TOS S01E26 – Errand of Mercy
Dir. John Newland, Wri. Gene L. Coon
The Summary: The Enterprise heads to Organia, an apparently simple planet that is of great strategic importance in the war with the Klingons, and must negotiate with the planet’s curiously passive inhabitants.
The Good: This episode, unlike so many others in the season, doesn’t waste any time whatsoever. It leaps straight into the action, and keeps up a rather breakneck pace for its entire runtime. Kirk’s impassioned speech to the planet’s elders is another one for the monologue record books. This episode has one of the best villains in all of TOS in Commander Kor (John Colicos); he is smart, capable, and consistently characterized. Watching Kirk operate under the pressure that he brings to the standoff is a great time. Their sit-down conversation is one of the best scenes of its type in the series. There is a natural and tense buildup of pressure in the episode; you can feel the stakes rising as time goes on. The ‘twist’ of the episode is also really great and feels well-thought out as opposed to some of the more haphazard turns other episodes make. There’s even some humor to the episode in its failed fighting (you’ll know it when you see it). Most importantly, though, this episode has green goats, which obviously and materially increases its quality.
The Bad: There’s really not much to put here, which makes me question using this format for Trek reviews. Not every episode has a bunch of negatives. Certainly the Klingons look a bit ridiculous with their heavily applied bronzer and poorly spirit-gummed facial hair, but it’s hard to hold that against a show that was working under some pretty harsh budgetary constraints. If you really wanted to push it, you could maybe criticize Kirk’s characterization as being a bit wobbly when it comes to the Organians: he seems really disproportionately angry about them, probably due to the season one malleability of his character. Really, though, this one is mostly a victory.
The Review: As should be obvious from the previous sections, this one is a pretty excellent episode of Trek–one of the best of season one, in fact. My only real dilemma in scoring this one was deciding between 3.5 and 4 stars. I try to reserve four star ratings for those episodes that almost transcend Star Trek, that you could show to anyone with no background in the show to explain why others love it so much. I’m just not sure this one gets there. There’s nothing wrong with the episode (other than a few questionable costuming issues), but it lacks that something that pushes an episode of Trek into something greater. I still really love this episode, though! It’s great for a rewatch at pretty much any time, and it’s really quite thrilling despite some of its technical limitations. It adds notably to the series lore about the Klingons in a really interesting way, and is a must-watch for anyone who considers themselves a Trek fan. The pacing is solid, and the plot doesn’t make any major missteps. For me though, just not making any mistakes doesn’t make for a four-star experience. Still absolutely recommended viewing, but just short of perfection.
The Score: 
