Tag: Star Trek TOS

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 7 – Compliance Lessons from What are Little Girls Made of?

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode What Are Little Girls Made of?, which aired on October 20, 1966, Star Date 2712.4.

Episode Summary

After the Enterprise travels to the planet Exo III to investigate Roger Corby’s fate, two security guards, Matthews and Rayburn, are killed after beaming down. It turns out that Corby, known as the Pasteur of archeological medicine, has discovered the remains of an ancient culture. They were using machinery he had found, which creates androids.

Corby begins implementing his plan by creating an android of Kirk to be taken to Minas 5, where he will start spreading androids throughout the galaxy. However, Corby kills his robot servant, Rok, who has remembered the equation “existence, survival must cancel out programming.” This equation made Rok realize that the clash between humans and androids that led to his civilization’s demise centuries ago was becoming inevitable again and caused him to attempt to kill Corby. Corby then reveals he is an android. Corby destroys the remaining android and himself, ridding the universe of Exo III androids for all times.

Commentary

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, Tom Fox delves into the Star Trek episode ‘What Are Little Girls Made Of?’ to uncover its relevance for compliance professionals. The storyline involves the Enterprise crew investigating Dr. Roger Corby, who has created androids capable of impersonating humans. This raises critical issues around transparency, data privacy, ethical considerations, risk assessment, and regulatory compliance. Fox connects these sci-fi narratives to real-world compliance challenges with insights from the episode and additional fun facts.

Highlights

  • Plot Summary: What Are Little Girls Made Of?
  • Fun Facts and Behind the Scenes
  • Exploring Compliance Lessons

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance: Episode 6 – Human Trafficking Lessons from Mudd’s Women

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Mudd’s Women, which aired on October 13, 1966, with a Star Date of 1329.1.

Story

Harry Mudd attempts to evade the Enterprise with his small class J cargo ship and leads it into an asteroid field. The Enterprise extends its shields over Harvey’s ship, burning out three of its four lithium crystals. The crew of the Enterprise becomes fascinated with the three beautiful women Mudd has been transporting.

As a result of the destruction of three of its lithium crystals, the Enterprise is forced to divert to Rigel 12 to obtain new crystals. Mudd makes his bargain with the lithium miners on the planet. At Mudd’s prompting, the miners offer to provide Kirk with lithium only in exchange for Mudd’s freedom and the three women’s freedom. Kirk learns the women’s beauty secret: Mudd has given them the Venus drug. Kirk beams down to collect the lithium from Childress while providing Evie with red gelatin, which she believes to be the Venus drug. Evie believes herself again to be beautiful and unintentionally reveals her natural inner beauty. In the end, Kirk gets his lithium, Evie remains with Childress, and Mudd is taken into custody.

Commentary

This podcast focuses on Harcourt Fenton Mudd and his dubious exploits, particularly around transporting women under false pretenses. Tom delves into the broader themes of human trafficking, examining issues such as the illusion of consent, manipulation, and economic exploitation. He also emphasizes the importance of victim support, legal responsibilities, and the power of awareness and education in combating human trafficking within compliance programs. The episode provides a timely reflection on these issues while drawing parallels to modern compliance challenges.

Key Highlights

  • Plot Summary of ‘Mudds Women’
  • Human Trafficking Themes in ‘Mudds Women’
  • Compliance Lessons from ‘Mudds Women’

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 5 – Compliance Lessons from The Enemy Within

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider The Enemy Within, which aired on October 6, 1966, Star Date 1672.1.

While gathering specimens on planet Alpha 177 (whose night temperature reaches -120 degrees), the transporter malfunctions, stranding the remaining 4-man landing party (including Sulu) on the planet; Kirk beams up. Kirk is split into two alter-egos, the evil one (hostility, lust, violence), which arrives unnoticed a few minutes after the good Kirk (compassion, love, tenderness) after the crew has left the transporter room.

The evil Kirk enters Yeoman Janice Rand’s quarters and lies in wait for her. She scratches him when he attacks her. She fights him off, and soon after that, the good Kirk shows signs of losing both his decisiveness and ability to command. This leads to a gut-wrenching scene where Spock and McCoy interview Rand about the attack.

Spock and Scotty rig the transporter to run off the impulse engines and successfully fix the transporter. He is overpowered when the good Kirk tries to bring the evil Kirk to the transporter. The evil Kirk goes to the bridge and orders the Enterprise to leave orbit, but the good Kirk follows him there. Kirk eventually returns to normal when the transporter is modified and used to fuse his two parts. The landing party is also beamed back up, suffering from frostbite, but nothing worse.

Commentary

This episode explores the duality of Captain Kirk’s personality after a transporter malfunction splits him into two alter egos. The podcast discusses the episode’s themes and their relevance to modern compliance lessons, such as the duality of human nature, the importance of a unified identity, effective leadership in crisis, monitoring and internal controls, addressing ethical dilemmas, and fostering psychological safety. It also touches upon the cultural changes highlighted by the Me Too movement compared to the 1960s portrayal of gender issues. The episode strongly encourages viewers to rewatch with a contemporary lens and apply its lessons to real-world compliance challenges, underlining the importance of this application.

Key Highlights

  • Plot Summary: The Enemy Within
  • Me Too Lessons and Ethical Reflections
  • Compliance Lessons from The Enemy Within

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 4 – Ethical Lessons from The Naked Time

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider The Naked Time, which aired on September 29, 1966, Star Date 1704.2.

Story

A landing party from the Enterprise beams aboard Psi 2000, an ancient planet about to break up. They find all six of the station’s crew dead. However, the circumstances are bizarre since the life support systems have been switched off, and everything in the station is frozen solid.

As Psi 2000 shows a shift in a magnetic field (and mass!), the Enterprise begins a close orbit requiring constant vigilance. Meanwhile, Sulu abandons his post for a jaunt at the gym, believing himself to be a rapier-brandishing French cavalier. Riley takes over the engine room and declares himself Captain. He demands ice cream for the entire crew and begins a ship-wide broadcast of his rendition of classic Irish ballads (his favorite being “Kathleen”).

While all this is happening, Nurse Chapel infects Spock and professes to love him. This is extremely difficult for Spock, especially since the infection is causing him to become excessively emotional. Spock then passes the infection on to Kirk, who begins exhibiting paranoia and a loss of ability to command. Bones finds the antidote just in time, and Riley is dislodged before his wrenching ballads permanently damage the audience’s ears.

After mixing matter and antimatter at a colder-than-recommended temperature according to an untested intermix formula, the Enterprise is thrown into a time warp, which causes the chronometer to run backward. This allows the Enterprise to escape the planet’s breakup, returning it 71 hours into the past and, therefore, before any events.

Commentary

In this episode, the focal points are the bizarre events that occur when a landing party from the Enterprise encounters a deadly contagion, leading to erratic behavior among the crew. The analysis draws nine key ethical lessons relevant to the compliance profession: self-control, accountability, transparency, respect for others, moral leadership, decision-making under pressure, understanding human vulnerabilities, the consequences of ethical lapses, and a commitment to ethical standards. The episode highlights how Star Trek can serve as a rich source of moral and compliance insights through vivid descriptions and character evaluations.

Key Highlights

  • Episode Summary: The Naked Time
  • Key Moments and Character Highlights
  • Ethical Lessons from ‘The Naked Time’
  • Conclusion and Final Thoughts

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 2 – Charlie X

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider Charlie X, which aired on September 15, 1966, Star Date 1533.6.

Story

After receiving a distress call from a science party on Camus II exploring the ruins of a dead civilization, the Enterprise rushes to assistance. All members of the party appear to be dead except the leader, Dr. Janice Lester, and the medical officer, Dr. Arthur Coleman. According to Dr. Coleman, Lester is suffering from some unknown sort of radiation poisoning.

However, when the rest of the Enterprise landing party goes to aid a dying science party member and leaves Kirk and Lester alone, she activates an alien device she has discovered and exchanges bodies with Kirk. Lester is driven by jealousy and a persecution complex and complains to Kirk about the agony of being a woman. Lester-as-Kirk orders everyone to be beamed about and takes over the role of Kirk.

Lester-as-Kirk removes Bones as chief medical officer and installs Dr. Coleman, a former starship doctor who has been found incompetent by the Starfleet Surgeon General, in his place. Dr. Coleman attempts to prevent Kirk (in Dr. Lester’s body) from interacting with the crew by sedating her, but she escapes to the sick bay to talk to Bones and Spock. However, Lester-as-Kirk is also waiting for a physical examination ordered by McCoy. He proceeds to knock Kirk-as-Lester out and orders her to be put in isolation and incommunicado.

Spock suspects something amiss and speaks to (the real) Kirk in solitary confinement. At Kirk’s request, Spock does a Vulcan mind probe and discovers the truth. Spock tries to escape with the real Kirk but is stopped by Lester-as-Kirk and security guards. This leads to a court-martial trial for Spock. Spock puts Kirk (in Lester’s body) on the stand and testifies that Kirk’s mind is in her body.

In the meantime, Sulu and Chekov refuse to obey Lester-as-Kirk’s orders, and Kirk and Lester experience a temporary reversion of minds. To prevent reversion, Coleman informs Lester-as-Kirk that Lester must be killed. However, Coleman is too late carrying out the task, and Kirk’s and Lester’s minds revert to their appropriate bodies.

Commentary

The episode explores the story of Charlie Evans, a young man with dangerous telekinetic powers, and draws parallels to modern compliance and mental health issues. Tom discusses the responsibilities that come with power, the importance of training and supervision, handling unpredictable behavior, clear communication, crisis management, and addressing misconduct. He also reflects on recent real-world events, such as the Uvalde school shooting and the challenges of addressing mental health in compliance programs.

Key Highlights

  • Episode Summary: Charlie X
  • Charlie’s Troubling Behavior
  • Thematic Analysis and Real-World Parallels
  • Compliance Lessons from Charlie X

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 0 – Introduction to the Updated Series

Since 2017, I have posted the podcast Trekking Through Compliance each summer. Not only am I a full-fledged Trekkie, but there are many of us in the compliance community. To commemorate the 7th anniversary of this series, I have updated each episode with new commentary and insights for the compliance professional and business executive. Each episode is relatively short, coming in at 10 minutes or so. This allows you to get a handle on the storyline and the lessons learned from it. So, even if you have listed and re-listened over the past summers, you will learn something new and revisit one of the most significant TV series ever.

In this podcast series, I explore compliance, leadership, and risk management through the lens of Star Trek – The Original Series in a 79-episode offering. Each podcast reviews the episode’s creative team, story synopsis, and three key lessons learned on compliance, leadership, and governance. If you love Star Trek as I do, this podcast series is for you. I will use three key resources for each offering: (1) Eric’s Excruciatingly Detailed Star Trek (TOS) Plot Summaries, which has plot summaries for every episode; (2) MissionLogPodcast.com, a Rod Roddenberry podcast where  John Champion and Ken Ray explored every episode of Star Trek, the Original Series and (3) Memory Alpha, a great resource for all things Star Trek. Please note that I will use the order of release in this podcast series, so the first episode is the premier TV show on September 10, 1966, The Man Trap. This means that both pilots will appear later in the series. Also, the TV premiers are on a schedule different from the production schedule. So, listen over the next 79 episodes, revisit one of television’s outstanding achievements, and learn how to use Star Trek to improve your corporate compliance program and yourself as a compliance professional. We are going to have some fun.

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 20 – Court Martial

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Court Martial which aired on February 2, 1967, Star Date 2947.3.

Story Synopsis

After sustaining severe damage in an ion storm, the Enterprise is forced to seek repairs at Starbase 11, where  Commodore Stone investigates the death of records officer Ben Finney, who died in the storm. Stone finds it was Kirk’s negligence that led to Finney’s death.  A trial ensues, and Kirk’s former flame Ariel Shaw is the prosecuting attorney, and Kirk seeks the services of attorney Samuel T. Cogley.

Spock discovers something amiss in the program bank of the Enterprise after he can beat the computer 5 times, even though its program should not be capable of losing. Recognizing the computer has been tampered with, they find Finney and  Kirk’s record is cleared, and Samuel Cogley takes on a new case: defending Finney.

Commentary

In this episode of ‘Trekking Through Compliance,’ host Tom Fox explores the compliance lessons learned from the ‘Star Trek’ original series episode ‘Court Martial.’ Featuring the trial of Captain Kirk for an alleged violation during an ion storm, the episode delves into themes of due process, conflicts of interest, evidence preservation, and the role of expert testimony in compliance investigations. Tom draws parallels between the show’s narrative and key compliance principles such as transparency, accountability, and whistleblower protections, providing insightful takeaways for compliance professionals.

  • The Incident at Starbase 11
  • Kirk’s Court Martial Begins
  • Spock’s Discovery and the Final Verdict
  • Compliance Lessons from Court Martial

Resources

Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein

MissionLogPodcast.com

Memory Alpha

 

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 12 – The Menagerie (Part Two)

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode The Menagerie (Part Two), which aired on November 24, 1966, Star Date 3012.4.

This was the original pilot episode presented to NBC. Spock’s trial continues, and the transmitted scene resumes with Pike in 2254 in a cell with a transparent wall. The Talosians begin their “experiment,” which consists of several illusory situations involving Pike and Vina. The Talosians hope that Pike and Vina will mate and find a race of slaves who will reclaim the war-damaged surface of the planet.

That night, Pike can capture the Keeper as he attempts to confiscate the weapons. The captured crew proceeds to the surface. Number One sets her phaser on overload, preferring to die rather than be enslaved. The aliens have found that humans’ “unique hatred of captivity” makes them unsuitable for the Talosians’ plans, which must be abandoned. The crew beams back to the Enterprise.

Back in 2267, the transmission ends as the Enterprise arrives at Talos IV. The court-martial was a ploy to buy time to bring Pike back to Talos IV, where, if willing, he could enjoy the illusion of everyday life. Pike is transported to the planet and rejuvenated Pike.

Compliance Takeaways:

  1. What happens with your counterparty refuses to comply with FCPA requirements?
  2. When the time comes, will you, as a CCO, speak truth to power?
  3. Sometimes failure and being left behind are options.

 Resources
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein for The Menagerie (Part Two)
MissionLogPodcast.com-The Menagerie (Parts 1 & 2)

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance – Episode 11 – The Menagerie (Part One)

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode The Menagerie (Part One), which aired on November 17, 1966, Star Date 3012.4.

This was the original pilot episode presented to NBC. Set in 2267, and the Enterprise arrives at Starbase 11 in response to a subspace call Spock reported receiving from the former captain of the Enterprise, Christopher Pike, under whom Spock had served. Pike cannot move or communicate other than answering yes/no questions with a device operated by his brainwaves. Pike refuses to communicate with anyone except Spock.

Spock, meanwhile, commandeers the Enterprise by means of falsified recordings of Kirk’s voice and orders the ship to depart under the computer’s control. After several hours, upon learning from the computer that the shuttlecraft does not have enough fuel to return to the starbase, Spock brings them aboard and then gives himself up, confessing to mutiny. Mendez convenes a hearing, at which Spock requests immediate court-martial, which requires three command officers. The tribunal begins, and Spock offers as his testimony what seems to be video footage of the Enterprise’s earlier visit to Talos IV in 2254.

In 2267, the scene is interrupted by a message from Starfleet Command, which reveals that the images they have been viewing are transmitted from Talos IV. Mendez is placed in command of the Enterprise, but Spock begs Kirk to see the rest of the transmission.

Compliance Takeaways:

  1. Leaders must take care of themselves as well as their crew.
  2. What does it mean if a deal is too good to be true?
  3. Trust but verify.

 Resources
Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein for The Menagerie (Part One)
MissionLogPodcast.com-The Menagerie (Parts 1 & 2)

Categories
Trekking Through Compliance

Trekking Through Compliance-Episode 6-Mudd’s Women

In this episode of Trekking Through Compliance, we consider the episode Mudd’s Women, which aired on October 13, 1966, Star Date 1329.1.

Harry Mudd attempts to evade the Enterprise with his small class J cargo ship and leads it into an asteroid field. The Enterprise extends its shields over Harvey’s ship, burning out three of its four lithium crystals. The crew of the Enterprise becomes fascinated with the three beautiful women Mudd has been transporting.
As a result of the destruction of three of its lithium crystals, the Enterprise is forced to divert to Rigel 12 to obtain new crystals. Mudd makes his bargain with the lithium miners on the planet. At Mudd’s prompting, the miners offer to provide Kirk with lithium only in exchange for Mudd’s freedom and the three women. Kirk learns the women’s beauty secret: Mudd has been providing them with the Venus drug. Kirk beams down to collect the lithium from Childress while providing Evie with red gelatin she believes to be the Venus drug. Evie believes herself again to be beautiful and unintentionally reveals her natural inner beauty. In the end, Kirk gets his lithium, Evie remains with Childress, and Mudd is taken into custody.
Compliance Takeaways:
  1. How can your risks change, and are you prepared?
  2. A CCO needs to understand you may not be telling the truth to them.
  3. Have you added the Modern Slavery requirements to your compliance regime?
Resources
The story synopsis comes from the Excruciatingly Detailed Plot Summary by Eric W. Weisstein for Mudd’s Women.
Additional insights from the MissionLogPodcast.com episode Mudd’s Women