Trekathon 023: A Taste of Armageddon (TOS)

“Prime directive? What prime directive?”

Leaving aside the “Kirk knows best”, this was an interesting episode. Not sure if it was intended as a Vietnam war analogy or a cold war analogy, but it raises an interesting dilemma. Is a ‘clean war’ a bad thing, because it allows the war to go on forever?

It’s a pity then that the writer’s answer (‘no’) was allowed to stand with very little discussion. It would have been interesting if, for instance, Spock was attracted to the idea. I think Kirk comes to the right conclusion, but his methods are a bit questionable. Couldn’t he have just forced the two planets to negotiate for peace without directly triggering imminent ‘real’ war?

Great trek moment: as far as I can tell, the first clear reference to the “United Federation of Planets”.

(OK, for the Star Trek nerds: arguably they had warp technology. But there’s no sign in the episode).

23 down, 714 to go. And as I’m now 60 minutes ahead of where I need to be, I think I’ll just watch the one episode tonight.


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