A Piece of the Action

The Enterprise crew arrives at a planet a hundred years after another ship arrived there. The Iotians are an imitative race and have patterned their culture after the 1920's gangster culture of the U. S. This happened because someone left a book on he planet outlining the gangland characters. This has become their Bible. There is a battle going on for territory as the factions put hits on each other. The joy of the episode is watching Kirk and Spock try to adapt to the society without encroaching on he prime directive. There are great scenes as Kirk, and even more ridiculously, Spock try to mimic the dialect and nomenclature of the time. There is the priceless scene the two attempting to drive a flivver. Kirk jerks along, not quite getting the hang of the clutch, and Spock tells him he is a great captain but a horrible, dangerous driver. The guys need to meet the gang bosses on their own level, but what is this. Anyway, it is great fun and one of the most memorable in the series. One other thing, Kirk and Spock look great in those zoot suits.

In what must be one of the funniest episodes of the series (and a great indicator of the series' intentional comedic possibilities -- brought to fruition in Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home), the Enterprise crew visits a planet that has taken a historical text on 1920s Chicago gangs as its bible. As the residents of the planet are remarkably imitative in nature, the planet's residents have divided themselves into a series of criminal gangs, two of which are headed by Bela Oxmyx (Anthony Caruso) and Jojo Kracko (Vic Tayback), and Kirk and Spock find themselves in the middle.

What makes this otherwise frivolous episode work is the fun Shatner and Nimoy have with the historical disconnect -- most notably in Kirk's efforts to drive a car (and Spock's reactions thereto) and his subsequent efforts to pick up the lingo of the planet. Needless to say, Shatner plays this for all it's worth, and Nimoy's gift for understatement complements it beautifully.

Truly a joy to watch -- just don't spend too much time analyzing it.

A few months after I moved to Japan to teach English in the late 90's, I was starting to get a bizarre Star Trek Deja Vu. Rather than wearing Kimono and wooden clogs and all the traditional stuff they show in the guidebooks, everyone, EVERYONE, wore Western clothing that was all slightly offkilter. Western boots with high spiked heels, 10-inch platform shoes, died blonde or orange hair, T-shirts with English messages that made no sense, a predilection for uniforms, black business suits that belonged to morticians, ubiquitous high skirts and stockingless legs for women between 6 and 40, to name just a few examples. I was especially taken aback by the commonplace adoption of English words into Japanese that were used, pronounced and spelled wrong dozens of different ways. A friend of mine held out his hand in a light drizzle and said to me, "Look, Penny Rain, like in the Beatle song."

Finally I said to myself, "Now, this is a highly imitative Alien culture." Then I thought, "just like the Iotians in 'A Piece of the Action.'" For the next ten years, I kept my sanity only by imagining myself in the Reality TV version of "A Piece of the Action II." I've often wondered if the author of this script-- was it D.C. Fontana?-- had visited Japan. But really, when Old Commodore Perry first landed in Japan in 1853, crew members reported finding blueprints of devices and weapons pilfered from the ships for sale in the local markets. It could easily have been blueprints of Federation-issued phasers. Talk about your highly imitative Alien cultures.

I think the creators of this episode were right to make it a comedy-- it IS a comedy!-- and if the clowning around in pinstripe suits and tommy guns --I remember Fizzbin well!-- eclipses the core anthropological idea, so be it. Its still one of Star Trek's Classics, and it still makes me chuckle whenever I think of it.

And remember, all Japan wants is a piece of OUR action.

This was a good comedy in season 2. While not fully on par with 'The Trouble with Tribbles', it is a close second. It was hilarious to see Kirk talking like a gangster, then setting up a mob syndicate--to stop a spate of out of control gangland shootings--and negotiating the Federation's 40% 'cut' or share from the syndicate. Kirk later unconvincingly justifies to Spock that the money will be directed towards an ethical fund to guide the Iotians to a more normal existence...that is until he learns that Dr McCoy lost his tricked back on Sigma Iotia II which means the Iotians might demand a piece of the Federation's action in the future!

Great comedy and hilarious acting throughout. Of course, Kirk is only sorting out the mess that the last Federation starship, the USS Horizon, created 100 years ago before the prime directive came into effect. The Horizon's crew left behind several publications including a book on Chicago Mobs in the 1920's which the intelligent Iotians quickly imitated. This was really Star Trek's last comedy episode since season three started with Fred Freiberger who was a 'serious' science fiction producer. Virtually all season 3 Trek episodes are devoid of comedy.

Enterprise visits a planet that has developed out of cultural contamination from a previous Federation contact.

This is an excellent episode with great humour and performances.

The plot is my favourite in Star Trek about the prime directive, mainly due to the fact it's played for laughs. We see a society developed to imitate 1920s gangsters and the Enterprise crew attempting to undo the damage using as little force as possible. It is a simple idea that makes a lot of sense, however implausible. If you like this movie genre and can suspend the disbelief it is wonderfully entertaining.

Most of the comedy I take from the crew interacting with each other and various guest characters. William Shatner has never been funnier as Kirk gets into the swing of playing along with gangsters, street-punks, and molls with great enthusiasm. He develops more and more into a Cagney-type persona as the episode goes on. His banter during the card game is superb, as are his exchanges with Spock and a completely bemused Scotty.

Scotty, back on the Enterprise, and unaware of what is happening, is put in a great fish out of water situation. All his scenes portray him like a confused audience member onlooking the ridiculousness of the situation. James Doohan is on great form as ever.

For me, the funniest performance comes from Leonard Nimoy. Spock is the perfect character to be caught up in all this chaos and Nimoy plays it with such a dry, witty, unimpressed attitude, he is the perfect foil for everything said and done by others. He has the best lines and delivers them with perfect timing.

There are numerous over the top caricatures depicted by the guest actors and these all work well for the tone of the episode.

The visuals are great, particularly the costumes, sets, props and art direction that gives us something out of 'Little Caesar' or 'The Roaring Twenties'. There is something hilarious about seeing Dr McCoy holding a Tommy-gun.

All fun aside it does have a few nice little satirical themes on the chaotic interaction of nation states in the world. Spock's logic about the world uniting behind a single authority is sound and ironic given how divided Earth still remains in reality. Generally speaking though, it is not particularly serious and if taken as a bit of fun and you appreciate the humour it is highly enjoyable.