A Piece of the Action

"A Piece of the Action" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series first broadcast on January 12, 1968. It is episode #49, written by David P. Harmon and Gene L. Coon, and directed by James Komack .

Quick Overview: The Enterprise visits a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture.

On stardate 4598.0, the starship USS Enterprise, under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, is exploring space near Sigma Iotia II, where the USS Horizon was reported missing nearly 100 years earlier. Upon reaching orbit, the ship receives a message from Bela Oxmyx, who invites the command crew down for a welcoming party.

Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy are concerned with interfering with the inhabitants, who are reported to be an pre-nuclear industrialized culture. Kirk suggests that if any cultural contamination had occurred it started with the Horizon's visit, since the Prime Directive was not yet established at that time.

The three beam down in the middle of a busy city street, which resembles Earth's 1920s era. Most of the people around them seem to be armed with a tommy guns. Two men approach holding the party at gunpoint and order them to remove their weapons and communicators. The men lead them to meet Oxmyx, but as they walk, a car drives by and opens fire, killing one of the men. The other thug, Kalo, fires back as the car drives off, and then orders the landing party to continue as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

The group finally meets with Oxmyx, and Kalo informs him of the drive-by shooting. Oxmyx then orders his men to make a retaliatory hit on the rival gangster Jojo Krako. Spock finds a curious book lying on a pool table entitled Chicago Mobs of the Twenties, which was left behind by the crew of the Horizon (and is now viewed as a holy relic, regarded by the Iotians with religious reverence). It seems to be the source of the "contamination" around which the local inhabitants have built an entire culture.

Oxmyx gets to the point of summoning Kirk, demanding that Kirk supply him with their advanced phaser weapons, which he refers to as "heaters". Kirk refuses, so Oxmyx threatens to kill them in eight hours if Kirk doesn't come clean with the goods. The landing team is led away, and Oxmyx picks up a communicator and calls the Enterprise. A confused Mr. Scott hears Oxmyx's explanation of what will happen to the Captain if he doesn't comply.

Meanwhile, Kirk buts in on a game of poker, that Oxmyx's thugs are playing. He asks if they would like to be introduced to a new card game, and then explains a very confusing version he calls "Fizzbin", actually making up the rules as he goes along. While the guards are being distracted, Spock and McCoy sneak up from behind and overpower them.

Kirk orders Spock and McCoy to make their way to the local radio station and try to send a message to the Enterprise, in the meantime he will go after Oxmyx. Spock and McCoy manage to get a message through and return to the ship, Kirk however, is captured by Jojo Krako's men. Krako offers Kirk the same deal as Oxmyx, he wants phasers, but he adds that he will cut Kirk in on a "third of the action". Kirk tries to offer a peaceful solution, which annoys Krako, and has Kirk locked up until he changes his mind.

Back aboard the Enterprise, Spock and McCoy try to figure out how to free the Captain, but then Oymyx contacts them and offers assistance in rescuing Kirk. Seeing no other alternative, Spock agrees and he and McCoy return to the planet only to be captured by Oxmyx again. Meanwhile, Kirk manages to find his own escape, and heads to the main room where Spock and McCoy are being held. Kirk surprises the guards and subdues them, obtaining their weapons and their clothes. Kirk and Spock then disguise themselves as the gangsters and head back to Krako's.

They ask a newspaper boy to point out the location of Krako's headquarters. Upon entering, they find the rival gangster and hold him and his men at gunpoint. Kirk announces that the Federation is taking over this town. If Krako helps, they'll cut him in on a percentage of the action. Kirk informs him that they want one man to lead the Iotian people, with the Federation "pulling the strings". Krako agrees.

Kirk and Spock then set out to find Oxmyx and make the same demands. Oxmyx also agrees to a change in leadership and helps round up all the gang bosses to his office by calling each one and the Enterprise transports them to his office as they pick up. Kirk tells them all that they are going to combine in a single operation with the Federation taking a forty percent cut.

Krako's men then attack the building, but they are stunned from orbit by the Enterprise's phasers. Witnessing this show of force, the mob bosses are at Kirk's mercy. With their full attention, Kirk arranges for Oxmyx to be the "top boss" with Krako as his "first lieutenant". He says that the Federation will stop by once every year to collect their "piece of the action".

After returning to the Enterprise, Spock is curious to know how Kirk plans to explain to Starfleet why a ship will need to be sent to Sigma Iotia II every year to collect the Federation's "cut". Kirk proposes using the funds to finance the necessary projects to reorient the planet's society to a civil manner. McCoy admits that he has forgotten his communicator down in Oxmyx's office. Kirk jokes that in a few years, the Iotians may figure out the piece of Federation technology, and then they may be demanding a piece of "our" action.

External Links