2.49 : A Piece of the Action.

[Dave]

The one with the 'Chicago' mobsters

A personal favourite of mine, though a very unusual episode, it being a comedy structured around the cultural contamination of a planetary culture by a previous starship. There are some priceless moments such as them driving the car, playing cards, Mr Spock with machine gun and suit, Mr Scott speaking 20th century slang and the gangster transported to the Enterprise.

A poster in Boss Krako's office spells the gangster's name as 'Okmyx'. However, both 'The Star Trek Compendium' and 'The Star Trek Encyclopedia' list it as 'Oxmyx'.

 

[rde]

Just goes to show how pervasive those damn things are; I've never read either, yet years of associating with deeply sad trekkies left me in the position where I would've sworn his name was Oxmyx.
You'll be telling me next fizzbin is called something completely different, too.

 

[Dave]

Originally posted by rde
You'll be telling me next fizzbin is called something completely different, too.

LOL No, although the 'Compendium' says that in the original first-draft script, Romulans were also present and provided the gangsters with weapons called "morkons", and the card game was called "farfel" and the winning hand was a "drek".

As for "Oxmyx", I'm pretty certain that they do "say" Oxmyx, whatever is written on the poster.

 

[Extollager]

For me, this is one to try basically to ignore as regards the Star Trek "mythos" of Romulans, Klingons, ancient worlds, strange societies, etc., and enjoy for what it is. As a parody of a Star Trek episode it is rather good. It sure seems that Shatner and Nimoy could have had fun acting it.

 

[BAYLOR]

I love this episode , Kirk doing the gangster shtick crack me up every time I see it !

 

[Dave]

For me, this is one to try basically to ignore as regards the Star Trek "mythos" of Romulans, Klingons, ancient worlds, strange societies, etc., and enjoy for what it is. As a parody of a Star Trek episode it is rather good. It sure seems that Shatner and Nimoy could have had fun acting it.

I think that they were just looking for ways to cut costs. Star Trek was required to visit strange new worlds but building new sets costs money. Using existing sets from gangster, western and biblical films/shows was cheap. In retrospect, and given that Star Fleet officers were meant to lay down their lives for the sake of the Prime Directive, there were far too many of these episodes where previous ships had caused contamination. They are fun though.

 

[hej]

They are fun though.

Agreed.

In my mind, this episode does not fit with the general theme of other episodes.

Too, Spock's erring in two of his responses to Kirk ('right' and 'check') I found peculiar.

Otherwise, I admit, the show was/is amusing.

 

[Judderman]

I happened to see most of this episode recently as I was flicking through channels. I don't remember seeing it before but I was amazed at this comedy being in one of the first two seasons. It definitely is entertaining but I'm not sure Kirk and others really need to the extra ham acting accents.
The phaser from the Enterprise is a nice, easy way for the episode to finish. It does let you appreciate how effective these Star Ships could be if they wanted to do a serious ground attack.