Opinions on "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

[Reno_Anastasio]

Hello,

I am a Dalhousie University Student taking a course on TV Theory.

I am writing an Essay about the Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."

I would be grateful if you would participate in my anonymous and very brief survey by answering the following two questions:

1. What do you think that episode is about?

2. Do you identify your ethnicity as white, black or a visible minority?

Thank you for your cooperation.

Regards,
Reno Anastasio

 

[Sir Rhosis]

1. The follies of racism (slegehammer subtle, though)

2. White

 

[Harvey]

1. See poster above (also, blatant allusion in the script to "the southern part of the galaxy")

2. White

 

[Wingsley]

1: a very artsy, stylized stage-theatre-style play on racial apartheid, with an entertaining (and sometimes unintentionally amusing) exhibition of Cold War diplomacy and military rituals.

2: white

(BTW: sledgehammerish it definitely was, but the strangely musical doomsday ritual of the Destruct Sequence was the most memorable Cold War campy delight since Slim Pickens rode the Bomb in DR. STRANGELOVE!)

 

[Forbin]

^What Winglsey said.

 

[sonak]

This episode gets hammered for being so obvious about its moral, but really, I think that's unfair since there's no way to be subtle or ambiguous about racism.


Seriously, how do you make a "balanced" episode on the topic? There's no second, "oh yeah, you can sort of see the racists' point of view" to the issue. And it was definitely relevant to the times during which the episode aired.

The scene where Spock and Kirk are so incredulous when they discover just why Bele and Lokai are fighting just sums up how incredibly stupid racial prejudice would seem to an outside observer of a culture or civilization.

 

[T'Girl]

blatant allusion in the script to "the southern part of the galaxy"

I've seen this episode dozens of time and somehow missed the point of that line, thanks.

1) Friend of mine once said that the episode was about the duality of self, I never really grasp her point, she a Taoist.

Bele is the authority figure, upper crust, he spoke in clear belief of his own position, he sits in a quiet meeting with the ship's authority figures, Kirk and Spock, about as close as the Enterprise gets to having a bourgeoisie class. They must naturally understand his point of view.

Lokai is the repressed rebel, the innocent victim, he speaks of his cause and the abuse of "his people", he engages in meetings with the crew, the Enterprise's proletariat. They must be lead by the nose to a understanding his point of view.

Both Bele and Lokai despise the crew of the ship, they're all free, a condition neither alien can truly understand. Bele openly refers at one point to the monocolored as "trash."

2) Brown.

 

[Warped9]

Nothing to add as it's all been well said above.

White.

 

[Forbin]

I'm actually a pinkish color with maybe a little orangey tone...

 

[T'Girl]

a little orangey tone...

You know, some dark green leafy vegetables will clear that right up.

 

[YARN]

Seriously, how do you make a "balanced" episode on the topic? There's no second, "oh yeah, you can sort of see the racists' point of view" to the issue. And it was definitely relevant to the times during which the episode aired.

The scene where Spock and Kirk are so incredulous when they discover just why Bele and Lokai are fighting just sums up how incredibly stupid racial prejudice would seem to an outside observer of a culture or civilization.

Sure there is,

You, for starters, can implicate a heroic character as having a slightly racist tendency. Example: Kirk in the Undiscovered Country realizes that the death of his son got him off the rails a bit.

Spike Lee is a guy who handles the race question in a way that does not comfortably offers the after school special message ("Racism is Bad" - Rainbow appears "The More You Know"), but rather troubles the waters. He gives us sympathetic racists (like Sal in Do the Right Thing) and racial victims who have baggage of their own.

At any rate, racism is potentially a much more interesting topic in science fiction, because you actually have different races (not one race with different pigmentations). Here is the only place where one could plausibly explore the ethical implications of what one should do when races really are not equal. And this moment would really offer the viewer a "through the looking glass" opportunity to consider the worldview of the run-of-the-mill racist, to critique and explore it on its own terms.

Star Trek, however, always plays it safe. Aliens are really just humans with bumpy foreheads and everyone is evolving in the same direction. Sentient species which complete the upward climb become something like the Q.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

This episode gets hammered for being so obvious about its moral, but really, I think that's unfair since there's no way to be subtle or ambiguous about racism.


Seriously, how do you make a "balanced" episode on the topic? There's no second, "oh yeah, you can sort of see the racists' point of view" to the issue. And it was definitely relevant to the times during which the episode aired.

The scene where Spock and Kirk are so incredulous when they discover just why Bele and Lokai are fighting just sums up how incredibly stupid racial prejudice would seem to an outside observer of a culture or civilization.

The problem is that the episode sorta does try to make a false moral equivalency here, with Lokai of the oppressed being presented as just as bad as Bele of the oppressors.

Oh, and for the purposes of the OP's survey, I am black.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

Yeah, one of the many reasons to dislike the show is its superficiality in that regard; as an artifact of the time, it's reflective of a certain kind of discomfort at the end of the 1960s amongst traditional liberals and isn't dissimilar from TOS's slightly schizoid take on American militarism.

 

[sonak]

Seriously, how do you make a "balanced" episode on the topic? There's no second, "oh yeah, you can sort of see the racists' point of view" to the issue. And it was definitely relevant to the times during which the episode aired.

The scene where Spock and Kirk are so incredulous when they discover just why Bele and Lokai are fighting just sums up how incredibly stupid racial prejudice would seem to an outside observer of a culture or civilization.

Sure there is,

You, for starters, can implicate a heroic character as having a slightly racist tendency. Example: Kirk in the Undiscovered Country realizes that the death of his son got him off the rails a bit.

Spike Lee is a guy who handles the race question in a way that does not comfortably offers the after school special message ("Racism is Bad" - Rainbow appears "The More You Know"), but rather troubles the waters. He gives us sympathetic racists (like Sal in Do the Right Thing) and racial victims who have baggage of their own.

At any rate, racism is potentially a much more interesting topic in science fiction, because you actually have different races (not one race with different pigmentations). Here is the only place where one could plausibly explore the ethical implications of what one should do when races really are not equal. And this moment would really offer the viewer a "through the looking glass" opportunity to consider the worldview of the run-of-the-mill racist, to critique and explore it on its own terms.

Star Trek, however, always plays it safe. Aliens are really just humans with bumpy foreheads and everyone is evolving in the same direction. Sentient species which complete the upward climb become something like the Q.

Well the first is a bad example because it's been correctly criticized as having come out of NOWHERE. Kirk is never shown in Trek III-V that he blames "Klingons" in general for the death of his son, as that would be stupid and beneath him.(And he encounters lots of Klingons between his encounter with Kruge and TUC. Korrd and Klaa for example. Then suddenly he does in TUC because it's important to the plot.

Secondly, TUC confused some issues. Suspicion of Klingons' political motives IS NOT RACIAL PREJUDICE. They'd been military rivals for generations by the time of that movie. Yet TUC conflated racism with the issue of suspicion of Klingon peace initiatives because it was sloppy writing. That's why racism was suddenly cropping up all over the Enterprise out of nowhere.


And Spike Lee's handling of racism is about as subtle as the movie "Crash's" handling of it was. Which is to say not very.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

I daresay that Spike doesn't see a lot of subtlety to racism in this country.

 

[Noname Given]

Hello,

I am a Dalhousie University Student taking a course on TV Theory.

I am writing an Essay about the Original Series episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."

I would be grateful if you would participate in my anonymous and very brief survey by answering the following two questions:

1. What do you think that episode is about?

Not so thinly vieled allegory on the issue/subject of racism and its effect on a society.

2. Do you identify your ethnicity as white, black or a visible minority?

White.

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Yeah, one of the many reasons to dislike the show is its superficiality in that regard; as an artifact of the time, it's reflective of a certain kind of discomfort at the end of the 1960s amongst traditional liberals and isn't dissimilar from TOS's slightly schizoid take on American militarism.

Indeed--Trek is as much Eisenhower Republican as it is Kennedy Democrat.

Bele's characterization becomes only more offensive, I think, when one sees him as a Malcolm X figure, particularly when Spock makes the comment that Bele has managed to save his own skin while many of his followers have died. Malcolm X was already three years dead when the episode aired, assassinated in part for moderating his erstwhile vituperative take on Whites.

This is a bad episode for Spock all around--the scene with him skulking around the room where Bele is rabble-rousing the junior officers and slinking off to find a comm panel and tattle is rather ridiculous.

 

[plynch]

It's about hatred, too, and the destructiveness of rage and anger. (Racism need not have red-hot hate to it. It can be more cognitive, dismissive, disdainful, etc.)

Aside from the black-white skin thing, I don't think I find this episode as sledge-hammerish as others. But of course, I have "liked" it since age seven, so that affects my opinions and judgements.

2. I really dislike White and Black as classification words, simply because they're not accurate; but I know that is what you're probably needing, so: White. (North Euro Mongrel) Be well in your writing.

 

[Wingsley]

Brutal Strudel, when you say "Bele", don't you mean "Lokai"? If I understand you correctly, you seem to have the names confused.

LOKAI - The Cheronian who was flying about in Starbase 4's shuttlecraft.

COMMISSIONER BELE - Portrayed by Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin, the dude who flew an invisible scoutship and then took over the Enterprise.


I can understand why people could have a problem with Lokai being portrayed as an outlaw. The story makes him more than just a rebel on the run. It makes him into a "Mr. Mayhem" ("shakey, shakey!") from the '60's. Very annoying.

Still, despite the story's shortcomings, how could I possibly resist enjoying the Riddler face off against Captain Kirk?

 

[Brutal Strudel]

Yep, brain fart. Lokai is who I meant.

And yrs, Frank Gorshin was great.