TOS - 2.21 - By Any Other Name

When the Enterprise answers a distress call, Kirk finds his ship being hi-jacked by the Kelvans, an alien race from another galaxy who have been sent to find a new home since there's is destined for destruction, They quite fancy our galaxy and want to use the Enterprise to return home to marshall their forces and invade.

This is very much an episode of two halves. The opening act, in which Kirk's landing party is captured on an unconvincing alien planet, is somewhat tedious. The Kelvans are a suitably dangerous foe with the ability to freeze people and also turn them into dodecahedrons, but they are very boring. Warren Stevens plays Rojan, the Kelvan leader, with absolutely no emotions, showing how badly wrong the character of Spock could have gone in the wrong hands. Even when the Kelvans take over the Enterprise things don't really pick up since this is a scenario that we have seen in "Space Seed" and "I, Mudd".

However, the episode improves substantially as Kirk realises that there is no way that he can use force against the Kelvans and we get a much more imaginative solution. Spock has learnt that the Kelvans are actually a gigantic non-humanoid species with 100 tentacles but they have taken on human forms in order to operate in our galaxy. Kirk realises that this is having an effect on the Kelvans, as they are actually now starting to become more human by experiencing emotions and so he develops a plan to give them a little push. This does all seem reminiscent of "Catspaw", but it is handled much more effectively here.

Somewhat inevitably, Kirk's role in proceedings involves him romancing a beautiful female Kelvan who doesn't yet understand what love and romance are all about; this is somewhat reminiscent of Shahna in "The Gamesters Of Triskelion" but at least Kelinda here has an academic understanding of the concepts rather than being completely naive. Kirk's gambit is successful in making Rojan jealous, prompted by a nice scene in which Rojan and Spock talk about emotions, a clever exploitation of the similarities that I originally misjudged.

Kirk's plan also leads to a lovely comic subplot in which Scotty endeavours to drink another Kelvan under the table. This features some amusing drunk acting from James Doohan and some very funny dialogue ("It's...green").

The needling of the Kelvan's emotions finishes with a big fist fight between Kirk and Rojan that is very effective before peace finally breaks out as Rojan finally accepts his humanity. It's a surprisingly happy ending given how things started, and a good example of Star Trek not just being about the Enterprise crew beating its enemies in a straight battle.

Planetary Gazetteer

The planet on which the Enterpise crew meet the Kelvans (and on which they subsequently settle) is not named.

Starship Spotting

The fact that Scotty and Spock have to do something clever with the Enterprise's anti-matter fuel as a means of potentially destroying the starship indicates that it does not yet have a proper self-destruct system.

The Kelvans modify the Enterprise's engines so that it can travel to their galaxy in 300 years rather than several thousand as would normally be the case. There is no reference to this modification being removed after peace is established but I'm guessing that we don't see the ship travel quite so fast again in the future.

General Observations

• Two Stardates are given in the episode - 4657,5 and 658.9.
• George Takei is still away and so Sulu does not appear. The initial landing party includes two guest crew members - Lt Shea and Yeoman Thompson. The latter is executed by the Kelvans (a clever reverse since we naturally expect the male lieutenant to be killed), and I see that this makes her the only female Redshirt to die in The Original Series.
• The Enterprise passes through the barrier at the edge of the galaxy; when Kirk says that he has already been there, he is referring to the events of "Where No Man Has Gone Before". Although passing through the barrier doesn't seem to give anyone strange powers this time.
• There is another continuity reference when Kirk suggests that Spock again uses his "Vulcan mind trick" to fool their guard, referring to a trick that was successful in "A Taste Of Armageddon".
• We see Scotty's quarters in this episode and find out that it is full of every Scottish cliche going including a kilt, bagpipes and plenty of alcohol!

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TOS - 2.20 - A Piece Of The Action

"A Piece Of The Action" is very much a companion to "Bread and Circuses" in which the Enterprise visited a planet that just happened to be modelled on ancient Rome. Here, we get a planet whose society is based on 1920s Chicago, complete with zoot suits, tommy guns and gangster warfare. At least this time, the similarities are explained through cultural contamination and an earlier starship visiting and leaving behind a book with the somewhat on the nose title "Chicago Mobs of the Twenties". Whilst this does raise a whole host of questions (What on Sigma Iotia II was the starship crew doing taking such a book down to an alien planet? How have things developed so rapidly in only one hundred years?), this is enough of an explanation and it also gives Kirk a stake in the events of the planet since he is motivated to sort out this mess (given that it has been caused by the Federation), rather than just escape.

The plotting of the episode isn't that sophisticated, and it does get somewhat repetitive with Kirk, Spock and McCoy (in various combinations) alternately being captured and escaping from various mob bosses. However, it isn't really the plot that is important here since the script has a lot of fun playing with the gangster cliches. After some rather dull and tepid recent episodes, it is nice to see the show embracing humour again and this being done in a way that doesn't completely undermine the drama. This is helped by Anthony Caruso, who puts in a great performance as mob boss Bela Okmyx who is charming and likeable but still a very real threat. Caruso compares very favourable with Vic Tayback who plays rival boss Jojo Krako mainly by growling.

There's some lovely moments throughout the episode including Kirk's invention of the card game fizzbin (and Spock's reaction) and Kirk's attempts to drive a car (and Spock's reaction). But it is in the last act when Spock and Kirk get into period costume that things really come alive. Kirk's plan to play the gangsters at their own game by pretending that the the Federation is a bigger fish keen to take over the planet is actually quite a clever way of getting the various mob bosses to work together, and Shatner's performance in gangster mode is joyful. There is further amusement in these scenes from Spock's best attempts to also play along, and Scotty's utter bemusement as to what his captain his talking about. There are clearly some gaps in terms of what happens next when Kirk's plan is successful, and I'm not sure that it was entirely wise for the script to point this out in the tag scene. I'm also not keen on the revelation in this scene that McCoy has left his communicator back on the planet. Given the consequences of the last bit of cultural contamination and the fact that the Prime Directive is now in place, the treatment of this as a bit of a joke does seem somewhat irresponsible...

Planetary Gazetteer

Sigma Iotia II: A planet inhabited by an intelligent and imitative race of humanoids that was contaminated by an earlier visit from a Federation starship that left behind a book about gangsters in 1920s Chicago that has since been used as the basis for society. There is no single government; instead individual bosses with control around 12 separate territories, with constant disputes between them.

Beta Antares IV: A planet where, according to Kirk, they play the card game "fizzbin". From Spock's reaction, this appears to be a real planet (well, in the Star Trek universe anyway), even if the game is Kirk;s invention.

Starship Spotting

The mess on Sigma Iotia II was caused by the visit of the Horizon some 100 years prior to the events of the episode, prior to the establishment of the Prime Directive. The Horizon was lost with all hands on leaving the planet, although news of this has only just reached the Federation. There is never any explanation as to what has caused the destruction of the ship.

General Observations

• No Stardates are given in the episode.
• George Takei is still away filming "The Green Berets" so Sulu does not appear; I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever return!
• The Enterprise crew member played by regular supporting artist William Blackburn is finally named as Lt Hadley in this episode.
• McCoy is called "sawbones" by Kirk in this episode, referring to an archaic term for a doctor. Until this moment, I had never twigged that this was where his nickname "Bones" comes from!

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TOS - 2.19 - The Immunity Syndrome

By this point, the bottle show has already been established as a part of the Star Trek format - an episode set predominantly on the Enterprise as a budget saving measure. There will be bottle shows throughout the history of the franchise, with many of these rising to the challenge and delivering very entertaining episodes. "The Immunity Syndrome" is probably the most bottliest of bottle shows, since it doesn't even feature any guest stars. And, blimey, it is really, really boring.

The episode concerns the Enterprise being tasked to investigate what has happened to the Gamma 7A system and the USS Intrepid. It isn't long before the Enterprise comes across a stranger energy cloud, which it penetrates to discover a gigantic single celled organism that starts draining energy from the starship and its crew, leading to a race against time for Kirk and his crew to work out a way of killing this space amoeba.

There's nothing wrong with this as a premise, but it is executed in a manner that is devoid of virtually all drama. We are told that the crew are feeling ill and McCoy complains about being busy in sickbay, but none of this has tangible effect on the episode since none of the regulars are affected. Instead, we just get random supporting artists collapsing in an over the top manner.

There is an attempt at introducing a dilemma for Kirk when both Spock and McCoy volunteer for an apparent suicide mission which involves flying a shuttle into the space amoeba in order to hopefully determine its weakness. But even this just comes across as a way of filling time since it is obvious that Spock is the best candidate, and any pathos in the situation is undermined by the fact that we all know that Spock is going to be successful and never in any real danger.

Spock discovers that the space amoeba is about to reproduce, further increasing the threat to the galaxy. The script attempts to introduce a metaphor as Kirk and McCoy postulate that humanity could end up being a virus within a galaxy that belongs to the space amoebas, but this doesn't really make much sense and doesn't seem to relate to anything in our real world.

I suppose the main selling point of the episode is in terms of the optical effects used to portray the space amoeba.  These must indeed have been ground-breaking at the time, but unfortunately impressive special effects are not by themselves enough to save the episode.

Of course, the Enterprise crew are able to kill the space amoeba which has the effect of it disappearing completely. The original script apparently finished quite abruptly and so William Shatner and director Joseph Pevney decided to improvise a tag scene. This might have been a better idea if they had been any tension in the climax of the episode and if they had come up with something less horrible that Kirk ogling a random female crew member.

Planetary Gazetteer

The space amoeba has destroyed the Gama 7A system in sector 39J. This seemed to contain a number of inhabited planets, but these are not named.

Starship Spotting

The first starship that was sent to investigate what had happened to the Gamma 7A system was the USS Intrepid which was crewed entirely by Vulcans but this is also destroyed by the space amoeba. It It is mentioned that the Intrepid had a crew of 400, which is similar to that of the Enterprise (generally specified as being in the region of 430). The Intrepid was previously mentioned in "Court Martial" when Commodore Stone rescheduled its repairs when giving priority to the Enterprise.

The (second) Galileo shuttle appears again as Spock uses it to investigate the space amoeba, although it's interior looks completely different from previous appearances (Kirk does refer to it as being a "specially equipped" shuttlecraft).

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode - 4307.1, 4308.8 and 4309.4.
• The Enterprise is heading to Starbase 6 for a period of rest and relaxation before it is ordered to investigate what has happened to the Gamma 7A system and the Intrepid.
• George Takei is still away filming "The Green Berets". Sulu's position at the helm is here taken by Mr Kyle with John Winston making his 10th appearance as the officer who is usually seen operating the transporter. Wnston here wears a gol uniform rather than his usual red.
• Majel Barret makes her 10th appearance as Christine Chappel, although she is seen only relatively briefly in sickbay.

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TOS - 2.18 - The Gamesters Of Triskelion

I don’t know what a contemporary viewer would have thought about “The Gamesters Of Triskelion” but, at this range, it is an episode that is full of laughable and cliched elements that is exactly what the generic public tends to think that Star Trek is about. The basic storyline is a somewhat familiar science-fiction trope with Kirk, Chekov and Uhura being abducted and taken to the planet of Triskelion where they are enslaved and forced to fight for the entertainment of the Providers, the mysterious masters of this society. Indeed, the plot is highly reminiscent of many earlier episodes, blending together elements from “The Cage” (the indolent society using slaves for entertainment), “Arena” (Kirk having to fight for the good of everyone) and “Bread and Circuses” (endless scenes of gladiatorial combat). But it is also the guest characters that make it difficult to take the episode seriously since we haven’t even got to the title sequence before we are introduced to a yellow woman with orange hair, a savage fang-toothed giant and a space babe with green hair in a silver bikini and go-go boots. And then we meet the notional villain for the episode who looks pretty much like Ming The Merciless with acne and who menaces the Enterprise crew with glowing, silver eyes. All in all, this is not one of Star Trek’s finest hours.

There is some nice variety in the fact that it is Chekov and Uhura who are captured with Kirk, rather than Spock and McCoy given the domination of this central trio in the second season. Unfortunately, the focus is very much on Kirk and therefore Chekov and Uhura don’t really get that much to do. There’s an uncomfortable attempt at humour as Chekov tries to avoid the attentions of the aforementioned yellow woman, who is bulky and deep voiced and therefore a figure of fun. And this scene jars coming so soon after a disturbing sequence in which Uhura is attacked by another slave who has been “selected” for her. We don’t see anything that happens, but that doesn’t stop the scene being horrific, especially with Kirk’s desperation in his inability to help, and it is therefore somewhat out of place in an otherwise relatively fluffy and over-the-top episode. There’s also no follow-up or consequences with Uhura showing no ill effects for her experience, which makes its inclusion seem very gratuitous.

William Shatner reacts to everything that is going on around him with one of his more over the top performances to date. He’s back shirt-less for much of the second half of the episode, and does more than his fair share of impassioned shouting. Kirk is partnered with Shahna, the space babe from the teaser who turns out to be naïve and inexperienced and who actually asks Kirk what love is (one of those frequently quoted Star Trek clichés that I had imagined had never actually happened). Kirk’s treatment of Shahna is fairly despicable in the way that he plays with her affections for his own advantages. It is therefore a nice dramatic irony that she ends up being one of Kirk’s opponents in the big final battle since she is understandably somewhat annoyed by his behaviour but, inevitably, everyone is friends again at the end after Kirk refuses to kill her.

The scenes of Kirk, Chekov and Uhura dealing with their new lives on Triskelion are punctuated by regular returns to the Enterprise where Spock is leading the search for his missing crew-mates. Cue lots of arguments with McCoy about the way that Spock is going about things, complete with humorous musical stings as they talk about logic and emotion. It’s all very predictable and very artificial in terms of manufactured drama, especially since Spock’s investigations all seem entirely reasonable.

There is an attempt at mystery as to who is behind the events on Triskelion as there is the occasional commentary from the disembodied voices of the “Providers”. Kirk ultimately solves the mystery by – um – asking to meet the Providers and they agree to transport him to their domain (which is a bit of a change of heart for them after they had previously almost killed Shahna for daring to start talking about them). They turn out to be three rather unimpressive plastic brains in a range of primary colours, arranged in a glass case. This is a bit of a let-down after the rather impressive voice work that we have heard previously. These Providers have evolved beyond their physical forms and are now a bit bored, entertaining themselves by gambling on the outcome of the gladiatorial battles (although I’m not sure what a disembodied brain is going to do with money). It is clear early on that the abduction of the landing party is entirely premeditated, with the Providers very much knowing who Kirk is and presumably therefore seeing him as adding extra interest to the battles. But this does imply that they haven’t paid that much attention to Kirk, given his track record in not exactly responding well to this type of imprisonment and the ultimate consequences for his captors…

The Providers are clearly very powerful and technologically advanced, able to take control of the Enterprise and also transport people instantaneously over a number of light-years. With this power and their obsession with gambling on the outcome of fights, it’s a nice idea for Kirk to stake everyone’s freedom on one final fight. It’s just unfortunate that there have been what seems like 356 arena battles previously in the episode, and this isn’t one isn’t particularly any more exciting with even the inclusion of Shahna as an opponent feeling like an afterthought rather than a dramatic climax.

Probably the only thing I did like about “The Gamestars Of Triskelion” is the direction. There’s some lovely shot composition from Gene Nelson including the villainous Galt framed by a tree and a novel overhead shot of Kirk and the Providers, plus some effective camera moves in the sequence in which Kirk and company writhe about in pain as their obedience collars are activated for the first time that really sells what is going on. I see this was to be Nelson’s only work on the series, which is a bit of a shame since I would have loved to have seen him helm an episde that wasn’t quite so risible in every other department.

Planetary Gazetteer

Gamma II: An uninhabited planetoid that is the location of an automated communications and astrogation station which is being visited for a routine check when Kirk and his colleagues are abducted.

Triskelion: A planet in a trinary system (i.e. with three suns) which is inhabited mainly by slaves (called “thralls”) who fight for the amusement of the Providers. After Kirk wins his wager, the Providers agree to release the thralls and start educating them.

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode – 3211.7, 3211.8 and 3259.2. Despite the large jump between the last two Stardates, we are told that this equates to a period of only around 12 hours.
• George Takei is still away filming “The Green Berets” and so Sulu again not does appear. With Chekov also otherwise engaged, his navigation position is taken by Ensign Jana Haines (her first name is given in the credits since she is only referred to as Ensign Haines in the episode itself).
• One of Kirk’s opponents in the climatic fight is an Andorian, a rapid return after this alien race was introduced as members of the Federation in “Journey To Babel”. Unfortunately, there are similarities with that earlier episode since it is again quite easy to see the limitations in the stuntman’s blue make-up.

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TOS - 2.17 - Obsession

When a landing party is attacked and the victims are found to have been drained of red blood corpuscles, this brings back haunting memories for Kirk who becomes convinced that the culprit is the same mysterious creature that killed his beloved captain and 200 other crew mates on his first deep space mission. Kirk becomes determined to destroy the creature, but what lengths will he go to in order to achieve this?

“Obsession” is clearly inspired by “Moby Dick”, Herman Melville’s 1851 novel, in which Captain Ahab is intent on killing the eponymous sperm whale. We’ve seen a similar storyline with Commodore’s determination to destroy the planet killed in “The Doomsday Machine”, but it is particularly disturbing here to see the usually reliable Kirk so affected, showing a recklessness that results in deaths amongst his crew members and disobeying orders with the effect of putting lives at risk on a colony which need medical supplies. Kirk does some show self-awareness in his log entries, but why couldn’t at least do his other duties first? This all means that it is very difficult to sympathise with Kirk and I was very much siding with Spock and McCoy when it appears that they are going to relieve him of command (although not that they actually go through with anything since Kirk is able to convince them that he is still behaving rationally).

Unfortunately, the fact that Kirk is our main character means that we have some questionable morality on show since he doesn’t really get any comeuppance for his behaviour – on the contrary, he gets some personal growth through learning that he was not responsible for the events that happened previously when having a momentary lapse of concentration before firing a phase at the creature. The episode attempts to explain this through vindicating Kirk’s belief that the creature is intelligent, as well as through it posing a significant threat through giving it the somewhat unlikely ability to fly between random planets at warp speed as well as by suggesting that it is about to reproduce. But I’m still not convinced that all of this was sufficient to justify Kirk’s behaviour, especially as the nature of the creature means that we don’t get to really understand its motivations and therefore there is no evidence for most of what Kirk suggests about it. And after all, it did seem to be Kirk that started the conflict this time when he sends the security team to investigate and then subsequently chased it through space...

There’s a nice attempt to parallel Kirk’s previous actions and the impact that this had on with a young ensign who has just joined the Enterprise crew. Unfortunately, the specifics of the execution of this subplot are just a little too specific to be credible. Not only does this young officer turns out to be the son of the captain of the ship on which Kirk was serving when he encountered the creature, but he also delays firing a phase at the creature in exactly the same way as Kirk had. Stephen Brooks is very likeable as Ensign Garrovick and the character gets an unusual amount of depth for a guest crew member, but I can’t help feeling that there are just too many coincidences going on here…

The end of the episode involves the Enterprise crew coming up with a plan to use anti-matter to kill the creature and, inevitably, it is Kirk and Garrovick who beam down to put this into action. The episode does at least avoid the temptation to have Garrovick sacrifice his life for Kirk or indeed having Kirk trying to do the same for the ensign, but this means that there isn’t much tension to this climax. There is an attempt at further jeopardy as Spock and Scotty struggle to transport Kirk and Garrovick back to the ship, but there is absolutely no doubt that they are not going to solve the problems by pressing a few more buttons.

Planetary Gazetteer

Argus X: The uninhabited planet on which the Enterprise crew encounter the cloud creature. It is rich in tritanium, a material that is twenty times harder than diamond.

Theta VII: Location of a colony that is suffering from a medical emergency and is urgently awaiting vaccines that are to be transported there by the Enterprise.

Tycho IV: Where Kirk originally encountered the cloud creature and which appears to have been its home planet.

Starship Spotting

USS Farragut: The starship on which Kirk served as a lieutenant for his first deep space mission. It was commanded by Captain Garrovick, who was killed by the cloud creature along with approximately 200 other crew members 11 years prior to this episode when they visited Tycho IV.

USS Yorktown: The starship that is schedule to rendezvous with the Enterprise in order to transfer the medical supplies that need to be transported to the Theta VII colony.

General Observations

• Three Stardates are given in the episode – 3619.2, 3619.6 and 3620.7.
• George Takei is still away filming “The Green Berets” and so does not appear as Sulu.
• Majel Barrett makes her 9th appearance as Nurse Chappel. She actually gets a nice scene in which she tricks Ensign Garrovick in eating when he is reluctant. Indeed, this is an unusual moment of character building that doesn’t feature any of the entral trio of Kirk,Spock and McCoy. 
• This episode features a lot of Red Shirt casualties – Ensign Rizzo and two security officers after the first attack by the creature and then one other in the second attack (two other security officers who survive are named as Henson and Bardoli). One of the early victims is actually named as Mr Leslie, a regular background character played by Eddie Paskey (who was also William Shatner’s stand-in). Despite this, Leslie can be seen later in the episode (and he will go on to appear in some 13 later episodes).
• Jerry Ayres, who here plays Ensign Rizzo, had previously appeared as Ensign O’Herlihy, a similarly ill-fated security officer in “Arena”.
• McCoy uses cordrazine to briefly revive Rizzo; this is the same (fictional) stimulant that the doctor has previously accidentally injected himself with back in “The City On The Edge Of Forever”.
• It is explained that Spock’s blood is green since it is based on copper rather than iron. The episode cleverly exploits this previously established element of Spock’s biology since it makes him immune from the creature’s attack.
• We get a reminder that McCoy isn’t that keen on transporters – something that has been established in "Space Seed" but which hasn’t really yet become a big part of his character.

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