Star Trek – Wolf In The Fold

★★★★ December 22, 1967 Season 2 Episode 14

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 show was written by Gene Roddenberry and Robert Bloch

This episode put some of the spotlight on Scotty. Scotty was key to the Enterprise’s survival. Kirk knew just how much he could push the limits of the Enterprise with Scotty at his disposal. You could say in many ways he was just as important as Spock, Kirk, or Bones with his jobs. Without Scotty performing miracles on the engines…they could not travel. 

In this episode, Scotty’s integrity is put on the line. He takes a walk with a space belly dancer and suddenly finds himself over her dead body with a knife. Is Scotty the culprit? Is Scotty in fact the criminal which the Argelians seek? And then when trying to track his last 24 hours…a crew member running tests on Scotty is found…you guessed it…dead with Scotty right beside her again.

We then have a trial that uncovers an entity that has been masquerading as Hengist feeding on fear. I have to wonder if Stephen King was influenced by this episode somewhere. The novel IT has a monster (Pennywise) that feeds on fear…with many similarities with this episode. 

A good mystery episode with Jack The Ripper being brought up. When the first woman was killed you saw a lot of fog like in London in the Ripper’s time. Jack The Ripper had been dead for hundreds of years…it couldn’t be him right?

For most of Star Trek, James Doohan (“Scotty”) hides his right hand, which was missing the middle finger due to a WWII D-Day injury. While being questioned with his hand resting on the lie detector scanner, his fingers are hidden by being curled around the edge of the plate. During a close-up shot of the machine reacting to an intentional lie being told, a five-digit hand spread across the plate is seen – that of a stunt double. Doohan later wrote about it in his autobiography and said this was one of his favorite episodes.

This episode was made around the time that Leonard Nimoy earned an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Mr Spock. William Shatner has admitted that this put his nose out of joint considerably, leading to tensions between the two actors, so this episode was a conscious effort on the part of the writers to sideline Nimoy and give Shatner center stage. (After the series finished, these animosities were put aside and the two remained lifelong friends up until a few years before Nimoy died in 2015.)

Robert Bloch originally wrote that Kirk, Scotty, and Bones having drinks which had colored layers. Their moods would change as they drank each layer. This idea was dropped as being too complicated of a special effect. Network censors were concerned that it would appear that they were using drugs. The producers argued against this but were unable to use the drinks anyway.

This is one of the very few episodes of the second season to feature music composed by Alexander Courage (mainly because of the feud between Courage and Gene Roddenberry, and his resulting withdrawal from the series).

A large number of costumes in the Argelius bar scene are reused from previous episodes. Some of the extras in the bar are wearing turtleneck uniforms from Star Trek: The Cage (1966) and Star Trek: Where No Man Has Gone Before (1966). Two extras in the bar (one of them later seen on the foggy street) are wearing the silver cadet uniforms made for the Finnegan character from Star Trek: Shore Leave (1966). Also, one bar patron (played by regular background performer Joseph Paz) is wearing Commissioner Ferris’ costume from Star Trek: The Galileo Seven (1967), and another is wearing a colonist jumpsuit recycled from Star Trek: The Devil in the Dark (1967).

According to Tanya Lemani, the makeup for Kara was initially much more elaborate. Lemani recalled, “They sent me to the makeup department because they wanted to do something extravagant with my look. The first day, they put feathers of different colours all over my face – on my eyelashes, my eyelids, my nose. Then they took me to the director, Joe Pevney, and he said, ‘No. No. Less!’ The makeup people kept trying to match his vision for four days, with less and less feathers and fewer colours each time, but Joe kept saying, ‘No.’ Finally, on the fifth day, I came in with no makeup and he said, ‘That’s it. That’s what I want to see – her face.” Lemani did her own belly dance choreography for the scene, but due to censorship concerns, had to cover her navel with a jewelled flower.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation: Relics (1992), an older Scotty remembers the events of “Wolf in the Fold” as “a wee bit of trouble.”

Clocking in at approximately 15 minutes and 30 seconds, the courtroom hearing that constitutes virtually the third act of the episode appears to be the longest uninterrupted scene, confined to a single setting, in the original series.

This is the first episode of the second season to completely utilize stock music, largely from Gerald Fried’s scores for Star Trek: Catspaw (1967) and Star Trek: Friday’s Child (1967). Fried’s Finnegan jig from Star Trek: Shore Leave (1966) can also be heard.

This is the first time where Scott’s first name is given as Montgomery. It is next spoken in Star Trek: Is There in Truth No Beauty? (1968) where he introduces himself to Marvick.

In the late 1980s, the pop band Information Society sampled Scotty’s line, “Let’s go see”, in their song “Walking Away”.

A few months after Wolf in the Fold was broadcast, guest star John Fiedler took on the voice of Piglet in Winnie the Pooh and the Blustery Day (1968). He was to reprise the role on several occasions, making it one of his most enduring roles.

This is one of two TOS episodes that prominently feature Scott. The other episode is Star Trek: The Lights of Zetar (1969).

Uhura and Chekov do not appear in this episode.

Robert Bloch’s third and final contribution to the series.

This takes place in 2267.

On the 1993 album “Zoo Rave, Vol 2”, the house/techno/rave artist John Greczula (aka Texas Audio) sampled Kirk’s lines, “You were a musician at the cafe. You played for the murdered girl”, and Tark’s responses, “Since she was a little girl she danced for me” and “The man who did it must be found”, in his rave song, “Mystery Cafe.”

William Shatner and Joseph Bernard previously appeared together in Judgment at Nuremberg (1961).

Kara’s dance music was from the pilot show “The Cage”, when Vina is dancing as an Orion slave girl in the cabaret scene.

James Doohan, who was single at the time, stated in his autobiography that he dated Tanya Lemani (Kara) a few times after filming for this episode wrapped.

Summary

While on shore leave on the planet Argelius II with Dr. McCoy and Captain Kirk, Chief Engineer Scott finds himself accused of murdering an exotic dancer he met in a nightclub. He has no recollection of the incident but is found standing over the girl with a bloody knife in his hand. For Mr. Hengist, the chief administrator, the case is cut and dried, but Jaris, the planet’s leader, suggests that his wife chair a séance to identify the killer. Tragedy strikes again, still pointing to Mr. Scott as the culprit. Kirk suggests they retire to the Enterprise where they can use its computers to determine if Scott is lying and who the real culprit may be.

CAST

William Shatner…Capt. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy…Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley…Dr. McCoy
John Fiedler…Hengist
Charles Macauley…Jaris
Pilar Seurat…Sybo
James Doohan…Scott
George Takei…Sulu
Charles Dierkop…Morla
Joseph Bernard…Tark
Tania Lemani…Kara
John Winston…Transporter Chief
Virginia Aldridge…Karen Tracy
Judy McConnell…Yeoman Tankris
Judi Sherven…Nurse
Majel Barrett…Computer Voice
William Blackburn…Hadley
Marlys Burdette…Serving Girl #1
John Fiedler…Redjac (voice)
Steve Hershon…operations officer
Suzanne Lodge…Serving Girl #3
Eddie Paskey…Leslie
Gary Wright…Starfleet cadet