3.7 — “Day of the Dove”

3.7 — “Day of the Dove”

Plot: An alien entity made out of pure energy pits the Enterprise crew against a band of 40 Klingons, who are brought together following the destruction of a Federation colony and critical damage to a Klingon warship. The 40 Klingons are beamed aboard the Enterprise, where they soon engage in sword battles with Kirk’s officers for control of the vessel. Can the two crews overcome their prejudices to unite against their hidden common enemy?

Thoughts: I really like this episode. I wrote down tons of stuff! Even when I didn’t like what was happening (Chekov as rapist?), the episode was never boring. 

“Day of the Dove” presents us with a picture of two empires which mostly misunderstand each other. It develops a concept of latent Klingon nobility that gets carried forward in The Next Generation and other Trek properties. In “Errand of Mercy,” however, Kirk describes the Klingons turning planets into vast slave labor camps, taking hostages and killing them, with no mercy. Which is it? Either the Klingons are not that bad (the distrust is mostly a matter of mutual prejudice!), or they are. I don’t think this is a trivial question. Evil exists, and while it may be possible to overcome and move past it, it still must be reckoned with. For the sake of the future of Star Trek, I guess we’re better off having Klingons who are warlike, but also cuddly and misunderstood.

Sulu has a sword again! Bliss. But the fighting is done by Chekov. Sigh.

This episode feels very Star Trek to me. It is also a very good episode about the need to recognize and regulate your anger. Show it to your kids! I love the scene where Kirk, Scott, and Spock are about to come to blows, but slowly recognize what is happening and master themselves while plainly still feeling the entity’s influence. When Spock observes “It is most urgent that we locate the alien entity immediately,” you can clearly hear the subtext, “Before I give into the temptation to kill your pasty asses.”[1] 

It’s interesting to see an episode about overcoming racial prejudice which uses all-white actors and dresses up half the cast in blackface. That sounds like the bad old days! Chalk it up to the times and give it a pass? I don’t know. Would it have been harder to make an effective parable about racism on major network television in 1968 using a multiracial cast? Perhaps the story works because it depicts divisions between the Federation, Klingons, and Vulcans, that can’t easily be traced to real world cultural references. Kudos to TNG for casting an African-American actor to play Worf, although basically every other actor to play a Klingon has been white, right?

Klingon women have great eye makeup. Do you agree with Mr. Spock that Chekov is not to blame for his conduct during the disturbing attempted rape scene?[2] Does he not have the same chance to resist the alien influence as Kirk, Spock, and Scott?

So–our crew is tested again, by a seemingly omnipotent entity.[3] The entity itself is not well developed in the teleplay, but plainly represents the baser natures of the crew which they must struggle to overcome. It’s understandable why this would become a central theme during the Cold War. My question is, is this theme still relevant to the culture now? What contemporary stories are urging us to look inside, and become better than we are? Certainly not the latest Star Trek movie (Star Trek Into Darkness), which lionizes the slaughter of Klingons and the beating of incapacitated prisoners.

In the end, what happened to the 100 dead colonists? The 400 dead Klingons? Did the entity in fact kill them, or did it alter the crews’ perceptions, so that they never really existed (or are still alive)? This seems important.

This episode is notable for its use of transporter tricks–holding the Klingons in a non-corporeal state, and intra-ship beaming. The transporter is terrifying.

Memory Alpha notes that this episode establishes considerable canon concerning the internal geography of the Enterprise,–e.g., the location of Engineering on board the ship, and the location of other critical systems. This is also the first time I remember seeing anyone get off the turbolift before its final stop.

I just can’t stop writing about this episode. Season 3 is distinctly worthwhile. I feel misled.[4]

4.5 out of 5 cutlasses made out of plowshares 3D chess sets.

[1] This reminds me of a conversation with a friend last weekend who somewhat defensively told us that she allows her 6-year-old to watch all the Marvel Comics movies. She said the Thor series is really constructive for young kids, because the stories are all about mastering your anger and making friends in hard situations. I imagine a lot of hard conversations going on within Marvel about how the films will play for different audience demographics. 

[2] I am amazed at what sailed by the censors, while other things (open mouthed kissing! horrors!) would get immediately squelched. Making an comment about depictions of violence against women being more acceptable than depictions of female pleasure might be pressing the point too far, however.

 

[3] An entity that feeds on anger and violence–just like the Jack the Ripper entity in “Wolf in the Fold!” Maybe they come from the same system.

[4] This largely comes from reading Herb Solow and Robert Justman’s book, Inside Star Trek: The Real Story (1996). Solow and Justman don’t have anything good to say about season three. Executive producer Solow left the show and the network at the end of season two, however, while associate producer Justman, offended by Roddenberry’s refusal to promote him to the rank of full producer, quit halfway through third season, breaking his contract and making himself a pariah at NBC for 18 years before getting hired back to work on Star Trek: The Next Generation. I guess it’s no surprise that Solow and Justman don’t have much praise for season three in their book–they were no longer inside Star Trek at the time.[5]

[5] Solow and Justman’s book may deserve its reputation as the best book previously available about original Trek, but it has a certain gossipy bitchiness about it which, I think, is distorting (although also entertaining). Marc Cushman’s new These Are the Voyages series, which covers production issues but places more emphasis on the themes, artistic choices, and day-by-day struggles of making Star Trek, is revealing a different, or at least more nuanced, portrait.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Day_of_the_dove