Day 2, Tuesday, was also spent on Stage 9, with the company filming Kirk’s guest quarters on the Starbase, followed by the Enterprise engineering set for Kirk and Finney’s confrontation. The start of the fight scene, with stuntmen Troy Melton as Finney and Chuck Clow as Kirk, was started this day but only half-fought when Daniels stopped filming at 6:45 p.m., one-quarter day behind.
Day 3 saw the completion of the climactic fight. Daniels was overly cautious with actors for stunt sequences. He utilized Melton and Clow to the point that he couldn’t hide from the camera that it wasn’t Shatner and Webb.
Deleted scene: Jame Finney comforts her father (from startrekhistory.com and startrekpropauthority.com)
Also shot, but left out of the finalized episode, was a scene where Cogley returns to the ship with Jame. She convinces her father to tell Kirk how he sabotaged the ship, so the damage can be undone. In the edited film, this scene was replaced by an additional Captain’s Log voiceover to speed things along as Kirk climbs into the area referred to in the series as the Jefferies Tube (named after Matt Jefferies).
Next came scenes on the ship’s bridge, which marked the first day for Hagan Beggs, playing Lt. Hansen. He recalled, “The bridge set was amazing. I had, of course, been on television sets and film sets before, but I must say it certainly was extremely different and I was just amazed by it. Quite honestly, it was like a kid looking at a bank of instruments. The design and all the detail was really something. And it didn’t bother me at all that there were ropes being pulled by guys behind the doors; it still looked pretty damn fantastic. In that period, at that time, I was quite awed by it. An incredible set.” (12-1)
This was light years from Beggs’ last TV job on Hogan’s Heroes. He said, “We’d get a shot, then step off so they could pull a different section [of the bridge] out and have us come back for a different camera angle. And there was a funny thing that happened where the doors wouldn’t open on cue and someone would walk into them. There was a lot of orchestration involved in working on that set. So there were mistakes made, as to be expected, and retakes of things, because someone would yell, ‘The door hasn’t opened! It hasn’t opened! Cut! Cut! Cut!’ So here I am sitting at a desk [helm console] and told, ‘Okay, shake violently now! We’re into crashing mode!’ And the actors would shake like crazy. We physically were shaking ourselves. I did like Marc [Daniels]. I found him very affable and very friendly guy. He was very pleasant, but had to also be very aware of the time, of course. It was a tight schedule.” (12-1)
Cameras stopped rolling at 7:10 p.m. Daniels held at a quarter-day behind.
Day 4, Thursday, was spent entirely on the bridge, including the scene where McCoy uses that “white sound” device.
Despite the marginal material and substandard prop, moods were generally good. In this morning’s Daily Variety word had leaked from NBC -- Star Trek was being picked up for at least another 10 episodes, promising a full season of no less than 26. The official notification was still a week away.
The last “Court Martial” shots taken this day were completed at 6:06 p.m., but the company continued filming with a pickup shot for “Dagger of the Mind” until 7:05. Half an hour was spent wrapping gear and removing makeup from Leonard Nimoy, giving cast and crew just enough time to make it home for the 8:30 premiere of “The Enemy Within” -- the fifth episode to air.
Win De Lugo as Timothy (Courtesy of Paul Stuiber)
Day 5, Friday, had the company on Stage 10, filming the two Interior Officer’s Lounge scenes. Winston De Lugo, playing his role as the hostile Starfleet officer, continued to be surprised by his first TV experience. When called to set, he found none of the preparation he was accustomed to in the theater world. This was television. And time was money. De Lugo recalled, “Marc Daniels says, ‘Win, you stand here. Now, all the guys in the red shirts are your crew. You’re the same as Kirk; a commander of a Starship and you’re meeting him at this bar far out in space.’ Well, I didn’t know any of this; I didn’t have the whole script; I just had my pages. But it was clear that my character is trying to intimidate Kirk. Of course, years later, they put out these trading cards and there’s one of me and it says I’m a lieutenant. Well, a lieutenant can’t talk to a captain like that! But I thought that Marc knew a little more about it than I did. So I did as he told me.
“Anyway, Shatner comes in and we do a rehearsal, and I was surprised how small he is compared to me. And he says, ‘Timothy,’ and starts to say something about the old gang at the Academy, and then, as he looks up at me, he calls, ‘Cut!’ He calls it. And he just reaches out and grabs Marc Daniels and pulls him over and whispers to him. And then Marc says, ‘Alright, we’re going to take a break. Relax; go to your trailers. We have to make some changes here.’ When they called me back, I see they’ve changed the set around a little and all of a sudden there’s a number of bar stools. And Marc says, ‘Win, you sit here.’ I’m thinking, ‘Okay, I get it; I’m too tall.’” (47)
A few days after this incident, TV Guide published an article on Shatner, who was quoted as saying, “I’ve gotten a great insight into the omnipotence of the series lead. Everybody does his best not to upset the star. It’s an almost unique position few in the entertainment world achieve... It’s like absolute power.” (166-14)
De Lugo added, “And so we start with Shatner’s stuff first -- we’re shooting over my shoulder at him, and he’s now standing and I’m sitting. And the scene starts and, as things are going along, his eyes start filling up with water. And he calls, ‘Cut!’ And he calls, ‘Makeup!’ And he goes off behind somewhere. And then he comes back and we do that part of the scene again. And his eyes fill up with water again. And, ‘Cut!’ And he goes behind the set again. And I imagine the girl is back there dabbing his eyes. The third time, I thought, ‘Well, things are always in threes, so this has got to be the last time.’ But it wasn’t. It happened four times. And this was the kind of scene where we had to hold each other’s gaze, because my character is just inches away from throwing a punch at this guy. And then he asked for a minute and he disappeared somewhere.” (47)
De Lugo knew nothing of the immense demands on Shatner as the star of the series and the relentless work load that came with that title. He couldn’t know that Shatner’s average work day was over 12 hours long, five days a week, with weekends spent reading scripts, all the while trying to squeeze in a moment here and there with his two daughters and struggling to hold together a marriage that was in the process of collapsing.
Near the time this episode was filming, Shatner told a magazine writer, “I hope that since my wife Gloria and I are reasonably intelligent people, things can be worked out. But we are having difficulties. Even under ideal circumstances, a couple nearly always has some marital problems. When you add to ordinary circumstances the stress and strain of doing a show that occupies almost all your time, you have extraordinary problems.” (166-19)
Win De Lugo was witnessing the indestructible Captain Kirk with tears in his eyes.
“He was gone only a brief amount of time,” De Lugo said. “How he recomposed himself, or what he did so fast, was beyond me. But it went absolutely beautifully after that. He was so cool and composed. He was like a different guy. Except that when he finished his camera shot, he walks away. And he’s walking across the soundstage quite rapidly, and I said to Marc, ‘Where the fuck is he going?’ And, with that, Shatner opened the iron door and bam, he was out and gone. And Marc said to me, ‘Don’t worry about him; I’ll work with you.’ Being a naive New York actor, I’m thinking, ‘Oh great,’ because the director knows more about this than the actors do. He probably really studied this script.
“Well, they moved the camera around to get my shot -- and this camera was huge, a big round cylinder looking at me -- and Marc slips his arms around one side of the camera and he wiggles his fingers and says, ‘Win, look at my hand.’ And I look at his hand, and he says, ‘Action!’ “Well, I’ll tell you, all my stage work didn’t prepare me for tha
t! – Saying my lines to five wiggling fingers!” (47)
De Lugo said his lines. Daniels called, ‘Cut! Print it! We’re moving on!” De Lugo remembered leaving as he had arrived, in a state of awe.
Hagan Beggs confirms that Shatner was not his normal self during production of this episode and the next, although he was less bothered over it. He said, “My friend was really Jimmy Doohan. I had a pleasant relationship with Spock and Bones. Very nice, very comfortable. Shatner less so, but he was very professional. He just didn’t seem to get involved with us too much. He sort of did his work and then disappeared back into his dressing room. At the time, I felt, ‘Well, no wonder, he has a shitload of stuff to learn. He has to stay focused.’ But, in my opinion, he was slightly focused and separate from the rest of the cast who were more inclined to sort of stick around a bit or chit chat. He didn’t. As soon as his scene was over, he’d go, ‘Thank you,’ and he’d head right to his dressing room.” (12-1)
Day 5. Joan Marshall during the trial sequence (Courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
Marc Daniels was determined to catch up and pushed through the dialogue as quickly as possible -- too quickly, in fact. An example of how rushed production can adversely affect the performance from an otherwise competent actor is apparent in this scene. Notice how uncomfortable DeForest Kelley looks when with Joan Marshall in the Starbase cocktail bar. It almost appears as though someone gave Kelley a gentle shove to get him to cross to Marshal. Once there, Kelley froze, awkwardly, said his lines, terribly, and then, with complete woodenness, ushered Marshall out of frame. This was the result of an actor ill at ease with the “blocking” of a director in a hurry who was telling him how to play his role -- and perhaps wiggling fingers at him. Kelley was given only one take. It went badly. And then Daniels called, “Cut! Print! We’re on the wrong set!” The company quickly moved on to the courtroom to begin what was scheduled for two days of work. Daniels was determined to get it covered in one-and-a-half.
“There were a lot of great directors on Star Trek,” Jerry Finnerman said. “And there were some that got a little pushy. I had one guy, he gave me a shot, and before we even got a light in he was screaming, ‘Are you ready? Are you ready?’ That doesn’t make you feel good.... But I always stuck up for what I believed in.” (63-3)
Finnerman admitted that Daniels was a “good director” but tended to come across as “a little grumpy.” He said that they often “clashed” because Daniels pushed him more than any other directors on the series.
Last shot was taken at 7:06. Daniels was still one-quarter day behind.
Elisha Cook, flubbing a line (from blooper reel, courtesy of Gerald Gurian)
Day 6, Monday. Daniels shot from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. on the court set but was unable to pick up that quarter day, thereby delaying the start of the next episode set to film on Tuesday. Phone calls were made, schedules were changed.
Marc Daniels later said, “While we were making ‘Court Martial’ we all felt, ‘Oh God, this is a dog, let’s get it over with as best we can.’... Part of the problem was that it didn’t have much action in it. Also, Elisha Cook couldn’t remember his lines. When you’re on a six-day schedule, trying to [stay on] time, and you’ve got to keep stopping and going back, it drives everyone crazy. You’ve got a courtroom scene and you’re photographing him one line at a time because he can’t remember two.” (44-3)
Elisha Cook said, “People enjoy [my performance in] Star Trek, but for me it was another fast TV job. I didn’t think I was very good.” (36aa)
Day 7, Tuesday, continued with the shooting of one line at a time. Daniels only brought back Shatner, Nimoy, Kelley, Marshall, and Cook, spending the morning picking up close ups, which meant more finger wiggling. The last shot was taken by 11:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes later, Daniels, having had no prep days, began filming “The Menagerie.”
Post-Production
October 12 through November 29, 1966. Music score: tracked.
Bruce Schoengarth and Edit Team #2 were assigned the cutting, following their work on “Mudd’s Women,” “The Naked Time” and “Dagger of the Mind.”
Watching the dailies, Coon felt the first half of the episode moved too slowly. Stan Robertson had been right about it needing those flashbacks. To help the pacing, Coon instructed Schoengarth to juggle certain scenes and add more punch to the front end of the show. This caused yet more problems, among them Kirk’s uniform changing from standard top to collarless top, again and again. The rearranging of scenes also resulted in some logic-defying character turns, including Jame’s back-and-forth feelings about Kirk, and Cogley having confidence in the case, then not, then having it again. These were not turns of the characters, merely the editors.
One dialogue sequence cut from the script at the last minute, very nearly as it was being filmed, would have helped to better understand Jame’s change of attitude. She is waiting for Kirk outside his quarters on the Starbase. She apologizes for her emotion-fueled accusations from earlier. She asks, “What are you going to do now? I mean, you’re not going to stand trial?” Kirk says, “You’ve been talking to Commodore Stone, haven’t you? And he convinced you to try to get me to take the easy way out.” Jame says, “He didn’t convince me of anything. He told me there was a chance this could be settled without a trial. I just want you to know, if you do decide to, well, to transfer to ground duty instead of standing trial, I won’t make trouble.” The script tells us, “Kirk looks at her -- at the simple, vulnerable trust in her eyes. He takes her hand.” He then says, “Jame, I’ll tell you something I don’t believe I could say to any other human being. What they believe I did is a lie.... But... for the first time in my life that I can remember, I’m afraid. The bridge of a ship -- that’s my world, my strength. Jame, they can take away my command permanently. And if they do that, they take away my life.” She pleads, “Then don’t let them! Don’t ask for a trial. Let a year, or two, or three go by. This will be forgotten; they’ll give you another ship.” Kirk is adamant, and says, “No, Jame. They don’t forget. They never forget.... And you wouldn’t forget, would you? In the back of your mind, there’d always be that suspicion: Did he kill my father?... That’s true, isn’t it, Jame?” The following action reads: “Her eyes well up with tears. She looks away. Kirk moves abruptly and quickly to the door.” The scene ends with Kirk exiting into his quarters, unable to speak further. And Jame crying.
Roddenberry decided that the powerful scene should be rewritten. He felt that Kirk would not reveal his inner feelings to anyone other than McCoy or perhaps Spock, and never to this degree even with them. Rather than modifying the dialogue, Coon, under pressure and running out of time, threw the scene out.
Another bad cut, this one from the editing sessions themselves, was not showing Cogley’s return to the Enterprise with Jame. In Star Trek 2, the second paperback book for Bantam, published in February 1968, author James Blish based his short story version of “Court Martial” on the Final Draft screenplay and not the mutilated episode. For his story, Jame boards the Enterprise with Cogley and confronts her father. And it works.
Don Mankiewicz flinched when he saw the edited version. He said, “The other failure of this episode was entirely my fault. If I had been able to stay with it, I think I would have found a way to do it without the off-screen narration. When you’re doing off-screen narration in a show, you’re saying and admitting to the public that we have to go back. Don’t say what happened, show it happening. In my version, you saw the daughter come onto the ship and talk her father out of trying to destroy it. But they ended up using the narration instead.” (113-3)
While no new music was composed for “Court Martial,” an unused Joseph Mullendore track from “The Conscience of the King” is heard here, an alternate slowed-down version of the series theme as Kirk talks with Areel Shaw in the Starbase bar and lounge. Mullendore’s other slowed-down variation of the theme, his cocktail music rendition, which did make its way into “Conscience of the King,” is resurrected here for th
e earlier bar scene, when McCoy meets Shaw.
Due to all the rewriting, with the abandonment of the space-jalopy vehicle and the trip to an asteroid, the story that had the potential of busting the bank at Desilu turned out to be a bargain ... from a bean-counter’s point of view, anyway. The bill from Film Effects of Hollywood amounted to only $5,798, for matte shots and a transporter effect. As a result, the episode Robert Justman feared would be one of the most expensive of the season turned out to be one of the least.
“Court Martial” was made for 17 grand less than the studio’s per-episode allowance. The episode’s total cost of $175,182 helped to drop the first season deficit to $33,618.
Release / Reaction
Only NBC air date: 2/2/67.
Audience reaction from the 1967 airing of “Court Martial” was quite positive. Many viewers were favorably responsive to the idea of a military trial in outer space, and to the inherent drama a story of this type brings to the screen. The ratings were also rewarding.
RATINGS / Nielsen 30-Market report for Thursday, February 2, 1967:
For the second week in a row (based on the broadcast schedule), and the seventh time so far, Star Trek won part or all of its time slot. The CBS Thursday Night Movie, premiering the 1961 comedy The Pleasure of His Company, starring Fred Astaire and Debbie Reynolds, came in third.
Win de Lugo said, “We all thought it was a dead dog. And when I watched it, I was cringing, because I know Shatner’s not there in the scene when the camera is on me and I don’t have human eyeballs to look at and to react to. So I don’t know what kind of look’s going to be on my face. But I was okay with it. I thought, ‘Thank God, I escaped!’” (47)
Despite the numbers from A.C. Nielsen and mostly positive feedback from letter writers, many of those responsible for making Star Trek were not fans of this episode and when the repeat season came, Robert Justman chose to pass “Court Martial” over.
These Are The Voyages, TOS, Season One Page 62
