Podcast Enterprise: S1E26 Errand of Mercy

Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before

We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:

1. Synopsis or summary of the episode
2. Story structure
3. Character analysis
4. Our likes and dislikes

The synopsis: The Enterprise has received communication from Star Fleet Command, and they’re asked to divert their route to Organia, which is a Class M planet and the only Class M planet in this area.

And it’s also disputed area. Why it is disputed is because the Klingon Empire is expected to attack Organia and Star Fleet Command and the Federation, they have been trying to negotiate with the Klingons, but that is broken down. And now Star Fleet Command is afraid that there will be a surprise attack on Organia and based on what information the Federation has, it seems that Organia is a very backward and primitive planet, and they need to be protected from a potential Klingon attack. Captain Kirk gives certain orders to Sulu and he puts him in charge of the Enterprise. He beams down to Organia with Spock as second in command.

They beam down there and that’s when they find that Organia is a bit of a strange place. It looks primitive. There are some purple goats and there are some people shepherding them. And there’s this castle in the distance and what? Purple or green goats, I forget.

Anyhow, colorful goats. So basically what happens is none of the Oregonians seem to be surprised that Captain Kirk and Spock have beamed down in their midst. Logically they should be surprised because they are a primitive race, but they’re not surprised. Captain Kirk and Spock, they’re greeted by Ayelborne, who was supposed to be part of the Council of Elders.

It seems that Organia does not have any sort of ruling council, but they do have a Council of Elders. So basically what happens is Kirk feels like banging his head against the wall because the Oregonians will not listen to him regarding the Klingon attack. They’ll do absolutely nothing. They keep smiling, they do nothing.

They try to comfort Kirk and tell him that nothing is going to happen and everybody’s safe and nobody is going to attack Organia. And what eventually what happens is the Klingons do attack, they appear, and you find this rather fascinating Commander Kor, who barges into the Council of Elder’s room. He is quite impressed with Kirk, I think, because he tries to make him a liaison. And Kirk here is pretending to be an Organian and not a very convincing one. And basically Kirk is still trying to save the Organians from the Klingons. He’s trying to outwit the Clingons. The Organians don’t want to be saved. The Klingons are getting irritated with Kirk’s interference, especially after he blows up a munitions depot and the Klingons finally capture Kirk, put him in a certain cell and then Ayelborne for some reason, or somehow he manages to get Kirk out of there.

He just sashays into that cell and gets Kirk and Spock out, and that’s when they realized that something is not right with the Organians. See, they are not what they seem. They seem to be a little different. And finally, when the conflict really comes to a boiling point, and war is being threatened and Kor is a threatening Kirk and Earth and the Federation.

And Kirk is threatening Kor right back and talking about order and justice and again, trying to convince the Organians. It is revealed that the Organians are not going to allow any of them to fight. This is because they’re actually incorporeal beings of pure thought that are millions of years ahead of both humans and Klingons, and they’re not going to allow anybody to fight.

Their powers are too great. They can appear and disappear in many places at once. And finally, they force both the humans and the Klingons to make peace before telling them to leave the planet.

That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!

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Acknowledgements

1. Intro music: Music from anchor.fm
2. Shotcut for editing the podcast
3. References: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/