Star Trek TOS S01E20 – Court Martial

Dir. Marc Daniels, Wri. Don Mankiewicz & Steven W. Carabatsos

The Summary: Captain Kirk is (duh) court-martialed for the wrongful death of a crew member, and the prosecutor is an old flame.

The Good: This episode has a very cool idea—a courtroom drama is at this point a new and interesting direction to take the show, as it’s something we’ve never really seen the show do. It also provides the potential to examine the workings of Starfleet and do some world-building. Kirk’s speech demanding his own court martial clearly display both his iron principles and his disdain for bureaucracy. It’s a really solid speech. The defense lawyer, at least, is a pretty cool character (although he’s largely alone in that). I like the opportunity to list cool background stuff about the witnesses as they are called. It helps to develop the legend of these characters in a fun, fanservice-y way. Spock’s testimony is cool, of course. Nimoy just has such gravitas and deep (ironically) humanity that he brings to the role.

The Bad: It seems really weird how quickly even apparent old friends turn on Kirk. About ten minutes into the episode it seems like everyone wants to see him hang (not literally), and the episode makes no real effort to show why that might be the case. Pretty much none of the guest acting in this is very good, with Joan Marshall receiving primary blame as the prosecutor and Kirk’s old flame. She has no chemistry with Shatner at all, and is a large part of the reason that the trial turns into an absurd farce. Speaking of which, the trial is dumb beyond words—absolutely nothing the prosecution says makes any sense—the musical stings are nonsensical—the testimonies have nothing to do with the actual issues at play. It’s an exercise in frustration, and constantly smashes itself against the desire of the viewer to suspend disbelief. In fact, all of the testimonies are entirely irrelevant since they just end up looking at the computer in the end. The defense’s impassioned speech (an obvious attempt to ape the success of Perry Mason) is stupidly self-important and also basically beside the point of the trial. There is a (badly stunt-doubled) fight for absolutely no reason whatsoever to cap off the stupidity.

The Review: Although I’m sure this episode has its fans (its scores on a number of review sites would seem to indicate as much), I cannot summon nearly any love for it. I had completely forgotten this episode’s existence, and I think there’s a reason for that. Despite a truly interesting premise, the execution is dumb beyond words and feels like a waste of my time. Perhaps this is because we all know that Kirk is innocent from the very beginning, perhaps it’s because of how quickly the courtroom material becomes tedious. Either way, the episode is a huge missed opportunity. I’m aware that there are some great parts, like Kirk’s record being listed and Spock’s testimony, but they account for so little of an episode that just constantly drags its feet and muddles about. Also, what the hell was Finn’s long-term plan if he had succeeded? Was he just going to live in the Enterprise’s vents forever? A courtroom drama only really works if the solution feels intelligent, and this simply doesn’t. The twist should make sense and be cathartic, and this does neither. I feel like this might be a higher episode for others, but I just can’t.

The Score: