"A Piece of the Action" is a second season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series first broadcast on January 12, 1968. It was repeated on August 30, 1968, the last episode to air in the 8:30pm time slot on Friday nights. It is episode #49, written by David P. Harmon and Gene L. Coon, and directed by James Komack. The starship Enterprise as it appeared on Star Trek Star Trek is a culturally significant science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s. ... January 12 is the 12th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... August 30 is the 242nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (243rd in leap years), with 123 days remaining. ... 1968 was a leap year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1968 calendar). ... Friday is the day of the week between Thursday and Saturday. ... Gene L. Coon (7 January 1924-8 July 1973) was an American screenwriter and television producer. ...

Quick Overview: The Enterprise visits a planet with an Earth-like 1920s gangster culture. The starship Enterprise (NX-01). ... Earth, also known as the Earth, Terra, and (mostly in the 19th century) Tellus, is the third planet outward from the Sun. ... Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly...

Kirk and Spock face off with mobsters in A Piece of the Action.

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. Image from Star Trek: The Original Series episode A Piece of the Action © 1968 Paramount Pictures, produced by Gene Roddenberry. ... Stardate is the dating convention used in the fictional Star Trek universe. ... This article is about the vehicle for interstellar travel. ... James Tiberius Kirk, a fictional character in the Star Trek television series, was the captain of the Starship Enterprise (NCC-1701 and NCC-1701-A). ...

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. Mr. ... Dr. Leonard H. McCoy Leonard Horatio McCoy, M.D., nicknamed Bones, is a fictional character in the fictional Star Trek universe, played by the late DeForest Kelley (January 20, 1920 - June 11, 1999). ... In the Star Trek fictional universe, the Prime Directive, Starfleets General Order #1, is the most prominent guiding principle of the United Federation of Planets. ...

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 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. Sometimes referred to as the Jazz Age or primarily in North America as the Roaring Twenties. // Events and trends Technology John T. Thompson invents Thompson submachine gun, also known as Tommy gun John Logie Baird invents the first working television system (1925) Charles Lindbergh becomes the first person to fly... The Thompson submachine gun, also known as the Tommy gun, was an American submachine gun (SMG) that became infamous during the Prohibition era. ...

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. The Star Trek fictional universe contains a very large number of weapons. ... Montgomery Scott, usually known as Scotty, is a character in Star Trek: The Original Series, played by James Doohan. ...

Meanwhile, Kirk butts 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. The poker room at the Trump Taj Mahal, Atlantic City, NJ. Poker is a card game, the most popular of a class of games called vying games, in which players with fully or partially concealed cards make wagers into a central pot, after which the pot is awarded to the... Fizzbin is a fictional playing-card game created by Captain James T. Kirk in the Star Trek: The Original Series episode A Piece of the Action. The game was invented while Kirk and Spock were being held hostage on Sigma Lotia II. Kirk spontaneously created a confusing card game to...

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 will 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. In the fictional Star Trek universe, the United Federation of Planets is a federation of more than 150 member planets and thousands of colonies, based in the Alpha and Beta Quadrants of the Milky Way galaxy. ...

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. Starfleet Command In the Star Trek fictional universe, Starfleet is the defense, research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets. ...

Trivia

Author David Gerrold once wrote a sequel to this episode for possible use on Star Trek: The Next Generation (but which was never actually filmed). In this episode, Captain Jean-Luc Picard and the crew of the Enterprise-D visited Iotia, and found it a greatly changed world - due to Dr. McCoy leaving behind his communicator, Iotian society has transformed into a duplicate of Starfleet as it was in Kirk's era! Everyone wears Starfleet uniforms, communications are on Starfleet frequencies, and the technology is identical to that shown in the original Star Trek series. Picard and crew are subsequently arrested and tried for being "anti-Kirk", owing to the Iotians' tendency to attach religious significance to outside influence on their culture. David Gerrold, original name Jerrold David Friedman (born January 24, 1944), is a science fiction author who started his career in 1967 as a college student by selling an unsolicited script for the television series Star Trek. ... The title as it appeared in most episodes opening credits. ... Jean-Luc Picard is a character in the Star Trek fictional universe, the captain of the USS Enterprise-D and the USS Enterprise-E. He was played by British actor Patrick Stewart in the television series Star Trek: The Next Generation and resulting films. ... USS Enterprise NCC-1701-D The USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D) (commissioned 2363) is the name of the Galaxy class Federation starship that is the principal setting of the series Star Trek: The Next Generation and the film Star Trek: Generations. ... Starfleet Command In the Star Trek fictional universe, Starfleet is the defense, research, diplomacy, and exploration force of the United Federation of Planets. ... The Enterprise boldly going where no man had gone before. ...

External Links

• A Piece of the Action article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki