A Piece of the Action ("Ending Issue")

[ZapBrannigan]

Yet another idea that directly contradicts what the episode tells us.

But there's enough wiggle room on screen to allow it. For instance, in the teaser Krako's boys make a drive-by hit on the landing party, and one of Bela's men is killed. But it's not like we see an autopsy and burial. Maybe the Iotians have a natural ability to play possum, and that man was just dead enough to fool McCoy's cursory glance. We did it as kids because it's fun.

And maybe all the bullets are fake, and all the Iotians know it. They're just LARPing it up, because they are "bright, imitative people" who evolved in a natural environment that gave them the survival skills of opossum and chameleon (they're classic Italian-Americans now!). And having reached the post-scarcity stage of development, what better way to spend their time? The Iotians are using what nature gave them and doing what they love.

This interpretation also makes the episode more plausible:

• How many aliens could really be such perfect twins of Earth's homo sapiens? The "Iotians as chameleons" theory makes it one less case. They are truly the Zeligs of outer space!

• How many times could Kirk really cheat death and beat alien opponents at their own game, on their turf? This can be one case where he only thought he did. And he still has an incredible batting average.

 

[JonnyQuest037]

But there's enough wiggle room on screen to allow it. For instance, in the teaser Krako's boys make a drive-by hit on the landing party, and one of Bela's men is killed. But it's not like we see an autopsy and burial. Maybe the Iotians have a natural ability to play possum, and that man was just dead enough to fool McCoy's cursory glance.

Oh, good lord. Why even bother watching the show if you're going to make up this much random shit about it? Why assume that McCoy is a shitty doctor who can't tell if someone's alive or dead just to justify a dumb idea?

And maybe all the bullets are fake, and all the Iotians know it.

And maybe Spock isn't a science officer on a starship, but instead he's an insurance salesman from Peosta, Iowa. That's just as random as what you propose. It still doesn't make the show any better.

How many aliens could really be such perfect twins of Earth's homo sapiens?

Most every alien we saw in the show was. I don't know why it suddenly bothers you in this episode.

How many times could Kirk really cheat death and beat alien opponents at their own game, on their turf?

All of the times the series showed us.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I was always happy when this episode ended, just because it was so silly. Kirk and Spock talking gangster????

 

[Ssosmcin]

Love you guys.

 

[Kor]

I do like these comedic episodes. They are a fun, light-hearted diversion that shouldn't necessarily be over-analyzed.
This one may have come along a little too soon though, since it aired just two weeks after "The Trouble With Tribbles."

Edit: I can't believe I mixed up too/two

Kor

 

[1001001]

Oh, good lord. Why even bother watching the show if you're going to make up this much random shit about it? Why assume that McCoy is a shitty doctor who can't tell if someone's alive or dead just to justify a dumb idea?

And maybe Spock isn't a science officer on a starship, but instead he's an insurance salesman from Peosta, Iowa. That's just as random as what you propose. It still doesn't make the show any better.

Most every alien we saw in the show was. I don't know why it suddenly bothers you in this episode.

All of the times the series showed us.

You're coming off a little hostile here.

No need for that.

It's just TV.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I do like these comedic episodes. They are a fun, light-hearted diversion that shouldn't necessarily be over-analyzed.
This one may have come along a little two soon though, since it aired just two weeks after "The Trouble With Tribbles."

Kor

I just wonder what a newbie to TOS would think....”Cool! Mirror, Mirror. The Doomsday Machine. Wait a minute! A Piece of the Action?!?!? What the Hell is this???”

 

[Ssosmcin]

Probably thought they tuned into Lost in Space for a sec....

 

[Spock's Barber]

Probably thought they tuned into Lost in Space for a sec....

 

[Mytran]

I do like these comedic episodes. They are a fun, light-hearted diversion that shouldn't necessarily be over-analyzed.
This one may have come along a little too soon though, since it aired just two weeks after "The Trouble With Tribbles."

Edit: I can't believe I mixed up too/two

Kor

Of the 3 "comedy" episodes of Season Two I actually thing APOTA did it best

 

[Ssosmcin]

I prefer "Tribbles" primarily because everyone stays in character. Neither " Piece of the Action" or "I, Mudd" can say that.

 

[Herbert]

Oh, good lord. Why even bother watching the show if you're going to make up this much random shit about it?

But....but.....making up random shit is what we do here at TrekBBS

 

[Qonundrum]

God forbid McCoy leave a hypo of cordrazine behind.

Nothing more interesting than a planet loaded with a bunch of loaded people hopping around, that's for sure... but that's how 1960s acid rock movement started too, or so the legend goes...

 

[Mytran]

I prefer "Tribbles" primarily because everyone stays in character. Neither " Piece of the Action" or "I, Mudd" can say that.

I find that Shatner's delivery is different in TWT, the same "comedy Kirk" interpretation that we see on Mudd's planet.
For example "storage compartments, storage compartments?", that kind of thing.
However, TWT is miles better than I Mudd

 

[Ssosmcin]

I absolutely agree that Shatner was hitting the comedy hard and being a little more broad than usual for the second season. But that's a performance choice. What I meant was the characters responded to the crisis in character. Kirk was still Kirk, just more annoyed and exasperated. He wasn't "gangster" Kirk. They didn't jump into a weird pantomime and put on a play with dancing to confuse androids.

So for me, TTWT works better.

 

[Mytran]

I absolutely agree that Shatner was hitting the comedy hard and being a little more broad than usual for the second season. But that's a performance choice. What I meant was the characters responded to the crisis in character. Kirk was still Kirk, just more annoyed and exasperated. He wasn't "gangster" Kirk. They didn't jump into a weird pantomime and put on a play with dancing to confuse androids.

So for me, TTWT works better.

Yeah, Kirk and co suddenly exhibiting fancy improvisation skills out of nowhere in order to save the day was not a good plot choice.

I think I like APOTA a little better than TTWT because Kirk just mostly reacts to the tribble menace, whereas he formulates and takes positive action against the gangsters within their own framework.
Something something prime directive

 

[Omega-Trekker]

If you want some TNG comedy...

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[oldtrekkie]

The stupidity of the episode is insinuating that the mob is capable of doing anything aside from terrorizing, ransoming, and racketing people. The society didn't thrive because of the mob it did so in spite of it. A mob like worldwide government would do shit. The people would be starving and would have forgotten everything including how to make a wheel.

Oh, come on! These assholes do nothing but shoot at each other, without a Federal government to keep them at bay, there wouldn't be anything left.

This episode is idiotic. It's mindless entertainment and nothing more.

 

[BK613]

Yeah, Kirk and co suddenly exhibiting fancy improvisation skills out of nowhere in order to save the day was not a good plot choice.

IIRC, I think Blish lampshaded this by stating that there was a copy of The Book in the office where Kirk was held and a bit of quick reading ensued.

 

[Timo]

The stupidity of the episode is insinuating that the mob is capable of doing anything aside from terrorizing, ransoming, and racketing people. [..] This episode is idiotic. It's mindless entertainment and nothing more.

Which seems to be more or less the point. The Iotians do it for entertainment, and entertainment only: their whole planet is a theme park with free admittance for natives. Sure, what we see is what we get, perhaps - but what takes place in order to give us what we see is a whole another game entirely, with global resources poured in to create the imitation of a single aspect of a single city as an unchanging snapshot in time. Yer basic Disney 101 stuff and nothing more; the Mouse would do badly indeed if the wires and cogwheels and the shower stalls for the staff were visible to the visitors.

Timo Saloniemi