WHY WE LIKE IT: A great moral dilemma.
WHY WE DON'T: The contrivance of everyone or their father being aboard the USS Constitution.
REVIEW: Though we're running out of excuses for Kirk hanging out on Enterprise, this episode is a great showcase for the man who would become one of Starfleet's most celebrated captains. With half the crew (including the top 2) on an away team, he's roped into becoming a visiting admiral's first officer on an urgent mission. And whenever an admiral or ambassador commandeers the ship, you know sparks have to fly. Foreshadowing future exploits, Kirk will question, rebel, bluff, and do everything he must to do what's right in the face of illegal orders (and in that way, it speaks to recent history). Listen to the music in this one, it sounds a lot like those of the original cast movies - Kirk walks around with his own soundtrack.
Some might criticize the script for making everyone else on Enterprise go along with orders that include destroying an entire planet with 5000 people on it without first finding out who those people are. But Admiral Reeger is really well cast. Joe Morton (T2, Eureka) makes the war hero of the Klingon War incredibly genial, and you can believe La'an would follow his orders, that Ortegas would puff her chest out when complimented by him, that Spock would respond to his strict logic in answering Kirk's qualms, and that Scotty, downstairs, would think the charismatic Admiral was just bluffing about General Order 24. We might even fall under his spell ourselves, perhaps understanding him to be wary of Kirk's questions because GEORGE Kirk (father of) was his first officer during the war, a dove to his hawk who just couldn't make the big decisions. Except... As it turns out, and M'Benga confirms this cuz he was on the USS Constitution himself at the time, George Kirk was the real hero of that battle and Reeger undergoing brain surgery at the time. It's stolen valor writ large, with Reeger then going out of his way for destroying Kirk Sr.'s career for the "slight" of having relieved him of duty at a crucial moment.
Yes, the connections are a bit contrived. That Kirk is here at all, never mind that he and his brother Sam, whose fraught connection to their father is wrapped in this admiral's history. They resented their father for always being away, but part of Reeger's revenge was to deny him family leave in perpetuity. That further, M'Benga was on that ship and feels guilty about letting the lie stand for these many years (although, the Klingon War wasn't THAT long ago, so does the timeline even make sense?) and therefore throws himself on his sword at the end, taking the rap for Kirk since he was thinking of leaving Starfleet anyway... Well, it's all a bit much. But I do like how they dropped cordrazine (the drug that made McCoy psychotic in The City on the Edge of Forever) as a "new thing" early, and then revealing they spiked Reeger's coffee with it, which is how he exposed himself and his personal mission of revenge against what are undoubtedly Romulans (giving Balance of Terror a new filter). Well played, I'd forgotten all about it. And here I thought Reeger was slinging any excuse that might stick, but Kirk really did go above and beyond (not to mention risk radiation burns to sabotage the phasers).
The mission on the crystal planet is, in some ways, a mirror of what's happening up in space. Pike and his party encounter Andorian pirates who hold them hostage for command codes that could give them control of a ship. These guys are pretty nasty and stab Cadet A'Sha, refusing to give Chapel her med-kit until Pike gives them what they want. If he's the Reeger in this situation, by the book to the point of letting an innocent die, Uhura is the Kirk who disobeys orders, tells the Andorians she'll give them the codes, then turns the situation to her advantage and becomes an action hero, saves everyone. But there's a key difference. When she first questioned orders in the face of her "charge" dying from an infected wound, she was told to remember her training. So she was really following orders and only bluffing when she promised to help the pirates. A big risk, but one that paid off and even got her promoted to Lt. (j.g.) at the end! To her surprise, however, these events convinced Cadet A'Sha to drop out of Starfleet, which makes me wonder what it was all for. Just to give Uhura something to do? Seems like there was a lot of angst about this mentoring position, and it ends on a flat note, at least for now. In any case, both the A and B plots are pushing TOS characters closer to their TOS selves, three if we want to explain why M'Benga isn't CMO anymore in TOS.
LESSON: The captain's chair exposes who you are.
REWATCHABILITY - High: In a season of gimmicks, a solid traditional episode stands out.
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