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The USS Enterprise pursues NCC-1279 through the rings of Cajitar IV.

The Broken Circle

Episode Description

While Pike is away and the Enterprise is undergoing maintenance and inspection at Starbase 1, The Enterprise receives a distress call from La'an Noonien-Singh. Spock chooses to disobey a direct order from Admiral April and steals the Enterprise to assist.

Episode Cast
Casting Type Actor Character
Recurring
Guest Star
Recurring
Episode Synopsis

Captain Pike, concerned about the upcoming trial of Una Chin-Riley, leaves Spock in command of the Enterprise while he attempts to find legal representation for Una.

Spock is stressed about being in command, even though the Enterprise is at Starbase 1 undergoing maintenance and inspection. Doctor M'Benga suggests Spock try music and hands him a Vulcan Lute.

Uhura picks up a message from La'an Noonien Singh indicating an "anti-Federation threat" on Cajitar IV. Admiral April does not give Spock permission to go after La'an because Cajitar IV is a planet under heavy dispute with the Klingon Empire and Starfleet interfering could risk another war with the Klingons.

Spock decides that the only course of action is to steal the Enterprise and go anyway. Lieutenant Mitchell simulates a coolant leak in the intermix chamber to get non-essential crew and the inspectors to evacuate the Enterprise, but the chief inspector, Commander Pelia, is not fooled by this.

Pelia goes to the bridge and confronts Spock, but instead of reporting him, she offers to help. She indicates that she knows Spock's mother and that she knows Spock would only do something like stealing the Enterprise if there was a very good reason. Giving advice to vent plasma from the nacelles to help sell the idea that their warp core is going critical and offering to serve as the temporary Chief Engineer for this mission.

On Cajitar IV, La'an explains that she has discovered the presence of a syndicate named the Broken Circle made up of former soldiers of both the Klingons and Federation who have decided that peace has been bad for business as during the Klingon war, the dilithium mined at Cajitar was sold for high profits.

M'Benga and Chapel go off to deal with inhabitants of Cajitar IV who are suffering from ion radiation, but while they treat Oriana's parents, a Klingon and two humans come by and kidnap them. These are part of the Broken Circle and they have people who need medical attention. M'Benga and Chapel are taken to a massive cave where they see a Federation starship which seems to be cobbled together from a variety of stolen starfleet vessels.

M'Benga and Chapel use a vial of Protocol 12 from M'Benga's medkit (think supersoldier serum) and use the stimulant to empower them to fight their way to the ship's transponder in hopes of getting a message to the Enterprise. The starfleet ship is going to be used as a False Flag operation. The plan of the Broken Circle is to use this starfleet ship to fire on a Klingon ship due to arrive soon, thus re-ignighting the Klingon War.

They are able to successfully get a message out to the Enterprise and the Enterprise fires on the ship to prevent it from firing on the Klingons. When the captain of the Klingon Ship calls Spock out, Spock is able to talk down the Klingon from going to war by agreeing to talk with him over a barrel of Blood Wine.

Later while talking with Pelia, he asks her about what it is like to be a Lanthanite, to which Pelia says that having such a long life can get incredibly boring, and that the main reason she wanted to help was because the Vulcan Spock following a hunch and stealing the Enterprise to do it was anything but boring. She implies she may want to stick around to be entertained more.

Finally at the end of the episode, Spock is rebuked by Admiral April for violating a direct order, but April lets him off early indicating that this time the hangover from the Blood Wine will be Spock's punishment, but if Spock ever pulls a stunt like this again, the punishment will be severe.

After disconnecting, Commodore Tafune questions April about why he let Spock off early. April said that whether Spock knew it or not, he just helped prevent the Federation from having to fight two wars at once, and that if "this war" happens, they need all the good officers they can get. We then see a map display showing an object near the Galdonterre system identified as a Gorn attack ship, setting up the primary threat of Season 2.

Episode Review

Overall a solid episode, it is action packed and entertaining from beginning to end. Unfortunately the weakest part of the episode is also the part that they obviously thought would be the best, the stealing of the Enterprise.

"We need to steal the Enterprise" is something that could be entertaining, if it weren't for the fact that it has been done before, and is the sort of gag that really only can work once well. They are clearly trying to call back to Star Trek III: The Search for Spock with this, but it simply doesn't work as poignantly.

I'm also not too fond of the superhero serum subplot with M'Benga and Chapel. Seeing them "hulk out" just doesn't work for me, they are doctors, not soldiers.

Also, the perpetual gag in recent Star Trek about ship captains needing to come up with their "thing" is a gag that is getting really old in recent years. We didn't need to have attention brought to it to know the sayings of former captains, we just heard them. That said, Spock trying to come up with one on the spot and landing on "I would like the ship to go. Now" was admittedly funny.

La'an's plot is much better handled, her discovery of the Broken Circle syndicate who is trying to restart the Klingon war, and her dealing with Greynax was well handled.

Spock dealing with his recently uncapped emotions and second guessing himself works well, Peck manages to play Emotional Spock very well, still acting cool and monotone but his expressions betray the emotions lying underneath, a fantastic performance.

Finally, I cannot say enough nice things about Carol Kane's Pelia, she is just delightfully silly, stealing every single scene she is in.

It isn't the strongest start to a season, the pilot from Season 1 was stronger, but it is a reasonably good episode, I'd rate it solid Lieutenant Commander on our rating scale.

HD3 Episode Rank: Empty Pip Solid Pip Solid Pip Lieutenant Commander (B+ Tier)