40. Friday’s Child. Trek is pretty good at showing alternative societies and using an episode’s framework as a discussion of such a society’s good and bad points. In this case, the Enterprise crew visits the Capellans, a warlike tribe with ownership of some valuable mining commodities. Complicating matters is the involvement of the Klingons (Klingons!) who also want in on the mine. The episode centers on the internal politics of the Capellans, whose violent nature gives them some affinity for the Klingon lifestyle. The show takes an interesting turn when a coup results in a new tribal leader. The former leader’s pregnant wife is sentenced to death rather than carry the ousted leader’s offspring. The Prime Directive would say: sorry, lady. In true Kirk fashion, Kirk decides otherwise and rescues her, mucking up things for the new leader. Mostly this ends up being a character episode. We see Kirk’s excellent negotiating skills in action in turning the tables on the Klingons and their Capellan stooge, including plenty of fistfights and running around. We see McCoy’s skill as an old country doctor in handling the pregnant woman who’d rather not have any help. Spock’s killer line: “Fortunately this bark has suitable tensile cohesion.” Kirk: “You mean it makes good bowstring.” Spock: “I believe I said that.” A thing McCoy is not: an escalator. Overall, a good episode, important to the canon and characters, but not too worried about plot in favor of a lot of action. 3 out of 5.
Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):
- Anonymous redshirt killed (1)
- Violation of Prime Directive (1)
- Lighthearted banter to close episode (2)
41. The Deadly Years. I think this will be the kind of episode that seems more memorable than it actually is. Checking out a planetary research station, the crew discovers everyone on the surface has unnaturally aged and the few remaining survivors are close to death. Returning to the ship to figure out what’s going on, all the members of the landing party save for Chekov start showing signs of rapid aging as well. Over the course of the show, Spock, Scotty, McCoy, and Kirk all grow painfully old and hope to figure out the cause before it’s too late! (They do. Whew!) So here was my problem with this episode: all the drama is mis-aimed. Most of the time is devoted to Kirk’s waning ability to command, and the hearing that is held to determine his competency. For some reason there is a totally ineffectual Starfleet administrator on board who, even though he outranks Kirk and is healthy, cannot assume command, and convinces Spock to hold this hearing. Of course Old Kirk steadfastly argues he’s fine and there is an earnest attempt to derive some drama out of this. But what was the point? Of course he’s not competent. He’s suffering from an aging disease! As are several other principals. All sorts of time is wasted on this procedure instead of trying to figure out what’s causing it. Then at the end they are hanging out in sick bay with time running out, and suddenly it occurs to them why Chekov wasn’t afflicted and they are, and it’s frankly a little sketchy, but OK. So they are cured, and Kirk boots the Starfleet dude out of his chair and does some serious commanding. Spock’s killer line: not really anything. He spent most of the episode moping around being old and tired. Overall, a disappointment. Memorable in the sense that it will be “the one where they all get old” but the episode itself is largely a misfire. It’s fun to see them get old, true, but there is a lot of misdirected time here. 2 out of 5.
Trek tropes (number of instances encountered in series so far in parentheses):
- Kirk meets up with an old flame (1)
- Highly experimental plan with low probability of success somehow works anyway (2)
- Only Kirk can truly make command decisions (1)
- Shatner showcase (1)
