The Most Influential TOS Episode...

[Tenacity]

"A Piece of the Action" ... and feeling justified in killing anyone who's not on the same page.

I don't remember that from the episode.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I don't remember that from the episode.

To put it in context, what I said was:

"A Piece of the Action" could be interpreted as a parable about basing your whole society on a sacred text, limiting your moral grasp to its contents, and feeling justified in killing anyone who's not on the same page.

The episode dramatizes the need for a Reformation or an Enlightenment in such societies.

The phrase "not on the same page" was not meant literally, but as a well-known metaphor for disagreement.

Iotians revere "The Book," which clearly portrays a morality in which it is considered normal to kill ("put a hit on") anyone with whom you have a substantial disagreement. The episode also suggests that insulting the Book itself is considered a serious offense.

From those seeds, we end up a with a people who are trapped in a cycle of violent retribution, and who take their inverted ethical code for granted.

"A Piece of the Action" is one of those stories that has now become much better science fiction, more prescient and timely, than its author probably intended.