Star Trek episode "Court Martial"

"Court Martial"

Season 1, Episode 20.

As it opens, the Enterprise has been through a "severe ion storm" in which one crewman, Lt. Cmdr. Finney, dies while out in a pod taking readings.

They put in to a Starbase for repairs and for filling out a report on Finney's death. Kirk "had to jettison" the pod during the storm. Kirk and Finney had served together on the Republic. Kirk solved a negligent problem of Finney's and Finney has hated him ever since.

Kirk's actions are under examination, and his lawyer is Samuel T. Cogley. This guy made this episode. He has to be one of the simply coolest secondary characters that has ever been on Star Trek.

The prosecutor is an old lover of Kirk's, Lt. Shaw.

One strange thing that seems to be the crux of the argument--Kirk presses the yellow and red alert buttons on his command chair? Only in this episode. After watching all 80 episodes, I never saw him turn the alerts on--someone else always did after his order. I also think it is extremely strange that he would be the one pressing the button to jettison the pod.

Someone laments to Spock, "You may be able to beat your next captain at chess." That gives Spock the idea that the computers have been messed with. Then the final solution is another one of those once-in-a-lifetime tech fixes that solves this problem but is never seen again, even though it would come in handy in later episodes. The crew tunes into the heartbeats of those on board the Enterprise, removing beats one by one until they surmise that Finney is still alive and on board the ship. Kirk of course has to fight Finney barehanded for a climax.

There could be an awesome sequel to this: The Wrath of Finney. It's a good episode, all in all.