originally posted 8/17/20
“The Enterprise narrowly escapes from imposing alien Balok’s starship, but when Balok transmits a distress call, Kirk and the crew go to his aid.”
Side note before we start: my ex wanted to start a Star Trek-themed band called The Corbomite Maneuver.
Moving on.
Fucking weird tracking shot to open the episode - we start on Spock, rise up, dolly to the navigator (not Chekov yet), and zoom down onto the navigator’s hand. Props for creativity, but it looks strange compared to the rest of the shots.
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Uhura’s back in the yellow uniform. Weird.
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They’ve encountered the most rainbowtastic cube of all time.
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They don’t know what it is so they’ve gone to a non-color-coded alert.
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Kirk is already shirtless, I’m assuming per his contract, getting his quarterly physical. When he leaves sickbay, instead of wearing his shirt, he just kind of drapes it over his shoulders.
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The navigator, Bailey, tried to talk back to Spock and was logically smacked down.
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Now we’ve gone handheld to follow Kirk from the turbolift onto the bridge. Artsy.
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Bailey wants to shoot the cube with phasers. No one cares. Kirk smacks him down by saying he’ll consider it when the ship becomes a democracy. Know your place, fool!
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I just remembered that this is the episode with Clint Howard 😂 Tranya, anyone?
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They’re discussing how to deal with this rainbow cube. Bailey still wants to blow it up, and is disappointed when Kirk tells him to plot a spiral course away from the cube instead. Trigger-happy little bastard, isn’t he?
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So far apart from some distractingly unusual shots and the utter uselessness of Bailey, it’s a pretty good episode. They have a problem and they’re using their brains, and not their weapons, to solve it. This is the Trek we know and love. This appears to be the start of what my brother calls “competency porn.”
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The cube is spinning faster and hitting them with radiation. They’re trying to escape but it’s still gaining. Phasers are being readied and Bailey may get his wish to shoot it.
COMMERCIAL BREAK!
And we’re back. The cube has been destroyed. Kirk decides to continue exploring the sector, knowing they may encounter whoever created the cube, and tells Sulu and Bailey to start simulating attacks until they’re faster at responding to orders.
Meanwhile, Bones tells Kirk that Bailey may not be up to the task of navigation and Kirk may have promoted him too fast. I like Bones being that in tune with the crew’s emotional state. It’s a trait I didn’t notice when I watched as a kid, but dude genuinely cares about not just the physical but the mental and emotional health of the crew. He demonstrated that in the last episode, too, by wanting to do right by Van Gelder.
It’s also the first episode where I’ve noticed Kirk and Spock’s banter being easygoing and genuinely friendly. It’s seemed a bit forced until now. “I have been, and shall always be, your friend” really needs the kind of moments they had in the previous scene, where Kirk gently messed with Spock and Spock was amused.
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Goddammit, Kirk, you were doing so well until you bitched about having a female yeoman...
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Uh-oh, another strange object...like the cube, but larger. This one is a really giant sphere.
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Still no Federation or Starfleet - it’s the United Earth Ship Enterprise.
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The sphere is threatening to destroy the Enterprise, and not allowing an explanation. That’s not good.
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Bailey is too distracted to follow orders. He needs to pull it together.
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The sphere is giving them 10 minutes to make peace with God before destroying them. That’s creepy af. It broadcast the message to the entire ship, so now Kirk is making a speech to do damage control. Again, this is the Trek we know and love.
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Oh dear. They’re being addressed (and threatened) by a creepy puppet.
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And Bailey is freaking out.
Bailey: We only have eight minutes left!
Sulu: Seven minutes, forty-one seconds
Bailey: He’s doing a countdown!
That would be pretty funny if it was meant to be.
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Sulu: Four minutes, thirty seconds.
Scotty: You have an annoying fascination for timepieces, Mr. Sulu.
This one was meant to be funny, I think.
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Everybody’s stressed. Kirk and McCoy are arguing about Bailey, and Spock has no logical solution to the situation. Interesting counterpoint to the previous interactions.
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Kirk is wildly bluffing now. It appears to have worked.
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Bailey is back and seems to have calmed down. Keep it together, my dude!
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Time has expired and the sphere has not destroyed them. Spock is expressing an interest in poker. But now the sphere wants proof of the Corbomite device.
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Yeoman Rand used a phaser to make coffee. This is an excellent use of a phaser.
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They’re being towed to a planet with the intention of being marooned. JJ Bittenbinder would call this planet a secondary location, so maybe they should throw their money clip or wave their arms through a taillight or something (and if you don’t get that, you really need some John Mulaney in your life)
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They escaped the tractor beam, but now they’re getting a distress call from the pilot ship (per the episode description). They’re going to its aid regardless of the previous conflict.
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Kirk is taking Bailey to the alien ship...ok. The only problem with this episode is Bailey being weirdly written.
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Enter Clint Howard, as promised, with an adult dubbing his voice. It was all a ruse to test them. Bailey volunteers to stay, to learn more about Balok. This is not a great loss to the Enterprise.
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Clint Howard was a weird-looking child. I really like kids, it he was just...weird-looking. He’s a weird-looking adult too. Oh well.
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This is the best episode so far, I have to say.
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