The Enterprise Incident terrible planning

^ TOS props were called Feinbergers. TOS 3rd season scripts should be called Freibergers.

 

Oh, I'm sure the Starfleet plan had plenty of moving parts. And plenty of advance intel, so that Kirk knew exactly which ship, under which Commander, would be waiting for him on the other side of the Zone.

The setup is inherently flexible. Kirk's ship is a valued target for the Romulans, thanks at least to "Balance of Terror" but possibly also to other antics offscreen (the victory at Tau Ceti?). She won't be blown to pieces if the possibility of capture presents itself. The value of the pawn named Spock is well known as well. For all we know, Starfleet has multiple win scenarios prepared, one of which involves Spock "defecting", a major victory even if his starship is lost in the process.

The "Kirk goes mad" scenario is also fine, not in the silly deniability sense, but in showing the Romulans how there's dissent and weakness in the Federation ranks and making the mark mistake the con man for easy prey. Whether Spock should "kill" Kirk or not is a judgement call the two can make on the spot, but it does help significantly with Spock's defection, no matter whether "for real" or "for buying time" or for other victory definitions.

Relying on Romulans having airtight security would be as stupid as relying on them having holes in their scheme. It simply must be seat-of-pants flying there all the way. So the first half of the plot doesn't need to be scrutinized further: it's just setup for what happens, and a dozen different things could have happened based on the setup - and what we got probably wasn't the most desirable outcome of them all.

It really is the oddities of the second half only that we can declare idiotic or brilliant, depending. Why disguise Kirk himself for the thief role, when Starfleet has already scored a major victory by having the "Spock kills Kirk" bit work like a dream and not lead to Kirk's actual death? A perfect time to send in two redshirts from Starfleet Intelligence instead... Why not tell Scotty sooner, or have him in on everything from the very start? Is that for real, or is Scotty just playing a part there, knowing all about the cloak if not about the plan to "kill" Kirk, but not knowing who else knows?

Such things make little sense unless we assume things not otherwise implied in the episode. Perhaps sending a dead man over was a way to deceive the sensors?

However, as discussed in another thread, it's actually logical and predictable for the Romulans to have poor or relaxed security here. The Commander absolutely must secure an intact starship and preferably also secure Spock (and possibly the latter catch will be of help in keeping that pretty head on those pretty shoulders if the former miserably fails). She really is motivated to meet the heroes halfway there. Worse still, the Commander's scheme of personal glory means she is heavily involved in the hands-on aspects of the scheme, and distracted basically all the time. These things would hold even were the Commander male, of unknown psychological profile, etc.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Dialog between Tal and Kirk indicates Kirk expected the commander to be male. Add to that Kirk and Spock's reaction when they first see her.

Kor

 

In defence of the Romulans, Federation security is also terrible during this period.

 

No, they would not, since Spock only seduced her when her interest was made known to him. If she did not show romantic interest, he would play on her thirst for recognition and power. Spock always had options.

 

The cloaking device may have weighed 500 pounds, or been the size of a shuttlecraft, or even an entire deck. It may have been so highly integrated into the systems of the Romulan ship that simply unscrewing it like a lightbulb was out of the question. Getting this unfamiliar alien gadget installed and working on Enterprise in 15 minutes time seems beyond even Scotty's capabilities.

Still a great episode though.

 

This would assume the heroes are flying blind. But to mount an operation like this in the first place calls for advance intel. For all we know, they already have a cloak, a smoking ruin from a Romulan starship they recently blasted to bits. Or then an insider in the Star Empire, sending them specs and suggestions.

In any case, it's necessarily bigger than our heroes. Which then means that the writers must struggle to limit the action to the heroes and the heroes only. They do some of that (there's good rationale for involving Spock in place of some professional spy, say), but it's up to the audience to do most of that (and the biggest issue IMHO is with Kirk-in-disguise in place of some professional spy fluent in Romulaneseian and with real rather than fake pointy ears; the rest can be excused as part of the unstated setup).

Timo Saloniemi

 

It's just further proof that all technology in TOS is built by the same galactic Acme corp. It's all plug and play.

Kor

 

Well, we know cloaks are, at the time of DS9 - probably because everybody wants one and is willing to pay.

Perhaps the Romulan one can be expected to be needing of nothing but a compatible power socket (which Scotty realistically has to struggle to provide) exactly because it's known to be off-the-shelf, purchased from a Klingon traitor rather than developed in a Romulan lab? It's just easier to steal it from the Romulans than from the original Klingons, because.

Timo Saloniemi