Chapter 8
“Risk Is Our Business”
Franchise: The Original Series
Season 2, Episode 20: “Return To Tomorrow”
This episode, though perhaps less well-known, contains what may be one of the most iconic speeches in Trek history – and it certainly communicates a priceless lesson for anyone in the business of personal achievement.
What Happens:
A distress signal from an unidentified source draws the Enterprise to a planet far beyond where any other starship has thus far explored. Captain Kirk and crew are invited by the seemingly disembodied voice of “Sargon” to enter orbit about the planet, and to transport down several very specific personnel: Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and a crewmember named Dr. Ann Mulhall.
Once landing on the planet, the Captain and crew learn Sargon’s intent. He is indeed without physical form – only the essence of his intellect remains, housed in a globe-like receptacle, from which he has been “searching the heavens with my mind” for a ship to assist him.
He is from a race and culture many thousands of centuries older than that of Earth, highly intelligent and technologically advanced, who have nonetheless destroyed themselves in war. Only three inhabitants remain, essences enclosed in the receptacles: Sargon, his wife Thalesa, and Hannok, a member of the “other side” in their planet’s cataclysmic battle.
Sargon’s request: to “borrow” the bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Ann Mulhall for a short time, by inserting their essences into them. They wish to do this in order to have the use of their human hands, to construct “robot bodies” which they would then inhabit and thus “live again.”
Sargon does not force this choice on Kirk or the crew; he leaves them to come to a decision freely, and he assures Kirk that the three aliens will respect whatever decision they make.
In a conference room back aboard the Enterprise, all the parties involved are discussing what to do. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, and Ann Mulhall are there, along with Chief Engineer Scott, who will be working closely with the aliens in the construction process.
Kirk and Spock share with the assembled group some of the remarkable advances possible by learning from the aliens’ superior technologies, and it is indeed impressive; as Spock states, mankind could “leap forward ten thousand years.”
“Bones” McCoy is understandably concerned at the obvious physical dangers:
KIRK: Bones? You could stop all this by saying no. That's why I called you all here together. We'll all be deeply involved. It must be unanimous.
MCCOY: Then I'll still want one question answered to my satisfaction.
Why?
Not a list of possible miracles, but a simple basic understandable why that overrides all danger. And let's not kid ourselves that there is no potential danger in this.
Then Captain James T. Kirk declares the entire purpose of Starfleet, of exploration … indeed perhaps his whole reason for being.
KIRK: They used to say if man could fly, he'd have wings. But he did fly. He discovered he had to.
Do you wish that the first Apollo mission hadn't reached the moon, or that we hadn't gone on to Mars and then to the nearest star? That's like saying you wish that you still operated with scalpels and sewed your patients up with catgut like your great-great-great-great-grandfather used to.
I'm in command. I could order this. But I'm not. Because Doctor McCoy is right in pointing out the enormous danger potential in any contact with life and intelligence as fantastically advanced as this.
But I must point out that the possibilities, the potential for knowledge and advancement is equally great.
Risk. Risk is our business!
That's what the starship is all about. That's why we're aboard her!
You may dissent without prejudice. Do I hear a negative vote?
(There’s silence around the table.
… Would you dissent?)
Engineer, stand by to beam aboard three receptacles.
Thus the transference begins. The bodies of Kirk, Spock, and Ann are inhabited by the essences of Sargon, Hannok, and Thalesa, and construction of the robots commences.
However, Hannok proves to be as treacherous in Spock’s body as he evidently was in his previous form. He attempts to murder Sargon (and, by extension, Kirk) and to convince Thalesa to keep the human forms they have appropriated, and in so doing to murder Spock and Ann as well.
Fortunately, Sargon has anticipated Hannok’s treachery. He and other senior Enterprise officers manage to defeat and destroy Hannok; then he and Thalesa agree to vacate Kirk’s and Ann’s bodies and return to oblivion … but not before a last, tender moment together in physical form (you didn’t think we’d get through an ENTIRE episode without Kirk kissing the girl, did you?).
Lesson You Can Use:
As a child, and even now, I never fail to be struck by the courage of James T. Kirk. His willingness to put himself, his ship, everything, on the line, to complete the mission, to defeat the enemy, to expand human knowledge and advancement, has always been a source of inspiration to me.
What’s YOUR risky decision? What’s the choice you know you need to make, but are hesitating to make because you fear the outcome may not be what you hope for?
Here’s what I know: You’ll never know what leaps you could make, what you might achieve, what heights may stand before you, if you don’t even try.
As Wayne Gretzky, the greatest hockey player who ever lived, once said, “You’ll miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Risk is YOUR business!