The Galileo Seven - episode #14

THE GALILEO SEVEN (1st season; episode #14) Air Date:1/5/67
Directed by Robert Gist / writers: Oliver Crawford, S Bar-David


They were seven; not a lucky number here, one way of looking at it, and not a very magnificent group. One of the Enterprise's shuttlecrafts is showcased in this episode, which spotlights the downside of exploration. It's a case study of survival techniques and examining the group dynamics among several crew members stuck on a hostile planet. It focuses on Spock (rare for a 1st season episode), not Kirk, who remained on board the ship this time. Spock's in command of the 7-member party on the Galileo shuttlecraft, which makes an unplanned landing on a planet which resembles Earth's prehistoric days, perhaps circa 10,000 B.C. - they call it Taurus II.


Spock has a lot on his hands: besides needing to figure out a way to lift off without fuel, the landing party is besieged by the 10-foot tall natives of the planet, natives who like to throw large spears at Starfleet officers. This episode couldn't help but be at least pretty good. When I was a kid, I was pretty spooked by some of the scenes: all that mist and those lumbering beast-men, with their deep, throaty growling; this sort of made me re-think my plans on becoming an astronaut. As private Hudson said in Aliens, "you can count me out!"
Kirk, meanwhile, is up against a deadline and has to fend off an annoying Federation bureaucrat (these types appeared in several TOS episodes; this one is played by John Crawford - very annoying). Other guest cast: Don Marshall as Lt. Boma, Peter Marko as Lt. Gaetano.
The fascinating aspect to this is Spock's approach: he takes logic to faulty extremes, addressing all problems like an equation. This doesn't work very well against huge, angry savages. Spock's robotic attitude also doesn't sit well with most of the other officers; they're emotional people, of course, and need words of encouragement in times of great stress. Nor do they appreciate Spock's seeming callousness when one of them falls in the line of duty - you would think Spock would realize by this time that he should at least give the impression of giving a damn in certain scenarios. But mostly, he sends the message that he's the smartest and that half of them are expendable - not the most positive message to send on a mission gone wrong.
Kirk himself loses patience with a high-ranking 'galactic commisioner' here - he starts out as respectful of the high rank but soon all but kicks him off the bridge as his mood darkens (this exemplified Kirk's often borderline disrespect for certain officials, showing him as not very politically correct or not 'going along with the flow').  But, I believe Spock over-compensated during this episode; despite his statements about only using logic, he obviously feels the pressures of this chaotic command. He goes out of his way to alienate the rest of the group.
McCoy and Scotty, who came along on this joyride, will back up Spock even as they disagree with his methods, but a couple of other officers are downright insubordinate here. The attitudes in some scenes border on mutiny and some deep-rooted prejudices. Perhaps part of the attitude problem could also be the top-heavy ranking among the group: the 3 male guest stars all play lieutenants, not just ensigns, along with a female yeoman.
In all, this was a tense, exciting episode; perhaps the tensions among the group were overdone, but you won't soon forget it, especially as it's all ratcheted up even further near the end. And, McCoy seems to win this round in the never-ending debate with Spock about logic still requiring human emotional content. The epilogue on the bridge, however, has a very different tone, releasing that tension, and is inelegant. BoG's Score: 8 out of 10
Extra Trek Trivia: this was the first appearance of an Enterprise shuttlecraft; the first draft of the script featured Yeoman Rand, but she left the series at this point, so it was re-written as 'Yeoman Mears.'