"Star Trek" Friday's Child (1967)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

D.C. Fontana (written by)
Gene Roddenberry (creator)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

1 December 1967 (Season 2, Episode 11)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

The Federation is in competition with the Klingons for an alliance with the inhabitants of Capella IV...

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Julie Newmar	...	Eleen
Tige Andrews	...	Kras
Michael Dante	...	Maab
James Doohan	...	Scott
George Takei	...	Sulu
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Cal Bolder	...	Keel
Ben Gage	...	Akaar
Walter Koenig	...	Chekov
Kirk Raymond	...	Duur (as Kirk Raymone)
Bob Bralver	...	Grant (as Robert Bralver)

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company:

Desilu Productions

Trivia:

The title is based upon the childhood nursery rhyme that includes: Friday's child is loving and giving.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: A rarely-used shot of the Enterprise from its right-front side. If you look closely, you can see the ship's registry is backwards, which would indicate a flipped shot.

Quotes:

Scott: There's an old, old saying on earth, Mr. Sulu: "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me."
Chekov: I know this saying, it was invented in Russia.
[smiles devilishly]

Another Anthropological Fiasco

Interesting primarily for its guest appearances, Friday's Child is one of Joe Pevney and D. C. Fontana's more mediocre efforts. Among the guests is great musical and stage actress Julie Newmar, who is mainly known to TV audiences for having replaced Eartha Kitt as Catwoman in the Batman TV show. Casting called for a number of very tall and beefy people, so many of the guest stars are over 6' and recognizable by sight if not by name.

The trinity (Kirk, Spock, McCoy + a soon-to-die redshirt) have beamed down to a planet inhabited by a very hierarchal, male-dominated culture whose rank system revolves around violence. Upon arrival, they find that a Klingon (only one?) has arrived before them. The Klingon has been propagandizing against the federation since his arrival, and has jeopardized the Enterprise's mission to obtain mineral rights. The redshirt makes matters worse by threatening the Klingon at first sight.

Although McCoy once lived on this planet and briefs the crew on some ethnographic details ahead of time, these preparations were not nearly enough, as the away team creates one blunder after another. Fontana did a nice job of thinking out the alien culture's intricacies, but unfortunately, the episode devolves into a somewhat unoriginal action adventure about mid-way through.

Cinematography and effects are very average for TOS, writing is OK, directing is well below Pevney's usual mark, and acting is fairly good. Look for a lot of amusing but hokey banter with Spock in this one, and a solid and interesting performance by Ms. Newmar.