T*R*E*K: I'll go with him, sir.

[scarfman]

Summary: Decades before I started asking myself questions like, What if King Arthur were a starship captain, or a MASH surgeon?, I asked, What if James T. Kirk never existed but Hawkeye Pierce was born 300 years late? The title of a T*R*E*K piece is a line from the original scene which doesn't appear in the T*R*E*K version. (Here's an overview of the T*R*E*K chronology.)

Setting/spoilers: This is the scene from the end of Space Seed.

I'll go with him, sir.

---

"I assume you've read Milton," Borelli said. He looked straight at Hawkeye, having no illusions about whose doing this offer was. Hawkeye only nodded. "Ah, well. It is after all what I wanted - a world to conquer." He looked at Hot Lips, seated beside him, but she remained at attention and didn't return his gaze. The security detail led him out, head high.

"Captain," Hot Lips said once he was gone, "I prefer to stand trial."

"Well," said Henry, "I don't think that'll be necessary."

Hot Lips gaped.

"Dr. Houlihan's plan was actually quite clever, from a tactical standpoint," Hawkeye said. "She gained the enemy's confidence and pretended to join his forces, only giving herself away when a fellow crewmember's life was threatened. Granted, it was mine ..."

"Captain, I am guilty of mutiny!" Hot Lips objected.

"That's twice you've spoken out of turn, Commander," Henry drawled. "Well, I still think it would have been polite of her to inform her captain of her plan beforehand. The prisoner is confined to quarters for ten days. Commander Srank, take the prisoner in hand and execute sentence."

Srank led Hot Lips out with a security escort, both of them a bit dazed.

"Henry," said Hawkeye, "that was beautiful!"

"She'd kill for you now," Trapper John added. "Srank too."

"Aw, do you know how much trouble it is to court martial someone, I mean the paperwork? What was that about Milton, anyway?"

Father Mulcahy responded, speaking distractedly. "Lucifer, as he fell into the pit. 'It is better to rule in hell than to serve in heaven.'" After a moment he realized they were all looking at him. "You didn't hear that from me."

"Is something wrong, Father?" Radar asked.

"Just thinking," Father Mulcahy said. "It would be interesting to return here in a hundred years and see what has sprung from the seed we planted today."

There seemed to be nothing to say to that, and the Starfleet officers filed out of the room.

---

"I assume you've read Milton," Borelli said. Major Anthony Borelli (Robert Alda), like Khan Noonien Singh, appeared in two episodes in his sourcework separated by years: The Consultant, season three, and Lend a Hand, season eight(?).
He looked straight at Hawkeye, having no illusions about whose doing this offer was. While Star Trek's leads are its highest-ranking regulars, M*A*S*H's aren't, and this is one of the things T*R*E*K has to work around. Henry won't still be around for The Wrath of Borelli so Borelli's obsessive emnity has to be for someone else.
He looked at Hot Lips, seated beside him In the T*R*E*K version of Space Seed Hot Lips stands in for Marla McGivers; Hot Lips had her eye on Major Borelli in The Consultant.
"Well," said Henry, "I don't think that'll be necessary." I guess it's totally unrealistic that Henry and the rest of the ship would let Hot Lips off for conspiring with Borelli. I'll say often in these comments that T*R*E*K is a puzzle with no right or wrong answers, just answers that work and answers that might work better. This is one that might work better.
"when a fellow crewmember's life was threatened. Granted, it was mine ..." In T*R*E*K it's Hawkeye the security chief, not Henry the captain, who is put in the decompression chamber, and who escapes to stop Borelli in the engine room. Again, leads, ranks, yada yada.
"She'd kill for you now," Trapper John added. "Srank too." As odd as it may be for Henry to let Hot Lips off, that he does affords him the loyalty starship officers show for their captain which Henry certainly never got from her or Frank on M*A*S*H.
And a scarfman no-prize to the first commenter to identify the line of dialog lifted whole from M*A*S*H.

Comments

[redneckgaijin.livejournal.com]

The line about the courtmartial is almost certainly it.

However, although the line, "I still think it would have been polite of her to inform her captain commanding officer of her plan beforehand," although not spoken anywhere in MASH that I can think of, was certainly thought very loudly, by both Blake and Potter, multiple times. }:-{D

[scarfman]

That's it, from the episode Court Martial when Hawkeye slugs Frank in the scrub room and Mary Wickes comes visiting.

[scarfman]

Correction, the name of that episode is House Arrest.