Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Star Trek: A Piece of the Action

Episode: "A Piece of the Action"
Series: Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 17
Original Air Date: January 12, 1968
via wellyousaythat
In a Star Trek costume drama,  the Enterprise visits Sigma Iotia II, a planet corrupted by too early contact with the Federation a hundred years before.  The crew of Horizon had left behind a book called Chicago Mobs of the Twenties.  The impressionable natives built the entire society around the text, essentially treating it as heaven-sent gospel.  If you ever wanted to see our heroes in zoot suits and Captain Kirk do a terrible Cagney impression, this is your chance!

The novelty of the episode is fun, as is seeing Vic Tayback in a guest star gangster role.  I couldn't help feeling, though, that the writing was a bit labored at times.  I could have done without Kirk and the goofy accent, too.  But again, the novelty is fun.

*****
via Memory Alpha
Bela Oxmyx, the story's Al Capone-equivalent, is played by Anthony Caruso.  Caruso was born April 7, 1916 in Frankfort, Indiana.  He had a 50-year career in Hollywood career with 251 screen credits, usually in villain roles.  The lion share of his work was in television but there were film roles in the '40s and '50s, notably The Asphalt Jungle, Watch on the Rhine and A Gun in His Hand.  He was married to his wife, Tonia Valente, for 63 years, parting upon his death in 2003.

16 comments:

  1. Too bad they didn't get around to publishing the "actual" Chicago Mobs book, which was something that was discussed as a possibility.

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    1. I suppose someone still could, though we're now well past the 1992 publication date.

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  2. That was one of my favorites when I was a kid.

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  3. My favorite Star Trek episodes were the wacky ones. Tribbles, gangsters...I'm all in.

    Thanks, Squidimus Maximus!

    Cherdo
    www.cherdoontheflipside.com

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  4. Corruption and gangsters sound like a good idea.

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  5. I vaguely remember this one. It was just OK for me.
    Oh My Goodness, another giant killer in tennis.
    and I just checked back... how could I miss The Magnificent Seven movie night !
    Oh Noes

    cheers, parsnip

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    1. Another big giant killer just today with Dimitrov taking out Murray (sad spiral for Andy at the moment...).

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  6. I remember thinking how formulaic this episode was. It's a trope that was done a lot in the original series but it felt out of place here. Still it was worth watching.

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    1. Formula definitely creeps in the further I dig into Season 2. There are still gems here and there - "Mirror, Mirror," "Journey to Babel" - but it's easier to see common narrative ideas from one week to the next than it was with Season 1.

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  7. Okay, the story was formulaic, but it gave the leads the chance to change things up a bit. The guest stars were fun, too... I remember thinking "Hey, that's Mel from Alice!"

    And FIZZBIN! :-)

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    1. Yes, definitely fun! No argument there. It's not the cleanest episode in terms of the writing but it's fun.

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  8. Definitely a fun episode. Sometimes we were in real need of fun back then. The program delivered.

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