Star Trek: Court Martial

Episode: "Court Martial"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 1, Episode 20
Original Air Date: February 2, 1967

via Memory Alpha

Happy New Year!

In this, Star Trek's second courtroom drama episode, Captain Kirk stands trial on charges of perjury and negligence.  A crewman, Lieutenant Commander Ben Finney, has died in a freak accident.  Kirk's account of the incident conflicts with the ship's computer record, thus the charges.  To complicate matters further, the prosecuting attorney is Lt. Areel Shaw, his ex-girlfriend!

I won't spoil the plot twist, except to say that I did not see it coming myself.

*****

via Memory Alpha

Elisha Cook plays Kirk's defense attorney, Samuel T. Cogley, Esq.  The eccentric Cogley is highly amusing, though if I were Kirk, I would have been nervous about the fact that his lawyer slouched in his chair and stared off into space during the trial. 

Cook was born December 26, 1903 in San Francisco.  Growing up in Chicago, he started as a traveling actor on the vaudeville circuit at the age of 14.  He got his big break when he was cast in the Broadway play Ah! Wilderness for a two-year run.  His on-screen resume is lengthy, including films such as The Maltese Falcon, Shane and Rosemary's Baby.  In addition to Trek, his television series appearances included Perry Mason, The Adventures of Superman, Batman, The Bionic Woman and Magnum, P.I.

He was married twice but was apparently a bit of a recluse.  According to director John Huston,

[Cook] lived alone up in the High Sierra, tied flies and caught golden trout between films. When he was wanted in Hollywood, they sent word up to his mountain cabin by courier. He would come down, do a picture, and then withdraw again to his retreat.

Cook died of a stroke in 1995.