Star Trek – The Original Series, Vol. 7, Episodes 14 & 15: The Galileo Seven/ Court-Martial
Nov/095
Product Description
Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 02/22/2000 Run time: 100 minutes Rating: NrAmazon.com
Volume 7 in this excellent DVD series of original Star Trek programs includes “The Galileo Seven,” which teleplay writer Oliver Crawford says was inspired by his viewing of a 1939 film called Five Came Back. (A catty footnote: David Gerrold, scribe of the famous “The Trouble with Tribbles” episode, called “The Galileo Seven” a rip-off of the Jimmy Stewart film The Flight of the Phoenix. Meow.) Five Came Back concerned a plane crash in the Andes and the survivors who faced the constant threat of surrounding headhunters. Crawford toyed with the idea and came up with a story line in which Spock (Leonard Nimoy), Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley), and a couple of other crew members crash on the surface of a hostile planet during a shuttle mission. With communication between the small craft and the Enterprise disrupted by quasar activity, Spock and the others must defend themselves against a formidable threat with only primitive, handmade weapons. That’s the scenario, but the real drama is in the rising conflict between the half-Vulcan Spock’s coldly logical approach to survival and the passions of his human crew, who soon come to regard him as a hateful, unfeeling monster. This is an interesting episode, both as a taut action piece and, somewhat indirectly, as a portrait of intolerance (specifically, an intolerance of individual differences) developing under stress.
Also on this disc is “Court Martial,” a courtroom drama in which Captain Kirk (William Shatner) stands trial for negligence in the death of an Enterprise crewman. As the proceedings rumble on, Spock investigates some hidden truths about the dead man and the apparent computer malfunction that led to the tragedy. While “Court Martial” is a lesser episode from the Star Trek canon (the action is a bit mired in trial proceedings), it’s still a lot of fun and features a supporting role from veteran Hollywood character actor Elisha Cook Jr. –Tom Keogh
Star Trek – The Original Series, Vol. 7, Episodes 14 & 15: The Galileo Seven/ Court-Martial
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1:20 pm on November 18th, 2009
what can I say more. Not the best episodes out there
Rating: 1 / 5
2:08 pm on November 18th, 2009
What more can I say? There is only one true Star Trek. The original series with Kirk, Spock, McCoy and the rest of the knights are still the best.
Rating: 5 / 5
3:02 pm on November 18th, 2009
The thing about the original series, despite all of its drawbacks, is that it never fails to pose really tough questions. Does the good of the many out weigh the good of the one? This question, also posed in TWOK, is presented in The Galilieo Seven. This episode also shows the true “dangers” of space exploration, and conflicting orders. Spock’s admission of being stubborn is priceless. In the second Episode, Court Martial, we see Kirk on trial and his crew rally together to support him. Bottom line, on both episodes, there are important and defining moments which allow the user to really feel a part of the Enterprise
Rating: 4 / 5
3:04 pm on November 18th, 2009
“The Galileo Seven” A band of Kirk’s crew is stranded on a planet. How will they get back before the Enterprise is forced to leave?
“Court Martial” Kirk is put on trial for entering a false log entry involving a crewman’s death. Riveting!
Rating: 5 / 5
5:31 pm on November 18th, 2009
REVIEWED ITEM: Star Trek® Original Series DVD Volume 7: The Galileo Seven© / Court-Martial©
THE GALILEO SEVEN© PRELIMINARY BRIEFS:
Basic Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject Driven Into The Ground: Logic versus Emotions
Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt’) Confirmed Casualty List: 3 Dead (One off-screen), 2 Wounded (both off-screen)
REVIEW/COMMENTARY: I consider this to be the best showcase of the logic-versus-emotions battle between Spock and Dr. McCoy. After an emergency crash-landing of their shuttlecraft on a planet of hostile primitive giants, Spock attempts to get himself and his crew (which includes Scotty, the doctor, and four expendables) out of their predicament by taking the most logical steps towards a resolution. Unfortunately, the results of his calculations rarely achieve logical conclusions, and the rest of his shuttle crew eventually resent his cold methods and bluntness. Unfortunately, Kirk isn’t around to help keep things from gettin’ too heated, since he’s on the Enterprise bridge mounting a search for his lost shuttle crew whilst trying to fend off an overbearing bureaucrat who’s breathing down his neck. Yep, it’s your basic `Save-The-Day-At -The-Last-Possible-Moment’ kinda eppie.
One of my fave `special defects’ moments in the entire series happened at the beginning of this episode. One shot shows the shuttlecraft `riding the wave’ of the turbulence that eventually forces the whole emergency-landing thing I mentioned in the previous paragraph. This effect looked fairly silly, but what really surprised me was how it was almost perfectly imitated two decades later in a SNL sketch featuring William Shatner! You know, that one where Shatner told the audience at the Star Trek convention to “Get a life!”? Which is very good advice, by the way…
COURT-MARTIAL© PRELIMINARY BRIEFS:
Basic Moral, Ethical, and/or Philosophical Subject Driven Into The Ground: The Basic Rights of The Accused / Retaining One’s Humanity In A World Of Ever-Increasing Automation/ The Pitfalls of Professional Jealousy
Expendable Enterprise Crewmember (`Red Shirt’) Confirmed Casualty List: 1 dead… or is he?
REVIEW/COMMENTARY: From Star Trek VI’s Klingon Court scene to NextGen’s `The Drumhead’ to DS9’s `Rules Of Engagement’, I’ve always had a certain fondness for Star Trek’s `Courtroom Drama’- Style episodes. And even though `The Menagerie’ had quite a bit of legal wrangling regarding Spock’s fate, I’d have to say `Court-Martial’ was the first pure legal drama eppie in the history of the franchise. Ol’ Jimmers is in hot water over the death of a crew member whose demise may’ve resulted from his negligence, and he has to stand trial to keep his commission.
The prosecutor’s (one of Kirk’s old flames) case looks to be a slam-dunk, except for one little Perry Mason-esque twist: the person Kirk had supposedly `killed’ may still be alive! Will Jimbo keep his command and clear his name? Well, he must have. I mean, this was an eppie from Star Trek’s first season, and the show went on for two more years with Kirk in the command chair for the rest of the run, so he must’ve beaten the rap, right? Yeah. Uh-oh, did I just spoil the ending? Sorry `bout that. But aside from so-called `spoilers’, expect to see Kirk gettin’ his uniform top rended during Court-Martial’s climactic hand-to-hand duel scene as he attempts to save the Enterprise from certain doom! Jimmers sure does have an affinity for flesh exposure on this show, hmmm?
`Late
Rating: 4 / 5