50th Anniversary TOS Episode Discussion Marathon

[Nate the Great]

November 1st, 1968, "Day of the Dove"


Fiver (by IJD GAF)

Transcript
Memory Alpha


The Episode

Note: I consider "Beta XII-A entity" to be a bit of a mouthful and awkward to write, so I'll be calling it (*) in honor of the Q Continuum novels.


* The colony had a hundred people and was implied to be self-sufficient. I doubt that those two statements are compatible, and once again a plot hole was created when it wasn't needed. Saying a thousand people or a brand-new colony would've meant rewriting a line of dialogue, no additional cost.
* It's amazing how many supposed plot holes can be explained by the influence of (*). Another episode that's focused on character work rather than logic.

* The distress button is a good idea, too bad it didn't exist in previous episodes.
* It's a shame Mara wasn't used more. After the performance of Charvanek a few weeks ago seeing the viewpoint of a Klingon woman would've been interesting.
* Sometimes (*) can cloud the judgement of everyone on board, sometimes a few people can think clearly. I wonder if this could've been used more.
* It's nice that (*) is established as not all-powerful early on. While it can influence things a large distance away, maintaining power over hundreds of people at all times is hard and a few people will think clearly from time to time.

* Some nice Klingon sayings are told for the first time here. Particularly "Only a fool fights in a burning house."


The Fiver

Chekov: Wow, there's no indication that there was ever a colony here at all!
Kirk: Whoever did this must have cover-up technology on par with the ancient race who planted all those dinosaur bones in the soil of Earth!
McCoy: You mean the Deithons of Geocentrus VII?
Kirk: Yeah, those guys.



Could we have an explanation for this reference?


Uhura: I don't understand it! We've lost all reception, my hail to Starfleet was dropped, and they haven't credited us a bonus anytime minute!


Another time capsule joke, hehe....


Kang: (over the comm) Ha! We now control engineering and life support. Say goodbye to your precious "oxygen".
Kirk: Er, don't Klingons breath oxygen as well?
Kang: Nonsense! We can survive on pure élan!


"Elan" seems like a big word for a Klingon. Mara must've bought him word-of-the-day toilet paper...

Memory Alpha


* Only appearance of a Klingon woman.
* Only appearance in TOS of intraship beaming.


Nitpickers Guide

* Kang claims that Klingons have no devil. Phil points out Fek'lhr from "Devil's Due" as a contradiction. Memory Alpha describes him as merely the guardian of Gre'thor, but that does raise the question of who's his boss.
* First appearance of more than six people beaming up simultaneously, although they materialized in two batches due to Kirk's warning. I argue that it's not inconceivable that the transporter chamber could be transformed into one huge "pad", albeit with greater energy requirements, for mass evacuations.