1x16 The Galileo Seven

8.1/10. I’m rating this one so highly because it leans into the side of the Star Trek franchise I like – the side that uses science fiction stories as thought experiments to probe things like moral philosophy and human nature, with a bit of character examination as well. Putting Spock in charge of what amounts to a classic “lifeboat problem” and exploring his logical bent in this sort of crisis works for a compelling episode that raises interesting moral issues and develops Spock to boot.

But the reason this one isn’t rated higher is two-fold. The first is the corniness of the threat. The big hairy ape creature, seemingly ripped from a third grade play about Bigfoot, could only provoke laughter rather than terror for me. I feel bad slagging Star Trek for this. It was the 1960s, and the budget for sci-fi on TV was meager. Regardless of good intentions, however, it’s hard to take the ineffectually thrown spears and Captain Caveman look of the “beasts” pursuing our heroes seriously. That’s not necessarily the show’s fault, but it hurts the project nonetheless.

The second is that a lot of the dialogue is just godawful. When Lt. Boma described Spock as not having his head made properly and Bones responded, “Not his head – it’s his heart…his heart,” I think I nearly died from eye-rolling. At the same time, characters ranting about Spock and his “precious logic” is the kind of overwrought nonsense that would soon become the stuff of Star Trek spoofs. “Galileo Seven” is not a subtle episode, and the dialogue in the biggest culprit on that front.

The other side of the coin is that while those key elements are lacking, the core of the episode is strong. As Bones heavily underlines, this misadventure essentially becomes Spock’s first command, and seeing him fully in charge, not beholden to Captain Kirk and allowed to let his purely logical approach go forward is a treat, because it alters the usual format for these things on the show. Typically, we see Bones arguing for one thing, Spock arguing for another, and Kirk ultimately making the decision. Here, it’s just Spock with a cacophony of voices (including Bones’s) which leads to a novel dynamic.

I have to admit, as something of a utilitarian myself, I was unexpectedly sympathetic to Spock trying to do his best to save the most lives, even if it meant making some hard choices, while the rest of the crewmembers critiqued him for his lack of humanity. The crew, including Bones, saw Spock as making cold, sometimes cruel decisions as commander, while Spock, unperturbed as always, viewed himself as trying to do the most good. The show has hit this sort of conflict in philosophies previously, with a number of those logic vs. emotion debates with Kirk, but the situation presented makes it more vivid and vital.

What’s particularly noteworthy is the complexity with which the episode depicts Spock here. Despite his staid demeanor and pure consequentialist philosophy, he is not, contrary to Boma and Bones’s accusations, heartless. Contrary to his crew’s votes, he is loath to kill the attacking creatures when scaring them away might do, even disdaining his compatriot “earth men” for their lack of appreciation of the sanctity of life. When a member of the crew goes missing, Spock gives up his own phaser and goes after him himself. And when Spock gets trapped under a rock, he bids his charges to leave him behind to save themselves. Spock may be unsentimental, with little interest in a proper burial when time is of the essence, but he is not harsh, malicious, or selfish, genuinely believing in trying to save the greatest number of lives he can.

And yet, the episode doesn’t treat him as flawless either. Again, the dialogue does “Galileo Seven” no favors on delivering this point with Bones’s raving about “you didn’t consider emotion!” but the episode does a nice job at showing that for all the effectiveness of Spock’s logic, he has a certain myopia that can hurt him as a commander. He misjudges the response of the primitive beasts attacking because he can’t get out of his own logical mindset to predict how a more atavistic creature would respond irrationally to such a provocation. There’s a sense that despite how strong Spock’s way of thinking is to get his mates out of a jam, there are factors he doesn’t account for well because they don’t come naturally to him.

That syncs up nicely with the B-story, where Kirk is on the enterprise, fending off a “Grand Commissioner” (why do all the higher ups in Starfleet end up being evil or jerks?) while searching frantically for Spock. It’s an interesting contrast, with Spock trying every rational option to save his crewmates on the planet, and Kirk being somewhat emotional by pursuing this “needle in a haystack” to rescue his friends. The episode doesn’t belabor it, and it doesn’t fit perfectly, but it’s an interesting parallel.

If anything, I wish we got some more time to explore the moral dilemma back on the enterprise. The emergency medical supplies needed for another world mostly serve as yet another ticking clock to increase the sense of urgency, but they actually make for a striking though experiment of their own. I imagine Spock himself would chastise the Captain for making unnecessary delays to save a few people when the medical supplies he’s carrying could save hundreds. And the fact that men died in the search parties Kirk sent out to find Spock & Co. calls to mind the recent controversies involving Bowe Bergdahl. The business on the Enterprise feels mostly thrown in for added drama, but there’s thematic relevance to it as well that the episode only scratches the surface of.

Still, it makes for a thrilling ending, where after Scotty has jerry-rigged the shuttle using the hand-phasers, Spock has one last saving throw to get the Enterprise to notice them, essentially lighting up a flare in space. “Galileo Seven” teases out the suspense a little longer than I might like, but it ratchets up the tension nicely. It throws in a great exchange at the end. (Spock: “I may have been mistaken.” Bones: “Well at least I lived long enough to hear that.”) And while I don’t know how I feel about the characterization that it took an “emotional act” for Spock to save the day, (it seems like a logical if desperate move to make under the circumstances) the ending with everyone giving him a hard time and laughing about it is a lot of fun.

In the end, this is an episode that’s first and foremost about who Spock is. He is, at times, the coldly logical automaton his greatest detractors accuse him of being. But he is also the incredibly determined, fiercely loyal, creative thinker who is interested, above all, in preserving not only the lives of his crewmen, but all life. There is a heart beating within his chest. It may, to Bones’s chagrin, be pumping green blood, but it still drives Spock’s choices in important ways, and shows that however unorthodox his style seems to his crewmen, when a crisis hits and life and death hang in the balance, he may be the exact person you’d want in command.