Stardate: 3192.1
Quick Summary: The Enterprise arrives at star cluster NGC-321 to make contact with the planet Ameniar 7, but as they approach it they receive a message that under no circumstances are they to proceed. Starfleet Ambassador Fox insists they do so anyway, and once Kirk and a landing party beam down they are immediately taken hostage. They learn that the Amenians have been at war for 500 years, but it's not real war, just "mathematical attacks" after which people must enter disintegration chambers to die. It's a computer simulation, but people really die, with the point being that civilization continues on. Long story short, Kirk destroys the war computers, forcing the two sides to enter peace negotiations in order to avoid real armageddon.
Review: You can feel this episode just oozing Cold War politics. Computer simulations of Mutually Assured Destruction also has us modern viewers drawing analogies throughout to the movie War Games from the 1980s starring Ferris Bueller.
How about a nice game of chess?
Anyway, Scottie takes the great leap forward here, sporting some serious testosterone. Scottie, what do you say we try some diplomacy? - "The best diplomat I know is a fully active phaser bank!". YEAH! "Well, Scottie, now you've done it." - "Aye, now the hagas is in the fire for sure!". Spock continues to surprise us as well, at one point controlling a guard's mind through a wall, and using some mad Vulcan trickery: "Sir, there is a multi-legged creature growing on your shoulder"... and - Ba-Bop! - gives him the Vulcan neck pinch. Sucker.
But this episode is a quality one for several reasons. First, the writers are truly mastering the art of The Bad Guy. Just like with Khan in the previous episode, Anon 7, the leader of the Amenian High Council, is fantastic and riveting and makes you willing to look past the super-obvious Cold War references. Also, the humanity-has-to-fight-its-killing-instinct message is oversimplified, but the real underlying message, questioning the "better" methods of death during wartime, redeems it with a great layer of complexity. Finally, building upon that last point, it's hard to root for Kirk when he says, "I've returned to you the horrors of war". On the surface that appears a horrible thing to have the show's hero say, yet in context, even if you still disagree, it somehow manages to take on a different meaning.
Review: 4 stars
No comments:
Post a Comment