The Enterprise Incident

TOS Season 3 Episode 2
Air Date: September 27th, 1968

Plot

The episode starts off with Kirk acting agitated towards the crew and giving irrational orders. He then orders the ship into the Romulan neutral zone and eventually in the Romulan space. Two Klingon ships decloak and a Romulan ship. It is said that Romulans have been using Klingon designs. The Romulan captain gives Kirk one hour to surrender or be destroyed.

The Romulan wants to meet face to face on the Romulan ship so they do an exchange, Kirk and Spock for two Romulan officers. When Kirk meets the Romulan commander, she asks what his mission was and Kirk claims it was due to instrument failure. Kirk gets very irrational starts yelling at the commander. When she calls in Spock and asks why they are in the Romulan space and Spock refuses to answer because he cannot tell a lie. The Romulan threatens to torture Kirk to get the info which could leave him dead, so Spock decides to tell the truth, that the Starfleet and the Federation did not order the ship beyond the neutral zone and that Kirk was solely responsible. Kirk threatens to kill Spock.

Kirk gets injured when being put into the brig so they call for McCoy to come over. McCoy treats Kirk and says that he is not mentally well. The Romulan commander uses that as proof that Kirk is not fit for command and that Spock should take over. Kirk gets angry and attacks Spock, and Spock uses the "Vulcan Death Pinch" which doesn't really exist and "kills" Kirk. McCoy is allowed to transport back to the Enterprise with Kirk's body, but he is not really dead. Turns out he is on a mission that only he and Spock were aware of and they are using Kirk's behavior as a plausible deniability.

Kirk then dresses up as a Romulan, ears and all and transports back to the Romulan flag ship. He gets information from Spock on where the Romulan cloaking device is and Kirk breaks in and steals it. This leaves Spock stranded on the Romulan ship, a Federation spy, and scheduled for execution. Scotty installs the cloaking device and they beam Spock to the Enterprise. The Romulan commander tags along.

The Enterprise goes to warp 9 and tries to engage the cloaking device but it doesn't work. Kirk tries to use the Romulan commander as a hostage but she orders the Enterprise destroyed, with her on it. Scotty figures out the cloaking device and the Enterprise gets away.

Commentary

The episode does a pretty good job at fooling you into thinking that Kirk has gone crazy. Once you know Spock is playing a part, there is a scene where Spock and the Romulan commander start getting romantic. The lines are really cheesy, more so since you know Spock is seducing her for the mission. At the end Spock does say he got something out of the experience himself, which goes against what we know of Vulcans. Maybe the human side.

I thought it odd that they used Klingon D7 class battlecruiser as a Romulan ship. The reason given in the episode is the Romulan's are copying Klingon designs, but I suspect it was just easier to use existing props instead of making more Romulan birds of prey.

Quotes

"If we had not crossed the Neutral Zone, on your order, you would not now need our opinions to support a decision which should never have had to be made." - Spock

"I don't make house calls." - McCoy

"Captain, your ears. What happened?" - Chekov

"I've got the device installed, but... bless me if I know whether it's going to work. It's the biggest guess I've ever made." - Scotty

"I'd like for you to report to Sickbay." - McCoy

"What for?" - Kirk

"Well, you're due in surgery. I am going to bob your ears." - McCoy

"Captain, please go. Somehow, they do not look aesthetically agreeable on Humans." - Spock