The constable who locked up Kirk on Star Trek went on to have a feud with Klinger on M*A*S*H
Years before he got in a boxing match with Jamie Farr, he arrested Kirk for witchcraft.
One of those is “All Our Yesterdays,” which is oft-cited as one of the best episodes for Spock and McCoy. The plot follows Kirk, Spock and McCoy as they get trapped in the past eras of a strange planet. Spock and McCoy get trapped in an ice age with a lone exiled alien woman, and Spock begins reverting back to the warlike ways of his Vulcan ancestors in the year the two are stuck in.
Kirk, however, runs into the portal when he hears a woman scream and gets trapped in a different era from his officers. For Kirk, he’s in a period similar to 17th century England. When he tries to get back to Bones and Spock, he finds that while he can hear them, he can’t leave. This leads to him being accused of witchcraft, naturally.
The constable who arrests him yells, “I heard the spirit talk to him. He answered and did call it Bones!”
You may not recognize that constable just yet, but he was played by Johnny Haymer. At that time, he had done a handful of TV appearances already, mostly one-off guest spots on shows like The Dick Van Dyke Show, The Wild Wild West and Gunsmoke.
Haymer continued to work steadily through the Seventies, popping up on TV shows and a few movies, before he landed the role that many still associate with him: Sgt. Zelmo Zale on M*A*S*H. Zale is the supply sergeant for the 4077th and also serves as the camp’s electrician, repairing the jukebox in the officer’s lounge in one episode.
One of the running jokes around Zale is his ongoing feud with Jamie Farr’s Maxwell Klinger. In one episode, Klinger hits Zale for disparaging the Toledo Mud Hens. In another episode, Burns manipulates Zale and Klinger into a boxing match.
Zale first appeared in season two but turned up regularly until his final appearance in season eight. As for the actor who played him, he was still landing roles until his death in 1989. In later years, he made a name for himself as a voice actor, lending his voice to TV shows like Alvin & The Chipmunks, Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, DuckTales, and The Transformers.
