“Friday’s Child”

Stardate: 3497.2-3499.1
Episode: 32
Original US Airdate: 1 December 1967

Monday's child is fair of face,
Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child works hard for a living,
And the child that is born on the Sabbath day
Is bonny and blithe and good and gay.

In this serious yet playful installment of Trek, the Enterprise encounters another "strange new world" (along with babies and Klingons); and a memorable McCoy-ism is born ("I'm a doctor, not an escalator!")

Summary

The Enterprise is sent to Capella IV to negotiate a mining agreement with the planet's warlike natives. When the landing party arrives on Capella, they find a Klingon agent, Kras, already there. The elderly leader (Teer) of the Capellans, Akaar, favors the Federation, but he is deposed and killed by a group of younger Capellans (led by Maab) who favor the Klingons.

Kirk, Spock and McCoy escape into the hills with the Teer's pregnant widow, Eleen. While McCoy tends to his reluctant patient (she hates her unborn child, slaps McCoy twice, and only allows McCoy to touch her after he lands a right cross), Kirk and Spock use their communicators to set up an avalanche to block the Capellans tracking them and fashion homemade bows and arrows. McCoy delivers Eleen's baby, but Eleen knocks her obstetrician out with a rock and escapes, giving herself up to Maab and the other Capellans. Kras then turns on his allies, killing Maab and several other Capellans before Maab's lieutenant can kill him.

Scott and a landing party arrive from the Enterprise (they had been kept busy by a Klingon warship), while Eleen is reunited with her son. The baby, Leonard James Akaar, becomes the new Teer, and Eleen (acting as his regent) signs the mining treaty with the Federation.

Quotable Quotes

Kirk: "If there's a Klingon ship somewhere—"
Akaar: "The sky does not interest me."

McCoy (referring to Eleen's burned arm): "Captain, I'm going to fix that woman's arm. They can only kill me once for touching her."

Sulu: "At best, a freighter might travel warp 2."
Scott (annoyed): "I'm well aware of a freighter's maximum speed, Mr. Sulu."

McCoy (to Eleen): "You may be a Capellan woman and the widow of a High Teer, but I'm a doctor, and it is my tradition to care for the sick and injured!"

Kirk: "How did you arrange to touch her, Bones, give her a happy pill?"
McCoy: "No, a right cross."
Kirk: "Never seen that in a medical book."
McCoy: "It's in mine from now on."

Eleen (in labor): "Here, child belongs to husband."
McCoy (sarcastically): "So they take all the credit here."

McCoy: "Say to yourself 'The child is mine, the child is mine, it is mine!'"
Eleen (wearily): "Yes, it's yours"

which leads to…

Eleen (after the baby is born): "McCoy! Bring our child."
Kirk: "Our child?"
McCoy: "I'll explain later."
Spock: "That should prove very interesting."

Scott: "There's an old, old saying on Earth, Mr. Sulu: 'Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.'"
Chekov: "I know this saying; it was invented in Russia."

Spock (after Eleen escapes): "She'll head straight for the warriors."
McCoy: "I'll go with you."
Kirk: "Bones, you took a medical oath long before you signed aboard my ship. That small patient in there needs you."

Eleen (to Kras): "Do you doubt my word, Klingon? I'm the wife of a Teer. I will die in my own tent."

Kirk: "The cavalry doesn't come over the hill in the nick of time anymore."
Spock: "If by that you mean we can't expect help from the Enterprise, I must agree.

Spock (after hearing McCoy's baby talk): "'Oochy-woochy-kootchie-koo', Captain?"
Kirk: "An obscure Earth dialect, Mr. Spock…If you're curious, consult Linguistics."

Spock: "[This should prove interesting] when the woman starts explaining how the new High Teer is actually Dr. McCoy's child."
Scott: "What's that again, Mr. Spock?"
Kirk: "We don't actually understand it ourselves, Mr. Scott."
Spock: "Nor does Dr. McCoy."

McCoy: "'Representing the High Teer, Leonard James Akaar'…Has a kind of a ring to it, don't you think, James?"
Kirk: "Yes, I think it's a name destined to go down in galactic history, Leonard. What do you think, Spock?"
Spock: "I think you're both going to be insufferably pleased with yourselves for at least a month…sir."

Trivia

In Dr. McCoy's "home movies" of his two-month posting on Capella IV, his uniform bears the Enterprise Sciences insignia; presumably his stay on Capella predated his assignment to the Enterprise.

Kras' name is only mentioned in the show's end credits; every character refers to him as either "Klingon" or "the Klingon."

Observations

Like the first-season episode "Errand of Mercy", the primitive protagonists of "Friday's Child" face a choice between the Federation and the Klingons. (Of course, the Organians of "Errand of Mercy" weren't really primitive.)

At the beginning of "Friday's Child", Maab seems unsympathetic (siding with the Klingons against the Federation), but in the end he proves himself more honorable than his weasely "ally", Kras.

It's unclear what would have happened if "the cavalry" (Scotty and company) hadn't shown up—would Kirk and the landing party have been taken prisoner by the Capellans?

Irony: Kirk's touching Eleen was a gross breach of decorum (and a capital offense), but it was OK for Maab to try to stab Eleen.

Video Captures

(From the "Friday's Child" DVD; click thumbnail to see full-sized picture)

Scene from McCoy's "home movies" of Capella IV	Maab and Kras	Title Screen	Capellan hospitality	After Kirk turns down the chance for combat
Kirk and company meet Teer Akaar	Akaar and Eleen	Kirk fights a Capellan	Akaar under attack	Kirk and Kras
"I begin to like you, Earth man."	Eleen burns her arm	Kirk prevents Maab from stabbing Eleen	Kirk cornered by Capellans	The landing party discuss the situation
Kirk and Spock attack their guards	Kirk convinces Eleen to accompany them	Maab and an impatient Kras	The landing party and Eleen in the Capellan hills	"Nice place to get trapped in."
McCoy finally gets to treat Eleen's arm	McCoy applies a right cross to his patient	Avalanche via communicator	"I'm a doctor, not an escalator!"	The party finds shelter in a cave
Kirk and Spock at work making bows and arrows	Eleen's baby	How not to hold a baby	Eleen prepares to knock out McCoy	"I guess I'll forget psychiatry…"
"I killed them as they slept."	"The cavalry" arrives after all	"Oochy-woochy kootchie-koo"	Back on board the Enterprise	Kras kredit

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