THE PLOT
The Enterprise is on its way to deliver much-needed medical supplies (*drink*) with a pompous Starfleet official aboard (*drink*), when it encounters a quasar-like formation in space. With standing orders to investigate such phenomena, Kirk sends out the shuttlecraft Galileo, with Spock, McCoy, Scotty, Dr. Boma (guest star Don Marhsall), a yeoman, and two security personnel aboard, to study it. Not long after leaving the ship, though, the shuttle is knocked off course and forced to make an emergency landing.
With communications knocked out, there is no way to be sure of rescue. Though Kirk on the Enterprise tries to locate the shutlecraft, the urgency of the medical mission gives him only a very narrow search window. The Galileo crew's best hope lies in repairing the shuttle and getting it in orbit as soon as possible.
But Spock's crew finds itself quickly in danger from the natives: giant savages whose only apparent intent for the new arrivals is murder!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: A fairly Kirk-light episode, this. We do see his frustration in dealing with a Starfleet official, and we see Kirk bending procedures as far as he can to maximize his chances of locating Spock & company. Shatner plays Kirk's mounting frustration and brief defeat quite well.
Spock-Logic: OK, quick question - In what parallel universe is Spock's action at the end of the episode illogical? We are clearly meant to accept that Spock behaved rashly and emotionally at the end. Yet so far as I can see, what Spock did was the only logical course. The Enterprise would have just barely abandoned the search. The shuttle has a short time in orbit, after which it will burn up in the atmosphere, killing all aboard. Literally the only hope not involving an Infinite Improbability Machine is to get the Enterprise's attention somehow. Spock's choice is to do nothing and burn up in an hour, or do what he did and take the only reasonable chance - however slim - of being spotted. Spock makes the logical choice (indeed, his most logical choice of the entire episode), and then gets laughed at for having an emotional outburst! All right-y, then.
This is very much Spock's episode, and one that perhaps serves to answer the question many viewers might already have been posing: Why is the apparently more intelligent, more capable officer the subordinate on the show? Here, it's suggested that Spock lacks the compassionate touch a truly strong leader needs. His intelligence and competence are not in question, but he lacks the "human" quality that inspires loyalty from his officers. Those who have worked alongside him regularly - Scotty and McCoy - show a reasonable degree of loyalty to him. But for those who aren't used to working with Spock, his cold calculations are off-putting.
And speaking of cold calculations: Other than a question of scale, exactly how much different is Spock's proposal to choose the "least worthy" crewman to leave on the planet (ultimately to die, as we soon learn would be the case) than Kodos choosing the "least worthy" colonists? Ultimately, the Law of Redshirts keeps Spock from having to make any such decision... But it's an interesting parallel.
LET'S PLAY... ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt count: Two. Crewman Latimer becomes the first to meet the natives, and gets speared in the back, ushering in the first post-credits commercial break. Crewman Gaetano ushers in the next commercial break when he tries to escape from the natives by climbing up a sheer cliff-face. Turns out, he isn't Spider-Man.
THOUGHTS
"We're preparing a routine scientific mission. We don't anticipate anyone will have to leave the shuttlecraft at any time. Clearly, we need two security guards and a yeoman."
Exactly why are those security guards there? Or the yeoman? The answer, of course, is that the guards are there to provide a body count and the yeoman is there to provide a nice pair of legs for the audience to appreciate. But it might have been nice if some in-story reason existed for these three to be included in the mission.
Also, the crew of the Galileo turn out to be a particularly poorly-disciplined set. The security guards are openly disrespectful to Spock. McCoy ultimately supports Spock, but doesn't hesitate to question the Vulcan in front of the others. Finally, Dr. Boma is outright insubordinate, arguing with virtually Spock's every word and insulting his commanding officer to his face! Though Boma perhaps stops one or two steps short of openly inciting mutiny, Spock should still have him up on charges as soon as they return to Enterprise. This is clearly not a man who belongs on anything even remotely resembling a military service vessel.
The episode is quite effective, despite these issues. The scenes on Enterprise benefit from Shatner's effective playing of Kirk's frustration, and the clear demonstration of what a hopeless task the ship faces in trying to locate Spock's company. I would have preferred the commissioner to have been less ham-fistedly smug, and perhaps more compassionate about the loss of the seven crew members. Still, Kirk's dilemma held my attention.
As did Spock's. Though Boma and the security men were almost implausibly unprofessional, and the foam mountains are far from convincing, the basic situation is quite tense. Each of Spock's decisions makes reasonable sense, and yet each of them is tailor-made to create more friction with his crew. The "base under siege" format, as the shuttle becomes surrounded by hostiles who are clearly preparing for a mass attack, builds more tension. Ultimately, to complete the repairs, Spock has to leave them helpless - which makes the repairs vs. the natives' preparations to attack as yet another race, to match the race of getting the shuttle into orbit before the Enterprise is forced to leave. Instead of one time limit, the characters face two time limits. It's well-structured, and it does work.
Rating: 8/10.
Previous Episode: The Conscience of the King
Next Episode: Court Martial
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I disagree with you that all of Spock's decisions "made reasonable sense."
ReplyDeleteSpock decided to fire phasers just as a show of force, not to actually hurt any of the native savages on the planet. His (human) subordinates wanted to hit them head on.
Spock's reasoning was that the natives should respect the Galileo Seven's superior weaponry. He turned out to be WRONG, because he doesn't understand the emotional makeup of beings like humans and the savage natives on that planet. Emotional beings might respond, not with respect, but with anger. McCoy understood this better than Spock. Spock said that such emotional responses were "unpredictable." McCoy retorted that they are perfectly predictable--to anyone who has emotions himself: "You might as well admit it, Mr. Spock, your precious logic brought them down on us."
Compare how Spock tried to treat the natives with how Kirk responded to the Fesarius in "Corbomite Maneuver." Kirk did NOT just "respect" the Fesarius' superior power and just give up--as Spock had suggested. Instead, he kept looking for a way to respond effectively.
It's another reason why Spock wasn't the captain. It's NOT just that Spock's attitude is "offputting". More importantly, a good captain has to understand how his crew behaves and responds to various situations. Spock had trouble with this, because most of the crew were emotional humans, and he did everything he could to suppress his emotions.
I agree, and even say in my review, that this episode probably is meant to show why Spock isn't the captain.
ReplyDeletePerhaps our main area of disagreement rests with my saying that Spock's decisions all make "reasonable sense." I think they do, from a purely intellectual standpoint... but then, I also think a decision can make reasonable sense and still be wrong, and even ill-conceived.
Maybe I should have said that his decisions made "intellectual sense," just so that my meaning was more clear, because I do think we're in agreement on one of the episode's main points: Namely, to show why Spock is not the captain, and why he *shouldn't be* the captain, despite being obviously more intelligent and knowledgeable than Kirk.