Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
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I've always liked this episode, too, for whatever reason. Just the other day, I watched the Voyager episode, Memorial, on Spike. I like that one, also. Both episodes spring the same moralistic, heavy handed fruit. Maybe that explains why I like them both.
And then Unicron posts. You scare me, dude.
And then Unicron posts. You scare me, dude.
It is heavy-handed, but it makes a good point and the characterisations on Loki and Bele are good and there is some excellently written dialog.
I've always liked it. When I've heard people critisizing it, it is generally because it is too "preachy." This confuses me because one of th points about Star Trek that fans are usually proud of is the show is about SOMETHING, and not just robots, rayguns, and rocketships.
is it heavy-handed and preachy? Yes.
But, it was very topical for its time. Also, it demonstrates not just the wrongness of racism, but the utter absurdity of it. I'm thinking of the scene when Bele and Lokai are indignant when the Enterprise crew don't even notice the basis of the racial difference between them. Which actually makes sense. If an alien came to Earth, he'd think that the various racial and ethnic categories that divide us were fairly ridiculous.
But, it was very topical for its time. Also, it demonstrates not just the wrongness of racism, but the utter absurdity of it. I'm thinking of the scene when Bele and Lokai are indignant when the Enterprise crew don't even notice the basis of the racial difference between them. Which actually makes sense. If an alien came to Earth, he'd think that the various racial and ethnic categories that divide us were fairly ridiculous.
I liked this episode a lot. I did wonder how it would be (biologically) possible to have alien races develop that kind of skin pigmentation - two different colors split right down the middle like that. How would that sort of thing arise? But I suppose in an infinite universe, anything's possible.
Of course, our heroes wonder about it, too. And we're quite free to interpret this as being an artificial, engineered thing - a forced caste mark, so to say.
This would distance the analogy a bit from the source material of human skin colors, but the story would still be valid. It's all the more absurd to hate somebody for being something when one is responsible for that other being that something in the first place...
Timo Saloniemi
This would distance the analogy a bit from the source material of human skin colors, but the story would still be valid. It's all the more absurd to hate somebody for being something when one is responsible for that other being that something in the first place...
Timo Saloniemi
I think the idea behind the artificial pigmentation dialog was to suggest that this had been an earlier attemp by their species to solve their racial proplems, but it obviously also failed? Still doesn't make alot of sense, but at least it adds to the ultimate tragedy of the whole situation.
It would have been interesting if they'd used that idea. But I don't know if it would work if they tried to genetically engineer it; I don't see how it could be possible for any living organism to have perfectly bisected skin color, right down the middle like that.
Sonak:
Quite correct. To me, that scene where Bele takes Spock to task for not realizing the root of his "superiority" always struck me as a commentary on the absurdity of racism and prejudice, in all its forms.
He says, "Are you blind, Commander Spock?" Then he adds, "I'm black on the right side." Spock is puzzled, and he clarifies, "Lokai is white on the right side. All his people are white on the right side!"
As if it made perfect sense.
Two other notable things about the ep: It showed the destruct sequence, which was so suspenseful, they used it again in TSFS. Since then, it's lost it's power from repeated use in other series and movies.
And who agrees with me that the Cherons' electromagnetic force shield is a cool ability?
Red Ranger
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I always thought their coloring would have looked more natural if it was a more ragged edge, or large color areas like a pinto pony. That way, one of them could have been white with black areas on the left side, and the other black with white areas on the left side.
Another interesting thing they could have done is cast a black actor in Frank Gorshin's role, as the opporessor of the two races. That might have made an interesting point in '68.
Another interesting thing they could have done is cast a black actor in Frank Gorshin's role, as the opporessor of the two races. That might have made an interesting point in '68.
Agreed. That was the perfect moment of an otherwise preachy episode.
Spock would have noticed the difference earlier if he'd been able to see the star on Bele's belly.
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Or not. We're also free to leave it unanswered as it was meant to be. (But no, we Trekkies are sort of like engineers who gotta' change everything... Trekkies gotta' rationalize everything. *grin*)
Actually it lost it's power for me because of TSFS (aka: "The Great Fizzle").
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