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Star Trek - Day of the Dove
episode 3.7
Raumschiff Enterprise - Das Gleichgewicht der Kräfte
USA 1968
produced by Fred Freiberger, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Norway Corporation, Paramount/NBC
directed by Marvin J. Chomsky
starring William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Michael Ansara, Susan Howard, James Doohan, Walter Koenig, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, David L. Ross, Mark Tobin
written by Jerome Bixby, created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Fred Steiner
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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A distress call calls the Enterprise to a far-out planet, only for Kirk
(William Shatner) and company to find the human colony completely
eradicated. At the same time a Klingon spaceship approaches the Enterprise
heavily damaged - even though the Enterprise didn't fire a shot and
there's no other spaceship in the area. On the planet, the Klingon's
commander Kang (Michael Ansara) takes Kirk and his landing crew hostage,
demanding to take over the Enterprise in return for their destroyed ship,
even if Kirk assures him it wasn't the Enterprise who destroyed them.
However, when they all beam up onto the Enterprise, Kirk turns the tables
on Kang and company and makes them all captives of the Enterprise. Then
odd things happen, a large part of the Enterprise is cut off from the main
section, so that the humans left exactly equal the number of the Klingons,
all modern weapons are replaced by swords and sabers, and everybody's
suddenly driven by a hatred towards one another. At first that makes
sense, but it gets weird when the normally peaceful Dr. McCoy (DeForest
Kelley) makes incindary remarks about the Klingons. And then there's
Chekov, who wants to avenge the death of his brother by the hands of the
Klingons, even though he never had a brother. Also, why do all
life-threatening wounds inflicted during human-Klingon skirmishes heal
incredibly fast? Kirk and Spock (Leonard Nimoy) figure there must be an
entity aboard the ship that feeds on but also fuels hatred. They try to
broker a truce with Kang to drive that being off the ship, but he won't
listen. By sheer luck though Kirk and Spock can save Kang's wife Mara
(Susan Howard) from being ravaged by Chekov, and they prove to her that
they're all under alien control, and fortunately Kang listens to Mara -
and thus the humans and Klingons aboard the ship cease all hostilities to
laugh the creature off the ship ...
Now the underlying message of this episode, that hatred only needs a
catalyst to turn into violence, is a very commendable one, and also shows
some hindsight that goes beyond just "racism and bigotry are
bad." That said, this episode treats its premise not all that subtle
- in fact a very much in-your-face approach is chosen, with its ridiculous
bits for sure, its spots of camp, narrative shortcuts, and a finale that's
less than satisfying - after all, literally laughing something off the
ship is an ending as corny as they come. But then again, it's fun to see
swordfights aboard the Enterprise, and Walter Koenig and DeForest Kelley
are both given a chance to deliciously ham it up, so this is a pretty
entertaining episode - that just doesn't do its premise proper justice.
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