MR. SPOCK LEARNS IMPORTANT LESSONS ON COMMAND, WHICH IS GOOD SEEING AS HE IS ALREADY THE FIRST OFFICER

Episode Title:  The Galileo Seven

Air Date: 1/5/1967

Written by Oliver Crawford and Shimon Wincelberg (under the pen name "S. Bar-David")

Directed by Robert Gist

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Lieutenant Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        George Takei  as Lieutenant  Hikaru Sulu              Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Don Marshall as  Lieutenant Boma            Peter Marko as Lieutenant Gaetano            Rees Vaughn as Lieutenant Latimer                 Grant Woods as Lieutenant Kelowitz          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley     Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent                      Phyllis Douglas as Yeoman Second Class Mears       David Ross as the Transporter Chief         Ron Veto as Crewman          John Crawford as High Commissioner Ferris           Robert ‘Big Buck’ Maffei as the Creature of Taurus II          Majel Barrett as Enterprise Computer

  

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, Galileo NCC-1701/7, Columbus NCC-1701/2

Planets:  Taurus II

My Spoiler filled summary and review: The episode begins with the Enterprise on a mission to deliver much-needed medical supplies to Makus III.  However on their way there they discover a quasar-like formation identified as Murasaki 312.  Kirk, with standing orders to study such a phenomenon, decides to stop by and check it out.   This is extremely irritating to the Enterprise’s guest High Commissioner Ferris, who dresses like he just came out of one of the more modern Star Trek shows that take place in the past.  He does not like this delay and feels the primary mission should be more important.  Kirk explains they have five days to get there in the rendezvous point is only three days away therefore they have two days to study Murasaki 312.

Wants Captain Kirk to share his priorities. 

I have to say right from the start I actually agree with High Commissioner Ferris.  I mean shouldn’t the medical supplies receive top priority?  The quasar -like formation doesn’t look like is going anywhere and it also looks like they could spend a lot more time than just two days studying it.  So instead of doing a rushed research job why don’t they drop off the High Commissioner and the supplies then had back and take their sweet time looking over the formation?  I think I would be a great senior officer for Captain Kirk with my advice he can avoid all sorts of plot driven irrational decisions that might cause problems for him his crew.  Of course that might make for more boring TV show.

Crash landing everyone out of the boat!  Why aren't shuttlecraft called star boats?

Given that the formation would interfere with transporter signals they decide to use the shuttlecraft, which Lt. Sulu should remind them about the time they forgot about those helpful shuttles while he was stuck on a freezing planet waiting for Captain Kirk to put himself back together.  They send a team of seven led by Mr. Spock in the shuttlecraft Galileo to explore the Murasaki 312.  Mr. Spock’s team consists of Dr. McCoy, Mr. Scott, three lieutenants, and a yeoman.  How much must it stink to have to be that poor little Yeoman?  You’re the only enlisted personnel with three lieutenant commanders, and three lieutenants.  Talk about being a low person the totem pole.  I hope the ship doesn’t crash somewhere and she has a spend time as everyone’s personal servant seeing as everyone outranks her by several levels.

Crashing unfortunately is what they do as the Murasaki 312 causes them to lose control the shuttle and they end up crashing on the planet Taurus II.  On the ship High Commissioner Ferris is furious at the situation he reminds Captain Kirk that he is on a deadline that medical supplies need to be delivered.  Kirk understands that he is on a deadline but he swears he will use his full two days to try to find his missing crewmembers.  Kirk has his crew work double time to try to restore the ships functions so they can be adapted to be used in the quasar -like formation.  He sends out a second shuttlecraft, this one Columbus, to help search for their missing companions.  Throughout the rest of this episode we get cutbacks of the ship where High Commissioner Ferris is pointing at the clock to Kirk telling him that he needs to get a move on.

In between a rock and a hard place for Captain Kirk

On the planet surface the crew the shuttlecraft recovers from the crash.  Spock of has the two lieutenants in gold grab phasers and secure the area.  While he has the lieutenants searching he and Mr. Scott set about fixing the shuttle.  Unfortunately Scotty discovers that in order to lift off the shuttle is going to have to lose some weight about 500 pounds.  This means that three grown men will have to stay behind.  Lt. Boma wonders if they’re going to draw lots, to which Spock says that the final decision will be up to him.  I wonder if Mr. Spock now feels as judgmental as he did on our last adventure about Kodos the Executioner.

The two lieutenants are attacked by natives and one of them is killed.  In addition to that problem many in the shuttlecraft crew are starting to take issue with Mr. Spock’s rather cold handling of the matter.  Dr. McCoy at the start of this mission tried to give Spock a pep talk encouraging him about his first command, and tried to advise him on dealing with humans.  Spock at first is not intimidated by the situation of being in command he explains the McCoy that it just is. Spock is under the mistaken impression that he’s dealing professional Starfleet officers who can set aside emotion, follow their orders, and perform their duty with pure professionalism all the time.  Spock fails to appreciate that some people crack under pressure in fact in this case is everyone who is not a series star or a yeoman seems to break whenever the pressure gets tough.

When the times get tough break under pressure.

Spock in order to keep the natives away comes up with a more nonviolent plan of simply scaring the natives with their superior weapons, as opposed to more violent situation that his subordinates want him to do.  Spock’s plan doesn’t really work and the names will eventually come back and try to harm them.  In the fighting the other yellow shirted lieutenant is killed.  His death makes one thing a little easier: they no longer have to leave anyone behind.  They started needing to strain three but by ditching some equipment on the shuttle they could spare one.  With the death of two crew members it eliminates the problem of having to leave anyone behind.  They could have escaped sooner but the overly sentimental crew member, Lt. Boma, keeps insisting they need to risk their life in order to properly bury their comrades.

In attempting to repair the shuttle Scotty discovered that their fuel was completely drained when they accidentally tried to bypass it.  Later Scotty working his normal miracle skills of engineering is able to use the phasers’ energy recharge the engines.  The natives almost prevent them from escaping by climbing on to the shuttle but Scotty is able to electrify the surface of their shuttle causing them to back away without permanently hurting them.  The shuttle takes off and is heading into orbit.  Unfortunately the Enterprise has run out of time and High Commissioner Ferris has ordered Kirk to leave.  Kirk showing some passive aggressiveness decides to leave at the slow speed legally possible.

Repairing the shuttle

Spock now realizing the situation is desperate ignites the fuel which will light a flare he hopes the Enterprise will see.  This will speed up their deaths if it doesn’t work but to be fair they probably would die anyway if left to their own devices.  The gamble works and Kirk sees the flare he turns the Enterprise around to rescue his comrades.  The engineers who work under Scotty have done their jobs well and adjusted the ship’s equipment so that transporters will work even of the conditions of the phenomenon.  At the last moment the survivors of the party of the Galileo are beamed back aboard the Enterprise.

As the Enterprise is heading towards Makus III to deliver the medical supplies, the bridge crew led by Kirk confronts Spock about his decision to ignite the fuel.  Kirk asked Spock if this was a decision that was of the result of emotion.  Mr. Spock said it was not in fact he had simply carefully and analyzed the problem from all directions and concluded that the situation was hopeless.  Kirk then says that he logically concluded that it was time for an act of desperation.  The bridge crew has a laugh at the expense of the First Officer. 

Additional thoughts: The theme of this episode was supposed to be about Mr. Spock learning how to command amongst us illogical humans.  Unfortunately this is something that Mr. Spock should’ve learned of before now.  Mr. Spock is the first officer as such he should already have plenty of experience commanding others.  In fact in Mr. Spock’s very first appearance in “The Cage” he is giving orders to members of the bridge crew.  If you’re watching the series in air date order the first scene of “The Man Trap” has Mr. Spock sitting in the command chair.  I think a story such as this would work better if were presented in a series of flashbacks in an episode where Mr. Spock was recalling an early point in his career.

McCoy trying to talk with Spock

                Another place where this episode loses its point is the people in the shuttlecraft, or should I say primarily the lieutenants, come off as complete jerks.  They’re always hampering on Spock for the littlest of things.  Spock breathes incorrectly and they are ready to be down his throat about it. They’re always watching him to see if he screws up to so they can use it as an excuse to pounce on him.  The other three members are fine; Dr. McCoy picks on Spock a bit but Dr. McCoy’s always doing it from a good place.  McCoy is trying to help Spock lead the crew better with his goal being an improved situation for everyone, where the three lieutenants almost seem to take some particular joy in harassing him.
 

No, will not get away!

                This is not to say that Mr. Spock does not make some mistakes.  For example critiquing a weapon’s efficiency after it just killed a member of your crew is not exactly very tactful.  However the excessive second-guessing and questioning of loyalty from some of the shuttlecraft crew carries far beyond reason. When Mr. Spock says that three men may have to be left behind is there really a doubt on any of our minds that Mr. Spock would’ve chose himself as one of three? I knowledge my own personal bias after all I like Mr. Spock and I don’t like these one-off characters who won’t be here next episode.  Nevertheless the level of insubordination that is distributed by them seems to be way off base for Starfleet officers.  They’re constantly questioning his decisions; they often seem to forget that in these military type environments decisions aren’t made in a democratic fashion.  

The problem doesn’t seem to be Mr. Spock the problem seems to be these lieutenants.  It reminds me of the real life adventures of John Paul Jones he probably would’ve been much more successful if only had a crew that was equally committed to the tasks that he was.  Captain Jones had to deal with the crew were closer to pirates than they were the officers and men of the U.S. Navy.  Yet Mr. Spock is serving with Starfleet officers whose character should be of a higher ideal than what we saw.  Often they are more concerned about how they were burying their dead than they were with surviving.  Which I guess would’ve ultimately led to quite the conundrum when the last one died after all who is good to give him a proper burial?  Yet the episode shows this to be a problem of Mr. Spock failing to take the cause of corpses over living breathing people.

The Flare!

Another place episode tried to critique Mr. Spock is a decision to try to be as gentle with the natives as he most possibly could.  It should be pointed out that the crew shuttlecraft Galileo crashed into their home and the strange creatures popped out of it.  Why shouldn’t they be scared?  Why shouldn’t they try to defend themselves?  Because Mr. Spock chose to try to scare them is implied that he made the wrong decision because they didn’t scare away so easily.  There is no guarantee that had Mr. Spock responded more violently then they would have stayed away.  Who knows, they may have come back with even greater numbers and more quickly if Mr. Spock a chosen to draw blood.  That point is never brought up, is simply implied that Mr. Spock for not listening to his crew caused people to die.  That is a load of crap.

On a brighter note, I did enjoy seeing Mr. Scott’s engineering skills given a chance to shine.  Mr. Scott had been missing from a number of episodes and to be fair there wasn’t much on those episodes for him to do anyway, no engineering miracles were needed.  The last time those skills were needed credit might’ve gotten more to Captain Kirk or Mr. Spock than Scotty.  It’s great that we get see Mr. Scott be the miracle worker.

FINAL GRADE 3 of 5