‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘A Piece of the Action’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

I have to admit, that in my last Retro Recap of Star Trek, I was quite hard upon the show. But let’s be honest, this is one of the greatest science fiction franchises in modern history and we all expect better of it and it really was quite disappointing to see such a goofy and loose episode play out before our eyes. Because this is a series that is about unity and working together to solve our problems, not wanton violence and anger and that’s why I was so happy when I finished the next episode in this series, since it more or less righted every wrong that ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’ bought to the table. For ‘A Piece of the Action’ provided us with everything we love about this franchise, and it featured quite the unique plot as well.
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For this particular tale brought the crew of the U.S.S. Enterprise to Sigma Iotia II to investigate a strange radio signal indicating that the U.S.S. Horizon, a vessel deemed lost a hundred years ago, had visited this world and well, what the away team found when they beamed down was quite the surprise. For the people of this good world quite literally took a page out of a book the crew of the Horizon left behind and modeled their society after it. And while that should be a good thing, because the Federation knows what’s up, they unfortunately picked a book about 1920s Chicago and modeled their ‘government’ after the Mobster lifestyle of that era and well, that made life difficult for Kirk and company since these wise guys wanted every bit of weaponry the NCC-1701 could offer in order to earn complete control of their world.

But while that plot is pretty juicy in its own right, what made this episode so incredibly Trek was Kirk’s response to this stunning discovery. Because the inadvertent mistake made by the crew of the Horizon more or less horrified the captain. For in essence, Starfleet and in turn the Federation inadvertently violated the Prime Directive by giving these people an unfortunate direction to follow and that prompted Kirk to basically put it upon his shoulders to fix this on his own. Which made him heroic and noble in this particular tale, as he immersed himself into a world and a culture he didn’t understand, all so he could bend it to his will, and this really was quite cool to see. Because this really was Kirk at his absolute best and seeing how he fixed this issue, in the name of a greater notion was quite satisfying.

However, over the past few recaps we’ve talked a lot about how The Original Series often stood for fun and lighthearted moments and there was plenty of that to be found in this tale as well. Because it was downright hilarious to see 23rd Century Starfleet officers, struggle mightily with the vernacular of the early 20th Century and well, the joy only grows from there. Because seeing Kirk and Spock, and to a lesser extent, McCoy, do everything within their power to blend in and play the game that these gangsters are playing is just magical to say the least, and it led to some magnificent laughs. Especially when Kirk tried to prompt Spock to join in on the fun and truly, the entire driving sequence with Kirk at the wheel forced me to pause the episode for a moment while I got the laughs out of my system.

If anything, this was just a magnificent palate cleanser of an episode. Because the ups and downs of the last few episodes definitely made that stretch of the series tough to get through. But this is the stuff we are here for when it comes to Star Trek, and it is nice to see the series abandon the experimental stuff to tell a fun tale that has everything fans love and well, I do hope this is going to be the norm for the rest of season two. Because when this season has delivered, it’s really delivered and when it’s gone off the rails well, it’s best we don’t revisit that. For looking forward is what this franchise is all about and with only nine episodes left in season two, I’m eager to find more magnificent stories that will hopefully leave me thinking. So, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to head back to the bridge and continue the five-year mission. Until next time.

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