NBC airs the 27th episode of the military drama The Lieutenant, created and produced by future Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry and starring Gary Lockwood (2001: a space odyssey) and Robert Vaughn (The Man From UNCLE). Walter Koenig (Babylon 5) and Neva Patterson (V) guest star. 
Sgt. Delwyn, a new man under Rice’s command, submits a request for officer training, and he seems like a shoo-in… until Captain Rambridge tells Rice that Delwyn’s mother is a known, outspoken communist sympathizer. Rice reluctantly raises this delicate topic with Delwyn himself, only to find that it’s not the first time that the younger man has had to answer these questions, or deny that he holds any such sympathies of his own. Delwyn’s mother is quick to seize on this as an example of discrimination endorsed by a capitalist government. Rice has to pick through the defiance and anger that Delwyn’s mother has caused to try to get to know the man himself, a task Delwyn isn’t going to make easy.
written by Robert J. Shaw
directed by Leonard Horn
music by Jeff AlexanderCast: Gary Lockwood (Lt. William Rice), Robert Vaughn (Capt. Raymond Rambridge), Jennifer Billingsley (Ginny), Paul Comi (Sgt. Willard Kasten), Chris Connelly (Cpl. Russell), Walter Koenig (Sgt. John Delwyn), Paul Lambert (Claude Gorman), John Lindesmith (Marine Private), Neva Patterson (Vera Delwyn), Carmen Phillips (Lily), Preston Pierce (Cpl. Mort Peterson)
Notes: Sgt. John Delwyn may not have been someone that the Marines would be comfortable letting loose aboard nuclear wessels, but actor Walter Koenig had a few in his future; beginning in the second season of Star Trek, he would complete the Enterprise crew in the recurring role of Russian-born navigator Pavel Chekov. Playing Delwyn’s mother was Neva Patterson (1920-2010), an actress who had been a mainstay of American film and TV since the 1940s; genre fans might remember her best as the misguided Eleanor Dupree from V and V: The Final Battle; she also appeared in the Logan’s Run TV series, Dynasty, The Dukes Of Hazzard, Hawaii Five-O, Cagney & Lacey, Charlie’s Angels, S.W.A.T., and Barnaby Jones, among many others. This is the final appearance of Robert Vaughn in The Lieutenant. The story was based on a real incident, and Walter Koenig says that the episode was called “Commie Mommy” by cast and crew.
LogBook entry by Earl Green