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- This is the episode that introduced the Klingons<\/strong>, a heretofore unmentioned alien race who are posed as representing an existential threat to the Federation \u2013 in obvious analogy to the two sides of the Cold War<\/strong> in the 1960s when the episode was made.<\/li>\n
- Indeed, the story opens as the Enterprise reaches \u201cthe designated position for scanning the coded directive,\u201d a bit of spy vs. spy fluffery, and Kirk learns that the Klingons are about to attack. His mission is to head for the planet Organia<\/strong>, a strategically positioned world to both sides, and prevent the Klingons from occupying it.<\/li>\n
- And suddenly the Klingons attack! And in the enhanced graphics<\/strong> of the remastered episode, we even see the Klingon ship<\/strong>!\n
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- This sight is a bit of cognitive dissonance, because though we see the by now familiar Klingon ship design, that design wasn\u2019t seen in the original series until the third season<\/strong>! The Klingon battle cruiser was designed at built for the third season\u2019s second episode (in production order), \u201cElaan of Troyius,\u201d though confusingly was first seen in the episode \u201cThe Enterprise Incident,\u201d produced later but broadcast earlier \u2013 and, in further confusion, in that story occupied by Romulans, who had borrowed the Klingon design.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- In any event, the Enterprise quickly dispatches the Klingon ship (the enhanced graphics show debris scattering), and Kirk and Spock assess the situation.<\/li>\n
- The script here is the second in a row by producer Gene L. Coon<\/strong>, famed as a fast writer who could crank out a script in a few days, and it exhibits some common notes<\/strong> with the previous \u201cThe Devil in the Dark,\u201d including talkiness. Here at the end of the teaser, characters say and repeat things we already know.<\/li>\n
- Kirk leaves Sulu in charge, with instructions to avoid confrontation with any other Klingon ships, and he and Spock beam down to the planet.\n
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- Again, putting the two senior officers in potential danger was\u2026 not smart<\/strong>, but it was built in to the TOS premise and was unavoidable in order to make best use of the show’s two lead stars.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- They find a placid, agrarian village<\/strong>, at the base of a hill topped by an ominous-looking castle. An elderly man, Ayelborne, greets them (he speaks English of course) and takes them inside to meet the Council of Elders, which Ayelborne leads. A group of placidly smiling, elderly white men.<\/li>\n
- Kirk lays it out<\/strong>: he\u2019s here to help them resist the Klingons, a military dictatorship, who would take control of their planet.<\/li>\n
- Ayelborne calmly assures Kirk<\/strong> that the planet is in no danger. Kirk doubles-down, with talk of slave labor camps, prisoners, killings. Ayelborne and the others pretend to confer.<\/li>\n
- As they do Spock comes in, from some private reconnoitering, and reports that \u201cThis is not a primitive society making progress<\/strong> toward mechanization. They are totally stagnant.\u201d And, \u201cThis is a laboratory specimen of an arrested culture.\u201d\n
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- This is a theme I didn\u2019t notice when I watched these shows in the \u201860s and \u201870s, but it stands out glaringly now. Again and again, the Enterprise encounters cultures, both alien and human, who fail to exhibit the kind of \u2018progress\u2019 and technological development<\/strong> that Kirk, or the Federation, or more correctly Trek\u2019s 1960s producers and writers, feel is necessary and inevitable for a proper society. We just saw it in \u201cThe Return of the Archons\u201d and \u201cThis Side of Paradise\u201d; coming up, 2nd<\/sup> season\u2019s \u201cThe Apple\u201d comes to mind. In contrast<\/strong>, some factions of humanity, here in the 21st<\/sup> century, are recognizing that \u2018progress\u2019 that entails indefinite economic growth that in turn consumes resources on a finite planet and threatens to wreck the global environment\u2026 is not sustainable for more than a few more decades, or perhaps centuries. Something will have to give.<\/strong> Even a breakout to other planets, even interstellar travel, would only help the travelers, not the still-expanding population back here on Earth.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Kirk takes Spock\u2019s cue and spins his appeal<\/strong> to help the Organians feed their people, educate the young, remake their world. He pleads, \u201cAll we ask in return, is that you let us help you. Now\u2026?\u201d<\/li>\n
- He\u2019s interrupted by Sulu reporting that a fleet (now the enhanced graphics show a fleet! Well, six.<\/strong>) of Klingon ships converging on the planet. With the Enterprise\u2019s shields up, Sulu can\u2019t beam up Kirk and Spock out of danger.\n
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- Again, danger to the Enterprise is a common plot ploy<\/strong> to keep the show\u2019s stars involved on-planet, instead of using that too-convenient transporter to beam themselves away and end the story. We saw similar ploys in \u201cThe Return of the Archons\u201d and \u201cA Taste of Armageddon.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Act I ends with a rhetorical flourish<\/strong> virtually identical to that in \u201cThe Devil in the Dark\u201d: Kirk turning toward the camera and grimly assessing their predicament.<\/li>\n
- And then the Klingons arrive<\/strong>, troops of men in glittery uniforms, dark beards, and\u00a0 swarthy skin. Their leader is Kor, compact but sneeringly intense, who marches into the council chambers \u2013 where Kirk and Spock have changed into local clothing \u2013 to issue orders (in English, of course), threatening to kill any Organians who disobey the slightest of them. Kirk is presented as a local, Baroner, while Spock is passed off as a Vulcan trader. Kirk, even in disguise, cannot hide his disdain for Kor, and Kor notices.<\/strong> In fact Kor recruits Kirk (Baroner) to be a liaison, takes him to his office, and hands out lists of rules \u2013 in English of course, quite readable in the blu-ray disc\u2019s resolution. Kor alludes to a device they have, a \u201cmind-scanner,\u201d or \u201cmind-ripper,\u201d which can extract every thought and memory from a man\u2019s mind. Spock, of course, manages to evade its effects.\n
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- Several times, including in this scene, Kor refers to \u2018human\u2019<\/strong> as if this describes both the Federation\u2019s representatives, and the Klingons.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Kirk and Spock are released, left alone, but Kirk cannot leave well enough alone<\/strong>. That night he and Spock rig an explosion of a Klingon munitions dump, providing a \u201cmost satisfactory display.\u201d<\/li>\n
- But the next morning Ayelborne protests the violence of the act<\/strong> \u2013 and here the story starts to deepen<\/strong>, not as one about whether Kirk can defeat the nasty Klingons, but as one about the mysterious Organians<\/strong>, why they insist they are not in danger, why they are so concerned about any demonstration of violence, by either side.<\/li>\n
- In fact, when Kor quickly confronts them, Ayelborne, without any sense of betrayal, calmly informs Kor that \u2018Baroner\u2019 is actually Captain James T. Kirk \u2013 a name Kor recognizes!<\/li>\n
- Kirk becomes frustrated and bitter<\/strong>, at the Organians.<\/li>\n
- Kor invites Kirk to have a philosophical discussion, over a drink (there\u2019s a similar scene in \u201cA Taste of Armageddon\u201d), claiming that at base they are similar species<\/strong>. On this planet of \u201csheep,\u201d they are \u201cTwo tigers\u2026 predators, hunters\u2026 killers. And it precisely that which makes us great. And there is a universe to be taken.\u201d Kirk defies Kor\u2019s request for intel about the Federation, and he and Spock are locked up.<\/li>\n
- And then Ayelborne shows up at their cell, having magically unlocked the door and avoided the guard, and lets them out \u2013 because they plan violence, which he cannot allow.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Kor, learning the next morning that his prisoners have inexplicably disappeared, broadcasts via loudspeaker the sound of 200 Organians being killed by Klingon phasers. And promises 200 more deaths every two hours<\/strong>, until the \u2018Federation spies\u2019 are turned over to him.\n
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- Here is also, of course, the recurring Trek conceit<\/strong> that one little village represents the entire planet. Here reached by loudspeaker.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- Ayelborne insists that \u201cnothing has changed,\u201d but Kirk, growing increasingly frustrated, demands that Ayelborne return his and Spock\u2019s phasers. Ayelborne accedes, then commiserates with his fellow Claymare that \u201cwe cannot allow it. To stop them is\u2026very bad.\u201d They seem as reluctant to interfere, as to interfere to prevent violence.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Kirk and Spock take off for the citadel \u2013 that castle on the hill \u2013 and take down a couple Klingon guards to gain entrance into the castle.<\/li>\n
- Kirk wonders about the odds of their success, and Spock replies with a replay of a scene<\/strong> from Gene L. Coon\u2019s \u201cThe Devil in the Dark\u201d \u2013 \u201cDifficult to be precise, Captain. I should say approximately seven thousand, eight hundred twenty-four point seven, to one.\u201d Kirk, skeptical, repeats the number, and Spock confirms it.<\/li>\n
- Naturally, it only takes a couple more scenes<\/strong> before Kirk and Spock reach Kor\u2019s office, and hold him at bay with their phasers.<\/li>\n
- Kor informs them that a Federation fleet is on its way to Organia, to meet the Klingon fleet. They ponder the potential outcomes. Kor distracts Kirk for a moment, then summons his guards, who rush in\u2014<\/li>\n
- –But everyone suddenly finds their weapons too hot to handle<\/strong>. They drop their phasers on the floor. Even physical violence is suddenly impossible\u2014striking another produces a similar sensation of extreme heat.<\/li>\n
- We see a brief scene on the bridge of the Enterprise, where Sulu is in charge, and where everyone suddenly leaps up in panic, their control panels too hot to touch.<\/li>\n
- Back in Kor\u2019s office, the doors open and Ayelborne and Claymare calmly enter. \u201cWe are terribly sorry to be forced to interfere, gentlemen, but we cannot permit you to do harm to yourselves\u2026 We have put a stop to your violence.\u201d<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Kirk and Kor contact their respective ships to confirm the situation. On the bridge, power goes off.<\/li>\n
- Ayelborne explains, in a metaphysical bit<\/strong> that recalls the Thasian\u2019s words at the end of \u201cCharlie X\u201d; Ayelborne says, \u201cAs I stand here, I also stand upon the home planet of the Klingon Empire, and the home planet of your Federation, Captain. I\u2019m going to put a stop to this insane war.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Alliances shift.<\/strong> Suddenly Kirk and Kor are on the same side \u2013 how dare the Organians interfere in their war??\n
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- Kirk: \u201cYou can\u2019t just stop the fleet! What gives you the right??\u201d<\/li>\n
- Kor: \u201cWhat happens in space is not your business!\u201d<\/li>\n
- Kirk: \u201cYou should be the first to be on our side. Two hundred hostages killed!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- And the mystery of the Organians gets weirder and weirder.<\/strong> Ayelborne and Claymore: \u201cNo one was killed, Captain. No one has died here, in uncounted thousands of years.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Kirk and Kor persist: \u201cEven if you have some\u2026 power, that we don\u2019t understand, you have no right to dictate to the Federation” \u2013 “or our Empire” \u2013 “how to handle their interstellar relations. We have the right\u2014\u201c<\/li>\n
- Here is the climactic moment.<\/strong> Ayelborne: \u201cTo wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you\u2019re defending?\u201d<\/li>\n
- Kirk is stumped.<\/strong> He realizes he\u2019s trying to defend exactly what he should most be trying to avoid. And in this, Kor is on his side. Kirk tries to step it back. \u201cWell, no one wants war\u2026 Eventually we would have\u2026\u201d<\/li>\n
- Ayelborne: \u201cOh eventually you will have peace<\/strong>\u2026. In the future you and the Klingons will become fast friends. You will work together.<\/strong>\u201d<\/li>\n
- Kor is repelled by the thought. Of course, this is an ironically predictive moment<\/strong>, since by the second Trek series, TNG, the Klingons had aligned with the Federation to the point of having a Klingon officer on the bridge.<\/li>\n
- The mystery of the Organians culminates<\/strong>. Claymare: \u201cWe do not wish to seem inhospitable, but gentlemen, you must leave.\u201d And he does seem in some kind of physical discomfort. Ayelborne: \u201cYes, please leave us. The mere presence of beings like yourselves is intensely painful to us.\u201d<\/li>\n
- And: \u201cMillions of years ago, we were humanoid, like yourselves. But we have developed beyond the need of physical bodies.<\/strong>\u201d Their appearance, and the entire village, was mere appearance, for their sake.<\/li>\n
- And then Ayelborne and Claymare begin to glow<\/strong>, their bodies overlaid by increasingly bright blobs of light. The others in the room shield their eyes. The glowing blobs gradually expand, then fade out, and disappear.<\/li>\n
- Spock quickly deduces what they\u2019ve seen<\/strong>: \u201cFascinating. Pure energy<\/b>, pure thought. \u2026 I should say the Organians are as far above us on the evolutionary scale as we are above\u2026 the amoeba.\u201d\n
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- The notion of beings consisting of “pure energy<\/strong>” recurred more than once in Trek, but I remain skeptical that the idea has any kind of physical plausibility.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n
- And so Kirk and Kor can\u2019t fight<\/strong>. Kor bemuses, \u201cA shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.\u201d<\/li>\n
- The final scene, back on the bridge, again with Coonian rhetoric<\/strong>, repeats the point. Kirk: \u201cI\u2019m embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn\u2019t want.\u201d Spock tries to console about how they beat the odds. Very mild Coonian joke by Kirk: \u201cWe didn\u2019t beat the odds. We didn\u2019t have a chance. The Organians raided the game!\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Music notes:<\/p>\n
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- The episode opens, typically, with Alexander Courage\u2019s Enterprise fanfare #1, and then immediately follows it with the Enterprise fanfare #2, written by Fred Steiner for \u201cCharlie X\u201d and used almost as frequently as fanfare #1 throughout the first season.<\/li>\n
- The music that underscores the Organians\u2019 transition into energy beings is the Alexander Courage music from \u201cThe Naked Time\u201d as the Enterprise plunges back in time.<\/li>\n
- This and other posts will be further annotated with comments about how music written for earlier episodes was re-used in later ones.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Blish adaptation, in ST2:<\/p>\n
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- Follows the broadcast script very closely, though yet again Blish summarizes the set-up<\/strong> and initial encounter with the Klingons, with no dialogue until Kirk and Spock meet the Organian council, and Spock makes his remarks about an arrested culture.<\/li>\n
- Blish implies the Klingons are actually an offshoot of humanity: \u201cThe Klingons were hard-faced, hard-muscled men, originally of Oriental stock<\/strong>.\u201d I suppose that might explain how they speak English.<\/li>\n
- Blish has Spock not only explain what trillium is (a medicinal plant of the lily family), but later mentions that the word has some other meaning to the Klingons.<\/li>\n
- Blish collapses the plot<\/strong> a bit: Kirk and Spock explode the munitions dump; Kor immediately responds by phasering 200 Organians; Kirk and Spock surrender themselves in Kor\u2019s office. No scene in a jail cell from which Ayelborne magically releases them.<\/li>\n
- As Kirk and Kor talk, Kirk recalls the Spartans, warriors who nevertheless lost to Athens, known as the mother of all the arts. Kor finds the analogy \u201ca little out of date\u201d which again seems to imply a common background<\/strong>.<\/li>\n
- The rest follows the script very closely, all the way through Spock\u2019s comparison to an amoeba and Kor\u2019s final line \u201cIt would have been glorious\u201d \u2013 but then omits the redundant final bridge scene.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Enterprise attempts to claim the peaceful yet strategic planet Organia from the rival Klingon Empire, only to find a curious indifference by the natives to any kind of threat. This is the episode that introduced the Klingons, a … Continue reading
- Blish implies the Klingons are actually an offshoot of humanity: \u201cThe Klingons were hard-faced, hard-muscled men, originally of Oriental stock<\/strong>.\u201d I suppose that might explain how they speak English.<\/li>\n
- Follows the broadcast script very closely, though yet again Blish summarizes the set-up<\/strong> and initial encounter with the Klingons, with no dialogue until Kirk and Spock meet the Organian council, and Spock makes his remarks about an arrested culture.<\/li>\n
- And so Kirk and Kor can\u2019t fight<\/strong>. Kor bemuses, \u201cA shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Ayelborne insists that \u201cnothing has changed,\u201d but Kirk, growing increasingly frustrated, demands that Ayelborne return his and Spock\u2019s phasers. Ayelborne accedes, then commiserates with his fellow Claymare that \u201cwe cannot allow it. To stop them is\u2026very bad.\u201d They seem as reluctant to interfere, as to interfere to prevent violence.<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Kirk and Spock are released, left alone, but Kirk cannot leave well enough alone<\/strong>. That night he and Spock rig an explosion of a Klingon munitions dump, providing a \u201cmost satisfactory display.\u201d<\/li>\n
- Act I ends with a rhetorical flourish<\/strong> virtually identical to that in \u201cThe Devil in the Dark\u201d: Kirk turning toward the camera and grimly assessing their predicament.<\/li>\n
- Kirk takes Spock\u2019s cue and spins his appeal<\/strong> to help the Organians feed their people, educate the young, remake their world. He pleads, \u201cAll we ask in return, is that you let us help you. Now\u2026?\u201d<\/li>\n
- They find a placid, agrarian village<\/strong>, at the base of a hill topped by an ominous-looking castle. An elderly man, Ayelborne, greets them (he speaks English of course) and takes them inside to meet the Council of Elders, which Ayelborne leads. A group of placidly smiling, elderly white men.<\/li>\n
- Indeed, the story opens as the Enterprise reaches \u201cthe designated position for scanning the coded directive,\u201d a bit of spy vs. spy fluffery, and Kirk learns that the Klingons are about to attack. His mission is to head for the planet Organia<\/strong>, a strategically positioned world to both sides, and prevent the Klingons from occupying it.<\/li>\n