[TOS] The Enterprise Incident

[TOS] Season 3, Episode 2: The Enterprise Incident

Rating: 4–
This episode kind of operates under a different set of rules than was previously in Star Trek, and what comes later for that matter. Nevertheless it’s a fun adventure episode where we get to see the Romulans again. The far-fetched plot actually adds to the adventure aspect, making it all the more fun and lighthearted to see their plan work out, although I admit I would never let any of the other shows get away with this.
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Read more at Memory Alpha
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Notes:

Kirk is chewing out everyone

Kirk gets mad and tells them to drive into the neutral zone

The Romulans are using a Klingon design for their ships

Kirk lays out three options: they can fight the Romulans and die, they can just blow up Enterprise so that the Romulan don’t get any secrets, or they can surrender. It kind of surprises Kirk that the sub-commander tells Kirk that his commander wants to meet with him and Spock

Spock says that they entered the neutral zone because Kirk was acting irrational

Kirk gets so mad he almost runs into the camera!

Kirk runs into his cell door and Bones has to come look at him. Bones also agrees that Kirk is out of it

“I was unprepared for his attack. I instinctively used the Vulcan death grip” -Spock

After faking his death, Kirk goes back to the ship and has surgery to look like a Romulan. Apparently this was all part of his plan to steal their new cloaking device, and Kirk was just acting crazy to get the federation off the hook.

Spock and the Romulan commander have a thing goin

D.C. Fontana thought the main problem of this episode was the relationship between Spock and the commander was not believable. The commander’s speech about her fascination with Vulcans and the fact that she wanted to use him to get Enterprise made it believable enough for me. Of course Spock’s reasons aren’t believed by the audience, but I think they effectively sold that the commander does not believe Vulcans are capable of lying. I’m not saying any of this was great, but I don’t think it’s the real problem of the episode. The real problem is the convenience of everything: the Romulans not acting aggressively, like they usually do, having a female commander for Spock to woo, which couldn’t have been part of the plan, and the whole plan hinging on Scotty getting a completely foreign device working on Enterprise in 15 minutes.