Tuesday 20 May 2008

Star Trek: TOS 1.15 - Court Martial

Review 14 - Episode 14

The One with Captain Kirk on trial

Entertaining if slightly daft story this. Kirk is accused of perjury after one of his crew, Finney, is seemingly killed in an Ion storm. It's up to Sam Cogley to defend him.

The most interesting thing about this episode is seeing the seeds of Starfleet being sown. There is a real feel of there being a bigger universe outside the enterprise and of lot's of other story's going on. Having Kirks ex Shaw prosecuting him is a nice touch and probably one of the few times they weren't used as eye candy or screaming queens. The trial itself was enjoyable to watch, even though I suspect a lot of legal holes were created. Spock and McCoy testifying was good as was McCoys reaction to Spock calmly playing chess, yet discovering the computer had been tampered with.

The heartbeat search at the end is dubious, although certainly make for a dramatic scene, but I could have done with out the Kirk/Finney face off, especially with 2 of the worst lookalike stunt men I've ever seen. I understand a scene was cut with Jamie confronting her dad and he explains how he sabotaged the ship, hence the strange V.O. narration which makes Kirk sound like a private eye. It's a shame Scotty, Sulu and Uhura are awol again, especially Scotty as he could easily have give testimony, and I presume the personnel officer is never seen again.

It's nice to have a change of setting for Trek, and a good court story is hard to beat. That final payoff line is also good comedy gold, subtle and far better than the normal bridge crew laughing at nothing.

3/5

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