in Errand of mercy, I got that the writers were trying to show that Kor wasnt totally 100% evil, by him not just killing spock outright, but when he's an enemy alien, who was caught there when the klingons annexed the world, wouldnt it have been safer, and still seem reasonably civilized, to simply hold him 3 or 4 days till an unarmed transport is scheduled to go to neutral territory, then dump him on some neutral space station. thats stills howing hes not totally 100% evil.
Apparently, once Spock passed the enhanced interrogation, Kor figured it was less trouble to just throw him back. I'm surprised this script wasn't held up by the seeming need to show a Klingon fleet at a time when the show had no Klingon ship miniature. Of course, as with the Antares in "Charlie X," in the end they simply neglected to show it. Even as a young viewer, I could discern the severe limitations on STAR TREK's fx at that point. And yet I totally forgave this deficiency and felt I could ask for nothing more. Every little glimpse of the Enterprise was magic enough. In his book by the same title, David Gerrord reports that his script for "The Trouble with Tribbles" met resistance because it called for a space station and of course the tribbles that would have to be made. He pointed out that they'd have the station miniature for future use, and it helped get the story greenlighted. It would turn out that stock footage of K-7 is all they needed later, but that was still an asset that came out of "Tribbles."
What unarmed transport going into neutral territory? Certainly not a Klingon transport, they wouldn't bother with that. How many visitors did Organia get? Not many, by the looks of it. And what woukd they be transporting? Tourists? Supplies they didn't need? Landscape services? Execution, however, I could buy to get rid of a potential enemy. Deportation wasn't the Klingon's style. Why would they do a Vulcan, or anyone, a favor by giving them a ride out of the invasion area? Subjugation and execution was the name of the Klingon's game. As for not showing Kor to be totally evil, killing Spock wouldn't have done much for his rep in either direction since he killed 200 Organians. Fine, they didn't actually die, but that was his intent. He was a brutal despot. He just happened to be intelligent and personable when necessary, But he was an evil bastard, make no mistake. "You freed two prisoners? Fine, I'll kill 200 hundred of your citizens, and then another 200 every hour" does not make for a sympathetic, friendly character. The charm of the actor made Kor likeable, but his actions were deplorable.
Yes. Ending several conversations with "or you will be killed." doesn't really portray a lot of sympathy. I think there's a subtle difference between evil for one's self and evil in a cause. The latter can be arguable, as we've seen people try to do in our time. Kor doesn't seem as evil because he isn't doing it all for himself but for the Klingon Empire as well as his portrayal as being personable. Actually, that freindliness to Kirk makes him more dangerous, it reminds me of an ogre smiling at someone (to make them calm down) who he's planning to eat a little later.
One Vulcan merchant on a planet of sheep isn't a threat to a Klingon occupation army. Why not throw him back? Why bother killing him? Kor had other things on his to-do list, all oriented around securing Organia, none of which required his attention on Spock once his identity was "confirmed" by their mind scanner.
You're assuming there is even a transport leaving Organia and going into Federation space. Why would the Klingons conquer a planet and let Federation transports come and go? Seems the only way Kor will let you leave is either on a Klingon ship as a prisoner (but why when he has a whole planet to imprison folks), or as a pile of ashes. And a Klingon supply ship is not going to be allowed to traipse through Federation space and drop Spock off at a space station. No, the quickest and least annoying alternative for Kor is to vaporize Spock and be done with it. He'd forget Spock's name 30 seconds later. Kor, however, don't have a reason to kill him once Spock undergoes the mind sifter and proves to not be a spy. Kor, to be fair, isn't a mindless murderer. So he puts Spock on notice, but the slightest infraction will result in the Vulcan's death. Until Spock is caught doing something wrong, he is now off Kor's radar.
Or maybe Kor went to a "James Bond bad guy" school where students are taught to invent creative ways to annoy and slowly kill an enemy, rather than shooting them outright and confirming the kill. "These aren't the Feds you're looking for. He can go about his business. Move along."
The very fact (false, but Kor doesn't know that) that there was a Vulcan merchant there would appear to establish the "visitors" thing, a means for the Vulcan to move his merchandise etc. If Kor wanted to deport the Vulcan, he could certainly tell the man to contact his organization and get the hell out of Dodge. Apparently, for some reason, it wouldn't be a factor that Vulcans were UFP members and far from neutral in the conflict - so letting a Vulcan transport pick up the businessman should be okay, too. I think the big question here is, why didn't Kor's interrogation technique work? Why did he trust that Spock was as bona fide as bona fide gets when in fact his technique was so thoroughly faulty? Had it perhaps worked on Vulcanoids (say, Romulans) before? And if so, why was Spock able to thwart it? I could well buy Kor not really minding the two suspect civilians. The trouble they caused by blowing up the munitions dump wasn't that big a deal, and arresting the duo afterwards should have been the end of it. We never learned if the Klingons wanted to eradicate the Federation once and for all, or merely to gain a few more systems - but the latter goal would be better reached if Kor didn't burn too many bridges, whereas only the former would call for ruthless crushing of all resistance. And that only if Organia really mattered; a true Armageddon conquest campaign would involve moving on soon thereafter, and the Empire should not really be interested in the strength of its grip on the backward little planet in that scenario, unless Organia had some inherent value we weren't told of in addition to being a strategic stepping stone. Timo Saloniemi