At the twentieth (20) slot on my top episode list, I rank "By Any Other Name," a thoroughly entertaining and enjoyable episode from the second season, and one that demonstrates the color and dynamic qualities of Star Trek well.
Many Star Trek episodes are overtly humorous in nature, and all of those types of episodes, I prefer this one.
Stardate 4657.5
The
U.S.S. Enterprise answers a distress call from an uninhabited M-class world,
only to be waylaid by an advance scouting mission from the Kelvan Empire, a powerful
political force in the distant Andromeda Galaxy.
The
Kelvans are led by Rojan (Warren Stevens), a commander who uses his people’s advanced
technology to reduce the vast majority of the Enterprise crew to cuboctahedron
blocks. These small blocks store their patterns for later restoration, leaving
only the command crew intact.
Rojan’s
plan is to take the Enterprise through the barrier at the edge of the galaxy,
to Andromeda, a trip which will take 300 years.
However,
to make this lengthy journey, Rojan and his people have assumed human form, and
Captain Kirk (William Shatner) realizes that with human form comes human
emotions. With the help of his crew, Kirk
seeks to sow emotional instability in the Kelvans and re-take the ship.
To
that end, Scotty (James Doohan) introduces one Kelvan, Tomar, to alcoholic
beverages. Meanwhile, Kirk sets his sight on seducing Kelinda (Barbara
Bouchet), an act which stokes Rojan’s feelings of jealousy...
I
can -- and will -- the count the ways that I absolutely love “By Any Other
Name,” an episode from Star Trek’s (1966-1969) late second
season.
This
season sees many attempts at overt humor (from “I, Mudd” to “A Piece of the
Action” and “The Trouble with Tribbles”) but in some ways, this episode -- from
Jerome Bixby and D.C. Fontana -- best transmits the series’ sense of humor
without going overboard into silliness or over-the-top performances.
The
episode’s good humor derives, specifically, from an acknowledgment of the crew’s
human foibles, and the way that the characters deploy those foibles to extract
themselves from a crisis.
To
put it another way, the way that the crew defeat their enemies in “By Any Other
Name” is to bring their own special quirks and gifts to the problem. We have
seen this formula work again and again in Star Trek, in The Search for Spock
(1984), The Voyage Home (1986) and recently in Star Trek: Beyond
(2016).
Here,
Kirk, Spock, Scotty and McCoy each get to be at their mischievous, ornery,
cunning, hilarious best in order to knock down the antagonists of the
week. It’s true that aliens who don’t
understand human emotions are a familiar trope in sci-fi TV, but that scenario
nonetheless allows for some great comedy in “By Any Other Name.”
Scotty drinks Tomar under the table, (and
utters the famous line “it’s….green,”
regarding some alien type of alcohol), and Kirk -- of course -- goes for the
pretty lady, teaching Belinda to kiss.
This is a lesson he has taught before (see “The Gamesters of Triskelion.”)
Spock,
meanwhile, dispassionately and logically gets to Rojan, spurring his jealousy
and paranoia. And Dr. McCoy enacts a
little medical tomfoolery on Hanar (Stewart Moss) that has the poor Kelvan
climbing up the walls and becoming a hypochondriac.
In
the end, these efforts enough to retake the ship, and a thorough victory for Kirk and
his crew. The humor is adroit too, particularly
in the climactic moment when Rojan hurls Kirk into Spock and Bones in the briefing room doorway
They
catch him, and Kirk says “I’m stimulating
him.”
Delightfully,
they heave Kirk right back into the thick of the fight, to continue his
campaign of emotional overload.
But
if the comedy works so well in “By Any Other Name,” and clearly, it does, the
episode succeeds too on a few other fronts.
Namely invention and continuity.
On
the subject of invention, this episode presents the unforgettable notion of
transforming human beings into small cuboctahedrons which can store their
biological information. The special
effects are powerful in the depiction of these (delicate) blocks, as we see beloved characters (including Chekov and Uhura)
reduced to these powdery things.
And, of course, we are introduced to the small blocks through one of the
nastiest reveals ever to be featured on Star Trek.
Specifically,
on the planet’s surface, Yeoman Thompson (Julie Cobb) and a security guard Lt
Shea (Carl Byrd), are reduced to the cuboctahedrons, and one block is crushed
by Rojan. When the survivor is restored,
we see that it is the male, Shea, meaning that the young, frightened Yeoman Thompson was the
victim. This moment carries tremendous
impact both in terms of establishing Kirk’s feelings of responsibility, and the
power of the Kelvans.
In
terms of continuity, “By Any Other Name” clearly remembers a great deal of Star
Trek history. For example, the incidents on Eminiar 7 (from “A Taste of
Armageddon”) are recalled here, as Spock attempts to place a (false) thought into the
mind of a captor, Kelinda.
Later,
the Enterprise leaves the galaxy, and encounters the barrier seen in the pilot
episode, “Where No Man Has Gone Before.” This is an especially nice touch, from a continuity standpoint. The Enterprise looked different, and the crew had
different uniforms (and in some cases, different jobs) in that story. This episode suggests, however, that they
still take place in the same universe, meaning that Starfleet boasts a history
of updating its technology, uniforms, ships and so forth. The universe seems more "real" because of these developments, at least in my eyes.
I
also find “By Any Other Name” worthwhile because of one particular scenario involving Kirk
and his top officers. They have all
agreed that the Enterprise cannot remain in Kelvan hands. Accordingly, Scotty
has rigged the engines to explode on contact with the barrier at the edge of
the galaxy, when Kirk gives the order.
When the fateful moment comes, Kirk does not give the order.
This
could be interpreted as weakness, perhaps. The other officers are ready to make
the sacrifice of their lives and their ships.
But Captain Kirk does not ask for
that sacrifice. Instead, he realizes that it is better to live to fight another
day. This strategic thinking is a key
aspect of Kirk’s character, I would say.
Where some officers with more limited imagination would take the “safe” way out,
and destroy the ship and crew, Kirk does not limit his thinking. He looks ahead
to the possibilities, and the chance that additional time will give him a new option. He
doesn’t play a zero sum game, but instead seeks…alternatives.
All
the guest performances in this episode, from Stevens and Moss to Bouchet, hit
exactly the right notes, and it is a pleasure to watch the Enterprise command
crew get under the Kelvans' (thin) skins. As
for the series regular, in this case they manage some deft comedy without going
overboard, or lurching into self-parody. The episode never becomes a lightweight comedy. Instead, "By Any Other Name" is a serious story with very real comedic moments and overtones.
I
know “By Any Other Name” isn’t generally regarded as a great episode of the series, but I feel that it is an immensely accomplished hour of Star Trek, for all the reasons I’ve listed.
For me, By Any Other Name is one of the worst of the second year. I have no problem with the cast (Warren Stevens is always a solid villain and Barbara Bouchet makes a rare American appearance). Turning the crew into mineralized dodecahedrons is very Lost In Space. Kirk has never been more passive and inert, especially when the Yeoman is murdered and his plan to turn the tide by seducing Bouchet is something an eight-grader would write. And again, the injection of comedy and light-hearted music in the 3rd and 4th act is again annoying, made even worse with the Yeoman's death forgotten and Kirk offering to help the Kelvans, creatures intent on destroying any living beings in their path.
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