“The Enterprise Incident”
Written by D.C. Fontana
Directed by John Meredyth Lucas
Season 3, Episode 2
Episode 62 of 79
Production episode 3×04
Original air date: September 27, 1968
Stardate 5027.3
Recap: Dayton Ward
Question: What do you think of my new look, Spock?
Answer: You remind me of my uncle, Captain. The one nobody ever liked inviting to dinner.
The Enterprise is cruisin’ along, all by its lonesome, and we’re treated to a rare log entry by Dr. McCoy. It seems the good doctor’s worried about Captain Kirk, who’s been acting pretty much like a big ol’ butthead as of late. His normally top-notch crew is pretty much running around with their tails tucked between their legs, and it only gets worse when Kirk orders a course change that will take the Enterprise into the Romulan Neutral Zone.
Yeah, because that always works out.
Mr. Sulu enters the course correction, as Chekov looks on in irritation. Isn’t he the navigator? What’s he doing during all of this? Probably updating his Facebook status. (“Pavel Chekov is feeling unappreciated, and just wants a hug.”—Alfred Bester likes this.) Anyway, it doesn’t take long for the Enterprise’s detour to be noticed, as a Klingon battle cruiser appears as if from thin air. Say what?
SCOTTY: That’s a Klingon ship! But it couldn’t be; not in this area.
SPOCK: Intelligence reports Romulans now using Klingon design.
Wow. That was a heck of a memo not to get, eh? Anyway, two more ships appear from nowhere, and in short order the Enterprise is surrounded. Kirk orders a message dispatched to Starfleet Command. (Which I can only assume reads something like “Dear Headquarters. I should’ve made a left at Omicron Ceti III. Awaiting instructions.”) An incoming hail is received from one of the enemy ships and we’re treated to the sight of a pretty snobby-looking Romulan with a bad perm who orders Kirk to surrender or be destroyed. Yeah, that was predictable, just like the subsequent, “They should’ve blown us to hell already, so they must want something.” Capturing the Enterprise would be a feather in any Romulan commander’s cap, right? Kirk tells the Romulan to pound sand, and that he’ll destroy the Enterprise himself rather than have it boarded.
The Romulan, Subcommander Tal, turns his attention to Spock, looking as though he might ask him his sign or what a nice Vulcan like him is doing in a Neutral Zone like this, when he’s interrupted by a call on his Batphone. Apparently, his boss is on the other end, and when the call’s over, Tal tells Kirk he should take some time to check his attitude before deciding on rash action. “One hour, yo,” Tal says, “and I’m checkin’ my watch.”
Checking out some pics of the Enterprise and a Klingon cruiser from Matt Jefferies’ Flickr page, Kirk asks Spock why the sensors didn’t pick up the Romulans’ approach. “Well, as you might remember from the last time we encountered Romulans,” Spock replies, “the Romulans have cloaking devices. I mean, for crying out loud! Do you even watch the show?”
Oh, wait. That’s not what he said. Instead, Spock says it was because the Romulans are using new-and-improved cloaking devices (“from Blamm-O!”). The way Kirk sees it, they can fight, blow up the ship themselves, or surrender. Spock points out that if it wasn’t for Kirk’s brilliant course change that resulted in the Enterprise crossing into enemy space, they wouldn’t be yammering about this and instead could be down in the rec room watching hot Orion porn. (Way to ruin the evening’s festivities, Captain.) When McCoy reacts to the revelation of the odd orders, Kirk tells him to bounce.
Subcommander Tal calls back and tells Kirk his boss wants the captain and Spock over on their ship for a sitdown to hash this out. Kirk, understandably, wants to know if he’s being set up to be punk’d, but Tal offers to let two of his officers beam to the Enterprise to be held as hostages/collateral to ensure Kirk and Spock’s safe return. Once on the Romulan ship, Kirk and Spock are escorted to the private chambers of the vessel’s commanding officer, who’s wearing the typical Romulan uniform that looks as if it was made from one of those oval area rugs you might’ve found in your grandparents’ house in 1977. She wastes no time seeing through Kirk’s charm and “Aw shucks” act and engages the captain in a conversation that essentially boils down to:
ROMULAN COMMANDER: You were spying!
KIRK: Nuh-uh!!!
The commander makes a big deal out of how she…uh, she means “they”…have been keeping an eye on Spock for quite some time. He’s a Vulcan, you see, which means he’s got some of the same sump’n sump’n that makes Romulans such studs. They’re like family! I smell a setup, don’t you?
The Romulan Commander speaks of a myth that states Vulcans are incapable of lying. Spock confirms it’s the real deal (No, honest!), so when she asks him why the Enterprise is in Romulan space, Spock responds by saying it’s not a lie to keep the truth to himself. This makes Kirk squirm to the point where I’m thinking he’s gonna rupture an organ or something. The Romulan Commander once again accuses Kirk of espionage, perhaps even of being on a mission to learn more about the cloaking technology. She considers torturing Kirk (perhaps by making him watch a DVR’d copy of last week’s episode, “Spock’s Brain”), but Spock tells her that won’t be effective.
He opts instead to throw Kirk under the bus—or shuttlecraft, if you prefer—and describes how the captain’s been acting like a big honkin’ tool the past few weeks. The strain of command’s been wearing on him, boo hoo, and all that. According to Spock, Kirk alone made the decision to cross into Romulan space, which means he’s a moron and therefore a prime candidate for promotion to commodore. Kirk, ever the rational one, threatens to kill Spock for his disloyalty.
The Romulan Commander contacts the Enterprise to let them know she’s not holding the Enterprise crew accountable for Kirk’s actions, but they’ll be taken to a Romulan base for interrogation…anal probing…“processing” before being released back to Starfleet authorities. On the Enterprise, Scotty orders their two Romulan hostages in the brig, and tells the Romulan Commander to sit and spin. Kirk’s proud of his ship and crew, asking Spock if he hears the sound of honor and integrity as he stands there, having collaborated with the enemy. I’m guessing this means Kirk’s really irked with his old pal, and that no K/S slashfic will be generated by this episode. Damn.
Guards hustle Kirk away to a holding cell, leaving Spock with the Romulan Commander, who asks how he can stand working with humans. I mean, they eat with their fingers, which they then use to dig stuff out of their noses and ears, right? Spock admits he’s half-human and prone to digging for the occasional golden nugget himself. Still, he identifies as Vulcan, and only does that kind of self-prospecting for the most logical of reasons. The Commander sees greater things for him, if he wouldn’t mind opening his mind to the idea that Starfleet and the Federation aren’t the only games in town. (Plus, they’d get to be “comrades with benefits,” if you know what I mean.)
Elsewhere, Kirk is thrown none-too gently into a security holding cell with a door blocked by some of that fancy forcefield action. Since the brig on his own ship has pretty much the same thing, you’d think the captain would know better than to try running at the door, but of course he doesn’t. Running headlong into the forcefield knocks him out, and the Romulans call to the Enterprise for assistance.
Hey, you don’t think that was staged, do you? A setup? Nah.
McCoy grudgingly consents to beaming aboard the Romulan ship, where he examines Kirk and finds that, medically speaking, the captain’s a frappin’ trainwreck. This info is relayed to the Romulan Commander, who wants to see this for herself. Dragging Spock along with her like one of those fancy, overpriced, high-maintenance poodles, she informs Spock that she’ll be expecting him for dinner, because there’s “much to discuss.” Spock’s all like, “I was planning to stay home tonight, and wash my hair,” but finally he accepts the so-called invitation. When Spock asks if the guards will be there, the Commander sends them away. Now working with that bit of earned trust, Spock promptly dorks that up by turning the wrong way down an intersection in the corridor.
“Whoa!” exclaims the Romulan Commander. “Uh-uh, nobody can go there, except me and my most-loyal butt-kissers.”
“Whoops,” Spock replies. “My bad.” Of course, the Romulan Commander says she hopes there will come a day when no such restrictions will apply to Spock. How sweet.
Arriving at the brig, the Romulan Commander asks McCoy what bug’s up Kirk’s ass, and the doctor says the captain’s pretty much gone totally emo, backing up Spock’s earlier comments. Spock states he’ll assume command of the Enterprise due to Kirk’s loose screw, but he’s so totally not doing it because the Romulan Commander’s pulling on that ring she put in his nose. Kirk’s not happy with this new turn of events, calling Spock a traitor right before lunging across the room at his first officer. Spock goes all ninja-fu, putting his hand to the captain’s face and unleashing some super-cool Vulcan mojo on his ass. Kirk drops to the deck in apparent agony, and McCoy wants to know what the hell just happened:
SPOCK: I instinctively used the Vulcan Death Grip.
McCOY: Your instincts are still good, Mr. Spock. The captain is dead!
Uh-oh.
Back on the Enterprise, Kirk lies on a patient treatment table in sickbay (rather than, you know, in the morgue or a freezer, or wherever else you might store a dead body). Nurse Chapel comes into the room to look at him and the captain’s eyes pop open, no doubt eliciting an involuntary yet totally understandable release of liquid waste from the startled nurse. She shouts for McCoy, and the doctor confirms what we all knew from the previews aired during last week’s episode: the Captain’s alive. He’s alive!!! Spock gave Kirk a special kind of nerve pinch that put him into such a deep coma that it simulates death. (We have those on 21st-century Earth, but we tend to call them reality TV shows.)
It seems Kirk and Spock have been operating under Federation orders this whole time, the sneaky bastards, working an espionage scheme against the Romulans in such a way that the Federation and Starfleet can be held blameless. So, what’s the plan now that Kirk’s been declared dead? Well, it’s like this….
A bit later, Scotty’s on the bridge, pacing like Vanna White hoping for somebody to buy a vowel, when McCoy calls and asks him to come down to sickbay. “Not now, honey, I’m working,” the engineer replies. The doctor insists, so Scotty gives in like the whipped dog he is and bops down to sickbay, where he finds….Captain Kirk! But, wait! There’s more: the good captain’s had a little makeover, you see, and now he looks like Spock’s unloved stepbrother. He needs a uniform from one of the Romulan prisoners. Oh, this is a dastardly plot the captain’s hatching, eh? A plan to get a Romulan naked! Brilliant!
Kirk—now dressed in his Romulan Halloween costume, beams aboard the Romulan ship. He bluffs his way through an encounter with a Romulan guard before setting off to…where? Some plan, genius. Oh, and not for nothing, but how come nobody detected the transporter beam from the Enterprise? For that matter, weren’t the ships running with shields up? Hmmm….
Meanwhile, the Romulan Commander continues her efforts to woo Spock with a variation on the time-tested “coffee, tea, or me” stratagem. She wants him by her side, you see, and hey…Romulan women can get rowdy if you let ’em, especially once they put away a couple of drinks. You don’t know what you’re missing, Spock! She tells him that the way to success is to help her secure the Enterprise for transfer to a Romulan base. He’ll lead a small party of Romulans to take the ship so that the transfer can happen peacefully. “No prob,” Spock replies, “but hold up. Why rush it? Can’t we go in…oh…an hour or so?”
[GeorgeTakei] “Oh, myyyyyyyyyyyyyy.” [/GeorgeTakei]
Spock persuades the Romulan Commander to hang a sock on her door and slip into something more comfortable. Does that work? YES! The formidable commander of at least THREE state-of-the-art battle cruisers can be manipulated like a child’s toy. Really? By the way, since it appears that this entire scheme depends on Spock being able to distract the Commander long enough for Kirk to do his thing, what exactly was the contingency if she’d been a dude?
Rather than allow my head to explode as I contemplate the fanfic possibilities of that scenario, let us continue.
Spock uses his communicator (Why didn’t the Romulans take that away?) to contact Kirk. He tells the captain where to find the cloaking device and that it’s heavily guarded. Kirk figures he can handle it but wants to know if Spock will be able to get away. Spock’s unable to answer that before the Romulan Commander returns, dressed in one of those hot little off-the-shoulder numbers from the Sex and the City Castoff Collection. Whew! That was close. Now what’s he supposed to do?
Eh. A little Vulcan foreplay to stall for time should do the trick, right?
While that’s going on, one of Subcommander Tal’s flunkies in the ship’s control center has detected the communication between Spock and Kirk (took them long enough), and a trace is initiated. As that’s happening, Kirk makes his way through the oddly deserted corridors of the Romulan vessel until he finds the high-clearance area housing the cloaking device. A quick bit of Kirk-fu later, the captain takes down the lone guard with little effort, clearing the way for some cloaking device snatchin’ and grabbin’.
As the Romulan Commander continues to get hot and bothered (apparently, Spock has some mad skillz), the festivities are interrupted by her door buzzer and the arrival of Subcommander Tal. (Dude, didn’t you see the sock?) Tal reports they’ve tracked an unauthorized signal to the Commander’s quarters, and Spock hands over his communicator. The Romulan Commander realizes she’s been suckered, and everybody heads off to check on the cloaking device. D’oh!
Kirk gets inside the room holding the cloaking device, but because his “Good morning, Mr. Phelps” spy packet didn’t include a photo of the thing, he has no idea what it looks like. Could it be that console swiped from Harry Mudd’s android planet? What about that sphere-looking thing from Sargon and his followers? Oh, wait, is that Nomad I see sitting in one corner? What to do, what to do? Thank the Great Bird of the Galaxy that a Romulan guard chooses that moment to show up and challenge Kirk. The captain, always known for thinking on his feet, tricks the Romulan into identifying which of the room’s oddball components is the cloaking device. This, of course, prompts another round of Kirk-fu before the captain grabs the cloaking device and calls the Enterprise for beam out. Once back on his own ship, Kirk orders Scotty to install the device, and to make it snappy, because there’s a rollicking climax coming!
On the Romulan ship, the Commander and Tal find the unconscious guard and discover that the cloaking device is missing. The Commander orders a search, but Spock tells her, “Too late, yo! It’s done got gone!” Oh, and Spock adds that he’s been playing her all along. And maybe he slept with her sister. Yeah, that’s gonna go over real well.
As Scotty works to install the cloaking device, Kirk decides that screwing with his crew is in order, so he leaves his Romulan ears, eyebrows, and other stuff on and pops in on his bridge peeps. To his surprise, none of them are sleeping or surfing porn from the ship’s library computer, and he puts them to work preparing to rescue Spock and to get the Enterprise out of Dodge.
Meanwhile, the Romulan Commander gets ready to attack the Enterprise, but not before she takes some bloody vengeance on Spock. The first officer demands the “Romulan right of statement,” which might also be called the “Romulan right to blather on endlessly about whatever” (we tend to call this a filibuster, or perhaps a Jay Leno monologue), which in reality is a stalling tactic. Spock’s hoping he can buy the Enterprise time to install the cloaking device and beam his butt out of there.
As Spock drones on and on (and on and on and on and…), Chekov uses the Enterprise’s sensors to try and locate him. No sooner does he do that than Scotty reports the cloak’s installed. “Beats me if it’ll work,” the engineer says, “and why is it that whenever I put something together like this, I always have parts left over?” Kirk orders Spock beamed off the Romulan ship, and the Romulan Commander jumps on him as the transport starts. Wow, that was dumb, huh? With Spock safe and the Commander a hostage, Kirk orders Sulu to hit the gas. The ship beats feet at Warp 9 with the Romulans in hot pursuit. Kirk wants the cloak activated, but Scotty obviously didn’t RTFM because it’s not working.
Kirk contacts the Romulan ship and tries to make them back off by showing them their Commander is his prisoner, but she orders Tal to destroy the Enterprise. The enemy ships bear down, weapons and tempers hot. Kirk starts thinking this might’ve been a lousy plan, after all. Scotty trying to jumpstart the cloak, which’d be a lot easier to do if Kirk wasn’t on his case about it every two seconds. As the Romulans draw close enough to open fire, Kirk orders Scotty to activate the cloak:
KIRK: Throw the switch.
SCOTTY: It’ll likely overload!
KIRK: Throw the switch!
TOS. We know drama.
Scotty hits the magic button, and the Enterprise fades into…nothingness. Kirk orders an immediate course change, figuring the Romulans will be too stupid to do anything but open fire along the Enterprise’s last known course heading. He’s right, because that’s just that Tal does. D’oh again!
With the Enterprise safely away from its pursuers, Kirk takes the high road and asks Spock to escort the Romulan Commander to guest quarters. We can only hope the captain’s learned his lessons from past adventures, and not allowed any computer terminals or other means of taking over the ship to be left in such rooms. Once together in private, Spock tries to smooth things over with the Romulan Commander, but he strikes out. No hand-jive for him tonight. Not with a woman, anyway.
After Spock returns to the bridge, McCoy calls up from sickbay, telling Kirk it’s time to remove those pointed ears of his. “You wanna go through life looking like your first officer?” Kirk leaves to get his ears bobbed, and the bridge crew yuks it up as he exits. I don’t know why Chekov’s in such a good mood; it’s not as if Sulu isn’t sitting right next to him, demonstrating the utter redundancy of the navigator position. You might wanna consider a career change, Pavel, my boy….
Dayton’s Rating: Warp 5 (on a scale of 1-6)
Analysis: David Mack
Right off the bat we get a cool continuity nod as the Romulans’ use of Klingon ships is acknowledged by Scotty and Spock. The subtext of this discovery is that there is an alliance or at least a degree of collusion between the Romulans and the Klingons to oppose the Federation. Of course, this actually was done to amortize over several episodes the cost of building new Klingon starship models for “Elaan of Troyius,” the first episode produced (but 13th to be aired) for season three. It’s a classic case of budgetary limits influencing an episode’s story and the overall continuity in unexpected and intriguing ways. Though the link between Klingon and Romulan politics isn’t revisited within the original series or even the first six feature films, it later became a cornerstone of Klingon-focused stories during Star Trek: The Next Generation.
The opening log by Doctor McCoy is a fun bit of misdirection: the audience is being set up just as the Romulans were, although McCoy believes his report to be the truth at the time (he isn’t brought into the loop about the mission until he’s later summoned to Kirk’s aid aboard the Romulan ship). The deception continues as Kirk ponders aloud why the Romulans have hesitated to destroy the intruding Enterprise: “It’s my ship they want.” His comment is ironic, considering that his incursion into their space was designed to lure them into this confrontation so that he might have a chance to steal their recently upgraded cloaking device prototype. The misdirection of the audience continues into the first briefing-room scene, when Kirk curtly dismisses McCoy after the doctor insists Kirk overstepped his authority by taking the Enterprise into Romulan territory.
The Romulan Commander’s claim that it would take three weeks for a subspace message from the Enterprise to reach Starfleet Command seemed unlikely to me, but I assumed this to be yet another example of how things in Star Trek always move “at the speed of plot.”
Another interesting note is the variation in Romulan hairstyles, both for men and women, from those seen in the era of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Neither the Romulans nor the Vulcans were depicted as having helmet-hair as a species trait in the original series or in the first six movies, and it seems a terrible shame that it was later forced upon them and retroactively grafted onto continuity in the Star Trek: Enterprise era.
It seems odd that Kirk’s plan hinged on being invited aboard the lead Romulan ship. The only reason they were invited aboard was that the female Romulan Commander—who, in a particularly lazy bit of writing, was never given a proper name—had an ulterior motive in wishing to meet Spock. What if the senior Romulan officer had been a man? What if the female Romulan Commander had been a lesbian?
Still, let’s chalk this up to a success of Starfleet Intelligence. Perhaps Starfleet learned of the Romulans’ deep interest in the Vulcans. Could there have been seeds of a desire on the part of the Romulans for reunification with their “distant brothers,” the Vulcans, even then? To hear the Romulan Commander talk, it would seem that the Romulans knew of their link to the Vulcans, despite the Vulcans being seemingly oblivious of the Romulans’ heritage until the season one episode “Balance of Terror.” In fact, Spock’s subsequent invocation of the Romulan tradition of the “right of statement” would bear out that theory. How else did Starfleet go from knowing next to nothing about the Romulans in the first season to Spock invoking their own laws against them two years later? It all smacks of a massive, behind-the-scenes covert intelligence action by Starfleet, most likely initiated as a direct consequence of the events in “Balance of Terror.”
One curious bit from this episode that I think has been blown out of all proportion by the fans and by later writers of the Star Trek spinoff series was the exchange between the Romulan Commander and Spock in which she asks whether it is true or a myth that “Vulcans are incapable of lying,” and Spock replies, “It is no myth.” Inexplicably, this moment has been cited again and again as proof that Vulcans never lie—except that, as this episode clearly shows, Spock was lying his ass off when he told her that. He lied in order to seduce her and he lied about the “Vulcan death grip.” Vulcans can lie, and they do so when circumstances call for it. I’ve never understood how anybody can cite this episode as proof of the contrary. Sure, one could argue that Spock is half human, but he says in this episode that he self-identifies as Vulcan—a statement consistent with the rest of his on-screen characterization throughout the series.
William Shatner’s performance in this episode is truly top-notch. Sure, he chews scenery like a 500-pound termite, but he plays the part of an unhinged madman superbly. Leonard Nimoy likewise is pitch-perfect. His preternatural calm and dignity are an excellent counterpoint to the subtle seductions of the female Romulan Commander (Joanne Linville). McCoy’s line, “I don’t make house calls,” is a standout moment, delivered with equal parts pride and defiance by DeForest Kelley. The best moment, though, is the romantic liaison between Spock and the Romulan Commander. The depiction of their attraction and affection was kept suitably “alien” at the insistence of Leonard Nimoy, who astutely suggested the now-classic “Vulcan finger-jive.” Joanne Linville is also wonderful and does a great job of selling her irresistible fascination, bordering on obsession, with Vulcans in general and Spock in particular. Her pain and rage upon discovering Spock’s ruse is also spot-on.
Another nice touch is when a Romulan sentry gets the drop on Kirk in the cloaking-device control room, and Kirk tells him a spy is after the device—prompting the sentry to look right at the top-secret component, thereby informing Kirk which one to steal.
The theft of the device is far too easy, of course. Its incorporation into the Enterprise’s shield grid is even more absurd, and is one of this episode’s few serious flaws. It is compounded by the Romulan Commander’s failure to immediately board and search the Enterprise; there is no plausible justification for her delay in doing so. I also found her decision to throw herself into Spock’s arms as he is transported back to the Enterprise somewhat baffling. Spock just betrayed her, so why does she risk making herself a high-value hostage for the enemy? Was his hand-jive really that good? Her actions become even more perplexing when she orders her second-in-command, Tal, to destroy the Enterprise with her aboard. Frankly, her motivations in the final act are a mess.
I had a curious thought while listening to Spock record his “right of statement.” He begins, “My crime is sabotage; I freely admit my guilt.” I wonder if that crime is still on record in the Romulan courts a century later, when he goes to Romulus to foster reunification. Could there still be an open warrant for Spock in 2368?
And how, exactly, does the Enterprise make its warp-nine bid to escape the Romulan ships when only moments earlier it dared not move? After all, they don’t engage the stolen cloaking device until after they’ve fled. That sequence feels like a classic example of trying to pitch a flawed conclusion past the audience by rolling it out with such speed and flair that we buy it based on its bravado alone.
The final scene between Spock and the Romulan Commander is one of the most tantalizing in all of the original series. In just a few minutes of screen time, it is suggested that she made a genuine emotional impact on Spock, one with lingering effects. Likewise, she seems to harbor continued feelings for him, and it is implied that there was more to their assignation aboard her ship than what we were shown. I remember wondering, the first time I learned that Saavik in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan had been imagined as half Romulan and half Vulcan, whether she was the illegitimate child of Spock and the Romulan Commander. It would certainly have explained a lot, wouldn’t it?
Overall, it’s a well-paced episode. The cinematography is good, the editing brisk, and the fight choreography is far from the worst in the show’s run. Despite its final-act flaws, I think it’s one of the most solid, memorable, fun, and consequential episodes of the show’s third season.
David’s Rating: Warp 5 (on a scale of 1 to 6)
Next episode: Season 3, Episode 3 – “The Paradise Syndrome.” U.S. residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
Check the Star Trek Re-Watch Index for a complete list of posts in this series.
Dayton Ward used to be a Marine, which means he can kill you with the remote he used to watch this episode. He’s the author of numerous Star Trek books and three original novels: The Genesis Protocol, The Last World War and its sequel, Counterstrike.
David Mack is not, as has been erroneously reported, an alcoholic—he is a drunkard. He is also the author of several Star Trek novels and the original urban fantasy The Calling, as well as the cowriter of two episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine.
Saavik as Spock’s By-blow makes a particular scene in ST3 damned disturbing…
^ Well, yeah. Obviously, by then they’d decisively ruled out that notion of Saavik’s origin. … We hope.
Pardon in advance this may go long I really like this one.
My memory is not perfect but this the frist time there’s ABSOLUTELY no way to put the Federation on the moral high ground. They try it again (sorta) in “Way to EDEN” but it goes wrong.
Also interesting that we now know Romulans have higher ranking female officers than human. As a kid in the 1980s I always thought Turnabout intruder was proof Star Trek was the future of some other universe
“What if the Romulan were a dude? What if she was a lesbian?”
How about “what if she wasn’t into cross-species dating?”
@1,2
Doesn’t matter; in ST3 that was NOT the real Saavik, it was an imposter…
Dayton: After sarcastically savaging the episode with the most obnoxious dudebro attitude ever seen on these pages, you rate it a 5?
I do not understand. And I really miss Eugene and Torie.
So, um… not to be rude, but who are you guys and why are you doing the ST rewatch now? I get that people move on etc, but damn, some introduction might be nice.
@7 and @8 – These are both fair questions. We *were* sort of thrown into the deep end of the pool here, without a proper introduction, so allow me to try and rectify that.
I’ll let Dave speak for himself, but I’m a lifelong fan of the original series. Used to watch it on a black-n-white TV with reception so bad that adjusting the antenna sometimes forced me to choose between sound and picture. Contrast that with today, when I carry a gizmo in my pocket that lets me watch any episode any time I want. Once they figure out how to implant a flash drive directly into my brain, I’ll be set.
The snarkiness of any reviews I post here are done with love, sort of like a Friar’s Club Roast. Be assured that I love the show, warts and all, and wouldn’t have signed on for this gig if that that wasn’t the case. I hope that affection comes through in those “Re-Watch” entries where I’m posting the “review/analysis” portion of our 2-person shtick.
That said, I think you raise good point, and in future reviews if I’m the one doing the “recap,” I’ll be sure to add a closing paragraph that offers my real feelings on the episode in question. For instance, “The Enterprise Incident” is a legit highlight of the third season, and one of the better episodes across the run of the series, for all of the reasons Dave offers in his review. It’s well-deserving of the high “grade” it receives here.
(Unlike, say, “The Way to Eden,” comin’ at ya in just a couple of weeks!)
For more info about me, feel free to visit my site, DaytonWard.com, and my blog, where I tend to ramble on about various topics, including lots of nostalgic looks back at various aspects of the original Trek.
at #8
Dayton Ward and David Mack are two of the greatest TrekLit (Star Trek novels on Pocket Books) authors currently around.
They are both responsible for the brilliant Star Trek “Vanguard” series of novels which take place in the TOS time frame. David also wrote the Star Trek “Destiny” trilogy which is the greatest Star Trek novel set EVER written. If you love the Next Gen/DS9/VOY and ENT timeframe, read those books, you’ll thank me maniacally.He also wrote two episodes of DS9: “Its Only a Paper Moon” and “Starship Down”.
Its because they started written these Star Trek re-watch articles that caused me to come to this site in the first place.
Hope the intro helps!
at #8:
To echo what Dayton said, I grew up watching the original Star Trek episodes over and over again in syndication in the 1970s. I went to all the movies in the ’80s, and I had my parents tape the first four seasons of Star Trek: The Next Generation for me while I was at NYU film school, from which I earned a BFA in film and television production, with an emphasis on screenwriting.
In the 1990s I cowrote two produced episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (as noted by #10) and I also made a sale to Star Trek Voyager that ended up not being filmed. Since then I’ve written stories for Star Trek in a variety of media, including 4 comic books, 3 video games, 10 pieces of short fiction, and 14 novels.
Among my credits, as noted above, are a number of USA Today and Locus bestsellers, and the critically acclaimed Star Trek Vanguard series, which I developed with editor Marco Palmieri and on which I have shared the writing privileges with Dayton and his collaboarator, Kevin Dilmore.
For more information, please visit my website, lurk on my blog, or follow me on Twitter.
Dayton/David – thanks. I was partly wondering who you were but in some ways that comment was directed at the tor.com folks who didn’t provide any explanation/notice of what happened to Eugene and Torie. That’s not a hit on you two at all – but when reviewers switch out it would be nice to have a “hey, stuff’s changing, here’s the new team” and a bit about them.
@10 – I guess that’s kinda my point. They didn’t start the rewatch series, they’re doing S3. Perfectly cool, I was just wondering what happened.
Anyway welcome – and I like the reviews so far.
PS: Dayton – I watched ST:TOS on the same 19″ B&W Zenith that we watched the moon landing on. Odd thought, that.
I am enjoying these re-watches SO MUCH! Thank you.
“I watched ST:TOS on the same 19″ B&W Zenith that we watched the moon landing on. Odd thought, that.”
Now *THAT’S* kickin’ it old school. :thumbsup:
19-inch B&W Sears “Silvertone” here.
sorry for doing this but how do you make a blog or thread? i can find the thing to click on.
In a memo written to the producers, D.C. Fontana warned that Nimoy’s and Joanne Linville’s objections to the seduction scene as written in the original script were valid; if it were not handled consistently according to established canon about Vulcans, the fans would tune out in droves. She reminded them that fans of the show “write whole treatises and fanzines (for a large circle of fan subscribers) based on Vulcan psychology, physiology, emotions, mores, and what Spock eats for breakfast.”
Even with the restraint and grace employed by Nimoy and Linville in this scene, the fans still wrote reams to Fontana, blaming her for the inconsistency. It could have been a lot worse. Gene Roddenberry had written in that Spock should “rain kisses” on the Commander! Yeesh!
(Yeah, I wrote that for an article in Fanlore, but it bears repeating.)
Actually, David, Spock wasn’t lying at all. He was instead being very cleverly evasive. By saying “It is no myth” Spock is responding only to the proposition that the phrase “Vulcans are incapable of lying” fits the definition of the word “myth” – which it doesn’t. Spock is cleverly avoiding any comment whatsoever on the question of whether or not the phrase accurately describes Vulcans.
Below is the transcript of this episode as it relates to Spock’s statements. All of them are true. David, please specify exactly which of Spock’s statements you think constitute Spock “lying his ass off”…
—————-
http://www.chakoteya.net/startrek/59.htm
{…} COMMANDER: I must admit some surprise on seeing you, Spock. We were not aware of Vulcans aboard the Enterprise.
SPOCK: Starfleet is not in the habit of informing Romulans of its ships’ personnel. {True}
COMMANDER: Quite so. Yet there are certain ships, certain officers, that are known to us. Your situation appears most interesting.
KIRK: What earns Spock your special interest?
COMMANDER: He is a Vulcan. Our forebears had the same roots and origins. Something you wouldn’t understand, Captain. We can appreciate the Vulcans, our distant brothers. I have heard of Vulcan integrity and personal honour. There’s a well-known saying, or is it a myth, that Vulcans are incapable of lying?
SPOCK: It is no myth. {It’s only a well-known saying, not a myth.}
COMMANDER: Then tell me truthfully now, by your honour as a Vulcan, what was your mission?
SPOCK: I reserve the privilege of speaking only when it will not violate my honour as a Vulcan.
COMMANDER: It is unworthy of a Vulcan to resort to subterfuge.
SPOCK: You’re being clever, Commander. That is unworthy of a Romulan. It is not a lie to keep the truth to oneself. {True}
COMMANDER: Then there is a truth here that remains unspoken.
KIRK: You’ve been told everything. There’s nothing else to say.
COMMANDER: There is Mister Spock’s unspoken truth. You knew of the cloaking device that we have developed. You deliberately violated Romulan space with a blatant spy mission, by order of the Federation.
KIRK: We’ve been all through that, Commander!
COMMANDER: We have not even begun! There’s no force that I can use on a Vulcan that will make him speak. That is a fact. But there are Romulan methods completely effective against humans and human weaknesses.
SPOCK: You would not resort to them, Commander. They would prove ineffective against the captain. {True}
COMMANDER: Then they will leave him dead, or what might be worse than dead. But I will know your unspoken truths.
KIRK: Let her rant. There’s nothing to say.
SPOCK: I cannot allow the captain to be further destroyed. The strain of command has worn heavily upon him. He’s not been himself for several weeks. {True}
KIRK: That’s a lie!
SPOCK: As you can see, Captain Kirk is a highly sensitive and emotional person. I believe he has lost the capacity for rational decision. {True at that moment}
KIRK: Shut up, Spock!
SPOCK: I’m betraying no secrets. The commander’s suspicion that Starfleet ordered the Enterprise into the Neutral Zone is unacceptable. Our rapid capture demonstrates its foolhardiness. {True}
KIRK: You filthy liar!
SPOCK: I am speaking the truth for the benefit of the Enterprise and the Federation. I say now and for the record, that Captain Kirk ordered the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone on his own initiative and his craving for glory. {True}
KIRK: (having to be held back by the guards) I’ll kill you, you filthy traitor! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you!
SPOCK: He is not sane. {True at that moment}
{…}
COMMANDER: A Vulcan among humans. Living, working with them. I would think the situation would be intolerable to you.
SPOCK: I am half Vulcan. My mother is a human. {True}
COMMANDER: To whom is your allegiance then? Do you call yourself Terran or Vulcan?
SPOCK: Vulcan. {True}
COMMANDER: How long have you been a Starfleet officer, Spock?
SPOCK: Eighteen years. {True}
COMMANDER: And you serve Captain Kirk. Do you like him? Do you like your shipmates?
SPOCK: The question is irrelevant. {True}
COMMANDER: Possibly, but you are subordinate to Captain Kirk’s orders, even to his whims.
SPOCK: My duty as an officer is to obey him. {True}
COMMANDER: You are a superior being. Why do you not command?
SPOCK: I do not desire a ship of my own. {True}
COMMANDER: Or is it that no one has offered you, a Vulcan, that opportunity?
SPOCK: Such opportunities are extremely rare. {True}
COMMANDER: For someone with your capabilities and accomplishments, opportunities are made and will be. I will see to that, if you’ll stop looking on the Federation as the whole universe. It is not, you know.
SPOCK: That thought has occasionally crossed my mind. {True}
COMMANDER: You must have your own ship.
SPOCK: Commander, shall we speak plainly? It is you who desperately need a ship. You want the Enterprise. {True}
COMMANDER: Of course. It would be a great achievement for me to bring home the Enterprise intact. It would broaden the scope of my powers greatly. It would be the achievement of a lifetime. And it would open equal opportunities for you.
{…}
COMMANDER: I neglected to mention, I’ll expect you for dinner. We have much to discuss.
SPOCK: Indeed. {True}
COMMANDER: Allow me to rephrase. Will you join me for dinner?
SPOCK: I am honoured, Commander. Are the guards also invited? {True}
(She dismisses them. They walk on, and Spock turns a corner.)
COMMANDER: Mister Spock. That corridor is forbidden to all but loyal Romulans.
SPOCK: Of course. I shall obey your restrictions. {True}
COMMANDER: I hope that one day there will be no need for you to observe any restrictions.
SPOCK: It would be illogical to assume that all conditions remain stable. {True}
{…}
COMMANDER: Mister Spock, the doctor has now confirmed your testimony as to the mental state of your captain. He was and is unfit to continue in command of the Enterprise. That duty has fallen on you. Are you ready to exercise that function?
SPOCK: I am ready. {True}
MCCOY: Spock, I don’t believe it. There’s no price you could pay that would make him sell out.
SPOCK: The matter is not open for discussion, Doctor. {True}
MCCOY: What do you mean, the matter’s not open for discussion?
COMMANDER: That’s enough, Doctor. As a physician, your duty is to save lives. Mister Spock’s duty is to lead the Enterprise and its crew to a safe haven.
SPOCK: There is no alternative, Doctor. The safety of the crew is now the paramount issue. It is misguided loyalty to resist any further. {True – McCoy should not resist any further}
KIRK: You traitor. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you!
(Kirk lunges feebly at Spock, who places his hand over Kirk’s face. Kirk falls back, face contorted with pain.)
MCCOY: What did you do? What did you do?
SPOCK: I was unprepared for his attack. I instinctively used the Vulcan death grip. {True, though the VDG is meaningless}
MCCOY: Your instincts are still good, Mister Spock. The captain is dead.
{…}
COMMANDER: I’ve had special Vulcan dishes prepared for you. I hope they’re to your liking.
SPOCK: I am very flattered, Commander. There’s no doubt that the cuisine aboard your vessel is far superior to that of the Enterprise. It is indeed a very powerful recruiting inducement. {True}
COMMANDER: We have other inducements.
(She offers him a glass of blue liquid. He accepts, they silently toast each other and drink.)
{…}
COMMANDER: You have nothing in Starfleet to which to return. I offer, we offer you an alternative. We will find a place for you, if you wish it.
SPOCK: A place?
COMMANDER: With me. Romulan women are not like Vulcan females. We are not dedicated to pure logic and the sterility of non-emotion. Our people are warriors. Often savage. But we are also many other pleasant things.
SPOCK: I was not aware of that aspect of Romulan society. {True}
COMMANDER: As a Vulcan, you would study it. As a human you would find ways to appreciate it.
SPOCK: Please believe me. I do appreciate it. {True}
COMMANDER: I am so glad. Now one final step to make the occasion complete. You will lead a small party of Romulans aboard the Enterprise, and there you will take your rightful place as its commander. And you will lead the ship to a Romulan port, with my flagship at its side.
SPOCK: Yes, of course, but not just this moment. An hour from now will do even better. Would it not, Commander? {True}
COMMANDER: Yes. Yes, it will, Mister Spock. You do know I have a first name.
SPOCK: I was beginning to wonder. {True}
COMMANDER: Well, I do. Would you like to hear it?
(She whispers in his ear.)
SPOCK: How rare, and how beautiful. But so incongruous when spoken by a soldier. {True}
COMMANDER: If you will give me a moment, the soldier will transform herself into a woman.
(She leaves the room.)
{…}
COMMANDER: Is my attire now more appropriate, Mister Spock?
SPOCK: Commander, your attire is not only more appropriate, it should actually stimulate our conversation. {True}
(He makes the Vulcan V-sign. She does the same, and they touch hands.)
{…}
(Now they are stroking each other’s face.)
COMMANDER: It’s hard to believe that I can be so moved by the touch of an alien hand.
SPOCK: I must confess that I too am moved emotionally. I know it is illogical. {True}
COMMANDER: Mister Spock, we mustn’t question what we truly feel. Accept what is happening between us, even as I do.
{…}
TAL: Commander, we have intercepted an alien transmission.
COMMANDER: Locate its source.
TAL: We have, Commander. This room.
(Spock comes out from behind the dividing curtain and shows his communicator.)
COMMANDER: The cloaking device. Bring him. {…}
Saying that the phrase “he has lost the capacity for rational judgement” and “he is not sane” are true shows an odd idea of what counts as “truthfulness”. Kirk is no less sane at that point that William Shatner is… Kirk is just acting insane, a fact Spock knows perfectly well. Therefore, telling the Romulan Commander that Kirk is not sane is a great big lie.
How to sew up two plot holes:
1. Romulan shields don’t protect the ship from Federation transporters.
2. A federation hacker learned that the Romulan Commander watched LOTS of Romulan-Vulcan interspecies porn. The IMF secretary decided there could be a way to take advantage of this quirk.
I think your review is as about as commercial as it gets. I’ve seen this episode at least 100 times. I think that the Romulan Commander was being a typical Romulan. If you watch more into the Next Generation, you will see your grave error in judgment. I can get into many episodes, but I will not. Unification part 1 and part 2. Pardek. Someone who was a long time associate or Ambassador Spock. he claimed to want unity between the Romulans and Vulcans, but was betraying him all along in the name of advancing his career. Another example is the TNG episode The Next Faze. When Geordi and Ro were thought to be dead. The Enterprise was trying to help the distressed Romulans repair their ship so they could return home. The Romulans devise a plan to send some sort of feedback loop so that when The Enterprise goes to warp it will explode. Romulans are treacherous. Not to be trusted. My theory is that is very attractive, and manipulative Romulan Commander, knew of Mr. Spock being in the Federation and targeted him simply because she in her superior Romulan Mind could get over on her Vulcan cousin. Romulans disagreed with the father of Vulcan Philosophy Suraks theories of logic and peace. They believed in being very overly emotional and passionate. And they were 100% sure of their purpose and their philosophy. If Spock truly would have betrayed The Federation, the minute he landed on Romulus that Commander would have betrayed him in favor of her own career. And she would be well known as a Romulan that prooved the superiority and cleverness of Romulans over Vulcans. Anywho.
19. No lies from Spock!
Just to address a few of your assertions….
False: He has been himself. He was deliberately setting a trap.
False again. Kirk is making completely rational statements to play out the deception he and Spock are aiming at the Commander
False. He ordered the Enterprise across the Neutral Zone on Starfleet orders in order to obtain the Cloaking Device.
Again false. He is perfectly sane. Kirk is, again, playing the role that they had planned to achieve their goal.
Just addressing these few items among your lengthy quotation indicated that Spock is, indeed, lying through his teeth. Claiming these statements are true is only consistent with the view that this whole thing was a spur of the moment plan concocted to take advantage of a psychotic break by Kirk. Since it is specifically stated in the episode that Kirk and Spock are acting on orders from Starfleet Command.
We know Spock can and will lie like a rug when necessary. Or as he calls it ‘exaggerate’.
Precisely.