Title: Errand Of Mercy
Airdate: 3/23/1967
Plot Summary
War is imminent with the Klingons and the flashpoint is the peaceful planet of Organia. Kirk and Spock must defend the planet of pacifists, who simply will not fight back. But are they more than what they seem?
Risk is our Business
Kirk is really pissed at the Klingons and their brutality. He also rapidly loses patience with these Organians, mistakenly assuming they are a backward species and not the near Gods they really are. He’s ready to go to war and has a cold bucket of water thrown in his face when the Organian stops him, realizing he’s indignant about not being able to wage a war he didn’t even want.
Logical
Spock has to undergo the mind sifter but crappy Klingon tech is no match for our logical Vulcan.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones doesn’t have much to do in this episode. In fact, he is completely absent.
Canon Maker
Klingons! This is the first time we see them and they become one of the most important races in the Alpha quadrant. Thanks to Worf, it’s possible we know more about them and their society than we do about Vulcans. It wasn’t until Enterprise we got a lot more depth regarding Vulcan society.
The Organian Ayelborn declares that in the future, the Klingons and the Federation will become fast friends. Except for a few times, most notably in Deep Space Nine, this turned out to be true.
Kor wears the same sash that Worf would in the first season of TNG.
Canon Breaker
This establishes the Organian peace treaty which will be referenced later in The Trouble with Tribbles. However, by The Next Generation period, the Organians are all forgotten as the Klingons and the Federation would get into it several times.
Man It Feels Bad To Be a Red Shirt
No redshirts were even on the away team, so no deaths. In fact, the Organians made certain of it.
Technobabble
The Klingons use disruptors that are referenced here. We get a quick look at one of their ships, a design that will stand out and be used by the Klingons for the rest of the various series, with updates of course. Note, this was not shown in the original run but a quick look in the updated special effects version from the late 2000’s.
I Know That Guy:
John Colicos plays Kor and man does he chew up the scenery. I mean that as the most sincerest compliment, he’s completely awesome in the role. He later would be Baltar on Battlestar Galactica and return as Kor in Deep Space Nine. Worf would totally fanboy over him and who could blame him?
John Abbot plays Ayelborn. Abbot was mostly known in British film and plays but also played a memorable role in an episode of Lost In Space.
Peter Brocco played another Organian in a departure from his usual roles as criminals in The Adventures Of Superman and a role in Spartacus and One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
What a great episode to introduce us to the Klingons. Colicos is much more a Klingon than some others that will follow. He even mentions that the war would’ve been glorious.
Kirk and Spock are having to deal with this war, with Kirk getting more and more out of sorts as the pacifists are really trying his patience. The bloodlust against the Klingons will be a defining trait of Kirk that won’t get resolved until Star Trek VI. They are the mortal enemy of Kirk, and the federation itself.
They are nasty, dishonorable, and over the top. In this period of Trek, the Romulans as shown in Balance Of Terror are much more honorable while the Klingons are just barbarians. This would somewhat switch in the Next Generation era where honor would become a defining trait of the Klingons. While the Romulans wouldn’t become barbarians, they would be sneaky, shady, and dishonorable. I think it was a good swap.
Even so, it’s a great introduction to the Klingons but also a great little story about the folly of war. The Klingons are clearly barbaric but Kirk let himself be goaded. He’s trying to fulfill his duty, going about fighting back, but with the Organians, godlike creatures who look upon all this like we would looking at little warriors in a video game of Civilization. Suddenly it all seemed so futile, so petty.
Destroying millions of lives and devastating planets because people can’t get along and deal with their problems in a civilized way. Of course, later on wars become inevitable, the Borg, the Dominion, and so forth. I always wondered what happened to the Organians.
Overall this is a great episode and has a lot of repeat value. Once you know what they are, it becomes amusing the second time around, you end up looking at Kirk and Kor much like the Organians do.
