December 8th, 1966, "The Conscience of the King"
The fiver (by Zeke)
Memory Alpha Page
Transcript
The episode:
* Kirk and Koridian/Kodos happen to pass within five light years of each other at the same time, close enough for Leighton to call Kirk over?
It's a Small World After All!
* Even if Kirk waving off the other ship to get Koridian aboard was a little shady, I did always enjoy him surprising Spock for once. "I'm the captain," indeed.
* "The regulations are very clear about taking on passengers." For Picard's day, this would be ridiculous, but let's accept this statement for the moment about Kirk's day: No civilians on board unless they're essential for the current mission or you just saved them from an exploding starship or something. Even so, Kirk could've been honest and said that orders are sending the Enterprise in the opposite direction; let her make her
case to preserve her dignity, then acquiesce.
* "If my memory needs refreshing, Mister Spock, I'll ask you for it. In the meantime, follow my orders." That seems rather harsh and an invitation for Spock and McCoy to discuss what's wrong. Kirk could've just as easily said "I have my reasons and will tell you later. Let the log show that I take full responsibility."
* Riley being moved around was always rather dubious to me. As events proved, Lenore could kill him wherever he was, provided he was alone. I must state confusion that any post, let alone Engineering, would ever be staffed by one guy fooling around listening to music and not really looking at the controls. It would've served the plot just as well to say that he was alone in the mess hall and Lenore took advantage of a momentary distraction to poison his drink.
* If one needs a reason why TOS did so well, look at Kirk's interaction with Spock and McCoy. Kirk admits that he may be making mistakes, admits that revenge may be controlling him. As SF Debris would say, the show is about characters just as much as action.
The fiver:
Martha: Poor Tom... but at least he's finally at peace. Though he'd be more at peace if someone avenged his death.
Leighton's Ghost: Revenge my foul and most unnatural murder! Mark me!
Kirk: I will, Tom!
Nobody kills TJ Hooker's partner and gets away with it!
Leighton's Ghost: ...What?
I get the Hamlet reference, but the TJ Hooker thing came out of left field (even by fiver standards). And yes, I do understand the Shatner/Hooker thing, even though I've never watched that show.
Spock: He was head of the Tarsus colony, and when food ran out, he executed the 4000 colonists he considered of least value. He must have used an unusual metric, since one of the victims was one of Starfleet's leading ling--
McCoy: That's not canon and you know it! You can't condemn a man based on Okudagrams!
Of course I know what Okudagrams are, but I must admit this reference to something out of canon (one of the novels?) escapes me.
Riley: (over the comm) Bleah. Another rotten day in the life of Riley.
You were just waiting to spring that one on us, weren't you, Z? I get the reference to the radio show/TV show/movie, but to me the name refers to
The Life of Reilly, a blog about the behind-the-scenes events during the Spider-Man Clone Saga. (Plug plug)
Karidian: Nooooooo! (dives in front of Kirk)
Lenore's Phaser: ZAP
Karidian: Symmetrism... forever... GAK!
Kirk: Oh, don't go all Reeves-Stevens on us.
I'm going to guess that this is a reference to
Judith and Garfield Reeves-Stevens, who are among the essential Trek fiction writers, but the application here confuses me.
Memory Alpha:
* The only appearance of the double red alert. That was always annoying to me; if I wanted to I could think of plenty of other cases during the franchise where such an alert would be warranted: The Borg attack on Wolf 359 being only one.
* So Starfleet doesn't exist yet, in this episode they are part of the "Star Service." That sounds more like a Captain Proton thing, but one wonders if the Star Service is part of UESPA (when will Nate drop the UESPA thing? Probably never, as such things
should have been part of the series bible!)
* The last episode filmed with Grace Lee Whitney.
* Apparently this is the first episode with the computer voice? Can that be?
* I find it interesting that this episode was skipped in some areas for the early reruns because it had a lot of talking and very little scifi. I'll grant that an overabundance of Shakespeare isn't what a casual viewer is looking for when they tune into some scifi escapism, but shows like this do have value. Even if it doesn't fit the definition of a "bottle show", it probably did free up money for other episodes.