Court Martial

So even in the future we haven’t found a way to do away with lawyers, huh? What a shame.

After a shipboard accident leaves a member of the crew dead, Kirk is put on trial for screwing up and causing the death. The heart of the case against him is that the computer record shows that jettisoned the pod containing the hapless officer before officially going to red alert. I’m not quite sure why the distinction is so crucial, but apparently it is.

The prosecutor in the case is Lieutenant Areel Shaw (Joan Marshall), who like many other single-episode female characters is one of Kirk’s ex-girlfriends. Apparently conflict-of-interest rules are different in the future. Against such a formidable opponent, our hero’s only chance is defense lawyer Samuel T. Cogley (Elisha Cook Jr., who’s been a “hey, isn’t that what’s-his-name from that other movie?” going all the way back to The Maltese Falcon). Cogley is “old school” (i.e. he still uses books), and his futuristic/throwback tweed and vinyl jacket makes him look like The Community College Professor of Tomorrow. So obviously Kirk is in good hands.

The evidence indicates that there was animosity between the defendant and the man who died, Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney (Richard Webb). That notwithstanding, Kirk’s outstanding service record would probably be enough to exonerate him if not for the computer record of the incident. When played in court, it clearly shows Kirk pressing the “jettison pod” button before pressing the “red alert” button. So now wait a minute. The bridge is crawling with surveillance cameras? Odd, considering how many aliens have roamed the decks of the Enterprise un-apprehended due to the ship’s lack of security cameras.

But what’s worse is the configuration of the buttons on Kirk’s chair-arm console. There’s a button for “go to yellow alert.” There’s a button for “go to red alert.” There’s an unlabeled button (probably something like “yeoman, fetch me some ice cream”). And then there’s a “jettison pod” button. Does this situation come up so frequently that the captain has to have immediate access to this option? And what happens if someone’s in the pod when Kirk accidentally sets his right elbow down in the wrong place? I know this is just an expedient from the days before touch screens, but it comes across as a joke, sort of like the Batcopter having repellant sprays for several different kinds of sea life.

The computer doesn’t lie, so it looks like Kirk’s fate is sealed. But then Spock discovers that the computer actually does lie. It seems to have lost its ability to play chess, which turns out to be symptomatic of some low-level tampering with the memory. And who could have done such a thing? Why, the ship’s chief records officer, Lieutenant Commander Finney.

Though Shaw wants the new evidence excluded, Cogley makes an impassioned plea. His argument breaks my heart, because it’s an ideal set-up for a classic “rule of four.” When Cogley starts rattling off references to historic legal documents such as the Magna Carta and the Constitution, I wanted him to finish up with something like “and the Ablabablab of the Vulcan High Council.” No such luck. Sigh.

After that the episode turns to crap. The whole court martial is transported up to the Enterprise, while the entire crew is transported out. The shipboard sound system is cranked up until everyone’s heartbeat is audible. Then McCoy uses a “white sound device” (which looks suspiciously like a microphone) to mask out the heartbeats of the folks on the bridge. Once everyone is silent, a single rhythm remains. Finney is still alive, hiding somewhere on the ship. Kirk tracks him down and subdues him.

If you’re like me, you’re asking yourself a couple of questions here. First, has Finney been in hiding in the engine room this whole time? Has he been hanging out behind one of the warp drives with a bucket and a box full of Slim Jims? And more directly to the point, what does a guy clever enough to alter the computer’s memory plan to do after Kirk is convicted of killing him? Is he biding his time until the coast is clear, after which he’ll steal a shuttle, escape into the night and eventually settle into a new identity as the assistant manager of a souvenir shop on the Spring Break Planet? Though I’m sure the universe is full of dumb criminals, this strikes me as ill-conceived on the parts of both the character in the story and the writer who created him.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 2947.3

Episode type: Enterprise crew

Written by: Don M. Mankiewicz and Stephen W. Carabatsos

Original air date: February 2, 1967

Tomorrow Is Yesterday / The Return of the Archons

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