The Enterprise Incident (TOS episode)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Star Trek: TOS episode
"The Enterprise Incident"
Kirk disguised as a Romulan, The Enterprise Incident.
Episode no.	57
Prod. code	059
Airdate	September 27, 1968
Writer(s)	D.C. Fontana
Director	John Meredyth Lucas
Guest star(s)	Joanne Linville Jack Donner Richard Compton Robert Gentile Mike Howden Gordon Coffey Eddie Paskey Roger Holloway
Year	2268
Stardate	5027.3
Episode chronology
Previous	"Spock's Brain"
Next	"The Paradise Syndrome"

"The Enterprise Incident" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, first broadcast September 27, 1968 and repeated December 27, 1968. It is episode #57, production #59, written by D.C. Fontana and directed by John Meredyth Lucas.

Overview: The crew of the Enterprise attempts to steal a Romulan cloaking device.

[edit] Plot

On stardate 5027.3, Captain James T. Kirk takes the USS Enterprise, into Romulan space for no apparent reason. The ship's medical officer, Dr. McCoy, has been reporting strange irregularities in Captain Kirk's behavior lately and expresses concern for the unwarranted maneuver. Before Kirk can even give an explanation, the Enterprise encounters three Romulan warships which decloak and surround the ship. They order Kirk to surrender.

Kirk refuses to give up the ship and threatens to destroy the Enterprise if the Romulans make an attempt to board her. The Romulans then offer to "talk" with Kirk and request he and Mr. Spock beam over to the lead ship. In return, they offer two of their officers as "hostages" in exchange. Kirk and Spock agree, and beam over.

Once aboard the Romulan vessel, they meet the ship's commander, a woman, who demands an explanation for Kirk's intrusion. Kirk explains their ship accidentally wandered into Romulan space because of equipment malfunctions; however Spock contradicts his Captain's explanation saying that Kirk ordered them here owing to his mental instability and incompetence to command.

The Romulans charge Kirk with espionage and send him to the brig where he is injured by the cell's force field when he tries to escape. The Romulans call for Dr. McCoy to beam over and tend to Kirk's wounds. Afterward, they order Mr. Scott, who is now in command of the Enterprise, to follow them back to their base; however Scotty refuses without a fight. McCoy declares Kirk incompetent to command, then Kirk suddenly lashes out and attacks Mr. Spock who reacts without thinking and fights back with a Vulcan nerve pinch which he describes as a "Vulcan death grip". McCoy then declares the Captain dead.

McCoy carts Kirk's body back to the Enterprise while Mr. Spock remains on the Romulan ship. He stays and talks to the Romulan commander who would like to get to know him better. She tries to persuade Spock to switch sides, telling him his talents and discipline would better serve the Romulan Empire. The longer the two converse, the more Spock begins to feel attracted to her.

Meanwhile, back aboard the Enterprise, Kirk makes a miraculous recovery. The entire charade has been for the Romulans' benefit in order to carry out a mission to acquire a Romulan cloaking device. Dr. McCoy alters Kirk's appearance using plastic surgery to make him look like a Romulan. Mr. Spock simultaneously gathers information about the cloaking device and learns of its location on the ship. Kirk, disguised as a Romulan officer, is then secretly transported over to the Romulan ship, while Spock gives him some time by stalling the Romulan commander.

Kirk gains access to the room where the device is located and manages to disconnect it. He quickly beams himself and the equipment back to the Enterprise before his presence is detected; however the Romulans discover the theft and report the intrusion to the Romulan commander. The commander feels betrayed by Spock, and angrily orders him to be executed immediately.

Back on the Enterprise, Kirk impatiently awaits Mr. Spock's return and tells Mr. Chekov to locate and lock on to him. Chekov finds Spock and quickly beams him back. The Romulan commander however, sees Spock begin to dematerialize, so she grabs him and the two are beamed away together.

Kirk orders the Enterprise to race back to Federation space and the Romulan subcommander, now in charge of the flagship, orders his ships to give chase. With three Romulan warships barreling down on them, Kirk has Mr. Scott hook the Romulan cloak up to the Enterprise. At first Scotty has problems getting it installed; leaving Kirk biting his nails on the bridge, but just as the Romulan ships reach firing range, the Enterprise vanishes.

Kirk now takes the ship to the nearest starbase, with two prizes; the Romulan cloaking device, and one of the Romulans' top commanding officers.

[edit] Trivia

• The D-7 models for the Romulan warships are actually Klingon ships, used instead of the Romulan Bird-of-Prey model seen in the episode "Balance of Terror". It is stated in the first draft of the script that the Romulans and Klingons had an exchange of technology, where Romulans received four Klingons heavy D7 battlecruisers and the Klingons were given Romulan cloaking technology. The reason for using the D-7 model has been given two different explanations over the years. According to one account, the show's production staff had just finished new Klingon ship models and wanted to show off Matt Jeffries' work and help boost sales on the about-to-be released model kit from AMT. Another report - one considered most likely by Trek historians and somewhat confirmed by model master and sculptor Wah Chang in a 1982 National Public Radio interview - was that the model was destroyed after its initial use in Balance of Terror. According to Wah in the interview, there was some issues over payment for the model - which he had designed and built - following a complaint by one of the special effects unions over Wah's non-membership. While Wah's membership was an issue because the union refused to allow him into their guild for the simple reason that his skills were superior to most of the guild's current members, Desilu and the Star Trek production staff used his talents anyway, claiming that the props he made were already made and "bought off the shelf". However, the local guild had evidence that Wah had built the Bird-of-Prey model specifically for the show, and after some negotiation agreed to drop the grievance if Wah received no payment for the model. Desilu capitulated, and returned the model to Wah. In a fit of anger, Wah took the model into his back yard, and proceded to bash it to bits with a sledge hammer.

• In "The Enterprise Incident", Romulans wear their hair differently from Vulcans, but in the later Star Trek series and films Romulans -- male and female alike -- sport Vulcan-like bangs covering their foreheads.

• While this episode was the fourth produced for the third season, it aired second, after "Spock's Brain".

• The actual name of the Romulan commander, and her ultimate fate, are not known for certain. At least three different explanations are given in Trek novels - The Price of the Phoenix, Rihannsu#1: My Enemy, My Ally and Vulcan's Heart - (in the early days of Trek writing, many novels tended to contradict each other, and so the commander has had many different names and futures). The latest (and most popular) explanation is given in the novel Vulcan's Heart, by Josepha Sherman and Susan Shwartz, in which her name is given as Liviana Charvanek. Apparently, some time after the events of this episode, Charvanek was returned to Romulus (ch'Rihan) and resumed her military career.

• D. C. Fontana based this story very loosely upon the Pueblo Incident, in which members of that Navy vessel were captured in 1968 and held several months after they strayed into North Korean waters.

• The first draft script had Spock "raining kisses on every square inch above the shoulder" of the Romulan Commander, but this was changed, at Nimoy's insistence, to the more demure finger caresses. Fontana has pointed out in recent years that the "raining kisses" scene was actually an embellishment by Gene Roddenberry - one of the few he applied to third season scripts - and that the original script submitted had only an embrace and kiss, with most of the passion being delivered by the Romulan commander.

• Originally, both Kirk and McCoy were disguised as Romulans and went aboard the Romulan ship to steal the cloaking device. This was dropped not only due to cost concerns, but after Robert H. Justman pointed out that having McCoy doing plastic surgery on his own ears would have stretched believability a bit unless another actor was hired - costing more money - to perform the surgery on both Kirk and McCoy.

• It is odd that the Enterprise officers discussed the Romulan cloaking technology as if surprised, without reference to the fact that they encountered it directly two years before in the first season episode "Balance of Terror." When Captain Kirk asked Mr. Spock why the Enterprise's sensors had not detected the Romulan ships until they had suddenly appeared, Spock answers "I believe the Romulans have developed a cloaking device, which renders our tracking sensors useless." Kirk should not have needed any explanation, nor should Spock have had to speak so hypothetically. Engineer Scott, part of this discussion and not party to Kirk's and Spock's secret mission, does not indicate any memory of it, either. (Note that a second season episode, "I, Mudd," made direct mention of the first season episode "Mudd's Women," so it is not as if the show's producers were undertaking any general effort to deny the crew's past missions.) However, in "Balance of Terror", the Enterprise was able to use its sensors to track the Romulan vessels while they were cloaked, so the crew's surprise may stem from the fact that the superior cloaking device caught them off guard. This is indeed the case as the first draft script has dialogue which specifically states that this version of the cloaking device is superior to the one used in "Balance of Terror."

[edit] External links

• Official site episode entry
• The Enterprise Incident article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki.

Last produced: "The Paradise Syndrome"	Star Trek: TOS episodes Season 3	Next produced: "And the Children Shall Lead"
Last transmitted: "Spock's Brain"		Next transmitted: "The Paradise Syndrome"