Expanding on "Court Martial"

LoL, Ah, of course, and the guy he bumped out of the line-up would never complain that he didn't get a seat in the death-pod.

 

There is a theory in another thread that the Enterprise was seeking an Iron storm to study, and not surprised to unexpectedly encounter one. Thus the meteorology announcement about the storm would mean that they finally caught up with the storm they had been chasing. So Finney would have had the entire storm chasing expedition to prepare his plan.

 

There's little telling what the original writer had in mind when setting up this McGuffin. But today's audiences can easily put all the pieces through the slots associated with the now well-known practice of tornado hunting.

- Kirk volunteers to fly into the storm, instead of trying to avoid it. His mission seems to be to study those things whenever they are encountered, despite the risks involved. Or, rather, because of the risks involved, which is why we fly into tornadoes today.
- Kirk is in a hurry to do so, having no time to chat with people (he instead rigs key controls to his armrest for the purpose) or go through long safety procedures and second checks. Why is he pressed for time? Because the storm might dissipate, just like a tornado, or perhaps fly away from him, despite his order for warp speed. But also because time spent inside a tornado-like phenomenon is a thing you want to minimize!
- Kirk asks for an "ion pod" to be prepared. Its jettisoning is the time-critical thing, to be conducted before the ship falls apart but not before the pod is ready for its task. This is exactly what is done with tornado-studying probes today (although the reasons for the last-minute preparation are no doubt a bit different, having today to do with limited battery life more than the unexpectedness of the emergence of the subject of study).
- Kirk needs a specialist from a short list of specialists to do the prepping. Today, obsessed civilian researchers, possibly academicians, do it all by themselves; in a military organization, the skill set might be limited to officers who otherwise deal with information technology, such as the Records Officer.

That the prepping is a last-minute job; that only a limited set of specialists is qualified; and the general extreme hurry all conspire together to make this a plausible means of revenge for Ben Finney. The guy waited for seven years to get this done! And he did need to prepare (he'd have to stack up his hideout with biscuits, spare uniforms, drinking water, good novels and whatnot, not to mention sabotage the CCTV system), but not for seven years (there'd be weevils in his biscuits then). Apparently, the duty of flying into an ion storm comes up often enough, perhaps even often enough that Finney could let the first instance slip by and thus reduce the odds of his "death" in the second one appearing statistically unlikely. Or then he didn't want to tamper with the duty roster and therefore had to wait while Ensign Expendable and Lieutenant Leftover had their shot at it.

And perhaps he hoped to get the thing done in a more sensible three or four years (again not immediately after ending up as Kirk's underling, to diffuse suspicion and/or to make it seem it was Kirk who harbored a grudge for insanely long), but Kirk unexpectedly steered clear of ion storms for an abnormally long time?

An episode filmed to modern sensibilities might include up to ten minutes of flashbacking into Finney's fiendish preparations. I'm not sure I subscribe to those sensibilities, though: the 1960s ones with their economy of expression preserve the suspense much better, even if the time saved is then filled with stupid filler shots of the great Sam Cogley doing nothing.

Timo Saloniemi

 

I was arguing the contention that Shaw acted appropriately, not that she deserved to be punched.

 

But, my comment on her acting appropriately was in the context of someone asking me if she should be punched by Kirk.

"Acting appropriately" has many contexts. You quoted me, but changed the context of her "acting appropriately as a friend". If you want to make a point that she acted inappropriately as a prosecutor, you can make that independently of quoting my point.

You certainly made good points that she may have acted inappropriately as a prosecutor, but it was just bending the rules with no real harm that could come of it. She intended to do her duty, and was just informing Kirk of that. No doubt she discussed the situation with her boss who let her prosecute despite the conflict of interest. It was an open and shut case, even if the strategy of the prosecution was revealed.

There are higher codes of ethics than rules for being a lawyer. Friendship, loyalty, fairness and many other issues often make us bend the rules. But, your point is valid that she did bend the rules.

 

T

There is a much easier explanation. Finney given he was on the select list of people to be ordered in to the "ion pod" to take storm readings, one can infer that he was a bit of an expert on them. Thus it is quite possible that Finney had access to sensor readings as much as hours earlier that indicated an ion storm would occur along the Enterprise's flight path. Thus Finney had adequate time to put his plan in to action.

This is not unlike back in the day of Columbus, even without modern meteorological instruments, experienced sailors (like Columbus) could see the signs of a hurricane well before they hit.

At any rate, it is also more than possible that key parts of Finney's plan were prepared well ahead of time and he had only to "flip a switch" to make them happen. Like the sabotage of internal sensors and the tapping out of the Enterprise's main power supply.

 

You wrote:

The situation was that Kirk was accused of negligent homicide and his old girlfriend was the assigned prosecutor. What other context could we possibly be talking about?

 

Don't worry about it. I was trying to clarify your misinterpretation of what I was trying to say. If I wasn't clear, it's not important enough to go crazy trying to make it clear.

 

Was Kirk and old boyfriend? Or just an old acquaintance. Perhaps Shaw tried to recuse herself from the case but couldn't quantify her relationship with Kirk so TPTB might have asked her whether she could do the job properly or would her feelings for Kirk affect her ability to do her job (in other words think if you're serious about being a prosecutor)

I don't think she gave Kirk a heads-up much. Afterall she sent him to a dodgy lawyer.

 

Yeah, I think the point that Shaw gave away the strategy is pushing it a little bit. All she said was the prosecution will use the strategy of "Kirk versus the Computer". Is that really giving away a great mystery? Was there any other witness? It's a little bit like a professional basketball team playing against a high school team and telling them they are going to try to shoot the ball in the basket. OMG what traitors.

 

What other way could they have played it?

They could have avoided the "computers never lie" argument altogether, though it is compelling, by simply playing up the Kirk-Finney apparent rivalry. Maybe bring in witnesses who claimed to have seen Kirk treat Finney unfairly on the Enterprise, or someone who testifies that Finney had gotten Kirk in trouble with Starfleet Command by anonymously making complaints against him (or at least Kirk thought it was him who complained). They could have subpoenaed Kirk's personal logs for anti-Finney rhetoric, etc.

They could have played up Kirk's incompetence. Suggested that Kirk left the switch open accidentally and blamed Finney - and Finney was the only one who knew the truth.

Or Kirk did it on purpose and framed him because he was jealous of Finney, and same thing - Ben knew and had to go. Blackmailing Kirk, etc.

If Finney had been Finnegan and "Shore Leave" (Seas. 1 Ep. 17) had preceded "Court Martial" (Seas. 1 Ep. 14) - that would have been a nice little bit of world-building (or small universe, you be the judge).

 

She would not need to avoid the "computers are always correct" theory, because it is not in competition with the other strategies. It's easy to say and is sure to be believed. But, of course there were other strategies to be included. She actually explored the Kirk-Finey rivalry in court, and she never mentioned that strategy or others she used when she was talking to Kirk.

The main point is that she did not give any great secrets away in her meeting with Kirk. Stating "Kirk versus the Computer" gave nothing of substance away.

 

So she attempted to give the appearance of helping without actually helping, or was it a clue that she knew he knew was no clue at all. "There's a Star Trek the original series episode on tonight: Hint: it involves Humans".

 

I guess it's for each person to interpret. We see at least one person thought she was a very bad lawyer showing bad judgement. I prefer to think of it as she was doing her duty and balancing being a friend to Kirk with that duty. She needed to explain to him before he found out on his own that she was going to prosecute him. She seemed to be sending the message that she knew him well enough to know that he was not malicious, but based on the evidence she must have believed he screwed up somehow. I like to think that when she told him that his lawyer should not defend on the basis of "Kirk versus the Computer", and when she recommending Cogley as an attorney, that she was really hoping that he would take a plea deal. Stone, Shaw, the prosecution's office and Cogley would have all been in agreement that this is acceptable.

I think we should look to Kirk's response to get some clues. As far as I remember he never showed her the slightest resentment, hatred or anger. That's impressive given what she was doing. Somehow she kept him as a friend and did her duty as well. That would be no small task in the real world. Hence, I feel that the writers intended for us to see her as both competent and compassionate. Of course, how well they wrote is also for each person to judge for themselves.

 

An old acquaintance whom she calls "my dear old love" and counts the years and months since they parted? The episode pretty clearly intended to show that they had been in a relationship.

Just take her word for it? I would hope the kind of problems and potential for abuse that could open up would be obvious. A prosecutor who is (at least) a friend of the accused and has a private discussion with him before the trial should be at least grounds for her recusal.

Some of the law in the episode is just stupid; it basically needs to be ignored. Shaw's conflict as prosecutor, the surprise prosecution evidence that was not presented to the defense, and the fact that Stone handled the investigation, was the convening authority for the court, and was a member of the court.

 

Because its not a civil trial and giving the fact that Kirk knows a lot of officers maybe a military trial isn't as strict. Also given the fact that Kirk was going to get a sweet deal to protect Starfleet I also question the validity of the law.
In that sector of space probably a lot of people knew Kirk he was such a gregarious character. To get a quick trial out of the way to bury Kirk they didn't want to go back to Earth for a more impartial trial board and prosecutor. They probably said something to Shaw like can you be professional and ignore your previous 'relationship' with Kirk or can't we trust you with the big cases. It might have cost her her job if she had refused.
The big question is did Shaw think Kirk was guilty? I think she did.

 

Obviously Finney had planned for such an eventuality for many years! He even hides his resentment to Kirk in his aye, aye, sir comment which is replayed for us in the courtroom!
JB

 

And if an attorney in that position lied about their impartiality? Would that be fair to either side? Since they had to wait for the members of the court to travel to Starbase 11, they could have waited for a prosecutor without a conflict, too. Like I said, the legal aspects of the episode don't hold up to much scrutiny.

 

...Moreover, they did not have to wait. Said court members were already at SB11, drinking in the very same bar as the accused, as we could plainly see!

"Scrutiny" may have been a thing deliberately avoided in the incident, in-universe. Kirk might or might not be aware of constantly and consistently being lied to and otherwise getting short-changed by his superiors here. But he might well get the general gist, and realize there is nothing he can do about it. Insisting on proper procedure is what got him into that jam in the first place; it is unlikely the bosses of his bosses would show any more mercy or respect for the letter of the law.

In that light, what he got from Shaw would certainly result in him holding no hard feelings. And in nobody else having the guts to complain about her conduct, either.

Timo Saloniemi

 

Methinks you are reading too much into the extras that they used in the bar scene when they shouldn't have, just to make the crowd seem larger. So if you think that the court martial members were already there at Starbase 11, what is your theory about how that ties in with some sort of anti Kirk conspiracy, other than Finney's solo plot, in the episode?