“After an officer is killed in a freak accident, computer records indicate Kirk is to blame. Evidence at a court-martial reveals that Kirk was framed.”
We open with a damaged Enterprise arriving at Starbase 11. Kirk is signing paperwork for a deposition, and evidently more upset about losing one crewman in an ion storm than any of the redshirts we’ve lost this far into the series (I feel like I should go back and count them). Spock is running late bringing computer records.
Evidently the dead crewman, Finney, was in a research pod that Kirk had to jettison during an ion storm. Whoops.
Spock arrives, but before he can explain why he was late, Commodore Stone takes the computer records from him.
Suddenly, a girl in what can only be described as a plastic sailor-type dress enters. She’s Finney’s daughter, Jamie, and she very dramatically hates Kirk and calls him a murderer. She’s one of the middle-aged children/teenagers who pop up from time to time when the casting department can’t find an actual child.
Stone watches the video from Spock’s computer records, and accuses Kirk of committing willful perjury - Kirk claims to have jettisoned the pod after they went to red alert, but the video shows he jettisoned it before. Oh noes! Kirk stares in disbelief at Stone as we go to opening credits.
***
The remastered effects are pretty good - we pan over the damaged section of the Enterprise again and it looks good.
Kirk and Bones enter a 60s-era space fern bar. Kirk mentions their Academy graduating class is well-represented, but everyone is pretty cold toward Kirk. Finney was their friend. They don’t care for Kirk at the moment.
I gotta say, Kirk in charm mode is fun to watch. He’s ready for a fight but not going to be the one throwing the first punch, so he just smiles dangerously at them, and you can see why he was the shit back in the day, before all the parodies.
Kirk leaves, and a blonde woman in the weirdest muumuu you’ve ever seen enters. Turns out she’s Areel Shaw, an “old friend” of Kirk’s. She and McCoy have a drink, because Kirk is “going to need all the friends he can get.”
***
Stone is questioning Kirk. Turns out he and Finney were close friends, and Finney’s daughter Jamie was named after Kirk. They had a falling out when Kirk relieved Finney on watch and found a circuit left open that could have blown up the ship, and when Kirk reported the incident, Finney was reprimanded and sent to the bottom of the promotion list.
Kirk swears that despite Finney’s grudge, he treated him like anyone else under his command, and gave him as much time to get out of the pod as he could.
Stone tried to make a deal with Kirk, where if Kirk relinquishes command of the Enterprise voluntarily he won’t have to go to trial. Kirk refuses. Stone would prefer not to court martial the captain of a starship, but Kirk insists on a trial so the incident won’t be swept under the rug. Commence staring contest.
***
Back at the fern bar, Kirk meets Shaw, still in her weird-ass muumuu, drinking a festive space-tiki drink garnished with umbrellas and square fruit.
Shaw is a lawyer in the JAG office. She tries to give Kirk advice, but he wants to flirt. She insists that they remain serious, and recommends a defense attorney, Samuel T. Cogley, Esq. She tells him the prosecution will make this Kirk vs the computer. He asks why she knows so much about the case, and she drops the bombshell that she’s the prosecutor. I’m not certain how legal it is for her to tell the defendant her strategy, but ok.
***
Kirk returns to his quarters and discovers Cogley already there, surrounded by piles of books because he doesn’t like computers. Ok. Kirk likes him right away.
***
The court martial begins. Spock takes the stand and agrees with the prosecutor is correct in that the Enterprise’s computer didn’t appear to be malfunctioning, but is inaccurate anyway, because he knows Kirk. When Shaw objects, he says he is “half-Vulcanian.”
Turns out McCoy is an expert in space psychology. Huh.
Cogley hasn’t cross-examined anyone so far, and when Stone asks why, he says he wants to call Kirk to the stand. Kirk testified that this wasn’t his first crisis, he didn’t panic, and the computer record is wrong.
Shaw shows the video, where Kirk clearly jettisons the pod before going to red alert. Handy that the buttons are clearly labeled for the only things needed in this episode. Kirk says “...but that’s not the way it happened!” and we go to commercial.
***
Back in Kirk’s quarters, Cogley suggests they change his plea. Kirk refuses.
Spock contacts Kirk to tell him computer diagnostics haven’t found anything. Spock tells him he sounds bitter, but Kirk says it isn’t all bad - Spock may be able to beat his next captain at chess. This appears to give Spock an idea.
Jamie comes to Kirk’s quarters to ask his lawyer to make Kirk plead guilty. Cogley is suspicious of Jamie’s change of heart, but she says she read letters from her father to her mother and didn’t realize they’d been so close. Cogley also seems to have an idea.
***
On the Enterprise, Spock is playing chess with the computer. Bones is outraged and calls Spock the most cold-blooded man he’s ever known, which Spock takes as a compliment. Then Spock says he’s just won his fourth game, which Bones declares to be impossible, but Spock demonstrates that the computer is wrong, which indicates someone has changed its programming.
Spock and Bones beam down and rush into the courtroom to tell Cogley of what they’ve found. Cogley asks to call the Enterprise’s computer as a witness, and to reconvene aboard the Enterprise.
I’ve watched too much Legal Eagle to not expect a bailiff to tackle Cogley as he gives an impassioned speech right up at the bench. Don’t enter the well!
Aboard the Enterprise, Spock explains about the chess situation. Cogley asks who aboard the ship would be able to reprogram the computer. He replies himself, Kirk, and the records officer, who was, until the accident, Finney. Cogley asks what they did to try to find Finney, and suggests maybe Finney didn’t want to be found.
Kirk has the entire crew beam down to the starbase, and used the Enterprise’ computers to play all the sounds currently aboard. It focuses on the heartbeats of everyone left aboard. They then eliminate the heartbeats of everyone aboard the bridge, and the transporter operator. There is one heartbeat left. Spock locates the heartbeats as being near Engineering. Stone agrees it must be Finney, and Kirk goes to find him.
In Engineering, Finney begins taunting Kirk. The he pops out from behind some equipment and begins ranting about how “they” told Kirk to report him, and were all conspiring against him. He takes Kirk’s phaser and tells him he’s sabotaged the ship, and they’re going to crash. He then monologues for a while, and Spock tries to get everyone to beam down to the surface before they crash, but Stone says the trial isn’t over...ok.
Cogley has brought Jamie aboard to try to keep Finney from doing anything crazy, which makes him even crazier when Kirk tells him. And then they fight. Kirk-fu, shirt ripping, and obvious stunt doubles ensue.
Once Finney is subdued, Kirk finds the sabotaged circuits and repairs them before their orbit decays too much. These repairs consist of pulling on cables, with many sparks.
Uhura is on navigation this time. Uhura saves the day! Yay!
Stone tells Shaw that unless the prosecution objects, he will rule the court to be dismissed. She gladly states there are no objections.
***
Shaw and Kirk are having a moment. She gives him a book from Cogley and says he’s going to be defending Finney. They kiss, and the bridge crew pointedly doesn’t notice. He states that she’s a very good lawyer. McCoy responds, completely deadpan, “Indeed she is.” Fade to end credits.
***
Star Trek likes courtroom episodes. They do a pretty good job, I think, but since I already referenced Legal Eagle, I’d like to see his take on this one, lol. He already covered Measure of a Man, from TNG.
Also, it was the mid-60s and they had a female prosecutor, a Black commodore in charge of the starbase and leading the tribunal, a female Asian officer, and an Indian captain as one of the judges. And while Shaw obviously had a thing for Kirk, she did her job in a very professional manner and didn’t throw the case just because it was Kirk. And then Uhura put the ship back in its correct orbit. I’m glad Roddenberry wanted to show a future without prejudice.
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