William Shatner credited as playing...
Captain James T. Kirk
- Captain James T. Kirk: Well there it is - war. We didn't want it, but we've got it.
- Mr. Spock: Curious how often you Humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.
- [Ayelborne and Claymare have interfered in the quarrel between Kirk and Kor]
- Captain James T. Kirk: You have no right to dictate to our Federation...
- Kor: Or our Empire!
- Captain James T. Kirk: ...how to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right...
- Ayelborne: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?
- [Spock prevents Kirk from reacting to a Klingon's provocation]
- Captain James T. Kirk: You didn't really think I was gonna beat his head in, did you?
- Mr. Spock: I thought you might.
- Captain James T. Kirk: You're right.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Well, Commander, I guess that takes care of the war. Obviously, the Organians aren't going to let us fight.
- Kor: A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.
- [Kirk is posing as an Organian]
- Kor: Where is your smile?
- Captain James T. Kirk: My what?
- Kor: The stupid, idiotic smile everyone else seems to be wearing.
- Kor: Do you also welcome me?
- Captain James T. Kirk: You're here; there's nothing I can do about it.
- Kor: [smiles] Good, honest hatred. Very refreshing.
- Captain James T. Kirk: What would you say the odds are on our getting out of here?
- Mr. Spock: Difficult to be precise, Captain. I should say, approximately 7,824.7 to 1.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Difficult to be precise? 7,824 to 1?
- Mr. Spock: 7,824.7 to 1.
- Captain James T. Kirk: That's a pretty close approximation.
- Mr. Spock: I endeavor to be accurate.
- Captain James T. Kirk: You do quite well.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Mr. Spock, did I or did I not see something that looked like a munitions dump outside of Kor's headquarters?
- Mr. Spock: You did.
- Captain James T. Kirk: I think it's time we did a little simple and plain communicating. Tonight.
- Mr. Spock: A very meritorious idea, Captain.
- Captain James T. Kirk: We're short of tools.
- Mr. Spock: I am certain the Klingons will provide whatever is necessary.
- Captain James T. Kirk: It's a pleasure doing business with you, Mr. Spock.
- Captain James T. Kirk: [to Ayelborne] I am used to the idea of dying. But I have no desire to die for the likes of you.
- Kor: I don't blame you, Captain.
- Claymare: We find interference in other people's affairs... most disgusting. But you, gentlemen, have given us no choice.
- Captain James T. Kirk: You should be the first to be on our side. Two hundred hostages killed!
- Ayelborne: No one has been killed, Captain.
- Claymare: No one has died here in uncounted thousands of years.
- [last lines]
- Captain James T. Kirk: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.
- Mr. Spock: Captain. It took millions of years for the Organians to evolve into what they are. Even the gods did not spring into being overnight. You and I have no reason to be embarrassed. We did, after all, beat the odds.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Oh, no, no, no, Mr. Spock, we didn't beat the odds; we didn't have a chance. The Organians rated the game.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Organia's description, Mr. Spock.
- Mr. Spock: Inhabited by humanoids, a very peaceful, friendly people, living on a primitive level. Little of intrinsic value. Approximately class D minus on the Richter scale of cultures.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Another Armenia, Belgium.
- Mr. Spock: Sir?
- Captain James T. Kirk: The weak innocents. They always seem to be located on the natural invasion routes.
- Captain James T. Kirk: Gentlemen, I have no great love for you, your planet, your culture. Despite that, Mr. Spock and I are gonna go out there, and quite probably die - in an attempt to show you that there are some things worth dying for.
- Ayelborne: But there're only two of you against an army. Don't you realize that what you intend to do will be hopeless?
- Kor: We are similar as a species. Here we are on a planet of sheep, two tigers, predators, hunters... killers. And it is precisely that which makes us great. And there is a universe to be taken.
- Captain James T. Kirk: It's a very large universe, Commander, full of people who don't like the Klingons.
- Kor: Excellent. Then it shall be a matter of testing each other's wills, and power. Survival must be earned, Captain.
- Trefayne: Eight space vehicles have assumed orbit around the planet.
- Capt. Kirk: How does he know that?
- Ayelborne: Oh, our friend Trefayne is quite intuitive.
- Kor: Tell me about the dispersal of your Starfleet.
- Captain James T. Kirk: [smiles] Go climb a tree.
- Kor: Hm. I can get what I want through our mind scanner, but... there would be very little of your mind left, Captain. I have no desire to see you become a vegetable.
- Mr. Spock: Captain, our information on these people and their culture was not correct. This is not a primitive society making progress toward mechanization. They are totally stagnant. There is no evidence of any progress as far back as my tricorder can register.
- Captain James T. Kirk: That doesn't seem likely.
- Mr. Spock: Nevertheless, it is true. For tens of thousands of years, there's been absolutely no advancement, no significant change in their physical environment. This is a laboratory specimen of an arrested culture.
- Captain James T. Kirk: So - we're stranded here, in the middle of a Klingon occupation army.
- Mr. Spock: So it would seem. Not a very pleasant prospect.
- Captain James T. Kirk: You have a gift for understatement, Mr. Spock. It's not a very pleasant prospect at all!
- Captain James T. Kirk: [beaming down into the middle of an Organian village, with no reaction from the people around] You'd think they had people beaming down every day.
- Mr. Spock: Yes. Curious lack of interest.