12. Kirk Channels His Inner Mobster From A Piece Of The Action (1968)
There's never been a piece of scenery that William Shatner didn't feel the need to at least take a nibble on, but an episode sending Kirk and Spock to a world modeled after the Chicago mobsters of the 1920s must've looked like a smorgasbord. Granted, Shatner will give us many more examples of Acting! for this list, and the very premise of the episode is cause for alarm (see #5), but for now, we're more concerned with Shatner being taken over by the ghost of Edward G. Robinson (who, as it turned out, was still alive at the time). We should point out that this episode cannot be taken seriously. It's the closest that Classic Trek gets to playing something for laughs and succeeding, but as usual, Shatner can't be reined in, and so we get his mobster accent fairly early on in the episode, before it's even been established that Kirk is enough of a history buff to know what he's saying. (Actually, come to think of it, does the episode ever establish that? He's certainly flummoxed by having to drive a car, in one of the episode's genuinely funny scenes.) When Shatner does that accent, it's rarely funny. The one time Spock does it, though? Hilarious, and we couldn't tell you why.
Tony Whitt has previously written TV, DVD, and comic reviews for CINESCAPE, NOW PLAYING, and iF MAGAZINE. His weekly COMICSCAPE columns from the early 2000s can still be found archived on Mania.com. He has also written a book of gay-themed short stories titled CRESCENT CITY CONNECTIONS, available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle format. Whitt currently lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.
