2x17 A Piece of the Action

[7.6/10] I’ve been pretty down on William Shatner’s acting, and in my defense I’d say those criticisms are deserved. I’ll admit, there’s a halting, stage-y quality to Shatner’s usual style that isn’t my cup of tea, but is a perfectly legitimate choice as an actor, particularly for the time. But often times Shatner is supposed to play dramatic, or romantic, or tortured, and his over-the-top or hammy qualities weaken what could otherwise be compelling character beats. For someone like me, weaned on the layered dignity of Patrick Stewart’s Jean Luc Picard, it’s easy to wonder if Shatner wasn’t quite up for the challenges of the role.

But then you get to a lighter episode like “A Piece of the Action,” one where Shatner gets to be more of a comic lead, play Shatner as more of a roguish confidence man willing to have a laugh than the smug, often condescending manly man captain he normally portrays, and you see not only what he can bring to the role of James T. Kirk, but his tongue-in-cheek comedy chops that he would lean into later in his career. I rarely buy Kirk as a great strategist, and I’m even less apt to buy him as a casanova, but here, where he’s someone quick on his feet and ready to have a little fun with his quarry, and Shatner is a revelation as the good captain.

Don’t get me wrong, “A Piece of the Action” is a deeply stupid episode of Star Trek. The entire premise is pretty ridiculous, with a “bright but imitative people” on an alien planet getting their hands on a history of gangsters in 1920s Chicago a century ago and basing their whole society on it. Despite having vastly superior technology, our heroes legitimately get kidnapped or cornered over and over again. And it strains credulity that we’ve run into yet another set of humanoid aliens who just so happen to live in what looks like the standard city set from the Paramount Pictures backlot, without even the decency of a weird forehead attachment to distinguish them from our Earthmen.

But by god, it’s a hell of a lot of fun. That’s essentially what I want from Star Trek’s more off the wall episodes. I don’t mind the kooky sci-fi premises (and sometimes they’re where Trek becomes the most poignant and affecting), but if you’re going to find duplicate Earths or wacky settings that basically put our heroes in some loony scenario, then at least have fun with it.

That’s the tack “A Piece of the Action” takes, and it’s all the better for it. While some of the old gangster tropes can get tiresome after a while, the Enterprise crew’s incredulity at what they’re seeing and hearing makes for comic gold every time. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again -- Spock being puzzled at slang and idioms will never not be funny. (And Scotty getting mixed up with concrete golashes/cement overshoes terminology is a solid laugh in a similar vein.)

This is an episode where Star Trek isn’t afraid to get silly. When Kirk jumped into a 1920s beater, I expected him to drive away no problem, due to those magical rules of television where the protagonists simply have whatever skills they need in the moment, no matter how improbable, because anything less would require the writers to think up a more clever way out of the situation. Instead, Kirk is, hilariously enough, a terrible driver, with scenes of him and Spock piecing together how the car works, sputtering and rolling off in the wrong direction turning what could have been a mundane escape into a brilliant comic moment.
Star Trek revels in the playacting vibe of the episode. It’s total cheese, but it’s still a hoot to see Kirk and Spock dressed up like gangsters from the twenties, tommy guns and all. It’s amusing to have the locals wonder about Spock’s ears. It’s neat to see Captain Kirk presiding over a meeting of the major “bosses” of this planet.

That’s a good thing, because the plot of the episode barely holds together. Even apart from the premise, the fact that the gangsters pose any sort of threat whatsoever to our heroes, nevermind how many times they get the upper hand on Kirk, Spock, or Bones, seems unlikely at best. But this isn’t an episode that runs on plot, it’s an episode that runs on charm, and it has that in spades.

“A Piece of the Action” is basically a mini-caper film. It’s more about Kirk and company getting into scrapes, finding a way out of them, and cracking a few jokes along the way before stumbling into the next one that it’s really interested in how this society developed or how Kirk can get the bosses to unite and work together. That’s not a knock -- it gives the episode an effervescent energy that sustains it and makes it entertaining throughout.

For once, the fulcrum of that is Shatner, who gives what may be his funniest, most believable, and all around best performance as Captain Kirk here. The sequence with his intentionally confusing, made up card game against one of the goons shows off his rapid fire comic chops. He takes to using a 1920s Chicago accent and throwing around old slang like a fish to water, managing to convey that both Kirk and Shatner are having the time of their lives with this.

And most importantly, he’s believable as a conman type, who knows how to speak a language that these gangsters will listen to, blustering and bluffing just enough amid his phaser fire and use of “heaters” to get them to fall in line. For once, you see the much ballyhooed improvisational skills of Kirk put to good use in a way that relies on his natural charisma and comedic bent rather than reversing the polarity or paradoxing the robot or romancing his latest distaff counterpart.

Not every actor has a great range, but most can be used in ways that make the most of their talents. Shatner isn’t always as regal or debonair or troubled as Kirk as the script seems to want him to be much of the time. But when it calls on him to be funny, a little self-aware, and to go into a more plainly funny episode with glee and gusto, it’s clear that Star Trek cast the right man for the job.

Another planet that looks like Earth? Again? How often will they do this in this show? This is perhaps the most memorable of these episodes yet, though. It's at least not exactly like 1960's California - a setting usually motivated purely by budget constraints. It resembles more Al Capone's Chicago. It's at least memorable and quite interesting to observe how the shore party adapts to that alien (and yet astonishingly Earth-like) society. TNG's The big Goodbye strikes a very similar tone and Data mirrors Spock's outfit almost perfectly. I'm a bit disappointed that this episode doesn't really discuss the philosophical core of this episode: how can one book change a society? It's like this book is their Bible or Koran. Even if this assumption about its importance is correct, I don't really understand how to deduce so many (possibly partly fictional) details about 1930's American society from just one book. Down to the accent and idioms. Presumably, it contaminated a whole planet's society. That's when Star Trek usually discusses the first directive or similar morale laws. Admittedly there's some talk about restoring order and fixing politics but the focus is clearly on the fun and the action: and this part of the story is quite entertaining. First time Kirk acts approprately: He's a natural G.