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

THE LANDING PARTY LANDS IN A ZOO!

 

Episode Title:  The Eye of the Beholder

Air Date: 12/15/1973

Written by David P. Harmon

Directed by Hal Sutherland

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, Lieutenant Commander Tom Markel                  George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Majel Barrett as Lieutenant M’Ress and Lieutenant Randi Bryce            

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, USS Ariel registry unknown

Planets: Lactra VII

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The Enterprise arrives into orbit of the planet Lactra VII responding to a distress call from the USS Ariel.  The Ariel is a small survey ship with a crew of only seven.  When they find it however the little ship is abandoned.  There is a message left over from the Ariel’s Captain, Lt. Cmdr. Tom Markel, who explains that when the landing party didn’t respond the rest of the crew went down to search for them.  Kirk is pretty offended that a captain completely abandoned his ship. However, Spock and McCoy manage to talk him down from it. 

message from the Captain of the USS Ariel

Kirk decides to lead a landing party of three with Spock and McCoy accompanying him.  When they get down to the planet, they find a variety of different atmospheres in a short distance from another causing them to speculate that this environment is artificially created.  They get attacked by strange creatures some of them they have seen before, and one very big one that lands on poor Dr. McCoy when they stun it.  The poor Doctor has to wait for Kirk and Spock to dig him out, and I am surprised that McCoy lasted as long as he did under the blob.

The three find what appears to be a city.  They enter it and are quickly trapped behind a force field.  Spock discovers that these aliens are telepathic and extremely highly advanced.  Their brains are so powerful that to compare them with any human would be like to compare a human with an ant.  Their equipment is seized and they are brought to an Earth-like environment. Locked in with them is the crew of the Ariel. 

monster stunned 

It appears they are now exhibits in an inter-galactic zoo.  Spock has to explain to Kirk, who takes a while to wrap his head around this, that the Lactrans don’t view them as intelligent beings but rather dumb animals.  Lt. Randolph is ill and without a medical kit they can’t help her.  Both parties all think about the medical kit which causes the Lactrans do bring it over to them.  This indicates that the Lactrans are telepathically in tune with their needs.  With the Lieutenant treated, and idea springs up in the minds of Kirk and Spock.  What if they fake illness and focus their minds on the communicator?  They pull this off and one of the Lactrans complies and gets the communicator and gives it to Kirk.  Then Kirk tries to signal an emergency beam out but the Lactran grabs the communicator back and that individual is beamed up instead. 

taken to a zoo

Scotty gets the surprise of his life when he sees a Lactran in the transporter room where the landing party should be.  With the power of its mind the Lactran sends the ship spinning out of orbit. While on the planet, the landing party learns that the Lactran that was taken was a child.  So now all the adults have run into the room at once and are performing these mental attacks on their captives in order to figure out what happened to the missing kid. 

Crew of the Ariel

It turns out Scotty is more than just an engineering miracle worker.  He managed to communicate with the child and the Enterprise was restored to its orbit. The two beamed down to the planet and the adults were happy to see their child unharmed. Realizing that these are intelligent creatures, our heroes are allowed to go home.  According to Spock they will be happy to hear from them again in a little over twenty centuries from now.  

Getting the med kit!

Additional thoughts: The crew of the Enterprise being put in an inter-galactic zoo for the entertainment of advanced aliens. This story sounds familiar. In fact, that was the first Star Trek story told in “The Cage.” A major difference is the Talosians have another goal in mind aimed at using the humans to restore their declining civilization.  The Lactrans don’t have any other agenda, they are looking just to have an interesting zoo for the education and entertainment.  So, this Is our first pure inter-galactic zoo story exploring just that aspect.  

On display

In an interview with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, he was asked about the possibility of aliens. Tyson pointed out that if there were life in the universe that somehow managed to find a way to transverse space time in order to travel to Earth, there was a strong chance that those intelligent aliens might not view us humans as intelligent creatures.  Tyson pointed out that the most intelligent chimpanzee could only be taught to do things like open an umbrella and set up a chair. Their capabilities are only on par with human children and could never engage a human adult in a sort of battle of wits.  He pointed out that such aliens might look at Stephen Hawking who can do calculus in his head as being sort of cute because that is something that their three-year-old can do. 

Family's reunited

The captain that wasn’t a captain. In the US Navy it is possible for an officer who has not yet reached the rank of captain to be the commanding officer of a ship.  Holding the rank of commander and in some cases lieutenant commander for very small ships, the ship’s CO is called “captain” while abord her and their actual rank when they are not.  However, in Star Trek we often see officers with the captain’s insignia no matter how small their particular ship is. However, in this episode we have a commanding officer of a small ship with a rank to fit. 

With this episode we come to the end of the first season of Star Trek: The Animated Series. It was a very interesting take and a great way to explore the franchise as animation has a lot of possibilities that live action tv at the time didn’t have.  For long suffering Star Trek fans who missed their show when it went off the air in 1969, they were finally able to see their fourth season.

FINAL GRADE 4 OF 5  

RETURNING TO THE MOST ENTERTAINING PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE

 

Episode Title:  Once Upon a Planet

Air Date: 11/3/1973

Written by Chuck Menville and Len Janson

Directed by Hal Sutherland

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, White Rabbit, Gabler, and Master Computer                           George Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu                     Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura and Alice              Majel Barrett as Lieutenant M’Ress and The Queen of Hearts           

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701

Planets: Fantasy Planet in Omicron Delta

My Spoiler filled summary and review: After so many exhausting adventures the crew of the Enterprise needs some rest and relaxation.  The Captain has decided to bring them to the planet that will literally bring their dreams to life:  the Fantasy Planet of Omicron Delta.  A landing party comprising of McCoy, Sulu, and Uhura beam down.  McCoy and Sulu are extremely excited since they remembered their previous adventure here.  They are very happy to see the white rabbit run around with Alice chasing him. 

Then things start to go bad, the Queen of Hearts shows up and demands heads.  Uhura steps in to rescue the Doctor but she is then kidnapped by a flying hovercraft.  McCoy and Sulu are forced to do an emergency beam out.  Back up aboard the ship, the bridge crew tries to brainstorm what went wrong and see if they can get Uhura back.  McCoy insists that he didn’t think up the Queen of Hearts.  It becomes imperative that they find the Caretaker to fix the situation like he did before.  Kirk and Spock join McCoy and Sulu back down on the planet.

Happy to be back

Uhrua finds her captor is a talking computer, which is a very confusing situation.  However, she quickly learns that the “Master Computer” is even more confused than she is.   For one, the computer thinks Uhura is some sort of slave onboard the Enterprise.  It thinks all lifeforms aboard starships are slaves to their ships.  It is concerned that its planet is being invaded and intends to turn the returned landing party “off.”  Uhura becomes horrified as she realizes that the computer is planning on killing her friends.

Uhura about to be taken away

The landing party finds the grave of the caretaker killing the hope of solving this quickly.  Then they are attacked by pterodactyls and forced to retreat into a cave.  While back on the Enterprise the crew finds the ship has a will of its own and suddenly breaks orbit before getting back in its original position.  While on the surface the landing party is still stuck in their cave.  McCoy mentions they are playing a game of cat and mouse.  Suddenly the cave’s other entrance has a giant cat waiting for them.  Good one, Bones.  However, the landing party brainstorms and they recall how McCoy on their last visit had been “killed” then was whisked away beneath the planet.  They decide to bet that particular clean-up program is still activated. Spock volunteers and McCoy injects him with melenex that will in short time cause the Vulcan to lose consciousness and for his skin to discolor.  Their bet is paid off as Spock is whisked away as well.  The three follow the transport but only Kirk manages to get underground before the entrance closes.  Back on the Enterprise, Scotty has to deal with the ship’s artificial gravity having been turned off. 

Alice

Kirk and Spock find Uhura so now all three of them are facing off against the Master Computer.  The computer is looking to take the Enterprise and explore the galaxy looking to bond with other computers.  On the ship, Scotty discovers some hardware being built that the Master Computer is looking to download its software into.  The three of them mange to convince the Master Computer that they are not slaves to the Enterprise, and that they control it. This took some convincing as the Master Computer sees them as inferior due to lack of equal brain power.  Uhura reminds the Master Computer that some people choose to serve others of their own free will.  As we all benefit when we help each other out.  The Master Computer listens to the reasons of the three officers and releases the Enterprise.

With the Fantasy Planet back in operation, Captain Kirk calls up to the Enterprise to let them know shore leave can resume.  This crew is looking forward to a good time.   

Additional thoughts: One of the great strengths of The Animated Series is when they do follow ups to the classic series.  In the original series we got very few follow up episodes.  There was “I Mudd” as a squeal to “Mudd’s Women” and “The Enterprise Incident” was in some ways a squeal to “Balance of Terror.” The first animated episode made was “More Tribbles, More Troubles” as a follow up to the story from “The Trouble With Tribbles.”  It was such a great way to excite fans after a four-year hiatus, and to generate interest in this series.  The classic Star Trek episode “Shore Leave” was always one of the more fun episodes of the series.  It was great to see the Fantasy Planet again.  I wish they had taken some more opportunity to show some other outrageous things that can happen on it with the animation.  I was sorry to see that the Caretaker had died.  We didn’t get to see much of him in the first episode it would have been nice to have learned more about him.  Nevertheless, the Master Computer made for a great adversary. 

Grave of the Caretaker

McCoy claims that he didn’t think up the Queen of Hearts.  Is he sure and if so, why?  If I saw Alice and the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland I would instantly start thinking of the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, and the Queen.  If I saw Batman and Robin swinging about, I would immediately think of the Joker and Two-Face.  If Kirk told me to clear my head, I would think of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

Queen of Hearts

I love the classic “you couldn’t have made me bit” from the Master Computer. This is an old and always fun science fiction troupe of the AI who discovers religion.  The AI seeks to bond with its creator but refuses to see its creators as humans.  Humans are naturally inferior who need a calculator to do a basic math problem while the computer can do trillions simultaneously, therefore humans could not have made it, its creation must have been the actions of a “Supreme Being.”  Now this episode doesn’t go that far, the Master Computer does question its creation at the hands of lower lifeforms however it only seeks to meet other computers like itself, not a deity.

Battle of wits against the Master Computer

The Fantasy Planet is such a fun place and I am glad they were able to save it.  I feel that credit there belongs to Lt. Uhura.  Kirk is the Bane of All Artificial Intelligence and once Kirk entered the room it was only a matter of time before he convinced the Master Computer to kill itself.  However, thanks to Uhura’s presence they were able to convince the Master Computer to go back to being a helpful and benevolent entertainer of beings all across the galaxy who would like to have fun at the Fantasy Planet.  Thank you Lt. Uhura. 

FINAL GRADE 5 of 5

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