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| The alien Balok threatens to destroy the Enterprise! |
Original Air Date: Nov. 10, 1966. Written by: Jerry Sohl. Directed by: Joseph Sargent.
THE PLOT
The Enterprise is exploring an uncharted area of space when it encounters a mysterious object: a cube that emits harmful radiation, and which the Enterprise finds itself unable to either navigate around or outrun. In desperation, they destroy the object... only to subsequently find themselves confronted by an enormous sphere, whose commander - an alien named Balok that pronounces a death sentence upon them. Now, with a countdown running and no hope of escaping or outfighting the immense alien ship, Kirk attempts a desperate gamble to save his crew.
CHARACTERS
Captain Beefcake: Continuing the trend begun in Where No Man Has Gone Before, we are again subjected to Kirk's apparent allergy to shirts. We first see him in the midst of a physical. When his exam is interrupted by the red alert, Kirk wraps his shirt around his neck as if it were a skimpy towel and strides through the corridors of the ship. I'm already starting to wonder if the captain is hiding an exhibitionist streak.
This episode seems far more distinctly written for Kirk than the last. He no longer seems to be uttering lines written for Pike. His own character is emerging. I enjoyed his frustration in his interactions with McCoy and Bailey (the guest character of the week), particularly when he's drilling the phaser crews to get a slightly faster percentage response from them. McCoy, asking him what he's going to do with that percent when he gets it, earns a rather sharp reply. It's a rare Trek moment of seeing something approximating genuine military procedure, too, with drilling and re-drilling making up a significant portion of the crew's activities.
Kirk the Gambler also emerges here, as he turns the tables at the end through... a bluff. This isn't something I could easily see Pike doing, but it fits squarely with Kirk's emerging characterization. This is also William Shatner's best performance thus far. He's convincingly commanding, but he doesn't any really hammy moments.
Spock: Spock's character also continues to develop. Here, in his verbal sparring with Bailey (who seems to have come to a battle of wits unarmed), he displays a hint of the humor that would come to mark his later characterization. We also see Spock's curiosity developed, when he - rather pointlessly, from a strategic stance - works to get a visual image of Balock.
Dr. McCoy: In his first series appearance, DeForest Kelly makes a strong impression, interacting spikily with Kirk throughout. Unfortunately, I found myself entirely on Kirk's side in each of his debates with McCoy, and I'm not sure I was supposed to be. Any commander wants a little bit of extra efficiency. What is "Jim" going to do with those extra percentage points when he gets them? A less spiky, but more accurate, answer would be: In a genuine battle, possibly save the ship by returning fire a fraction of a second faster than he otherwise would. When Kirk snaps at McCoy for not immediately alerting him to the red alert during the physical, Kirk is also 100% right. The physical is routine and could easily wait a few hours or days for an emergency to pass. An emergency, however, could easily become a crisis if the captain is delayed even by a single minute in getting to the bridge. If Kirk put an official reprimand in McCoy's file for such an incident, he'd be dead right to do so. McCoy may complain that he's "just a country doctor," but he's not - a medical officer in a military vessel is still a military officer, and he would damn well know his priorities in an emergency situation.
The Enterprise Crew: More regulars emerging. Sulu actually gets proper dialogue (and his proper post) in this episode. Uhura is introduced, in a rather unflattering gold uniform that would thankfully be soon replaced. Scotty gets little to do, but does get a few decent one-liners (to Sulu, during the countdown: "You have an annoying fascination with timepieces"). Janice Rand also gets introduced, not that she actually does much in the episode beyond find an ingenious way to make hot coffee. Little by little, the cast is starting to come together.
THOUGHTS
Only the second Star Trek episode I actually saw a child. At the time, it bored me, due to lack of "action." As an adult, however, this episode is very, very good. Tightly-structured, it allows new facets of some of the series' leads to emerge while exploring a properly formidable mystery. The cube and the sphere are both relatively simple effects, but both are effective and eerie. The remastered versions of the effects are refreshingly similar to the originals, simply adding more detail without compromising the eerie simplicity of the very basic shapes.
The cracks in the crew's composure as the countdown progresses are well-conveyed, each character finding a different way to deal with the stress. Spock fiddles with getting a visual image, even though such an image can do no real good; Sulu counts down their remaining minutes and seconds relentlessly; Scotty makes wisecracks; McCoy gets confrontational about Kirk's decisions; and Bailey - the guest character - more or less cracks up. It would have been more interesting to have had a regular character crack under the strain, making that character perhaps seem less reliable - or at least, giving him something to make up for - in later episodes. Still, this is '60's television, where regulars more or less had to be heroic, so I suppose that can be allowed to pass. At least even the regulars show their cracks under pressure.
With an intriguingly alien puzzle combined with some good characterization, this probably ranks as my favorite Trek episode yet. It's as far from "Wagon Train to the Stars" as you can get, but it's pretty good science fiction, with an inventive resolution.
Rating: 9/10.
Previous Episode: Where No Man Has Gone Before
Next Episode: Mudd's Women
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You're right that McCoy should have told Kirk about the red light. But my feeling is a blinking red light during a red alert with no accompanying audible alarm is somewhat pointless, and is used here merely to create a conflict between McCoy and Kirk. Usually, when there is a red alert situation, an alarm sounds, and/or the captain is contacted directly.
ReplyDeleteThe alarm WAS audible outside of Sickbay. I think it's quite probable that the audible component of alarms is suppressed in Sickbay so as not to have a negative impact on the patients.
DeleteFully agree. McCoy should have been more strongly reprimanded, according to a strictly military set up. Maybe scene was included to illustrate that UFP military organizations are not so anally strict, but in that case the infraction should have been something more related to personal interactions between officers, not something that affected the ship's safety. In reference to Kirk's collection of torn shirts, possibly intended to appeal to the ladies? The length, or lack thereof, of the gals uniforms- which stop just short of "down there"- don't seem to inspire comment.
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