DON’T TRUST ANY CREATURE THAT DOESN’T KEEP ITS CELLS IN ONE PLACE

Episode Title:  Operation -- Annihilate!

Air Date: 4/13/1967

Written by Steven W. Carabatsos

Directed by Herschel Daugherty  

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk and the corpse of George Samuel Kirk, Jr.     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          Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel            Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley  Ron Veto as  Crewman Harrison        Frank Da Vinci as unnamed Guard           Maurishka  as Yeoman Ellen Zahra                     Jeannie Malone as unnamed Yeoman                     Joan Swift as Aurelan Kirk               Craig Huxley as Peter Kirk            Fred Carson as First Denevan  Jerry Catron as Second Denevan    David Armstrong  as Kartan

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Denevan ship

Planets:  Deneva

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise is on an important assignment.  Some archaeological research has indicated a disturbing pattern.  Numerous planets one right after the other going back two centuries shows their respective civilizations all collapsing due to mass hysteria.  Going in order the tragic cases follow a straight line and next on the line is the Federation colony of Deneva.  The last contact with Deneva was over a year ago.

The colony of Deneva is known for producing materials for the engineering needs of various Federation planets.  Scotty himself made the transport runs earlier in his career.  The Enterprise is continuing to try to contact the colony but they keep getting no response.  Since all the official channels seem unresponsive Captain Kirk orders Lt. Uhura to try a private frequency.   As she begins Dr. McCoy confronts Captain Kirk and asks if this was the colony that the Captain’s brother lives with his family.

Lt. Uhura gets the channel on the private frequency raised and Captain Kirk is able to speak very briefly with his sister-in-law, Aurelan.  She doesn’t make a lot of sense and it’s unclear if she realizes it’s him that she’s talking to but she seems absolutely horrified.  They lose contact and according to Lt. Uhura it is because those on the other end stopped transmitting.  As the Enterprise enters the system they find a vessel from the colony heading straight towards the sun.  They try to hail the doomed ship and race to intercept it before can get to that star.  They fail but right before the vessel is destroyed they here over the communications system the pilot exclaiming that he is now free. 

On Deneva

The Enterprise then goes to Deneva and Captain Kirk organizes a landing party with himself, Mr. Spock, Dr. McCoy and a number of redshirts.  When they beam down to the planet they are attacked by a group of men while they attack also say they don’t want to hurt the Enterprise crewmembers but their actions complete with the clubs they weld shows otherwise.  The gang however brought clubs to a phaser fight and the Enterprise crewmembers pull out their phasers and stun the group.  Dr. McCoy notices that evening unconscious the men’s metabolism is hyper accelerated.

  Captain Kirk leads the away team to his brother’s lab.  In there he finds his sister-in-law hysterical near crazy to the point she has to be sedated by Dr. McCoy.   The Captain’s nephew is unconscious on the floor and when Kirk approaches his brother he finds the scientist dead.  Kirk is clearly distraught by the death of his only sibling but he has no time to mourn for they’re clearly still in danger. 

George Samuel Kirk, Jr.  dead

The Captain returns the ship with Dr. McCoy and his surviving relatives.   Aurelan Kirk is briefly revived; her vitals are all over the place.  She screams that they entered their bodies and force them to build ships.  She screams in pain and ultimately dies leaving Peter Kirk and orphan.  With no further use for him in sick bay the Captain returns to the planet.

Away team encounters some nasty creatures

On the surface Spock and the away team have located some of the creatures responsible for the havoc.   They are nasty disgusting things.  Single celled organisms that looked like giant bags of fake vomit.  With phasers set the kill they blaster creatures only to fine the phaser beams have little to no effect. With intense maximum phaser fire they manage to briefly stun one.  Spock wants to take it is a sample, but the Captain elects to retreat.   While the landing party is retreating the creature that was hit revives and attacks Spock.  They beam up and get Mr. Spock to sick bay.

Dr. McCoy tries his best but finds his body is infested with so many smaller versions of the creatures they saw that on the planet.  It’s like the thing had his babies in Spock and they are all growing.  Dr. McCoy can’t remove all them without killing his patient.  The problem is the same for all the citizens of the colony.

Nasty stuff

 When Mr. Spock wakes up he is deliriously tries to take control the ship. He escapes from sick bay makes it all the way to the bridge and almost succeeds to take control of the helm.   Several officers all have to tackle him at once until Dr. McCoy knocks him out with a hypospray.  When he comes to in sick bay he notices he is physically restrained.  Tells the Captain that that is not necessary and he is now once again in control although he is still in pain.  He request to be let out.  Kirk says that may be an option if he can demonstrate that he’s in control however he’s not sure how long that may be.

Alone in sick bay he mutters that he is in control of his emotions and he is in control of his pain.  He breaks out and heads to the transporter room however he is stopped by the quick actions of Mr. Scott.  When Kirk arrives he explains that they still need to get a sample from the planet surface and says he is already infected he is the best choice to go.  Seeing as he went to the transporter room to head of the surface and not to the bridge take control the ship Kirk sees that is a sign that he is now mentally well and chooses to trust him.  Spock successfully goes down to the planet and retrieves a sample by capturing one of the creatures and bringing it back to the ship to be studied in the sick bay.

Spock fighting to get control of the bridge

Upon studying them Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are able to determine that these creatures are all part of a collective.  They are in essence a single entity the difference between this creature and us is it doesn’t keep all of it cells together the same place.  Each cell is part of the whole creature that is why phaser fire was unable to affect it.  What the creature does is it infects its victims growing new cells their bodies and using the new cells’ placement to cause pain to the host.  If the host does not do exactly as instructed the pain will become more intense.  Creature has its hosts build ships after gets done wiping out all life on that planet it uses the ships to proceed to the next one.

It appears in order to save the rest of the galaxy from this creature the Enterprise would have to render the planet lifeless from orbit killing all the inhabitants.  Spock says that he and Peter Kirk will have to go down to the planet and be sacrificed with the colony.  Spock does not want to do this but he doesn’t see any other solution as they haven’t been able to come up with an effective way of destroying the parasitic creature.  Kirk refuses he says there’s going to be another answer.  He mentions the pilot who flew into the sun at the start of the episode and points out that the last thing he said was he was free.  Kirk reasons that there was something in the sun that could be used to fight this creature.

Race against time

Spock and McCoy continue to work on it they try to think what elements the sun has and test that on the sample cell that they have.  McCoy tries radiation and heat nothing however is working.  Time is running out and Spock is afraid they may have to revert to the original plan.  While trying to brainstorm over the sun’s elements Kirk, the non-scientist, is the one to come up with the most obvious answer that his scientists colleagues weren’t able to think of.  What if it is light that destroys the creature?

McCoy sets up the experiment using the single cell of the creature that they have and exposes it to intense light.  It works but now they had to try on a subject who is a person like themselves who has been infected.  Mr. Spock volunteers, McCoy wants to give him goggles but Spock refuses as those on the surface will not have goggles.  Spock is exposed to the intense light and he is cured of his infection unfortunately he is also left blind. 

A victory of sorts!

 They run some test and Dr. McCoy’s discover some bad news and good news simultaneously.  Just like there are sounds that we cannot hear there is light that we cannot see and light that is on a wavelength we can’t see is sufficient to kill the creature. So they won’t have to blind everyone on the planet but it also means that Spock’s sacrifice was unnecessary.

The Enterprise drops satellites in orbit around the planet and uses those satellites to create light beyond the visible spectrum that is intense enough to wipe the creature from existence.  Peter Kirk also cured.  There is also some more good news; Mr. Spock’s blindness was temporary since Vulcans have an inner eyelid that they evolved to protect against the intense Vulcan sun.  Which I suppose made it illogical for him to refuse the goggles after all the humans on that planet didn’t have inner eyelids to protect them from bright light but since it wasn’t necessary to use visible light anyway is all academic.  Dr. McCoy was so worried about his Vulcan eyes so much that Kirk pointed out to the Doctor that he forgot about the Vulcan ears and Mr. Spock heard all those nice things that Dr. McCoy was saying about him.

Additional thoughts: Poor Captain Kirk this has to be the worst week in his entire life.  Just last episode he had to watch the love of his life die and if he prevented it then that would’ve been the end of the world that he knows.  As if the universe had thought he hadn't suffered enough however this week he gets to lose his big brother and lose him in a very horrific way.  Death by some alien creature that caused him to suffer intense pain before his death and he died knowing his wife and child were going through the same thing that he was.  Kirk then gets to watch his sister-in-law die and see his nephew suffer.  Then he’s told that for the good of the universe he may have to kill millions of people, including his best friend and nephew.  That last thing was avoided but I think our good Captain deserves another trip to the fantasy shore leave planet for at least a month to help him recover for everything that he’s been going through.

So what do we call this thing that they were fighting?  The planet-hopping vomit-looking creature that travels all it cells traveling independently.  I’m thinking vomit parasite.  Why can’t everything strange we encounter in space be like the Horta which was apparently ugly to but turned out to be very lovely; where this thing was just plain old nasty.   Also why it was immune to phaser fire just because each cell was separate?  That didn’t make a lot of sense to me.  Cells of my body are destroyed by contact with things every day I don’t see why it would be much different here.

Back in the episode “What Are Little Girls Made Of” we first learn about Kirk’s brother and his family from Kirk’s evil android doppelgänger.  However that episode it is said that Kirk’s brother has three sons.  So my question is where are Kirk’s other nephews?  Why do we only see the one?  I guess that Peter is probably his parents’ youngest child.  He seems to be about 12 so if is siblings were separated by about three years his brothers should be 15 and 18 respectively.  So perhaps the 18-year-old is often college in the 15-year-old is visiting him?  That’s the only explanation I can think of at the moment.

However of the nephew why don't we see what becomes of him?  The whole episode Kirk is trying to save his life and yet we don’t see what happens to him after he loses both of his parents.  The kid is now an orphan; shouldn’t his uncle be trying to help him out?  I read there was actually a scene about this but it didn’t make the final cut.  If so, that is too bad because it leaves the viewers wondering.  Maybe Peter goes to live with his brothers?  Is Kirk’s mother still alive at this point?  Maybe Peter can go live with his grandmother?

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5 

“LET ME HELP” THREE WORDS, A LOVE LOST IN TIME, AND THE GREATEST EPISODE OF THE FRANCHISE

Episode Title:  The City on the Edge of Forever

Air Date: 4/6/1967

Written by Harlan Ellison

Directed by Joseph Pevney

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          John Winston as Lieutenant Kyle           Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley          David L. Ross as Lieutenant Galloway                 Joan Collins as Sister Edith Keeler                      John Harmon as Rodent                Bart La Rue as The Guardian of Forever           Hal Baylor as unnamed Policeman                   Bill Borzage as unnamed drunk               Joseph Glick as unnamed Man in Mission        Max Wagner  as  unnamed Man in Mission          Carey Loftin as unnamed truck driver    Noble 'Kid' Chissell as unnamed Server      Walter Bacon as unnamed onlooker on street       Dick Cherney as unnamed passerby on sidewalk

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets:  Guardian’s unnamed homeworld, Earth

My Spoiler filled summary and review:  The episode begins very dramatically with an unexplored planet that is pulsating large displacement waves that are distorting both time and space.  The Enterprise is sent to investigate the phenomenon.   The ship is knocked back and forth as it tries to head toward the strange planet.  An explosion at the helm causes injury to Lt. Sulu, so Dr. McCoy is summoned to the bridge.   McCoy uses a substance called cordrazine to treat Mr. Sulu.  The treatment gives Kirk a little pause as the substance, although lifesaving in small doses can be very damaging if used too much.  Then if fate or the writer of the episode were listening the ship is stuck again and McCoy accidentally injects himself with an overdose of the substance.

Oops

This causes Dr. McCoy to lose his mind and worse in his drugged state he seems more invincible than if he took PCP.  He is able to out mussel everyone even Spock and run off the bridge.  The deranged doctor finds his way to the transporter room, knocks out Lt. Kyle, steals his phaser, and beams himself down to the planet’s surface.

Kirk quickly forms a landing party; this away team consists of himself, Mr. Spock, Mr. Scott, Lt. Uhura, and a number of security personnel.  They beam down to the planet’s surface.  When they get down there they divide the landing party into two main groups one led by Mr. Scott and the other led by Lt. Uhura.  As a two group search the area for Dr. McCoy the Captain and his First Officer decide to explore some of these ruins.  They come across a giant doughnut shaped object that according to the readings for Mr. Spock’s tricorder is the source of all the temporal disturbances that they have been seeing.   They then find themselves getting the shock of the year when the giant donut starts talking to them!  It calls itself the Guardian of Forever.  The Guardian claims to be older than our sun, that it is neither a living being or a machine but both, and that it is more sophisticated than their primitive minds can possible comprehend.  It also seems very happy to meet everyone because it has been waiting a long time for a question. 

Looking for McCoy

At this point Dr. McCoy is found and in his drugged state still dangerous but a Vulcan nerve pinch from Mr. Spock shuts him down pretty quick.  This allows for Kirk and Spock to study the Guardian more closely.  The Guardian now starts showing off its abilities by running off imagery of Earth history in its hole completely in black and white for added old fashioned effect.  Kirk starts to wonder if they could use this thing that can disrupt time to go back and prevent McCoy’s accident, but Spock points out that the images are moving too fast to change something with such precision.  Kirk asks the Guardian if it can slow down but the Guardian says it was programed to show history this way, which is a long way of saying “no.”  Despite being a near living entity the Guardian is a very poor user-friendly time machine. Spock realizes he is missing an opportunity and begins recording what they are seeing with the tricorder.

Guardian putting on a show

 The cordrazine in McCoy’s system allows him to wake up from the nerve pinch early and when no one is paying attention to him he leaps at the Guardian and goes through the picture making hole.  (That sounds a lot dirtier than it is.)  With that McCoy has disappeared into the time stream.  As they tried to call up to the Enterprise for support they find no answer on the other end.  The Guardian explains that McCoy has changed what was.  This action has wiped out reality as they know it.  For now there is no Enterprise, no Starfleet, and no United Federation of Planets.  The only reason why they are still here is because of how close they were to the Guardian of Forever when history changed. 

Realizing they must undo what McCoy has done they asked the Guardian to replay the time show from before.  They will use Spock’s tricorder to pinpoint the exact moment for them to jump and hope that it takes them to the right location.   Kirk and Spock are the ones who are going to go but if they do not return within a short period time the remaining members of the team as a fallback are to, in pairs, follow Kirk and Spock giving them multiple opportunities to correct this or at least allow the survivors to find a home somewhere in the past.

Oh, no!

Kirk and Spock go through and find themselves in New York City in the year 1930.  The two notice that they tend to get a lot of attention as they are dressed rather strangely, not to mention Mr. Spock’s Vulcan ears.  In desperation Kirk notices some clothes hanging on a fire escape so he decides to steal them.  They are lucky that the clothes that Kirk stole happened to be a perfect fit for both him and Mr. Spock but they are unlucky when a police officer sees this theft.  Since the officer notices Spock’s ears Kirk tries to explain them away, by telling a tall tale of a child Spock getting his head stuck in an automated rice picker when he was growing up in China.  The cop has had it and he starts to search Kirk and Spock fortunately the Vulcan nerve pinch trick works again in the cop is out like a light.

The two men run away and they enter the basement the local 21^st Street Mission.   They start to make some general plans on how to locate Dr. McCoy and even try to see about building a computer to work with Spock’s tricorder.  As they finish putting on their stolen clothes they’re discovered by the head of the mission, a woman named Edith Keeler.  Keeler demands to know why they’re in her basement. Kirk decides confess he says that they sought shelter because they were on the run from the police. Keeler demands to know why they’re being chased by the police.  Kirk again confesses that the clothes they wore were stolen by them.  They stole the clothes because they didn’t have any money and they didn’t want to be naked.  (Actually he didn’t say naked I just added that.)

Find men in the basement put them to work

Keeler is the best person for Kirk and Spock to run into.  She immediately takes them under her wing and finds them some honest jobs for a fair wage.  She allows them to eat at her soup kitchen and also sets them up at in an apartment.   While having a meal at her soup kitchen they get the pay the same “price” as the other beneficiaries and that is to listen to one of Edith Keeler’s sermons.  Keeler encourages the people in the room to hang on even though they’re in the middle of the Great Depression.  She says she won’t tell them what should make them happy that’s up to every individual however she claims that the times coming will be great times.  She says that Man will learn to master the atom and achieve spaceflight.  When this occurs they will cure great diseases and achieve lasting peace throughout all mankind.  Kirk is taken aback by her positive outlook and her perceptions that many of which came true by Kirk’s own time.

Spock sees some men using tools at the mission and he realizes he needs those tools in order to complete his computer so he steals them.   Edith Keeler confronts him about this rightfully feeling betrayed and her generosity to the men.  Spock tried to tell her that he was only going to borrow them and he was going to return them when he was done.  Before she can get another word out Kirk tells her that Spock’s word is gold if he says he was going to return them that he was.  Keeler, who is clearly as equally smitten by Captain Kirk as he is about her, agrees to drop the matter so long as Captain Kirk promises the walk home with her so she can ask him questions about where he belongs.  Spock is intrigued by her response and asks where she thinks they belong.  In her answer she gives a single best description of the relationship of Spock to Kirk: she says that he belongs at Kirk's side as if he’s always had been there and always will.  Kirk she says belongs elsewhere then a mission in New York.

 

As Kirk walks Keeler home the two of them talk and she asked him all sorts of questions.  She wants to know why Mr. Spock calls him “Captain” and asks if they’ve been in the service together.  Kirk doesn’t answer quite directly and Keeler says that she knows something is wrong and then utters the magic words to the Captain, “Let me help.”  After she says that Kirk turns to her and tells her that in the future a great author would pen that those three words were more romantic than “I love you.” When she asks where this author comes from he takes her into his arms and points to Orion’s belt in the sky showing her the star where the planet he comes from orbits.  Two people have fallen in love.

While Kirk is out courting Keeler Spock has gotten his computer working with the tricorder and he sees a newspaper obituary that shows Keeler dying in a traffic accident.  Later when running it again for Kirk it shows a different future.   In this one Keeler is the leader of a peace movement and she becomes acquainted with Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1936.  Kirk becomes very excited for his love exclaiming “she is important!”  Then Mr. Spock gives him the grim news that there are two possible futures one where she lives to meet the President and another when she dies this year.  However he was unsure of the date as he was unable to see it.  Kirk asks which future is the one that must be and Spock doesn’t know.  McCoy either kills this woman or prevents her from being killed.  Already you can see in Kirk’s face that this begins to tear him up.  When Spock asks what is to be done if she must die Kirk doesn’t commit. 

Dr. McCoy finally arrives still maddened by the cordrazine he continues his raving about killers. His rants scare a poor homeless man.  When McCoy sees the man run away, he notices he looks human and asks him not to run for he won’t kill him.  As McCoy reaches the man he notices that he is human not just looks.  Although McCoy’s mental instability undermines his senses he gazes around and notices the constellations in the sky.  He mutters that they even got the stars right. McCoy starts to assume that this is all a trick played on him by some unknown alien they must have encountered.  Considering their ship’s history that isn’t completely unreasonable for him to believe.  McCoy notices the clothing and buildings all appearing as if in the past, he thinks about what medicine was like in those days.  The drugs combined with his own strong empathy starts to feel horror when he thinks about 20^th medicine with people “sewed up like garments!”

Good cranial development 

McCoy collapses and the homeless man takes his phaser.  While trying to figure out what it is the poor man ends up disintegrating himself with it.  When McCoy comes to he gets guided to the 21^st Street Mission where he ends up in the warm hands of Edith Keeler, who clearly sees that he needs some help.  She takes him away just as Spock is beginning his shift. 

Kirk and Spock have gotten the computer working again, it had shorted out from earlier, to Kirk’s heartbreak they discover that in the “true” timeline Edith Keeler is supposed to die in a car accident later this year, but exact date is unknown.  Keeler surviving means she goes on to found a peace movement that become so powerful and prevailing in the United States that delays our entrance into World War II.  That delay allows the Nazis to develop the atomic bomb first and with that advantage the Axis powers win the war and Fascism triumphs throughout the world.   When they’re done viewing the tricorder, Kirk confesses that he is in love with Keeler.  Spock reminds him of their mission and the millions, if not billions, of lives will be affected if the timeline is allowed to be changed.

Good news we got the computer working, bad news.

McCoy wakes up in a bed and is being cared for by Keeler.  He is now fully recovered from his accidental injection in his mind is his is again.  However since he is surrounded by the world of 1930 he comes to the conclusion that he still must be under the drug's influence and that he is hallucinating.  Nevertheless he finds is Keeler to be a very pleasant hallucination and they engage in friendly discussion.

Spock sees two people who fancy one another

As Kirk and Keeler are finishing up another date, Keeler trips and nearly falls down the stairs before Kirk saves her.  Spock witnesses all of this and after Kirk has made sure that Keeler has been settled in for the night Spock confronts him.  He points out the Keeler could’ve died then in the future would’ve been saved.  Kirk goes back and forth saying she supposed to try to traffic accident not by falling down the stairs, McCoy is not even there yet.  Then he moves into a defense of the future being unwritten and we don’t really know what’s going to happen.  Spock correctly assumes that Kirk is becoming compromised in order to protect the woman he sleeping with.  (I mean he’s in love with.  They never mention sleeping, however the way he and Keeler going on I assume it’s obvious.  They don’t say outright as they were trying to keep everything rated G to use a modern expression.)

   

Edith Keeler visits with Dr. McCoy again and finds that he’s in much better spirits.  He is more accepting of his new reality and that one point he even offers to help around her mission.  She tells him that there’ll be plenty of time to talk about that but right now she’s excited for her date with as she describes her “man friend .“ She tells McCoy that he’s going to take her to a Clark Gable movie.  This actually turns out to be a little bit funny later because she actually hasn’t talked to Kirk about going to the Gable movie but she’s a made up her mind and taking her to that movie is what Kirk is going to do. 

As Kirk and Keeler stroll along on their date Keeler brings up the Clark Gable movie that she’s decided Kirk is going to take her to and mentioned a man she recently met named McCoy who kind of reminded her of Kirk.  Kirk stops and puts his hands on her and exclaims “Dr. Leonard McCoy ?”  At that moment Kirk sees McCoy come out of the mission across the street and coincidentally Spock walks out as well.  Kirk crosses the street and calls out to them and the three men have a reunion. 

They start talking to each other about a mile per minute and Keeler sits on the other side the street wondering what’s going on.  Her fascination with these three gentlemen leads her to walk across the street heading straight for them and she makes the fatal error of failing to look before she crosses.  That one moment of sudden carelessness brought on by the moment’s excitement and confusion cost her her life.  However McCoy almost saves her but Kirk stops him allowing the motor vehicle to hit her head on.  McCoy is shocked telling the Captain that he could’ve saved her and asking him if he realized what he is done.  Spock says “He knows, Doctor.  He knows.”

Worst moment in his life!

The three men return to the present and according to the rest of the away team they have been gone only seconds.  They can once again communicate with the Enterprise.  The Guardian of Forever proclaims that the timeline has been restored and all is as it once was.  Except for of course the poor homeless man in the 20^th century who getting a hand phaser from over 300 years in the future, having no idea what it was, and no reasonable expectation that it could be a danger to him, who ended up disintegrated.  Of course the all-powerful Guardian is some sort of elitist and clearly doesn’t care about that poor innocent life that was taken as a result.  Oh well, maybe he was supposed to die that day. As the Guardian tells them that many such journeys are possible, the idea now sickens, not excites, Captain Kirk.  He says it’s time to get the hell out of there and calls for the Enterprise to beam them up.

Additional thoughts: Far and away the greatest episode of the Star Trek franchise.  It’s a challenge to come up with something original to say about an episode so celebrated and discussed so much.  One of the things that I notice about certain episodes of television is that the truly great individual episodes can mark their greatness by not only how they are celebrated by their fan base and genre, but how that individual episode can transcend its genre so that I can be enjoyed by almost any viewer.  If I had to choose one episode to show a non-Star Trek fan that would represent the franchise this would be this episode.  I think any TV series that is truly good will produce one of these.  One that immediately comes to mind is “College” from the first season of The Sopranos.  Also from my childhood I would bring up “The Boogieman Cometh” from The Real Ghostbusters.  

There were a lot of hard feelings after this was all said and done between Harlan Ellison and Gene Roddenberry. However I have no desire to discuss it.  Both Roddenberry and Ellison were brilliant and both could be jerks from time to time.  Of the two Ellison was the bigger jerk and was also a major copyright troll; however that doesn’t take away from his brilliance as a writer.  I also have no interest in discussing previous drafts that many other people find so fascinating.  All original drafts may be more interesting than the episode you get because they all have to be whittled down to fit a 60 minute plus commercials program that often has a limited budget.

What I do want to discuss is the utter tragedy of the character of Edith Keeler.  Edith and her destiny are what tug at the heartstrings in this episode.  Here you have this wonderful person who tries her best to make the world around her a better place.  An intelligent individual who if she wanted to pursue anything else that might have been more materially rewarding she most likely would have been very successful; who chooses instead to work in a poor area in a major city trying her best to help any individual that she can.  She tries to put food in people’s bellies, she tries to put hope in their hearts , and she tries her best to aid those in need of achieving independence by finding them work and in some cases finding them place to live that is affordable.  Yet this wonderful person is destined for death by traffic accident, and the cruelest fate of all is that is a good thing.  Because if she’s allowed to continue living given her wonderful nature she will by being in the wrong place at the wrong time but with the best of intentions allow the evil Axis powers to win World War II.   So the bright light from the 21^st Street Mission that is Edith Keeler must die so she doesn’t damage humanity too much.

Good person, horrible world

Captain Kirk has a romantic life that is similar to the comic book character Batman.  Superman has Lois Lane.  Lois Lane is Superman’s one true love who he is destined to be with.  She was there from his first appearance in Action Comics #1 and has been in part of his world in every incarnation.  If they ever find themselves in the arms of another those relationships are ultimately not to last and they find each other again.  Batman has never had a Lois Lane.  There have been numerous women over the years from Vicki Vale to Vesper Fairchild to Julia Madison to Selena Kyle.  Various groups of fans prefer one over the other but DC comics has never come out and said: “this person is it.”  At this point in Captain Kirk’s career fans have heard about the young blonde technician that Gary Mitchell set him up with in “Where No Man Has Gone Before” and there was Ruth who Kirk mentioned and met a copy of in “Shore Leave.”  Later there will be others but no one crowned as Kirk’s one true soulmate by the officials of Star Trek.  It’s up to each fan who they view his one true love to be.  However as far as this fan is concerned his one true love is a woman who when he was getting to know her said “Let me help.”  In allowing her to die he amputated a piece of his soul.

Let me help!

So were there any alternatives?  I imagine throughout this adventure Captain Kirk wish he had traveled back here using his starship.  With the Enterprise at least he would have some control over how he moved through time.  Relying on the Guardian for his journey through the timeline denies him the option of bringing his Edith to the future with him.  I suppose maybe he could to arrange for himself to stay in this time period and simply try to convince Edith Keeler not to go through with the peace movement in the 30s, maybe he could use his knowledge from the future to expose to her what a horror Adolf Hitler actually was or is.  Of course what would be good for Captain Kirk would not necessarily be good for the actor William Shatner and the various fans of Star Trek. If Captain Kirk be permitted to leave his responsibilities behind it and live in the 30s with his one true love the show would lost its main hero and Shatner would have been out of a job.  I love Mr. Spock as much as anyone but somehow I don’t think the series would have been nearly as interesting if it continued with the Enterprise being led by a Captain Spock.  The series is ultimately driven by the interactions of all the characters. 

So little time with his soul mate

I will say I do feel a little bit sorry for the Guardian of Forever.   With all its knowledge it’s too bad he couldn’t reach through time and learn a thing or two about making friends.  It seems really excited at first to meet other intelligent beings but then it began talking in riddles and insisting on its superiority.  As a time travel device it wasn’t very user-friendly.  It didn’t seem to have any standards on who entered it.  When Kirk and Spock return having retrieved McCoy, the Guardian excitedly proclaims that many such journeys are possible.   However with his heart so recently been ripped out of his chest the last thing Kirk wants to do is have it happen again.  He wants nothing to do with the Guardian of Forever.  In all honesty would you?  As they beamed away I got the impression of the Guardian was going to be alone again for quite some time.

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

INTRODUCING THE KLINGONS AND SOMEONE EVEN TOUGHER THAN THEM AT THE SAME TIME!

Episode Title:  Errand of Mercy

Air Date: 3/23/1967

Written by Gene L. Coon

Directed by John Newland

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          Victor Lundin as unnamed Lieutenant           Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Organian villager          Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent  and Organian villager                  Ron Veto as Lieutenant Harrison  and Organian villager            John Abbott as Ayelborne                  John Colicos as Commander Kor           Peter Brocco as                 Claymare                      David Hillary Hughes as Trefayne                     Walt Davis as  unnamed Klingon Soldier               George Sawaya as unnamed Klingon Soldier                 Bobby Bass as unnamed Klingon Guard               Gary Combs as unnamed Klingon Guard             Basil Poledouris as  unnamed Klingon Soldier        Paul Power as unnamed Organian Elder

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, numerous K't'inga-class battle cruisers

Planets:  Organia

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the crew of the Enterprise getting some disturbing news.  The bothersome news is this peace talks between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire have broken down.  The Federation is headed for war.  Their peaceful five-year mission to explore the universe is going to have to be put on hold as the Enterprise is going to be needed for battles that Starfleet will be fighting against the Klingon Imperial forces.

The war for the crew of the Enterprise quickly becomes a reality when out of the blue they are attacked by Klingon war ship.  Captain Kirk’s quick thinking and calm under pressure helps lead the Enterprise the victory by returning fire in a dispersal pattern that both both hits and ultimately destroys his adversary.   After their kill is confirmed, they proceed with orders that came from Starfleet for the Enterprise to go to the small planet of Organia.  The planet is in a strategic location for both sides.  Whatever side claims it will be building a base and operating the conflict from there.

When they arrive at Organia Kirk and Spock prepare to go down to the planet and try to make contact with local authorities.  Since Scotty has apparently chosen a very inconvenient time to take a vacation, Captain Kirk places Lt. Sulu in command of the Enterprise until they return.   The Captain orders the Lieutenant that if the ship is in danger he is to retreat and rejoin the fleet.  Under no circumstances is he to wait for the two of them to return.  Sulu wants to protest but Kirk has him standby his orders.

Ayelborne greats Kirk and Spock

 Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet’s surface and not one of the locals seems to react to the fact that two people have just materialize out of thin air.  They are greeted by a man named Ayelborne.  Kirk asks if he can see their leader to which Ayelborne responds by saying they actually don’t have anything called a “leader” but he is the chairman of the Council of Elders and he would be glad to help them.  Ayelborne takes Kirk to the Council and Mr. Spock asked to be left behind so he can do some observations. 

In his meeting with the Council of Elders Kirk explains the situation with the Klingons and informs them of the Klingons pending arrival here to their planet.  Kirk lays out that unless they act fast and side with the Federation that they will be under the rule of the Klingon Empire.  The Council is very unimpressed they seem to think Kirk is trying to say that they have a choice of siding either with the Federation or the Federation’s enemies.  Kirk points out that the Federation will give them a choice but the Klingons won’t and he seen planets ruled by Klingons and he would not want that fate to be suffered by the poor people of Organia.  The Council follows by this telling Kirk that they don’t like any sort of violence and they don’t want to be caught up in this war.  They tell him that Organia is not in danger and there’s nothing there that the Klingons would want anyway.  Kirk points out the Klingons want the entire planet and unless the Council acts they may get it.

A Council that is not concerned

Spock returns and informs Captain Kirk that based on his observations the Organian culture is entirely stagnant and is not advanced at all in about 10,000 years.  It is the most stagnant culture the he’s ever seen.  Kirk tries to use this knowledge to let the Council know that the Federation attends to share their advancement with the people of Organia.  Kirk offers schools, technology, and freedom from such threats as hunger.  The Council is not impressed in the least bit with Kirk’s proposal and while Kirk’s been talking to them the Klingons arrived. 

Kirk gets a call from Sulu on the Enterprise that the Klingon fleet has arrived and the ship is outgunned twenty to one.  Following his earlier orders Lt. Sulu hightails the Enterprise out of there.  One of the Council members proclaims that there are a hundred Klingons with arms who are now outside their city.   Kirk and Spock would very much like to know how they are aware of this but the more pressing issue is safety of the two Starfleet officers.  Ayelborne decides to help disguise them as local traders.  The funny thing about their disguises is Kirk and Spock are still wearing their traditional Starfleet colors.  Kirk is still dressed up in command gold while Mr. Spock is sporting science blue. 

Different clothes but the right colors

The Klingon army arrives and with its commander the audience of Star Trek gets to meet its first Klingon.  His name is Kor, and the 'o' is long.   Kor announces that he is now the military governor of this planet and they must all obey him.  He hands them a list of rules which must be followed whose violation means death.  The Council lets Kor know that they are down with obeying and will gladly follow all his rules.  Kor has the expression of a man who was playing tug-of-war with an opponent who had just let go.  The only one who doesn’t back down to Kor is Kirk in his identity as an Organian merchant.  Kor sees a “ram among the sheep” because apparently there are rams and sheep in the Klingon Empire.  Kor appoints Kirk his emissary with the Organians.  However he does not accept Spock as a simple merchant as he is a Vulcan.  He announces that he will take Spock and use their weapon known as a “mind sifter” that can probe a mind and peel away secrets but will cause lasting cerebral damage. 

Commander Kor

Spock returns completely unharmed however.  He informs the Captain that the Klingons’ weapon is in fact real and very dangerous but given his mental abilities he was able to overcome it and convince the Klingons he is who he says he is.  Kirk is please that Spock is alright but he can’t just sit by and watch the Klingons take advantage of the helpless Organians so they engage in some sabotage and destroy the Klingons’ munitions dump. 

Far from being appreciative of Kirk’s efforts the Organians are extremely annoyed at the Captain for employing violence on their behalf.  Kirk tries to plead with them he tells them that military dictatorships have been over thrown before.  If they organize into a resistance they can get the Klingons off their planet.  The Organians couldn’t seem to care less about that.   It turns out the whole conversation is being monitored by Kor himself.  Kor enters the Council’s chambers to arrest Kirk and Spock.  Kor is eager to use the mind sifter on Kirk to find out his identity but it turns out he doesn’t even need to for Ayelborne goes ahead and tells them.  Kor is excited and as a small way a tad bit disappointed.  He’d always want to face Captain Kirk in open combat in space.  Nevertheless is pleased to have him as his prisoner. 

Captured by Kor

Kor has the two Starfleet officers locked up but before he puts Kirk away he decides he wants to have a drink with him first.  Since Kor is going to be forced to execute him he might want to take advantage of is one opportunity to talk to his famous adversary.  The conversation between Kirk and Kor is an interesting one.  Kor complements Kirk on how difficult his operation here now is with his sabotage.  Kor tells Kirk that he has managed to slow them down but they won’t be stopped.  It is also clear that they both find the Organians revolting for the same reasons but from different angles.  They both would prefer the Organians fight, Kor because he wants to crush them and Kirk because he wants to see them overthrow the Klingons.  Kor then sends Kirk to be was Spock and await their fate.

Commander with his second

 They don’t have to wait long however as they sits in a dungeon trying desperately to think of some form of escape, they are unexpectedly freed by Ayelborne.  Who says he refuses to see the Klingons do violence to them.  Kirk and Spock are bit surprised to see that the Organians with their limited resources are somehow able to sneak past Klingon guards and free them however they do not argue with it.   When Kor hears of their escape at first he cannot believe it but once he accepts it he orders one of their ships in orbit to fire its weapons at the surface the planet targeting the settlement.  This results in the apparent death of two hundred Organians.

Kirk and Spock regain their weapons from the Organians and decide to take the fight to Kor himself.  Facing astronomical odds that nevertheless keep improving as they keep going, Kirk and Spock break into Kor’s headquarters and capture him.  With Kor as their prisoner, they learned that the Enterprise has returned with the fleet and the two space fleets are about to go into battle.  Simultaneously Kor’s security team has shown up to try to free him.

It is at this point that the Organians have seen enough and they decide to end this.  All of a sudden the Federation’s phasers and the Klingons disruptors are literally too hot to handle.  Neither Kor and his men nor Kirk and Spock are able to hold onto their weapons.  On board the Enterprise officers on the bridge can no longer remain at their stations.  When the two Starfleet officers and the Klingons try to go at each other directly they find they are repelled. 

Ayelborne arrives and it turns out the Organians are a lot tougher than anyone could’ve possibly imagined.  Their appearance is simple folk is simply a ruse to give outsiders a frame of reference when interacting with them and to make them appear uninteresting so the outsiders will go away.  They are however very advanced beings of pure energy and have a great deal of power.  No one died when Kor attacked; they just made it appear as though there were causalities.  It is they who disabled the great space fleets above and as Ayelborne address them here he was also simultaneously on Earth and on Kronos giving them both the same message.  Typically the Organians hate to interfere with outsiders.  However seeing as they have come to their planet and are engaged in the most vile thing they can think of which is violence the two sides have forced their hand.  They are not going to permit the Federation and the Klingon Empire to fight. 

The truth!

Kirk and Kor simultaneously protest demanding what right the Organians have to dictate their affairs.  Kirk and Kor then go into what each doesn’t like about the other one and the claims that each side has against each other.  This is to no avail the Federation and the Klingons are going to have to go back to the negotiating table. 

Two men very confused. 

With that Kirk and Kor have their goodbye since the Organians won’t let them fight to which Kor says “it would have been glorious.”

 Additional thoughts: This was a great episode; however he does seem a bit repetitive.  The story is very similar to “The Arena.”  In both episodes the Federation becomes involved in a conflict with a deadly enemy.   Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise engage in battle with said enemy, allowing the viewer to see what a great space tactician Captain Kirk is, in both episodes.  We later learn that both adversaries have some legitimate grievances.   Once again a greater power puts an end to the conflict. 

There are differences as well for one unlike the Metrons, the Organians aren’t complete hypocrites.  The Organians live to and adhere by a code to which they only enforce onto others if those others come to their planet and act in violence.  The Metrons on the other hand also claim to hate violence and when they see it tried they impose their own violence upon it.  Also in the story the two commanders are not pitted against each other in single combat, although Kor might have liked that.

So we finally get to meet the Klingons, I am very glad it is weird to have a Star Trek blog and not to have a single reference of the Klingons.  The Klingons became recognized as the primary villain of the classical series and is one of the few Star Trek aliens that have impacted real-world culture to the point that non-Star Trek fans know what they are.  Another example of that would be the Vulcans, simply for being Mr. Spock’s people.  The Klingons have a reputation for violence so it is somewhat amusing that in the first appearance they are humbled with their adversaries by a far greater power.

Then we have the original Klingon himself: Commander Kor.   What a character he is and what a great foundation that he lays!  He does an amazing job capturing and defining the Klingon spirit.  John Colicos who plays him is one of those guest stars who helped build a great legacy for the show.  With Kor you see a mix of passion and duty.  Kor loves and relishes combat particularly space battles.  He despises being a military governor yet he does his duty without a moment’s hesitation because his honor demands it.

 I really enjoyed the scenes between Kor and Kirk.  You really see the respect Kor has for his adversary, which helps the fan understand Kirk’s reputation outside his immediate family on the Enterprise.  I think gives Star Trek fans pleasure to know that Kirk is a legend in his own time and well-respected not just among his peers but among those who rival the Federation as well.  It is also apparent that, although he tries to hide it, I think Kirk appreciates Kor as well.  When Ayelborne tells him that one day the Federation and the Klingons would be friends and they would help each other, Kor and Kirk rejected that idea.   Yet, moments later Kor started to propose an alliance with Kirk against the Organians before they learned the full extent of their power.  

Long live the Klingons and the Klingon Empire!

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5