"The Corbomite Maneuver" is a first contact story, and for the first like 40 minutes of this 45 minute episode it's a really disastrous one. (Also an almost unforgivably cheesy one.) There are some big ideas we're getting across in big ways. One is that humanity is small and the universe is big and dangerous. The other is that humanity has some X factor of pith and vinegar that lets us triumph even over overwhelming forces, provided we can master ourselves.
What actually happens in this episode? The Enterprise, now with Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura at last aboard, encounters a series of geometric shapes with weird powers. First its a multicolored cube that parks in front of the ship and won't get out of the way, matching their position whenever they try to go around it. And then it follows them when they try to run away from it.
Kirk is going through the paces of measured responses and playing it safe, while young bridge officer Bailey is itching to fire phasers at it. Finally, when the cube is emitting harmful radiation damaging the crew, Kirk fires the phasers, destroying the thing.
And then they make the same decision they made last episode, to sally forth into obvious danger for no apparent reason. Kirk wants to make contact with the alien race that sent the object. He does, and it turns out their ships are spherical and many times the size of the buoy, and also massively powerful.
The captain of the alien ship identifies himself as Balok of the First Federation and abruptly sentences the Enterprise to death for ignoring the warning buoy and trespassing into First Federation space. Kirk's protestations and attempts at peaceful contact fall on deaf ears.
Balok's speech is the cheesiest part of the episode and deserves to be reprinted in full:
"We make assumption you have a deity or deities or some such beliefs which comfort you. We therefore grant you ten Earth time periods known as minutes to make preparations."
Over the course of the ten Earth time periods known as minutes, rather than preparing to meet the deities they may or may not have, Bailey flips out, Kirk removes him from command, and Spock suggests that, like in Chess, it's time to give up and die. Kirk is inspired by a chance reference to bluffing by Dr. McCoy, and decides the game afoot is not chess but poker. So he performs the titular maneuver, bluffing to Balok that the Enterprise is filled with a volatile substance called corbomite which, if ignited, would destroy both ships.
Apparently just convinced enough to be cautious, Balok alters his plan and dispatches a small vessel to tow the Enterprise to an uninhabited planet, empty it of crew, and then destroy the ship. How does this solve the corbomite problem? I have no idea, just go with it.
The smaller ship is more of a match for the Enterprise, and when the tractor beam wears down its power supply, the Enterprise is able to make an escape which damages the other ship. Captain Kirk sees this as an opportunity not to take revenge or merely to flee, but to offer aid, potentially salvaging the first contact situation and "showing what our high-sounding words mean." He brings Bailey and McCoy along too.
What they find on the ship is a small, child-like alien with a fondness for a drink called Tranya, who informs them, in the final minutes of the episode, that the whole encounter has been a test. He asks that the Enterprise leave an officer with him for a cultural exchange.
Here we finally thought we had an episode that wasn't about the heroes being tested by God-like beings, but in fact, that's exactly what it is. Perhaps not so God-like.
This isn't a great episode of television. The plot is kind of convoluted and confusing, the resolution bizarre and unsatisfying, and it takes a lot of thought to figure out the message. But it does have some things going for it.
This episode is a distillation of Kirk's character, which is meant to be a future vision of the best of humanity (we'll politely ignore the sexism inherent in his objections to having a female yeoman). He's smart and tough against the probe, inventive and cocky against the ship, and then finally compassionate in the end, when he has no reason or need to be. Kirk keeps doing the right thing instead of the expected thing.
This episode paints a picture of the Enterprise as a little ship in a big, scary universe, but it also pitches human ingenuity and compassion as the tools that will see us through it. We'll see how they fare in the years to come.
Random Observations:
- Costumes are not quite settled into the norm here. Uhura in yellow is particularly jarring. Uhura, Scotty, and Sulu's characters, however, have settled into where they'll be for the rest of the series.
- Also debuting is Janice Rand, who never gets counted among the main cast but really was in a lot of the series and several movies. All she does here is bring Kirk a salad, so it's hard to get much of a sense of who she is.
- Classic Spock and Kirk: "Has it occurred to you that there's a certain...inefficiency in constantly questioning me on things you've already made up your mind about?" "It gives me emotional security."
- The only part of this episode I remember from watching it as a child was the final scene with Balok and the Tranya. Balok does seem quite preoccupied with that Tranya.
- They always call phasers "phaser weapons" as if phaser is an adjective, not a noun.
What actually happens in this episode? The Enterprise, now with Dr. McCoy and Lt. Uhura at last aboard, encounters a series of geometric shapes with weird powers. First its a multicolored cube that parks in front of the ship and won't get out of the way, matching their position whenever they try to go around it. And then it follows them when they try to run away from it.
Kirk is going through the paces of measured responses and playing it safe, while young bridge officer Bailey is itching to fire phasers at it. Finally, when the cube is emitting harmful radiation damaging the crew, Kirk fires the phasers, destroying the thing.
And then they make the same decision they made last episode, to sally forth into obvious danger for no apparent reason. Kirk wants to make contact with the alien race that sent the object. He does, and it turns out their ships are spherical and many times the size of the buoy, and also massively powerful.
The captain of the alien ship identifies himself as Balok of the First Federation and abruptly sentences the Enterprise to death for ignoring the warning buoy and trespassing into First Federation space. Kirk's protestations and attempts at peaceful contact fall on deaf ears.
Balok's speech is the cheesiest part of the episode and deserves to be reprinted in full:
"We make assumption you have a deity or deities or some such beliefs which comfort you. We therefore grant you ten Earth time periods known as minutes to make preparations."
Apparently just convinced enough to be cautious, Balok alters his plan and dispatches a small vessel to tow the Enterprise to an uninhabited planet, empty it of crew, and then destroy the ship. How does this solve the corbomite problem? I have no idea, just go with it.
The smaller ship is more of a match for the Enterprise, and when the tractor beam wears down its power supply, the Enterprise is able to make an escape which damages the other ship. Captain Kirk sees this as an opportunity not to take revenge or merely to flee, but to offer aid, potentially salvaging the first contact situation and "showing what our high-sounding words mean." He brings Bailey and McCoy along too.
What they find on the ship is a small, child-like alien with a fondness for a drink called Tranya, who informs them, in the final minutes of the episode, that the whole encounter has been a test. He asks that the Enterprise leave an officer with him for a cultural exchange.
This isn't a great episode of television. The plot is kind of convoluted and confusing, the resolution bizarre and unsatisfying, and it takes a lot of thought to figure out the message. But it does have some things going for it.
This episode is a distillation of Kirk's character, which is meant to be a future vision of the best of humanity (we'll politely ignore the sexism inherent in his objections to having a female yeoman). He's smart and tough against the probe, inventive and cocky against the ship, and then finally compassionate in the end, when he has no reason or need to be. Kirk keeps doing the right thing instead of the expected thing.
This episode paints a picture of the Enterprise as a little ship in a big, scary universe, but it also pitches human ingenuity and compassion as the tools that will see us through it. We'll see how they fare in the years to come.
Random Observations:
- Costumes are not quite settled into the norm here. Uhura in yellow is particularly jarring. Uhura, Scotty, and Sulu's characters, however, have settled into where they'll be for the rest of the series.
- Also debuting is Janice Rand, who never gets counted among the main cast but really was in a lot of the series and several movies. All she does here is bring Kirk a salad, so it's hard to get much of a sense of who she is.
- Classic Spock and Kirk: "Has it occurred to you that there's a certain...inefficiency in constantly questioning me on things you've already made up your mind about?" "It gives me emotional security."
- The only part of this episode I remember from watching it as a child was the final scene with Balok and the Tranya. Balok does seem quite preoccupied with that Tranya.
- They always call phasers "phaser weapons" as if phaser is an adjective, not a noun.
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