Episode 01x10* - The Corbomite Manoeuvre.
*Did you know that this is actually episode two of Star Trek? Not including The Cage. I have no idea why they messed the episode order up on Paramount+, but it *definitely* comes after Where no Man has gone Before.
“
Stand by to Photograph!”
This week we find out that the Enterprise has a forward mounted camera, probably with a flash. This camera is used to create star maps as our newly fledged group of pioneers chart the stars along their five year journey. This camera probably also provides the live web cam stream to the bridge view screen. I am not sure if the view screen is actually a transparent aluminum window or an LCD display, I had always assumed the latter. Regardless, it is a good job that our star charting team were paying attention to this screen as they spot an unidentified object as it begins to approach them - a luminous cube, not unlike a segment of a rubix cube… blasting towards the ship. Perhaps it is a piece of a larger puzzle? A game of cat and mouse commences as the Enterprise faces off against this cube.
“
It’s blocking the way!!!!!” Shouts Mr Bailey, a newly minted officer who we are introduced to this week as being part of the bridge crew. Spock look’s at Bailey sternly yet calmly and replies “
It is quite unnecessary to raise your voice Mr Bailey”. Last week, I had concerns about Mr Spock and his excessively emote shouting during “
Where no Man has Gone Before”, it is good to see that TPTB have addressed this issue by making Spock himself calmer and creating an ‘in joke’ to this criticism in this weeks episode, making Spock critique another character for the same flaw he had last week.
Our group of intrepid star mapping cartographers realise that things are starting to get heated. An alert is issued ship wide, this all needs… escalating - Captain Kirk is called to the bridge.
Stardate 1512.2, not knowing the secret code that the production staff were using in order to select stardates I will relate this back to an Earth year
1512 - absolutely nothing to do with the episode as far as I can see but we have a random peak back in to earth history for those who like a random history lesson.
Kirk is being put through his paces as part of his annual physical, bare chested with his legs pumping as he works out on the bio bed against a machine which is recording his statistics and vitals.
“
That’s the boy!!! Keep it up!!!” Yell’s a man with a south American accent, “
It’ll do you gooooood!”. We are introduced to the legendary Doctor Leonard McCoy.
“
You are killing me!!!!!!” Kirk replies, sweating and groaning… exhausted.
This scene is actually a flash back. The incident with the cube has not occurred yet. This is very clever direction from Joseph Sargent, he should do a time travel episode one day and use this flashing forward and backwards in time technique in a temporal anomaly related context.
We flash forward back to the bridge of the Enterprise. “
When we move, it move’s too” Spock observes about the cube. Maybe this is a throwback to last weeks episode where Kirk and Spock played three dimensional Chess… this week the game is upped - space chess between two space ships instead! Who will ‘checkmate’ who?
Flashing back yet again, Kirk is still being put through his paces by McCoy. But timelines begin to converge… a red alert light begins to flash in sickbay, audio muted. McCoy sees this alert but he does not inform his captain, he actually does not want him to see it. Kirk continues with his medical until the red alert light catches his eye, he suddenly bolts up to action. When Kirk asks why McCoy did not inform him of this ship wide emergency, he simply replies…
“
What am I?! A doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?!
I love this iteration of McCoy! He very much projects the dry humor and ‘rough around the edges’ lovability that we have grown to love in recent years through Karl Urban’s interpretation of the character. Kudos to DeForest Kelly for portraying his character is a way that is true to canon and fan expectations. I hope that we get to see more of McCoy as the season progresses.
Kirk begins his epic Lord of the Rings/Rambo like journey to the bridge, walking bare chested though the Enterprise corridors dripping sweat and expressing pheromones along the way. First of all before his mission commences, he will need to go to his quarters and put his uniform on.
Kirk makes it to his bridge, he stands proud and flexes his chest and arm muscles as he beholds the imagery on the view screen before him. “
That’s a solid cube!” He observes.
We are reintroduced to Scotty who is now in true engineering (and security) red! Uhura, as observed earlier in the episode is however still in ‘The Cage’ style gold. Bailey offers his suggestions on how to proceed, Kirk firmly reminds the young man that they are not a democracy.
This rainbow cube which is teasing our ship has totally perplexed the Enterprise crew, they really do not know what to do! They decide to hold a very long staff meeting, it is almost like an ‘all nighter’… the senior staff all sit around the briefing room table falling to sleep, it’s like the aftermath of a party as we see it depicted here on screen. Anyway, a decision is made… Kirk has decided that they will attempt to pull away from the cube. They plan their escape.
Tings start to get serious again, so serious in fact that Spock forgets the advice that he gave to Bailey earlier in the episode and begins to shout! Bailey responds to Spock’s shouts in a calm and controlled
voice. I am beginning to think that Spock needs his adrenal glands removing…
The cube get’s closer and closer, things start to get intense. Kirk gives the order to fire! The cube is destroyed. I can’t help but think that perhaps Kirk was being overly aggressive, though to be fair the cube was emitting dangerous levels of radiation and was posing a potential danger to the ship and crew.
Spock and Kirk have a heart to heart, Spock does not understand why Kirk asks him questions when he has already decided the answer in his own mind. Perhaps Kirk just wants confirmation and reassurance from someone that he respects? They exchange several intimate glances and at points both of their lips twitch almost like they are making subtle suggestive gestures at each other, or maybe I’m imagining it.
Regardless, Kirk still needs to complete his medical and he knows it. Kirk is only at 94% efficiency and he wants to go that 6% more. Terminator mode! We can tell that this iteration of Kirk, also played by Paul Wesley in
Strange New World’s will not settle for anything other than doing his very best.
After enduring the long and hard work out in sickbay, Kirk and McCoy have a bear to heart over a few shots of whisky, though it could be Saurian brandy. Recurring guest star Yeoman Janice Rand introduces herself, bringing Kirk a vegan meal. Kirk looks at the dish and clearly states his disapproval - he obviously wants a steak, then his eyes trace up the yeoman. “
Why do I have a female Yeoman?” He asks in despair. Is it because he wanted a male looking after him? Or is it because he knows he can’t resist a female? I can not decide, only Kirk truly knows! I honestly don’t think it matters which gender a Yeoman or any rank should be for that matter as long as they do a good job. Kirk already has one female in his life already - his ship, maybe he has no room for another?
Kirk and McCoy pause, giving each other some very intense stairs, their lips seem to randomly ‘pucker’ as they do so. I shall be paying particular attention during this series run for other unusual facial expressions or behaviour between characters. Acting is not just about reading scripts back or performing action scenes, it’s also about the subtle ways in which the actors or actress express how their character is feeling using various techniques to express themselves physically, facial expressions being one such way. Subtle facial ques seem to have been mastered by these two actors, though I’m not quite sure what they were thinking in this scene or if the lip movements were intentional or not. I think Kirk might have just been chewing his salad to be fair which is better than chewing the scenery I guess.
Back to our adventure though… A large object is on it’s way! It must be …the ‘mothership’.
A massive starship arrives on the scene, it has a very unique and intricate design looking almost ‘molecular’ or ‘atom’ like in structure. This starship is a ginormous sphere made up of much smaller dome like units which have hexagonal like texturing - perhaps they are transparent windows too? I wonder what is inside this massive starship? I’m thinking mini ecosystems like jungles and deserts, biomes created from all of the planets that this ship encounters along it’s travels… but I could be wrong.
Blalock appears on the screen, the creature design is *very* alien looking and we can tell that this episode in particular must have had high production values. Balok is the commander of this colossal sphere-ship, he is representing ‘The First Federation’. Perhaps that it was the First Federation is, quite literally a collection of biomes from different worlds, like an ‘ark’ of some kind? I doubt it though. Balok goes on to state that the First Federation feel threatened by Kirk and the Enterprise as a result of them destroying their cube-probe earlier in this episode. This probe was actually a buoy, we do understand why the Enterprise decided to destroy it though - it was emitting dangerous radiation which would have been hazardous to the crew. I can’t remember whether it was scanned for life signs before this action was taken though.
This stand off continues, but Kirk decides to launch a ‘recorder marker’ - Balok and the Fessarius confuse this for a weapon. Balok now escalates his threats, the Enterprise has ten minutes to say goodbye to each other and their loved ones, to prepare for their deaths in which ever way is traditional for their cultures. Unfortunately, Balok was on the ship wide communications when this was said, so the crew begin to panic and worry - luckily Kirk gives an inspirational speech, his first of *many* during this series run.
Eight minutes left now…
Bailey, who we were introduced to earlier has a particularly bad emotional reaction to the situation unfolding on the ship, so much so that he has a breakdown. Perhaps he was just *not* ready to be a part of the bridge crew, being exposed to such stress and danger with a front row seat?
7 minutes to go…
We are introduced to an interesting character dynamic in the next scene over a game of chess as our crew contemplate their upcoming deaths. It is early days I know but McCoy and Kirk seem to *not* actually like each other at this point in their lives, or maybe it was just the stress of the situation that they were in. McCoy so quite defensive of Bailey saying that Kirk must have pushed him too far, putting him in to position that he was not ready for. McCoy insists that he will note this in Bailey’s medical records.
3 minutes…
The game of chess now changes to ‘poker’. Kirk opens up hailing frequencies with Balok and the Fessarius and states that if the Enterprise is fired upon, a weapon called ‘Corbomite’ will be used. This will result in the Fessarius being attacked in return with an attack of equal measure and intensity, assuring mutual destruction. This ruse becomes Kirk’s wild card… it is just a shame that this ‘Corbomite Manoeuvre was not used centuries ago on earth, it could have stopped World War III. Kirk begins to play the villain,
“however it was well played” , Spock observes. Spock also notes that Balok reminds him of his father, Sarek, this is Spock’s ancestor who married an Earth women.
Kirk and McCoy begin to build friendship bridges, making amends for their earlier altercation, now is a better time than never under these circumstances. McCoy isn’t quite sure how Kirk managed not to punch him earlier on in the episode though…
1 MINUTE!!!!!!!!
We are now all sat on the edges of our seats, how will Balok react to Kirk’s threat of retaliation? In one final act of respect for his friend Bailey, Kirk allows him to return to his post on the bridge for what could be his last duty. The crew await their doom….
5….
4……..
3…………
2……………..
1………………….
Nothing happens.
It certainly is a very interesting game, this ‘Poker’. The Corbomite Manoeuvre had worked? Balok returns to the screen. At this point, in flight service commences as refreshments are brought to the bridge by Yeoman Rand, coffee and light snacks are served.
Balock however has not fallen for the ruse as expected, he sends a shuttle craft from the sphere to tow the Enteprrise and it’s crew to a prison planet from where they will be marooned and force to live for the rest of eternity. Kirk is not sure what to do now, should he decide to fight? We now have a musical score not unlike the one from ‘Jaw’s’, obviously the composer of Jaw’s must have been taking inspiration from this episode.
At this point in the episode the ship faces is greatest danger so far… our crew are flung side to side and the intense vibrations cause the ship to shake uncontrollably. I would like to encourage people who have bothered to read this far in to my review to watch this episode at
41 minutes and 29 seconds in to the episode. I can not put this scene in to words myself but as Spock says “
she will blow soon!!!!”. You would have to watch that clip for context. I won’t spoil how they get out of this situation.
At this point I also spot Uhura’s lovely luminous lime green earrings.
Anyway, Kirk and his away team are beamed over to the Fessarius. We are shown Baloks true form - he is a mere child like alien and he had only been having a laugh with Kirk and his crew. He was not *really* going to destroy the Enterprise and it’s crew... it was a ‘test’. This child alien offers Kirk and his team a glass of Tranye which I assume is an alcoholic drink. We are told the Balok and this child personification are like ‘Jeckyl and Hyde’ from earth literature. The child just can not stop laughing, he really enjoyed this game.
Our Enterprise team and ‘Balok’ of the First Federation agree to make friends and will start their new relationship via a cultural exchange. Bailey fulfills his destiny by volunteering to become a representative of the Federation, an ambassador of sorts.
Overall, it ended up being quite the successful first contact mission.
I grade Star Trek ‘
The Corbomite Manouvre’ - 9/10.
Next week…’
Mudd’s Women’.
