Spectre of the Gun: Melkotian Illusion

[Trekker09]

I wondered about the extent of the illusions too.
Also wondered if this is the only Trek episode that condemns gun violence, even obliquely. And that was the 1960’s-- mass murders with assault weapons in the US have escalated so drastically since then...a national “disease” as the Melkotian said, with no treatment in sight.

 

[Henoch]

Also wondered if this is the only Trek episode that condemns gun violence, even obliquely.

They certainly were not anti-phaser.

 

[dupersuper]

They certainly were not anti-phaser.

Phasers have that nice stun setting.

 

[Timo]

...That you can wage wars with, as in "Errand of Mercy".

Really, it's difficult to see the (Starfleet) point of having the kill setting at all. Indeed, sometimes the very (studio) point of using a kill setting is to have the victim croak out some important last words, like a bad opera singer - a very bad thing from the POV of the user, since the victim might expend his last strength in pressing the trigger of his disruptor instead. Yet if you stun a Klingon, the Klingon immediately goes down for good.

DSC actually has excellent examples of this very thing, while TOS at most gets some early mileage out of the last-words issue in "Conscience of King" and then rids itself of the trope.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[SpocksTricorder]

Something I've been pondering about this episode is WHEN did the illusion begin for Kirk and crew? My only speculation is it began the moment the Melkotian buoy spoke to the crew, "Aliens!" in the respective languages. And, of course, it ended when Kirk spared Wyatt Earp, finding himself and the others back on the Enterprise, with the Melkotian buoy about to explode. If that's the case, it's a very powerful telepathic illusion, as opposed to the classic trope of dream sequences, starting when a character closes one's eyes, and it seems only a split blink occurred, but that's when the dream begins, and then ends when the character finds themselves back where they were, or that some time had passed, but still a dream...

Another of my TOS gripes . Going back to old earth. Lincoln. Nazi's, ancient Rome?