Episode Title: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Air Date: 1/10/1969
Written by Oliver
Crawford and Gene L. Coon
Directed by Jud
Taylor
Cast: William
Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H.
McCoy AKA “Bones” James
Doohan as Lieutenant Commander
Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty” George
Takei as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura Bill Blackburn as
Lieutenant Hadley Frank da Vinci as
Lieutenant Brent Roger Holloway as
Lieutenant Lemli Walter Koenig as
Ensign Pavel Chekov Majel
Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel Jeannie
Malone as unnamed Yeoman Frank
Gorshin as Commissioner Bele Lou
Antonio as Lokai
Ships: USS
Enterprise NCC-1701, da Vinci SB4-0314/2, invisible Cheronian ship
Planets: Cheron, Ariannus
My Spoiler filled
summary and review: The Enterprise
is heading the planet Ariannus that has had a
horrible accident and needs the resources of a Starfleet starship to
decontaminate their planet. However,
while they are on their way the sensors pick up a Starfleet shuttlecraft. Its markings show it to be the stolen
shuttlecraft from Starbase 4. They also
show the occupant to be injured and almost dying. The crew performs a recapture/rescue
operation and brings the shuttlecraft aboard.
In sickbay Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are all taken a bit aback by the stranger’s complexion. He is half-white and half-black down the middle. They did not think such a look was possible and concluded it was a genetic mutation and he must be one of kind. Why they think is beyond me. I mean they run into duplicate Earths all the time. Strangely colored people are somehow outside the realm of possibly.
"Have you ever seen something so strange?" "Yes, this doesn't make the top ten!" |
When the man wakes up, he identifies himself as Lokai. He claims he didn’t steal the shuttlecraft but instead he just borrowed it. He has the right, according to him, because he needed it. Kirk is not impressed with that logic. We later learn that he is a member of an oppressed people, he probably should have started with that as Starfleet would be more understanding. Since he had hung around long enough to steal a shuttlecraft, he should have figured that out. Kirk lets him know they will be returning him to Starbase 4 where he stole the shuttlecraft from.
Lokai |
Kirk is called to the bridge and
according to Chekov there is a ship that is pursing the Enterprise. The ship that is trailing them is on a
collision course. It is also apparently
invisible. Kirk wonders if it could be a
Romulan ship as the audience wonders if the season 3 budget means they will
never see an alien ship again. The
invisible ship seems determined to catch the Enterprise, but then it suddenly
disintegrates.
It seems the threat is over but then they see a man has appeared on the bridge. It is the Riddler, just last week the crew had to deal with Catwoman, now the Riddler has shown up to menace them. It appears Lokai is not so unique because the Riddler is also half white/half black. The Riddler identifies himself as Bele. He is a commissioner of Cheron charged with seeking out traitors. He blames his tactics on the necessity of capturing such a dangerous criminal.
The Rid--I mean Bele! |
Bele is permitted to see the prisoner and soon as he does, he and Lokai start yelling accusations of each other. Lokai accuses Bele’s people of enslaving his, that even when the slavery ended Lokai’s people were given “rights” but made into second-class citizens. Bele doesn’t really deny this but tries to put a different spin on it. He also counter accuses Bele of terrorism and says he kills people. He demands he be turned over. Kirk reminds them that Lokai is his prisoner for stealing a shuttlecraft, and Federation has no extradition treaties with Cheron. So, they are to resume the ship’s original mission to help the colony of Ariannus. After that they are going back to Starbase 4 where Lokai will be arrested and will be allowed to plead his case, and Bele can try to negotiate with the Federation in his attempts to have Lokai returned to Cheron.
Clearly not friends! |
Using his natural inborn abilities Bele manages to take control of the Enterprise’s navigation system and helm control. He sends the ship on a straight course to Cheron. It turns out Cheronians are immune to phaser fire with self-generating shields. Kirk demands he restore control to him. When Bele predictably refuses, Kirk says that he will destroy the ship before he lets Bele have it. With that Kirk with Spock and Scotty set up the self-destruct system on the Enterprise. As the self-destruct device counts down Bele surrenders and control returns to Captain Kirk. Kirk ends the self-destruct program. Bele tries to get Kirk to at least consider going to Cheron but Kirk refuses saying he will have to take it up with those on Starbase 4.
While the Enterprise preforms disaster relief on the colony of Ariannus, both Cheronians begin a propaganda campaign aboard the ship. Lokai goes around speaking with the crew telling the about the discrimination his people suffer on Cheron for simply having a different appearance. To the crew this reminds them of Earth history. As his opponent converses with the crew Bele tries to convince Kirk and Spock of his case. Kirk promises Bele he can take his case to the Federation but no promises after that. It is during their conversation that Bele revels something about himself that he probably should have keep secret. That his hatred of Lokai is fueled by racism. He mentions that his people are superior and when Kirk and Spock state they can see no difference Bele becomes enraged. He points out that their colors appear on the opposite sides.
Lokai talking to the crew! |
With the situation on Ariannus taken care of Kirk prepares his ship to head to Starbase 4. However, Bele has once again uses his powers to take control of the ship and he has also deactivated the self-destruct device. The Enterprise is then forced to go on this journey. When they get to Cheron both Bele and Lokai are horrified to discover that racial hatred had engulfed their civilization to such a degree that their people had successfully wiped out all intelligent life on their planet. Their civilization is gone and all their people are dead. Bele blames Lokai and attacks him. Bele chases him all around the ship, and Kirk orders his men not to interfere for they have nowhere to go. The two mortal enemies beam down to their planet to continue their final battle. The Enterprise files away.
All that is left of Cheron! |
Additional thoughts: January 10, 1969 the Civil Rights Act has
not even had its fifth birthday. There
were also a lot of people openly hostile to it and wished they hadn’t lost this
culture war. Still their rage powered
politicians such as Jesse Helms and J. Strom Thurmond for decades and still
powers right-wing politicians today. From
the point of view of the late 1960s these individuals were still going to be a political
force for years to come.
Then Star Trek aired this episode.
In the episode a scene contained this bit of dialogue:
Bele: "It is obvious to the most simple-minded that Lokai is of an inferior breed."
Spock: "The obvious visual evidence, Commissioner, is that he is of the same breed as yourself."
Bele: "Are you blind, Commander Spock? Well, look at me! Look at me!"
Kirk: "You're black on one side and white on the other."
Bele: "I am black on the right side."
Kirk: "I fail to see the significant difference."
Bele: "Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."
The message is striking and bold. It is telling every single George Wallace-loving segregationist, every single white supremacist whether they wear white hoods or not that their views are not only morally wrong they are in fact intellectually stupid. You’re a stoned moron if you have these beliefs. An utter fool whose opinions on this subject, and frankly any subject, is not worthy of consideration. There may have been a time where intelligent people had your views but there was once a time where intelligent people thought the world was flat. Every time you utter your stupid racist opinions you look just like this guy. And he is a guy that you don’t want to be.
Not the smartest person in the universe! |
With that said there are some definite holes in the plot that kind of
undermine the message. When we first
meet Lokai he has stolen a shuttlecraft, when we meet Bele he accuses Lokai of
murdering thousands. However, it becomes
very apparent that Lokai is a part of an oppressed people and it is Bele’s
group that are the oppressors. The flaw
is the timeline or timelines we are given.
In one version Lokai’s people were enslaved thousands of years ago. One thousand years ago exactly they were
granted or won their freedom, but have been forced to live as second-class
citizens in their society. Lokai’s
position is sympathetic except he is an alleged terrorist who has been accused
of killing thousands of people. We can
sympathize with someone from an oppressed group living under systematic
racism. However, we would not condone
said individual murdering people. (In reality, Americans tend to freak out even
if the only thing they see Black person doing is taking a knee at a football
game.)
However, they also say that Bele has been chasing Lokai for over 50,000 years. If these men are so long lived and they only abolished slavery 1,000 years ago, then Lokai is not a person whose ancestors had horrific crimes committed against them and is now living in a world of systematic oppression. He is the direct victim to forced kidnapping, slavery, and forced cultural assimilation. In which he would have every right to use any means necessary to resist Bele and his people. So, what was supposed to be introduced as a type of dilemma is not much of a dilemma at all.
Where your hatred got you! |
Kirk has seemed to have grown as a character. If this had been an earlier episode Kirk might have wanted to fly
to straight Cheron so he could ignore the Prime Directive and try to single-handedly,
with help from Spock and McCoy, fix their society in sixty minutes with commercials. Yet this Kirk seems to have his priority’s straight
he needs to help the colony on Ariannus, Bele and Lokai can wait. If he had been like this all along Mr. Spock
might have avoided at lot of trouble in "The Gallio Seven."
FINAL GRADE 3 of 5
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