Mission of mercy

On a stellar date 3198.4, an enterprise of the Federation Enterprise under the command of James Tiberius Kirk heads to the planet Organia, located on the border with the Klingon Empire . The tension between the Federation and the Klingon Empire reached its zenith, and Starfleet command orders Kirk to keep the planet under control until the arrival of Federation military starships. Without warning, an unknown ship attacks the Enterprise, the Federation starship responds in one gulp and destroys an enemy ship.

Kirk and Spock teleport to the planet, where they find an era comparable to the Middle Ages on Earth . Sulu was ordered to leave the ship to a safe distance in case the Klingon fleet arrives. Soon, the Klingon spaceships arrived, and the Enterprise was withdrawn from orbit, leaving the captain and first mate on the planet. At this time, Kirk was trying to convince the Organans that they were in danger, since the Klingons are a military dictatorship with a very brutal occupation regime . The Organians assure the captain that danger only threatens him with Spock and their people on the ship.

Klingons are massively teleporting to the planet, introducing a military dictatorship. The Organans dress up the guests: Kirk becomes an Organan baron, and Spock becomes a Vulcan merchant. War Commander Kor begins to suspect Spock and sends him to the Sieve of Mind installation, after which a person usually loses his ability to reason and becomes disabled. However, the Vulcans have an innate ability to protect themselves from such an impact, and this saves Spock, and he cannot be declassified either. After the Organians refused to participate in the resistance, Kirk and Spock commit sabotage , after which they are caught. Kirk is brought to Kora’s office, where he asks to tell about the deployment of the Federation’s fleet. In case of refusal, the captain is promised to brainwash him, making him a “vegetable”.

Suddenly, an Organian enters the detention cell and takes the captain and his first assistant with him. Klingons are stunned by the sudden disappearance of the prisoners. Kirk and Spock make their way to Cora’s office, begin to threaten him, and in space the fleets of both associations are ready to attack each other. Everyone who is ready to show aggression burns their hands and they drop their weapons or control panels. An Organian appears and tells the truth to the people and Klingons. In fact, organians have not been humanoids for many millions of years, they have turned into clots of energy, and the present shape has been taken only for the convenience of arriving guests. He reports that he is currently on the main planet of the Klingon Empire and on the main planet of the Federation. The war is over without ever starting. Kor regrets that they did not manage to fight, but Kirk is ashamed of being angry with the organans, who did not allow him to get involved in a war that he did not want.

The title of the episode is taken from Charles Dickens 's novel The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby . In the script, the Klingons were described simply as "Eastern people with stern faces." John Kolikos (Kor) said that he was guided by the image of Genghis Khan ^[5] .

Zach Handlen from The AV Club gave the episode a rating of “B +”, calling it fun, but also pointing out a large number of logical inconsistencies in the narrative ^[6] .

• John Colicos played Cora several more times twenty-seven years later. He played in three episodes of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 : Blood Oath , Keyless Sword , and Once Again About Violations .
• The bandage that Kor wore was reused for Worf during the first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation . ^[5]

• Mission of Mercy on StarTrek.com
• The Mission of Mercy in the Memory Alpha Encyclopedia
• The Mission of Mercy on the Internet Movie Database
• Mission of Mercy on TV.com
• “Mission of Mercy” (Eng.) Images before and after remastering on TrekMovie.com