TOS 24: A Taste of Armageddon

Original air date: 02/23/1967
Star date: 3192.1

Summary: The Enterprise is traveling with a Starfleet Ambassador, Robert Fox, with the goal of establishing diplomatic relations with planet Emeniar-7.  As they approach the planet, they receive a code 710 message, which is an unambiguous signal not to enter the solar system for any reason.  Fox orders the ship to continue on anyway, over Kirk's objections.

They reach orbit over Emeniar-7, and Kirk beams down with Spock, two redshirts and yet another female Yeoman to make sure it is safe for Ambassador Fox to beam down.  There they meet councilman Anan 7 and his aide Mea 3, who insist that the planet is at war with neighboring planet Vendakar, despite the fact that no evidence of war exists.  They soon learn that the war is fought in cyberspace, and by treaty, both sides have agreed to sacrifice a number of casualties determined by their computers by sending them to "disintegration machines".  One of these virtual attacks occurs while the landing party is on the surface, and Kirk is informed that the Enterprise has been virtually destroyed --- just like the last Starfleet ship to enter their solar system, the USS Valiant, roughly 50 years ago.  As a result, Anan 7 expects the entire Enterprise crew to beam down to the surface so that they can be disintegrated.  Kirk and the landing party are not among the virtual casualties, so they don't need to die, but the Emenians will hold them captive until the Enterprise crew gives itself up for destruction.

While Kirk and Spock are held captive, Scotty is in command of the bridge on the Enterprise.  Rather than telling Scotty the truth, Anan 7 simulates Kirk's voice and orders Scotty to send the whole Enterprise crew down to Emeniar-7 for shore leave.  When Scotty sees through this ruse, Anan 7 starts actual disruptor attacks on the Enterprise to destroy it.  Just as Scotty is about to return fire, Ambassador Fox overrules him, insisting the whole thing is a misunderstanding.  Fox speaks with Anan, who pretends it was a mistake, and stops the disruptor attack in an effort to get the Enterprise to lower shields, so Anan can finish them off.  But Scotty refuses to follow Fox's orders and keeps the shields up.

Fox and an assistant beam down to the surface to begin discussions, and are immediately taken to a disintegration machine.  Fortunately for them, Spock and Kirk have managed to escape captivity, and are working to take control of the Emenian council room.  Spock rescues Fox, then proceeds to the council room where Kirk is held prisoner.  Eventually the Starfleet guys take control of the situation and destroy the Emenian war computer, forcing the Emenians either to conduct a REAL war with Vendakar, or negotiate a REAL peace.  Fox offers to assist in cease fire negotiations, while the rest of the Enterprise crew returns to the ship.

I believe this is one of the "socially aware" episodes I've heard so much about, one in which Roddenberry uses Star Trek as a vehicle to broadcast an anti-war message.  And it's a great message.  In fact, it's so great, I'll present it here, before I get into blasting this episode.  It occurs in two parts: one before Kirk destroys the Emenian war simulation computer, and one afterward.

Before:

Death.  Destruction, disease, horror.  That's what war is all about, Anan.  That's what makes it a thing to be avoided.  You've made it neat, and painless.  So neat and painless, you've had no reason to stop it.  And you've had it for 500 years!  Since it seems to be the only way I can save my crew and my ship, I'm going to end it for you --- one way or another.

After, when Anan insists that the Emenians and Vendakarians must return to fighting REAL war, because war is instinctive in the human race (they're humans?  I guess so):

All right.  It's instinctive.  The instinct can be fought.  We're human beings, with the blood of a million savage years on our hands.  But we can stop it.  We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to klll today.  That's all it takes.  Knowing that we're not going to kill today.

It's a great message, and one I agree with.  The problem is that the premise of the show is laughable.  Emeniar 7 is fighting a war in which no weapons are used, so there is no destruction, disease, or horror (well, perhaps a little horror) --- only antiseptic death.  Those identified as casualties willingly enter a disintegration machine, and just disappear.  Sort of like being beamed away into nothingness, I guess.

It sounds like a thought exercise in Ethics 101: "What if there was a war in which people vanished, but there was no other destruction?"  Or a Monty Python sketch.  Indeed, the first scene in the Emenian council room when they are "under attack" is very much like a Python sketch --- the Emenians talk about "direct hits" within the city limits, and casualty counts, while the Enterprise crew look confused and Kirk radios up to Scotty to determine whether there really is a war going on.

Emeniar-7's "war" with Vendakar is as difficult to take seriously

as your average Monty Python sketch. 

Sorry guys.  I'm willing to suspend quite a lot of disbelief when I'm watching a science fiction show, but this goes too far.

Setting that aside however --- there's still a lot wrong with this show, starting with Ambassador Fox.  We learn early on that Emeniar-7 hasn't acknowledged any of the Enterprise's previous attempts at communication, and when the landing crew arrives, the Emenians don't know why they came.  Are we to believe that Starfleet Ambassadors routinely fly around the galaxy making cold calls on planets?  When Emeniar-7 does respond to the Enteprise, they send an unambiguous signal not to enter their system under any circumstances, and Fox orders the ship to proceed anyway.  What kind of diplomacy is that?  Don't Ambassadors generally travel to places where diplomatic relations already exist?  And in what kind of organization can an Ambassador overrule a ship's Captain on military matters?

Plus --- Fox is a genuinely terrible ambassador.  A planet tells you unambiguously to leave them alone, and when you go there anyway, they take your landing crew captive, try to trick the entire ship's crew to come down under false pretenses, and attack you with everything they have.  Clearly Fox is right to conclude it's all just a big misunderstanding.  With Fox leading the Emeniar-7/Vendakar negotiations at the end of the show, it's a wonder the Enterprise can get away before the whole solar system explodes.

Finally --- when Kirk destroys the Emenian computer, thus forcing Emeniar-7 and Vendakar to stop their silly war on themselves --- doesn't that violate the Prime Directive all over the place?  At this point in the series, the Prime Directive hasn't been fully explained, and since I'm only a Trekkie-wannabe, I don't really know it in detail.  But it seems like Kirk is intervening rather forcefully in Emenian affairs and Emenian culture when he does that.

Oh, and one more.  We're supposed to believe that Starfleet is a peaceful organization, striving to uphold noble ideals, etc. etc.  So why does "General Order 24" --- the destruction of all life on a planet --- even exist?

Other observations about this episode:

Uhura is still really not 4th in command.  When Kirk and Spock beam down to the surface, and Sulu is nowhere to be seen, Scotty has the bridge.

This episode sees yet another in a long line of female Yeomen.

How do Fox and his greyshirt assistant (yes, the greyshirt dies, even though the shirt he's wearing is grey) beam down when the ship's deflector screens are up?

Finally, someone (Scotty) thinks to verify the authenticity of a faked voice recording.

At one point, Kirk approaches Anan 7 with a disruptor, by himself, in an effort to retrieve the captive crew's communicators and phasers.  Why does Kirk go alone?  I guess it's because the asses of the two redshirts who beamed down with him weren't going to sit on themselves.  No, of course I realize it's so Kirk could have yet another big fight scene.

And the way Kirk takes control of the Emeniar-7 council room all by himself?  Totally believeable.

But best of all --- it turns out Spock can control minds!!! The way the captive Enterprise crew escapes is when Spock sends telepathic messages through a wall to make their guard open the room to their cell so they can ambush him.  I'm sure we will never see Spock use this ability ever again.

The Moral of the Story: We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to klll today.  That's all it takes.  Knowing that we're not going to kill today.

TOS 23: Space Seed

Original air date: 02/16/1967
Star date: 3141.9

Summary: The crew of the Enterprise are surprised to discover a spacecraft from late 20th-century Earth.  Kirk, Scotty, Bones and a historian named Marla McGivers board it to discover 73 people in a state of hypersleep; their presence automatically awakens the ship's captain, a man who identifies himself only as "Khan".  From the beginning, McGivers finds herself irresistibly drawn to Khan.

After returning with Khan to the Enterprise, Kirk finds Khan reluctant to provide much information about himself, his ship, or his crew, but provides Khan with access to the Enterprise technical manuals to allow him to catch up on 200 years worth of advances in technology.  Eventually Spock is able to determine that Khan is in fact Khan Noonien Singh, leader of a race of genetically-bred "superhumans", who once ruled one-quarter of the Earth's surface.  It is clear that Khan and his still-sleeping crew are the last of the superhumans, who were unaccounted for at the end of the 20th century.

Kirk orders that Khan be put under guard, but this does him no good as Khan is able to recruit McGivers to his side and assist him in returning to his ship to awaken the rest of his crew.  As a result of reading the Enterprise technical manuals, Khan and his crew are able to take control of the Enterprise, and threaten to kill the bridge crew one by one unless they agree to join with him and help him use the Enterprise to find a new planet he can colonize to start a new empire.  McGivers, clearly having second thoughts about aiding Khan, rescues Kirk from death in a decompression chamber.  Kirk and Spock are then able to flood most of the Enterprise with knockout gas, disarming all of Khan's crew other than Khan himself.  While Spock and Scotty work to regain control of the Enterprise, Kirk and Khan go mano-a-mano in the Engineering room, with Kirk ultimately prevailing.

With his control firmly re-established, Kirk holds judicial proceedings to deal with Khan and McGivers.  Rather than imprisoning Khan, he decides to leave Khan and his followers on a tough-to-tame planet where they can start a new life, comparing it to British criminals colonizing Australia.  He also gives McGivers the option to go with Khan, or remain on the Enterprise and face a court martial.  McGivers chooses to go with Khan.

Honestly, I'm not sure what this episode was about.  It is established fairly early on that the late 20th century was the start of a "dark age" on Earth, where wars were fought between genetically-bred "supermen" (and women) and the rest of us.  And the rest of us won.  It takes a bit of time, but we eventually discover that Khan and his crew are the last of these supermen.  And then they try to take over the Enterprise.  And at the end, Kirk gives them exactly what they want: a new planet to conquer, to be the starting point of a new empire.

Is the message that eugenics is bad?  Not really, that's assumed.  Is it that war is bad?  Again, that's assumed.  Is it that, if you are sufficiently charismatic, you can get away with anything, and get exactly what you want?  That's what the message seems to be.

Here is a key conversation between Kirk and Spock, fairly early in the episode:

Kirk: Well, they were hardly supermen.  They were aggressive, arrogant, they began to battle among themselves . . .
Spock: Because the scientists overlooked one fact: Superior ability breeds superior ambition.
Kirk: Interesting, if true.  They created a group of Alexanders, Napoleons.

So Kirk sees them as "Alexanders, Napoleons", an assessment which would seem to be reinforced by Khan's brief takeover of the Enterprise.  So Kirk gives them a planet of their own --- unbelievable.  And although as ship captain, Kirk has the authority to deal with Khan's attempted piracy in any way he sees fit, I'm guessing there are folks in Starfleet who would love to prosecute Khan for things he did on Earth in the 1990's --- and it's really not Kirk's place to deprive them of that opportunity.

One would also think that, after this conversation, Kirk would take away Khan's access to the Enterprise technical manuals.

In fact, we see Kirk make the same mistake of generosity twice in the show.  Kirk gives Khan the Enterprise technical manuals in a generous attempt to let Khan "catch up" on 200 years of technology, and Khan uses that generosity to seize Kirk's ship.  Kirk is generous with Khan a second time by giving him a planet to rule --- and it seems just as likely that decision will also blow up in Kirk's face (and I would say that even if I didn't know that they made a movie about just that --- albeit one I haven't seen).

The whole McGivers subplot is somewhat interesting, but the way it ends is a bit unbelievable.  Sure, I can believe that McGivers might be overwhelmed by Khan's charisma (why do all the cute chicks want to date the macho bullies?), and I can even believe that she betrays Khan when she realizes his brutality has gone too far.

What I can't believe is that a) McGivers would choose to go with Khan at the end, both because she's seen how brutal he can be (forcing the Enterprise crew to watch Kirk slowly die), and because life on this new planet will be quite difficult; and b) That Khan would want McGivers to go with him.  Everything on the show to that point indicates that Khan is simply using McGivers so he can take over the Enterprise; why would he want her --- an "ordinary" woman, and not a superwoman?  Especially after she betrayed him?

Other observations about this episode:

Kirk has difficulty remembering McGivers' name.  Gosh, you mean we finally found a woman with whom Kirk doesn't have instant romantic chemistry?

Kirk certainly takes his sweet time putting a security guard on Khan once he finds out who Khan really is, sitting around with Scotty and McCoy gushing in admiration of him before finally putting in a call to security.

And security is, as usual, useless, putting up essentially no resistance in letting Khan escape back to his ship.  It's really hard to believe that, at the end of the show, the 430-odd Enterprise crew can successfully keep Khan and all 72 of his followers safely under guard on the Enterprise.

When Khan is first revived, it takes McCoy and several others "hours" to revive him, so it's highly unlikely that Khan would be able to return to his ship and revive his entire crew before Kirk & Co. even realize he's gone.

It's also very convenient how Khan and his lieutenants lose the video feed of Kirk in the decompression chamber just as McGivers is going to rescue Kirk.

The fight scene between Kirk and Khan is, as usual, just awful.  It would be much easier to believe Kirk defeating the "superman" Khan if there happened to be a good, old-fashioned metal wrench lying around on a stool this time, like there was when Kirk fought Finney in the Engineering room in "Court Martial".  And why do these fights always happen in Engineering?

At least no one crumpled to the ground unconscious after being tapped lightly on the back this time.

The Moral of the Story: If you are sufficiently charismatic, you can get away with anything, and get exactly what you want.  Also, Kirk is an idiot.

TOS 22: The Return of the Archons

Original air date: 02/09/1967
Star date: 3156.2

Summary: This episode starts "in medias res", with Sulu and another crewman inexplicably running down what appears to be a street in the old American west, wearing period-appropriate clothing.  As two men in robes approach them, carrying long sticks, Sulu grabs his communicator and tells Kirk they need to beam up immediately.  Unfortunately, the guys in the transporter room aren't fast enough.  The "other" crewman runs off, and Sulu is tagged with one of the sticks before getting beamed up, materializing in the transporter room with a big smile on his face, spouting nonsense about tranquility, "the body" and "Landru".

The planet Sulu was on is called Beta 3, and the Enterprise has arrived there to investigate the earlier disappearance of a ship called Archon and its crew.  Kirk, Spock, McCoy and several others then beam down to the surface of the planet, also in mid-19th century American clothing.  They quickly notice that everyone in the town has a vacant smile, and seem to be not quite "all there".  One man they meet on the street talks of an impending "festival", which turns out to be indistinguishable from a riot.  The Enterprise crew find refuge in a nearby hotel while the natives spend all night engaging in all sorts of violence and debauchery, only to return to their original vacant, placid state at the stroke of 6:00 AM.

It's obvious the residents of the town are subject to some sort of mind control, and the Enterprise crew quickly find that they're under the microscope as obvious free-thinkers who are not "of the body" --- that is, not followers of Landru.  When two "lawgivers" come to collect the crew and have them "absorbed", they are whisked away by a resident (Reger) who is part of an underground resistance movement.  Landru uses telepathy to direct everyone on the street to attack the Enterprise crew and Reger, who are only able to make it to Reger's hideout by stunning a number of townsfolk.  Once there, it doesn't take long for Landru to find them and knock them all unconscious using high-frequency sound waves.  But before he does, we learn that Landru is also attacking the Enterprise using heat waves, and as a result, the Enterprise can neither leave nor assist those on the planet.  It is clear that Landru used this same method to destroy the Archon ship and absorb its crew years before.

When they awaken, McCoy, Reger and another crewman are gone, taken in to be absorbed.  When McCoy and the other crewman return, they have the same vacant smiles and make the same type of bland statements about "joy" and "tranquility" as the other followers of Landru.  Kirk and Spock are taken for absorption as well, but have the good fortune to meet Marplon, another resistor, who ultimately assists them in facing Landru --- who turns out not to be a human at all, but a computer built and programmed by the real Landru 6000 years ago.  Kirk causes the computer to overheat and destroy itself by telling it that it is harming "the body" (the people of Beta 3).  This releases everyone from "Landru's" power, and releases the Enterprise to go about its business.

Finally, another episode worth watching.  Not that it was perfect, but unlike other recent episodes, I didn't find myself rolling my eyes at it every few minutes.

This is at least the third episode in the series so far --- and the second in a row --- dealing with the relationship between humans and computers (the other being "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", which is among the worst of the series to this point).  Perhaps people in the 1960's had a genuine fear that computers would one day make humans subservient to them --- and if they did, they weren't alone (see for example, The Terminator series).  In each case, it seems that the writers of the show aim to argue that computers can never take the place of humans, because computers don't have a soul.  But at the same time, they can't actually present a computer as being soulless, because that makes for boring television.  So in "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", they give the various androids feelings of resentment, fear, and lust.  In this episode, the computer which is responsible for maintaining mind control is clearly self-aware, crying out to its creator Landru "Help me! Help me! Help me!" as it burns itself out.

And of course, the idea that Kirk could make the Landru computer burn itself out by reasoning with it is completely ridiculous.

Setting that aside, this show does a good job of presenting a cult society driven by thought control, fostering uniformity of behavior and mistrust of each other.  The "festival" early in the show, during which residents run around yelling and vandalizing the town (and I believe the numerous shots of men picking up women and spinning them around is intended to be a TV-appropriate metaphor for sex in the streets, consensual or otherwise) is simply bizarre, and no explanation is ever given as to why Landru would allow such a thing, much less encourage it.  But all of the (now peaceful) residents stopping their tracks to pick up a stone or a stick and slowly close in on the Enterprise landing party is well-done, and appropriately frightening.  Other aspects, such as the existence of an underground movement opposing Landru, Landru's characterization of free-thinkers as an "infection", and the double-speak of insisting that Landru is peaceful immediately after two of his lawgivers have killed a man for disloyalty give the plot some nice texture.

So on the whole, this was one of the better episodes --- but that's really damning with faint praise.

In the end, of course, Landru (the computer) is destroyed, the Beta 3 civilization is freed, and the good guys win.  But after 6000 years of mind control, the Beta 3 residents don't know how to handle their freedom, so a number of Enterprise crew members are left behind to train them in human society, led by a sociologist named Lindstrom.  The final interchange between Lindstrom (on Beta 3), Kirk and Spock (on the bridge) is worth archiving here:

Kirk: How's it going?
Lindstrom: Couldn't be better.  Already this morning, we've had half a dozen domestic quarrels and two genuine knockdown dragouts.  It may not be paradise, but it's certainly human.
Kirk: Sounds most promising.  Good luck.
Spock: How often mankind has wished for a world as peaceful and secure as the one Landru provided.
Kirk: Yes, and we never got it.  Just lucky, I guess.

Other observations on this episode:

This is the first time we hear about the Prime Directive, as Kirk and Spock are imprisoned, discussing how to deal with Landru, whom they've come to suspect is a computer:

Kirk: Mr. Spock, the plug must be pulled.
Spock: Sir?
Kirk: Landru must die.
Spock: Captain, our Prime Directive of non-interference . . .
Kirk: That refers to a living, growing culture.  Do you think this one is?

It's interesting that, when Kirk and Spock are talking Landru into destroying himself, Landru states: "I reserve creativity to me.", to which Spock responds: "Then the body dies.  Creativity is necessary for the health of the body."  Spock is known for logic, which is generally considered the opposite of creativity.  And besides, we haven't actually seen Spock do anything creative since he played the harp on "Charlie X".

It seems that Sulu is successfully "absorbed" at the start of the episode when a lawgiver simply taps him with a stick.  So why do Spock, Kirk and the others need to be taken to a special dungeon to be absorbed?

Uhura is still not fourth in command at this point.  When Kirk and Spock are on Beta 3, and Sulu is in a blissed out, brainwashed state, it's Scotty in charge on the bridge.

The Moral of the Story: A utopia obtained by destroying free will is really a Hell.  And computers have no soul.

TOS 21: Court Martial

Original air date: 02/02/1967
Star date: 2947.3

Summary: The Enterprise makes port at Starbase 11, badly in need of repairs after weathering an ion storm.  In the storm, Kirk had to make a difficult decision to jettison a pod containing one of his crew members, Lieutenant Commander Ben Finney, in order to save the ship.  However, records from the ship's computer indicate that Kirk jettisoned the pod before circumstances warranted, making him culpable in Finney's death either by negligence or malice.  Kirk maintains that the ship was at red alert when the pod was jettisoned, while the computer's records show the ship was only at yellow alert.

Base Commodore Stone offers to give Kirk a desk job if he's willing to admit to making an error, but Kirk insists that his actions were correct, forcing Stone to convene a court martial.  In the hearings, the prosecution makes the case that Finney held Kirk responsible for a black mark on his (Finney's) record when they were both ensigns on the ship Republic some years ago, and hated Kirk for it.  The prosecution contends that Kirk may have reciprocated these feelings, and used the ion storm as a convenient excuse to get rid of Finney.  Kirk continues to maintain his innocence, but video records from the Enterprise do indeed show that Kirk pressed a button to eject Finney's pod when the Enterprise was only at yellow alert.

By chance, Spock happens to notice that he can now beat the ship's computer regularly at chess, something he could not do in the past.  This causes him to suspect that the computer has been tampered with, and Kirk's lawyer persuades Stone to reconvene the court martial proceedings on the Enterprise.  There, Kirk's lawyer argues that since Kirk, Spock and Finney are the only members of the Enterprise crew who could re-program the ship's computer, that Finney in fact is still alive, hiding on the ship, and faked his death and falsified the computer records in order to frame Kirk.

After evacuating everyone but the bridge crew and court martial officials from the ship, the ship's computer eventually determines that Finney is hiding in the Engineering room, where Kirk goes to face him alone.  Finney tells Kirk he has sabotaged the ship's engines so that the ship's orbit will gradually decay and the ship will crash into the planet, killing everyone aboard.  Kirk informs Finney that Finney's daughter is aboard, leading Finney to lash out at Kirk in despair.  Kirk subdues Finney, then makes sufficient repairs to save the ship from destruction.

This episode is pretty good for about the first 35 minutes.  Once the setting moves up to the Enterprise, however, things deteriorate badly.  But before we get into that, I'd like to focus a bit on what this show tells us about late 1960's attitudes toward computers.

I was born in 1968, so by no means do I have a good first-hand understanding about how computers were viewed in the late 1960's.  However, it's certain that people then held much different attitudes about them than we do today.  We've lived through wave after wave of viruses, so we know to view any unusual behavior from our computers with a healthy dose of skepticism.  We also know that a bug in, say, Microsoft Word is unlikely to cause us any problems when we play Angry Birds.  And most important, we've come to accept the idea that all computers are networked, or at least networkable.  Long gone are the days when the average person thinks of a computer as being entirely disconnected from the rest of the world.

It's telling to consider some of the fundamental assumptions of this show in light of our current attitudes toward computers.  When Kirk first meets his lawyer, Samuel Cogley, he is surrounded by stacks and stacks of old, leatherbound law books.  And while he acknowledges he has his own computer with an extensive collection of case law, he gives a brief dissertation on the superiority of books over computers.  His reasons for feeling this way aren't really clear, but he's folksy and avuncular, and he wins his case for Kirk in the end, so we're supposed to accept his view as wisdom.

Of course, we know that most lawyers today order leatherbound law books by the yard so they can sit on their library shelves and look impressive.  And I'm guessing there are precious few successful lawyers who don't regularly consult Westlaw or some other, similar online resource.  The truth is that the digital medium is fundamentally no better or worse than the old, tree-based media for delivering information --- and there are a lot of advantages to carrying a few hundred books around on a tablet instead of in a wagon.

A second, and more plot-critical assumption made on the show is that, in order for Kirk to "face" his accuser --- that is, the ship's computer which presents damning evidence against him --- it is necessary for the court martial to reconvene on the Enterprise.  Of course, such an idea sounds silly in today's networked world.

And finally, the entire show turns on the fact that as soon as Spock starts beating the ship's computer at chess, he concludes someone must have reprogrammed the ship's computer.  I'm pretty sure this assumption didn't even make sense in 1967 --- either the show's writers didn't really know how computers worked, or they were sure that their audience didn't know --- but in today's world, what Finney did boils down to whipping up a fake video file, which doesn't really even involve programming in the way most software developers understand the term.  It certainly would have no impact on the computer's ability to play chess or run any other program.

So, uh, yeah.  This aspect of the show is dated at best, and in at least once instance, is deserving of mockery.  However, I'm guessing that the average American in 1967 accepted the idea of computers as infallible, and this episode makes hay out of that misperception.  And I'm certainly willing to cut the writers generous quantities of slack, given that I have the benefit of knowing 40 more years of the history of computing than they did.

I'm also willing to overlook the whole "conflict of interest" subplot regarding the fact that the prosecuting attorney in Kirk's court martial is a woman with whom Kirk has apparently had a romantic relationship in the past 5 years.  I'm guessing this was a novel twist in 1967 as well --- I mean, the part about a woman being a JAG attorney in the first place was probably pretty radical; the fact that she once dated the accused is just icing on the cake.  So it's novel and a bit salacious for the viewer.  But come on; where are this woman's ethics?  And for that matter, there's an underlying theme through the series so far that Kirk is well-known around Starfleet; didn't anyone in the JAG office know about Kirk's previous relationship with Ms. Shaw, and assign her to another case?  They're at Starbase 11, for crying out loud, there must have been other attorneys available.

And um, yeah, I'm going to guess that it's actually incredibly unprofessional for Kirk to kiss her on the bridge of the Enterprise at the end of the show.

Anyway, I'm somewhat less willing to overlook absurdity in other aspects of the show.

For example --- gosh, isn't just really, really convenient how the putative computer record of Kirk's actions changes camera angles three times?

No, wait, how about the design of that captain's chair?  There's a row of buttons on the arm.  Two of them (one yellow, one red) are labeled "ALERT", a third is labeled "JETTISON POD", and two more are unlabeled.  Wow!  First of all, I'm guessing there are lots of reasons why the ship might go to Yellow Alert or Red Alert, and almost no reasons why the ship would ever Jettison Pod.  So why are the three buttons all together in a row like that?  And which idiot is responsible for that design, anyway, so that a Captain trying to active a Red Alert might Jettison Pod by mistake (during the court martial the "doctored" video makes it appear that's exactly what Kirk has done).

And why aren't the other two buttons labeled?  If they do something, it seems they should be labeled like the others.  And if they don't, then why are they there at all?

Then there's the whole matter of smoking out Finney.  For one thing, Finney's plan makes no sense.  Apparently, he plotted to fake his own death so that Kirk would be court-martialed, and his career ruined.  That part is reasonable enough.  What isn't reasonable is that even if Finney had succeeded, he still would have been trapped on the Enterprise forever, or at least until it came into dock and he could walk off.  Since the transporter room is manned and all transporter activity is logged, he could never have left the ship that way.

(Of course, if he can rig the ship's computer to frame Kirk, then he probably could have rigged it to allow him to transport off unnoticed.  In which case, I have to call out his stupidity for failing to do so).

And even if he somehow finds his way off the ship, his career with Starfleet is finished.  He's presumed dead, and if he ever shows up alive, someone will figure out that he framed Kirk.  So he'll be forced to live underground for the rest of his life.

And if he wants to destroy the ship, why does he pick such a drawn-out means of doing so?  He's in the Engineering room with a phaser.  Hey, just overload the damn thing (before Kirk finds you, of course).  That'll bring the Enterprise down in a hurry.

Then again, Finney has clearly lost his mind, so perhaps it's not too surprising that he came up with such a stupid plan.  What IS surprising is that:

1. The court believes that Finney is alive based solely on some audio of a heartbeat, indicating that someone is aboard who is unaccounted for.  In fact, the court listens to the entire confrontation between Kirk and Finney as evidence in the trial.  But recall that in this time period, it's remarkably easy to create fake audio files.  Spock created a whole bunch of them in "The Menagerie", and the Gorn did it in "Arena".  And now we see that apparently, it's easy to falsify videos as well.
2. The court allows Kirk to face Finney in Engineering alone.  If I were leading the trial, I wouldn't allow the defendant to leave the room based solely on purported audio of a heartbeat.  And if it turns out the heartbeat is Finney's, there's no reason to let Kirk face him.  There's an entire Starbase down on the planet, presumably they have some competent security officers, let them handle Finney.
3. Especially when it becomes clear that Finney means to destroy the Enterprise by allowing its orbit to decay.  Even if Finney is Kirk's problem, once he threatens the Enterprise, he becomes everyone's problem, and all available resources should be brought to bear on it.  But no, Spock, the court martial panel, and a few other able-bodied folks just sit around and listen as Kirk goes mano-a-mano with Finney, and then repairs Finney's sabotage of the ship all by himself.

Other observations about this episode:

We learn some more trivia about Spock, Kirk and McCoy at Kirk's trial:

• Spock: Serial number S179-276SP.  Service rank: Lieutenant Commander.  Commendations: Vulcanian Scientific Legion of Honor.  Award of Valor.  Twice decorated by Starfleet Command.
• McCoy: Service rank: Lieutenant Commander.  Commendations: Legion of Honor, Award of Valor, Decorated by Starfleet Surgeons.
• Kirk: Serial number SC937-0176CEZ.  Lots of commendations, but most of the time I couldn't understand what Majel Barrett was saying.

When the court martial has been moved to the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk prepares everyone to listen to the heartbeats of those aboard, explaining that it's possible to pick up audio from anywhere on the ship, and that they can increase the volume "on the order of one to the fourth power".  If that's how the line was written, I'm amazed.  If not (I'm guessing they meant "ten to the fourth power"), then I'm amazed no one on the set or in post-production caught it.

The Moral of the Story: Don't be so quick to believe everything a computer tells you.

TOS 20: Tomorrow is Yesterday

Original air date: 01/26/1967
Star date: 3113.2

Summary: This show starts from the perspective of late-1960's U.S. Strategic Air Command, as they detect a UFO on their air scanners and scramble a jet to get visual confirmation.  The UFO is the Enterprise, flung back in time and with limited power as a result of an encounter with a "black star".  Unable to outrun the Air Force jet, the Enterprise locks onto it with its tractor beam.  When this maneuver causes the jet to break up, Kirk is forced to beam the pilot, Captain John Christopher, aboard the Enterprise.

Kirk and crew now face two challenges: returning Captain Christopher to Earth without affecting the future, and returning themselves to their own era.  Kirk's initial inclination is not to return Christopher to Earth, but Spock discovers that Christopher's as-yet-unborn son will make an important contribution to space travel, and therefore Christopher's return is imperative.  Further complicating matters is that the Air Force now has video and voice recordings of Christopher's encounter with the Enterprise, and those recordings must be destroyed.

Kirk and Sulu beam down to retrieve all evidence of their visit, and are arrested by a security guard who inadvertently signals Spock to beam him aboard.  Kirk is then arrested by another security force while Sulu returns to the ship.  Spock and Sulu beam down again with Captain Christopher, and this time the full Enterprise crew manage to return to their ship with Christopher, despite his attempt to stay on Earth and report what he has learned.  Scotty and Spock then "slingshot" the Enterprise around the sun to propel themselves forward in time to their own era, a maneuver which briefly moves them backward in time as well, allowing them to return Christopher and the security guard to a point in time before the Enterprise was ever detected, thus restoring the continuum of history.

This episode was pretty fun, as time-travel stories usually are.  The writers also threw in an amusing side story about the ship's computer being given a female personality, and an especially sensuous one, so that the computer refers to Kirk as "dear" and gets emotional.  And opening the show on a contemporary air base instead of in space is effective in getting the viewer's attention.

While this is a fairly light-hearted episode, emphasizing the amusing aspects of late 1960's Earth encountering a ship from 300 years in their future, it seems like William Shatner is suppressing a grin through much of it, which gets a bit wearisome.  And what's going on with the direction in this episode?  Shatner's face is in shadows in about 50% of the scenes, and I have no idea why.  Certainly it's not to heighten any dramatic effect, not with Kirk smirking and cracking jokes through the whole show.

As usual, the folks who beam down to the surface are all the guys in the chain of command.  For example, when it becomes necessary for someone to beam into a secure Air Force installation to retrieve the evidence of their visit, they send Kirk and Sulu, the first and third in command.  Really?  And when it's necessary to go rescue Kirk, they send Spock and Sulu.

I realize the security team of the Enterprise is particularly feckless --- early in the show, when Captain Christopher goes missing and Kirk orders security to find and detain him, you just know Christopher is going to overpower a security guy and get his phaser, which he does --- but still.  There are 430 people on that ship, surely they can send someone besides the top 3 guys in command to go lift some files from a military installation!

Finally, while this show doesn't have the script problems that many of them do, the ending is spoiled a bit by the fact that we're supposed to believe Christopher and the security guard don't remember anything that happened to them on the Enterprise just because they've gone back in time.  Well, gee, the whole Enterprise crew went back in time when they were "slingshotting" around the sun, but they didn't suddenly forget where there their ship was or what they were trying to do!

Other observations about this episode:

Kirk tells Christopher that the Enterprise operates under the authority of the "United Earth Space Probe Agency".

As Christopher is in his jet, following the Enterprise, Air Force Command tells him: "We want it brought down, or at least disabled".  Not necessarily the best way to start a relationship with an interplanetary species, one which is almost certainly more technologically advanced than you are.

Using the sun's gravity to "slingshot" the Enterprise forward in time is a helpful way to get them back to when they're supposed to be, but no one mentions the risks resulting from the heat or radiation involved in getting close to the sun.

It would be difficult enough to be an Air Force pilot snatched from your ship and onto an Earth spaceship from 300 years in the future.  That would take some time to wrap one's mind around.  But then to have a Vulcan come and inform you, in a matter-of-fact way, that "all historical tapes" show "no record of any relevant contribution" you made during your life --- that's gotta sting.

The Moral of the Story: Be careful not to fly too close to black stars.

TOS 19: Arena

Original air date: 01/19/1967
Star date: 3045.6

Summary: The Enterprise is summoned to the Earth outpost on Sestus 3 only to find the outpost destroyed and themselves under attack.  After scaring off the attackers, Kirk sends the Enterprise after them with an intent to overtake and destroy the attacking ship.

The Enterprise gradually increases speed up to warp 8 before they start closing on their prey, just as they encounter a previously-uncharted solar system.  They soon find that this solar system is home to the Metrons, a species more technologically advanced than either themselves or the species they've been chasing, whom they learn are called the Gorn.  The Metrons inform Kirk and the Enterprise crew that they will not tolerate aggressive behavior in their system, and are holding both the Enterprise and the Gorn ship motionless until the matter is resolved.  The Metrons then transport Kirk and the Gorn captain to the surface of a nearby planet to fight to the death.  The winner and his crew will be allowed to travel on their way, while the loser and his ship will be destroyed.  The crews of the two ships are helpless to affect the outcome in any way.

Although the Metrons have stated that the planet has abundant raw materials to make weapons, both Kirk and the Gorn captain --- who resembles a walking, man-sized lizard --- have difficulty making any.   Kirk quickly realizes that he needs to create one, as he will undoubtedly lose in hand-to-hand combat.  Via a translator provided by the Metrons, Kirk learns that the Gorn attacked Sestus 3 because the human outpost was viewed as an invasion of Gorn territory.  Eventually Kirk is able to assemble a small cannon from various minerals on the planet, and deals a near-fatal blow to the Gorn.  Due to uncertainty about the Gorn motives for attacking Sestus 3, Kirk refuses to finish off his opponent, whom the Metrons beam back to his ship.  A Metron then appears to Kirk and informs him that by showing mercy to his opponent, there may yet be hope for the human race.  Kirk is returned to the Enterprise, which is mysteriously transported 500 parsecs from its previous position, and the ship charts a course back to Sestus 3.

This show was mostly poor execution of a good idea.  The underlying theme of the show is a good one: violence should be an action of last resort, not one taken in anger.  And the sudden left turn the plot takes about 20 minutes in, when the chase scene of the Enterprise hunting down the Gorn changes into something else entirely, is also good.

But let's face it.  The fight scenes between Kirk and the Gorn captain are just brutal to watch.  I'm willing to overlook a lot because I know that 1960's Hollywood simply didn't have the technology they do today.  But seriously?  The two times Kirk hits the Gorn, it's clear he's pulling his punches.  And the Gorn can lift and throw rocks which weigh hundreds of pounds --- yet somehow Kirk is able to break free of the Gorn's grasp.

Sigh.

Anyway --- the larger message, which as usual is only lightly touched upon, is the role of violence in a civilized society.  The key discussion, as usual, is one between Spock and Kirk as they are slowly overtaking the Gorn vessel:

Spock: "You mean to destroy the alien ship, Captain."
Kirk: "Of course."
Spock: "I thought perhaps the hot pursuit alone might be sufficient.  Destruction might be unnecessary."
Kirk: "Colony Sestus 3 has been obliterated, Mr. Spock."
Spock: "The destruction of the alien vessel will not help that colony, Jim."
Kirk: "If the aliens go unpunished, they'll be back, attacking other Federation installations."
Spock: "I merely suggest that a regard for sentient life . . . "
Kirk: "There's no time for that!!"

Of course in the end, we learn that the Gorn viewed the Sestus 3 outpost as an invasion of their territory and a threat.  So Kirk is unable to destroy the defenseless Gorn, instead preferring to try to iron out their differences diplomatically.  For this, he receives the approval of the Metrons.

But then the Metrons immediately move the Enterprise and the Gorn ship far apart from one another, making diplomacy impossible.  How much sense does that make?  And for that, matter, if the Metrons dislike violence so much, why are they willing to facilitate it in this arena?  Why does the Metron offer to destroy the Gorn ship if Kirk requests it?  For that matter, why do they arrange to let the victor return to his ship and go on his way, while destroying the loser?  That seems to promote the idea that violence and aggression have a place in the galaxy, an idea which is contrary to the Metron's expressed position on the subject.

It also turns out that Kirk and the Gorn captain can communicate with one another using devices provided to them by the Metrons.  It would have been a more interesting show if the two captains had actually had a conversation using these devices, rather than treating us to 6 minutes of Kirk making a cannon.

Other observations about this episode:

Yep, the guy who dies on Sestus 3 is a redshirt this time.

The action on Sestus 3 has some problems.  Why don't they beam up the injured man as soon as they find him?  Why doesn't Kirk beam back up and beam down a security team immediately, once they realize it's a trap?  We don't know whether the Enterprise is under attack at that point, but it seems like Kirk spends an awful lot of time away from his ship.  And once we know Kirk & Co. are trapped down there, it seems Kirk does an excessive amount of running around out in the open where the Gorn can strike him.

We know Kirk was injured in his battle with the Gorn, yet he doesn't report to sick bay (and McCoy doesn't seem interested in examining him) when he returns to the Enterprise.

On Sestus 3, Spock mentions that the Gorn are cold-blooded (which you would expect from a race of Lizardfolk).  So probably, in the arena, Kirk could just wait for the sun to go down, and the Gorn captain would pretty much be helpless.

Apparently warp 8 is the fastest the Enterprise can travel, and even that isn't safe.

This is the first time we see the use of photon torpedoes.

Apparently voice recordings are really easy to create/falsify in the 23rd century.  Spock uses several in "The Menagerie", and the Gorn use a couple in this episode.

The Moral of the Story: Violence should never be one's first response.

TOS 18: The Squire of Gothos

Original air date: 01/12/1967
Star date: 2124.5

Summary: In a hurry to deliver supplies to Beta 6, the Enterprise prepares to make a high-speed sprint across a stretch of open space Kirk characterizes as a "desert".  They are surprised to encounter a previously-uncharted planet.  When Kirk directs Sulu to go around the planet, Sulu mysteriously disappears, and Kirk soon thereafter.  An analysis of the planet determines that humans cannot survive on its surface, but lacking any alternatives, Spock orders a crew of Jaeger, DeSalle and McCoy down to the surface to see what they can find.

On the surface, the search party is surprised to find breathable air, and more than that, an ancient Earth-style castle.  Inside the castle, they find a human-appearing creature who calls himself Trelane and the planet Gothos.  Everything in the castle appears to be from Earth's 14th(?) century, and the crew concludes that Trelane perceives Earth as it was 900 years ago, because Gothos is 900 light-years from Earth.  They also find that Trelane is responsible for abducting Kirk and Sulu, and he returns them, unharmed, but also makes it clear he wants the crew to remain with him for a while because he's "bored".  Kirk objects and insists that he and the Enterprise are needed elsewhere and must be allowed to leave.  Trelane demonstrates that the can make the crew do whatever he likes by briefly subjecting Kirk to Gothos' natural atmosphere.  Kirk and the rest appear to be trapped, until Spock figures out a way to beam them up through Gothos' atmosphere.

Trelane transports himself to the Enterprise to express his displeasure with Spock, and instantaneously returns the entire bridge crew back to his castle on Gothos.  Trelane explains that he is part of a group who can convert matter to energy and back, and change the form of matter, which is how he is able to provide an Earth-like environment on the otherwise uninhabitable Gothos.  Kirk tricks Trelane into a duel, and disables a machine Trelane is using.  In doing so, the crew are able to transport back to the Enterprise once more, where the crew makes a desperate attempt to fly as far as possible from Gothos.  But Trelane can move the entire planet at amazing speed (or more likely, transport it, it's not clear which), always putting the Enterprise on a collision course with Gothos.

Frustrated, Kirk beams back down to the surface to offer his life to Trelane on the condition that he allows the Enteprise to go on its way.  Trelane agrees to let the Enterprise go if Kirk allows himself to be hunted.  Trelane chases Kirk around with a sword for a bit, until two disembodied voices --- one male, one female, presumably Trelane's "parents" --- intervene to make Trelane give up Kirk and the Enterprise.

I believe this is the very first "Q" episode in Star Trek history.  Of course Trelane doesn't describe himself as part of the "Q continuum", and the voices at the end of the show suggest that Trelane is a member of a species which reproduce sexually --- though perhaps they only present themselves to Kirk that way so he will understand --- but the godlike abilities Trelane has are very much like those of the character "Q" in The Next Generation series.

I haven't seen any of The Next Generation in years --- I'm looking forward to watching them again as part of this project --- but the "Q" episodes were always among my favorites.  If I recall correctly, "Q" was sufficiently important to that series that he appeared in the series opener and the finale.

But the thing I liked about the "Q" episodes in TNG was that he always appeared to be trying to help humanity along by forcing Picard and the rest to struggle to learn some greater lesson.  That's clearly not the case here, where Trelane is quite literally playing the Enterprise and its crew the way a child might play with a mouse he's caught.  This show would have been much more interesting if Kirk & Co. had to solve some sort of puzzle to gain their freedom.  As it was, it was mostly cat and mouse with at least one rather contrived mechanism for letting the Enterprise crew escape briefly (see below).

I understand that Kirk is annoyed with Trelane because he's been abducted against his will, and because he's in a hurry to get supplies to Beta 6, but it still seems to me that Kirk is unnecessarily rude to Trelane in their first meeting.  Trelane obviously has a lot of useful knowledge he might share with the Enterprise crew, and it seems all he wants in return is some company.  Why couldn't Kirk have politely explained that they were in a hurry and need to go right now, with a promise to return soon?  Okay, Trelane might still have acted like a petulant child, but clearly both sides stand to benefit by sitting down and chatting for a few hours --- which it seems is all that Trelane wants.

After all, look what Kirk & Co. stand to gain by picking Trelane's brain:

Trelane: We --- meaning I and others have, to state the matter briefly --- perfected a system by which matter can be transferred to energy and back to matter again.
Kirk: Like the transporter system aboard the Enterprise.
Trelane: Oh, a crude example of an infinitely more sophisticated process.  You see, we not only transport matter from place to place, but we can alter its shape --- at will.

Although there weren't any serious problems with the script, there was one clunky device the writers used to get all of the crew back up to the Enterprise a second time: the idea that Trelane's power was in some way the result of a machine hidden behind a mirror.  When Kirk uses his shot in the duel to cripple the machine rather than shoot Trelane, it allows the Enterprise's transporter to lock onto the crew and beam them back up.

This really doesn't stand up in at least two ways.  First of all, after Kirk disables the machine, Trelane is still able to move the entire planet of Gothos around space at will.  He also has no trouble moving himself and Kirk, either, and making swords appear out of nowhere.  And even though Spock speculates that the machine plays a role in providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, Kirk and Trelane are running around the woods later, where the atmosphere is seemingly as Earth-like as ever.

Second, if the machine is responsible for providing an Earth-like atmosphere on Gothos, then the whole crew on the planet should suffer the ill effects of Gothos' real atmosphere after Kirk shoots the machine.  But they don't.

Other observations about this episode:

Yet another female Yeoman.  That makes four consecutive episodes with different Yeowomen.

Does DeSalle really think he can sneak up on Trelane and shoot him when Trelane --- like the viewer and everyone else in the world --- can see DeSalle creeping up on Trelane in the mirror?  If he really wants to shoot Trelane, he needs some quick-draw action.

This is the third episode so far where someone has had godlike powers --- and the second which ended with the god's "parents" coming and taking him away ("Charlie X").

The first creature Trelane zaps with the phaser is the salt-addicted creature from "The Man Trap", the first Star Trek episode ever broadcast.

The Moral of the Story: Godlike powers are no excuse for bad behavior.