Star Trek TOS: Episode 10 - THE CORBOMITE MANEUVER

"The Enterprise is menaced by a gigantic alien ship whose commander condemns the crew to death. The alien ship appears all-powerful and the alien commander refuses all attempts at negotiation, forcing Kirk to employ an unorthodox strategy to save the ship". 

One of the best. The poker match between Kirk and Balok is just awesome to watch. It starts off with Kirk in sickbay for his physical, which he sort of fails and McCoy won’t let him forget it. Spock is in charge of the bridge when an odd glowing cube (a probe) harasses the ship. Meanwhile Kirk is drinking with McCoy and  discussing his new diet. Spock tries everything to get away from the cube but it’s hopeless.

The only pic I could find,
pretty funny though.

Later, Kirk hails the bridge for an update … but he’s shirtless. He can see Spock, so I assume Spock sees him.  It just seems very unprofessional. It would be like if your boss called you into his office and he was shirtless. So anyway, the cool thing about this episode is that it uses every major character (except Chekov who at this point doesn’t exist). They have a meeting regarding this probe and we see Spock, Kirk, McCoy, Sulu, Scotty and Uhura in there.  Also some fool named Lt. Bailey, he’s irritating and a total headcase. 

A very strange thing happened though. I was looking at this Lt. Bailey and was thinking that he looks exactly like the Professor from Gilligan’s Island. Well I looked it up and he is not. But, a background character was! His name is John Gabriel and he played the Professor in the original pilot. Strange. There are parts to this episode that are filmed like a reality show, in which a shaky camera follows someone around. It’s kind of cool and sort of ahead of its time.

Back to the story: suddenly an enormous ship shows up and we see Balock. An obvious puppet, but it looks pretty decent considering (also voice by Ted Cassidy). He gives the Enterprise ten minutes before it is destroyed. No negotiation. This is where Kirk employees the Corbomite Maneuver. He tells Balok that he has a corbomite device that will destroy any ship that destroys the Enterprise.  After they do the countdown from 10 -1, which always reminds me of Spaceballs (Have a nice day. Thank you), it is clear that Balok has fallen for Kirks bluff. 

Now Balok has a bluff of his own. He sends a small ship that pulls the Enterprise in a tractor beam. He will take the crew to an Earth like planet and then destroy the ship. He claims that his small vessel is very powerful. None of this makes any sense and Kirk knows it. They escape the tractor beam.

Here is where it gets really weird. Balock sends out a distress call because now his tiny vessel is incapacitated. Kirk decides to board the ship and help him. Now we see the real Balok. It is a very young, yet still disturbingly hideous Clint Howard! Well, it was all a test. And the Enterprise passed. You see, Balok is all by himself and lonely, he just wants a friend. Lt. Bailey volunteers to stay with him (why???). Sure the ending is ridiculous and makes absolutely no sense. But what the hell, this episode is so damn good.

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 11 down 69 to go