The Enterprise Incident

Plot – Talk about being able to get the audiences attention immediately with a teaser that sees Kirk in a foul mood ordering the Enterprise into Romulan territory apparently against Starfleet orders. Is this really the fabled season three of TOS that is so bad because this is riveting stuff to watch from the off. Given all of the implausible plots that have occurred over the previous two seasons you might think that the crew may believe that this is a clone or doppleganger that is giving this ridiculous order. The writing is extremely tight from the off, throwing us off guard and straight into a very dangerous situation.

How much fun is it seeing Kirk masquerading as a Romulan? I love the fact that the only thing he has to do to pull this off is to have his eyebrows slanted and put on one of their wooly outfits. When Troi suffers the same fate in The Face of the Enemy she suffers far greater indignities. This ticks all the boxes of a good spy story; secrets and lies, and of course undercover work.

Character – Kirk is not above criticising Spock, dismissing McCoy and giving a Romulan Commander who could blow them out of the sky a whole load of mouth. What could possibly have happened to make the usually amiable Captain Kirk so dismissive and aggressive? He’s willing to be the scapegoat should anything go wrong with this deception. Kirk is risking his career and his reputation in order to bring back the cloaking device.

It looks like this is going to be a Kirk heavy episode but as soon as the sultry Romulan Commander appears we venture into Spock development. It’s the rarest of things to see Spock indulging in any kind of romantic interlude, but given the common heritage between species it is not exactly surprising. Nimoy plays the scenes with his usual superb restraint, which makes them so much more compelling and less saccharine than they otherwise might have been. I love the observation that Spock is more than adept enough to command his own Starship. It’s an extremely valid point and one that the series never dealt with in any great depth. The erotic hand fondling received a lot of complaints at the time by those hard-nosed Star Trek fans that felt that Spock shouldn’t be indulging in this kind of romantic nonsense. It’s salvaged by two very important points – it’s extremely sweet in its execution and doesn’t betray Spock’s character in the slightest and the whole thing is a huge ploy anyway and can be written off as such…

…until the glorious moment at the climax where Spock realises that the Romulan Commander had a far profounder effect on him than he ever would have realised. Is there hope for a relationship for Spock yet?

Performance – Shatner gives one of his most commanding performances in this episode, one so good that you could not tell the apathy that is about to enter his performance style in the third season as the scripts get steadily worse.

Great Dialogue – ‘I hoped that you and I exchanged something more permanent.’

Production – Star Trek has a penchant for bombastic music but the score for The Enterprise Incident is just perfect, capturing the drama of the face off between the Enterprise and the Romulans and constantly reminding us of the diplomatic stakes latent in Kirk’s risky strategy. I’m far more of a fan of this style of music, that punctuates dramatically rather than the wallpaper orchestral bilge that polluted the latter TNG years. I don’t care if it is intrusive as long as it is memorable and enjoyable.

It’s time to talk aesthetics because there is clearly a huge difference between how the Romulans are presented here and how they would be presented in the Berman era of Trek.  I think the look of the Romulan Commander is extremely fun, reminding me very much of Catwoman and other catsuited villainesses of the time. Because Joanne Linville gives such a commanding performance, she owns that costume and refuses to lose any authority in it. However, the Romulans themselves with their gladiatorial helmets and bizarre knitted costumes do look faintly ridiculous. But at least they are impossible to forget, unlike the grey suited, stiff necked Romulans of later years.

Best moment – I adore the moment where the Romulan Commander informs the Enterprise that they will be processed and sent back to their territory and Scotty in a moment of human braveness and integrity tells her that they will resist and are willing to be blown out of the sky if necessary. If there was ever a demonstration of human foolhardiness in the face of danger, this is it.

It’s the moment where I realised that this entire episode has been one massive ruse but the ‘death’ of Captain Kirk at Spock’s hands is a terrific moment that must surely count in any of the best of TOS lists. Given Shatner’s supposed egotistical presence on set, I bet DC Fontana really enjoyed writing that scene. They were hardly going to write out the main character but the moment is so well played by Deforest Kelly, even I was convinced by his ruse.

Realising that her career is over for letting the cloaking device by taken from right under her nose, the Romulan Commander orders her ship to fire on the Enterprise with her on board. Loyal to the last, and it’s the last gambit she has to play. What an extraordinary character she is. How exciting to have a woman play the villainous lead and to be written for in such a complex way.

A reason to watch this episode again – With Captain Kirk acting out of character from the off, this is a terrific piece of drama that keeps you wrongfooted throughout. It’s the best Romulan episode by a country mile as well, giving us rare insight into one of the most feared and elusive species in the Alpha Quadrant. Everything clicks expertly into place in The Enterprise Incident; the writing is constantly surprising and effective, the direction is taut and visually memorable, the performances are faultless and the music truly compliments the action. There are few TOS episodes that reach this level of competence and aside from a few design decisions, I would have no issue with showing this episode to a modern-day audience. It’s the twists and turns, the performances and the suspense that all impress here and those things are timeless. The Enterprise Incident is the second episode of the much-derided series three of TOS (and with good reason) but it is genuinely one of the best episodes of the shows entire run. The climax where they get the cloaking device to work and evade the Romulans is to date my favourite scene from this series.

***** out of *****