STAR TREK
Friday's Child

From Wikipedia:

"Friday's Child" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #40, production #32, and was broadcast December 1, 1967. It was written by D.C. Fontana, and directed by Joseph Pevney.

Overview: The crew of the Enterprise become entangled in a planet's tribal power struggle.

More here.

(Because I screwed up, this one falls out of order. More here on that.)

Memory is a weird thing. I recall "Friday's Child" as mediocre. But when I watched it again last week, probably for the first time in ten years, I really enjoyed it. Maybe it's just me; I have aged a decade in the meantime, and, I'm sure, changed my tastes to some extent, as well. No matter. This is where I'm at right now.

"Friday's Child" isn't a classic or anything, but it's as good as Star Trek gets without being brilliant. That is, if you want to expose Trek somebody who's never seen it before, this one can safely be called representative.

The episode, like most other good episodes, is set up well in the teaser, a nice, quick, efficient delivery of exposition in the form of one of those increasingly common briefing room scenes. Kirk and crew spend only a moment discussing the MacGuffin, the negotiation of a mining treaty, but very quickly we learn what the episode's really going to be about, interacting with a relatively primitive race which fights at the drop of a hat, or any other violation of about a billion of their essentially unlearnable taboos. In moments, we're down on the planet, seeing a red shirt die meaninglessly to illustrate the point. Quick, efficient, simple storytelling, that's usually the key to good Trek, and that's what we get with "Friday's Child."

The episode's alien race, the Capellans, appear at first glance to be yet another goofy throwaway. But they grow on you. Indeed, in addition to their cool stature, generally over six feet, they have weird and cool clothing, with bizarre cowls and feather boas. They don't talk much, I mean, sure, they talk, but their dialogue is sparse, which means there is much less of a chance for them to say something stupid. The sets, mostly tent interiors, are minimal, too, but they work well.

Okay, the lone Klingon in the mix kind of sucks. Really, he's just a lame actor who doesn't seem to understand what the Klingons are about, even for such an early era as 1960s Star Trek. But at least he's there, unlike the unseen Romulans in "The Deadly Years."

Actually, that's an interesting compare and contrast exercise. That is, "The Deadly Years" and "Friday's Child" have a similar story structure in that both have subplots where major recurring foes threaten the Enterprise. In the former, the Romulan story appears to be simply pasted on, slipshod, not having much to do with the main plot. In the latter, however, there is a meaningful dynamic between the events taking place on the planet's surface, and the events taking place back on the ship--while the Klingons play cat and mouse with the Enterprise out in space, their agent on Capella IV works his own subterfuge against Kirk and his landing party; each story line has consequences for the other.

And it's not simply that the subplot is so well woven into the overall episode: it's pretty darned good in itself. It's fairly cliche by this point in the series' run to have the Captain leading an away team while a subordinate officer takes charge back on the ship. That is, it's something of a Star Trek formula. But this time is particularly strong, and Mr. Scott continues to cement his reputation as a Kirk-level command officer when he gets his chance in the chair. Of course, Scotty's got some good quotable quotes, all in that marvelous Scottish accent of his:

We'll go right down their throat if necessary. Let's see if they have the belly for it.

It is important, for me, to note that Mr. Scott gets right what President Bush got wrong years later:

Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice shame on me.

At any rate, the story on the ship comes together, in cavalry rescue form, with the story on the planet by episode's end. The image of red shirted Scotty leading a team of security red shirts to save the day is something embedded in some of my earliest memories; it's as good a moment as in any TV western ever produced, better actually.

And Scotty doesn't have a monopoly on good lines in this one. Spock's "I would rather, I would rather not" when offered the newborn baby to hold is classic, as is his "'Oochi woochi coochi coo?'" question uttered after Bones and Kirk repeat the phrase in rapid succession. And the Science officer's exclamation of non-Vulcan indignation, "I think you're both going to be insufferably pleased with yourselves," when he learns that the baby has been named after both Kirk and McCoy, "Leonard James," is an important lesson for all actors playing Vulcans today: that is, it's not that Vulcans don't have emotions; it's that they suppress those emotions, and sometimes not too terribly well.

Indeed, Spock is the king of witticism here, at his best with Kirk, his personal Dean Martin or Bob Hope:

Spock: Fortunately this bark has suitable tensile cohesion.

Kirk: You mean it makes a good bow string.

Spock: I believe I just said that.

And then repeated but with a reversal of roles:

Kirk: The cavalry doesn't come over the hill in the nick of time anymore.

Spock: If by that you mean we can't expect help from the Enterprise, I must agree.

Not funny at all, but, like the image of Scotty with his own Federation cavalry, also embedded in my brain at a very early age:

Spock: Revenge Captain?

Kirk: Why not?

But beyond what I've already mentioned, there's simply a treasure chest of fun stuff. A bunch of the episode's scenes are shot in that quarry space used in several other episodes like "Arena" or "Shore Leave." It's also tech heavy, with communicators used to create an avalanche by sonic disruption (who ever knew your cell phone could do such a thing?), something from the Doctor's medicine bag, a "magnosite tablet," used to start a camp fire, and, as far as I know, the only time we get to see Sulu's tactical computer emerging from his helm console, something that still gets me giddy. And there are fights. Lots and lots of fights. Good stuff, actually, especially because this is something for which the aliens are known, no bullshit about working it all into a script where it doesn't belong. This one needs a lot of fighting, and it delivers.

In the end, with all its cliche and formula, all its aliens who like to mix it up with blades and fists, all of Kirk's pompous blustering, "Friday's Child" ought to be lame and mediocre. After all, there are more than a few other Trek episodes offering the same TV staples, but they fail, and this one succeeds extraordinarily well, and it includes lots of fun little surprises. Actually, after writing about it, I think I really really dig this one. Something of a box office sleeper?

Whatever. Go see for yourself.


Kirk and Spock go native.

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