Errand of Mercy
At the start of the episode, the announcement is made: war has broken out between the Federation and the Klingon Empire. In the disputed zone there is a single class M planet, Organia, inhabited by a peaceful, passive species. The Federation would generally have let them go about their business, but since the Klingons would want to use such a planet as a base to launch attacks against the Federation, Kirk is sent there to stop it.
I did say "peaceful, passive species," right? The locals are friendly, completely peaceful, utterly passive, abhorring violence in all forms and completely unwilling to do a thing to help themselves. Kirk begs them to allow the Federation to protect them, and is turned down again and again. Spock at one point reveals that the civilization has made no advancements in at least ten thousand years, at which point Kirk states that they suddenly have more options. He also offers to bring in technicians to train them, architects to build for them, and so forth. Really, what that scene said to me is that the Enterprise is not quite as haphazard about Prime Directive enforcement as they seem, but rather, the show is actually fairly consistent in that the Prime Directive does not apply to a culture that is not developing/is stagnant. This is something I've never realized before in previous watch-throughs of the series.
Anyway, the peaceful, passive locals continue to turn down help and aid, but when a couple hundred Klingon soldiers show up on their doorstep they, instead, offer their protection to Kirk and Spock, outfitting the two as natives (Spock, being a Vulcan, has to masquerade as a Vulcan trader). The Klingons march right in and take over with no resistance at all, laying down laws and by-laws, and Kirk, in his guise as an Organian, is even made the liaison between the Klingons and the local civilians, largely because he doesn't passively smile at everything, which means the head Klingon is more inclined to view him as someone he can work with. The Klingon does not trust this population of sheep.
Kirk and Spock destroy some supplies in the hopes of demonstrating to the populace that it's possible to fight back, and in response the populace is horrified that they'd engage in such violence. When Kirk is caught by the Klingons and threatened with their mind-ripping machine, the locals reveal Kirk's true identity in an attempt to protect him. When they realize that the Klingons will harm Kirk and Spock anyway, they free the Enterprise members, though how they got past the Klingon guards is left unclear. Kirk and Spock, rather than going home, continue to try to save the colony by sneaking into the head Klingon's room and confronting him. The climatic battle, however, is cut short as suddenly touching any weapon or any foe is immensely painful to Kirk, Spock, or any of the Klingons. Everything, including other people, are incredibly hot to the touch, even if those people don't feel the heat within themselves. At the same time, it's shown that the Enterprise, which is part of a Federation fleet ready to square off against a Klingon fleet overhead, has the same problem as every crew member suddenly finds every control too hot to touch. The Organians reveal the same is true of every ship in the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and it's at this point that the truth about the Organians is revealed.
The Organians are not a technologically primitive culture, but one so far advanced beyond the Empire and the Federation that they are beyond their understanding. Although they are wearing bodies to interact with the other cultures, they are, in fact, creatures of energy. They are also ultra-powerful, order both the Federation and the Empire to stop their silly war-waging or have every ship in each fleet disabled, and could they please get off their planet and have a nice day. Both Kirk and the head Klingon protest the interference vehemently, but there's not much they can do about it. Later on, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk admits to some embarrassment over having been so furious at the Organians interfering in a war that Kirk didn't want in the first place, as well as just admitting to some general feelings of inferiority in the whole matter.
KIRK: Organia's description, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Inhabited by humanoids. A very peaceful, friendly people living on a primitive level. Little of intrinsic value. Approximately Class D minus on Richter's scale of cultures.
KIRK: Another Armenia, Belgium.
SPOCK: Sir?
KIRK: The weak innocents who always seem to be located on the natural invasion routes.
KIRK: Well, there it is. War. We didn't want it, but we've got it.
SPOCK: Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.
SPOCK: Negotiating with the Organians will be time-consuming, Captain, and time is one thing we'll have the least of.
KIRK: We won't get it by talking about it. The trigger's been pulled. We have to get there before the hammer falls.
KIRK: Excuse me, gentlemen. I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. I can only tell you the truth.
This line cracks me up, not just for what it says, but for what it implies. It really does speak volumes about Kirk's personality and beliefs, though.
SPOCK: Nevertheless, it is true. For tens of thousands of years, there has been absolutely no advancement, no significant change in their physical environment. This is a laboratory specimen of an arrested culture.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock. That might be useful.
KOR (the head Klingon): Coming from an Organian, yours is practically an act of rebellion. Very good. (to the Council) So you welcome me. (to Kirk) Do you also welcome me?
KIRK: You're here. There's nothing I can do about it.
KOR: Good honest hatred. Very refreshing. However, it makes no difference whether you welcome me or not. I am here and will stay. You are now subjects of the Klingon Empire. You'll find there are many rules and regulations. They will be posted. Violation of the smallest of them will be punished by death.
KOR: Yes. I am. I shall need a representative from among you. Liaison between the forces of the occupation and the civil population. Smile and smile. I don't trust men who smile too much. You, Baroner, you're the man.
KIRK: Me? I don't want the job.
KOR: Have I asked whether or not you want it? We Klingons have a reputation for ruthlessness. You will find that it is deserved. Should one Klingon soldier be killed, a thousand Organians will die. I will have order. Is that clear?
AYELBORNE: Commander, I assure you our people want nothing but peace. We shall cause you no trouble.
SPOCK: Captain, I strongly suggest we direct our energies toward the immediate problem. Accomplishing our mission here.
KIRK: You didn't really think I was going to beat his head in, did you?
SPOCK: I thought you might.
KIRK: You're right.
KOR: What an admirable people. Do you always betray your friends?
AYELBORNE: I didn't want you to harm him. I'm sorry, Captain. It was for the best. No harm would come of it.
KIRK: I'm used to the idea of dying, but I have no desire to die for the likes of you.
KOR: I don't blame you, Captain.
KOR: You of the Federation, you are much like us.
KIRK: We're nothing like you. We're a democratic body.
KOR: Come now. I'm not referring to minor ideological differences. I mean that we are similar as a species. Here we are on a planet of sheep. Two tigers, predators, hunters, killers, and it is precisely that which makes us great. And there is a universe to be taken.
KIRK: It's a very large universe, Commander, full of people who don't like the Klingons.
KOR: Excellent. Then it shall be a matter of testing each other's wills. Of power. Survival must be earned, Captain. Tell me about the dispersal of your Starfleet.
KIRK: Go climb a tree.
KIRK: You can't just stop the fleet. What gives you the right?
KOR: You can't interfere. What happens in space is not your business.
AYELBORNE: Unless both sides agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, all your armed forces, wherever they may be, will be immediately immobilized.
KIRK: We have legitimate grievances against the Klingons. They've invaded our territory, killed our citizens. They're openly aggressive. They've boasted that they'll take over half the galaxy.
KOR: Why not? We're the stronger! You've tried to hem us in, cut off vital supplies, strangle our trade! You've been asking for war!
KIRK: You're the ones who issued the ultimatum to withdraw from the disputed areas!
KOR: They are not disputed! They're clearly ours. And now you step in with some kind of trick.
KIRK: Even if you have some power that we don't understand, you have no right to dictate to our Federation
KOR: Or our Empire!
KIRK: How to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right
AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?
KIRK: Well, no one wants war. But there are proper channels. People have a right to handle their own affairs. Eventually, we would have
AYELBORNE: Oh, eventually you will have peace, but only after millions of people have died. It is true that in the future, you and the Klingons will become fast friends. You will work together.
KOR: Never!
Ayelborne is, of course, correct, as we all know.
KIRK: Well, Commander, I guess that takes care of the war. Obviously, the Organians aren't going to let us fight.
KOR: A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.
SPOCK: You've been most restrained since we left Organia.
KIRK: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.
Transcript.
I did say "peaceful, passive species," right? The locals are friendly, completely peaceful, utterly passive, abhorring violence in all forms and completely unwilling to do a thing to help themselves. Kirk begs them to allow the Federation to protect them, and is turned down again and again. Spock at one point reveals that the civilization has made no advancements in at least ten thousand years, at which point Kirk states that they suddenly have more options. He also offers to bring in technicians to train them, architects to build for them, and so forth. Really, what that scene said to me is that the Enterprise is not quite as haphazard about Prime Directive enforcement as they seem, but rather, the show is actually fairly consistent in that the Prime Directive does not apply to a culture that is not developing/is stagnant. This is something I've never realized before in previous watch-throughs of the series.
Anyway, the peaceful, passive locals continue to turn down help and aid, but when a couple hundred Klingon soldiers show up on their doorstep they, instead, offer their protection to Kirk and Spock, outfitting the two as natives (Spock, being a Vulcan, has to masquerade as a Vulcan trader). The Klingons march right in and take over with no resistance at all, laying down laws and by-laws, and Kirk, in his guise as an Organian, is even made the liaison between the Klingons and the local civilians, largely because he doesn't passively smile at everything, which means the head Klingon is more inclined to view him as someone he can work with. The Klingon does not trust this population of sheep.
Kirk and Spock destroy some supplies in the hopes of demonstrating to the populace that it's possible to fight back, and in response the populace is horrified that they'd engage in such violence. When Kirk is caught by the Klingons and threatened with their mind-ripping machine, the locals reveal Kirk's true identity in an attempt to protect him. When they realize that the Klingons will harm Kirk and Spock anyway, they free the Enterprise members, though how they got past the Klingon guards is left unclear. Kirk and Spock, rather than going home, continue to try to save the colony by sneaking into the head Klingon's room and confronting him. The climatic battle, however, is cut short as suddenly touching any weapon or any foe is immensely painful to Kirk, Spock, or any of the Klingons. Everything, including other people, are incredibly hot to the touch, even if those people don't feel the heat within themselves. At the same time, it's shown that the Enterprise, which is part of a Federation fleet ready to square off against a Klingon fleet overhead, has the same problem as every crew member suddenly finds every control too hot to touch. The Organians reveal the same is true of every ship in the Federation and the Klingon Empire, and it's at this point that the truth about the Organians is revealed.
The Organians are not a technologically primitive culture, but one so far advanced beyond the Empire and the Federation that they are beyond their understanding. Although they are wearing bodies to interact with the other cultures, they are, in fact, creatures of energy. They are also ultra-powerful, order both the Federation and the Empire to stop their silly war-waging or have every ship in each fleet disabled, and could they please get off their planet and have a nice day. Both Kirk and the head Klingon protest the interference vehemently, but there's not much they can do about it. Later on, on the bridge of the Enterprise, Kirk admits to some embarrassment over having been so furious at the Organians interfering in a war that Kirk didn't want in the first place, as well as just admitting to some general feelings of inferiority in the whole matter.
KIRK: Organia's description, Mister Spock.
SPOCK: Inhabited by humanoids. A very peaceful, friendly people living on a primitive level. Little of intrinsic value. Approximately Class D minus on Richter's scale of cultures.
KIRK: Another Armenia, Belgium.
SPOCK: Sir?
KIRK: The weak innocents who always seem to be located on the natural invasion routes.
KIRK: Well, there it is. War. We didn't want it, but we've got it.
SPOCK: Curious how often you humans manage to obtain that which you do not want.
SPOCK: Negotiating with the Organians will be time-consuming, Captain, and time is one thing we'll have the least of.
KIRK: We won't get it by talking about it. The trigger's been pulled. We have to get there before the hammer falls.
KIRK: Excuse me, gentlemen. I'm a soldier, not a diplomat. I can only tell you the truth.
This line cracks me up, not just for what it says, but for what it implies. It really does speak volumes about Kirk's personality and beliefs, though.
SPOCK: Nevertheless, it is true. For tens of thousands of years, there has been absolutely no advancement, no significant change in their physical environment. This is a laboratory specimen of an arrested culture.
KIRK: Thank you, Mister Spock. That might be useful.
KOR (the head Klingon): Coming from an Organian, yours is practically an act of rebellion. Very good. (to the Council) So you welcome me. (to Kirk) Do you also welcome me?
KIRK: You're here. There's nothing I can do about it.
KOR: Good honest hatred. Very refreshing. However, it makes no difference whether you welcome me or not. I am here and will stay. You are now subjects of the Klingon Empire. You'll find there are many rules and regulations. They will be posted. Violation of the smallest of them will be punished by death.
KOR: Yes. I am. I shall need a representative from among you. Liaison between the forces of the occupation and the civil population. Smile and smile. I don't trust men who smile too much. You, Baroner, you're the man.
KIRK: Me? I don't want the job.
KOR: Have I asked whether or not you want it? We Klingons have a reputation for ruthlessness. You will find that it is deserved. Should one Klingon soldier be killed, a thousand Organians will die. I will have order. Is that clear?
AYELBORNE: Commander, I assure you our people want nothing but peace. We shall cause you no trouble.
SPOCK: Captain, I strongly suggest we direct our energies toward the immediate problem. Accomplishing our mission here.
KIRK: You didn't really think I was going to beat his head in, did you?
SPOCK: I thought you might.
KIRK: You're right.
KOR: What an admirable people. Do you always betray your friends?
AYELBORNE: I didn't want you to harm him. I'm sorry, Captain. It was for the best. No harm would come of it.
KIRK: I'm used to the idea of dying, but I have no desire to die for the likes of you.
KOR: I don't blame you, Captain.
KOR: You of the Federation, you are much like us.
KIRK: We're nothing like you. We're a democratic body.
KOR: Come now. I'm not referring to minor ideological differences. I mean that we are similar as a species. Here we are on a planet of sheep. Two tigers, predators, hunters, killers, and it is precisely that which makes us great. And there is a universe to be taken.
KIRK: It's a very large universe, Commander, full of people who don't like the Klingons.
KOR: Excellent. Then it shall be a matter of testing each other's wills. Of power. Survival must be earned, Captain. Tell me about the dispersal of your Starfleet.
KIRK: Go climb a tree.
KIRK: You can't just stop the fleet. What gives you the right?
KOR: You can't interfere. What happens in space is not your business.
AYELBORNE: Unless both sides agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities, all your armed forces, wherever they may be, will be immediately immobilized.
KIRK: We have legitimate grievances against the Klingons. They've invaded our territory, killed our citizens. They're openly aggressive. They've boasted that they'll take over half the galaxy.
KOR: Why not? We're the stronger! You've tried to hem us in, cut off vital supplies, strangle our trade! You've been asking for war!
KIRK: You're the ones who issued the ultimatum to withdraw from the disputed areas!
KOR: They are not disputed! They're clearly ours. And now you step in with some kind of trick.
KIRK: Even if you have some power that we don't understand, you have no right to dictate to our Federation
KOR: Or our Empire!
KIRK: How to handle their interstellar relations! We have the right
AYELBORNE: To wage war, Captain? To kill millions of innocent people? To destroy life on a planetary scale? Is that what you're defending?
KIRK: Well, no one wants war. But there are proper channels. People have a right to handle their own affairs. Eventually, we would have
AYELBORNE: Oh, eventually you will have peace, but only after millions of people have died. It is true that in the future, you and the Klingons will become fast friends. You will work together.
KOR: Never!
Ayelborne is, of course, correct, as we all know.
KIRK: Well, Commander, I guess that takes care of the war. Obviously, the Organians aren't going to let us fight.
KOR: A shame, Captain. It would have been glorious.
SPOCK: You've been most restrained since we left Organia.
KIRK: I'm embarrassed. I was furious with the Organians for stopping a war I didn't want. We think of ourselves as the most powerful beings in the universe. It's unsettling to discover that we're wrong.
Transcript.