A Piece of the Action

TOS Season 2 Epsiode 17
Air Date: January 12th, 1968

A hundred years before, an pre-Federation earth ship Horizon was lost after leaving the planet Sigma Iotia II. Since the Federation didn't exist yet, there were no rules around non-interference and the crew had left the people of Sigma Iotia II with books to teach them to build things. Unfortunately they treated the book, "Chicago. Mobs of the Twenties", as their version of the bible. It taught them how to run their society.

When the Enterprise arrives, they were able to talk to one of the planet's leaders over radio and he tells them to come down. When Kirk, Spock and McCoy transport down, they are immediately taken hostage and the mob boss demands that Kirk provide phasers (he calls them heaters) so he can rule the planet. Kirk of course refuses.

In the episode, the away team escapes just to be caught again. This happens three times. Kirk quickly figures out how the society works while Spock still is very confused at the illogical way the people act. Kirk changes his tact, instead of trying to escape and fix the damage caused by the Horizon, he pretends to be a mob boss himself, only he is representing the Federation. Using the Enterprise's phaser to stun people on the ground, he shows that he means business and demands a 40% cut in all profits. But he only would allow it if the world worked together and stopped fighting.

This was one of the fun episodes. It had Kirk doing really bad Italian mobster impressions and escaping one criminal organization just to get caught by another over and over again was pretty funny. The gangsters kept calling Kirk and his people the Feds, short for Federation. The episode got it's name because of a kid that helped Kirk get past some guards by promising the kid he would get a piece of the action. I don't think Kirk ever held up his end of the bargain.

"Logic and practical information do not seem to apply here." - Spock
"You admit that?" - McCoy
"To deny the facts would be illogical, Doctor." - Spock

"Are you afraid of cars?" - Kirk
"Not at all, Captain. It's your driving that alarms me." - Spock

"Captain, you are an excellent star ship commander. But as a taxi driver, you leave much to be desired." - Spock