Star Trek –  The Corbomite Maneuver

★★★★1/2 November 10, 1966 Season 1 Episode 10

If you want to see where we are…and you missed a few…HERE is a list of the episodes in my index located at the top of my blog. 

This episode was written by Jerry Sohl and Gene Roddenberry

This was a really good episode. It’s a very dramatic and suspenseful episode. Kirk is seen as a commander worthy of the title as this episode shows his skills quite well. The Enterprise wanders into a part of space where they are warned to turn back and proceed no further…but that is not part of the 5-year mission.

Blalok

A mysterious alien attacker claims to be able to destroy the ship with no risk of anything stopping him, and therefore grants the crew ten minutes…but they didn’t count on Captain Kirk pulling victory out of defeat. I love the look of the alien as his image gets transmitted to the Enterprise… a very handsome young man. 

Kirk has a lot of boldness in this episode. He is risking the ship on a bluff but he didn’t have many options at that point.  I have to say, the most disturbing thing to me was the episode’s final reveal of Balok. His appearance and the ship’s interior design, mixed with the incongruous voice really had an uncomforting effect. The episode offers a good look at the political climate of the Cold War.

The ending of this episode will throw you. You will not see it coming. I watched this one for the first time in years a few weeks ago…and yes I completely forgot about the ending. Great episode. 

From IMDB

Although the script instructed Leonard Nimoy to emote a fearful reaction upon his first sight of Big Balok, director Joseph Sargent suggested to Nimoy that he ignore what the script called for and instead simply react with the single word “Fascinating.” The suggestion of this response helped refine the Spock character and provide him with a now-legendary catchphrase.

McCoy says “What am I, a doctor or a moon shuttle conductor?” which can be considered the first of the “doctor not a” quotes. In later days, the quote would have been phrased “I’m a doctor, not a moon shuttle conductor!”

James Doohan’s wartime injury to his right hand (incurred at Normandy on D-Day) is briefly visible in the conference room scene when he passes a coffee thermos. Generally this was carefully hidden off-camera, but it can also be seen when he’s holding a phaser in Star Trek: Catspaw (1967), as he carries a large bundle of tribbles in Star Trek: The Trouble with Tribbles (1967), as he reverses the probe polarity in Star Trek: That Which Survives (1969) and very briefly in freeze-frame when he’s reaching into the box to restrain the evil dog in Star Trek: The Enemy Within (1966).

This episode was originally scheduled to air much earlier than it did, but the large amount of visual effects took several months to complete. The producers had to delay the planned airdate twice, before eventually broadcasting it as the tenth episode of the season.

Both in terms of its order on the production schedule, and its order of televised broadcast, this episode marks the very first time that the Enterprise fires its phasers. The actual burst that the ship fires at the warning buoy is unique to this episode.

Summary

In a section of unexplored space, the Enterprise comes across a marker of sorts that will not let it pass. They destroy the marker and move on but soon find themselves in conflict with an unknown alien who accuses them of trespassing and tells them they have only 10 minutes to live. Kirk decides it’s time to play a little poker and literally bluff his way out of the situation by telling the alien that the Enterprise has a device on board that will destroy the alien as well as the Enterprise. The bluff works but the alien turns out to be something quite unexpected.

CAST

William Shatner … Captain James Tiberius ‘Jim’ Kirk
Leonard Nimoy … Mister Spock
Anthony D. Call … Dave Bailey (as Anthony Call)
Clint Howard … Balok
DeForest Kelley … Doctor Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy
Grace Lee Whitney … Yeoman Janice Rand
George Takei … Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
James Doohan … Lieutenant Commander Montgomery ‘Scotty’ Scott
Nichelle Nichols … Lieutenant Nyota Uhura
Majel Barrett … Nurse Christine Chapel (voice) (uncredited)
Bill Blackburn … Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
Ted Cassidy … Balok’s Puppet (voice) (uncredited)
Frank da Vinci … Crewman (uncredited)
Walker Edmiston … Balok (voice) (uncredited)
Jeannie Malone … Yeoman (uncredited)
Sean Morgan … Crewman (uncredited)
Eddie Paskey … Lieutenant Leslie (uncredited)
Eddie Smith … Crewman (uncredited)
Ron Veto … Crewman (uncredited)

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

24 thoughts on “Star Trek –  The Corbomite Maneuver”

  3. I’m actually right in sync! Tonight I will tune the station on Netflix, set half the Steinlager six-pack- only half, any more means ‘Stunned’ in the morning- on the safest edge of the LayZboy, settle back and go back to 1966. ‘Nostalgia Factor seven, Mr Sulu.’

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    2. Obbverse… I know this comment is 2 1/2 years late but… I got the new remastered Star Trek and it’s like you are watching a modern show with 60s sensibilities. It’s just totally incredible what they have done. The not so original special effects…look really good now on laser fires and things like that. I can’t wait to check out the entire series again.

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      2. Yes I am! It’s just totally amazing but you probably saw it on Netflix I would think. I think you mentioned that but maybe I’m wrong.
        Even “Arena” with that hokey lizard alien…they couldn’t help it much but they made the damn think blink! Hey…I’m easily impressed.
        But when they show laser beams or especially the Enterprise itself…it just blew me away. They did it tastefully and didn’t change the story like ummm Star Wars!

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      3. The 60s really took a lot of ‘go with it, ignore the fact you can see the flames or the waves are not to scale on the obvious model ship/spaceship, ignore the fact you can see the wires on the puppets or that the ‘monster’ is a big guy in a hairy boiler suit with a rubber mask, go with it and suspend belief!’ Especially on TV budgets. Till ‘Alien’ SF was definitely ‘I can’t- really can’t believe what I’m supposed to be seeing.’ The only one who came close was Ray Harryhausen at his best. The skeletons in ‘Jason And The Argonauts’ had me, my friend and my brother on the edge of my seat.

        (I’ve been stuck, stuck fast on my latest post, it just won’t ‘flow’ so I’ll drag out the old Jason post from the archives and titivate it up slightly as a stopgap- so thanks Max!)

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      5. Yeah, JP was probably the most seamless. Even Star Wars looks a bit tacky now, though at the time it was jaw dropping stuff, But also, as we’ve said before the CGI can get just as laughable which means it looks unbelievable. You want to watch a flick and go ‘oh that monster is scarey real, not ‘OK here comes the CGI’ CGI should not be a directors way of copping out of the story, it should be a real(istic) part of the story.

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      6. You are right about the bad CGI…many cheap movies need not to use it. It’s the same with everything I guess…instead of using it like a great tool…in spots…they over use it…and sometimes badly and cheaply!
        This Star Trek thing though…they use it in the right spots. Never changed scenes with it…just enhanced the shows.

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      7. May I (miss)appropriate this post after watching tonights sports news?

        Deja Vu Again This Year.

        Is Max one happy chap?

        Does his happiness know no bounds?

        See him throw his Dodgers cap

        Way up high in the blue sky!

        Does Dave R. mutter ‘crap,’

        And throw his Jays cap on the ground,

        And wipe a speck of dirt from his eye?

        (Congrats to you, two in a row! I’m not going to say anything to Dave, nope, nosiree. Best not say anything that might see me getting struck out or drummed out of A Sound Day.)

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      8. Yea I know….I DO feel bad for Dave so it’s not as good this year on that front anyway. In fact…we have emailed all through out…In fact…I’m going to edit that last comment that he could see I made to you….I just woke up and wasn’t thinking!
        But…I will tell you…that this was the most competitive WS I’ve ever seen…just incredible.
        But yes! I’m as happy as can be! Obbverse…I’ve never thought the Dodgers was going to lose as much in my life…they were not playing great but the last two games…they snuck up and won!

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      9. Thanks again obbverse…I edited the hell out of our posts on the Band song…I hope you don’t mind. I remember how this feels….and although Dave won’t forget…I don’t want to remind him…I wasn’t thinking last night…i was so damn happy! It was one for the ages!

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  4. I like the FX in this one, with the planetoid and the ship that seems to break off from it. I thought this was a very clever episode. I totally forgot the “twist” at the end but won’t give any spoilers out. I am enjoying the nitty gritty of the details, like Scotty’s finger, first time use of phaser, Spock’s “fascinating,” which I have always loved as his catchphrase, as well as Bones’ “I’m a doctor, not a…”

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  6. I got pretty sick of that, “I’m a doctor, not a,,,,,” bullshit. If I was Kirk I would have nipped that in the bud quick with a, “I’M the Captain and YOU’RE whatever the F*#K I tell you you are! Now to teach your ass a lesson gimme that phaser and take this baseball bat and go kill that creature!”

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  8. That alien was scary the first time I watched it all those years ago. Kinda goofy, now, especially knowing the ending. Reminds me of the Wizard of Oz. In all the times I’ve watched Star Trek, I had never noticed Scotty’s hand.

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