March 23, 2014

This Sunday, March 23rd, we’re celebrating the premiere broadcast anniversary of Errand of Mercy.  This episode originally aired during Season 1 on
Thursday, March 23, 1967.




The Story:

A peace-loving race gives Captain Kirk a lesson in warfare.  The inhabitants of the neutral planet Organia hesitate to interfere in a war between Kirk’s Federation and an invader – until intervention becomes necessary.  Commander Kor, representing the Klingon Empire, wants Organia as a base.  Kirk, representing the United Federation of Planets, has the same desire.  The Organians and their leader, Ayelborne, have a surprising idea of their own.
Interesting factoids about this episode:
  • “Errand of Mercy” is one of the three episodes that NBC ordered at almost the last minute as a final “back order” for season one, increasing the amount of episodes produced from 26 to 29. The production team’s biggest challenge: they had a number of scripts in development, but most were too grand/ambitious to film within their budget constraints. Producer Gene Coon, often called “the fastest typewriter in the west,” wrote this and “Devil in the Dark” in rapid succession to fill the order.

  • This episode introduces the Klingons.  Gene Coon came up with the name Klingon, which most of the production team didn’t like.  They thought it was odd sounding -- “Kling-on,” as in clinging. But there was no time to come up with something different.  And, as we all know, Klingon has endured.

  • Dorothy Fontana remembers they asked Gene Coon “…where do Klingons come from?  What’s the name of their planet?”  He said [laughing], “Kling.”

  • As with many Star Trek episodes, the contemporary (1967) political allegory is barely concealed here:  Substitute the planet Organia for the divided nation of Vietnam, the Federation for the U.S., and the Klingon Empire for Red China and its allies, North Vietnam and North Korea.

  • The episode’s title comes courtesy of Charles Dickens.  A line from The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby reads, “It is an errand of mercy that brings me here.  Pray, let me discharge it.”
In honor of its broadcast anniversary, watch the original episode (try amazon.com, Netflix or hulu plus) in a whole new way by first reading all of the great behind-the-scenes details in Marc Cushman’s These are the Voyages: TOS, Season One.  Get your copy today!