#corbomite

From February 11, 2022.

Song is "Two Slow Dancers," by Mitski.

@DavidRGeorgeiii joins us for some tranya and for a look at The Corbomite Maneuver! #StarTrek

We don’t always talk about The Corbomite Maneuver, but when we do, it’s on this episode! New York Times and USA Today best-selling author David R. George III joins the show to talk about the first non-pilot episode of Star Trek, and along the way, we discuss how Trek became Trek, the inclusiveness of Trek’s future, what it takes to command a starship, and the search for the unknown! Plus, we…

Oh, I do love a good manoeuvre.  The crew of the Enterprise would have also welcomed a good manoeuvre at the beginning of this episode because they’re stuck with the boring task of making star maps.  They’re getting restless.  That is until a giant Rubik’s Cube blocks their path.  It’s a red alert moment.

When the ship cannot escape the Rubik’s Cube of Annoyance, Bailey, a young crewman (with an old face), raises his voice in alarm.  Spock coolly tells him there’s no need to raise his voice.  In fact as the episode goes on, Bailey will frequently over-react.  It’s his thing.

Like a bad smell, the cube seems impossible to lose.  Mr Sulu puts his foot on the accelerator and it keeps pace with them, spinning faster and faster.  It’s very disco.  Ultimately they blast it to bits and this is where their problems really begin.  A spectacular sphere made up of other spheres appears (at least in the remastered version it does, the original is less impressive).

An echoing, deep voice comes over the “navigation beam”.  Yes, the navigation beam.  It tells them that they have ten “Earth periods known as minutes” to get their affairs together before they are blown to smithereens.

Bailey loses it, eating up a large chunk of their crucial ten Earth periods known as minutes with a tantrum.  He’s dismissed.

After seven Earth periods known as minutes attempting to negotiate, Kirk turns to poker for a solution and attempts a bluff.  He tells the voice that the Enterprise is loaded with Corbomite, a substance which will destroy the Sphere if the ship is destroyed.

A tiny spaceship tows the Enterprise to a planet where it is to be destroyed.  The voice is quick to point out that size isn’t everything. It’s what you do with it that counts.

Kirk orders Sulu to do some fancy flying to break the tractor beam, and it works, damaging the engines of the tiny ship along the way.

Kirk takes Bailey and McCoy over to the tiny ship to offer the hand of friendship and help.  Upon arrival they discover that the ship is in fact piloted by the kid from Gentle Ben, only bald and with a deeper voice.  It was all a ruse!

So, even though the kid had just threatened to kill them all, and clearly cannot be trusted, Kirk decides to leave Bailey behind to learn about the kid’s ways, believing he’ll get a better officer further down the line as a result.  It would be great to see a follow-up episode where we find out that Bailey was sold to a slave trader.  That would teach Kirk to think about the consequences of his actions.

The Corbomite Maneuvre is all about bluffing and deception. We see it from both sides.  Firstly, when Kirk bluffs his way out of a seemingly unsolvable situation it feels wonderful being ‘in’ on the bluff, but the second bluff we are not in on, so when we discover that the threat to the ship was a hoax it leaves us feeling somewhat unsatisfied.  Having gone through the worry and danger of the threat to destroy the ship and the Enterprise breaking free, it seems to cheapen the experience to learn the enemy was just a bald kid.  It’s like the end of the Wizard of Oz when the curtain is pulled back and the all-powerful Wizard is just a man playing with his organ. F’nar f’nar.

Corbomite Shmorbomite.

Cast: William Shatner as James T. Kirk Leonard Nimoy as Spock DeForest Kelley as Leonard H. McCoy James Doohan as Montgomery Scott Nichelle Nichols as Uhura George Takei as Hikaru Sulu

Guest Cast: Clint Howard as Balok Anthony Call as Lt. Dave Bailey