Friday's Child
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 1 December 1967
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- 3497.2
- DIRECTED BY
- Joseph Pevney
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 32
WRITTEN BYWritten by D.C. Fontana
Kirk, Spock and McCoy beam down to secure a mining treaty with a proud warrior people, only to find a Klingon already there with the same idea.
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSIS
The Enterprise visits Capella IV to negotiate rights to the planet's topaline. The Capellans are proud, fierce and quick to kill, prizing strength and scorning medicine. Kirk, Spock and McCoy arrive to find a Klingon, Kras, already courting them. When the ambitious Maab seizes power and kills the ruler, Akaar, custom demands the death of Akaar's pregnant widow, Eleen. Kirk intervenes, and the three officers flee into the hills with her. Despite a Capellan taboo against touching her, McCoy helps deliver her baby. Meanwhile the Enterprise is lured away by a fake distress call. Eleen slips back to Maab and claims she has killed the Earthmen, but Kras, armed with a stolen Federation phaser, makes his move. Maab sacrifices himself to expose Kras, who is then killed. Eleen becomes regent for her son, names him Leonard James Akaar in honour of McCoy and Kirk, and grants the mining agreement to the Federation.
- 01The title comes from a traditional children's rhyme that gives each day of birth a trait, in which Friday's child is full of woe.
- 02The Capellan scenes were filmed at Vasquez Rocks in temperatures above 110 degrees Fahrenheit, a trial for actors in heavy costumes.
- 03D.C. Fontana wanted a story about a strong woman who did not necessarily want children. The Klingons were added to her original idea.