By 
Title: A Piece of the Action
Airdate: 12/22/1967
Plot Summary
A Piece Of The Action starts with Kirk, McCoy, and Spock beaming down to Iotia, a planet of mimics that an exploratory vessel visited over 100 years ago and accidentally left a book about 1920s Mobs. The people decided to base their entire society around it. Kirk has to fix this contamination without getting killed in a gang war.
Risk Is Our Business
Kirk really slides into the swing of things pretty quickly, becoming a gangster and really enjoying himself once he figures out the rules of the game.
Speaking of games, his explanation of the game “fizzbin” is hilarious. Shatner is clearly having a good time with it.
Logical
Spock would seem to be a fish out of water but he follows Kirk’s lead fairly well, with a little coaching from Kirk. He also is quick to point out Kirk’s shortcomings with driving a car.
He’s Dead Jim
Bones unfortunately is a bit of a third wheel in this one to the Kirk and Spock comedy duo. He does however leave his communicator on the planet ensuring they will have to go back and do the whole thing again.
Helm Sluggish Captain
Sulu is absent from this episode.
Nuclear Wessels
Chekov is absent from this episode.
Hailing Frequencies Open, Sugar
Uhura is a little surprised that Spock is calling her on an AM radio. Kudos to her for apparently keeping an eye on all frequencies to be able to answer his communication.
My Wee Bairns
Poor Scotty has to try to translate Chicago mob language to bad Scottish and really struggles. He also can stun an entire block with pinpoint accuracy using ship’s phaser.
Canon Maker
I’m pretty sure this is completely ignored by canon.
Canon Breaker
Another pre-warp society being brought into the Federation. Nope nope nope. Ok, I know there was some “cultural contamination” but it was a hundred years ago. It took them that long to get back and check things out? It makes no sense.
Man It Feels Bad To Be A Red Shirt
No deaths!
Technobabble
The Enterprise can set its main phasers on stun. Communications apparently scan all kinds of frequencies constantly.
The “transtator” is the basis of all future technology. Of course, we will never hear the term again.
I Know That Guy:
Anthony Caruso plays Bela Oxmix, an AI-generated mobster name if I’ve ever heard one. Caruso played towards type in this episode as he played a lot of gangsters in movies and shows. Most known for his turn in the old Zorro show as Captain Juan Ortega.
Lee Delano plays Kalo, one of the mob bosses. He was in Splash and The Birdcage later on.
John Harmon plays Tepo, one of the goons. He was a bit actor but a hard-working one.
Finally, Vic Tayback played Krako, the second most powerful mob boss. He of course would be most known for playing Mel in the show Alice in the 70s and early 80s.
What It Means To Be Human – Review
A Piece Of The Action really demands that you toss a lot of canon out the window given how Kirk and Spock get into this situation in the first place. Screw the prime directive, we’ll just beam into 1920s Chicago and phaser people.
But if you can get past that, it’s one of the best episodes. Nothing earth-shaking, just Shatner and Nimoy clearly having a ball playing gangsters and just letting the humor fly. From Kirk teaching Fizzbin, to Spock attempting to get into the act, to Kirk’s driving and Spock’s critique of it. The mobsters are hilarious caricatures and that really tracks since the Iotians are merely imitators and do not really understand the underpinning of the mob culture that arose during that era.
The whole idea is ludicrous and I’m totally here for it. The cast really leaned into it to the episode’s benefit. There’s not really a whole lot to say but just sit back, have a laugh, and enjoy the ride.
Interestingly, when the new shows wanted to do some sort of callback to these classic episodes in 1996 for the 30 year anniversary, returning to this planet was one of the ideas that was tossed around. They ended up with Trials and Tribbleations but the original idea was to come back and the entire planet was basically a comic con convention. Everyone would be dressed like the old crew and they had indeed reversed-engineered the transtator so they had most of the technology that the original crew would’ve had. I’m glad they abandoned it but I gotta admit it would’ve been interesting to see how it would’ve turned out.
I adore A Piece Of The Action, but I can’t rate it a perfect as it is just a humorous episode and doesn’t have much to say. A nice palate cleanser type of episode.
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