TOS 41: Friday's Child

Original air date: 12/01/1967
Star date: 3497.2

Summary: The Enterprise is sent to Capella 4 to attempt to negotiate a mining agreement with the Capellans in order to obtain topaline.  Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down with a redshirt, and are surprised to find that a Klingon representative has already made contact with the Capellans.  Startled, the redshirt pulls his phaser and is immediately struck down by a Capellan kligat, a thrown weapon similar to a ninja shuriken, which Capellans wield with such force and accuracy they are almost as deadly as a phaser.  In order to show good will, the trio are obliged to surrender their communicators and weapons as the Klingon, Kras, has done.

There is a brief negotiation between Akaar, the Capellan leader, Kras and the Federation trio.  During this discussion, Akaar introduces his very pregnant wife, Eleen.  We learn that although the Capellans are a warlike race who prefer to let the sick die, they are also scrupulously honest, and value honesty highly.  Akaar's leadership is challenged by another Capellan, Maab, who seems to prefer Kras to Kirk and company.

That night, Maab stages a coup and deposes Akaar.  The Federation trio and Kras all attempt to retrieve their weapons and communicators in the confusion, and Maab walks in just as Kirk is holding a knife to Kras' throat.  This makes Maab tend to look on Kirk more favorably, until Kirk intervenes to prevent the summary execution of Eleen, which Capellan law requires now that Maab has killed Akaar.  Kirk is now similarly sentenced to death, for under Capellan law, it is wrong simply for a man to touch a woman who is not his wife or relative.

Meanwhile in orbit, Scotty is commanding the Enterprise, and receives a distress call from the freighter ship Deirdre, some distance off and reporting that they are under attack by Klingon warships.  Unable to make contact with the trio on the planet, Scotty realizes his duty is to go to the Deirdre.  We later learn that the USS Deirdre was never there; the message was a ruse on the part of the Klingons to get the Enterprise away from Capella 4.

Back on Capella 4, the Enterprise trio and Eleen are being held prisoner, but are able to escape to the mountains with their communicators.  As McCoy tends to Eleen, Kirk and Spock use sound waves from their communicators to cause a rock slide, making it difficult for the Capellans to follow them.  While McCoy midwifes Eleen's baby, Kirk and Spock fashion crude bows and arrows and lie in wait for the Capellans.  After giving birth, Eleen knocks out McCoy and escapes back to Maab and the Capellans, telling them she has killed the Federation trio in their sleep.  Kras, who has managed to recover a Federation phaser from the Capellans, insists on verifying her story.  Kirk shoots Kras in the knee with an arrow, starting off a melee in which Kras, believing he is threatened by one of Maab's men, vaporizes him with his phaser.

This makes Kras a target for the Capellans.  Eleen, who knows she will die anyway, volunteers to provide a distraction so the Capellans can attack Kras with their klingats, but instead Maab gives himself up to Kras, who vaporizes him, and then is himself killed by the Capellans.  This leaves Eleen's baby as the new "Teer", or leader of the Capellans, with her wielding true power as his ward.  The Federation gets its mining treaty, and Eleen's baby is named Leonard James Akaar --- to the irritation of Spock.

This episode has a good plot --- at least it isn't another "godlike powers" episode, or another "computers take over" episode.  The unexpected appearance of Kras on Capella 4 introduces interesting tension, where Kras and the Federation trio are forced to battle one another indirectly with words, rather than with photon torpedos and phasers.  And the volatile nature of the Capellans keeps things interesting, too.

Unfortunately, the writing starts to show problems not quite 20 minutes in, when Kirk prevents Eleen's execution.  It strains credibility that Kirk is not summarily executed at this point --- after all, Maab was just about to summarily execute Eleen.  But for some reason, after Kirk's intervention, Kirk and Eleen are both allowed to live, and merely taken prisoner.  It further strains credibility that although the Capellans have strict rules regarding interaction between men and women, Eleen and the Enterprise trio are all imprisoned together.

After that, it's easy to enjoy the slow-motion chase in the mountains, and the wild goose chase the Kingons send Scotty on.  But things fall apart rather badly at the end, where there are a number of problems, including:

• Capellans are scrupulously honest, which is why Maab believes Eleen's lie about having killed the Enterprise trio.  But why does Maab later exonerate Eleen who, already under a death sentence for having been Akaar's wife, is also proven guilty of lying --- and not just lying, but lying to protect the Enterprise trio?
• Kras wants to get a mining deal for the Klingons, perhaps even as much as he wants Kirk dead.  So when everything is going his way --- the Enterprise trio has been found and are under attack by the Capellans --- why does Kras reveal his stolen phaser, and then use it on one of the Capellans?  I suppose it's possible he targeted Spock with the phaser without thinking, and then once the Capellans knew he had the phaser, he became as much a target for them as the Enterprise crew were.  But it's hard to see how Kras managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
• Hard to believe that Maab would volunteer to give up his life so Kras would die.  For one thing, the Capellans killed the Federation redshirt at the start of the show simply for displaying  a phaser.  When Kras shoots the first Capellan, the others would have kligats in him faster than you can say Akaar.  For another, why would he volunteer to be the sacrificial lamb when Eleen --- already under a death sentence, mind you, and now caught in a lie --- has already volunteered to do so?  If he lets Eleen be the distraction for Kras, he can kill two birds with one stone.  Literally.

On balance, I liked this show more than I disliked it, but the ending was rather disappointing.

Other observations about this episode . . .

Sulu is back from wherever he went, but apparently he got demoted.  Kirk leaves Scotty in charge on the Enterprise, even though Sulu is there.

When the redshirt is hit with a kligat immediately after beaming down, why doesn't McCoy immediately beam back up with him and try to save him?

It's kind of amusing when McCoy tries to get Spock to hold baby Leonard James Akaar.  Spock rather uncomfortably refuses.  Dr. Spock he ain't.

Sticking with the McCoy observations, we learn in this episode that McCoy is not an escalator, when he alone has to assist Eleen up a particularly steep part of the rocks (McCoy is the only man whom Eleen will allow to touch her).

The bows and arrows Kirk and Spock "make" are laughable, of course, as is William Shatner's archery.

As is often the case, the episode ends with an amusing exchange on the bridge, this time on the subject of baby Leonard James Akaar's name:

McCoy: Has a kind of a *ring* to it, don't you think, James?
Kirk: Yes, I think it's a name destined to go down in galactic history, Leonard.  What do you think, Spock?
Spock: I think you're both going to be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month!  Sir!

The Moral of the Story: Honesty is the best policy --- unless you're recently widowed and carrying a death sentence.