Day of the Dove

"Day of the Dove"
Star Trek: The Original Series episode
Episode no.	Season 3 Episode 7
Directed by	Marvin Chomsky
Written by	Jerome Bixby
Featured music	Fred Steiner
Cinematography by	Al Francis
Production code	066
Original air date	November 1, 1968 (1968-11-01)
Guest actors
Michael Ansara - Kang Susan Howard - Mara David L. Ross - Lt. Johnson Mark Tobin - Klingon

"Day of the Dove" is the seventh episode of the third season of the science fiction television series, Star Trek, first broadcast November 1, 1968, and repeated June 17, 1969. It was written by Jerome Bixby and directed by Marvin Chomsky.

In this episode, an alien force drives the crew of the Enterprise into brutal conflict with the Klingons.

Plot

On stardate 5630.3, the Federation starship USS Enterprise receives a distress call from a human colony on Beta XII-A. Captain Kirk beams down with a landing party but finds no evidence of a human settlement. Moments later a landing party from a crippled Klingon ship, led by Commander Kang, beams down to the planet and capture Kirk and his men.

Kang denies attacking any human colony but asserts that his ship was fired upon unprovoked by the Enterprise, and he demands that Kirk surrender his ship. Suddenly Ensign Chekov accuses the Klingons of having killed his brother, Piotr; Kang takes this as an opportunity and tortures Chekov with an agonizer until Kirk gives in. Kirk pretends to agree and surrender quietly, but manages to trigger a security alert to First Officer Spock on the bridge just before beaming up. When Kirk's team, along with their captors, returns to the Enterprise, Kang and his crew are "held" in the transporter beam, rematerializing later and finding themselves surrounded by an armed security force. The Klingons surrender.

Undetected by the crew, a strange swirl of energy sneaks aboard the Enterprise. The entity interfaces with the ship's main computer, and suddenly the Enterprise jumps into warp at maximum speed on an uncontrolled heading to the edge of the galaxy. Fear and anxiety begin to rise as the ship races out of control. Emergency bulkheads begin to close throughout the ship isolating the majority of the crew away from the conflict and evening out the number of Enterprise personnel with the Klingons.

Suddenly the crew's phasers disappear, replaced by swords and knives. Armed with primitive weapons, Klingons and Federation forces start a ship wide rumble.

Kirk wants his crew to stop fighting, especially after Spock detects an alien life force on board that feeds on violent emotions. But the crew is out of control. Kirk and Spock decide to try to reach Kang, in order to alert him to the situation, and to reason with him. Meanwhile, an insane-looking Mr. Chekov roams the ship looking for "payback" for the death of his brother Piotr - even though Lt. Sulu points out that Chekov is an only child. When Chekov finds the Klingon female Mara, who is Kang's wife and science officer, he makes a series of leering sexual threats. Sickened by all the violence, Kirk knocks Chekov out.

Although Mara is wary of Kirk's help at first, she finally leads Kirk to Kang. Mara tries to explain the presence of an alien life force to her husband, but Kang insists on finishing Kirk in a man-to-man swordfight. The entity soon appears to feed off their anger.

Despite the presence of the being, Kang continues fighting. Kirk, however, struggles to ask Kang if he would like to spend the next thousand lifetimes satisfying the alien's twisted desires. Mara also convinces her husband to lay down his arms. Kang now realizes the fight is pointless and agrees to a truce. To combat the alien entity, the Klingons and Enterprise crew begin to laugh and shout and act friendly to each other. This finally drives the weakened alien life force from the ship.

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired January 5, 2008, as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded three weeks earlier by the remastered version of "A Taste of Armageddon" and followed a week later by the remastered version of "Who Mourns for Adonais?". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS Enterprise that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

• The planet Beta XII-A has been given a more realistic earth-like appearance.
• New scenes and more dramatic shots of the Klingon battle cruiser have been added, including replaced footage of the ship as it explodes above the planet.

Reception

Zack Handlen of The A.V. Club gave the episode a 'B-' rating, describing it as having potential, but being hampered by a script that fails to act on that.

External links

• "Day of the Dove" at StarTrek.com
• "Day of the Dove" at IMDb
• "Day of the Dove" at TV.com
• "Day of the Dove" at Memory Alpha (a Star Trek wiki)
• "Day of the Dove" Review of the remastered at TrekMovie.com
• "Day of the Dove" story outline dated June 3, 1968 Script analysis by Dave Eversole