Star Trek (TV Series)

Court Martial (1967)

Joan Marshall: Areel Shaw

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Quotes 

• Cogley : Rights, sir, human rights! The Bible. The Code of Hammurabi, and of Justinian. The Magna Carta. The Constitution of the United States. The Fundamental Declarations of the Martian Colonies. The Statutes of Alpha III. Gentlemen - these documents all speak of rights. Rights of the accused to a trial by his peers, to be represented by counsel. The rights of cross-examination. But most importantly, the right to be confronted by the witnesses against him - a right to which my client's been denied.

  Areel Shaw : Your Honor, that is ridiculous. We've produced the witnesses in court. My learned opponent had the opportunity to see them, cross-examine them...

  Cogley : All but one. The most devastating witness against my client is not a human being, it's a machine. An information system. The computer log of the Enterprise. And I ask this court adjourn and reconvene aboard that vessel.

  Areel Shaw : I protest, Your Honor.

  Cogley : And I repeat! I speak of rights! A machine has none. A man must! My client has the right to face his accuser. And if you do not grant him that right, you have brought us down to the level of the machine. Indeed, you have elevated that machine above us. I ask that my motion be granted. And more than that, gentlemen, in the name of a humanity fading in the shadow of the machine, I demand it. I demand it!

• Dr. McCoy : If you have any doubt, that was indeed Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise.

  Areel Shaw : Yes, I know. Are you a friend of his?

  Dr. McCoy : In these trying times, one of the few. Doctor Leonard McCoy, and you?

  Areel Shaw : Areel Shaw, and I'm a friend, too. An old one.

  Dr. McCoy : All of my old friends look like doctors; all of his look like you.

• Captain James T. Kirk : Areel. You still haven't told me how you know so much about what the prosecution's going to do.

  Areel Shaw : Because, Jim Kirk, my dear old love... I am the prosecution. And I have to do my very best to have you slapped down hard. Broken out of the service. In disgrace.

• Areel Shaw : [as all observe the viewing screen]  If the court will notice, the log plainly shows the defendant's finger pressing the jettison button. The condition signal reads yellow alert. Not red alert, but simply yellow alert. When the pod containing Lt. Commander Finney was jettisoned, the emergency did not as yet exist.

  Captain James T. Kirk : But that's not the way it happened.

• Captain James T. Kirk : It's been... How long has it been?

  Areel Shaw : Four years, seven months and an odd number of days. Not that I'm counting.

• [Prosecutor Shaw interrupts the court computer from reading off the full list of Captain Kirk's commendations, awards, citations and honors] 

  Areel Shaw : The prosecution concedes the inestimable record of Captain Kirk.

  Portmaster Stone : Mr. Cogley?

  Cogley : I wouldn't want to slow the wheels of progress. But then, on the other hand, I wouldn't want those wheels to run over my client in their unbridled haste.

  Portmaster Stone : Continue.

  [the computer continues reading off the accumulated merits of Captain Kirk] 

  Cogley : [after only a few more of those]  Stop! Now, I think that's enough. I wouldn't want to slow things up *too* much.

• Areel Shaw : Do you think it would cause a complete breakdown of discipline, if a lowly lieutenant kissed a starship captain on the bridge of his ship?

  Captain James T. Kirk : Let's try.

  [they kiss] 

  Captain James T. Kirk : See, no change. Discipline goes on.

• Areel Shaw : Jim, be serious! You're not an ordinary human, you're a starship captain, and you've stepped into scandal. If there's any way they can do it, they'll slap you down, hard and permanently, for the good of the service.

• Areel Shaw : How long will it be this time before I see you again?

  Captain James T. Kirk : At the risk of sounding like a mystic, that depends on the stars.

• Captain James T. Kirk : Goodbye, Areel. Better luck next time.

  Areel Shaw : I had pretty good luck this time. I lost, didn't I?

• Areel Shaw : Your witness, Mr. Cogley.

  Cogley : No questions.