As Sulu pilots the ship through space we learn that negotiations between the Federation and a war-like race known as the Klingon Empire have broken down. While this is bad news for the crew, for viewers familiar with Star Trek there is a lot of air punching and shouting of “Yes!” Kirk’s mission is to go to planet Origami (or something like it) to negotiate a Federation base being set up. When the Enterprise crew learn that the Federation has gone to war, it becomes even more crucial that they stop the Klingons taking control of this strategically important base.
Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet’s surface, leaving Sulu to babysit the Enterprise. He’s under orders not to engage the Klingons in combat if he can avoid it, and to make sure he returns it with a full tank of gas.
The planet Organia (I didn’t think Origami sounded right) appears to be a primitive culture. Kirk meets with the council of elders. He tells them that their strategic location makes them attractive to the Klingons who enslave them. The Federation offers them the hand of friendship. However, the elders do not want to give up their traditional way of life and decline Kirk’s offer. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot convince them that it is in their interest to accept his help. He even offers free biscuits.
The Klingons attack the Enterprise. Now that wasn’t very nice now was it? Kirk tells Sulu to get the heck out of there, leaving himself and Mr Spock trapped on a primitive planet in he middle of a Klingon occupation.
When the Klingons appear on the scene, they don’t look Klingon-like! No wrinkly forehead = no Klingon, in my book. Yes, Movie Klingons and Mr Worf have spoilt me for all earlier incarnations.
Kirk and Spock dress as locals to blend in, with Spock claiming to be a visiting Vulcan trader. The Klingon leader, Koor, taunts our heroes. Kirk shows that he is the worst undercover operative in the history of undercover operatives, behaving in no way like the Organians with a defiant attitude towards the Klingons. Despite this, when Koor tells the council he is taking over, he selects Kirk to liaise between the Organians and their new Klingon rulers.
Kirk and Spock hatch a plan to take the Klingon’s weapons. Under cover of darkness they set off an enormous explosion. Kirk attempts once again to convince the Organians to revolt, However it is overheard by Klingons monitoring the Council’s chambers. Koor comes for them and when the Klingons threaten violence, the council reveal who Kirk and Spock really are. Even Spock seems disappointed!
Koor wants to know where Starfleet’s ships are dispersed. Kirk has 12 hours to tell him or he’ll start throwing his weight around.
Surprisingly, the Organians break Kirk and Spock out of their cell and lead them away. They explain it by saying that violence is unthinkable. They hear Klingon phasers and are told that 200 Organians had just been killed, and that this would continue to happen every 2 hours until they are returned. Even now the Organians do not wish to fight back. Are they on some sort of sedatives?
So it’s two against an army, fighting for the freedom of the people, and when night falls, Kirk and Spock attack, successfully getting past the guards and reaching Koor himself. Koor tells them a federation fleet is en route.
But just when things look like they’ll sort themselves out with a good honest punch-up, the space travellers experience extreme heat whenever they attempt to attack each other. Somehow, all weapons of violence now radiate 350 degree heat.
It’s the Organians! They tell both races that unless they finish the war, there will be no supper for anyone (and some other vague threats). Kirk is angry. What about their right to wage war against the Klingons?
The Organians insist that nobody wants war. In the future the Klingons and humans will be friends. That’ll be the day! 
Then, as things wrap themselves up, we learn that the people on the planet were not really people. They just had that appearance for the sake of Kirk and Koor as “conventional points of reference”. The Organians are as high above the human race as the humans are above the amoeba. Looks like the war is off. Roll credits.
Hang on a second though! Why wait until end to explain the situation? If they had intervened at the start they could have saved everyone a lot of heartache and hassle.
Either way, this is a great introduction of the Klingon Empire into the Star Trek universe. And while much of the human / Klingon story is presented as a straightforward good versus evil affair, there is also an opportunty to see how this looks from a higher level, and see that perhaps it wasn’t good versus evil after all. It was just two opposing viewpoints whose differences could have been settled without violence.
Yeah, right. Tell it to the Klingons.
Cast & Creative Staff
Cast:
William Shatner as James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Spock
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
George Takei as Hikaru Sulu
Guest Cast:
David Hillary Hughes as Trefayne
Jon Abbott as Ayelborne
John Colicos as Kor
Peter Brocco as Claymare
Creative Staff:
Director: John Newland
Written By: Gene L. Coon
