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The Enterprise follows a 100 year old distress call of a lost
spaceship, to see if the civilisation it touched has been contaminated by
the knowledge the ship brought to the locals ... and once Kirk (William
Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) find
themselves in a pretty accurate replica of 1920s gangland Chicago, down to
the locals' lingo, due to a book called Chicago Mob s of the Twenties
that the locals (literally) consider their bible. And Oxmyx (Anthony
Caruso), one of the big bosses of the planet, offers Kirk and company a
cut if they provide him with enough new-fangled weapons to take out the
other gangs. Kirk refuses, but when Oxmyx doesn't take no for an answer,
they have to fight their way out, and while Spock and McCoy beam back to
the Enterprise, Kirk tries to strike a deal with Oxmyx's biggest rival
Krako (Vic Tayback), to only get more of the same and ultimately be made
Krako's prisoner to press the Enterprise to deliver weaponry. Kirk manages
to escape of course, and thinks he has figured it out, as he now pretends
the Federation is an even bigger "gang" than all the planet's
gangs combined, and they have the power to snuff all the planet's bosses
if their demands aren't reached - and this is a language the locals
understand, and under duress, they make piece. Now one thing's
for sure, this episode is anything but subtle, and the science part of
science fiction is incredibly far-fetched. But that said, the episode's
also lots of fun, from the over-the-top portrayal of 1920s Chicago, to
just seeing our heroes in a very unfamiliar setting, from plenty of gun
action to William Shatner hamming it up as a mobster. Maybe not one of the
best, but one of the funniest episodes of the original series, and at
least not all the humour is unintentional.
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