I watched "Errand of Mercy" with my 11 year old daughter today. Having already seen the Star Trek movies, my daughter asked a very logical question - if the Organians imposed peace between the Klingons and the Federation, then how are the Klingons and the Federation still having clashes in the various movies? Any help with an answer?
Errand of Mercy and the Organian Peace Treaty
- Thread starter Komack
- Start date
None I know of outside of the books. One might guess they are only concerned about large scale clashes, or that the Organians are just a bunch of old geezers with shotguns telling the kids to get off their lawn and don't pay much attention so long as the Klingons and Federation aren't in the Organian system or attracting their attention.
There was very little episode-to-episode continuity in TOS. Another good question is what happened to the Kelvan modifications to the Enterprise's engines after "By Any Other Name?"
Yes, fans can make up explanations - the point is that the approach of the producers was simply to ignore such things altogether.
Yes, fans can make up explanations - the point is that the approach of the producers was simply to ignore such things altogether.
They did mention the Organians a few times...Tribbles, etc. Every time the neutral zone between the Klingons is mentioned its a result of the Organian peace treaty. It was later replaced by the Khitomer Accords which stopped conflict altogether till the war of 2372-2373. In the movies and TOS, there was no all-out war, which suggests that's what the Organians were after.
RAMA
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I think it was Maurice who gave a really good fan-generated account of the nature of the Organian Peace Treaty, which addresses the OP's question.
When have the Organians been mentioned other than Errand and Tribbles?
Also, Kang said that Klingons had honored the peace treaty for three years in "Day of the Dove". Which shows that
1) Klingons were characteristically honor-bound in TOS already
2) Kang was a filthy liar
3) The three seasons probably covered the entire five-year mission after all - otherwise it wouldn't be possible to fit three years between "Errand" and "Day"
But yeah, it all looks like the Organians told the two warring sides to keep it down lest there be consequences, and they then kept it down (a few small-scale massacres or a proxy war here or there won't matter, surely) but upped the volume gradualy until they were back at the original noise levels, just to see if the Organians cared. And they did not. (Which was as it should, because the whole point of "Errand" was that the Organians were constitutionally incapable of caring.)
Timo Saloniemi
1) Klingons were characteristically honor-bound in TOS already
2) Kang was a filthy liar
3) The three seasons probably covered the entire five-year mission after all - otherwise it wouldn't be possible to fit three years between "Errand" and "Day"
But yeah, it all looks like the Organians told the two warring sides to keep it down lest there be consequences, and they then kept it down (a few small-scale massacres or a proxy war here or there won't matter, surely) but upped the volume gradualy until they were back at the original noise levels, just to see if the Organians cared. And they did not. (Which was as it should, because the whole point of "Errand" was that the Organians were constitutionally incapable of caring.)
Timo Saloniemi
...The likeliest thing to happen is that the Organians stop interfering immediately after they have managed to shoo away the combatants in "Errand of Mercy" - but both the UFP and the KE realize that this is a good excuse for creating a peace treaty that allows the two sides to lick their wounds and prepare for the next war so that they will be triumphant from the outset.
So they create all sorts of altruistic but irrelevant clauses such as the "better developer gets the planet" one, while the real meat of the treaty is in the arms limitations. And one of these forces Starfleet to pretend that the ST:TMP starship is the TOS starship refitted, even though it in practice is a newbuild...
Also, both sides continue to file reports where an exchange of fire was aborted by "Organian intervention", even though the skippers doing the reporting are just covering their asses!
Timo Saloniemi
So they create all sorts of altruistic but irrelevant clauses such as the "better developer gets the planet" one, while the real meat of the treaty is in the arms limitations. And one of these forces Starfleet to pretend that the ST:TMP starship is the TOS starship refitted, even though it in practice is a newbuild...
Also, both sides continue to file reports where an exchange of fire was aborted by "Organian intervention", even though the skippers doing the reporting are just covering their asses!
Timo Saloniemi
Maybe they weren't mentioned by name, but incidents in "Friday's Child" and to some extent "A Private Little War" were basically a test much like the development of Sherman's Planet. Of course they were mentioned in Enterprise also..
RAMA
