14 "The Galileo Seven"

(airdate: January 5, 1967)

Story: Oliver Crawford      Teleplay: Oliver Crawford and S. Bar-David [pseudonym for Shimon Wincelberg]
Director: Robert Gist

Stardate: 2821.5

Captain's Log: En route to Makus III with badly needed medical supplies, the Enterprise stops to investigate a quasar-like phenomenon, Murasaki 312. The shuttlecraft Galileo, commanded by Spock, goes in for a closer look but is pulled in by the Murasaki effect, stranding them on the planet Taurus II; meanwhile, the Enterprise's instruments are affected by an ion storm, meaning they can't use sensors to find the Galileo. As the Enterprise is two days ahead of schedule, they take the time to search by sight, even if it seems futile. Meanwhile, on Taurus II, the seven members of the shuttle crew learn that there's little chance of lifting off with the fuel they have, and that they'll need to leave two crewmembers behind. To make matters worse, the shuttle crew is attacked by the Taurus II natives - large humanoids with spears and shields. Spock tries to use to logic to ward off the natives, but despite his best efforts two of the crew are killed. Thanks to Scott's ingenuity, the Galileo is able to lift off, although they will soon crash back down to the surface. Spock knows that the Enterprise needs to call off the search to deliver the medical supplies, so he makes a gamble out of desperation, burning the excess fuel all at once to act as a flare. The Enterprise, departing for Makus III, sees the flare and returns to rescue the remaining crew of the Galileo, shortly before the shuttle burns up in the atmosphere of Taurus II.

Whoops!: The fog effect obscuring Latimer's body is a really obvious matte-in, to hide the presumably too-hideous effect. [The remastered version smooths this out.] There's also a lot of damage to the styrofoam rockfaces: the dropped shield at about 23:25 takes a chunk out of the rock as it falls (and the damage is visible in the subsequent shot), Peter Marko (as Gaetano) scrapes up the rocks as he tries to escape the Taurus II natives (at 27:45 or so), and the spear that gets thrown at Spock at approximately 30:20 gouges the styrofoam by his head. The close-up of the fuel jettison panel doesn't match any of the long shots of that area. Oh, and the Columbus clearly says "NCC-1701/7" on the back, and you can make out "Galileo" on the front. [This is fixed in the remastered version.]
     Starting with this episode and continuing for the rest of the season (with the exception, for whatever reason, of "Court Martial"), the ending credits misspell "script" in "script supervisor" as "scpipt".
     The Galileo is overweight by 500 pounds. They get it down to only 150 pounds over, but this still means that someone's going to have to stay behind. Yet they never consider removing the chairs.
     The Folsom point was first discovered in 1926, not 1925. And the Taurus II spear point looks more like a Clovis point (the predecessor to the Folsom point) anyway. (You can tell by the fluting (the groove where the shaft of the spear connects to the point): Folsom points have flutes that run almost the entire length of the point, while Clovis points have flutes that only go a little bit up the length, such as we see here.)
     Spock's miscalculation of the Taurus II anthropoids' response involves not considering that their reaction would be irrational - but this is Spock we're talking about, who's spent at least thirteen years among illogical, emotional humans - including three increasingly irrational humans on this very mission. How could the possibility of an irrational reponse not have factored into his logic?
     And the script goes to pains to establish that Spock chose an illogical action in order to save them - except it really doesn't seem that illogical. He knows that there's no chance of escaping orbit with the fuel they have left, that they won't be able to land back on the planet, and that the Enterprise has to leave for Makus III, so they won't be looking for the Galileo anymore. So dumping the fuel to create a flare and thus making the Galileo more noticeable to the Enterprise as they're leaving seems to be a more logical choice than waiting an extra 40 minutes for a rescue Spock knows won't be coming.

Classic Lines: McCoy, after Spock admits he may have been mistaken: "Well, at least I lived long enough to hear that."

Technobabble: Indicator lights on the Galileo control console include (top row left to right) Kg³, Q₄lm⁸, 7₈Zh, (bottom row left to right) o^MB, Zn̤₉ (which is related to "Fuel Jettison" somehow, as it lights up when Spock flips the switch), T₅n:, and D̤m̤. There's also a switch labeled Q3R² located below the "Fuel Jettison" switch, and one labeled "Flow Rate" above the "Fuel Jettison" switch.

Don't Wear a Red Shirt: Lt. Latimer is killed by a spear to the back, while Lt. Gaetano is set upon and killed by Taurus II anthropoids after they knock the phaser out of his hand. A landing party sent down to search for the Galileo had three casualties: Ensign O'Neill was killed by a spear through his body, while Lt. Immamura had a dislocated shoulder and severe lacerations - but was going to pull through - and Lt. Kelowitz was injured in an unspecified manner.

Library Computer: Murasaki 312 is a quasar-like formation, resembling a large green cloud. It emits electromagnetic radiation, and at the time of the Enterprise's observation produced an ion storm with a negative ionic concentration of 1.64x10⁹ meters, with a radiation wavelength of 370 Angstroms, and harmonics upward along the entire spectrum; this had the result of making the Enterprise's sensors and communications unusable. There were at least four "complete" solar systems in the vicinity, with the only class-M planet, Taurus II, near the dead center of Murasaki 312. [Under our current understanding of quasars, they have a black hole at their center, not a solar system - but Murasaki 312 is described as "quasar-like" rather than an actual quasar, which likely means that it's emitting a huge amount of energy without actually being powered by a black hole. Scientific understanding of quasars was very limited in 1966, when the episode was written (the first observed quasar, 3C 273, was only discovered in the late 1950s), with agreements about what quasars actually were only beginning in the 1970s.] The Enterprise has standing orders to investigate all quasars and quasar-like phenomena; to this end, it sent the Galileo shuttlecraft into Murasaki 312, where it was suddenly pulled off course into the center of the phenomenon.
     Taurus II, a bright green planet [a rocky grey in the remastered version, although it's surrounded by green gas (as would be expected by a planet inside Murasaki 312)], is rocky, with an atmosphere with a partial pressure of oxygen at 70 mm Hg, nitrogen at 140 mm Hg, and traces of argon, neon, and krypton - according to McCoy, this was breathable but not ideal. It was listed as unexplored. Taurus II was home to a race of giant anthropoids, ten to twelve feet tall, who were quite aggressive, willing to attack (and kill) the shuttle crew and being difficult to scare off with phaser fire. They either are covered in fur or are wearing furs [there's a shot where you can see fur flapping around their legs; you can decide for yourself whether that's intentional or accidental], and they have sunken eyes and large noses [we only get a fleeting glimpse of one of their faces, ostensibly because the censors were worried the creatures might be too frightening]. The anthropoids were order 480-G [whatever that means], and they were similar to life forms discovered on Hansen's Planet, although these anthropoids were larger. The anthropoids carried rectangular leather shields with points at each corner, and large spears with spear points that - according to Spock - resembled the Folsom point as discovered in 1925 (Old World calendar) in New Mexico, although they were a bit cruder near the shaft. Spock believed that these artifacts were too primitive to belong to a tribal culture, and so the anthropoids were more likely a loose association than a tribe. A distinctive sound of wood rubbing on leather announced their presence.
     The Galileo is one of the Enterprise's shuttlecraft, [class F, as we're told in "The Menagerie", which was made after this but aired first]. Its registry number is NCC-1701/7, and the Galileo's name is written on each side in a red cursive style. The shuttle is 24 feet long. The interior is relatively spacious, consisting of a large main area, with a large front console and seating for at least seven, and a smaller area, separated by a bulkhead with a door, in the rear of the vessel. This is where some of the engineering controls are located. When facing the front windows from inside, the door is on the left, and there's a compartment holding hand phasers on the left wall at the back of the main area, with phaser belts [the gold ones] stowed below the compartment. The door consists of two main parts: the top part, which consists of two pieces that slide apart like a standard Enterprise door, and the bottom part, which swings down to act as a ramp. The door is opened from the inside via a control at the top of the doorway. There's also a step built into the engine to aid in entering and leaving the shuttle. The Galileo uses some kind of fuel [rather than dilithium crystals], which is measured in psi [pounds per square inch - so the Federation hasn't abandoned US customary units then]. This fuel is supplied by a reactor [so it's probably either nuclear- or (more likely, given everything else we know about the Star Trek universe) antimatter-based], but the energy of hand phasers can be adapted to supply a small amount of fuel to the Galileo's engines. The fuel can be jettisoned thanks to a switch on the front console, and it can also be ignited, thus creating the equivalent of a flare. Fifteen pounds psi is enough fuel for approximately one orbit of Taurus II. The Galileo also has a battery supply, although that can't be used on its own to launch the shuttle (but it is part of the ignition process). It can, however, be used to electrify the shuttle's hull (though this isn't a standard procedure). The three front windows can be sealed with a form of shutter. The Galileo burned up in the atmosphere of Taurus II, shortly after the crew was beamed out by the Enterprise.
     The Enterprise, in addition to the Galileo, has a shuttle named the Columbus. [The registry number only shows up in the remastered version: it's NCC-1701/2.]
     The titular Galileo seven consist of: Spock; McCoy; Scott; Lt. Boma, a male science officer with dark skin, brown eyes, and black hair, who seems particularly unhappy with Spock's leadership [but then he's under a lot of stress]; Lt. Gaetano, a male command officer with tanned pink skin, brown eyes, and dark brown hair, who also seems unhappy about the way things are going [although this is more evident after Latimer is killed and Spock (being Vulcan) doesn't display any emotion about it]; Lt. Latimer, a male command officer with pink skin, sandy brown hair, and blue eyes, who's killed fairly quickly by a Taurus II native; and Yeoman Mears, a female operations officer with pink skin, shoulder-length brown hair, and blue eyes, who seems more interested in doing her duty than clashing with Spock. Latimer is killed by a spear to the back, while Gaetano is killed by one of the natives directly.
     Makus III is the location of a rendezvous between the Enterprise and another ship. The Enterprise was carrying medical supplies that were needed to combat a plague on New Paris; Makus III was where they were meant to hand off the drugs. The delivery was being overseen by Galactic High Commissioner Ferris, a man with pink skin, short, thinning, greying hair, and blue eyes. He was dressed in a dark blue suit with silver trim, a winged collar, and a short cape built into the suit jacket. He was adamant that the medical supplies be delivered on time.
     According to book 19, section 433, paragraph 12, Ferris has the authority to halt the Enterprise's search for its missing crew. [The regulation is probably something to do with the Commissioner having the authority to take command if circumstances require it.] Title 15 of Galactic Emergency Procedures gives Ferris the authority to take command and order Kirk to abandon the search. [It's unclear if these two regulations are the same or different.]

Final Analysis: "Strange. Step by step, I have made the correct and logical decisions. And yet two men have died." This was reportedly written after they learned how popular Spock was, so it's odd how the script repeatedly goes out of its way to show how Spock's logical perspective doesn't work and that being human is better. The basic storyline is reasonably interesting, but its efforts to tear Spock down instead of exploring other potential areas of dramatic conflict do it no favors - Boma's position isn't completely without merit, but they lay it on so thick that it wears on you. Well made, but with a sense of misplaced priorities.

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