Court Martial

DVD, Star Trek S1 (Court Martial)

Captain Kirk's integrity is called into question in this, the genesis of all Trek trial episodes to come. And there were plenty to come (from 'Dax' and 'The Drumhead,' to 'Rules of Engagement,' 'The Measure of A Man' and 'Judgement,' to name but few), perhaps down to the success of the drama here, but also the cost savings associated with a more traditional form of drama that didn't require expensive alien costumes, ships or planets to be crafted for them to work. Saying that, an impression of cheapness was never one left by this story, instead it broadens the world far beyond the confines of the microclimate of the Enterprise and our repertory of characters like no other episode had done before, with the possible exception of 'The Cage' for giving us a backward swipe into a different time, though it's a toss up whether you give the credit to it or the 'envelope' episodes that first brought it to the viewers within 'The Menagerie' two-parter. I would hazard a guess that the structure of those was inspired by this, with its court setting, the reputation of a main character on the line, and especially the playback of events as evidence, even if it does prove beyond all doubt that the camera, even that of a top of the range starship, can be made to lie and fool even top brass experienced officers in spite of going up against a flawless record as that of James T. Kirk's.

That's the crux of the story: the balance between a man and his potential for mistakes, and the pure, infallible nature of automation in the form of the ship's computer. Which is more reliable? Should the fact that a man is organic weigh against him? Is a computer superior? Just as in 'The Conscience of The King' we're reminded that, although these people, our heroes, live in a world of the greatest advances in technology, they retain the essential essence of humanity that sets them apart from the machine. They accept the machine, appreciate its ease of use, its opening of the mind to greater possibilities, but they don't allow it to define them. Some more than others! Take Kirk's lawyer, Samuel T. Cogley (just what does his middle initial stand for? Could it be Tiberius - is he really from a Mirror Universe? Or maybe Thomas, and he has a duplicate Transporter double bitterly waiting somewhere in the galaxy?), a man that appears to be an eccentric for his lack of respect for the computer. He allows for computers, he has one, but he trusts his own instincts and the physical media– no, that sounds too dry for what can only be described as a wholesome joy he has in these ancient bound forms of information expression: he positively comes alive when talking of books and makes the love of them something to inspire in itself. In an age where he can cross reference the sterile data of a computer; pasteurised, homogenised, synthesised; he prefers the immediacy and tactile history found at his fingertips.

Let's be honest, Kirk isn't anti-books - whenever his quarters have been seen he always has a stack of them (and we'd heard in 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' that he was known as a stack of books on legs at the Academy, not a stack of computer pads on legs), and he admits he likes books, but he also doesn't have the same connection to them as Cogley. He likes books, but I don't think he sees it as the best way to help his case that Cogley relies on them and his memory rather than the computer. But it's just another emphasis of the theme of soul versus hardware, a battle Kirk is determined to win. When is he ever in a battle he's not determined to win? But it shows great spirit and personal honesty that rather than take Commodore Stone's easy way out, he won't shrink into the background and have some excuse made for what happened, to protect the service, since Stone doesn't mince words when he says no starship Captain has ever been put on trial before (let's hope 'Discovery' keeps track of these kind of details, though there are always workarounds to bypass such generalisations - look at Archer, who was put on trial by the Klingons). For the first time we're really getting a sense of the scope of the organisation Kirk and his crew work for, with a desire by the Commodore to keep things on the quiet, while Kirk refuses to back down, knowing he's in the right.

We see the beautiful image of Starbase 11 (strangely for a 'star' base, it's located on a planet - a beautiful blue planet with drifting clouds, but definitely not out in the stars as the name would suggest!), which is fantastically worked into the background of Stone's attractive office with its shiny black desk in a stylised, silhouetted cutout design that is mesmerising to look at. Then there's the repair chart on the wall showing the registry numbers of nine other starships besides the Enterprise. This in itself provides fascinating material for speculation as to the names and classes of each, and I have no idea if all were ever named in the course of the series, but I'll warrant at least some of them were. Is this list all the ships in the fleet, or all the ships facing a repair schedule at this particular starbase? We don't know, but it opens the door to facts and figures of much greater size and scale than we imagined before. Then there's the number of extras, so many uniforms crowding the bar where Kirk meets some of his fellow Academy graduates and receives nothing but a frosty reception in return. You'd think they'd have been glad to see an old classmate, you'd expect them to assume the best of someone, not condemn him on hearsay and rumour. But there Roddenberry's vision was unfalteringly true to human behaviour, all too quick to cast judgement on its fellows and loose the bonds of camaraderie and friendship in an instant. It may be they had an underlying jealousy of Kirk's rise and this was the first time they had a chance to act on it, in the same way as Ben Finney's personal grudge affected his whole outlook, turning him paranoid that they all conspired against him, one mistake costing a career in his mind.

The colours, oh how they pop, from the Commodore's red uniform and dazzling gold star, to the various dress uniforms worn by members of the court, it all looks so appealing. It's a shame amid all this that that I didn't notice that we first come across the term Starfleet in this episode as I've been looking out for it, but only twigged when reading about it afterwards - a sign of the coming together of the series' continuity and direction being solidified. In all respects this episode blows open the scope and inner workings of the fleet in a truly exciting way, even without the added drama of the best Captain serving in it being treated as if he deliberately killed an officer under him with whom he had a history. That's another part of the appeal, learning a smidgen more about Kirk's backstory, the time he got Finney reprimanded for making a mistake when he was but Ensign Kirk on the Republic. Imagine if we'd been treated to a flashback or 'log recording' of that incident, and seen a younger Kirk and Finney and what happened on that earlier ship! It's enough that it provides the imagination with great stimulation, awakening the mind once again to the real lives of these people, that this, even before we got to see the films, where the story and the world lived on, their history in the time before these precious moments we share with them, was real to them.

The episode is a tribute to the ability and integrity of Kirk, naturally, but it's a team effort. Contrary to old friend Areel Shaw's view that he'd 'stepped into scandal,' he'd actually been manoeuvred calculatingly by unseen hands. Not only is it a good court drama and a reveal of the greater service Kirk and crew exist to support, with the frisson of Shaw being the one to prosecute, at the same time recommending the brilliant Cogley to his defence (did she do this for the greatest challenge, wanting to test her mettle against him, or was it that she wanted Kirk to have the best chance of her being beaten?), but it also has a great detective twist: the murdered man is still alive! Did he plan ever since that moment on the Republic to get even with Jim? Did he plot to follow Kirk's career and feed on the bitterness of the Captain's success opposite his own hindrances? Did he scheme to join the Enterprise with the only reason to take apart what he felt Kirk had taken from him? We'll never know, but it seems likely he should have been transferred to Dr. Van Gelder's Tantalus Penal Colony! I love the throwaway reference Cogley gets at the end that he's to be the one defending Finney! It's a nice little exit for him, and although it was a shame not to have him there to be part of the concluding deliberations, his battle had been won back in the court when his impassioned speech about the Bible, Magna Carta, the Fundamental Declaration of the Martian Colonies, among other great works, persuades Stone and the other Board Members that Kirk should be allowed to face his accuser: the Enterprise computer itself.

Spock does his best to logically explain the impossibility of a person's nature changing so radically as to make a seasoned, experienced man so used to dealing with the pressures of command, panic or act out of malice: it simply is not in the Captain's nature. McCoy plays his part, too, using the 'white noise device' (otherwise known as a slightly modified 1960s microphone, one of the few props that doesn't pass the muster as a futuristic space device), by successfully cancelling out the heartbeats of all those authorised to be aboard the Enterprise, exposing one hidden heartbeat, and allowing Kirk the chance to face his opponent, rip his shirt in soon to be time-honoured tradition, and save the ship from the cobbled together mashup Finney had laid on to take them all out. This part of the story may not be entirely in keeping with the otherwise protocol-heavy believability, but this is Kirk, and it's his ship. Somehow I could have imagined Stone getting involved in any physical situation alongside Kirk, but then the Captain wouldn't have looked so heroic, and Stone was still wearing his dress uniform and probably wouldn't have wanted to risk damaging it - that's my theory, anyway. But it gives us another nice view of Engineering as if to make up for the absence of Scotty. No Sulu either, but Uhura gets to jump into the Navigation position again as she's done a couple of times before, so she's clearly got skills beyond Communication.

They may not have gone down to a planet's external location, but they packed in a lot of sets both on and off the Enterprise: the Commodore's office and the large, bustling bar, not to mention the courtroom, are joined by regular ship's settings the Bridge, Engineering, a Jeffries Tube and the Briefing Room. It's somewhat surreal to see this group of four, dress uniformed board members sitting on chairs in the same smart row in various different locations. It's also a rare chance to see exactly what Kirk sees on his chair's arm: the buttons for both Yellow and Red Alert, as well as other functions in closeup as we'd never seen it before. Other small details I noticed that stood out: the chevron, or sideways arrowhead on the wall of the court is the same as that of the arrow on the side of the Enterprise, so must be some kind of fleet related logo. There are several references to Vulcanians or the 'Vulcanian expedition' which Kirk went on, clearly in reference to Spock's race. As in 'The Conscience of The King,' the opening theme music of the series plays in the background - it must be a very popular contemporary tune! The coloured 'floppy disks' that are input into the court's computer to recite the record of those called as witnesses in the hearing aren't the typical colour you'd associate with each character: Kirk's is blue, while McCoy's is red, for example. And Kirk makes a direct reference to 'Where No Man Has Gone Before' when he suggests Spock might be able to beat his next Captain at chess - Kirk beating his First Officer at the game was how we were introduced to them.

Jamie Finney (named after Kirk, but confusingly listed as 'Jame Finney' in the closing credits), and her strange change of heart in how she reacts to Kirk's apparent manslaughter of her Father I assumed to be a plot point: that she actually had new information, her Father having revealed himself to be still alive, but no, it doesn't seem that he even did her that courtesy, and it was just her calmed down shame at the previous outburst that caused such a shift in attitude. Finney's death plot is foiled by Kirk using Jamie as insurance against him, revealing he's had her brought aboard. I would have liked it if Finney had gone a long way to redeeming himself by squashing down all his personal enmity with his former friend and the two of them together saving the ship. This would also have stood Ben in good stead for his own trial and given us even more of a twist to enjoy. But perhaps he was too overwrought to be able to do something like that, even when the stakes were his daughter's life. The Commodore (or 'Portmaster Stone' in the end credits), does get some redemption from his position as the guy in charge of proceedings who fails to believe in Kirk assuming the infallibility of the computer: like his namesake, he's a rock, but it's when he coolly orders they'll all stay to 'hear this witness [Finney], out,' despite the decaying orbit and Spock's advice they should transport away. Lastly, the final shot with Kirk, Spock and McCoy on the Bridge would have been more effective played in silence, but they seemed to feel they had to say something, even if it was a little forced. The important thing is that they're back in their rightful places, the slate wiped clean, the Captain's good name cleared, and a sticky situation averted. Like all the best 'TOS' episodes!

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