it really tells you something about Dr. McCoy.  He is either so dense and so self-absorbed by his own concerns that the entire world disappears around him and he is completely oblivious to the dangers and to the fact he’s probably going to be dead in four minutes; or he is so confident in Captain Kirk’s abilities to save them from this horrible situation that not only does he believe that he will survive he also is of the belief that it is no problem for him to try to save time and distract Kirk with this argument about Bailey while the Captain is directly facing the threat!  I like to think it’s the latter option.

McCoy does one good thing and that is he plants an idea in Kirk’s head when he tells him he’s not bluffing.   It makes Kirk think of the game poker and how it is very different from Mr. Spock's favorite game of chess.  He orders Uhura to open communication with Balok and says that regulations require that he inform Balok that one of Starfleet’s great secrets that they keep out of their database is their weapon they call Corbomite.  A weapon that is so powerful that any enemy who destroys one of their vessels gets in turn blasted with this energy that destroys the attackers' vessel.  Kirk mentions that death has very little meaning for them and he would rather Balok attack them now because he is growing bored. 

Balok doesn’t respond and as the minutes tick away Bailey returns to duty and Mr. Spock reminisces that he regrets not getting to meet Balok for he reminded him of his own father.  Scotty says that it makes him feel sorry for his mother and Spock responds by saying his mother considered herself to be a fortunate Earth woman.  In the face of death Mr. Spock and finally admitted he was half human and not just a Vulcan with a distant human ancestor as he said in the previous episode.

Time lapses and nothing happens.  Balok then asked to see proof the Corobomite device to which Kirk tells him to go pound sand.   The Fesarius retreats but a smaller scout vessel detaches and Balok tells the crew of the Enterprise that the smaller vessel is still capable destroying them and it will tow the Enterprise to a planet where the crew will be imprisoned and their ship will be destroyed.  But the little vessel lacking the power that its two predecessors had is unable to hold the Enterprise.  The strain on trying to hold on one of Starfleet's finest vessels causes the little ship to be drained of all its power allowing the Enterprise to break free and condemns itself to spiral out of control to its doom.  Despite everything that Balok had done to them Kirk decides that a great first impression would be for them to rescue their former opponent. 

Bend down so we don't beam your head into a cement block or something worse!

Kirk, McCoy, and Bailey form rescue party and board the enemy ship by way of their ship’s transporter.  They hunch down because Scotty told them that the other ship was cramped and he didn’t want to beam their heads into a wall, he didn't actually say that last part but that’s really what he meant.  When the trio arrived they find what they thought was Balok was indeed a dummy.  They find a small alien that almost resembles a human child who introduces himself as the real Balok the commander and in fact only crew of the Fesarius.  Balok goes on to explain that he was merely testing the crew of the Enterprise to see what type of people they were.  The scary looking dummy is something Balok uses in order to intimidate people because he doesn’t imagine that anyone would be intimidated with the sight of himself.  He goes on to call the dummy’s old version of a “Mr. Hyde.”

Will the real Balok please stand up?

We learn a lot about Balok in this exchange.  The first thing we learn is that he has no idea what the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story is all about.  Mr. Hyde was not in a dummy but rather a dangerous alternative personality, induced by a formula, who does evil things against the main personality's wishes and is whose goal is to usurp the main personality.  The second thing we learn is Balok is so insecure about his physical appearance that he employs a dummy to intimidate people because apparently his gigantic plant size starship that can most likely destroy any other starship it encounters isn’t enough to intimidate people.

Balok is lonely in his automated starship and he asked for some companionship.  He wants one of the crew of the Enterprise to stay with him to keep him company and participate in cultural exchange.  Lt. Bailey volunteers and Captain Kirk agrees to let him as he thinks it is a wonderful idea.  

First contact Captain Kirk and Commander Balok

Additional thoughts:  With the pilots over the first season has truly begun.  We see that the Enterprise has had a small refit and you can see the change on the bridge as the small mini scanners that used to stick out all the time are gone replaced with ones that stay tucked away until their needed and pulled up.  The uniforms are also now up to par, although Lt. Uhura is sporting command gold, everyone else is wearing the uniform that they will wear primarily throughout the season.  We also see the arrival of the classic Star Trek miniskirt that was apparently the brainchild of Grace Lee Whitney, who thought that the women would still be allowed to look like women.  I don’t know that story’s true it is a rumor I’ve heard on the Internet.

                With the exception of Pavel Chekov and Christine Chapel who will show up later in the series, the classical crew has been almost completely assembled.  Dr. McCoy the third and permanent doctor has his first appearance set to become one of the big three of the series.  Granted his actions in this episode made me question his sanity.  We see that Lt. Sulu has moved over to the helm replacing the poor strangled Lt. Kelso.   I think that was a great career move for him and right away we see how good he is because not only does he do his job sometimes he also has to do Bailey’s.

                Speaking of Bailey, I know this episode was supposed to end on a feel-good note but am I the only one who thinks Bailey might be some sort of pedophile?  He was real eager to join the ship with the childlike Balok as his only companion.  And all this time since we’ve never heard from Balok’s First Federation.   They were so powerful that you thought our Federation would try to make them allies.  I wonder why we never heard from them again?   I think Mr. Bailey, who is no relation to George, may not be the good old American kid that we all thought he was.  So much for first contact, we could have used the First Federation against the Dominion or the Borg. 

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5