“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”
Written by Oliver Crawford (Story by Lee Cronin)
Directed by Jud Taylor
Season 3, Episode 15
Production episode: 3×15
Original air date: January 10, 1969
Star date: 5730.2
Mission summary
Enterprise is on an important humanitarian mission to decontaminate Ariannus, which has succumbed to bacterial invasion that will kill billions of people without their timely intervention. But a funny thing happens on the way to the planet: they encounter a damaged Starfleet shuttlecraft which was jacked from Starbase 4. The lone pilot is injured and unable to respond to their hails, so they bring the shuttle onboard. Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock meet it at the hangar deck with a security team and a man in blackface stumbles into the corridor. But wait! He collapses and rolls over to dramatically reveal that the left side of his face is white!
Dr. McCoy, Spock, and Kirk are baffled by their guest’s strange appearance. They’ve never heard of an alien race with this kind of pigmentation, and conclude he must be a mutant, “one of a kind.” Kirk states that, “judging by looking at him, we know at the very least he is the result of a very dramatic conflict.” (Wink, wink.) The doctor’s merely guessing at treating his unknown biology, but his ministrations do the trick and the patient soon wakes up. They’ve never heard of him, but he’s heard of Enterprise. The man identifies himself as Lokai from Cheron, a planet in an uncharted area of space. All Kirk knows is that Lokai stole a shuttle.
LOKAI: You’re being very loose with your accusations and drawing conclusions without any facts.
KIRK: Well, I do know you made off with a ship that didn’t belong to you.
LOKAI: I do not make off with things. My need gave me the right to use the ship. Mark the word, sir, the use of it.
KIRK: You can try those technical evasions on Starfleet Command. That’s where you’ll be facing your charges.
Lokai insists that he was going to return the shuttle when he was done with it, and tosses in, “You monotone humans are all alike.” Clearly he knows how to win friends and influence people. McCoy tries to smooth things over by complimenting him as “the most incredible physical specimen of all time,” but he probably says that to all the half-black, half-white aliens he encounters.
Kirk is summoned back to the Bridge when an alien ship is detected on a collision course with Enterprise. At least, that’s what their sensors say, even though the viewscreen shows absolutely nothing but empty space. Sometimes Chekov imagines things. Nonetheless, they all peer at the screen worriedly as the invisible ship gets closer, they think. They brace for impact just in case, but the other ship just seems to disintegrate, leaving its passenger standing on the Bridge. Holy Half-Moon cookie, Batman! It’s another duotone alien! Kirk blames Spock for this development–he promised this sort of mutation was one of a kind. What kind of science officer is he, anyway?
The man’s name is Bele, also from Cheron. Kirk and Spock are more curious about his method transport. Apparently the warranty just ran out, and you know how things fall apart right as soon as the warranty expires. He further claims that it was “sheathed in special materials that rendered it invisible.” Uh-huh. This plausible explanation, so convincingly delivered, satisfies Spock’s curiosity, so it’s on to real business. As the chief officer of the Commission on Political Traitors, Bele wants to collect Lokai for trial on their planet. Kirk says he’ll have to take a number because Starfleet already has dibs, but agrees to show him to their prisoner in Sickbay. As soon as Bele and Lokai meet, they get into a heated political debate, rehashing an old argument between them.
BELE: And you see how this killer repays you, as he repays all his benefactors.
LOKAI: Benefactors? He’s a liar. He raided our homes, tore us from our families, herded us together like cattle and then sold us as slaves!
BELE: They were savages, Captain. We took them into our hearts, our homes. We educated them.
LOKAI: Yes, just education enough to serve the master race.
BELE: You were the product of our love! And you repaid us with murder.
LOKAI: Why should a slave show mercy to the enslaver?
BELE: Slaves? That was changed thousands of years ago. You were freed.
LOKAI: Freed? Were we free to be men? Free to be husbands and fathers? Free to live our lives in equality and dignity?
BELE: Yes, you were free, if you knew how to use your freedom. You were free enough to slaughter and to burn all the things that had been built!
LOKAI: I tried to break the chains of a hundred million people. My only crime is that I failed. To that I do plead guilty.
Kirk breaks up their verbal onslaught and refuses to grant Lokai political asylum or return him to Cheron in Bele’s custody. Not only does he have to hold Lokai accountable for stealing that shuttle, but they’re kind of under a deadline. Bele isn’t happy and says as much, but he allows a security guard to show him to his temporary quarters. A moment later, Chekov calls with an important update.
CHEKOV: Captain, we’re off course.
KIRK: Well, get back on course.
You just can’t get good help these days! It turns out that Chekov has an actual emergency–the ship has changed its heading spontaneously and they’ve lost control of the helm. Not good. They try all the troubleshooting tricks listed in the help manual, but nothing works. Even the cameras have gone all wonky, zooming in and out on the flashing Red Alert lights. It seems Enterprise is going to Cheron whether they like it or not. Cheron? Wait a minute, didn’t–
Bele appears on the Bridge again, via the turbolift this time, to state the obvious:
We’re on the way to Cheron. Captain, this ship is now under my direction. For 50,000 of your terrestrial years, I have been pursuing Lokai through the galaxy. I have not travelled this far, this long, only to give him up. This ship goes where my will drives it.
This guy is very dedicated to his job. Lokai joins the party and begs the crew to help him by killing Bele. “You’re two of a kind,” Kirk argues. He’s had enough of this. He orders security to arrest their visitors, but they have personal energy fields that prevent anyone from touching them and even blocks phaser fire. Cheron it is, then. Hope the weather’s nice this time of year.
But Kirk has one other alternative. If he can’t have his ship, no one can. He threatens to blow it up but Bele thinks he’s only bluffing. Obviously he doesn’t know Kirk. The captain orders the computer to initiate a self-destruct sequence, Spock and Engineer Scott authorize the order with the correct command codes, and the thirty-second countdown begins. Kirk warns Bele that nothing can stop it “from five to zero.” It’s a game of chicken to see who will break first. Bele tries to use his will to stop the computer while the Bridge crew look around nervously, but he ultimately agrees to release his hold with only six seconds remaining. Phew! Kirk cancels the destruct sequence in the nick of time.
Bele doesn’t immediately comply, requesting the captain take them to Cheron after they fulfill their mission on Ariannus, but Kirk refuses to negotiate. Seemingly defeated, Bele returns helm control and they’re back on course. Now that the crisis is over, Kirk feeds them the company line (peace…individual rights…yadda yadda yadda) and gives them both free run of the ship. Huh? Spock then summarizes: “Fascinating. Two irrevocably hostile humanoids.” Thank you, Spock.
Since Kirk is letting them hang out wherever they want, Lokai preaches to the choir in the crew lounge. Spock eavesdrops outside the lounge while Lokai pushes his propaganda, as Bele warned he would.
LOKAI: There is no persecution on your planet. How can you understand my fear, my apprehension, my degradation, my suffering?
CHEKOV: There was persecution on Earth once. I remember reading about it in my history class.
SULU: Yes, but it happened way back in the twentieth century. There’s no such primitive thinking today.
(Nudge, nudge.)
Meanwhile, Bele is sharing drinks with Kirk and Spock when a communique from Starfleet Command informs him that his request for Lokai’s extradition has been denied. The frustrated Commissioner finally reveals the source of their conflict.
BELE: It is obvious to the most simpleminded 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.
OH… Oh boy. What? He fails to convince Kirk and Spock that this makes any sense, but Kirk suggests maybe they can, you know, talk about their problems. Bele refuses to believe that Lokai can ever change, even when Spock relates the uplifting story of how the Vulcans embraced logic and got back their groove, though he doesn’t mention the whole Romulan thing. That would only weaken the point he’s making, which is that they should all just get along.
They’re about to have an interesting discussion about evolution, when the ship finally arrives at Ariannus. From the Bridge, Scotty coordinates the fumigation of the entire planet’s atmosphere, which is completed within minutes. Then they set course for Starbase 4.
Or do they? Some of the computer’s memory circuits are toast. Bele takes credit for burning out helm control and the self-destruct, demonstrating his newfound ability by literally hand waving. Lokai returns to the Bridge, ranting about justice, and he and Bele struggle with their hands around each other’s throats and their energy fields blazing. Kirk tries once more to get them to chill. “Bele, you keep this up, and you’ll never get to Cheron with your prisoner,” he says. “This will be your final battlefield.” Inexplicably, he gets through to them this time, and Kirk seems more willing to negotiate for control of his ship when blowing it up isn’t an option.
Bele releases the helm, and must repair its damaged circuits with his mind too, since Sulu confirms it’s working again. “Captain, it’s beautiful,” he says. Okay, Sulu, calm yourself. As it happens, they’re also at Cheron already.
Their long-range scanners reveal that all intelligent life is gone, with “vast numbers of unburied corpses in all cities.” Now Bele and Lokai start fighting over who killed everyone.
KIRK: Stop it! What’s the matter with you two? Didn’t you hear Spock? Your planet is dead! There’s nobody alive on Cheron because of hate. The cause you fought about no longer exists. Give yourselves time to breathe. Give up your hate. You’re welcome to live with us. Listen to me. You both must end up dead if you don’t stop hating.
But they love hating! Lokai runs off the Bridge, closely followed by Bele. Kirk is unconcerned–after all, where can they go? Well, Spock tells him, narrating their action-packed chase throughout the ship in excruciating detail.
Bele is chasing Lokai on deck three. Bele is passing recreation room three, approaching the crewmen’s lounge. Lokai is running past the crewmen’s lounge. Lokai has just arrived on deck five. Passing recreation room three.
These guys are really out of shape, panting their way through the corridors like 50,000-year-old men, all while imagining Cheron’s fiery doom. Lokai eventually finds the transporter room and beams himself down to Cheron, followed shortly by Bele. But what does it all mean?
UHURA: It doesn’t make any sense.
SPOCK: To expect sense from two mentalities of such extreme viewpoints is not logical.
SULU: But their planet’s dead. Does it matter now which one’s right?
SPOCK: Not to Lokai and Bele. All that matters to them is their hate.
UHURA: Do you suppose that’s all they ever had, sir?
KIRK: No, but that’s all they have left.
NUDGE NUDGE, WINK WINK. Sigh.
Analysis
So, that’s a downer. This is one of the most sobering and depressing endings of the series, and the rest of it isn’t exactly cheerful either. This is also one of the preachiest and least subtle scripts, kind of ever. It couldn’t be more obvious that they were trying to expose the folly of racism based on the color of someone’s skin, but unfortunately their approach is to simply turn Bele and Lokai into mouthpieces for every stereotypical defense of prejudice and subjugation. But what are we to make of the fact that despite all Lokai has suffered, he is just as quick to judge and mistrust “monotones” as a group instead of individuals?
And yet the ridiculous conflict between the differently-duotoned men is meant to be absurd, pointing out how insignificant skin color is by greatly exaggerating the issue. Though their tirades feel more like bad, didactic exposition instead of dialogue you’d actually want to hear, there are some effective moments. Whenever Bele and Lokai look at each other, usually while arguing, they present the same skin color to the screen–on opposite side of their faces–to highlight the fact that really, they’re the same. Lokai and Bele are both masterful orators, but where Lokai relies on his words to save him, Bele resorts to violence and force. They even wear the same outfits, gray jumpsuits that meet black and white in the middle. The style is reminiscent of actor Frank Gorshin’s much more colorful Riddler costume on Batman, right down to the gloves.
The director also composes some interesting shots: the extreme close-ups on eyes and mouths during the self-destruct sequence are unusual but striking, and my favorite composition of the episode is of Lokai’s shadow on the wall of the crew lounge–a faceless voice spewing divisive propaganda. (Also note the tri-dimensional chess set with its black and white pieces in the same scene.) There’s also a slow pan over the Bridge crew after Bele disables the computer, highlighting the racial diversity of Spock, Kirk, Uhura, and Chekov.
One of the biggest flaws in this episode is the focus on its strong message to the exclusion of all else, barely making even a token attempt at explaining things like Bele’s advanced ship or strange mental control over the ship’s helm (a power Lokai doesn’t seem to share, so maybe he is inferior). It doesn’t make any sense that he could redirect the ship but not halt the computer self-destruct, and if he knew he could short-circuit things with his mind, why didn’t he try that sooner? The makeup and effects are also rather half-hearted–the shiny grease paint used to blacken one side of their faces doesn’t look remotely like real skin, the recycled effects shot of the shuttlecraft from Starbase 4 is clearly the Galileo that we know and love, and the invisible ship was probably prompted more by budget than the demands of the story.
As eyerolling as the episode’s heavy moralizing may seem, we should still keep in mind that it was filmed in 1968 and broadcast in 1969, during the civil rights movement. At the time, there was too much at stake to risk people not getting the message, and the issues weren’t so obvious to a lot of people. With the hindsight of the twenty-first century, it seems a lighter touch would have been more persuasive, but this wasn’t meant to entertain, it was meant to instruct. However hamhanded, it was a noble attempt to change people, or at least open minds to different possibilities. Contrast this with the equally overdone Star Trek: Deep Space Nine two-parter, “Past Tense,” which tackles both homelessness and race relations even more ineptly twenty-six years later.
Aside from the transparent theme and weak script, the show also had terrible pacing, with several scenes stretched out much longer than necessary: the encounter with Bele’s ship, the self-destruct sequence, the chase through the corridors. Of these, I still enjoyed the self-destruct sequence, which was recreated word for word in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock, all except the counterorder, of course. Did anyone else find Kirk’s great faith in the computer ironic, considering how little he usually trusts them? I was also annoyed with their simplistic grasp of genetics and evolution, particularly their automatic assumption that Lokai and Bele are mutants, and the idea that at one time the people of Cheron were monotones too. Where did they get that idea?
What is with Starfleet’s policy on only extraditing to other planets in the Federation? It’s also bizarre that Cheron turns out to be so close to Arrianus, when it’s supposedly in uncharted space–maybe they weren’t going to get there until Tuesday. Speaking of Cheron, Bele believes their information that the planet is dead without seeing any evidence. It might have been funny–well, not funny, but a good ploy perhaps–to pretend it was dead to prove their point, then tell him the truth later. Then again, given their extreme reactions, possibly nothing would have worked.
I also have one really important question that has been bugging me for a few episodes. Why does Scotty always run to the Bridge whenever there’s a problem? Shouldn’t the Chief Engineer actually stay in Engineering, where he can do something?
Eugene’s Rating: Warp 2 (on a scale of 1-6)
Torie Atkinson: Sometimes I couldn’t resist rolling my eyes at this one: the blatant references to the 20th century, allusions to a “dramatic conflict” and “primitive thinking,” and plenty of whacks from the allegory bat. But in the end I didn’t really mind because “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” is a parable. The message is clear: hate is destructive. Tolerance helps you build empires, like the Federation, and hatred and oppression destroys them, like on Cheron.
I was impressed by the nuances (I won’t say subtleties…) of how racism was expressed here. Lokai’s first experience with the crew is one many people of color are familiar with even today: immediate suspicion. When he awakes in sickbay Kirk is hostile to him for no apparent reason. Kirk doesn’t even give Lokai a chance to relax or explain before accusing him of theft, purely on assumption and, more importantly, on appearances. As Lokai says, “You monotone humans are all alike. First you condemn and then attack.” All we know is that Lokai was in the shuttlecraft, dying, and yet Kirk assumes that he stole it. I don’t know that we’ve seen him be so confrontational and harsh before. To make matters worse, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy all assume–based on no evidence–that he’s one of a kind. They distance themselves and marginalize him as mutation and as an other.
Given that, though, there’s just not that much else to say here–it really just works on one level. Each thematic choice and every parallel is spelled out already. Everything in the episode is in service to that moral story, and as such we get a pretty flimsy plot. If Cheron is in some distant part of the galaxy that’s totally unexplored, how did it take 50,000 years to get so far away and yet only an hour or so to get home? Why doesn’t Kirk just listen to their grievances and do a preliminary hearing on the ship, “The Menagerie” style? I was also irritated that the characters speak in hyperbolic talking points, making them all kind of unsympathetic. It’s impossible to know, based on their two accounts, what the real situation on Cheron was.
But the most implausible scenario of it all was the ending: that they mutually destroyed one another. I just don’t believe it. No one’s left? Not a single person? First of all, it sets up a false moral equivalency between the slavers and the oppressed, that they were both “just as bad” as each other, and that the hatred was mutual. To the extent than it’s trying to make any kind of meaningful point about slavery and/or the civil rights movement, that false equivalency is exactly the kind of rhetoric used to keep American blacks disempowered. There wasn’t moral parity–there was, in fact, an objective standard of equality and fairness that was not being met, and even the race riots were responses to that and not merely attempts to express violent hatred. To boil those legitimate grievances down to some kind of petty and inexplicable hatred, well, I think that diminishes both the scale of the injustice that was practiced and the significance of the real movement that sought to correct it. I was disappointed that the episode fed that kind of rhetoric.
I feel like this episode was done much better as the movie The Brother From Another Planet.
Final notes: Kirk’s self-destruct sequence is the stupidest combination I’ve ever heard in my life. 1-1-1-1? Then 0-0-0-0? And finally, 1-2-3? The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!
And was it just me, or do you think those last filler bits of running through the hallway while Europe is bombed around them seem a little Valjean/Javert to you? I should set that clip to some Les Mis…
Torie’s Rating: Warp 4
Best Line: LOKAI: I’m grateful for your rescue.
KIRK: Don’t mention it. We’re pleased to have caught you.
Syndication Edits: Kirk orders magnification on the viewscreen to try to spot Bele’s ship and Chekov says they still can’t see it; Kirk stands to look at the blank viewscreen some more; lots of reaction shots of people not seeing anything and some background noise about emergency conditions; after a commercial, some reactions before Bele gives his name; more reactions and Kirk, Spock, and Bele taking the turbolift to Sickbay; Kirk’s comment that Lokai and Bele’s problem is settled “At least for the present”; McCoy checks on Lokai as Kirk leaves; the second half of Scott’s attempts to restore control by switching to Auxiliary; Kirk’s lines “Computer, destruct sequence. Are you ready to copy? Prepare to verify destruct sequence code one.”; a precious four seconds from the countdown, 25-21; exterior of Enterprise arriving at Ariannus; two segments of Enterprise fumigating the planet.
Trivia: According to producer Fred Freiberger, Gene Coon (aka Lee Cronin) originally envisioned Bele and Lokai as a devil chasing an angel. Coincidentally, this episode ended Coon’s involvement with Star Trek. Freiberger named “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield” as one of the episodes he was proudest of working on.
Director Jud Taylor came up with the idea of bicolored aliens with opposite color schemes–bisected horizontally at the waist–only a week before filming began in October 1968.
This is the last use of the Enterprise hangar deck footage on the series.
This is one of only a few episodes to feature zoomed in “beauty shots” of the Enterprise model, in this case, a close-up of the underside of the saucer section just before cutting to Sickbay.
The self-destruct sequence is repeated verbatim in Star Trek III, with Scotty providing the second command instead of Spock and Chekov supplying the third. In the film, the computer gives them a sixty-second countdown instead of thirty.
The stock footage Lokai and Bele imagine while running is of cities burning after aerial bombings in World War II. Freiberger excuses that interminable chase sequence as a “creative solution” to pad the episode’s runtime. Sigh.
The first story outline in March 1968 was titled “A Portrait in Black and White.”
Other notes: The wacky zoom effect on the Red Alert was likely acknowledgment of Frank Gorshin’s (Bele) famous turn as the Riddler on Batman from 1966-67.
Gorshin, who was a famous impressionist, hams it up as James Cagney in the third season blooper reel, and also hilariously collides with actor Lou Antonio (Lokai) while they run in the corridor. Gorshin received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal as Commissioner Bele.
Mego peddled a Cheron action figure in the 1970s with a half-black and half-white costume and no hair.
Previous episode: Season 3, Episode #14 – “Whom Gods Destroy.”
Next episode: Season 3, Episode #16 – “The Mark of Gideon.” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website.
Oh wow, I absolutely LOVE the alternate title for this episode. Beautiful.
Nobody can chew scenery like Frank Gorshin. Frankly, this episode is worth it just for him going over the top.
I think of this one as another remake, since it is essentially “The Alternative Factor” with a sledgehammer dose of meaning. This is substantially better though.
One thing that really jumped out at me in Eugene’s review is that Lokai is largely an Archie Bunker view of a civil rights activist. The way he uses his plight as justification for anything, including stealing, his own racial attitudes, it’s all right out of the privileged white guy’s handbook for describing a minority who wants to be equal. Malcolm X this guy is not. (Also note his name evokes Loki, the destructive trickster. I’m not so sure about Bele.)
I always thought the vertical bicoloration was kind of stupid, but I never noticed before that when they face each other screaming we see the same color on both of them. That’s actually pretty subtle and well-done. Kudos to whoever came up with that.
I’m going to split the difference between you two and give it a 3.
I’m with Eugene on this one and say it’s a 2, and that I feel is being kind. I dislike being hit between the eyes with a clue-by-4 as a means of delivering a message. I think your should craft entertain fiction that subtly weaves in your message, but this episode is just a train wreck.
We have magic aliens with invisible ships and all sorts of powers. Very unsubtle jabs at the audience telling them how they should think. (Did anyone else notice that Charon was located in the SOUTHERN end of the galaxy. Because as every knows all racism come from the South.) Our principle characters are passive reactive to the events of the story. Except for the self destructive thingy what difference did it make that it was Kirk who found them at all? The story does not resolve by action of the principle character it just ends. The script and episode are full of things that simply cannot be believed. The planetary fumigation had me laughing out loud and waiting for a Michael Bay screen credit. Where was Spock when he overheard Loki ranting at the crew? It seemed like he was standing by a door that was ajar and given the Enterprise doors I do think someone would have noticed that.
No, this is a bad episode and it gets no donut.
There simply is not and never will be another Frank Gorshin. Damn. As noted, he’s worth the price of admission, all by himself.
I remember watching this as a kid and thinking, ‘How come the insides of their mouths aren’t coloured half-and-half?’ and ‘What happens if they take off their gloves?’ and ‘How come they’re black and white, not pink and brown?’
And, just how extensive is that bilateralism, anyway? It would be interesting to seem them naked… Ah, my mind; one-track, really.
If they stood next to each other, they could out go for Halloween as an Oreo cookie…
But, seriously, folks…
Yes, unbelievably heavy-handed preaching, even for third-season Star Trek. But I agree with Torie that it’s a parable, and really shouldn’t be taken too seriously. The dialogue is stilted (but Gorshin’s delivery is … god, just awesomely good, regardless), the effects are crap (invisible shuttle my arse, and what’s with the WWII firestorm footage?), and the makeup is only passable.
But it’s a fun episode — if for no reason other than getting to hear a bit of good left-wing revolutionary talk, Frank Gorshin (!!!), and the self-destruct sequence, which I still think is really cool (though, yes, why Bele lets them get away with it is beyond me).
And, Torie, the destruct code can’t be too complicated; after all, Kirk will be giving it in a highly stressful situation, and he has to be able to remember it, and say it. It has a few words thrown in at random locations, so it’s pretty hard to guess.
I suppose, realistically, they would have something more akin to the firing release system on a nuclear submarine or an ICBM silo, with physical (or maybe biometric) keys, inserted at the same time but physically separated so as to prevent one person from being able to destroy the ship on his own.
Hey, and if Charon is in an uncharted part of the Galaxy, how come Kirk’s heard of it? And how do they know they’re headed for it? What exactly do they mean by ‘uncharted’ — I’m not sure that word means what they think it means.
Still. Better than ‘The Empath’!
Possibly the closest we’ll ever come to another Frank Gorshin is John Byner, and he was basically a contemporary. Since then every impressionist is somewhat less good then his predecessor and we are now into levels of what Jo Walton recently called “homeopathically good”.
On the destruct code, IIRC, voice recognition is part of it, so there is a biometric key. And since the second and third in command have to confirm the order with their own codes. I think the system is secure enough.
On the bilateralism question, I just suddenly thought about their hair. Why is that uniform on both sides? Also, if they were originally envisioned as being horizontally divided, how did they expect to show that on television?
“I once heard that on some of your planets, people believe they are descended from …apes.” The great Frank Gorshin delivers the most provocative line in the episode with Riddler aplomb.
This is probably THE iconic Star Trek episode–it could play without sound for five seconds on a TV anywhere in the world and anyone could instantly identify it and its theme. But it is still a mind-numbing drag; and it hasn’t aged well.
This episode wastes more time than any in memory, and that’s saying a LOT in Season 3. From the time wasted on the (budgetless) “invisible spaceship” canard, to the (iconic, but leads nowhere) self-destruct sequence, to the amazing amount of time spent trying to grok the left-right asymmetry of this race (Spock should have tumbled to the left/right asymmetry instantly), to plodding jogging scenes through the deserted decks, to the inadvertently symbolic and apropos scenes of the Enterprise turning aimlessly in space, this episode goes nowhere important and takes its sluggish time doing it. In sports you’d blow a whistle, “delay of game.”
Speaking of the self-destruct sequence, like the chess gambit of the previous episode this might have been a handy option in earlier episodes when more was seemingly at stake. Which raises the corollary question of whether, in this instance, the special purpose commandeering of the Enterprise for a forced extradition and repatriation of an acknowledged criminal by a law enforcement officer whose authority Kirk seems to readily accept really rises to the level of something worth destroying a capital ship over.
How many times has the ship been commandeered at this point? The risk vs investment seems out of balance here.
The episode presents its racial commentary with a cudgel, absolutely unsubtle bludgeoning. Compare to the “Cloud Minders” or “A Private Little War” or, heck, just about a quarter of TOS’ episodes that touch on racial/social inequality and apartheid tropes in one way or another, all the way back to “Balance of Terror.” Once you’re past this episode’s blatant tropes, it has very little to say or reveal.
Was it even provocative on its air date, when you’d had shows like “I Spy” and “the Mod Squad” doing racial tropes, “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner,” “To Sir, With Love” and the entire blaxploitation wave just around the corner? Having two painfully white guys play the parts of the exploited and exploited, anarchy and order, was less than innovative and inspired for Star Trek. What might this episode have been like with two black actors painted half white? That might’ve at least been interesting for its period.
Overall, a boring and tendentious morality play that, for all its hubris is pure black-&-white. Yet it endures in memory because it is visual and it seems to be going somewhere and doing something.
Still… Frank Gorshin rocks.
DemetriosX@5: Also, if they were originally envisioned as being horizontally divided, how did they expect to show that on television?
Short sleeves and knee-breeches?
And, yeah, I remember wondering about the hair, too — especially Frank’s which was brown, and didn’t really blend well with the white/black makeup.
Regarding self-destruct mechanisms, I always thought the one from The Andromeda Strain was the most interesting, in that it was automatically triggered, and required human intervention to stop it.
@4 NomadUK
You are confusing uncharted with unknown. Uncharted suggests that they had a basic idea that there were systems there but they hadn’t gotten around to surveying the area. As discussed with other episodes, some information from an uncharted area could have come to the Federation through stories and histories from nearby charted systems.
Now onto the episode in general.
On the self destruct system. I may be wrong, but I had assumed that their voiceprint had to match with their given authorization code. Still. It seems one could get past security with creative use of edited recordings. Maybe Kirk should have used a phrase he wouldn’t use in conversation. How about “Frak the Federation!”? :)
I’m glad the dates of production and first airing were given because this episode is dependent on its time. We had Twilight Zone and The Outer Limits then but most people still looked as science fiction as the pulps or comics. That being the case, science fiction TV shows and movies were expected to be over the top. Look at Lost In Space and the other Irwin Allen shows. As I’ll illustrate next, I think this is an episode in which Star Trek managed to successfully push the standards for science fiction at the time.
The staging of the scene in the rec room is wonderful. You have the “white” men listening to the words spoken by the ‘black’ shadow. And two of the men are sitting where they interrupt the shadow. In my opinion having someone with darker skin in the scene would have ruined the subtle play on the outrageous setup for this episode. Sulu was there so you have a suggestion of the diversity of the crew while making that subtle play on the Black and White issue. But what else do we see here? A foreshadowing of the episode’s conclusion. Lokai is present as a shadow and that’s what he and Bele were revealed to be at the end – shadows or ghosts from a dead world. They were still living but there was no way that they could – or would – get together and try to restart the race.
The ending of the episode seems over the top when you think only about race issues but you should also consider the other big issue of the time. The war and the threat of nuclear war. And, many people felt that the race and war issues were related.
Another episode that is cheesy by today’s standards but I have a fondness for it because I saw it when its time was its strength.
Ludon@8 makes a good point about needing to see the ending in the framework of its time, though I draw a slightly different conclusion. There was an undercurrent of rhetoric and belief that a “race war” was impending. Dixiecrats and Birchers used it as bogeyman to frighten people to their way of thinking. On the other side, the Nation of Islam had been urging direct and violent action for several years (and his eventual rejection of that philosophy may be what got Malcolm X killed). The riots in Watts and elsewhere were seen by some as the opening skirmishes. George Alec Effinger even wrote a story as late as 1971, All the Last Wars at Once, that used a race war as its starting point. The imagery shown at the end of the episode was not considered to be at all far-fetched or impossible.
Ludon@8: Uncharted v. unknown: Well, maybe so, but, wow, what an encyclopaedic memory old Kirk has for individual planets in solar systems in obscure, uncharted reaches of the Galaxy. Isn’t that what the computer — or Spock — is for?
I had assumed that their voiceprint had to match with their given authorization code.
Oh, I’m sure it does. But what happens if the larynx is damaged? Presumably there’s an alternative mechanism. And could one or two officers force the other(s) to give their codes at phaser-point? Or through some other threat? How fail-safe is this system?
And, of course, Kirk had the option of blowing up the ship once before, in ‘By Any Other Name’. It was a kludge, but the effect would have been the same. Still, the self-destruct system would have been difficult to engage under those conditions, since it was unlikely the Kelvans would have allowed the ship’s senior officers time to recite their codes. Keys or some other mechanism might have been more subtle and allowed for easier activation if the ship were seized.
And, yes, blowing up a Federation starship, together with her rather expensive crew (well, except for the redshirts, of course) for grand theft auto seems a bit extreme.
I really like this episode. It seems a bit hamfisted in retrospect, but it blew my five-year old mind at the time. This should be the prime example of the [Warning: TV Tropes] adage that some anvils need to be dropped.
The cinematography was outstanding here. I think they got a bit wacky with the sirens, but that was pretty much S.O.P. at that point. Well, maybe slightly edgy O.P.
Gorshin can chew scenery with the best but I still think Will Windom got the biggest bites in this series. (I will quote him to this day. Few people get it, alas.)
I did appreciate that the self-destruct was unavoidable after a certain point. They nipped the “0:01” trope in the bud.
Oh yeah, forgot to grade it. I give it a Warp 3. Parts of the story are problematic, of course, but it gets massive points for making the whole black/white thing so literal that it’s initially unrecognizeable.
@ 2 DemetriosX
It’s not just Archie Bunker. There’s also a bit of hippie-punching going on, with the “You’ve combed the galaxy and come up with nothing but mono-coloured trash, do-gooders and bleeding hearts. You’re dead, you half-white!” It stings a little.
@ 3 bobsandiego
I’m not disagreeing about the… coherence problems, but if you look at it through the lens of a parable, it makes a little more sense and is much more forgivable. Parables exist outside of reality–they’re meant to be instructive, not necessarily plausible, and I was okay with that.
@ 4 NomadUK
I can always count on you to ask questions no one should ask.
Now you’ve got me curious…
@ 6 Lemnoc
I have to disagree with you, there. “Spock’s Brain” has way more time-wasting dreck than this one does. It was sluggish at times but never boring.
The instant commandeering of the Enterprise is beginning to grate on me. So Lokai, desperate for his life, hurts no one and takes a shuttlecraft to escape–but Bele commandeers the ship, TWICE, and Kirk says oh well, you’re both free to move about the ship.
@ 8 Ludon and @ 9 DemetriosX
The whole “if we don’t play nice we’re going to have race wars!” thing is the same poisonous rhetoric of the false equivalency.
@ 11 ChurchHatesTucker
I agree–there’s something to be said for tackling a problem literally.
What to say . . .
Well, first off, Torie, don’t go setting that sequence to Les Mis. You’d be doing the musical a terrible disservice.
I didn’t so much mind the terrible heavy-handedness of the plot so much as I minded its refusal to take sides. I’m with Torie on this — for instance, I don’t see how Lokai’s speech to the off-duty crew was anything but an important education.
I mean, folks, Lokai’s people grew up in slavery. They remained oppressed for thousands and thousands of years (apparently a very long-lived people, with no doubt a correspondingly conservative (in the sociological/linguistic sense) social bent). Bele (or, as it’s actually pronounced, “Beal”) makes no effort to deny this. All he does is trot out the usual arguments of the plantation holder, that it’s the right-side-black man’s burden to raise up and properly train his benighted right-side-white stepchildren.
In this context, everything Lokai says is absolutely true. His people have been oppressed. The Earth-men don’t understand this any more, because it’s been generations since that oppression was here. You really cannot blame him for fighting back without explicitly endorsing a moral and practical equivalency between the violence of oppression and the resistance of the oppressed.
That’s why the final message — “Oh they all destroyed each other oh noes let’s stop the hate, okay!” — is so galling. “Everybody just stop fighting” is a wonderful rhetorical strategy to deploy when you’re the guy on top, your people control the wealth and the power, and the official rules of the game endorse at least some portion of your advantage over the other guy. It’s the sociological equivalent of asking the ref to stop the game when your team’s in the lead. So long as it’s viewed as a zero-sum game — which it obviously is; neither side seems to deny it — equality isn’t even in it; it’s just a question of who’ll get to be on top.
In that context, I’m not sure Lokai should view it as a loss that his people are all dead; at least they took their oppressors with them.
@14. DeepThought
raises a notable point about this episode. Kirk instantly recognizes the authority of the high commissioner and it is with Bele that his identity and (apparent) sympathies lie. Even past the point, as Torie notes, where Bele far more than Lokai has shown himself to be a threat to ship operations. The Federation is likewise deferential to the high commissioner plantation owner. Yet what credentials has he offered, what warrants does he hold as a police officer?
Kirk is unsympathetic to Lokai, who has only the power of rhetoric (clumsy as it is) and seems to have none of the “special powers” of Bele. Lokai inviting the junior officers to revolt as XO Spock eavesdrops reinforces the idea that Lokai is a threat to hierarchical authority.
In the end, after Lokai has fled the bridge, Kirk issues a special impassioned plea to Bele as if tacitly understanding that only the Overlord, not the Revolutionary, has the power to reason (we’ll see more of this in The Way To Eden BTW). Bele evidently has the “white man’s burden.”
The entire episode is presented to the audience as network broadcasters of the era presented the erupting racial strife of the South to their moderate white audience–a bizarre curio. Who can fathom its depths? BOTH sides must be at fault! **Shrug**
@14 Deep Thought “Everybody just stop fighting” is a wonderful rhetorical strategy to deploy when you’re the guy on top, your people control the wealth and the power, and the official rules of the game endorse at least some portion of your advantage over the other guy.
Only if you think you have more to gain by stopping the fighting than continuing it. Of course, the same is true for the other side. Which is sort of the point of the episode. Neither one had a real reason to keep it up.
@ 14 Deepthought
“I didn’t so much mind the terrible heavy-handedness of the plot so much as I minded its refusal to take sides.”
You know I was so mind numbed with boredom this flew right past me and thank you for pointing it out. You are dead on target. Of course by the nature of the Star Trek Philosophy (i.e. Prime Directive) we aren’t supposed to take sides. All cultures are equally valued and equally right.
I prefer strong stands — but without preaching — in my themes.
bobsandiego@17: I’m not sure I agree that the Prime Directive necessarily implies that all cultures are equally valued and equally right. What it says is that we don’t have the right to meddle in their development, which says nothing about whether we sympathise with the culture, whilst saying a lot about our own — namely, that we don’t know enough to tell others how to run their civilisations.
The Federation certainly takes sides, and values some cultures more than others, else why would there be arguments regarding admission of new members, as in ‘Journey to Babel’?
And Kirk — well, Kirk and the Prime Directive have an uneasy relationship. Yet at the end of this episode (in which, I agree, he tends to give undue — and unusual — deference to Bele at Lokai’s expense, but perhaps he’s simply being a Federation diplomat more than a Starfleet soldier), his position is reasonable: there’s nothing left to fight for, so give it up.
It’s really not so different a viewpoint than the one he’s expressed before, in ‘Patterns of Force’ and ‘A Taste of Armageddon’: war is a messy business, and it’s better to jaw-jaw than war-war.
Wow, I sit out for one day and come back to find all these comments. It’s like you were all waiting for this episode to come around. Some late responses:
@1 Torie
At first I didn’t like the alternate title, but when I just read it again and thought more about your take on this one being a parable, “A Portrait in Black and White” would have made it clearer that this was all intentional instead of mediocre storytelling. It’s the sort of title we might have seen on The Twilight Zone, which was much better suited to this kind of moralizing.
I disagree though that because it’s telling a different kind of story that makes it more forgivable. It still has to be good Star Trek.
@4 NomadUK
If they stood next to each other, they could out go for Halloween as an Oreo cookie…
You have a strange mind, sir.
@8 Ludon
I like your analysis of the crew lounge staging. If only the episode could have had that much depth throughout.
@8 Ludon, @9 DemetriosX
The big problem with pushing the race issue so much in this episode is that I think it blinded me to the question of war and mutual annihilation, which absolutely was a fear of the time. I didn’t really consider how the two were linked, but it may have been more effective for me if they had tried not to be so specific in their comparison. And yet, some have mentioned that as a strength of this episode. Regardless of its weaknesses, it was a daring move to attack it so directly. Surely by now they knew they were cancelled, and figured they could get away with whatever they wanted.
@11 ChurchHatesTucker
They nipped the “0:01″ trope in the bud.
Assuming that Kirk is telling the truth about the five second limitation. Maybe that was the last trick he had up his sleeve.
@14 DeepThought, @15 Lemnoc
Great observations re: taking sides and Kirk’s obvious deference to Bele. I was stunned when I saw them sharing drinks together, while Lokai is forced to “sneak around” and curry favor with the crew. Despite the beautiful staging, the fact that Spock was eavesdropping on his speech implies there’s something sinister about it, that he’s doing something wrong. I think casting Lokai’s shadow on the wall was also meant to make the whole proceeding seem more ominous.
@ 18 NomadUK
Certainly during the run of TOS the Prime Directive was principally argued as about development, but once Roddenberry got out from under a newtwork and was making his show in syndication (i.e. TNG) he made it clear that it was about an affirmation of the philosophy of Relativism. He also referred ot in interviews and such. Now I do not think it directly applied to this episode as this episode is not that well thought out, but it is tool that was used to say this is why we cannot take side in the continuum of stories.
Eugene @19:
It’s not that surprising. For the first time in ages we have a) an episode that’s actually snark worthy and b) an episode that’s actually about something.
Also,
The thing is they were so intrinsically linked at the time, it was almost impossible not to deal with them together. It’s really easy to look back and see the civil rights movement as being largely sit-ins and rousing speeches punctuated by the occasional water cannon and police dog. Somehow the murders, the church burnings, the riots, and all the other violence seem to get pushed to the side and hand-waved as not really connected or isolated incidents. It was a much tenser time than people realize.
@ 14 DeepThought
Good point. Women had to ask men for suffrage. The oppressed don’t earn rights and privileges; the ruling class grants them.
@ 15 Lemnoc
I hadn’t thought about that but by god you’re right. Kirk invites him for DRINKS while Lokai’s around trying to earn sympathy from the underdogs of the crew. Yikes.
@ 17 bobsandiego
Lemnoc changed my mind. Kirk very much DOES take sides, if only marginally. He seems very much on Bele’s team in a way that doesn’t sit right with me.
@ 18 NomadUK
I would think Kirk’s history of stomping into some “backwards” planet and setting them straight is proof enough that the prime directive has certain cultural preferences.
@ 19 Eugene
Plot and production-wise it’s middling Star Trek, but thematically it felt very Trek to me.
@ 21 DemetriosX
Oh yeah, no argument here. It doesn’t help that I’m reading Nixonland right now, which is sometimes enough to make you want to hide under the sheets.
The more I think about this episode, the more I agree with Torie that it should be taken as a parable. The stated duration of the chase, the quickness of the trip from Ariannus to Cheron, and even the attitudes of the regulars don’t make sense when examined in detail but they do work as stage props for this morality play.
It didn’t hit me until today while listening to NPR that the American holiday honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. falls within the week of discussion for this episode.
Additionally, If any of the followers of this site who are too young to have seen the series first run want another example of how race tensions had a grip of all aspects of society at that time, I’d suggest looking up Tommie Smith and John Carlos’ Black Power Salute in the 1968 Summer Olympics.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute
This event was still a topic of conversation when this episode aired.
@ 22 Torie
“Kirk very much DOES take sides, if only marginally. He seems very much on Bele’s team in a way that doesn’t sit right with me.” I find this phrasing intriguing. He Very much marginally takes Bele’s side.
Personally I do not think he takes Bele’s side. If Kirk had he would have then lectured Lokai on the error of his ways. No, I think Kirk deference such as it is to Bele is purely his function as the Federation diplomat on scene and Bele however loathsome is the representative of a new government contacting the Federation. Everything Kirk does is what any diplomat would have done.
@4 NomadUK
I couldn’t agree more about Frank Gorshin. I had the opportunity to see him on Broadway in 2003 in Say Goodnight, Gracie, his one-man show as George Burns. One of the most memorable and astonishing performances I’ve ever seen — it was almost impossible to believe, at times, that it was NOT really George Burns on stage. The audience brought the house down at the end.
Three years later, he was dead. Sigh. What a talent.
I find it telling that Lokai is just as prejudiced towards “monotones” as Bele is towards Lokai. A subtle bit in a mostly anvilicious episode that is, yes, quintessential Star Trek.
Lokai’s remark reminds me of something I noted in high school (in Alabama)- I was suprised to note that one of my friends, who was (as Richard Pryor put it) “Africa dark”, was prejudged by the majority of lighter skinned African-Americans. It is presented here as a more subtle and less broad indictment of both sides- neither is immune to being wrong.
oh, another thing that bugged me while watching the episode. During some bridge scene in shots photographed from the front of the bridge it was clear that it was Sulu and Chekov at the Helm and Navigation stations, but on the reverse angle it was Sulu and some random guy.
@BobSandiego #17
“All cultures are equally valued and equally right”
See, I don’t get this as what the Prime Directive’s about, even in Next Gen (and I’m a NG kid really). It’s not that any particular individual in the Fed is required to value anything at all — they frequently find other cultures abhorrent and are happy to offer to interfere if the circumstances warrant it. It’s just that it’s a big universe and nobody’s got the right to go telling everyone else how to live. That’s part and parcel of respecting the laws of whatever planet you’re visiting — the difference between a tolerable space empire and an EEEVIL one is, well, state’s-rights federalism.
@Eugene #19 Re: Spock Sneaking
I think it’s also possible to read that scene as Spock eavesdropping on a necessary learning process. Lokai isn’t encouraging anybody to rebel — he doesn’t even suggest that the crew should question the lawfully constituted authority of the senior officers, for instance. He’s more conducting what we’d call a teach-in, spreading uncomfortable truths to the privileged Starfleet types who would otherwise be entirely sheltered from them. For Spock to get involved would disrupt an educational process that he, with his encyclopedic knowledge of Earth history, has to know is well-founded and productive. I don’t think this makes Lokai untrustworthy at all; sure, his only power is to win hearts and minds with words, and that is the power of the Serpent, but it’s also the power of the apostles. (If I may arbitrarily lapse into religious metaphor.)
As long as I’ve got the conch, let me gesture imprecisely at another idea. I think Kirk’s sympathy for Bele is telling for what the Federation is. Kirk sees in Bele a kindred spirit, or at least “our kind of people,” the kind of guy the Federation-types can get along with. Many here seem content to explain that as Kirk just “following diplomatic protocol,” etc., but that doesn’t evade the point: Bele’s people embrace a set of norms that elevate one race above others, prejudge the accused based on social status, and assume a large portion of the population deserves to be kept subservient, and Kirk recognizes him as a kindred officer? There’s an implicit endorsement there. Even if it is just following diplomatic protocol, embracing and thereby legitimizing the spokesperson of an oppressive system is not a neutral act. There are consequences to sitting down to tea with the representative of an Apartheid government, and it’s telling when one feels comfortable doing so.
Obviously I’m going further than is warranted by the episode, but I think it’s interesting in the way that it exposes the assumptions we make as an audience, as well as those made by the writers.
@27 bobsandiego
It seems like there’s a lot of that sloppy editing going on this season, including some shots in episodes that show a different woman at the communications station. (Interesting that they never cast a male in that role, that I can remember.) Obviously budget cuts, but irritating nonetheless.
@ 23 Ludon
That was a weird timing coincidence, wasn’t it?
Thank you for the article link. I knew of that story but I didn’t realize the extent to which their lives were destroyed by that simple act. Wow.
@ 24 bobsandiego
I think DeepThought addresses this better than I could.
@ 26 sps49
The cultural preference for light skin over dark in black communities is very real, and not just in the United States.
I think Lokai’s statements against the “monotones,” though, cheapened the episode. It made their disagreements and hatred seem petty when the issues are much more serious.
We’re on the way to Cheron. Captain, this ship is now under my direction. For 50,000 of your terrestrial years,
I have been pursuing Lokai through the galaxy. I have not travelled this far, this long, only to give him up.
This ship goes where my will drives it.
It’s amazing how long THEY CAN LIVE 50,000 of your terrestrial years
LOKAI: Benefactors? He’s a liar. He raided our homes, tore us from our families, herded us together like
so they actually had families then woman children baby what makes of the family
LOKAI: Freed? Were we free to be men? Free to be husbands and fathers? Free to live our lives in equality and dignity?
These guys are really out of shape, panting their way through the corridors like 50,000-year-old men,OR MORE all while imagining Cheron’s fiery doom. Lokai eventually finds the transporter room and beams himself down to Cheron, followed shortly by Bele. But what does it all mean?
turns out to be so close to Arrianus, when it’s supposedly in uncharted space–maybe they weren’t going to get there until Tuesday.
Speaking of Cheron, Bele believes their information that the planet is dead without seeing any evidence
or is it really a dead planet or is it something else
This ship is going to Sharon! The greatest episode of Star Trek ever made.
the idiots who do not like Star Trek novels miss the point of the entire Series this is one of the greatest movies ever made ever ever ever