"Errand of Mercy"....phasers or photon torpedoes?

[Noname Given]

Lieut. Arex said:

cooleddie74 said:
Which is partially my point. They go through the trouble of forcing and brokering a treaty between the Federation and Qo'noS that is supposed to be honored and enforced, but its basically little more than a paper tiger.

I've never been convinced the Organians brokered the treaty. That notion comes from TMoST and was reinforced by the treaty text in FJ's Tech Manual. Aside from those points, there's nothing in the show to support the idea of the Organinans dictating the terms any more than the citizens of Ghent dictated terms to the UK and US.

Peace talks between the Klingons and Federation broke down before the war started. My assumption is after the Organians stopped the fighting, the two parties went back to the table, hammered out the treaty,and named it after the incident. The Organians involvement ended when the Klingon and Federation fleets left their space.

^^^
I have to disagree and also have to say it was quite clear the Organians did in some way IMPOSE a treaty. Why?

At the end of Errand of Mercy Alborn(sp?) states that he stands on the homeworld of the Federation AND the Homeworld of the Fedration (obviously saying something different to them then as he stands before Kirk and Kor.

Next BOTH Kirk and Kor find out BOTH fleets are imobilized and ALL weapons used by the Klingons and Federation radiate extreme temperatures.

I also believe a treaty was imposed (and not brokered) because at the end te Organians say, "Now please leave uu, the presence of beings such as yourselves is extremely painful to us...etc."

But since Alborn stood on both Homeworlds, you figure he did something because IF either side knew the Organians were no longer watching, a full scale was would have resumed; although, I also belive that the Organians were only watching whatever the 'disputed area' was and would only interviene if another full scale war broke out during the TOS timeframe. (This would allow for the few 1701/Klingon incidents later in the season like Elaan of Troyius and day of teh Dove).

But like everything, this is just one fans speculation as nothing was ever conclusively stated on screen.

 

[cooleddie74]

The whole Organian Peace Treaty concept seemed dead and a relic of the past by the time the first movies rolled around. Sure, you heard about "treaty boundaries" and "treaty stipulations" between the Federation and the Klingons in the TOS/Kirk movies but they always seemed to be referring to much older agreements and situations predating TOS, as when Spock mentions in STAR TREK VI that some 70 years of unremitting hostility had been in effect prior to 2293, while the Organian episode happened only a generation before that movie.

 

[AC84]

Am I the only one that knows those purple bolts were magnetic pulses? Please...please tell me I'm not. I'm especially surprised Timo, of all people, didn't know that the Klingon weapon was in fact identified during the episode. Pull out your DVDs folks and watch the battle scene with subtitles! What the hell did you guys think Kirk yelled while on the railing? Do you think he was ordering Sulu to fire magnetic pulses?

I don't know whats funnier. This, or the fact that there were even a few (probably non-TOS) fans at Memory Alpha that thought they were photon torpedoes.

http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Magnetic_pulse_weapon

My only grip about the new CGI magnetic pulses were that they weren't starbursts like in the original. But beggers can't be choosers. Thankfully they got the color right.

Timo said:
Also, one would assume that the Klingon foe in the teaser had a cloaking device. Otherwise, the success of the surprise attack would be rather incomprehensible.

What the heck are you talking about? When the ship came into sensor range (which I assume was scanning the entire sector), the ship's automatic defences immediately came up. The Klingon got lucky by quickly firing first due to Kirk foolishly asking Sulu what type of ship it was. He should have went to full scale red alert. Before Star Trek Remastered, fans watched the original episode and assumed that the small Klingon ship (I think everyone is stumped as to why they went with a D7 battle cruiser) was so far away on the outter rim of sensors, that we couldn't see the vessel. Of course we all know the real reason we didn't see a Klingon vessel in Errand of Mercy, but it was a nice fan explaination...one that the writers on the show did use in The Trouble with Tribbles.

Lieut. Arex said:
the only time a Klingon weapon is ID'd is in EoM when Kirk says "Those are Klingon phasers" as we hear the disruptor sound outside.

Actually, I think he said "Those are Klingon disruptors!" But don't quote me.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

Kirk very clearly says "Klingon phasers". You can quote me.

 

[Psion]

AC84 is quite correct. Kirk identifies the weapons as "magnetic pulses" when he and Spock get thrown to the Bridge railing as the ship is shaking. That's always been a favorite scene, and I loved the original effect for the Klingon weapon.

 

[Lieut. Arex]

AC84 said:
Am I the only one that knows those purple bolts were magnetic pulses? Please...please tell me I'm not. I'm especially surprised Timo, of all people, didn't know that the Klingon weapon was in fact identified during the episode. Pull out your DVDs folks and watch the battle scene with subtitles! What the hell did you guys think Kirk yelled while on the railing?

Kirk does say "magnetic pulses" at the rail though that line didn't show up on my DVD's subtitles.

 

[AC84]

NCC621 said:
Or maybe the FX people noticed that the Klingon ship has a device on the nose of the ship that looks very much like a torpedo tube?

Actually, I've read a lot of stories that during the production of the third season, the forward "hole" was originally suppose to be a type of deflector dish. I don't know how true that is though. Can anyone clear this up?

 

[Timo]

What the hell did you guys think Kirk yelled while on the railing?

...Hmm, I thought he was commenting on the damage received? Spock does confirm after the battle that antimatter containment was compromised, which would mesh with that treknobabble.

fans watched the original episode and assumed that the small Klingon ship (I think everyone is stumped as to why they went with a D7 battle cruiser) was so far away on the outter rim of sensors, that we couldn't see the vessel.

But that doesn't really wash, because a ship at extreme sensor range (never mind visual range) would not be in weapons range. The sneak attack against a war-prepared starship would be better explained if the Klingons were able to camouflage their approach to within lethal distance.

It's not as if our heroes would have been caught with their pants down like that in any other TOS occasion, except when the enemy was explicitly stated to be invisible.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cooleddie74]

Could be the first attacking D7 cruiser dropped out of warp just as it was close enough to set off the Enterprise's sensors, locking on the ship and firing torpedoes just soon as its crew could get a rough-enough fix on the Enterprise.

 

[C57D]

^
Maybe the thought of immensely powerful, glowing energy beings showing up out of nowhere and turning all Klingon and Starfleet ships impotent and searing-hot to the touch intimidated both sides into going back to the peace table. "Hey, let's face facts, Chancellor so-and-so...we don't like or trust you. And YOU don't like or trust us. But there are glowing balls of light out there who can turn your bat'leths and my toilet paper the temperature of a blast furnace, and I sure as hell don't want my ass to look like a summer barbecue back on Earth! Let's hammer out something so we don't have those glowing freaks show up again!"

Totally un-canon, but..........the FASA STRPG interpreted it that the Organians enforced a "lets play nice" deal within a parsec wide Treaty Zone between the two powers. Colonise, trade, have "Freeport" bases like the one in TTWT etc no problem. A little infrequent subtle espionage/sabotage and the occasional one ship on one ship scuffle maybe ( as long as its not to close to Organia). But no full blown invasions or wars OR ELSE!!
As I said not canon but it explains our heroes occasional scuffles with the Klingons after EOM.

 

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