Gangsters | With with Walter Koenig | TOS 2.17, "A Piece of the Action" | T7R #374 - The 7th Rule -- A Star Trek Podcast with DS9's Cirroc Lofton

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Spock has never calculated the odds of getting a royal Fizbin.
Lieutenant Hadley checks the language banks for a heater, and
Bang Bang makes the sweetest little automatic in the world. Hello, everybody,
Welcome to the Seventh Rule with Sarrock Lofton and Walter Kanig.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hello.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
Wow, my name is Ryan T. Huskin. Today we're doing
a review of Star Trek the original series, Season two,
episode seventeen, A Piece of the Action. Story by David P. Harmon,
Teleplay by David P. Harmon and Gen L. Koon, directed
by James Komak. This was January twelfth, nineteen sixty eight.

(00:45):
Where were you and hi guys doing today?

Speaker 2 (00:50):
All right, all right, all right, Walter.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
First things first, Yes, let's just get into this one.
When I said over the phone we're going to be
doing a piece of the action, you said, oh, I
remember this one.

Speaker 2 (01:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:10):
I remember it for several reasons, and viewing it again
as I did yesterday brought back a lot of memories
and the fact that I knew two of the guest
actors very well. One had been one was a friend
for sixty years. Lee Delano, who played the guy in

(01:33):
the brown suit, the gangster who initially stops Kirk and Spock,
and Vic Table, who played the other guy, crack.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
Out carc oh Cracker.

Speaker 3 (01:48):
Yeah, I knew him quite well. We were in the
same theater company together for years. I'm a good guy,
very talented. They were both very talent.

Speaker 2 (01:57):
Vic Tate back right, I think his name was Yeah.

Speaker 3 (02:04):
Yeah. We belonged to the Company of Angels, which was
a small theater company, uh in Hollywood, and we worked together.
We did a play called Blood.

Speaker 1 (02:18):
Wedding, Blood Wedding, Blood Wedding.

Speaker 3 (02:22):
Yeah. This is Spanish about two warring families, and Vick
was the head of one family. And I don't remember
who they head. Oh I do know. That's another story though,
if we have time, I'll tell you that. But Lee, Yeah,
Lee and I were really good friends for a long time. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:46):
Can you tell us about uh Lee, because because he
actually did a really nice job in this episode. He
comes off he's the first answer that they run into
with the brown suit that you mentioned, kind of like
the right hand to the boss. Uh Yeah. Any any
kind of other work that you remember him being known.

Speaker 3 (03:04):
For, Any work that I remember who for Lee?

Speaker 2 (03:09):
Any other acting jobs that you might have remembered him
in Think Well.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
Vic was in the very successful movie and it was
a translated transferred to TV series. He played the cook
in a series I can't remember the.

Speaker 2 (03:29):
Oh yeah, Alice, Alice, Alice.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
Mel's sharples in Alice. Wow, how do you know these things?
You guys?

Speaker 2 (03:39):
Yeah, you don't remember that show? Uh. It was like
a Mel's Diner. I think it was the name of
the It was some kind of Yeah, I think Alice
worked at Mel's diner. He was the owner of the
diner named Mel, and she was she was the main
waitress in there. And it was like I watched this
show as a kid growing up.

Speaker 1 (04:00):
I don't know who I is.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Wow, Yeah, I wanted this show all the time. Yeah.
Who's that woman to the right of him. She's a
famous she was Alice in the show. I forgot her name.
Valerie Burton Ellen was I'm not sure sounds well.

Speaker 3 (04:23):
Back to the piece of the action, Yeah, the action.

Speaker 1 (04:27):
Yeah, okay. So here's what I find always so interesting, Walter,
is that every single time, now we're seventeen for seventeen
or eighteen for eighteen, when we say we're gonna be
reviewing this episode, you go, I know him, I knew her.
I was in a play with him, I did a
movie with her. I did, so it really helps to

(04:50):
give us this perspective that you were this working actor
that was working a lot in Hollywood in la before,
during and after, and a lot of people, you know,
sixty years later, a lot of fans they just think, oh,
you're Chekhov. And the fact of the matter is you
were a lot of people, a lot of characters in

(05:12):
a lot of productions, with a lot of actors, and
you know, a lot of well known actors and very
well established actors in their own right. Do you, ever,
how do I say this, do you ever think, boy,
I wish they'd seen me in something other than Star Trek.
I wish, like, were there ever any other productions that

(05:34):
you were really proud of that you wish that the
fans had also seen?

Speaker 3 (05:39):
Well, some of them. Some of the TV shows still
run in the Hitchcock Hour runs. I'm sure there are
others that run as well. Yeah, I had some opportunities
and other venues which which were exciting and fun, and
I got fired once. That's another story in a movie

(06:01):
of the Week with Mia Pharaoh and the production. But
as I say, that's another story.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Yeah, we could talk about that in the roundtable one day.
That would be fun. Anyway, what's that I said that,
that's something we could discuss in the roundtable one day
some day in the future. That'll be fun.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
But please, I want to talk about this.

Speaker 1 (06:23):
Yeah, let's do it because.

Speaker 3 (06:25):
I find it's it was very entertaining. I found it
very entertaining, uh and fun to watch, But I'm also
wondering at the same time whether being entertaining was necessarily
as good as a thing as it turned out. That's not

(06:45):
what I mean. It didn't. It seemed more like a
damon run in the episode than a starter episode. You know.
It was the gangsters and the prototypical stereotypical gangsters that
the Bill played, and the and the other guys as well.
So I I thoroughly enjoyed it. But are we really

(07:07):
take it seriously? Can I really say? Is this something?
Is this an alien world that they they landed was
just the time out to just have fun? I mean,
right at the beginning when when Capt. Kirki is threatened,
he smiles, he has the smile on his face like

(07:30):
he knowss this is this isn't really gonna happen that
these gats, these guns that they use, didn't really have
bullets in them. So my sense was that the writers
and the producers Saturday sat around when they were writing
this and creating it and just decided they were going

(07:51):
to have fun. And it was so appealing to Bill
because it was a chance to really ham it up
and then in a positive way. I don't mean that
negatively that you know, it was time out from Star Trek.
That's the way it felt to me.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah, you know, what it reminds me of, and Sirok
Will will know what I'm talking about is the later
Star Trek series after this one. They had something called
the Holo Deck, and every Star Trek series it's basically like,
you know, you walk into a big movie theater and
it's like a hologram, so you could pretend to be

(08:30):
Robin Hood, you could pretend to be the Old West.
And this felt like the original series version of that,
where they say, you don't have the Holo Deck yet,
so you don't have this technology to go anywhere and
do anything. So they just visited a planet that was
nineteen twenties Chicago gangsters. It felt very much like you know,

(08:53):
the original take me away from Star Trek for a
minute and just do anything you want at theisode. And
I want to ask you, Siak, when you saw them
dressed up like this, did you recognize it? Did you say,

(09:13):
I've seen these pictures before, or I've seen this cosplay before,
or was it totally a blank slate.

Speaker 2 (09:19):
Now I've seen I've seen photographs of Kirk and Spock
dressed up with these fedoras and you know, wearing these
double breasted suits. I've seen those photographs circulated. So I
wasn't sure where emanated from watching this episode. I said, oh,
I see, this is where it comes from. So that

(09:41):
was something that you know, I instantly identify. And then
to speak to your point that you made about subsequent
Star Trek shows incorporating this exact kind of a theme,
which is a period piece, taking taking us into a
period piece, whether it's you know, the Westerns, like you said,

(10:08):
Robin Hoodlos Sherlock Holmes and all of those kinds of
period pieces eventually came. Subsequently, on de Spase nine, we
had bought a boom Bata being which took us to
Old Vegas. But essentially I agree with Walter in the
fact in two things. One that it was fun and entertaining,

(10:31):
so I enjoyed watching it. I thought it was an
entertaining watch. However, I didn't think it crossed enough of
the Star Trek science fiction checkboxes for me to make
me buy into that part of the story. If you

(10:53):
just want to say, hey, we're just going to have
fun and play in nineteen thirty Chicago, and you know
we're just gonna run around and and do things, that's fine.
But if you're going to make a story about how
you basically this is a butterfly effect story. This is
about how one civilization can affect another from one small

(11:17):
artifact being left behind. And I think that was the
central premise to the idea, which I like because how
many times in our own archaeology do we discover artifacts
and prescribe all of this stuff to it and build
legend and religion and all kinds of stories about space

(11:42):
travel and time travel and the gods and the heavens.
And I think that it's a great story to kind
of at its root, that's a great story. And I
wanted to hear more about the science fiction sci fi
element of this story as opposed to just playing cosplay
in nineteen thirty Chicago.

Speaker 1 (12:06):
Yep, I agree with you there, Sorock. Walter seems to
be thinking about it. He's not sure if he agrees
or not, but I wouldn't I do agree. Yeah, I
thought that was a really interesting aspect. Was this USS
Horizon ship came by one hundred years ago, left some
artifacts and that formed you know, a society or the

(12:29):
society form itself around that. And that's a really interesting story.
And I would have loved to dig a little deeper
in that. And you agree with that's Walter.

Speaker 3 (12:40):
Well, you know, I keep prefacing it by saying that
I found it very entertaining. It was fun, but it's
it's impossible to tom my point of you to take

(13:01):
it seriously. I just didn't take it seriously. And you know,
Bill had fun with it, but it was really camping.
I mean, the whole thing was really camping. And the
way he did it, you know, the old gangster kind
of thing. It was a caricature. And just sat back

(13:25):
and enjoyed it, just relax and dismissed the unreality of it.
I just enjoyed it as a piece.

Speaker 1 (13:34):
And so m hm, you know, my my nerdy brain
couldn't let go fully. I know, it's kind of like
a leave your brain at the door and just sit
back and relax and enjoy it, like forget about forget
about it, and just watch the show. But for me,
I couldn't help but be constantly nitpicking, like how Walter

(13:58):
you said that Kirk's smiled when you know for a
minute there, You know, there are a lot of moments
like that where they just didn't seem to have the
gravity of there's a gun pointed at you, and they're
just kind of like, yeah, well whatever, when or when
Kurt grabs the guy by the scruff of his neck

(14:18):
and the guy doesn't even really react. You just kind
of relax, And so those are your signs, and those
are your hints of like, hey, it's campy, it's fun.
Just sit back, relax and enjoy it. But my nerdy
brain couldn't let go of it. I was just like,
why isn't he angry? Why isn't he reacting more?

Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know?

Speaker 1 (14:37):
So I feel like maybe that was more of a
more popular style back in the sixties, to where people
were able to just kind of relax, and I feel
like nowadays people nitpick a lot more and I feel
like I suffer from that myself. But Walter, were you
able to completely put away those it picks or did

(15:00):
you kind of notate them as they went by?

Speaker 3 (15:04):
Oh? No, I notated them, I mean, and never was
fully immersed in the story. I was always watching the performances,
and and Bill in particular, just you know, the game
is head and they just let him have fun. And
that's what seemed like what they might have said, just

(15:26):
have fun, and he obviously did. So it was it was,
it was. It was a delight. I'm not insulted. Uh,
it's you know. It wasn't pure Star Trek. It wasn't.

(15:48):
It was out of step with it with I think
the story ideas were supposed to be. But I enjoyed it.
Why not?

Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yeah? I couldn't suspend it either. There were too many
problems for me in the story. For one, I was thinking,
these guys are humans. They're not even like some alien race. So,
I mean that was the first thing, was at least
let it be an alien. Put some kind of little
makeup prosthetic on all these guys. I don't know, something

(16:26):
to make them different than humans, because then they they
come from us. They evolved from us. How are they
any different than than kirk uh So that that was
my first hurdle I had to get over, how is
this exact replica of humans living on another planet with
the same technology as US, as far as brown Stones

(16:49):
and Model T Fords. So I was thinking, I just
don't even see how they could develop that in another place. Now,
if they did a time travel episode, that would make
my head get around it a little bit better. But
the fact that it was another planet with exact people
looking like humans, who had also the exact radios and

(17:13):
style of clothing and everything else that we have on Earth,
how could they develop all of that from a book?
I just don't see that that would be possible. But nonetheless,
after you know, I wish they'd put some prosthetics on
their nose or something to make them non human. It
would have kind of forgave it a little bit. The

(17:35):
other thing that I would have given it an excuse
would have been is if this was a simulation program
like olid Deck, then I could fathom this being a
computer programs that was just running a system. So putting
all of that aside, then you have the seriousness of
the moment, and I felt like that was really broad

(17:59):
down and notch by Shatner's performance. I thought he was
too cavalier and too camp before the moment, and you know,
to Leonard Nimoy's credit, he did not try to participate
with that as much as he could. He did resist

(18:22):
playing along and kept his spock kind of demote demeanor
as best he could.

Speaker 3 (18:28):
Except yeah, he did have one line though, when he
says that's a double negative.

Speaker 1 (18:36):
Yeah, yeah, And I went back and listened. I was like, oh, yeah,
I guess it is. I don't remember what that.

Speaker 2 (18:42):
Line was, but uh yeah. There were moments too, even
for him, where he was a little bit more expressive
than he normally is. I thought in the radio scene
when they were trying to contact Ahura on the bridge
and he had frustrations from he couldn't you know, instantly,
he made a facial expression that was really sour, let's say,

(19:06):
And it was outside of a spock you know, emotionless expression.
It's one where you're kind of pissed off and you're
sour about not accomplishing whatever it is. So little moments
like that, but other than that, I just felt like,
you know, they needed more science fiction. They needed to
be talking about the rules of engagement. They needed to

(19:28):
be talking about first contact principles and stuff of that nature.
Just whatever the protocol that Federation has. I would have
liked to hear a little bit about that as well.

Speaker 1 (19:38):
You know, I just wanted to jump on Leonard Nimoy
and how much fun he may or may not have
had in this episode. There was one scene that cracked
me up, and that was when you know, Spock and Bones,
they beam up and then they beam back down, and
when they beamed back down and they look and they

(20:00):
see these guns pointed at them. Spock looked hilariously annoyed.
He didn't say a word, but you know, Leonard just
did this like, oh, like look. That was really good
and he had to have had fun doing at least
that moment, because it was very funny and it was

(20:24):
slightly exaggerated for how he usually plays a vulcan, so
I think he was I think he was feeling the
scene too.

Speaker 2 (20:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I think he had a little fun with that one,
and it really cracked me up. It was it showed well,
it wasn't even like a close up, you could just
see it. I think it was a two shot and
he just looked great. He was very funny.

Speaker 2 (20:44):
Yeah, I thought he had a moment another moment like
that where when Kirk was coming up with the whole
card game bull bs and he was like, oh, you
never played fizbin and this and that, Spock was looking
at him like and there was a moment there when
he asked him to agree with him where he's like, yes,

(21:06):
you know, and the way he agreed with him was
again a reluctant kind of expressive and emotionally expressive kind
of oh okay, we're playing that game type of agreeing.
And so I thought it was funny. I enjoyed it,
but it was a little bit past the boundary of
what sparked us. So that Spock playing around, essentially you

(21:28):
get very very small subtle nuances and his performances to
see that he's being a little bit different than a
little bit playful.

Speaker 3 (21:38):
Let's say, it was probably more gum chewing in this
episode in the whole generation of Tellivision, Hold the ladies,
you're chewing gum.

Speaker 1 (21:56):
Well, you know, one thing that was sci fi was
the names kracko ox mix right. Those were boy, those
were bang up names right there. But I do want
to point out Zabo, I think was one of them.
A couple things. One is my biggest nitpick. I can

(22:22):
go ahead and say it right now because we have
a minute before we have to take our break. The biggest,
my biggest nitpick is that the Iotians were introduced as
extremely intelligent and somewhat imitative. We what we got was

(22:42):
somewhat unintelligent and extremely imitative, right, I did not. I
had to go back. I was like, did they really
call them extremely intelligent? Because not one of them seemed bright?
Some of them when Kirk was banging and he's going
hell helped me. They ran into the room, just full

(23:06):
sprint into a room. These guys were They're like talking
about forty and they're like, yeah, whatever is he? Anyway?
I just thought that was the one thing I could
not get past. I was like, why are they calling them?
They're imitative for sure intelligent Walter? Did they seem smart
to you?

Speaker 3 (23:25):
What did I think?

Speaker 1 (23:26):
Did you think that?

Speaker 2 (23:27):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (23:28):
Did you think they were?

Speaker 3 (23:29):
I agree with you? I agree with you, do agree
with you?

Speaker 1 (23:32):
All right?

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yeah, I agreed as well. I thought I didn't think
anybody appeared intelligent in that mix. They all everybody was
dumb down.

Speaker 1 (23:41):
Except the kid.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
The kid was smart.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
He's going to be a Boston ten years.

Speaker 2 (23:48):
Yeah, and I was surprised they didn't name that kids like,
you know, some gangster name that eventually would grow up
to be you know, Alcopol. Hey, what's your name, kid,
My name's Capone Alcohol. Okay, yeah, yeah, And I thought
that would have been a nice twist right there. But yeah,

(24:08):
nobody seemed intelligent. Everybody seemed It was just like I said,
it was one of those episodes that you just have
to say, Okay, we're playing dress up, We're this is
a costume party, this is this is just a chance
to pretend like, you know, you have an accent. Then

(24:29):
you know, you got fancy heaters and you know, all
those guns and all of this stuff. It was it
was an opportunity to go back to that kind of
great gat speed time. But I didn't see it as
a genuinely believable science fiction story. Was it fun to
watch these characters dress up and play to some degree,

(24:52):
but again I wanted more science. Put more science in
the science fiction show. And then you you know, then
you at least give us that some protocol on what
Federation's guidelines are for you know, disrupting societies. That would
have been some kind of you know background for that.

(25:12):
I just we will have plenty to talk about on
the other side.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Yeah, yeah, So as we jump to our break, Waltern
strock Man, I just point out to you guys that
there is a gigantic nitpick with the both of you.
With the both of you and I have proof that
this is one of the greatest episodes in the history

(25:40):
of Star Trek, and that the Iotians are the most
beloved alien race in the history of Star Trek. I
will show you that proof. Walter's laughing like he doesn't
believe you. Why, I will show you that proof next week, everybody. No,

(26:01):
on the other side, we're gonna take our quick break.
We'll be right back on the seventh Rule. Hey, everybody,
welcome back to the Seventh Rule with Sarak frickin' Loftin
and Walter frickin' Canig two legends and me. All right,
here are the trivioids of the week. Everybody, The Enterprise

(26:21):
is approaching Sigma Iosha two. The USS Horizon was lost
with all hands shortly after leaving Ayosha too. The Iotians
are extremely intelligent and somewhat imitative. Krack goes getting more
gall all the time. Ox Mix wants more heaters. Lieutenant

(26:42):
Hadley checks the language banks for a heater. Spock has
never calculated the odds of getting a Royal Fisbon Bang
Bang makes the sweetest little automatic in the world. Spock
is not sanguine on hunches. Captain Kirk leaves much to
be desired as a taxi driver, and Bones may have
left his communicator in Bella ox Mix's office. All right,

(27:08):
so here's your proof, everybody, It's coming to you fast
and furious. One and a half years ago, Virtual Trek
Con did the Lappy Awards. Everybody knows the Lappy Awards
the Star Trek Awards show where the fans decide the winners.

(27:33):
Walter got a Lifetime Achievement Award at this that year,
I believe and all kinds of fun things. Jake and
Nogg were great winners of like best friends and things
like that. We've had a lot of fun. Here's the
point picture it. The year is twenty twenty four. In

(27:55):
the category of which one off aliens species is the
most fun, the finalists were the Antikins, the Montaukens, the Dosi,
the Baku, the Komar, the Duplers, the Enterpriseians of course,

(28:17):
and the Iotians. And the winner was as voted on
by the fans, the Iotians. These guys were voted by
the fans as the number one most fun and delightful
and entertaining one off alien race ever. And here's the

(28:38):
kicker that reminded me of it, Sirak. That kid, Sheldon
what was his name, His name was Sheldon Collins, grew up,
became a dentist in Denver. We tracked him down. Doctor
Amrie Siegel found him and he did the award live

(29:01):
on the behat on there from all the way from
Denver anyway. That's really cool. So the fans actually really
enjoy this, and I think as time goes on, once
you accept what this episode's about, you can enjoy it
a lot more. And this is actually a very very famous,

(29:23):
beloved and legendary episode. That's why we're always seeing the cosplay,
That's why people are always talking about Fizbin that card game.
So I just want to say your.

Speaker 3 (29:34):
Thoughts go ahead.

Speaker 2 (29:38):
So rock Well, I thought Fisbin was in Portugal, but
but no, I don't I don't know I look, was
it fun? Yeah, it was fun. I'm not going to
say that it wasn't fun. The guy who played Vic Tayback,
who was mail on the show Alice. I loved him

(30:00):
as mel On Alice. He played this obnoxious, never happy
business owner who always gave Alice a hard time, and
I thought, you know, it was a good show. He
had a pack of cigarettes always rolled up on his
uh nice sleeve. I always remember that as a kid,
like why does he have that there? But you know,

(30:21):
is he a really good cramudgeon kind of you know
character that you know? I loved him. I thought Kracko
was fun to watch. You know. He threw his girlfriend
on on Kirk like, hey, you know, like sweeten him
up a little bit while I talked to him, give
him a back rub, you know. I mean, was it
fun to watch? Yes? Was the main boss in this
who Ox mix, played by Anthony Caruso. I thought he

(30:45):
also did a fantastic job. I enjoyed him. One of
my favorite lines that he had was he kept calling
everybody dummy. He's like, oh yeah, I was hoping you'd
say that dummy. And he kept calling people dummy, which
I thought, you know, it was funny. I was expecting
some more. This is what I really was expecting. This

(31:09):
is the part, I guess that I thought was too
playful of it. I thought what was too playful was
that the Federation is going to come in there and
pretend to be essentially the bigger mob boss and say
you're going to have to extort these group of people
for forty percent of the cut or whatever the deal is.
And to me, that's not the intellectual problem solving and

(31:30):
critical thinking that I'm used to when I watched this show,
had they actually sat these guys down and talked about
the importance of their piece and their being peace and
them not worrying, and or why that book is not
reflective of the human experience and culture and it's just

(31:52):
a small microcosm of a tiny window and time and
if they want to move forward, they need to advance
past that one time, like they have as a culture
and society. I think these kinds of arguments could have
been laid out in an intellectual way that these ocean people,
who are supposedly smart, they could have been You could
have appealed to their intellect and explained, but obviously you

(32:15):
weren't dealing with an intellectually sound group of individuals that
were at least portrayed so and I think they missed
the ball on having kind of an intellectual discussion about
why warring and being committed to war is not a
productive thing for any society, any divided society where half

(32:39):
of the people are a third of the people are here, here, here,
and they're all constantly fighting. I don't see how that
advances society, civilization, a planet, or anywhere. So I think
they could have appealed to that argument and that debate
about reasoning, about logic, about have al and evolving as

(33:01):
a species. A whole lot of things could have been
talked about. Were they fun to watch? Yes? Do I
like that particular time period when they were bootlegging alcohol
and walking around with Tommy guns? Yeah? I do like it,
you do. I'm a fan of I'm a fan of
the Mob movies, and so this isn't the original mob

(33:22):
kind of beginnings when you watch these mob movies, right,
So do I like it? Yeah? I like Donnie Brasco,
I like Casino, I like Good Fellows, I like Godfather,
And you know, when you talk about a a good
mob story, I like it. But when you talk about
the Federation coming in there and acting like the big

(33:43):
the bigger mob and saying, hey, we take forty percent,
we can bully you guys around and you just listen
to us. That's not a peaceful, logical, critical thinking type
resolution that I normally get from Star Trek.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
Walter Kanig. You said you had another story about Lee.

Speaker 3 (34:07):
I can't. First of all, I can't. No, there's no
point in my expressing what I've already expressed at the
very beginning and with Sirak has so eloquently described as
the whole problem with this story, and at the same
time it was entertaining. Yeah. I came to La for

(34:31):
good in nineteen sixty and the very first stage job
I got was a play called The Girls in Summer.
And The Girls in Summer was directed by a fellow
that I knew in the Neighborhood Playhouse in New York.
He was an assistant to the teachers there and he

(34:56):
graduated to becoming a teacher himself, and he directed this project,
and he knew Lee. So I met Lee through Ernie
Loso in nineteen sixty one. He was the lead in
the play Lee. I think financed it produced it, and

(35:17):
he was the romantic lead, and Ernie cast me to
be the comic relief. So our relationship went back that far.
He went back to nineteen sixty one, and as I say,
we stayed friends for a long long time.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
What was he like me?

Speaker 3 (35:38):
He was a great guy. I had fun with him.
As he got older, he seemed to veer more and
more to the right. Some people do, and that wasn't
okay with me. So our relationship drifted a little bit,
but never was hostile. It was just that I didn't

(35:59):
I couldn't accommodate the same political feelings that he had,
so we sort of went our separate ways. But delightful guy.
I've always I always had a good time with him.

Speaker 2 (36:13):
Mm hmm.

Speaker 1 (36:15):
It looks he like here that the director James Komak
only directed this one episode of Star Trek. I just
had to look that up because I didn't recognize his name,
and I feel like we keep seeing the same names
over and over and over again. Right, this was his
one time. Do you remember anything about him at all?

(36:37):
I mean, it seems like you just spent the one
day or the one half day with him.

Speaker 3 (36:42):
I don't.

Speaker 1 (36:43):
Yeah, it's rocked.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, I remember. No, I looked up James Comac a
little bit. I'm sorry you We're gonna say something water.

Speaker 3 (36:58):
The degree to which check off we've represented on the screen.
This is a very, very definitive explanation of my participation
in this episode. For about fifteen seconds. That's it. That's
as much as I was in the show.

Speaker 1 (37:17):
Yeah, it seems like you're going to be in it
more being down.

Speaker 3 (37:21):
I was just on the bridge for when.

Speaker 1 (37:26):
Small moment, but it was at the beginning, so I
thought that you were going to be more involved, and
then you're just kind of You showed up Monday for
that first half day and then you were done for
the rest of the week.

Speaker 2 (37:35):
I guess, Yeah, those are the best I I you know,
you mentioned James Colemac, and so I did a little
bit of looking up on him, because, you know, I
think he'd be a great director for a different kind
of show. I feel like what he was doing is

(37:57):
great for I don't know, Matt Locke or Bonanza. I
don't know what other kinds of shows he'd be great for.
But I didn't feel like he had the full star
Trek repertoire science fiction repertoire under his belt. So maybe
that's why he was the one and done for you know,
this particular, and they probably brought him in because he

(38:18):
wasn't the sci fi kind of niche style director. But
he did do some things that I thought were interesting.
For example, when Spock, McCoy and Kirk first beam onto
this the back lots of Paramount, which is you know,

(38:39):
nineteen thirty Chicago, when we first see them arrive there
they are in the middle of the street and the
initial angle is an overhead camera angle looking down at
the cut the three of them, and I thought that
was a good choice. The camera crane goes from the
above position, lowers drops into and goes into a shot

(39:04):
of the scene as they start walking down the street,
which was a great shot. But I thought the starting
it off with the overhead crane shot looking down gave
me a kind of fish out of water sensation watching them.
It was like, you know, it was a great kind
of mood setter because here they are wearing Starfleet uniforms,

(39:25):
standing in the middle of the street and you know,
with the backdrop of the thirty Chicago behind them, And
I thought that's a great shot that he just took
because it sets the mood like, whoa, what the hell
are these guys doing here? And this is this looks
out of place, and it.

Speaker 1 (39:40):
Seemed like a great set to play in too. By
the way, I feel like the actors were probably very
happy with those days, thinking, hey, this is a you know,
we're out of that bridge set, we're out of the
Sick Bay set, and we're out in whatever. Wherever that
studio was looked like a good time. Do you know
where that I was shot?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Walter? What's that?

Speaker 1 (40:02):
Do you know where the exteriors were shot?

Speaker 2 (40:07):
No?

Speaker 3 (40:08):
I don't. I was wondering about that. Yeah, probably the
place that City on the Forever was shot. I mean,
and I love the I love the exteriors. I don't know,
it just felt like a breath of fresh air. Wasn't
so we weren't so confined the bridge, you know, is
it is a great set, but it's there's only so

(40:30):
much you can do. But I I loved I love
the way they used the exteriors on this show.

Speaker 2 (40:37):
Yeah, I'm pretty sure. My guess is it was a
Paramounts back lot.

Speaker 3 (40:44):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, see, I don't know anything about Paramounts back loot
from sixty years ago, So I don't know, but did
you did you feel like you recognized it at all? Soccer?
Are you're just assuming?

Speaker 2 (40:55):
Yes? Really? Reckon? It looks like the Yeah, the back
lot of Paramount, behind the blue screen where they have
all the facades set up, you know, the Brownstones and whatnot.
It looked like that's where they filmed it. I'm not
sure that that was there in nineteen sixty seven or eight,

(41:15):
but I'm pretty sure that's where they filmed. It looked
familiar to me. We did Far Beyond the Stars in
that same back.

Speaker 1 (41:24):
Loot, right, and that was just thirty years later, right
at time and half.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, and all you do is if you get the
right cars to dress up with the buildings, it's just
you know that they got the old model t looking cars.
Really was part of the overall aesthetics of the visual
James Komak, by the way, went on to produce a
show called Welcome Back Cotter. WHOA that's a big one. Yeah,

(41:55):
that's his show. So yeah, he was fin He stayed
in television, you know. Directing this episode wasn't the end
of his career. He went on to do several shows,
including the courtship of Eddie's father, Chico and the Man
and then Welcome Back Carver. So yeah, he's he did.
He did a pretty good job in this episode. Look

(42:16):
was it fun? I thought so? Was it? Was it interesting?
Like again, I liked it. They put a pimp hat
on Kirk, which was like, the feathery fedora is more
of a pimp hat. I thought. I didn't realize. You
see the material on that hat he has has more
of a texture of like a feathery kind of texture

(42:37):
to it. Yeah, and to me, that's more of a
pimp hat than it.

Speaker 1 (42:41):
Is, like, yeah, that's a good point, a mob.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Boss gangster hat. I think they used a little more
of the one.

Speaker 1 (42:47):
A little more felty.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Yeah, that's too felty.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
So I've got I've got one more nitpick for y'all,
And I hope you don't get mad at me for
this one. But I feel though doctor McCoy is not
taking his job seriously anymore because when they first arrive
on the planet and suddenly there's a drive by shooting

(43:12):
and a dude gets shot off in the corner. Yeah,
and Bones runs up to the living guy and he's
talking to Kirk along you. He runs up along with
Kirk and he's like, that man's dead over there, And
I'm like, how do you know he's dead? You just
saw a guy getting shot thirty feet away. He's thirty

(43:34):
feet away from you, for all you know. He could
a guy hitting the ankle and just dropped down. But
he's just like he's dead. I wanted Kirk to be like, well,
how do you know, bones, can you go check on you?

Speaker 2 (43:44):
Ah, he's dead whatever, I.

Speaker 1 (43:49):
Just forget it. I'm tired.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
Anyway, Yeah, I noticed that too. Actually, I was like,
I was like, what kind of doctor doesn't go and
at least try to administer some kind of help.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
When it's a main character or even a guest star,
they are all over it. When it's somebody with no name,
he's dead. Yeah, he's dead, he's he's man. He's oh yeah,
he's long dead. Chance. Anyway, speaking of dead, that joke
is dead and it is time for the home run
of today's episode. Walter's like, thank god, we're done with

(44:24):
that joke. So Rock who gets the home run of
today's episode?

Speaker 2 (44:30):
In your opinion, I actually think the home run belongs
to the mob boss Ox Mix, played by Anthony Carusso
he's the first boss that they met in this show,
and he was the one that was obviously that was
extended the offer to be the head boss by Kirk.

(44:53):
And I thought that he was really good as an
actor in this episode. I like him. He talked really
as equals to everybody. He was playing the pool and
being casual. He had authority in his performance. He looked
like somebody who could be in charge of other people.
I just liked his performance. So I think the Anthony Caruso,

(45:17):
who played ox Mix was my home run hitter for.

Speaker 1 (45:21):
This episode m H and his grandson played for the Lakers.
Maybe Alex Caruso. What about you, Walter, who gets the
home run of Today's episode?

Speaker 3 (45:32):
Well, you may not believe it because I expected nobody
to know who I was going to even talk about.
I know who he was, but you guys already spilled
the beans. I'd like the kid, yes, but the kid
was really good. It was just delightful and you know,

(45:54):
a good little actor, So that's my choice.

Speaker 1 (45:59):
Good, yeah, and cool dude. He came on to accept
the award for the Greatest Alien race in the History
of all Television. The home run of Today today's episode
for me, and by the way, Star Rock, we didn't
touch on this, but maybe we will on the other side.
Uh ox mix. I recognized his voice. He just had

(46:22):
this And I don't know if I recognize his voice
from something else he's done or just because it was
reminiscent of voices of that time period, you know what
I mean, Like whatever it was voiceover or cartoons or something.
But yeah, he had a really good, smooth sounding, pleasant
voice home run in today's episode. For me, I think

(46:42):
it's going to be the director actually, although I feel
like the kid maybe the one that really deserves it
the most for me, but I was just happy the
director came in. It's only done one episode. He gave
us great shots. I liked the lightings, I like the angles.
I liked the editing, except for in one instance that

(47:04):
was barely noticeable with some adr instance. But anyway, overall,
I was like, That's why I looked him up. I
was like, why doesn't this guy do more episodes for
Star Trek, you know something not Chicago Gangster. But he
did a good job. I thought. I thought he was great.
Uh Okay, here are some other people that I think
always do a great job and Sarak always thinks are great.

(47:27):
And their names are doctor An Marie Siegal, the Dentist,
Finder Eve England Out in Wales, You Vet Blackman, Tom
TJ Jackson bay Out Missouri, Titus Moeller, doctor Mohammed Nora
Neil oh Palatte, Joe Balserati, Mike Gou, doctor Stephanie Baker,
Carrie schwentt, Faith Howel, the Matt Boordman, Chris McGee, Jake Barrett,

(47:53):
Henry Hunger, Alison Leech Hide, Julie Menosfi, Jed Thompson, Susan V. Gruner,
Glenn Iverson, Dave Gregory, Chris Sternet, Greg k Wickster Mountain Hawaii,
Cassandra g chuck A, Chris Garris, and Walter's nemesis Jason

(48:15):
m Oakin. All right, everybody stick around. We will be
right back with the because he always has his hands
crossed and you say you are you having fun? Yeah,
I won't be right back with the miss Jason, You're

(48:36):
about to find out on the other side.

Speaker 3 (48:40):
Thrown in, you weren't really referring to anything specifically.

Speaker 2 (48:45):
Oh, I was, oh, yeah, yeah, where.

Speaker 1 (48:51):
We'll be right Well, I hope he's I hope he's
here today we will be right back on the Seventh
Rule where the suspense will end. Well, Hi, there, everybody,
Welcome back to the Seventh Rule with Sir Rock Loughton
and Walter Knig. It is time for the free for
All with Melissa Alungo. Hey, Walter's arch nemesis, Jason Nemokin

(49:16):
is here.

Speaker 3 (49:17):
What is it you want me to say?

Speaker 1 (49:23):
Alison leech Hide is here ready for us to fly.
Chuck a is a TNG fanatic, but he's seen some
Star Trek original series. I think the Dark Lord Chris
McGee is here wearing a cool Seventh Roull shirt made
by Melissa. And the map Boardman is here as well,

(49:44):
and he's cool, all right. Jake Cisco guesses the IMDb score.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Well, first, I'll say, Melissa, love your background.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
Ah, thanks lovely.

Speaker 2 (49:57):
Yeah, I'm gonna I say this is a fan favorite
because I've seen a lot of people cosplay and a
lot of people have talked about it. So I'm gonna
guess the rates higher eight point two?

Speaker 1 (50:19):
Wow? Uh, Walter, do you have a guess on IMDb
scale of one to ten?

Speaker 3 (50:28):
I'm sorry say that again?

Speaker 1 (50:30):
What one to ten scale of one to ten. What
do you think is the average score that the fans
gave this.

Speaker 3 (50:37):
Oh piece of the action. I have no idea, but
I'll take a guess.

Speaker 1 (51:00):
Seven point seven. Okay, that's the Sean Bradley guess. Uh?
Does anybody else have any guesses that doesn't already know?

Speaker 4 (51:11):
I'll go a little higher. Seven to nine?

Speaker 2 (51:15):
Eight? Wow?

Speaker 3 (51:16):
Seven?

Speaker 1 (51:16):
Three?

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Oh? Nobody here?

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Yeah, all bets are in, the answer is we've got
a ringer, everybody. Seven point seven.

Speaker 2 (51:42):
You're batting a thousand right now?

Speaker 1 (51:44):
Nice guess Walter, Uh, Chris McGee. Were there any some
kinds of or some sorts of not that I heard?
I didn't catch any non appearance mentions either, did anybody else?
All right, Melissa, will you please get a start off
on the right track by telling us what you thought

(52:05):
of this particular episode A piece of the action.

Speaker 5 (52:10):
You know, when I was watching this episode, a certain
songs kept popping into my head and it goes something
like this, But now.

Speaker 3 (52:20):
I'm blanking on it.

Speaker 6 (52:23):
I got the horse right here, his name Miss Paul Reverere.
And there's a guy that says, if the weather's clear.

Speaker 3 (52:31):
Can do can do?

Speaker 6 (52:35):
From guys and dolls and so I got a lot
of guys and dolls vibes from this episode, and it
was fun.

Speaker 5 (52:44):
It felt like everyone was having fun with the episode.
I liked the clothing, and I liked the way they
used the lingo and how this alien's society was trying
to figure out Chicago in the nineteen twenties and they.

Speaker 6 (53:01):
Were giving their own little flavor to it. It's kind
of like a little game of telephone, you know, where
you kind of.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
Get it right, but not quite get it right.

Speaker 7 (53:13):
So that was fun.

Speaker 6 (53:14):
And then I really liked Spock and Kirk in this
episode and the way they played off of each other.
It was really fun, especially with the car and how
Kirk was like, what are you afraid of car, Spuck,
and Spock's like, no, I'm afraid of your driving, which

(53:38):
was awesome. I'm glad that Kirk didn't know how to
drive a car, because that made it all the more believable.
I think the kid did great. Pretty much, everyone did
really well playing the truth of the scenes, even though
this was, you know, kind of an absurd comedy, so

(53:59):
it was it was fun.

Speaker 1 (54:01):
Yeah, fun, great stuff as always. Melisa p Longo, all right,
Jason m oaken is this your favorite season two episode
of Star Trek.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
Well, it's not my favorite, but it certainly is a
lot of fun. And that's one thing if you approach
it from that standpoint, it is really a lot here
to enjoy. You can actually see everybody's having fun here.
I mean at some level kind of after seeing some
of the memos that were exchanged when the episode was written.
It's amazing it even made it to the screen. Just
how difficult it was putting this together. And that's partly

(54:39):
I think why Gene Kuhn's name is actually on it,
because he rewrote the entire script.

Speaker 3 (54:45):
From what it was.

Speaker 4 (54:46):
But yeah, and again, this was this game at a
time when I believe Star Trek was picked up for
another eight episodes for the second season because they had
the initial order and this came in, so they needed
to turn around screw very very quickly, so they picked
this up. And even Gene roan Berry kind of I
guess it looks like greenlit this because apparently it was

(55:06):
not his style of track. It was a little too
funny for him, not as serious for him. So this
came toward the end I guess of Kuhn's tenure and
he's the one who championed this some degree because there
was some scathing men was coming back from Dorothy Fontana
and Bob Justman. They did not like the original idea.
They basically said that this it's not a comedy, it's

(55:27):
not a drama.

Speaker 3 (55:28):
What is this?

Speaker 4 (55:29):
There's no story here, And Gene Kuhn basically handed it
off to John Lucas and said, listen, I mean, this
is going to be a problem. It's going to have
to be rewritten. But he took that on and actually
wrote the first three acts from the first and then
finished the fourth one on request when he was in
New York. So it's kind of amazing this, you know,

(55:49):
this all of this game together again.

Speaker 3 (55:52):
It's a wonderful thing to watch.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
A lot of what's in this episode sort of caught
caught on certainly with the fans, and maybe even beyond that,
there's a lot of that's kind of going permeating through.
There's there's a piece of this that could have ended
up in Deep Space nine. And I'll say that for
things left unsaid.

Speaker 1 (56:09):
WHOA that is a good tease?

Speaker 3 (56:12):
What all right?

Speaker 2 (56:13):
All right?

Speaker 1 (56:14):
Please continue?

Speaker 4 (56:15):
But it's just uh, it's it's certainly a fun episode
to watch. Probably it has one of the largest amounts
of speaking parts you'll see on the original series. They
spend a hell of a lot of myne I mean,
I guess, you know, the costumes could have been pulled
from uh from from stores, so they had to make nothing,
so just basically got a bunch of double breasted suits.

(56:37):
They used the back lot and and I guess being
part of Paramount helped a little bit because they'd opened
it up to more back lots and more stages, so
they were able to do this. And I think, if
I'm not mistaken, uh, Matt Jeffries used to work on
the U was The Untouchable. It's one of the one
of the television series that had to do with I
guess the Gangster, so he was very familiar with I

(56:59):
guess said design for something like that, so it's easier
for him to design. So again, everything sort of fell
into place. And you know, one thing I found a
little disappointing is Walter, you started the episode and then
that was it for you. Just kind of odd that
they had you just say a couple of lines at
the front at the top of the episode and they
never came back I don't think they typically did this
because obviously they had to pay for for an appearance

(57:21):
and they didn't really use.

Speaker 3 (57:22):
You, so that that was a little disappointing for me.

Speaker 4 (57:25):
But other than that, again, the episode's a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
Great stuff. Thank you very much. Jason m Oakin. All right,
Allison Leech hide, let's fly? What do you think you know?

Speaker 8 (57:40):
It is a fun episode. It's not my favorite of tos,
but it is a lot of fun to watch and
everyone seems like they're having a great time. I really
enjoy Shatner in this because he's playing the laughs like
he's like, I'm here for a good time. I get
to wear a pinstripe suit and they put a fuzzy
fedora on my head, I'm going to go for it.

(58:03):
And I truly enjoyed the scene where he is on
the pool table talking to everyone, telling them what we're
doing and really getting into, you know, doing the whole
twenties gangster shtick. I thought it was so much fun.
And I do have to say her stole a scene

(58:24):
for me, and she like had like two lines, but
when she smiled when she caught on to what Kirk
was saying at the end before Scotty did that smile
on her face. I'm like, yet you got there before
he did.

Speaker 2 (58:39):
You know.

Speaker 8 (58:39):
I was enjoying all the one liners. I think my
favorite is, uh, what was it? They don't do nothing
till they're done sparkling. I'm like, it's true, they do
nothing until they finished sparkling, then they're allowed to move.
And I thought that was just fun. And the kid,
I have to agree with Melissa is like a joy

(59:01):
in that episode. He's so much fun. I want my daddy,
I want my daddy, like curse, like, oh wait, that's
me running down. So I thought it was a ton
of fun. And I like the idea of what happens
if we do leave something somewhere and what could happen
with it, And the power of you know, a book,

(59:22):
I think is really great. So I like that kind
of message about the episode.

Speaker 1 (59:30):
And we like the message that you left with this episode.
Thank you very much, Alison, we tied Chuck a is
the TOS fanatic. What'd you think of this one?

Speaker 2 (59:40):
Well?

Speaker 9 (59:40):
I always liked this episode one of the better Original
series episodes, especially in the second season. I wanted to
ask anybody if they wanted to play a game of
Fizzbin since I gotta start trying to get a Royal fizban.
But it's it's extremely difficult. Uh for a second, it's

(01:00:03):
just a Star Trek card set.

Speaker 1 (01:00:05):
Okay, pretty good though, see Walter there.

Speaker 9 (01:00:09):
Yeah, A couple of my favorite scenes in the episode
was this scene with Kracko on the on the transporter
there with Scottie about the concrete goloshes and I forget
how he phrased it, Scotty phrased it, but that was
a really enjoyable scene. And the as Alison meant Melissa

(01:00:34):
and Alison, I think they both mentioned about the driving
Kirk trying to drive the car and Spock didn't for
some reason, seemed to enjoy it. The kid, the kid
in the scene was also good. But I want my
Daddy and everything. I believe that kid was also in
the Andy Griffiths show, played one of Ron Howard's friends,

(01:00:57):
I'm pretty sure. And my very favorite scene, as I mentioned,
is the Fizzman and the Royal Fizman and you can't
you got to get a jack and a four on Tuesday.
Whatever the line was just he was making it up
as he went. It was really good. H the episode itself,

(01:01:18):
I thought was, like I said, one of the if
not top couple two or three of season two of TOS,
a really good, well done episode.

Speaker 1 (01:01:29):
Oh hi, praise, thank you very much, chuck A. All right,
the dark Lord is up next, Chris McGee, your.

Speaker 10 (01:01:38):
Thoughts, well, I thought the episode was okay.

Speaker 2 (01:01:42):
It was.

Speaker 10 (01:01:42):
It's definitely one of the more iconic episodes, mostly because
of the costumes and sets and such, and as others
have said, it's fun and the actors were clearly having
a great time. But overall, if he just feels a
little undercooked to me somehow, maybe because it leans too
heavily on the fish out of water comedic aspect and
a lot of the logic just goes right out the window.

(01:02:05):
But it is enjoyable if you don't think too deeply
about it while watching it. Probably my biggest nitpick is
that check off All only has one line in the episode.
It's the first line, sure, but still, And I'll save
any other nitpicks for things left unsaid. Clearly, it doesn't
take a historian or sociologist to tell you that a

(01:02:26):
society made up entirely of gangsters that are in a
constant state of war with each other wouldn't last long,
for most of his population died from all the hits.
But it does pose an interesting thought experiment. For example,
one could say that the Earth today is made up
of gangs. Each gang has their own territory known as
a country, and they often too often put out a

(01:02:50):
hit on.

Speaker 1 (01:02:51):
Each other, i e.

Speaker 10 (01:02:51):
Wage war. But we aren't in a constant state of war, however,
despite how it may often up heear, because at least
I think we've at least learned that there's usually more
to be gained by creating trade agreements and for the
most part, at least getting along with each other, at
least on the surface, rather than all the citizens living
in a constant state of fear. And that's what I

(01:03:14):
would expect from the I Oceans after some amount of time.
But I'll wager there might be more to be said
on this topic and things left unsaid, So I'll go
jump on to my memorable word of the episode, and
that is you might expect fisbin.

Speaker 1 (01:03:33):
All right, Thank you very much, Chris McGee. Up next.
You call her Crafty Bear. We call her Carrie Schwentt. Carrie,
what do you think of this one?

Speaker 7 (01:03:45):
It is it's delightful. I absolutely enjoyed every second of it.
I think it's become my second my one of my favorites,
my number one favorite being The Trouble with Troubles, but
this one is definitely a close second. I love everything
about the era of like the twenties to the forties,

(01:04:06):
the the suits, the vest, the fedoras. I mean, I
dressed for a theme whenever, whenever possible. You know, me
and Kirk and Spock looked fantastic in there. There's just
something about pin stripes. They look good on everybody. I'm
sad that Bones didn't get to put on put on
a pin stripe too, because I bet you could have

(01:04:27):
would have rocked it just just as just as easily.
Do you bet nobody else got to go got to
go down either, because I honestly would have loved to
have seen what kind of like flapper dress they might
have put on over she would She would have looked
adorable in a flapper style style dress, give her a
fun little jewelry, jewelry in her hair. I love down

(01:04:47):
to Abbey, so I can easily picture all the kinds
of dresses she would probably be wearing. Just absolutely historically
so many laugh out loud moments. There was one of
the guys that spock Deck pitches his eyes like pop
up pop out of his head. I rebounded a couple
of times just because it was so darn funny. Yeah,

(01:05:09):
Kirk creating the card game was fantastic. I'm I don't
do poker. I can never remember all the card combinations,
so I would absolutely be I will not be playing
playing you check in the game of frisband because I
definitely would not do very well at that. And like
everybody else watching Kirk Drive, I honestly related to it

(01:05:31):
because a former roommate, my ex and I had tried
at one point to teach me to drive stick shift
and after about an hour he declared me hopeless and
made me get out of the driver's seat. I lost
count of the number of times I stopped, stalled, stalled
that poor pickup trust Uh. Yeah, Kirk is absolutely fantastic

(01:05:53):
in the episode. I think it's probably my favorite episode
of of his just how much he's clearly enjoying himself.
I mean, as the episode progresses, he goes more and
more native, so he's like he's he starts talking more
like him In the accident starts, starts slipping, and he's

(01:06:14):
clearly enjoying himself every second. I loved him with the kid,
especially that whole scene with the kid was just he
was sweet with the kid. It was Yeah, it was fantastic.
And Spock sort of sort of chiming chiming in on
some of the like yeah that's.

Speaker 2 (01:06:31):
Yeah, that's correct.

Speaker 3 (01:06:32):
Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:06:33):
Spock was also absolutely laugh out loud funny. I didn't
enjoy the guest actors. I didn't recognize him necessarily from anything,
but my husband recognized the one of them as he
was on the show Alice. He was on like I
think most most of that of that series, so I
recognized his voice. I couldn't place it. It's possible I

(01:06:56):
heard it a lot growing up. I'm pretty sure my
grandmother used to use to watch all the ones from
that area, so probably somewhere in the back of my head,
that's probably why why I thought his voice sounded familiar.

Speaker 1 (01:07:08):
Yeah, stick.

Speaker 3 (01:07:11):
M Yeah.

Speaker 7 (01:07:13):
And I did have a little fun with the with
the haiku for this one, and it's through after the
the bit at the end, you know there the fence,
the fens are taken over, so it's it's from the
from the perspective of the of the new guy, the
guy that Kirk left in charge. Who is this wise guy?

(01:07:38):
His outfits taken over? They made me top boss.

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
I felt like there was gonna be one more line
coming in a dramatic pot. Yeah, you're right, Thank you
very much, Carrie went a k a crafty bear. The
Matt Boardman is the same way. He does two lines too.
What do you think of this one for his poem?

Speaker 10 (01:08:12):
I'm supposed to talk about that on air.

Speaker 1 (01:08:18):
Uh, you know what this is.

Speaker 11 (01:08:18):
It's a fun episode. This is a fun episode and
and but it made me think this time watching it.
You know, it's like, how interesting is it that that
this alien civilization took a book and completely pattern their
society around it. Right, but it's so incomplete. It's like
it's based on their understanding, their interpretation of this book.

(01:08:41):
But I thought was particularly hilarious as watching Bello Oxmen's
play pool play pool, you know, because he's just knocking
the balls around the pool table. I'm like you And
at first I was like, man, that guy's not even
playing pool, But then I was like, wait, that totally
makes sense. He's never he doesn't know what pool is
he's never he doesn't know what the rules are. And
then you know, and then the scene when they pull

(01:09:04):
uh Kurk, Spock and McCoy into the warehouse and the
guys are playing a card game, It's like, I'm watching.
So now I'm watching, right, I know they're not playing pool, right,
So what are they playing? What are they actually playing?
Are they playing goldfish? Are they trying to play some
sort of poke?

Speaker 2 (01:09:18):
I don't know.

Speaker 11 (01:09:19):
I don't understand. They don't know, they don't they don't
know what they're doing. They're just throwing money around, right.
So anyway, I just thought that that's a lot of
fun to see that that play out through all of this,
and you know, he knows how dirty the streets are,
and it's like, hey, when are they going to fix
the lights?

Speaker 2 (01:09:38):
I don't know.

Speaker 1 (01:09:39):
Send him a letter? I did, but he sent it
back postage due.

Speaker 11 (01:09:43):
And it's like, I don't know. That kind of stuff
just made me laugh and so I appreciate it for that,
the fun aspect of it. And also the book. Did
you guys I don't know I remembered this, but did
you guys know that the book shows up in Enterprise? Oh,
it's on Travis's shelf. He has the book The Chicago

(01:10:08):
Monsters of the Twenties on one of his shelves. Anyway, Yeah,
so anyway, so I don't know, fun episode. It's silly, sure,
but you know what, we need to laugh a little
bit right Just what I'm saying by a piece of
the action, I'm talking about a little bit of a laughter.

Speaker 1 (01:10:23):
Of the action. Great stuff, Thank you very much, the
Matt boardman. That's why we put the article in front
of his name. All right, Jake's final take sorak any
final thoughts on this episode.

Speaker 2 (01:10:42):
Yeah, when Kirk was first explaining Fizbin, he says, the
guy says, oh, so I want another Jack, And he says, no,
you don't want another Jack, and then he gets another
Jack I know, and the guy, like, if he was
even half listening, would have been like, Yeah, what's going
on here this? You just told me I don't need it.

(01:11:03):
That's not what I want. Now you're celebrating that I
got it, So that would have I mean, these intelligent
people couldn't put that together. And I was like, you
guys are not really the most intelligent. I was also
wondering they also seem to have been playing with money,
and I was like, did they print up bills with
our presidents faces on them? As well? Like that, I

(01:11:28):
was looking at the money and I'm like that, you
know where is the money coming from too as well?
So I couldn't get around that as well. I don't know.
I would like to see a callback to this episode.
This would have been great to revisit to see how
they would have evolved by dissecting McCoy's transport transponder, right,

(01:11:53):
I think he said he left it behind at the end,
So this would have been an easy callback episode. You know,
fifty years and now now you see them all pretending
to be like Kirk and Spock, No, a bunch of
they would pretend to be part of the Federation and
so they would be wearing those outfits and walking around

(01:12:14):
with phasers, and that would have that would be their copy,
I guess of that particular, I would have liked to
see that. One of my favorite lines was when he
said the most cooperating man is a dead man, and
I was just trying to think about is that really
cooperating or not so? And then lastly, I'll say this

(01:12:41):
was hilarious when Kirk's breaking out of the jail that
they put him into. He used a trip wire at
the door to trip the guy and then he used
a blanket to put over his head and spin him
around three times, like you're playing that game when you're
drunk and I and I thought like, who, like, how

(01:13:04):
can you knock somebody out with a spinner round move
and then punch him in his stomach? The guy was
completely incapacitated with a blanket on his head. I'm like,
that's not going to be enough for even a five
year old, let alone an adult. So so I was
I was laughing a little bit on that one, but

(01:13:26):
like overall it made me laugh. It was it was fun.
I guess you know, everybody keeps saying fun, so you know,
I had fun. It was fun. Was it science fiction?
Get a little bit, very little bit, and you know,
they could have uped that up a little bit. I,

(01:13:46):
for example, would have liked them to have beamed the
two gangsters aboard the ship and actually had a diplomatic
meeting with the two heads on board the enterprise. I
would have liked to see that you already beamed one
of them off of the planet's surface and brought them
on board the ship might as well bring the other

(01:14:06):
mob boss and have a meeting down with the two
leaders and make them actually talk things out. So I
don't know. I was expecting a little bit more different results.
So yeah, it's my fun thing.

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
That was fun, Walter. Do you have any final thoughts
in this episode before we go? It's like a wrap
up of the gangsters or throw calls that the gangster rap?
What do you think?

Speaker 3 (01:14:37):
I think we've pretty well covered it. I think I
think it's a mistake to desperately find logic in this show.
I think it should be taken as tongue in cheek
that that ultimately is what they were going for and

(01:14:58):
h and just to enjoy it for what it was.
Does and go down in my book, has showed that
I thought was extraordinary, authentic science fiction, great science. I
just thought it was fun. Take it for what it was,

(01:15:21):
and let's go on to another episode where we really
get involved, we really feel for those characters.

Speaker 1 (01:15:32):
Great stuff, Walter. You're getting a lot of compliments in
our zoom chat about your attire and well deserved. That's
it for us today, everybody. Thank you so much to
the map boardman Carrie Schwentt, Chris McGee, Chuck A Allison
leech Hide, Jason m Oakin, Melissa Longo for myself, Sirok Walter,

(01:15:53):
Melissa and of course Aaron Eisenberg. Thank you all very
much for partying with us. We hope to see you
next time, and until then, always remember the seventh Rule

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Gangsters | With with Walter Koenig | TOS 2.17, "A Piece of the Action" | T7R #374

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Gangsters | With with Walter Koenig | TOS 2.17, "A Piece of the Action" | T7R #374