If you think its bad to have the unprotected jettison button right next to the red alert button you're going to have kittens when you realize the self destruct button is under his left elbow!
And there's a pressure pad in the cushion what sends a blash of air out a floor vent in Engineering every time he sits down. This is why we never see Scotty wearing a kilt on duty. Once was enough.
Regardless of outcome, I would challenge the engineers who designed the command chair. What idiot puts a jettison button right next to an alert button with no protection against pressing the wrong one? Even modern fire buttons are oversized and/or have a flip-cover to prevent accidental activation.
Why is there a jettison button on a five button panel that has two unlabeled buttons. The Captain has to give a voice command to fire weapons for goodness sake. As a matter of fact he gives voice command for alert conditions.
In movies and TV, common sense engineering frequently takes a back seat to the need to create crises and dilemmas for dramatic effect. TNG got _really_ bad about that (e.g. the TNG episode "Contagion" where an entire starship, the _Yamato_ was lost with all hands because it depends on multiple active systems continually functioning, without cease, second by second, and which were all under centralized computer control, with no redundancy, no compartmentalization, no firewalls, etc. and the central computer was infected with a computer virus.) Sadly, as we see here, TOS wasn't immune to this. You see it again in the phasers from every iteration of this show (and to be fair, most other scifi franchises as well) -- having a weapon with stun and kill settings would be a _terrible_ idea, virtually guaranteeing that deaths would result when when people shooting their weapons got it wrong under stress and had the weapons on kill instead of stun. With the closest real-world equivalent -- shotguns firing rounds that are supposed to be non lethal, like bean bag rounds -- are almost invariably fitted with brightly-colored stocks and handguards ane _never_ used to fire lethal ammo in order to avoid any possibility of just such a mistake.
@@Hibernicus1968 In TNG, the "stun vs. kill" issue was mentioned. O'Brien got his hands on a random phaser, which he used to incinerate a Cardassian who was attacking him. The experience severely traumatized O'Brien.
@@zorkmid1083 That's a good example of the show at least acknowledging the issue. You can understand it from a production point of view: the network wants to make the show more family friendly, so they have the people in charge of the show give the weapons a stun setting. Kill can be reserved for those occasions when it's really called for. Everyone's happy. But in any realistic scenario, acknowleding how flawed and prone to error human beings are, a _truly_ grounded in realism show would separare lethal and less than lethal weapons.
Best lines from this episode: Cogley: "I repeat, I speak of rights. A machine has none. A man must. My client has the right to face his accuser, and if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine. Indeed, you have elevated that machine above us. I ask that my motion be granted, and more than that, gentlemen. In the name of humanity, fading in the shadow of the machine, I demand it. I demand it!"
Gloucon X Excellent episode, showing the mark of a extremely efficient and cool as a cucumber Starship Captain who's main concern is his ship snd his crew and put those concerns FIRST above all other things within his life. Ya just can't beat the Original Stsr Trek Series, the VERY BEST Star Trek out there.
@@alphanerd7221 True. But this is the only the15th episode of 82 produced. We were still getting to know these characters. The audience had no detailed knowledge of Kirk's service record.
Yeah, that was definitely a weakness. I will say, however, the rules of discovery were much less well part of our courtroom culture in the 60s than they are now.
They probably did, after all Spock was saying there was something wrong with the records, and it went to trial instead of Kirk taking a ground-based command. It just so happened that his defense attorney was pro-book and anti-computer so maybe they had it but didn't watch it.
@@sandal_thong8631 Good luck in defending such a defense attorney when he is sued for ineffective assistance of counsel. In the 21st century at least, his career is over (unless the system is ridiculously corrupt, but I don't think that is what you are saying). To say that he didn't watch the video because he was "pro-book and anti-computer" would not be a defense against a charge of major malpractice. Even if we accepted this as some sort of professional philosophy (which in our own century we would be laughable), it wouldn't make sense for this case. For he should not have been surprised at what was going to happen in the video precisely by virtue of his being pro-book, i.e., merely by his having read the specifications of the charges.
@@Primitarian I watched a lot of videos about this episode yesterday, including commentary that said Kirk's lawyer was pretty worthless until Spock and McCoy showed up with the computer chess glitch. Then he got into his stride, claiming that Finney could be still alive! But also consider the alternative presented by the prosecution and suspected by their classmates at the bar: Kirk may have murdered a former friend because that guy came to hate him, and a Starfleet commodore was going to sweep it under the rug by giving Kirk a ground assignment!
The follow-up scene on the Enterprise is really great. When Cogley asks "Could a man evade such a search?" and Kirk, floored, says "Possibly..." One of my fav ST moments.
ah yes, the three most important functions of the enterprise: yellow alert, red alert, and jettisoning the pods. all placed right next to eachother for easy access
And nothing is more important than my ship. Kirk was a hard man from a hard era, an explorer, his mission paramount to all. I don't believe in which captain was best, most served their era, and their commands well, but Kirk will always be my favorite, hard choices were his specialty.
Kirk was an extraordinary example of a captain even for his era. Casual fans will see a rule breaking maverick that annoys the brass, but he was one of the top 5 graduates of Starfleet Academy, became an instructor before even graduating, earned numerous awards and was chosen by Pike to serve on the Enterprise. Then we have his later exploits in the movies. How there is no USS Kirk in the shows is rather shocking
@@SantomPh too soon. The Nimmitz class did not bear his name while he was alive or those who served with him. Take into account some crew may live to be centuries in age. He was not officially dead until after Generations....or not after if you go by Shatner's books. So premature to do so. Plus Earth Ship classes are named for abstract ideas and concepts or inspired documents representing those ideas. The earlies giant novel called Enterprise showed Robert April and George Kirk decided on the name Consitution for the ship. Later the new class of ships named that and the ship became Enterprise. Now private ships...that's another matter.
@@SantomPh i mean in later series they refer to multiple phenomenon and areas of space discovered by captain kirk and hes sort of like a folk hero at star fleet academy and the few times any character gets to meet him because of star trek time travel fuckery they immediately start gushing even if they are a high ranking officer
you know James I really would hve to agree with you. I am 51 now and have been watching Star Trek TOS since I was a little kid, And I still love it. Sure it had it's flaws. But in spite of those I would still say the same as you. I have seen lots and LOTS of other TV shows in my life. But the original Trek in my mind still tops them all!!
Probably cause the court is written weirdly. “What is the defendant being accused of, ma’am?” “Malice.” It’s just so weird. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was one of those bs trial meant to just drag someone through the mud.
This was an excellent episode, but the one big problem I have with it is that Kirk and his lawyer should have had access to this video prior to the start of the trial. There would be no "gotcha" moment for the prosecution.
You can imagine that in the future computers will be relied on so much and such a part of everyday life that the legal system evolves to take computer evidence as indisputable fact, so there is so reason to consider the evidence in advance because there is no argument against it.
Still, Cogley should have seen it and adjusted his defense accordingly. He appears to base his current one without seeing what supposedly happened. I would assume in the future that a defense lawyer would still have a right to discovery.
Greg Ford (This is an amended statement by me to clarify what I was trying to say earlier). I agree with you. Notice is something that one needs to know in advance in order to defend one's position. "Notice" is a fundamental requirement for basic due process, otherwise known as "fairness". The term "due process" and "fairness" are very similar. Without prior knowledge of what your adversary is going to say when he had a previous obligation to tell you, deprives you of due process (fairness) and without it, no one can plan a defense. After all, a jury trial has historically been a "search for the truth". Even in the future, trial by ambush would be a trial without fairness.
Excellent episode showing what a true starship Captain is trained to do under an extreme emergency, keeping his calm, even when his ship and his crew was in danger, and how he used his trained knowledge to pull his ship and his crew out of that danger. He reacted approprately, calmly, and without hesitation, both in an emergency and calmly explaining his action when on the stand. This episode is one of the very FINEST and BEST episodes of the first season. Love the Original Star Trek Series, NOTHING will ever or can ever top it.
"Nothing is more important that my ship." I agree. In fact, there is a saying in the Navy, "Ship, shipmate, self." There is a poem that states, "The Strength of the Ship is the Service, the Strength of the Service the Ship." The point being: If the ship goes down we are all dead.
I keep seeing a still of The Wizard of Oz that's been doctored to look like someone hanging from a rope (supposedly a Munchkin), when the real scene shows one of the big birds jumping around in that area.
The score for this scene is actually re-used music from three separate episodes including the second pilot. And it works marvelously well. The music editors are really the unsung heroes of TOS.
"Hey, let's put the JETTISON POD button right on the armrest of the Captain's char by the RED ALERT button" said no starship design engineer, ever. lol Seriously, that button should have been on the helm somewhere or the engineering station, with a flip-up cover to prevent accidental activation.
Hell you could have it that the button is largely dead unless red alert is active as a fail safe. Than you could press the button as much as you like without it activating, as without the red alert button being pressed/active it would not do anything.
This episode was way ahead of its time. Depicting the tampering of a video file (Deep Fake) back in the 1960s was beyond a lot of people's conception. Computers were only glorified adding machines in most people's minds back then. Not until the late 70's and into the 80s was the concept of computers recording and storing video information instead of using film or video tape, really pushed in movies and TV shows. The movie: Looker really did a good job and was also way ahead of its time. It wasn't till the early 1990s that the first video format for everyday personal computers was developed. Today we now have so-called Deep Fake video applications (programs) that can seamlessly alter a video into whatever the user wants to depict, even to the level of what is depicted in this episode, about 54 years after this episode was made.
Another thing, I was watching TNG clips and Geordi casually mentioned spending time talking to the computer on his trip to Risa. And now we have chat GPT, and other AI's, some that you can literally talk to like Neuro-Sama.
Well, if the writers could conceive of a transporter device and pocket communicators then surely they could imagine the manipulation of the video log (i.e., creating a deep fake).
Prosecutor: "Sir, exactly how many people have been killed on your starship? Specifically, how many wearing red shirts?" Kirk: "Those damn red shirts! THEY SHOULD BE SLAUGHTERED!"
That bell and the 3 double strikes is the same as when Adm. Brand opens the disciplinary proceedings against the surviving members of Nova Squadron in TNG
I just noticed that out of only 3 buttons on that console, one of them specifically reads "jettison pod" Of all the controls on the bridge, is one for jettisoning an ion pod so important it is one of only 3 on the captain's console? I have not heard any reference to that function on any other episode of TOS. Seems a little odd, and a bit convenient.
Glad I'm not the only one who had the line of thought. It would be like having the landing gear, flap, and ejector seat levers right beside each other in an aircraft cockpit. The ease with which one might hit a wrong control during a crisis makes it functionally dangerous, and if I may borrow the phrase, highly illogical in terms of control importance and proximity.
Reminds me of a Far Side cartoon. Passenger on a airliner is sitting in his seat. Next to him is a switch labeled: "Wings Stay On" and "Wings Fall Off". Incidentally, I think one key to enjoying Star Trek is not get caught up in the techno stuff and take the special effects for what they were in that era. The story line is what I think the producers were wanting the viewers to focus on.
TurboCMinusMinus Its a very functional, excellent design. The starship Captain is trained to know which button to push at exactly the right time, after all, the decisions are his, noone else's as after all, he IS the Captain, and he IS in full command of his ship.
Kirk's defense lawyer played a role in the movie "The Maltese Falcon" in 1941. He was about 64 years older when he played the role in this Star Trek episode. Gene Roddenberry was able to get some very good actors to play in a controversial tv series IMO. The actor's name was Elisha Cook Jr. He was born Dec. 26, 1903 and died May 16, 1995. His role as Defense attorney Samual T. Cogley in this 1967 episode of Star Trek would have made him age 64 at the time of the filming of TOS episode of "Court Martial". Even before Elisha Cook Jr. played in the" Maltese Falcon" he appeared in WWII training videos that can be seen on YT recently installed by Jeff Quitney. It seems the defense lawyer in this film was a WWII veteran. Either the makeup people did a great job in this episode of Attorney Cogley or he was born with good healthy genes. He certainly did not look anywhere near 64 when he played this role in TOS. IMO.
@@terraphantom1039 i dont recall Kirk arming a assimilating race to genicide another (borg against species 8472), stranfing his entire crew 65 years from home (premise of Voyager) kidnapping and forcing a alien to join him no mater what their opinion is (Seven of Nine) The ONLY thing the two did in common is fuck with time, and even then Kirk tried to avoid causing a paradox, Janeway changed history and caused the events of Picard S3
It took awhile for the colors to be separated according to service area: gold--command; blue--sciences and medicine; red--engineering. Kirk wore gold from his initial appearance in the second pilot episode. Spock, although he became the Enterprises's First Officer and second-in-command, wore sciences blue; he had originally been Science Officer in the first pilot. I don't know whether he held both positions simultaneously.
BUT continuity on TOS was very bad. In "The Cage", then-Science Officer Spock wore sciences blue. But in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he wears command gold, as First Officer. Then, for the regular series, he is back to blue again.
I think that he somehow let Jamie know he was alive. She had an uncharacteristic change of heart about Captain Kirk when she came to Cogleys law office. I think she was torn between protecting Kirk, and keeping her fathers machinations hidden.
One of my favourite details is the camera angle for th security footage, so many tv shows at that time would’ve just used normal shots or even footage from a previous episode (for budgetary reasons most of the Time but laziness is also a minute factor) I just love that they treated it like a grounded scen and used a cctv camera angle, that’s the unique brilliance of gene roddenberry and all Star Trek creators
Looks messed up as a log camera and more like TV or movie shots like the "recording" in _Star Trek III._ They used three angles: one behind him for his hand, one from where the viewscreen is, and one overhead that looks appropriate and should have been zoomed in.
Loved this episode, but there's NO WAY an ex girlfriend of Kirk's would be allowed to be a prosecutor on his case. She would have recused herself immediately or the else the court would have.
If I may address the console issue-Putting aside that this was a tv show and they needed that for dramatic effect, let me embrace my "inner nerd." The ,if you'll excuse the phrase, logical explanation is that the buttons can be configured by the user to fit a specific situation. In a modern example, the buttons on a jet fighter's displays can be configured to activate different things depending on the avionics mode. That way 5 buttons can do a lot of different things. In other episodes he hits one of those buttons for comms, etc. Think about it- in this episode's situation Kirk wanted 3 things under his direct control. They were yellow and red alerts and pod jett. .That would also explain why 2 buttons are unmarked. Also note the buttons take a definite operation to activate(ie: not something you can bump)
The problem with the video is that the Yellow Alert button IS clearly lit and the red alert button not, when he hits the 'jettison the pod' button ; sorry Captain, you're guilty! Also, Yellow Alert, Red Alert, Jettison the Pod, what is this, 'Airplane!'🤣🤣🤣
I've always wondered how Finney expected to continue propagating the lie that he was dead. Even if Kirk was found guilty, wouldn't it soon be discovered that Finney was alive on the Enterprise? I mean he cannot hide indefinitely. One possibility is that he planned to beam himself down to a planet, without this somehow being noticed by the transporter room staff or by the computers that monitor transporter room activity.
The heartbeat sensor was pretty stupid. There's a lot of things making louder noises on a starship than a heartbeat, even breathing. But Finney not having a way off the ship was also stupid. Supposedly a repair crew was assigned to the Enterprise. In a typical episode he'd impersonate one of them (or another crewmember) and beam down to the starbase; or wait until the transporter room was unoccupied as others have done. Remember the one where a guy hid in a box?
@@sandal_thong8631 I'll give them a pass on the heartbeat sensor - let's assume that it was designed to detect only heartbeats and therefore filters out all other noises. Another hole in the story is the inability of the Enterprise to determine if Finney was really dead. There have been other episodes where the Enterprise was shown to have the capability of detecting human remains in space after an explosion. In Gamesters of Triskelion, Spock commented that the ship's sensors are capable of finding even individual atoms. Yes, I remember the one where Dr. Simon Van Gelder hides in the box. Amazing that the transporter computers would not be able to figure that out.
@@ddenuci Someone said it's every woman's dream to prosecute their ex after he broke her heart and went on to a successful career. Someone else said they were all against Kirk. (Kirk waived the right to remove the prosecutor and lead judge on basis of prejudice). If so then someone should have beamed Finney down to the Starbase where he could join an acting troupe like Kodos. Or hopped a ship heading out of Federation space. Of course "The Conscience of the King" had some ridiculous problems like the Federation wouldn't have a picture, audio or DNA of a colonial governor, and no one besides Spock had ever done a background check on Anton Karidian to find he had no past before Kodos. Then a picture and audio recording show up at the end! The way it should have run was that he was an actor, and assumed the role of Kodos, wearing a mask, and taking the governorship from someone ineffectual with little charisma or backbone. Then he gets followers to do what he commands, fakes his death and returns to being Karidian. Only Kirk, Riley and Half-Face were those still alive who had seen him without the mask and heard his voice when they were kids. The only picture would be artist drawings and a composite of the kids' descriptions, which doesn't seem to match. Then Kirk would be left with his own eye-witness testimony which isn't strong. But the murders of the eye-witnesses would be the main compelling evidence that he's Kodos, so Kirk needs to draw him out (or the real killer) in the end. But he botched it twice: first with Riley then with the phaser on overload.
This was good episode. However this procedure was never show again or heard of before. STNG, Voyager, Enterprise etc. should have shown this process and why it’s important to do in an ion storm successfully or not.
*Kirk was convicted based on this evidence, sent to the Tantalus Penal Colony, and later executed using agonizer rays. It was a sad day for Star Fleet.*
Okay, I understand that the video log was forged to make it appear that Kirk pressed the "Jettison" button before the second "Alert" button... but _WHY_ TF would those two buttons be so close together anyway????
The funny thing with this episode is that Captain Kirk's lawyer looks surprised at the video evidence that is being presented. IF he attended law school 101.....the prosecution would HAVE to share with him ALL evidence that is being presented. His expression should not be that of shock when this evidence is presented.
I think it was a missed opportunity to show for all of Kirk's nobility and honor, he is not perfect. He can make mistakes. It makes him more relatable and human just like the rest of us.
The purpose of the ion pod is to collect data on the storm, something which the ship's sensors are unable to reliably perform due to the presence of heavy distortion in the data. The pod is attached to the ship and must be jettisoned under severe vibration which could result in destruction of the entire ship.
jonas grumby Excellent reply to the question asked. This is an excellent episode, and I liked how the Captain kept his cool under trying circumstances. His deepest love and concern is always for his ship and his crew and put those important factors above everything else in his life. The Original Star Trek Series is the only BEST Star Trek series out there.
I would point out that when each person sits down on the chair to give testimony to the court, their right hand is placed on the lighted console. I presume this is some sort of lie detector device. If so, then if Kirk's testimony was false the lie detector would have gone off.
It may prove he did not commit perjury. That leaves mental defect or false memories of events, not a good thing either way. By the way for comparison fedral US prosecuters have a win rate of 98%. That is horrifying.
This is a great episode indeed, but they had to create so many ad hoc procedures to create the drama. When do we ever again in Star Trek hear about an "ion pod" which needed to be jettisoned during a storm? And when does the Captain control things like that simply by pressing buttons at his chair, as opposed to giving orders to the helmsman, the science officer, etc.?
"Your honours, may I make one thing clear? It is not the prosecution's contention that Captain Kirk acted out of negligence or malice. On the contrary, the prosecution assumes that no one who rises to command the flagship of the United Federation of Planets, could possibly be negligent or malicious. Therefore, if the defendant committed questionable acts under pressure, the explanation must surely lay elsewhere." - paraphrased from the Caine Mutiny
If you think its bad to have the unprotected jettison button right next to the red alert button you're going to have kittens when you realize the self destruct button is under his left elbow!
Well if it makes people feel any better, it could be worse. The buttons could've been switched in this instance. XD
And there's a pressure pad in the cushion what sends a blash of air out a floor vent in Engineering every time he sits down.
This is why we never see Scotty wearing a kilt on duty. Once was enough.
2260 constitution class panel layouts weren't fucking about.
And every single button on the enterprise is unlabelled.
nevertheless a really great show! I'm into TOS since the mid 80s and love it more from decade to decade!!!
Regardless of outcome, I would challenge the engineers who designed the command chair. What idiot puts a jettison button right next to an alert button with no protection against pressing the wrong one? Even modern fire buttons are oversized and/or have a flip-cover to prevent accidental activation.
Why is there a jettison button on a five button panel that has two unlabeled buttons. The Captain has to give a voice command to fire weapons for goodness sake. As a matter of fact he gives voice command for alert conditions.
Most require a key to open that flip-cover.
In movies and TV, common sense engineering frequently takes a back seat to the need to create crises and dilemmas for dramatic effect. TNG got _really_ bad about that (e.g. the TNG episode "Contagion" where an entire starship, the _Yamato_ was lost with all hands because it depends on multiple active systems continually functioning, without cease, second by second, and which were all under centralized computer control, with no redundancy, no compartmentalization, no firewalls, etc. and the central computer was infected with a computer virus.)
Sadly, as we see here, TOS wasn't immune to this. You see it again in the phasers from every iteration of this show (and to be fair, most other scifi franchises as well) -- having a weapon with stun and kill settings would be a _terrible_ idea, virtually guaranteeing that deaths would result when when people shooting their weapons got it wrong under stress and had the weapons on kill instead of stun. With the closest real-world equivalent -- shotguns firing rounds that are supposed to be non lethal, like bean bag rounds -- are almost invariably fitted with brightly-colored stocks and handguards ane _never_ used to fire lethal ammo in order to avoid any possibility of just such a mistake.
@@Hibernicus1968 In TNG, the "stun vs. kill" issue was mentioned. O'Brien got his hands on a random phaser, which he used to incinerate a Cardassian who was attacking him. The experience severely traumatized O'Brien.
@@zorkmid1083 That's a good example of the show at least acknowledging the issue. You can understand it from a production point of view: the network wants to make the show more family friendly, so they have the people in charge of the show give the weapons a stun setting. Kill can be reserved for those occasions when it's really called for. Everyone's happy. But in any realistic scenario, acknowleding how flawed and prone to error human beings are, a _truly_ grounded in realism show would separare lethal and less than lethal weapons.
Best lines from this episode:
Cogley: "I repeat, I speak of rights. A machine has none. A man must. My client has the right to face his accuser, and if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine. Indeed, you have elevated that machine above us. I ask that my motion be granted, and more than that, gentlemen. In the name of humanity, fading in the shadow of the machine, I demand it. I demand it!"
Was Cogley alive during Measure of a Man, years later? We know Bones was
No machine should have rights, nor do they, and a true living being must always above any tool
Data and Picard would argue
Purpose of the episode: Display the nobility of Kirk and the resourcefulness and loyalty of Spock.
Gloucon X Excellent episode, showing the mark of a extremely efficient and cool as a cucumber Starship Captain who's main concern is his ship snd his crew and put those concerns FIRST above all other things within his life. Ya just can't beat the Original Stsr Trek Series, the VERY BEST Star Trek out there.
And to challenge the rise of the machines.
it was the little attorney that ended up figuring it out and being the hero. He was great, and he was correct about BOOKS.
It's a challenge to find an episode that does not Display the nobility of Kirk and the resourcefulness and loyalty of Spock.
95
@@alphanerd7221 True. But this is the only the15th episode of 82 produced. We were still getting to know these characters. The audience had no detailed knowledge of Kirk's service record.
I guess in the future our legal system has improved to the point where the defense doesn't get to see the evidence until the moment of trial. LOL
Yeah, that was definitely a weakness. I will say, however, the rules of discovery were much less well part of our courtroom culture in the 60s than they are now.
almost like cardassian law
They probably did, after all Spock was saying there was something wrong with the records, and it went to trial instead of Kirk taking a ground-based command. It just so happened that his defense attorney was pro-book and anti-computer so maybe they had it but didn't watch it.
@@sandal_thong8631 Good luck in defending such a defense attorney when he is sued for ineffective assistance of counsel. In the 21st century at least, his career is over (unless the system is ridiculously corrupt, but I don't think that is what you are saying). To say that he didn't watch the video because he was "pro-book and anti-computer" would not be a defense against a charge of major malpractice. Even if we accepted this as some sort of professional philosophy (which in our own century we would be laughable), it wouldn't make sense for this case. For he should not have been surprised at what was going to happen in the video precisely by virtue of his being pro-book, i.e., merely by his having read the specifications of the charges.
@@Primitarian I watched a lot of videos about this episode yesterday, including commentary that said Kirk's lawyer was pretty worthless until Spock and McCoy showed up with the computer chess glitch. Then he got into his stride, claiming that Finney could be still alive!
But also consider the alternative presented by the prosecution and suspected by their classmates at the bar: Kirk may have murdered a former friend because that guy came to hate him, and a Starfleet commodore was going to sweep it under the rug by giving Kirk a ground assignment!
The follow-up scene on the Enterprise is really great. When Cogley asks "Could a man evade such a search?" and Kirk, floored, says "Possibly..." One of my fav ST moments.
It's one of those, "I never even considered that" moments for Kirk.
ah yes, the three most important functions of the enterprise: yellow alert, red alert, and jettisoning the pods. all placed right next to eachother for easy access
Along with the unmarked vibrating chair function button and the fart noise maker button
probably the best captain ever to come out of Starfleet
I agree followed closely by Sisko then Picard.
@@jimmyhinAK Janeway is objectively better than all of them.
How is that possible when it's a fake show with a script.
@@mikerichmond9086 Don't worry about it. your brain would have to be fully functioning.
@@alphanerd7221 your name says it all. Stfu
And nothing is more important than my ship.
Kirk was a hard man from a hard era, an explorer, his mission paramount to all. I don't believe in which captain was best, most served their era, and their commands well, but Kirk will always be my favorite, hard choices were his specialty.
Kirk was an extraordinary example of a captain even for his era. Casual fans will see a rule breaking maverick that annoys the brass, but he was one of the top 5 graduates of Starfleet Academy, became an instructor before even graduating, earned numerous awards and was chosen by Pike to serve on the Enterprise. Then we have his later exploits in the movies.
How there is no USS Kirk in the shows is rather shocking
@@SantomPh too soon. The Nimmitz class did not bear his name while he was alive or those who served with him. Take into account some crew may live to be centuries in age. He was not officially dead until after Generations....or not after if you go by Shatner's books. So premature to do so. Plus Earth Ship classes are named for abstract ideas and concepts or inspired documents representing those ideas. The earlies giant novel called Enterprise showed Robert April and George Kirk decided on the name Consitution for the ship. Later the new class of ships named that and the ship became Enterprise. Now private ships...that's another matter.
@@SantomPh Fun Fact: In Star Trek: Online, there IS a ship called USS Kirk
@@SantomPh i mean in later series they refer to multiple phenomenon and areas of space discovered by captain kirk and hes sort of like a folk hero at star fleet academy and the few times any character gets to meet him because of star trek time travel fuckery they immediately start gushing even if they are a high ranking officer
@@DrowningMoon Jim is literally the Michael Jackson of Star Trek!XD Men want to be him, women want him~I know I do~
This is by far and without a doubt, the greatest television series in history.
you know James I really would hve to agree with you. I am 51 now and have been watching Star Trek TOS since I was a little kid, And I still love it. Sure it had it's flaws. But in spite of those I would still say the same as you. I have seen lots and LOTS of other TV shows in my life. But the original Trek in my mind still tops them all!!
I thirdly agree with the comment, the importance of this show in my youth never left, I still look for places to watch it.
kinda weird that the animated series was so boring
That is one of the truest statements ever made.
Ridiculous. There's no such thing.
One if the most underrated episodes in my opinion
Probably cause the court is written weirdly.
“What is the defendant being accused of, ma’am?”
“Malice.”
It’s just so weird. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think it was one of those bs trial meant to just drag someone through the mud.
Kirk: Engineering 1/3 more thrust. Engineering: Working.Nothing like the sound of Constitution Class warp engines.
This was an excellent episode, but the one big problem I have with it is that Kirk and his lawyer should have had access to this video prior to the start of the trial. There would be no "gotcha" moment for the prosecution.
You can imagine that in the future computers will be relied on so much and such a part of everyday life that the legal system evolves to take computer evidence as indisputable fact, so there is so reason to consider the evidence in advance because there is no argument against it.
Still, Cogley should have seen it and adjusted his defense accordingly. He appears to base his current one without seeing what supposedly happened. I would assume in the future that a defense lawyer would still have a right to discovery.
Greg Ford (This is an amended statement by me to clarify what I was trying to say earlier). I agree with you. Notice is something that one needs to know in advance in order to defend one's position. "Notice" is a fundamental requirement for basic due process, otherwise known as "fairness". The term "due process" and "fairness" are very similar. Without prior knowledge of what your adversary is going to say when he had a previous obligation to tell you, deprives you of due process (fairness) and without it, no one can plan a defense. After all, a jury trial has historically been a "search for the truth". Even in the future, trial by ambush would be a trial without fairness.
Yep. It's called discovery, and grounds for a mistrial, even in courts martial.
I would say its defiantly grounds for a miss trial.
And this "ion pod" was never used before and since. And Kirk almost always verbally orders red alert when he could just press it.
Excellent episode showing what a true starship Captain is trained to do under an extreme emergency, keeping his calm, even when his ship and his crew was in danger, and how he used his trained knowledge to pull his ship and his crew out of that danger. He reacted approprately, calmly, and without hesitation, both in an emergency and calmly explaining his action when on the stand. This episode is one of the very FINEST and BEST episodes of the first season. Love the Original Star Trek Series, NOTHING will ever or can ever top it.
"Nothing is more important that my ship."
I agree.
In fact, there is a saying in the Navy, "Ship, shipmate, self."
There is a poem that states, "The Strength of the Ship is the Service, the Strength of the Service the Ship."
The point being: If the ship goes down we are all dead.
Wrong. That's what lifeboats are for.
A cautionary tale, for those today, who immediately believe what they see in a brief video.
especially in the era of deepfakes
I keep seeing a still of The Wizard of Oz that's been doctored to look like someone hanging from a rope (supposedly a Munchkin), when the real scene shows one of the big birds jumping around in that area.
@ 65, I miss the innocence of youth. But in all the TV shows and old cartoons there was always a good moral. I don't see even a hint of them today.
Shatner acts so well as Kirk in this episode.
The score for this scene is actually re-used music from three separate episodes including the second pilot. And it works marvelously well. The music editors are really the unsung heroes of TOS.
Joan Marshall is lovely.
"Hey, let's put the JETTISON POD button right on the armrest of the Captain's char by the RED ALERT button" said no starship design engineer, ever. lol
Seriously, that button should have been on the helm somewhere or the engineering station, with a flip-up cover to prevent accidental activation.
Hell you could have it that the button is largely dead unless red alert is active as a fail safe. Than you could press the button as much as you like without it activating, as without the red alert button being pressed/active it would not do anything.
This episode was way ahead of its time. Depicting the tampering of a video file (Deep Fake) back in the 1960s was beyond a lot of people's conception. Computers were only glorified adding machines in most people's minds back then. Not until the late 70's and into the 80s was the concept of computers recording and storing video information instead of using film or video tape, really pushed in movies and TV shows. The movie: Looker really did a good job and was also way ahead of its time. It wasn't till the early 1990s that the first video format for everyday personal computers was developed. Today we now have so-called Deep Fake video applications (programs) that can seamlessly alter a video into whatever the user wants to depict, even to the level of what is depicted in this episode, about 54 years after this episode was made.
Have you watched September Clues documentary by simon shack?
Another thing, I was watching TNG clips and Geordi casually mentioned spending time talking to the computer on his trip to Risa. And now we have chat GPT, and other AI's, some that you can literally talk to like Neuro-Sama.
Well, if the writers could conceive of a transporter device and pocket communicators then surely they could imagine the manipulation of the video log (i.e., creating a deep fake).
I like how the magnification of the bridge video has a completely different camera angle than the original video.
It's not actually video. It's internal sensor's records in a 3d model.
Prosecutor: "Sir, exactly how many people have been killed on your starship? Specifically, how many wearing red shirts?"
Kirk: "Those damn red shirts! THEY SHOULD BE SLAUGHTERED!"
"You can't handle the truth 'SLAUGHTER ALL THE RED SHIRTS', YOU'RE GODDAMN RIGHT I ORDERED THEM ALL SLAUGHTERED!"
Actually its not true that they die more.
Hollywood actor, 1960's: My agent had good news, and bad news. He got me a part in Star Trek, but it's a part with a red shirt.
This is STAR TREK 's version of PERRY MASON.
Capt James T Kirk is the man!!!
What a great episode. Thanks for sharing.
The greatest captain of all time, captain James T kirk.
That bell and the 3 double strikes is the same as when Adm. Brand opens the disciplinary proceedings against the surviving members of Nova Squadron in TNG
I just noticed that out of only 3 buttons on that console, one of them specifically reads "jettison pod" Of all the controls on the bridge, is one for jettisoning an ion pod so important it is one of only 3 on the captain's console? I have not heard any reference to that function on any other episode of TOS. Seems a little odd, and a bit convenient.
Glad I'm not the only one who had the line of thought. It would be like having the landing gear, flap, and ejector seat levers right beside each other in an aircraft cockpit. The ease with which one might hit a wrong control during a crisis makes it functionally dangerous, and if I may borrow the phrase, highly illogical in terms of control importance and proximity.
It's deeply bad design. So many heads should have rolled for letting this flaw make its way onto an active vessel.
Reminds me of a Far Side cartoon. Passenger on a airliner is sitting in his seat. Next to him is a switch labeled: "Wings Stay On" and "Wings Fall Off".
Incidentally, I think one key to enjoying Star Trek is not get caught up in the techno stuff and take the special effects for what they were in that era. The story line is what I think the producers were wanting the viewers to focus on.
Thomas Kjar Thought it's an excellent design.
TurboCMinusMinus Its a very functional, excellent design. The starship Captain is trained to know which button to push at exactly the right time, after all, the decisions are his, noone else's as after all, he IS the Captain, and he IS in full command of his ship.
Kirk's defense lawyer played a role in the movie "The Maltese Falcon" in 1941. He was about 64 years older when he played the role in this Star Trek episode. Gene Roddenberry was able to get some very good actors to play in a controversial tv series IMO. The actor's name was Elisha Cook Jr. He was born Dec. 26, 1903 and died May 16, 1995. His role as Defense attorney Samual T. Cogley in this 1967 episode of Star Trek would have made him age 64 at the time of the filming of TOS episode of "Court Martial".
Even before Elisha Cook Jr. played in the" Maltese Falcon" he appeared in WWII training videos that can be seen on YT recently installed by Jeff Quitney. It seems the defense lawyer in this film was a WWII veteran. Either the makeup people did a great job in this episode of Attorney Cogley or he was born with good healthy genes. He certainly did not look anywhere near 64 when he played this role in TOS. IMO.
He also played in Stanley Kubricks "The Killing"
And one-eyed jack!
@@yes-fq6jd He also played with Humphrey Bogart in "The Big Sleep" as a low level informant.
Don't forget Rosemary's Baby. He was the fellow who showed Rosemary and Guy the apartment at the beginning.
He was Wilmer in the falcon
I remember watching all of them all the way through until today great fun love them all
If Janeway was held to this level of accountability she would have been court martialed 6 or 7 times by now.
🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔 You're right.
If kirk had been stuck in another quadrant he'd have broken way more rules than janeway
@@terraphantom1039 i dont recall Kirk arming a assimilating race to genicide another (borg against species 8472), stranfing his entire crew 65 years from home (premise of Voyager) kidnapping and forcing a alien to join him no mater what their opinion is (Seven of Nine) The ONLY thing the two did in common is fuck with time, and even then Kirk tried to avoid causing a paradox, Janeway changed history and caused the events of Picard S3
So where are all the people who are so certain that Shatner did nothing but over-act?
Not watching Star Trek, as usual.
1984 baby, 1984. The majority can be pretty idiotic sometimes
"Cool story, bro. Here's a video of you hitting the button before the red alert."
This is the only episode where we see Kirk wearing all three uniform shirts, the green wrap around, the gold and the dress uniform.
It took awhile for the colors to be separated according to service area: gold--command; blue--sciences and medicine; red--engineering. Kirk wore gold from his initial appearance in the second pilot episode. Spock, although he became the Enterprises's First Officer and second-in-command, wore sciences blue; he had originally been Science Officer in the first pilot. I don't know whether he held both positions simultaneously.
BUT continuity on TOS was very bad. In "The Cage", then-Science Officer Spock wore sciences blue. But in the second pilot, "Where No Man Has Gone Before", he wears command gold, as First Officer. Then, for the regular series, he is back to blue again.
The green wrap around looks so good on him~!
@@Love-Sensibility I think Shatner once said he never liked the green wrap around cause it was too snug. Lol
@@ralphangioli4852 That's not really a problem😏Its comfortable, and makes him extremely sexy too~
The best star trek. It is the most realistic depiction of evolved humanity and how we would handle ourselves aboard a large spaceship.
The two key points: Kirk's lawyer isn't very good, and chicks from the future are hot.
I loved how Uhura jumped into the helmsman's seat near the end. She's a very talented officer.
Captain Kirk:
"I want that prosecutor in my quarters after my court martial acquittal Spock!"
Spock: "Indeed Captain..indeed!"
😆🤣😄😁
Had to prove to the prosecutor that Kirk never prematurely ejects anything.
@@backupplan6058 9 months later the defence rests .
Altering video records did seem like science fiction back then. Now it's done so much we truly have no idea what we are seeing - real or fake.
I always liked Kirk's lawyer. He could've had a series of his own.
The only problem with this trial is that they never addressed the missing quart of strawberries.
A duplicate key definitely did exist!
Ah yes, the great Strawberry Investigation.
And Kirk had no ball bearings to rattle.
The prosecution seems to think the computer system is infallible. Clearly she never put up with Microsoft Vista.
where was the Blimp Attack button?
Nice video SKIPPER
I think William Shatner has got to of been the most handsome man on television in the sixties and blimey there were quite a few as I remember.
Samuel Cogley should have a cameo in Star Trek Discovery.
"Don't you know that in the Service you always choose the lesser of two weevils." ~Russell Crowe, Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World
Finney really hated Kirk to put Jamie through the pain of thinking he was dead, all just for revenge
I think that he somehow let Jamie know he was alive. She had an uncharacteristic change of heart about Captain Kirk when she came to Cogleys law office. I think she was torn between protecting Kirk, and keeping her fathers machinations hidden.
@@MrAndyBearJr maybe
@@MrAndyBearJr that's a good point was she on it with her father 🤔
One of my favourite details is the camera angle for th security footage, so many tv shows at that time would’ve just used normal shots or even footage from a previous episode (for budgetary reasons most of the Time but laziness is also a minute factor)
I just love that they treated it like a grounded scen and used a cctv camera angle, that’s the unique brilliance of gene roddenberry and all Star Trek creators
Looks messed up as a log camera and more like TV or movie shots like the "recording" in _Star Trek III._ They used three angles: one behind him for his hand, one from where the viewscreen is, and one overhead that looks appropriate and should have been zoomed in.
Loved this episode, but there's NO WAY an ex girlfriend of Kirk's would be allowed to be a prosecutor on his case. She would have recused herself immediately or the else the court would have.
Girls name?
@@hmac2476 Prosecutor Areel Shaw, played by Joan Marshall.
"And nothing is more important than my ship." He really really means it too.
Funny how I watched this episode last night and boom, here it is in the universe of algorithms. It’s like they’re watching us.
If I may address the console issue-Putting aside that this was a tv show and they needed that for dramatic effect, let me embrace my "inner nerd." The ,if you'll excuse the phrase, logical explanation is that the buttons can be configured by the user to fit a specific situation. In a modern example, the buttons on a jet fighter's displays can be configured to activate different things depending on the avionics mode. That way 5 buttons can do a lot of different things. In other episodes he hits one of those buttons for comms, etc. Think about it- in this episode's situation Kirk wanted 3 things under his direct control. They were yellow and red alerts and pod jett. .That would also explain why 2 buttons are unmarked. Also note the buttons take a definite operation to activate(ie: not something you can bump)
Moi Capitan, you'z in trouble now!
what a great show this was
Whoever put the “red alert” button next to the “jettison pod with person still inside it” button is the guy who should be on trial here! Wtf?!?!
Apparently in the future we don’t have integrity checking for the logs and terrible computer security.
William Shatner someday you will go into space for real!
As a guest of Lex Luthor, I mean Jeff Bezos.
@@starguy2718 Yes, unfortunately.
Good episode
The problem with the video is that the Yellow Alert button IS clearly lit and the red alert button not, when he hits the 'jettison the pod' button ; sorry Captain, you're guilty! Also, Yellow Alert, Red Alert, Jettison the Pod, what is this, 'Airplane!'🤣🤣🤣
This episode is the first to use the terms "Starfleet" and "Starfleet Command".
I've always wondered how Finney expected to continue propagating the lie that he was dead. Even if Kirk was found guilty, wouldn't it soon be discovered that Finney was alive on the Enterprise? I mean he cannot hide indefinitely. One possibility is that he planned to beam himself down to a planet, without this somehow being noticed by the transporter room staff or by the computers that monitor transporter room activity.
The heartbeat sensor was pretty stupid. There's a lot of things making louder noises on a starship than a heartbeat, even breathing. But Finney not having a way off the ship was also stupid. Supposedly a repair crew was assigned to the Enterprise. In a typical episode he'd impersonate one of them (or another crewmember) and beam down to the starbase; or wait until the transporter room was unoccupied as others have done. Remember the one where a guy hid in a box?
@@sandal_thong8631 I'll give them a pass on the heartbeat sensor - let's assume that it was designed to detect only heartbeats and therefore filters out all other noises.
Another hole in the story is the inability of the Enterprise to determine if Finney was really dead. There have been other episodes where the Enterprise was shown to have the capability of detecting human remains in space after an explosion. In Gamesters of Triskelion, Spock commented that the ship's sensors are capable of finding even individual atoms.
Yes, I remember the one where Dr. Simon Van Gelder hides in the box. Amazing that the transporter computers would not be able to figure that out.
@@ddenuci Someone said it's every woman's dream to prosecute their ex after he broke her heart and went on to a successful career.
Someone else said they were all against Kirk. (Kirk waived the right to remove the prosecutor and lead judge on basis of prejudice). If so then someone should have beamed Finney down to the Starbase where he could join an acting troupe like Kodos. Or hopped a ship heading out of Federation space.
Of course "The Conscience of the King" had some ridiculous problems like the Federation wouldn't have a picture, audio or DNA of a colonial governor, and no one besides Spock had ever done a background check on Anton Karidian to find he had no past before Kodos. Then a picture and audio recording show up at the end!
The way it should have run was that he was an actor, and assumed the role of Kodos, wearing a mask, and taking the governorship from someone ineffectual with little charisma or backbone. Then he gets followers to do what he commands, fakes his death and returns to being Karidian. Only Kirk, Riley and Half-Face were those still alive who had seen him without the mask and heard his voice when they were kids. The only picture would be artist drawings and a composite of the kids' descriptions, which doesn't seem to match. Then Kirk would be left with his own eye-witness testimony which isn't strong. But the murders of the eye-witnesses would be the main compelling evidence that he's Kodos, so Kirk needs to draw him out (or the real killer) in the end. But he botched it twice: first with Riley then with the phaser on overload.
Good thing Hansen was on duty at helm. Sulu would have panicked
This was good episode. However this procedure was never show again or heard of before. STNG, Voyager, Enterprise etc. should have shown this process and why it’s important to do in an ion storm successfully or not.
*Kirk was convicted based on this evidence, sent to the Tantalus Penal Colony, and later executed using agonizer rays. It was a sad day for Star Fleet.*
Those last words, "but that's not the way it happened." Seems like the words we hear almost everyday today! Lack of integrity, honesty and TRUTH!!!
complete ship master controls consists of 5 buttons, five lights and some printed tape.
Nothing is more important than my ship. So true in space.
Okay, I understand that the video log was forged to make it appear that Kirk pressed the "Jettison" button before the second "Alert" button... but _WHY_ TF would those two buttons be so close together anyway????
Top Notch lawyer? LOL, he almost gave up, but when Spock gave him the ammunitions, he became a macho lawyer.
Kirk's hand on light is a lie detector? Could use that during congressional hearing testimony. No more "disremembering."
This cracks me up. The buttons the captain needs are:
Yellow alert
Red Alert and...
Jetison pod?
Logical as Spock might say
Fascinating.
hell ill subscribe base on ur name alone!!!!!!! lmao
Why were the buttons so close together and written on sticky labels?
Golly! I didn't know the Skipper had a TH-cam channel!
Not much else to do when stranded on an uncharted island in the middle of the South Pacific.
Check out Uhura at 2:59 what she is doing. In the court they even reverse and let you see that move again.
I don't get it, what is she doing?
Oh, I forgot. Maybe I thought she was flashing from her pose.
Hey Skipper!
Kirk staring down the man who thinks he just murdered his son and saying "i would do it again" is such a cold scene lol
The funny thing with this episode is that Captain Kirk's lawyer looks surprised at the video evidence that is being presented. IF he attended law school 101.....the prosecution would HAVE to share with him ALL evidence that is being presented. His expression should not be that of shock when this evidence is presented.
He's computer illiterate or anti-technological and didn't watch the videos the prosecution and Spock gave him.
The alert and ejection buttons suck in the future..... LOL
Your honors, I move for a mistrial, on grounds that the prosecutor is simply too hot-looking for these proceedings.
Hmm … that “visual log” has multiple cameras and is edited to focus on the items of interest? 🤔
I think it was a missed opportunity to show for all of Kirk's nobility and honor, he is not perfect. He can make mistakes. It makes him more relatable and human just like the rest of us.
What exactly is the purpose of the ion pod? Is it attached to the ship? Why does it need to be jettisoned?
An ion pod is a thing invented to initiate a dramatic story arc, the details of the thing itself are not meant to be deeply pondered.
It is a MacGuffin.
The purpose of the ion pod is to collect data on the storm, something which the ship's sensors are unable to reliably perform due to the presence of heavy distortion in the data. The pod is attached to the ship and must be jettisoned under severe vibration which could result in destruction of the entire ship.
jonas grumby Excellent reply to the question asked. This is an excellent episode, and I liked how the Captain kept his cool under trying circumstances. His deepest love and concern is always for his ship and his crew and put those important factors above everything else in his life. The Original Star Trek Series is the only BEST Star Trek series out there.
It's nice to see P-Touch labels still being used in the 23rd century. If it ain't broke...
Who the hell puts all those buttons together right next to each other? That’s like putting the nuclear launch sequencer next to the coffee machine.
I would point out that when each person sits down on the chair to give testimony to the court, their right hand is placed on the lighted console. I presume this is some sort of lie detector device. If so, then if Kirk's testimony was false the lie detector would have gone off.
It may prove he did not commit perjury. That leaves mental defect or false memories of events, not a good thing either way. By the way for comparison fedral US prosecuters have a win rate of 98%. That is horrifying.
Pod duty sounds like a job for an enlisted man
Just so long as the occupant wears a red shirt.
Lota that goin around
wasnt that the skippers real name from gilligans island or should i quir smoking.....lol
3:59 Engineering given a command after ship's been rattled: Twerking.
Dominion Smartmatic
This is a great episode indeed, but they had to create so many ad hoc procedures to create the drama. When do we ever again in Star Trek hear about an "ion pod" which needed to be jettisoned during a storm? And when does the Captain control things like that simply by pressing buttons at his chair, as opposed to giving orders to the helmsman, the science officer, etc.?
Total kickass episode.
"Your honours, may I make one thing clear? It is not the prosecution's contention that Captain Kirk acted out of negligence or malice. On the contrary, the prosecution assumes that no one who rises to command the flagship of the United Federation of Planets, could possibly be negligent or malicious. Therefore, if the defendant committed questionable acts under pressure, the explanation must surely lay elsewhere." - paraphrased from the Caine Mutiny
Like what?