Friday’s Child (***)
After deciding that they shouldn’t let the Prime Directive prevent them from making money, the Federation has chosen to negotiate a treaty with the Capellans, a tribal society that hasn’t even developed archery yet. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky beam down to the planet where they learn that some Capellans have been conspiring with a Klingon seemingly named Klingon. Things get a little crazy, the king is murdered, Kirk decides to break the PD again by saving a woman’s life, and they run off into hills with a woman pregnant with McCoy’s child.
On the Enterprise, the crew discovers a Klingon ship loitering near the planet, but Scotty decides not to tell Kirk because reasons. Shortly after, they receive a distress signal that calls them away from the planet. After falling for this trap, they cleverly uncover that it is a trap, and Scotty decides to continue falling for the trap. Once they eventually decide to head back to the planet, they are blocked by a Klingon vessel, but there’s no battle as the Klingon ship model wasn’t ready yet.
This is a simple adventure story, but there’s no central theme or idea that holds it all together. There’s some fighting, some chasing, some rock sliding, some slapping, some archery, and some vaporising, but none of it really means anything. There’s no message, there’s no sci-fi concept to dig into, there’s just a bunch of action and character interactions. And it’s the character stuff that saves this episode from being dull, especially the scenes involving McCoy and “his” child.
After deciding that they shouldn’t let the Prime Directive prevent them from making money, the Federation has chosen to negotiate a treaty with the Capellans, a tribal society that hasn’t even developed archery yet. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ensign Ricky beam down to the planet where they learn that some Capellans have been conspiring with a Klingon seemingly named Klingon. Things get a little crazy, the king is murdered, Kirk decides to break the PD again by saving a woman’s life, and they run off into hills with a woman pregnant with McCoy’s child.
On the Enterprise, the crew discovers a Klingon ship loitering near the planet, but Scotty decides not to tell Kirk because reasons. Shortly after, they receive a distress signal that calls them away from the planet. After falling for this trap, they cleverly uncover that it is a trap, and Scotty decides to continue falling for the trap. Once they eventually decide to head back to the planet, they are blocked by a Klingon vessel, but there’s no battle as the Klingon ship model wasn’t ready yet.
This is a simple adventure story, but there’s no central theme or idea that holds it all together. There’s some fighting, some chasing, some rock sliding, some slapping, some archery, and some vaporising, but none of it really means anything. There’s no message, there’s no sci-fi concept to dig into, there’s just a bunch of action and character interactions. And it’s the character stuff that saves this episode from being dull, especially the scenes involving McCoy and “his” child.
