Episode o' the Day
"The Galileo Seven" (season one, episode sixteen; production code: 014; 5 January 1967): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: Shuttlecraft exist in Star Trek for one purpose: To place crewmen in an isolated & vulnerable position distant from the mothership. (That's not a criticism. My own Honda Odyssey is named the Shuttlecraft Odysseus for her resemblence to a Starfleet shuttlecraft.) There was no mention of shuttlecraft as a means of rescuing the stranded landing party in "The Enemy Within" (season one, episode five), because in those early days of the show no shuttlecraft existed, neither sets nor models. Toy & model company A.M.T. funded the construction of the Galileo filming model & sets in exchange for the rights to make & sell model kits of the same. The shuttlecraft set & filming model recurred in "The Menagerie, Part I" (season one, episode eleven), which aired before "The Galileo Seven" but was produced later (production code: 016).
The best part of "The Galileo Seven" is Mr. Spock's struggles & failures in command. He is dismissive of the threat analysis of his crew, thinking them overly emotional, even though they turn out to be correct. He mistakenly assumes that the savage natives who are menacing the Galileo survivors will respond logically to a non-lethal show of strength, a mistake that gets a crewman killed. He attempts to sacrifice himself when his leg is pinned beneath a rock, but his emotional crew disobey & save his life. Spock grows as a leader through these mistakes & experiences.

No comments:
Post a Comment