Episode Synopsis (from the official website):
While exploring an uncharted region of space, the U.S.S. Enterprise comes upon an alien space buoy which is cube-shaped and spins, warning ships away and blocking the starship's path. Kirk's orders the phasers to destroy the buoy but immediately an alien's ship, the I.S.S. Fesarius, shaped like a large, glowing crystal traps the starship.I think it is necessary to admit that I think this is one of the best episodes of Season One. I remember it fondly, and my opinion of it was only confirmed when I watched it again recently. One of the best aspects of The Corbomite Maneuver is that its a rare glimpse into the tactical mind of James T. Kirk, starship captain. Star Trek in its original incarnation rarely featured complicated ship to ship combat (due to the cost of special effects), and as a result we rarely got a glimpse into the tactical and strategic minds of famous combat officers such as Kirk and much later on Sulu as well. I have always regretted that more of this background was never established, because Kirk is clearly meant to be a tactical genius. He defeats the First Federation in The Corbomite Maneuver, outwits the Tholian Web, destroys a far more powerful Romulan warship, outsmarts the Klingons on more than one occasion, and battles his way to victory in the Star Trek movies. The man clearly was intended to be the premier combat captain of his time, and possibly in the history of the Federation. Unfortunately due to the technical limitations of the time we rarely saw that, and The Corbomite Maneuver was the first episode to truly display this aspect of Kirk's personality.
A ghostly, almost skeletal face appears on the viewscreen, identifying itself as Balok. He tells Kirk that the U.S.S. Enterprise has trespassed and committed hostile actions, and therefore, must be destroyed. Employing a trick from the Earth game of poker, Kirk tries a desperate bluff by convincing Balok that if the Enterprise is fired upon, the corbomite in the starship's hull will self-destruct and destroy both ships.
This is also the first of many episodes in Star Trek where the crew uses the concept of "bluffing" from the "ancient Earth game of poker" to help bring about victory. While I love the many forms of poker and truly appreciate that Star Trek was one of earliest television shows to mention it with frequency (and this continued with The Next Generation before fading out in the later series), I have always found it somewhat silly that nearly each and every time poker comes up, its to explain the concept of bluffing. Bluffing is not complicated. It's part lying, part deception, part playing chicken with your opponent. Unfortunately, the writers tend to act like its a concept unique to poker or unique to humans and that aliens would be baffled by the concept. Logically, this makes little sense and makes it a little hard to find the situation plausible.
With that being said, The Corbomite Maneuver delivers despite the weak premise of Kirk's primary tactic. The Enterprise is clearly not as powerful as the Fesarius, as the small initial probe they encountered almost destroyed the ship. The only advantage Kirk and the Enterprise had was the element of surprise. The enemy knew nothing about them beyond what they learned from their initial scans. While the technology was sufficient to reveal the ship's configuration, it would be limited to what the technology of the sensor knew to look for. When Kirk realized the Fesarius was unwilling to destroy the Enterprise immediately, he sensed an opportunity to give himself enough time to find a way to escape-and the bluff was born. Knowing that the alien had no way of detecting the fictitious material corbomite in the Enterprise's hull, Kirk played his cards and gave the Fesarius the chance to call his bluff. It couldn't, and when it starts to tow the Enterprise out of First Federation space, Kirk executes an emergency all stop and tears away from the Fesarius, in the process damaging the ship and freeing the Enterprise.
While I appreciate the subterfuge that the ending uncovers and the fact that Balok and the First Federation's intentions were not malicious, I would have greatly preferred it without the odd appearance of the infant Clint Howard as the mysterious alien. While this is partially because Clint Howard even as a baby had a distinctive look, it is also because once again the alien in Star Trek looks just like a human (and I do understand the budgetary constraints they faced each episode).
While the simplicity of Kirk playing chicken with Balok takes away somewhat from the tactical depth I referred to at the beginning of this post, it is a look into the mind of the way Kirk approaches command and starship combat. It shows that above all else, he is not afraid of taking risks when he thinks the situation warrants it. Above all, it shows his willingness to think far outside the norm in a time when it is established in the Star Trek universe that the rules are strict, that training and discipline make good captains and good crews, and that caution is the best way to ensure the safety of ship and crew. While we will see even deeper insight into Kirk as a tactician in Balance of Terror and other episodes, The Corbomite Maneuver laid the groundwork for Kirk's career as a maverick.
My only real problem with the episode was the character of Lieutenant Bailey. It was an issue for me for two reasons. The first is that the character was clearly unstable, probably would never have made it through Starfleet's rigorous psychological testing, and he was insubordinate. This is a common theme in Season One, and an issue I have addressed previously. It is one of my absolute biggest peeves with The Original Series. While Kirk was a friendly, affable commanding officer who would likely let his men get away with more than most, I find it absolutely difficult to believe he would accept the level of insubordination that junior officers frequently demonstrated in Season One-and this episode is one particularly glaring example.
The second problem is directly related to the first. When Kirk wanted to first decided to keep Bailey at the helm despite his obvious stress and anxiety, Dr. McCoy, one of Kirk's absolute most loyal and fervent supporters, disagrees vehemently about it (and somewhat irrationally). When Kirk is then forced to remove Bailey from his post, McCoy goes absolutely ballistic, challenging Kirk in front of the crew, threatening to put his protests in his official log, and acting completely insubordinate. While McCoy never hesitated to tell Kirk how he felt and certainly had no compunction about telling Kirk he was wrong, he almost never did it in front of the crew, and never with this much anger and vehemence. McCoy was, above all else, one of Kirk's best friends and closest confidantes, and I find it very hard to believe he would rationally act in the manner he did in this episode-in fact its probably the single biggest issue I have with the portrayal of McCoy's character throughout The Original Series.
Continuity:
- McCoy's behavior towards Kirk.
- Bailey's insubordination.
- Inconsistent color in uniforms and the roles and appearance (or lack thereof) of principle castmembers.
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