Episode of the Week : Errand of Mercy

Personally I love this episode! From the sneak attack at the beginning to the stalemate at the end! Terrific! And John Colicos was marvellous as Commander Kor, setting the pace for those that came after!
JB

 

+2

I agree, but I voted 9. Kor is the Klingon who set the pattern for his race's tyrannies. There's so much in this epidode to like I don't even want to list it.

 

ERRAND of MERCY is Classic STAR TREK, as far as I'd be concerned. All of the traditional elements are present and accounted for. The only complaint I really have - and it's a very minor one - is that when the Klingons started shooting the peasants, out in the courtyard, we really should've seen at least a dozen, or so of them, in the first ranks, from the tops/backs of their heads, as they fall down. Not showing The Mindsifter/scanner they could get away with, but not showing at least some people getting wasted was really pushing it. Yes, they turn out to be something other than peasants, but what kind of excuse is that? TV and Film should be Show, not Tell. My favourite part was when the Organians were lamenting how "distasteful" violence was and how "painful" it was to be around such primatives as Kirk and The Klingons. The snootyness on display always puts a smile on my face ...

 

Good points, but as I understand it, this episode was bashed out by Coon in record time because NBC had (surprisingly?) decided to exercise its option for three additional end of season shows, and they had nothing else shootable to go with.

The budget was in trouble as well, so Coon devised the episode with the pre-existing Village set in mind. He deliberately left out most of the main cast, and wrote the space battle so they could get away with using clips from "Balance of Terror". All the extras were just regular Enterprise extras done up as villagers or Klingons.

To come up with something of the quality of this episode under these constraints is amazing. What a talent Coon was.

 

This is my first post here & I really love Errand of Mercy. John Colicos as Kor was absolutely fantastic. I can live with not seeing the Mind Sifter or seeing Organians being killed as the ending is super.

I love Ayelborne's questions to Kirk at the end "To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?" It's great stuff and we get a science fiction pay off too as their true nature is revealed.

I gave it a 9.

 

I'm of two minds on this episode. And yeah, I'm the d-bag who rated it a 5. Maybe that was too harsh.

- I enjoy the performances of Shatner, Nimoy, and Colicos. They carry the show, much more so than the plot, as men of action who have strong values and don't want to take crap from anybody. Colicos is a master of villainy and I've always thought that this episode of Star Trek got him his well-deserved role on Battlestar Galactica.

- Despite the budgetary limitations, they somehow created the feeling that you saw a whole Klingon occupation force (one of whom was played by future film composer Basil Poledouris).

What I don't like as much:

- The story is too planet-bound when the kid in me wants starship acton. It feels too much like Kirk and Spock are stranded on foot in the middle of no place, in a backward hick town with nothing to do, at the very time when exciting things are happening off screen, up in space.

- The planet-side production design and costumes on Organia are not my thing and kind of a downer. I'm generally against seeing Kirk and Spock in short hemlines. Granted, the Klingon uniforms are pretty cool.

- One panel of pre-industrial village elders (at least from Kirk's point of view) is expected to speak for a whole planet. This is a problem that pops up in various episodes due to a conceit in the show's premise, the idea that planets can be treated like islands in an ocean, each one a unified entity with a single government-- no matter how primitive. Or put simply, planets are treated as little places, not the big things they are.

- For much of the episode, Kirk and Spock have to subordinate themselves to the panel of (seemingly) unworthy, backward local yokels, when the show's heroes should be large and in charge, like we want to be, calling the shots and motivating the action. It's frustrating.

 

It's an interesting question, really - what would be the alternative?

Primitive worlds would not have the means to be led by majority vote, informed consensus or even perfect tyranny. Global or even local communications wouldn't be up to it, and few could be informed of anything, be it the terms of a treaty with spacemen or even the fact that there's a king who in theory rules over you.

It could be argued that nobody on such worlds would be in a position to decide anything, and the only practical solution would be for the space invaders to dictate their terms. There would be little extra cost to signing an "agreement" with whatever local leadership could be identified, though.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I think space invaders who needed a strategic base ("Errand") or a mineral resource ("Friday's Child") wouldn't even bother speaking to primitive natives. Just set up camp wherever the natives are not currently in residence, defend your perimeter from the natives, and do what you want. The lofty idea that "your planet is yours and will never be taken from you" is impossibly generous given how big a planet is and how little of it can be actively owned by pre-industrial people.

In an unrelated matter, I forgot to mention another thing about "Errand" that I'm not crazy about. For all intents and purposes, the episode is a total sausage fest.

 

I think you've accidentally made the case for the difference between the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and rather well stated, too. If not for that "ideology" they really aren't that different.

 

Conversely, given how little of a planet the primitives ever control or need, exploiting it can probably be easily achieved without having to contradict the native ownership in the slightest. Just mine in a location where you don't even need a perimeter defense - say, twenty meters below the Capital Village, or in a forest where nobody ever goes because it's five years' walk from the nearest settlement. Simultaneously, smoke weed with the local head honcho and speak nicely of mutual respect and the benefits of the Prime Directive. Everybody feels happy, independent and empowered. And nobody really loses when local pergium gets transpumped to a tanker in orbit.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Now you're talking. We can take these rubes for everything they've got!