Podcast Enterprise: S2E11 Friday's Child
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:
- Synopsis or summary of the episode
- Story structure
- Character analysis
- Our likes and dislikes
The synopsis:
When this episode opens, you find the USS Enterprise approaching the planet Capella IV. They are going to this planet so that they can negotiate with the alien Capellans for their mineral Topaline which is basically something that is used for their life support for the life support systems this planet capella four has an abundance of it and The mineral has to be mined, but to get to that you have to negotiate with the Capellans first.
And now these are, these people are a very war like kind of violent race of huge humanoids and it’s very difficult to deal with them and to negotiate with them, but Captain Kirk wants to do it anyway. He approaches this planet, he beams down and he also has a lot of issues with the Klingons because they want the Topaline as well.
So when he beams down to this planet, he finds a Klingon already there. Now, The catch here is that, McCoy has already been to this planet and he knows some of the ways of the Capellans, which Kirk does not know. But before they could do anything once they beam down there, one of the red shirts is killed, and this is how the episode starts.
You have conflict almost immediately where one of the members of the Enterprise is killed. Now, after that, the Capellans, being who they are and being this martial and very difficult to deal with group of people, decide to confine Kirk and the landing crew, including Spock and McCoy to this tent. It’s a little hard for them to gauge what the Capulans want at this point.
They are waiting there when this woman brings in some food and Kirk almost accepts it, but he is not, but then McCoy persuades him not to because that will lead to further complications. They meet with the High Teer or the leader of the ten tribes of Capella, who listens, he’s an elderly person who listens to them, but they can’t really negotiate with him because of the Klingon, who seems to get along much better with the rival of the chief of the Capellan tribes.
And Kirk and, long story short, Kirk and the landing crew find themselves in all sorts of skirmishes. The current Teer of the Capellans is threatened to be overthrown by this younger and brash, more brash individual who calls himself Maab. He gets along quite well with the Klingon, apparently, which is bad for everyone concerned.
The Klingon named Kras is the Klingon representative on Capella 4. He gets along quite well with the rival. of the current rival to the current Teer of the Capellans, who is called Mab.
And he creates all sorts of trouble for the earth people because he understands apparently the ways of the Capellans much better than the earth people do. And the Capellans do not want silly things like medicine and education. They want war all the time, and so especially with the rival to the current Teer assuming charge after a bloody coup
Kras has a better chance at getting the mining rights and get securing the mining rights for the Klingons. Kirk, after much confusion and after a lot after the current Teer is murdered by the rival and the Capellans find themselves with a new leader, Kirk and the landing crew find themselves in a lot of trouble.
First off, the consort of the previous Teer. They find themselves with her and on the run towards a certain group of hills and they have to go there, find the cave. She’s pregnant. She’s about to give birth. She does not get along with McCoy who wants to help her. And at the same time back in orbit with Scotty in command, the Enterprise is lured away from orbit by a distress call from an S. S. Dierdre, but as Scotty discovers later, the S. S. Dierdre is not in that quadrant, and this was a fake distress call from the Klingons, apparently, and they try to waylay the Enterprise and create trouble up there in space, and Kirk and the landing crew down here, along with Spock and McCoy, they have to deal with this woman called Eleen, who is a Capellan.
A search party consisting of the Klingon, Kras, and the Capellan, Maab, as well as all of the other Capellans have been released to search for Kirk, destroy them, and just get rid of their presence from Capella.
Kirk and Spock manage to somehow outwit this hunting party that has come after them. Krass reveals his true colors and turns himself against the rest of the Capellans. They manage to convince the Capellans to accept this alien’s Is that the widow of the previous year, alien’s son as a new leader of the Capellans. It’s all quite complicated. And basically the Capellan, mob who has been nothing but a pain for the Earthman up to this point, decides to sacrifice, sacrifice himself so that the Klingon can be brought down. Ultimately, there’s a new baby leader for the Capellans.
A mining treaty is secured, and, Kirk and the crew are back in the Enterprise, and the Klingons efforts to kind of thwart their for the efforts of the toward the diplomatic efforts of the Enterprise and the federation is completely thwarted and they’re able to get the mining treaty and the mineral that they needed for the life support systems.
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!
Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!
