"Star Trek" Day of the Dove (1968)

User Rating:

8.3/10   

Director:

Marvin J. Chomsky

Writers:

Jerome Bixby (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

1 November 1968 (Season 3, Episode 7)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

An entity traps the Enterprise crew and the crew of a disabled Klingon battle cruiser in an unending war aboard the Enterprise.

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Michael Ansara	...	Kang
Susan Howard	...	Mara
James Doohan	...	Scott
Walter Koenig	...	Chekov
George Takei	...	Sulu
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
David L. Ross	...	Lt. Johnson (as David Ross)
Mark Tobin	...	Klingon
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Charlie Picerni	...	Klingon

Runtime:

USA:60 min | Argentina:60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

As in the Starfleet of the Mirror Universe, this universe's Klingon Empire used agonizers (on Ensign Chekov). These are later painsticks on "Star Trek: The Next Generation".

Goofs:

Continuity: Just before Chekov forces a kiss on Mara, we see in the close-up shots of her that she is wearing lipstick. Kirk and Spock then arrive and intervene, and in the cutaway shots of Mara during Kirk's subsequent speech, the lipstick is gone. Then Kirk has Spock take her, and as she and Spock exit frame, we see she's wearing lipstick again.

Quotes:

Kang: We need no urging to hate humans, but for the present, only a fool fights in a burning house.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Koyaanisqatsi (1982)

Before "Twin Peaks"...

There was Star Trek. This episode is actually the reworking of the same theme taken from the "Wolf in the Fold" episode, but blown up on an international scale, so to speak.

I say "Twin Peaks" because, if memory serves from what my TV Screen writing Instrustor recited some 20 years ago, the detective in that show makes a comment to the effect of "Can you really believe that a father would murder his own daughter?" ... or words to that effect. Trek was ahead of the curve, yet again, with "Day of the Dove" postulating a possible explanation for all the violence we witness in the news.

Are humans really capable of bloodshed on an industrial scale? Can mankind be so fraught with flaws that he must always reach for the sword to settle otherwise mundane differences? Can this really be the case? Or is there something else at work here? All the racial prejudice, social hatreds, and lusts sparked from aggression, are they really all within us? Regardless of the science fiction in this science fiction piece, the story itself, after examining all the horrible manifestations of man's baser nature, comes to a conclusion of how to settle differences, and presents it to us with some outstanding thesping by the usual suspects, including Michael Ansara playing the epitome of Klingon commanders.

In the days when this remarkable TV show was on the wane, the hard core of fandom was given a treat in the form of this episode. Filled with action, intrigue, a dash of horror and mystery, along with a good deal of fret by both sides of the coin, this episode brings the awful truth of wartime drama to the audience.

Fortunately it is a Star Trek episode, and we are thus treated to the heroics of Captain James T. Kirk who, once again, risks all and holds the honor and inner humanity (Klingonity?) of the opposition in high regard. Kirk and Kang show us the way. The final shot is not just part of the plot and story, but also a very symbolic gesture.

Definitely worth watching.

Enjoy.