THE PLOT
With no explanation, Capt. Kirk orders the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone into Romulan space. The ship is almost immediately intercepted by three Romulan vessels, now utilizing the more efficient and deadly Klingon design. Kirk and Spock beam aboard to speak with the Romulan commander (Joanne Linville) - to whom Spock confirms that the Enterprise was not acting on orders from Starfleet, but on the irrational orders of Kirk himself.
The commander prepares to turn over control of Enterprise to Spock, to have the ship piloted back to the Romulan home world as her prize. She also has designs on an even more intriguing prize: Spock's loyalty. Which appears tested to its limit when an enraged Kirk assaults him, leading him to instinctively use the Vulcan Death Grip - killing him!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: The first half of the episode makes good use of Shatner's sometimes, ah, enthusiastic acting style. Shatner clearly enjoys playing Kirk as Capt. Queeg, ordering his ship on a self-destructive course, then ranting gloriously and leaving no scenery unchewed. Once the truth of what is going on is made clear, the second half sees him return to his usual, naturalistically decisive command role. Spock is quite right in his ending observation, by the way: the Vulcan/Romulan ears do not suit Kirk.
Spock: Leonard Nimoy regularly has excelled at the job of playing Spock as outwardly unemotional while at the same time letting us know what he feels underneath that shell. Here, he raises his game. While Kirk appears unhinged during the early part of the episode, the script and Nimoy must convey Spock as being within character even as he betrays the captain. It's a difficult balance, one both actor and script pull off well enough. Not well enough to actually fool us, but enough to make a first-time viewer wonder exactly what is going on. Nimoy is even better in the second half, showing Spock genuinely tempted by the commander's various offers, and ultimately regretful as he places his duty once again above his personal desires.
Hot Space Babe of the Week: The scenes between the commander (Joanne Linville) and Spock are easily the episode's most interesting. As she gradually drops her guard, she becomes in many ways the most sympathetic character in the piece. Kirk and Spock are engaged in an espionage mission, actively violating the Romulans' sovereign rights (albeit with good reason). The commander isn't so much the villain as the victim of their machinations. The complex relationship between her and Spock is so fascinating to watch, that I wish there had been further appearances by this character.
THOUGHTS
Season Three is the lousy season, right? By reputation, this was the season when the series took a nosedive in quality, leaving many of its cast and crew actively relieved when the show was canceled.
Four episodes in - one sixth of the way through the season - I have yet to see any sign of this. There has been one so-so but entertaining episode, with good, solid episodes on either side of it. With The Enterprise Incident, Season Three gets its first "great" episode, easily in the Top 20 of the series' total offerings. Yes yes, I know Spock's Brain is on the horizon. Then again, Season Two had The Apple. As of this point, I honestly don't think Season Three is particularly worse than Season Two.
It is somewhat amusing to reflect that, a full year before joining the regular cast of Mission: Impossible, Leonard Nimoy essentially made a Mission: Impossible episode here. This is the classic M:I formula. The team infiltrate an enemy stronghold, pretend to double-cross each other, then use their enemies' lusts and greeds against them while stealing some secret or other and then making good their escape. The Enterprise Incident benefits from a very tight script, with D. C. Fontana applying both sound structure and her always-superb sense of the characters to really sell this episode.
With no explanation, Capt. Kirk orders the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone into Romulan space. The ship is almost immediately intercepted by three Romulan vessels, now utilizing the more efficient and deadly Klingon design. Kirk and Spock beam aboard to speak with the Romulan commander (Joanne Linville) - to whom Spock confirms that the Enterprise was not acting on orders from Starfleet, but on the irrational orders of Kirk himself.
The commander prepares to turn over control of Enterprise to Spock, to have the ship piloted back to the Romulan home world as her prize. She also has designs on an even more intriguing prize: Spock's loyalty. Which appears tested to its limit when an enraged Kirk assaults him, leading him to instinctively use the Vulcan Death Grip - killing him!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: The first half of the episode makes good use of Shatner's sometimes, ah, enthusiastic acting style. Shatner clearly enjoys playing Kirk as Capt. Queeg, ordering his ship on a self-destructive course, then ranting gloriously and leaving no scenery unchewed. Once the truth of what is going on is made clear, the second half sees him return to his usual, naturalistically decisive command role. Spock is quite right in his ending observation, by the way: the Vulcan/Romulan ears do not suit Kirk.
Spock: Leonard Nimoy regularly has excelled at the job of playing Spock as outwardly unemotional while at the same time letting us know what he feels underneath that shell. Here, he raises his game. While Kirk appears unhinged during the early part of the episode, the script and Nimoy must convey Spock as being within character even as he betrays the captain. It's a difficult balance, one both actor and script pull off well enough. Not well enough to actually fool us, but enough to make a first-time viewer wonder exactly what is going on. Nimoy is even better in the second half, showing Spock genuinely tempted by the commander's various offers, and ultimately regretful as he places his duty once again above his personal desires.
Hot Space Babe of the Week: The scenes between the commander (Joanne Linville) and Spock are easily the episode's most interesting. As she gradually drops her guard, she becomes in many ways the most sympathetic character in the piece. Kirk and Spock are engaged in an espionage mission, actively violating the Romulans' sovereign rights (albeit with good reason). The commander isn't so much the villain as the victim of their machinations. The complex relationship between her and Spock is so fascinating to watch, that I wish there had been further appearances by this character.
THOUGHTS
Season Three is the lousy season, right? By reputation, this was the season when the series took a nosedive in quality, leaving many of its cast and crew actively relieved when the show was canceled.
Four episodes in - one sixth of the way through the season - I have yet to see any sign of this. There has been one so-so but entertaining episode, with good, solid episodes on either side of it. With The Enterprise Incident, Season Three gets its first "great" episode, easily in the Top 20 of the series' total offerings. Yes yes, I know Spock's Brain is on the horizon. Then again, Season Two had The Apple. As of this point, I honestly don't think Season Three is particularly worse than Season Two.
It is somewhat amusing to reflect that, a full year before joining the regular cast of Mission: Impossible, Leonard Nimoy essentially made a Mission: Impossible episode here. This is the classic M:I formula. The team infiltrate an enemy stronghold, pretend to double-cross each other, then use their enemies' lusts and greeds against them while stealing some secret or other and then making good their escape. The Enterprise Incident benefits from a very tight script, with D. C. Fontana applying both sound structure and her always-superb sense of the characters to really sell this episode.
Given the superb quality of the two TOS Romulan stories, one wonders why the far less interesting Klingons became the series' default villains. The difference in quality between the Romulan shows and the Klingon ones would have had me think that they should have become the iconic baddies. Then again, I suppose mass audiences prefer villains who are "just evil" over villains who are often sympathetic, and who perhaps bring out our heroes' less sympathetic qualities.
Any review of this episode needs to observe that this is the main source of the "Vulcans do not lie" nonsense. This always seemed nonsensical, as any group with such a high level of diplomatic influence (or military, for that matter) must surely be capable of engaging in deception. It's doubly nonsensical when one looks to its application here. The "can't lie" claim is made in the midst of an episode in which Spock is deceiving the Romulan commander through the entire show, and tells at least two direct lies (that Captain Kirk crossed the Neutral Zone motivated solely by a "craving for glory," and that Kirk is insane) within the first twenty minutes!
Decades later, Enterprise would attempt to reconcile cases in which Vulcans lied with the statement that they don't lie. That this was part of a particularly good Season Four 3-parter made it easy enough to take... but honestly, they needn't have bothered. Any viewing of this episode clearly shows that the Romulan Commander's belief that Vulcans cannot lie is a mistaken one that Spock encourages for the sake of his mission.
Rating: 9/10. A very good episode.
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Next Episode: And the Children Shall Lead
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