"The Corbomite Maneuver"
Potentially a Controversial Opinion but, while I like this episode, I don't love it. But we'll get to that. First off, like I've said before, I'm watching the original 1960s versions of these episodes in HD, and I'm so glad this episode still has the eerie early-1st Season version of the intro music. It sounds more spacey and more mysterious.
For a long time now, I've figured that McCoy knew Kirk before they were on the Enterprise. With the way the two interact, no way did they just first meet. When McCoy observes that Bailey might remind Kirk a little of himself 11 years ago, watching it just now, I put it together that McCoy probably actually knew Kirk 11 years earlier. I never put that together before now. Like with Pike and Boyce in "The Cage", Kirk and McCoy are having a drink in Kirk's quarters, going over things. After Rand appears in Kirk's quarters and delivers Kirk dietary salad, and leaves, McCoy needles Kirk about Rand. "What's the matter, Jim? Don't you trust yourself?" Kirk says, "I've already got a female to worry about. Her name's the Enterprise." Right there, they're showing that Kirk is potentially sacrificing any serious romantic relationships because of his command.
Spock begins to seem more like how we think of Spock throughout the rest of the series. In his book,
I Am Spock, Leonard Nimoy said he felt that the moment he nailed down the character was in this episode when Spock says, "Fascinating," when looking at Balok's ship on the viewer. There's something else that I noticed, it's very subtle, but it shows the inner conflict within Spock. When the Enterprise appears to be outmatched by Balok, mid-way through the episode, Kirk asks Spock for recommendations and Spock doesn't have any. Spock is almost about to say, "I'm sorry", but then stops himself right before he says the second word and instead pauses, then says, "I can find no logical alternative." Spock wants to appear professional and sound Vulcan-like at all times.
Bailey is someone I wonder about. He doesn't seem to have the temperament to be a Starfleet Officer. I assume he went through four years of the Academy and spent at least some time as an Ensign, even though he may have been promoted too fast. He seems extremely defensive, gets nervous, becomes lost in his thoughts, and then cracks under pressure when Balok starts a countdown. I just don't believe that Kirk would think it would make sense to promote him in the first place. And I can't imagine Kirk being anything like Bailey even 11 years earlier. So that's one of two issues I have with the episode. I'll get to the second later.
After Kirk relieves Bailey, McCoy says he'll note that he warned him about Bailey, they start to argue about it, and this episode establishes that even though McCoy is Kirk's friend, he'll stand up to him and tell it to him straight. He'll contest Kirk's decision. Kirk says, "Any time you can bluff me, Doctor!" and then the argument gives Kirk a spark of inspiration.
One of the major strengths of "The Corbomite Maneuver" is showcasing how Kirk can think on his feet. The way that Kirk is inspired is that he decides to not look at the confrontation with Balok as a game of chess like Spock does, but a game of poker. Kirk bluffs by making up the Corbomite Device, saying it'll destroy Balok, and then Balok says he won't destroy the Enterprise but will instead to it to the First Federation. Chess is the game of choice in TOS, but I wonder if the writers of TNG thought back to this episode at all when they decided to make poker the game of choice in TNG. That's another way of making the two shows different.
At the end, when the Enterprise breaks free, disables Balok's ship -- the Fesarius -- in the process, and they beam aboard. They see the real Balok, unlike the scary puppet on their viewscreen earlier, Balok says he only wanted to test the Enterprise crew to see their intentions and that he wants to be friends with them. Here's my second issue with the episode. There's no way to say it other than to say it: I feel like Balok was trolling the Enterprise crew right up until almost the end. What would Balok have come up with to not destroy the Enterprise if Kirk hadn't used his Corbomite bluff?
When Kirk nods towards Bailey, who volunteers to stay with Balok for a while, I understand that it was done as a gesture of friendship and so that Balok and Bailey could learn from each other, but I think a small part of Kirk was also thinking, "That takes care of my Bailey problem!"
This was a bottle episode and I have to commend the director, Joseph Sargent, for coming up with so many different angles to make the inside of the Enterprise look as interesting and dynamic as possible. He avoided the trap of having all the shots look too much alike. The redressing of an Enterprise set to look like the inside of Balok's ship was also very clever and cost-effective. The special effects team also did a good of making the Fesarius look alien with a little creativity. A green circle with flashing, glowing yellow circles within it. That's all you need.
My favorite line of the episode came from McCoy. "If I reacted every time a light went on around here, I'd end up talking to myself." And he says this as he's talking to himself...
And a shout-out to Rand for going above and beyond the call of duty. She doesn't care if any systems are down. She's going to give Kirk hot coffee even if it means she has to zap the coffee with a phaser.
Overall,
I give this episode a 7.
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