Friday's Child

Kirk, Spock and McCoy visit a planet that both the Federation and Klingon Empire want to mine for important minerals.

This is an enjoyable episode for the character moments, world building, and interplanetary politics.

The story is quite strong as it shows the regular characters in contact with an alien society and the sensitive nature of interactions between different cultures. I appreciate the exploitative nature of this type of situation being reflective of real life Earth history. Although the Federation is not depicted as conquering like the Klingons, they are looking to exploit the resources of the planet for a strategic advantage. This is a far cry from what the Star Trek ideals became during 'The Next Generation'. All of this I found to be very interesting.

From a character perspective it really shines, with Kirk, Spock, Scotty, and especially Bones having some very memorable moments.

Kirk is written well as an explorer, diplomat, and soldier in this episode. William Shatner gives both a physical and verbal performance of strength, intelligence and sensitivity.

Spock is as cold and logical as ever, delivering a number of excellent lines. Leonard Nimoy provides great dry humour in another depiction of his classic outsider looking in on humanity.

While the two senior officers are away we are treated to more great scenes of Scotty in command of Enterprise. James Doohan brings a great balance of excitement and confidence to the commander's chair.

Dr 'Bones' McCoy has one of his quintessential episodes as a humanitarian caught in the middle of a conflict situation, who has the responsibility of caring for a pregnant female. In several excellently written scenes we see him contend with an aggressively reluctant mother and these for me are the highlights. DeForest Kelley is on top form and has solid chemistry with Julie Newmar as Eleen.

The visuals are mostly great. I love the fight scenes, particularly some of the early fist fights that are entertaining and quite well done. One part where Shatner throws a pillow at another performer cracks me up every time. This episode uses Vasquez Rocks park to great effect much like other episodes. The downside is the costuming which is relatively funny, but some of those outfits have zero aesthetic quality.

The title refers to the original hard luck kid, a child of misery. In this case, it's the unborn child of a ruler who has just been killed in a coup; hence, the child's life is forfeit, before it even begins. This is the alien culture to which Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down as guests and end up as fugitives. Overall, this is a good example of Roddenberry's vision, that of meeting and dealing with other planetary cultures. Writer Fontana managed to create a warrior-race here with truly alien morals, customs and sensibilities (in our eyes), a culture which seems very cruel and so high on testosterone that even Kirk looks somewhat fragile in many scenes. There's even a cool new weapon invented for this episode, the kligat (oops, sounds like Klingon). Of course, except for their average height of 6 and a half feet, the natives here are probably just a throwback to ancient Earth cultures, such as the Vikings or those barbaric hordes which threatened Rome on occasion. Although, this culture of '10 Great Tribes' also reminds one of Earth's past royalty, where-in royal heirs were sometimes assassinated at early age - notably in Rome itself. This may make them obvious allies of the Klingons, one of whom shows up here to bedevil Kirk (following "Errand of Mercy"). But, as is usual for Trek episodes, the story doesn't follow the obvious path.

It turns out, these Capellans are much more honorable than the average Klingon of the original series and this all gets spelled out by the conclusion. Interestingly, McCoy is the resident expert on these people, due to spending time on the planet in the past. His retort to the Klingon during a key meeting scene is a near-classic Trek moment. The story is hampered by a limited, plodding plot line and a female queen/spoiled brat (Newmar) who is definitely an acquired taste - some viewers may find her amusing, a la the later "Elaan of Troyius" - and most will be annoyed. Most of the 2nd half consists of our heroes scrambling among rocks and hills to stay out of reach of the trailing alien posse. The story is also filled with silly moments and contrivances. Kirk fights one of the lethal male Capellans during the takeover coup as both McCoy & Spock stand a couple of feet away looking quite bored. The Klingon (actor Andrews of "Mod Squad" fame) has the new ruler in his pocket and then throws it all away near the end for no real reason except a bad temper and no patience. And why did the Klingons send only one agent, anyway? Seems like they were too sneaky for their own good. Then there's the whole 'kootchy-koo' scene I always try to forget. I did like Scotty's latest turn commanding the Enterprise; his 'fool me once, fool me twice' line is a good moment for the actor, Doohan.

Interesting primarily for its guest appearances, Friday's Child is one of Joe Pevney and D. C. Fontana's more mediocre efforts. Among the guests is great musical and stage actress Julie Newmar, who is mainly known to TV audiences for having played Catwoman in the classic Batman TV show. Casting called for a number of very tall and beefy people, so many of the guest stars are over 6' and recognizable by sight if not by name.

The trinity (Kirk, Spock, McCoy + a soon-to-die redshirt) have beamed down to a planet inhabited by a very hierarchal, male-dominated culture whose rank system revolves around violence. Upon arrival, they find that a Klingon (only one?) has arrived before them. The Klingon has been propagandizing against the federation since his arrival, and has jeopardized the Enterprise's mission to obtain mineral rights. The redshirt makes matters worse by threatening the Klingon at first sight.

Although McCoy once lived on this planet and briefs the crew on some ethnographic details ahead of time, these preparations were not nearly enough, as the away team creates one blunder after another. Fontana did a nice job of thinking out the alien culture's intricacies, but unfortunately, the episode devolves into a somewhat unoriginal action adventure about mid-way through.

Cinematography and effects are very average for TOS, writing is OK, directing is well below Pevney's usual mark, and acting is fairly good. Look for a lot of amusing but hokey banter with Spock in this one, and a solid and interesting performance by Ms. Newmar.

When Captain James T. Kirk got this assignment to negotiate a treaty with a planet that is a primitive hunter and gatherer culture he's got every right to think this one a slam dunk. As a junior officer William Shatner spent some time on the planet and got to know the leader real well.

So Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, and DeForest Kelley are a diplomatic delegation and there's a Klingon played by Tige Andrews there and they are negotiating for mining rights. But when the leader that Kirk knew is murdered then the Star Trek diplomats are forced to flee without their weapons. They also flee with statuesque Julie Newmar, widow of the late leader and very pregnant. Good thing Dr. McCoy is along in case they need an obstetrician.

Newmar is great as the Zena the warrior princess character who sometimes is more trouble than she's worth. But as she's carrying the heir to the leadership everyone wants their hands on her.

Must also praise Tige Andrews who unlike Michael Dorn in The Next Generation is one Klingon with damn little honor. Andrews, the future Captain Greer of Mod Squad is hardly recognizable under that makeup.

Give this one a look.

Those naughty Klingons are at it again: when Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to Capella IV to negotiate a mining agreement with the inhabitants they discover that Kras (Tige Andrews), a Klingon emissary, is attempting to beat them to the punch. The Capellan leader, Akaar (Ben Gage), is impressed by the Federation's offer, but rival Maab (Michael Dante) sides with the Klingon. When Maab seizes control and kills Akaar, Kirk, Spock and McCoy escape into the hills, taking Akaar's pregnant wife Eleen (Julie Newmar) with them.

Meanwhile, the Enterprise, commanded by Scotty, is lured out of orbit by a decoy distress signal and challenged by a Klingon warship.

I can't say that I was overly impressed by Friday's Child: it's a passable time-waster but doesn't do anything new or interesting. We've seen Kirk and his pals negotiating with primitive races before, we've seen them running around the Vasquez rocks before, and we've seen cat and mouse antics in space with enemy craft before. Admittedly, we've never seen McCoy say 'Oochy woochy coochy coo' to a newborn Capellan before, but that's probably a good thing: once is more than enough.

5.5/10, rounded down to 5 for the Capellan warriors' appearance, their blonde ponytails, open-faced hoods and coloured, faux-fur sashes more likely to have the enemy creased up in fits of laughter than trembling in fear.