‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘Court Martial’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

I’ve always loved it when Star Trek challenges its characters in ways, we never thought possible. Because the utopia they live in rarely provides the characters with a quality internal conflict since they always know the way forward, is to take the high road. So, to see them stumble and struggle is always a rare and powerful treat, especially when it involves a captain of the Enterprise or the skipper of a respective ship of a respective series. For a captain is the epitome of what Starfleet stands for and to seem them immersed in a crisis is no small feat and it just so happens that James T. Kirk found himself dealing with one incredible challenge in the next episode of the series, the kind that quite frankly, could have ended his career.
​
For ‘Court Martial’ saw the captain on trial for gross negligence, which sounds impossible because this is Jim Kirk we are talking about here, the most responsible captain to ever man the chair when it comes to this particular era of Starfleet history. But here we were, with his reputation hanging in the balance, his peers judging him and the setup for the trial was fascinating to say the least. Because the thought of fellow captains and officers showing disrespect to Jim seems unheard of, but that happened here and it was just wild to see him on his own little island, clinging to the notion that he would be exonerated, a bubble that was burst the instant the trail got underway.

Because everything we saw on screen made it appear as though Jim Kirk had lost his moxie. I mean come on, there’s visual evidence of him accidentally killing a crew member by blasting him out into space before calling a Red Alert and that’s the kind of stuff that makes you wonder if Kirk has been out here for too long, something compounded by his negative medical results in ‘Shore Leave’. But this was all part of a well-crafted script, one that turned out to be more than an examination of what could bring a proud man to his breaking point, since it turned out that this story was focused instead upon the power of revenge since Spock came to learn, that all the evidence presented, was a forgery.

In fact, it turns out that the crewman who was supposedly ejected into the void by accident, a Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Finney, never left the ship at all. No, instead he stayed behind to frame Captain Kirk and ruin his career, all because a long time ago he made a mistake that Kirk pointed out to his commanding officer and this was, a stroke of genius storytelling wise. Because it reaffirms the fact that Kirk is the best damn captain in the fleet, and it offered up a tragic tale of a proud man who could never recover from a single mistake in his career and it was fascinating to meet a man in the service who truly believed that his pitfalls, career wise, were someone else’s fault when he could have easily fixed this mess by becoming a stellar officer.

Which in turn shows us how revenge can ruin us since it consumed Finney and heaven only knows how long he was piecing together this particular plot and of course, this decision in turn ruined his career and really, when all is said and done, I really enjoyed this episode. Because it truly found a way to engage me from the get-go, and the story was simply top-notch thanks to all its twists and turns and the acting is also of note as well. For Shatner and Nimoy and Kelley are at their best here, and the supporting cast of lawyers are equally as dynamic and while this may not be the most philosophical episode of Star Trek, it’s still a solid character piece and that’s all that matters, because it’s the crew of the Enterprise that we are here for, and it was nice to learn a little more about Kirk and his crew and the bond they all share. Until next time. 

---