Day of the Dove (unresolved ending)

[Terran_Empire]

I found this episode to be rather good, except for the abrupt and hurried ending. I also thought it strange that the alien entity never communicates at all during the episode, leaving it's origin and composition a complete mystery, which I found a bit out of character for a Trek antagonist.

More importantly, there are still 40 Klingons abroad a undermanned Enterprise...even without the aid of a warmongering alien, the Klingons would have their own motivations for disposing of Kirk and friends now that there is no outside force stopping them from bringing the Enterprise back as a trophy.

Before you guys come out and say I missed the point of the episode...I didn't. I just really hate loose ends, especially when 98% of the episode was top tier and then it just jumped the shark near the 50 minute mark.

 

[Melakon]

Well, perhaps that would happen with some disreputable guy like Kras, aka "Bob the Discount Klingon" from "Friday's Child".

But Kang seems an honorable guy, and would probably keep his men in line until they could rendezvous with another ship or starbase to transfer the Klingons. I doubt they'd be held and interrogated before release.

There are some incredible leaps of logic though in correctly guessing the entity's motives.

 

[Terran_Empire]

But Kang seems an honorable guy, and would probably keep his men in line until they could rendezvous with another ship or starbase to transfer the Klingons. I doubt they'd be held and interrogated before release.

Maybe it was due to the alien's influence but I found Kang remarkably dishonorable. He is taken prisoner, after threatening Kirk and his men with torture and death, has his wife and surviving crew rescued and quartered by Kirk...and yet he immediately sets out to wrest the ship from him and "put Kirk's stuffed head on a wall."

Kirk beams into his hands, with no weapon and his only hostage, Kang's wife, returned. Yet Kang immediately sought to kill Kirk on the spot.

The alien may have had some influence but it still couldn't make Kirk and Spock into killers, even McCoy and Scott settled down later on, and that leads me to believe that Kang's personality, while magnified and exaggerated, was his own.

 

[T'Girl]

there are still 40 Klingons abroad a undermanned Enterprise

Without the * around to keep the emergency bulkheads closed, why would the Enterprise continue to be "undermanned?"

 

[Ithekro]

They outnumber Kang 10 - 1.

 

[Terran_Empire]

there are still 40 Klingons abroad a undermanned Enterprise

Without the * around to keep the emergency bulkheads closed, why would the Enterprise continue to be "undermanned?"

Ah but of course. It wasn't altogether made clear what happened now that the alien left. We saw no swords turning to phasers and we can only guess that the change in metal composition of the bulkheads Scott referred to was reverted...

Still, I wouldn't put it past Kang to try something. Kirk has done serious damage single-handedly behind enemy lines in the past, so 40 resourceful Klingons could at least give you one hell of a migraine even if out numbered 10 to 1.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

This was the only episode that I can recall that had an alien entity whose nature was left so vague, it was reminiscent (in retrospect) of many Space:1999 entities, who just kind of left you scratching your head about their motivations.

I'm actually kind of glad the * was like that. It seemed sort of realistic to me in terms of what we might actually encounter out there. The * had no name, origin or anything. Kinda spooky!

 

[Melakon]

But Kang seems an honorable guy, and would probably keep his men in line until they could rendezvous with another ship or starbase to transfer the Klingons. I doubt they'd be held and interrogated before release.

Maybe it was due to the alien's influence but I found Kang remarkably dishonorable. He is taken prisoner, after threatening Kirk and his men with torture and death, has his wife and surviving crew rescued and quartered by Kirk...and yet he immediately sets out to wrest the ship from him and "put Kirk's stuffed head on a wall."

Kirk beams into his hands, with no weapon and his only hostage, Kang's wife, returned. Yet Kang immediately sought to kill Kirk on the spot.

The alien may have had some influence but it still couldn't make Kirk and Spock into killers, even McCoy and Scott settled down later on, and that leads me to believe that Kang's personality, while magnified and exaggerated, was his own.

Kang and his ship were apparently attacked by the entity before beaming to the planet. They were responding to a false distress call, their ship was damaged, and had already lost most of their crew. Arriving at the planet, they see the Enterprise and automatically assme it's responsible. Naturally he's already angry when they beam down, where the entity is already waiting and hopping up Kirk and party, who also received a false distress call.

But once Kirk shows him the entity, Kang begins to realize the truth and cooperates to achieve a truce and get rid of the thing. That's why I think he's basically honorable. The most disreputable Klingons we ever saw were really in the second season, with "Friday's Child" and "Private Little War".

 

[Metryq]

The alien may have had some influence but it still couldn't make Kirk and Spock into killers, even McCoy and Scott settled down later on, and that leads me to believe that Kang's personality, while magnified and exaggerated, was his own.

Bingo. This is why I dislike the episode. Evil is externalized so that it is not really Humans and Klingons doing bad things, it is the alien making them dance like puppets. (This seemed the intent of the story.)

But with the "magnified" explanation, the alien becomes like, say, drunkeness. People who excuse their behavior while drunk are missing what is probably evident to everyone else.

 

[Melakon]

Chekov's attempted rape of Mara was particularly daring for Star Trek, and Walter Koenig did an excellent slimeball. But the onscreen defense that he wasn't responsible due to being under the influence does stretch credibility to a degree. These might have been deep rooted psychological issues. It's possible though, that those urges were placed there by the entity, just as he was implanted to believe he had a murdered brother who didn't exist.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

It's possible though, that those urges were placed there by the entity, just as he was implanted to believe he had a murdered brother who didn't exist.

I lean in this direction. After the teaser, when Kirk, Spock, McCoy and Scotty are in the turbo lift talking, McCoy starts grumbling (I forget the content, but it was something along the lines of 'the only good Klingon is a dead Klingon'). Watch Kirk. He looks at McCoy oddly, and continues his gaze as McCoy departs the lift. I think Kirk is struck by the uncharacteristic remarks by McCoy, so I tend to think the thoughts/memories were 'implanted' into his head by the *.

(Thanks to T'Girl, for the *. That's so much easier and evocative, and seems more menacing than calling it a pinwheel. )

 

[Terran_Empire]

Bingo. This is why I dislike the episode. Evil is externalized so that it is not really Humans and Klingons doing bad things, it is the alien making them dance like puppets. (This seemed the intent of the story.)

But with the "magnified" explanation, the alien becomes like, say, drunkeness. People who excuse their behavior while drunk are missing what is probably evident to everyone else.

That is how I saw it too. What I found most disturbing in this respect, in a way more so than Chekov's apparent attempted rape was the mutual racism between Scott and Spock that occurred on the bridge. McCoy's bigotry too also took me back.

I felt as though the * enabled the Enterprise crew, in much the same way that alcohol would, to profess their most deep-seated negative feelings and prejudices then amplified by the entity.

Then again there are many of us who have said racist things or at least have had racist thoughts and that doesn't necessarily make us racists. Usually we say what they don't really mean when we're furious to the point where they can think of nothing else to say. Let's hope this is the case with our crew.

 

[Armored Saint]

More importantly, there are still 40 Klingons abroad a undermanned Enterprise...even without the aid of a warmongering alien, the Klingons would have their own motivations for disposing of Kirk and friends now that there is no outside force stopping them from bringing the Enterprise back as a trophy.

Kang scrupulously respected the Organian Treaty. He's a proud warrior, but not a loose canon like Kruge in St III, he'll not start a war just for his ego.

The alien may have had some influence but it still couldn't make Kirk and Spock into killers, even McCoy and Scott settled down later on, and that leads me to believe that Kang's personality, while magnified and exaggerated, was his own.

Kang's a smart man, but Klingon mentality's about firing, then thinking. Kirk, Spock, Bones and Scott aren't trained like that, so that's why they're able to say "What the hell myself?".

Before you guys come out and say I missed the point of the episode...I didn't. I just really hate loose ends, especially when 98% of the episode was top tier and then it just jumped the shark near the 50 minute mark.

I don't see a loose end, the conflict has been resolved, Kirk and Kang made peace. Returning the Klingon's a simple formality.

Speaking of that, I don't buy the Kang's apperance in Voyager (Flashback). Kang would have helped Kirk, Spock and Sulu in that crisis. In that episode, he acted like Koloth...but yeah, Sulu didn't know Koloth or Kor (if we except TAS).

...and now back to our regular programming...
The usual ending of a TOS episode is on the bridge, with Kirk explaining what will happen by recording a log or talking with his crewmates and then, they laugh. In Day of the Dove, Kirk don't record a final laugh, but everyone laughs...so that's not so different.

 

[T'Girl]

to profess their most deep-seated negative feelings and prejudices then amplified by the entity.

Consider Chekov's racist joke about the Klingons in the trouble with tribbles, now amplify the feelings behind that, add in a supposed dead brother, and you get a interrupted rape.

 

[Terran_Empire]

...and now back to our regular programming...
The usual ending of a TOS episode is on the bridge, with Kirk explaining what will happen by recording a log or talking with his crewmates and then, they laugh. In Day of the Dove, Kirk don't record a final laugh, but everyone laughs...so that's not so different.

I don't feel that it was as simple as ending with a laugh on the bridge and a captain's log.

* or not, I don't think you can dissolve murderous intent and violence merely with a pat on the back. I would have liked to have had a conversation between Kirk and Kang at the end before parting ways at least. When you have emotional buildup on both sides throughout the episode...and it drops off at the last moment into an external shot of the Enterprise and ending credits...it just doesn't feel conscientious or consistent with what was going on throughout the episode.

It was quite apparent, at least to me that the time management for this episode was poor, as it seems like they would and should have had a more traditional ending in mind but had to drop it due to time constraints.

 

[EnriqueH]

Yes, an epilogue with Kirk and Kang parting ways would've been good.

I hadn't seen the episode in years, but I remembered only 3 things about it from my childhood:

1) Kirk and Kang laughing the alien out of the Enterprise, which was not as embarrassingly silly as I remembered.

2) Kirk telling Kang something to the effect of, "By the way, I forgot to tell you something. ::POW!:: (One of my all time favorite Trek moments.)

3) Scotty playing with the sword, which lasted all but of a second but in my mind's eye, I thought it lasted like 25 seconds. It's funny how James Doohan was effective in his role, making a throwaway scene/gesture firmly lodged in my brain as a kid.

Anyway, the biggest reward for me in this episode was rediscovering Kang. Michael Ansara was fantastic.

Well, perhaps that would happen with some disreputable guy like Kras, aka "Bob the Discount Klingon" from "Friday's Child".

Horrible! What the hell was that about? Worst Klingon ever!

 

[FormerLurker]

^That may be why they sent him. Maybe the High Command hoped he'd either learn something about honor, or get killed by the Capellans. Which is, of course, what they got.

 

[Nightowl1701]

Maybe this is what you're looking for. From the James Blish novelization...

The command chair was a place again where a man could relax. For a moment, anyway. Kirk leaned back in his seat.
"Ahead, Mr. Sulu. Warp Factor One." He turned to Kang and Mara. "We'll reach a neutral planet by tomorrow. You'll be dropped there. No war, this time."
He eyed Mara. A real woman, that one. If she hadn't been Kang's wife ... if there had been time. Ah well, no man could accommodate all opportunities...
Kang was saying, "Why do you humans so revere peace? It is the weakling's way. There's a whole galaxy out there to be taken, Kirk, with all its riches!"
Spock looked up. "Two animals may fight over a bone, Commander - or they can pool their abilities, hunt together more efficiently and share justly. Curiously, it works out about the same."
Kang turned. "One animal must trust the other animal."
"Agreed," Kirk said. "Cooperate... or fight uselessly throughout eternity. A universal rule you Klingons had better start learning." He paused. "We did."
Had it got through? Maybe. At any rate, Kang's face seemed unusually thoughtful.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Wow, there's a forgotten gem.

 

[Terran_Empire]

See was that so hard? Awesome!