Day of the Dove
- FIRST SHOWN (US)
- 1 November 1968
- ON
- NBC
- STARDATE
- None given
- DIRECTED BY
- Marvin Chomsky
- PRODUCTION NO.
- 66
WRITTEN BYWritten by Jerome Bixby
Klingons and the Enterprise crew are trapped together aboard the ship, and their old hatred boils over. But something unseen seems to be keeping the fight going.
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Answering a distress call from a human colony, Kirk and Chekov find no settlement, only a Klingon landing party. Their commander Kang accuses the Enterprise of crippling his ship, and Kirk outwits him, beaming the Klingons aboard as prisoners. But an energy being has slipped aboard too. It traps most of the crew below decks, leaving 38 humans to face 38 Klingons, arms both sides with swords and feeds on their hatred. It plants false memories to keep the fury burning, convincing Chekov that Klingons murdered a brother he never had. Spock detects the creature and realises that it is manipulating everyone. With Kang's wife Mara, the Klingon science officer, Kirk and Spock reach Kang, and after a sword fight Kirk persuades him that the endless war only serves the entity. The two commanders order their crews to lay down arms and laugh together, and the starving creature leaves the ship.
- 01Jerome Bixby's script was written for Kor, but John Colicos was unavailable, so the new character Kang was created.
- 02Michael Ansara later returned as Kang in Deep Space Nine's “Blood Oath” and Voyager's “Flashback”.
- 03Susan Howard's Mara is the first Klingon woman seen on screen in Star Trek.