Day of The Dove

DVD, Star Trek S3 (Day of The Dove)

When the Klingons are involved you always expect something good, and this is no exception. The first appearance of female Klingons, and probably their red transporter beam, and one more ship to see. I think Kirk should have kept that, to give to Federation scientists for evaluation. But that might have been an act of war, and according to Kang, war isn't currently an official state between them, as he threatens that Kirk's actions will provoke war and Kirk does the same.

Still no mention of the Organians and their powers of stopping combat, it seems that the Klingons pick a fight with anyone in the area, rather than worrying about policy and such. They differ with later variants in that regard, but at least we know that they are more human than later ones. The women have this trait even more, if Mara is anything to go by, as she is pretty subdued and quiet. This may be something to do with her scientist leanings, so she could be an anomaly. Kang obviously saw something in her, as he married her, and he seems a man with pretty good judgment compared to some of his race. A very good Klingon he made here, commanding, fighting, knowing when to listen to reason (eventually) and showing his strength by allowing his mind to be changed. They should bring him back...

There isn't a whole lot to read into the episode, it's much more an out-and-out actioner, but there are undertones of learning to live with other races. One of the best scenes is when Spock begins to lose control as Scotty heaps slurs on him and his people, and grabs him, ready to beat his head in, only stopped by Kirk (using two arms to stop his one!), before reason and logic return. McCoy has a similarly powerful performance, as does Scotty, as both rant about the Klingons. Chekov gets another chance to scream in torture, and goes AWOL to fight them. When he was saying about his brother I was a bit confused, wondering why I didn't remember that fact, but thankfully I wasn't being affected by the creature, it was a fabrication!

The creature was well integrated into the visuals and felt like it was moving, and the red glow as it's power increased was an effective visual. The effects were used very well, from that creature to the destruction of the Klingon vessel, you get a real sense that these things have moved on, incrementally, and it would be interesting to see how they would have progressed if the series had continued into the seventies. Something else I wondered about was the fate of the Klingons aboard the Enterprise at the end - presumably they would have been set on neutral territory or handed over to one of their ships with the uneasy truce.

Funny when Kang jovially slaps Kirk at the end and he almost topples over! Another joy of the episode (beside having Klingons and getting to see more of the ship), was that the majority of the characters get well used, with only Uhura missing out on any action. She almost looks sad at one point when they leave her on the bridge (the powered down life support lighting made for a more contrasted picture, one I wouldn't have minded them using all the time). The only real disappointment is the equation: Sulu + swords + Klingons running round the ship = no fencing action for Sulu. He had a sword in his hand, he was given command of Engineering at one point, but we never get to see him use it! Unbelievable, and a huge missed opportunity. Apart from that oversight it had most things, with only an occasional slow middle scene to lose the pace. Season Three continues to be strong.

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