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TOS episode #15 - Court Martial

 
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Bogmeister
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 6:33 pm    Post subject: TOS episode #15 - Court Martial Reply with quote

____________
____________ Classic Star Trek: Court Martial


__________


COURT MARTIAL (1st season; episode #15) Like a Star @ heaven Air Date: 02/02/67
Directed by Marc Daniels / / writers: Don M. Mankiewicz, Stephen W. Carabatsos




In this episode, Captain Kirk is under fire not by some cosmic menace threatening the galaxy, science gone mad or warlike aliens (such as the Romulans).

Instead, his threated by Starfleet itself, the one entity you'd think would always back him up. We get to see some of the inner workings of this organization, and the proceedings are not really different from current military trials and bureaucracy.

The story takes place at Starbase 11, next seen in The Menagerie, part one, but here with a different commodore, played by Percy Rodriguez.




In the plot, an Enterprise officer (Lt. Ben Finney) has been lost in the line of duty just before the episode begins. Based on computer evidence, Kirk appears to have either panicked — or worse — acted with malice during a critical point on the bridge while an ion storms was raging, causing the death of the crew member.

It turns out, Kirk has a long personal history with Lt. Finney, who lost out on a promotion or two, in part thanks to Kirk. Starfleet, represented by commodore Stone, intends to drum Kirk out of the service in disgrace, based on computer evidence. What we get here is the 'courtroom' episode of the series.




I'd have to say the most memorable thing about this episode is the introduction of Kirk's lawyer, Cogley, played with some eccentricity and flamboyance by old-time actor Elisha Cook Jr.

Cogley jabbers on about having thousands of books and tends to rattle off a list of old historical documents (including some we've yet to create), like he's conducting some strange class for aspiring attorneys. He makes it clear that his preferences do not include computers, which sets up the entire 'man vs. machine' theme during the court scenes, (We'll revisit this theme in later episodes, such as The Ultimate Computer).

________


Cogley even makes a statement during the trial about machines having no rights; this attitude may change by the time of TNG, when the android Data was placed on trial over this very issue in the episode The Measure of a Man.

Cogley is strictly 'old school' and probably would not like living in the 24th century of TNG. I wonder how he in his anti-machine attitude would react to someone like Data. On the other hand, Cogley would probably be yelling "I told you all so!" after the events of The Ultimate Computer.



I also liked the rare glimpses we get here of the social, political, and cultural atmosphere of the 23rd-century, including (of course) the legal system as seen briefly at this starbase.

I really liked, for example, the scene in the bar or lounge, where Kirk runs into some of his peers. It's a nice glimpse into Starfleet outside the usual parameters of the Enterprise. In most episodes, the Enterprise and its crew are off in the far reaches of space, far from the encompassing blanket of the Federation. In Court Martial, Kirk and crew are at the center of it.



The starbase is like an extension of prototypical 23rd-century civilization, a clear sampling of how we have expanded our society to other worlds. The episode, overall, is a little on the dull side, unless one is really enamored with courtroom drama. The revelation near the conclusion may surprise viewers who have not seen this before. It's a little on the hokey side, however, and maybe a bit too neat.



________

The episode does make a point, one which was not lost on me even when I was younger.

Let's go back to the introduction of Cogley. Who is this seeming nutcase, we might ask, and just what is he blathering on about?

Kirk seems to be in real trouble, and his lawyer is a couple of cans short of a six-pack, besides being on the annoying side.

But, by the 4th act, we realize Cogley is one of the reasons we were able to set up a Federation. He represents not only humanity, but civilization — that striving for decency by half-savages, manifested by written laws passed down through the ages, laws which govern, laws which make possible such civilized trials to protect the innocent, resulting in a thorough quest for the truth.

BoG's Score: 7 out of 10

The Sun Sets on Starfleet and Civilization Proceeds...



Extra Trek Trivia: this was the first episode where someone speaks out-loud of Starfleet and Starfleet Command — Roddenberry and his writers finally nailed down the terminology at this point, rather than using such generic phrases as 'Space Command' or 'United Space Probe Agency.'

~ Remastered FX scenes


____ Star Trek "Court Martial" Remastered FX Reel


__________



BoG
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 7:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Just for the record, guys, it takes me somewhere between 30 minutes and 2 hours to convert each of Bogmeister's elaborate posts to a form which works on All Sci-Fi. Some of them have 20 or more small pictures which each have to be added in just the place within the text. Sad

But I'm glad to do it, because Andrew Bogdan's posts to our old board between 2007 and 2014 were the best contributions this website had to offer!

I'm so grateful to Eadie for discovering this veritable "gold mine" of lost posts by the late Bogmeister so that I can now preserve them on All Sci-Fi! Very Happy

All I ask in return is that our members enjoy Andrew's brilliantly crafted reviews and honor his memory by contributing replies. His creative talents and hard work deserve to be recognized by the members of this board.

I'm sure that the wealth of information Andrew has provided in his exceptional compositions can inspire comments from intelligent fans of science fiction like the members of All Sci-Fi. Cool

After all, Andrew Bogdan spent five years trying to generate interest in his own message board, the Base of Galactic Science Fiction, adding 3,265 posts which he hoped would bring in new members!

But the sad results were a total of just 13 unimaginative members who only added 7 replies! Sad

Andrew died thinking that all his hard work had been completely in vain . . .

And yet, now I'm able to bring back his brilliant work to the website he served as co-site administrator for seven years, the site he originally composed these reviews for! And I'm confident the members of All Sci-Fi will show their appreciation for the imagination and hard work which Andrew Bogdan demonstrated when he created these amazing reviews.

I know you guys will read Andrew's posts and enjoy them. And I hope you'll also add your own interesting comments so that the rest of us will be inspired to do the same!

I regret the fact that the late Bulldogtrekker isn't still here to enjoy the triumphant return of Bogmeister's posts. Those two gentlemen were the most devoted Star Trek fans we have! Cool

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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)


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Pow
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PostPosted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 10:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Beautiful Joan Marshall (Areel Shaw) played Phoebe Munster in the very first pilot for The Munsters TV show.

Richard Webb (Ben Finney) played the title character Captain Midnight in the 50s superhero TV series. Later called Jet Jackson due to legal issues.

Percy Rodriguez (Commodore Stone) would appear in Gene Roddenberry's sci~fi TV movie/pilot Genesis II.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Tue Mar 26, 2019 9:54 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

I've got about 20 episodes of "Captain Midnight", the picture quality of which ranges from fair to bloody awful. Sad

I'd love for someone to release a box set of that great series. It was a special favorite of mine as a kid, and I shared the few episodes I had on video tape with my kids in the 1990s (both were pre-teens). I told them they were members of Captain Midnight's Secret Squadron!

We drank lots of Ovaltine and ate plenty of Kicks corn cereal. Cool

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johnnybear
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 27, 2019 10:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I thought Arena was the first episode to mention the Federation and Starfleet? Surprised
JB
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 5:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Nitpicker's Guide

When the court-martial moves to the Enterprise, Captain Kirk, Mr. Spock, and Dr. McCoy change out of their dress uniforms into their regular uniforms. Shouldn't Kirk at least remain in his dress uniform out of respect for the court?

Sidebar: Yep, he should have. However, since the producers knew that the episode would conclude with Kirk & Finney fighting one another, and Kirk's shirt being torn, they were not about to risk Kirk's dress tunic. It would save on the budget if they didn't have to replace the dress wardrobe.

When Kirk finds Finney, the deranged lieutenant commander tells Kirk that he has shut down the engines and the Enterprise will burn up as its orbit decays over Starbase 11.
Kirk & Finney now wrestle around in Engineering for some time.
Wouldn't it make more sense for Spock to head to Engineering and assist the captain in restoring the engines? Or, at the very least, to beam Mr. Scott back on board?

Sidebar: Of course it would! But the producers have to make Kirk the big damn hero without any help from anyone else.

Sidebar: And at a busy starbase such as this one, just how was the Enterprise, or anyone on board, gonna be in any real danger of burning up in orbit? The minute that the starbase's scanners detected the Enterprise's orbit failing they could have any of the other star ship's we see in orbit affix their tractor beams onto the Enterprise and pull it back into outer space.Who knows? Perhaps such star bases where star ships come for routine maintenance, repairs, & upgrades, have their own permanently assigned vessels or equipment that can tractor beam visiting star ships as needed?
And let's remember that the members of the court could have all transported off the Enterprise at the first sign of danger. They were hardly trapped on the ship.

Sidebar: Doesn't it seem odd that none of the starbases's scanners immediately detected that the Enterprise's engines had been shutdown? Since this was not some kind of authorized shutdown there should have been an immediate alert. Wouldn't the Enterprise itself set off warning alarms if its engines were illegally turned off? Did Finney somehow sabotage such alarms?

Nitpicker's Guide: Why didn't Spock have a prosecuting attorney at his court-martial during "The Menagerie, Part 1" and "The Menagerie, Part 2?"

N.G: The episode "Wolf in the Fold" seems to indicate that the computer's ability to tell when a person is lying is admissible in court as evidence, yet this episode never addresses the issue.

N.G.: During the experiment to locate Finney, McCoy masks each person's heartbeat with white noise. The doctor holds the instrument over the center of Spock's chest. According to "Mudd's Women," Spock's heart is on the left side of his chest.

N.G.: Isn't that large nut wrench that Finney swings at Kirk in Engineering antiquated for a 23rd century star ship?
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scotpens
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PostPosted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 7:31 pm    Post subject: Re: TOS episode #15 - Court Martial Reply with quote

Design note: The mushroom-like structures depicted in the Starbase 11 painting were no doubt inspired by the New York State pavilion towers at the 1964 New York World's Fair.


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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 3:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

From These Are The Voyages TOS, Season One by March Cushman.

The theme: The battle of Man versus Machine is a fallacy--it is always Man against Man, for man is the machine's creator. The hook seemed irresistible: The Caine Mutiny in outer space.

While the idea of doing a courtroom drama in outer space is interesting and "Court Martial" certainly has its moments, the overall execution is clumsy.

The story, which went through too much rewriting by too many different writers (four in all, with a lot of string-pulling by a fifth) has plot holes and leaps of illogic.

Consider the following: Jame, the daughter of Ben Finny, just happens to be on the nearest Starbase to where the Enterprise had been damaged and now orbits.

The other officers visiting or assigned to the Starbase, all colleagues and/or peers of James Kirk, are surprisingly quick to assume his guilt.

One of Kirk's past loves, who just happens to be a Starfleet Prosecuting Attorney at this particular base, also just happens to be assigned to nail him to the wall.

Sidebar: Yes, wouldn't it be legally unethical for the beautiful Areel Shaw (Joan Marshall) to be involved in this trial? She should recuse herself from the proceedings.

We are told that the only man qualified for the job of defending Kirk is a cantankerous old-school lawyer named Samuel Cogley, who also just happens to be at the Starbase — and is immediately available to take the case.

One final pet peeve: During the fight on the engineering deck between Kirk & Finley, the use of stuntman is painfully obvious.

Sidebar: It was indeed, just as bad as the Kirk versus Khan fight on the engineering deck in "Space Seed."

TATV: Not all was bad. Worth noting:

"Court Martial" provides our first of only two visits to a Starbase in the first season.

This was the first time the nomenclature of "Starfleet" and "Starfleet Command" was used, courtesy of Gene Coon.

The Starfleet dress uniform made its first appearance here.

Starbase Commodore Stone was the highest ranking black on Star Trek. The Albert Whitlock matte painting of Starbase 11 was, for its time, an eye-opener.

Sidebar: It was a thing of beauty.

TATV: In conjunction with the theme, it is a unique story with a handful of engaging scenes, creating an episode the viewer wants to like, warts and all.

Don Mankiewicz who created the original story outline for "Court Martial" was the son of legendary screenwriter Herman J. Mankiewicz, who shared an Academy Award with Orson Welles for co-writing Citizen Kane. His nephew, Joseph Mankiewicz, was the Oscar winning writer/director who wrote the screenplays for Guys and Dolls and All About Eve. (Another nephew, Ben, not yet born, would become the co-host of the popular TCM movie channel.)

No story went through more changes than this one.

From the original outline:

The computer of the Enterprise, called IRRU (Information Reception and Retrieval Unit) has developed a personality and is fond of Finney, whose job it's been to maintain it, and IRRU doesn't like Kirk either, to the degree that it too is willing to lie on behalf of its friend. IRRU is actually the true culprit of the story since Finney is presumed dead and missing throughout much of it.

Finney's friend Farley, stationed on the bridge, is willing to lie under oath on behalf of his friend to bring down Kirk.

Finney's dad (Finney, Sr.) at Starbase 11, accuses Kirk of killing his son and does all he can to see that captain's hide is nailed to the courtroom wall.

Prosecuting Attorney Haw is a man in the original outline.

On Kirk's side: Spock and a father/son lawyer defense team, Cogley & Cogley (Samuel Cogley, Jr. and Samuel Cogley, Sr.)

Cogley, Jr. quits as Kirk's attorney when he sees the computer log which supports Farley's story. He believes Kirk lied. Everyone on the Starbase seems to agree and Kirk is thrown in jail before a verdict is even reached. Cogley, Sr. sticks with kirk but finds opposition at every turn.

Harbormaster Sherek (changed to Stone in the episode) is described as "a grouchy, elderly former flying officer, now grounded as overage and disposed to be prejudiced against Kirk for the simple reason that Kirk still holds command-flight functions."

Cogley and Spock take Cogley's "old rocket-jalopy" and help kirk to escape. The three of them go to an asteroid where it is believed Finney may be. They find him, rescue him, and bring him back to explain to the court what happened.

Finney, Jr. leaves Starfleet to work for Cogley.

And this — with its sets, new ships, and effects-laden space crusades — was going to save Star Trek money?
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Wed Apr 06, 2022 4:15 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

What a colossal post, Mike! Very Happy

It's fun to study the creative process which took this yarn from it's inception to its completion. Your detailed description of all the early versions of the story and all the changes it went through is exactly the kind of intelligent post I want All Sci-Fi to packed with!

And your certainly doing your share of the packing, sir! Cool

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PostPosted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 2:01 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thank you, Bud.

From Memory Alpha:

In the shooting script there was a scene filmed but cut where Jame Finney comes into the engineering room at the end of Kirk & Finney's fight. The appearance of his daughter and his wish to save her are why he tells Kirk where he sabotaged the Enterprise.

Changes in the script made it confusing as to Jame's initial anger towards Kirk regarding her father and then her sudden later one of calmness and respect towards Kirk.

The script had her reading old letters from her father and his hostile attitude in them towards Kirk makes her believe that he might actually pull some stunt like he has in order to get revenge on Kirk.

Elisha Cook, Jr., had great difficulty remembering his lines. His passionate speech to the court martial members had to be edited together in order to make it work.

Sidebar: I've always wondered why we don't see Cook's Cogley character come on board the Enterprise in the finale of this episode. His absence seemed odd. Could it be he was originally supposed to but due to his problem of memorizing his lines the production felt it best to not have him present? I also wonder if such a marvelous actor and showbiz veteran as Elisha was experiencing early signs of senility or dementia which would explain his having such a hard time getting his lines down.

The barkeeper in the officer's lounge wears the same outfit as the barkeeper seen on the second season episode "The Trouble with Tribbles" on Deep Space Station K-7.

The two-person transporter alcove we see in Commodore Stone's office is seen again in Mr. Lurry's office on Deep Space Station K-7 on "The Trouble with Tribbles."

Plant's in Stone's office contain pieces of ones seen in "The Conscience of the King," and the spore plants from "This Side of Paradise."

The back of the bar contained recycled pieces from the interior of Balok's ship from "The Carbonite Maneuver."

The bell used by Commodore Stone to bring the court to order was later used in Star Trek: The Next Generation's episode "The First Duty."

Sidebar: So was it used in the hearing for Khan Noonien Singh in "Space Seed?"

The arm rest/sensor on the courtroom witness chair shows up in "Wolf in the Fold."

The courtroom door that Spock & Dr. McCoy enter through are hinged. This is one of the few times any hinged type of door is seen in the series.

M-11 is the name of the planet that the Starbase is located on according to the script, although it isn't mentioned in the episode.
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PostPosted: Fri Apr 08, 2022 1:16 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I have to make a correction here after further researching Marc Cushman's wonderful book: These Are The Voyages, Season One.

It turns out that Sam Cogley did arrive on the Enterprise with Jame Finney in this episode's finale. The scene was shot but left out in the final edited version of the episode.

I had always wondered about why Cogley was missing from the end sequence that takes place on board the Enterprise.
It made no sense that everyone from the courtroom on this case from Starbase 11 had adjourned to the Enterprise except Sam Cogley!

Sam was Kirk's lawyer, so he was never going to have the rest of the court---including the prosecuting attorney--- aboard the star ship trying this case with his client without legal representation by Sam.

I assumed that due to Elisha Cook, Jr having difficulty with memorizing his lines that his character was written out of the conclusion of this episode.

From a production standpoint of getting this episode wrapped up, I can understand that any further delays due to Elisha had to be dealt with.

However, from a legal & story standpoint, his going missing made no sense at all.
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Bud Brewster
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PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 1:21 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

________________________________

Thanks for the Treasure Trove of Trivia, Mike.

The only thing that hampers my enjoyment of this episode (just a little) is the fact that Finney was played by my hero . . . Captain Midnight. He did a great job, but it conflicts my emotions a little. Sad

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PostPosted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 7:38 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I know what you mean, Bud. It's sometimes difficult to see actors who once played our heroes take on a role of a villain. Or in Finney's case, one seriously emotionally messed up gent.

Think of it this way, Richard Webb was an actor and with this role of Finney, Dick was able to play a very meaty part as a crazed man. Actors live for that kind of a part where they can really flex their acting muscles, so Webb was probably having a blast performing it.

I remember watching him as a kid, but the show was titled for legal reasons as Jet Jackson. So for me, Webb is the great JJ.

And son-of-a-gun, didn't Dick show up as a government secret agent in the awful Hillbillies in a Haunted House movie I recently watched and told you about.
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PostPosted: Sun Jul 24, 2022 11:35 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

From the NBC press release, January 16, 1966:

Captain Kirk is charged with negligence and brought to trial following the disappearance and reported death of one of his officers, in "Court Martial" on the NBC Television Network colorcast of Star Trek on Feb. 2, 1967.... Investigation into the presumed death of Officer Finney (Richard Webb), who was lost during a hazardous assignment aboard the Enterprise, discloses evidence that Captain Kirk (William Shatner) may have perjured himself in his testimony regarding the incident. Kirk's case appears hopeless until a little-known fact in Finney's past is inadvertently revealed by his daughter.

Thoughts: Hey NBC press release, that last sentence is kind of a spoiler. Did you really have to have it? The second-to-last sentence was perfect and nicely heightened the dramatic tension by leaving it open.
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