Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Read Full Review
I've always felt this was a rather interesting episode where bigotry and racism play key elements in the story. They also speak of evolution, which is good when too many feel it's not science but fantasy, and evolution is responsible for the very differences between races, as well. There is also some good acting and dialogue. I would have rated it more highly except for the fact there are numerous things about the episode that bothered me or seem needlessly . . . epic.
NitPicks Abound:
Despite knowing little of that area of the galaxy, they seem to know where the planet Cheron is - it's name and exact location - but they've never been. Well, maybe they know a guy who knows a guy who's been. But it's impressive Kirk doesn't even need to consult the computer to have an idea of where it is or what it's called, which seems pretty good for a planet they have no formal contact with. Maybe it's near his patrol area, and Kirk stays up on anything that comes near his ship.
That repeatedly zooming in and out of the red alert light in this episode is kind of stupid or silly looking.
Commissioner Bele's ship is invisible, and yet they have no problem detecting it and tracking its course. Why? The only reason it may have been invisible was to justify not depicting it on the screen and therefore saving money on a dwindling budget - there was no real need for it to have that ability. The explanation for why it disintegrated seems silly, too - just wore out at that moment, and Bele decided to rush the Enterprise at high velocity, too, in case they wanted to blow him out of the water to protect themselves, since it was more dramatic that way. Oh, wait – huh?
The red alert during Bele's approach and other places is inconsistent - sometimes the claxon is blaring, sometimes not, then it is again after the commercial break, or the scene changes - ramping up the volume. They realize it's annoying and muffle it or cancel it at times - but it makes little sense. In other episodes or movies, I think Kirk orders the sound to be shut off since it was annoying, but here, it just happens on its own, like it knows when not to be a distraction.
The very idea the chase between Lokai and Bele has been going on for 50,000 years is impractical and nearly impossible to believe - it suggests incredible longevity for the race and even a longer one for their culture, but practically an arrested culture that has made no significant advances in those 50 millennia, particularly technological ones. Bele claims Lokai's people were freed thousands of years ago, but for a race like that, it was just recent - and Lokai may have been a slave and not just an ancestor of slaves, and Bele a slave owner, and not just an ancestor of slave owners. Anyway, there is simply no need for this longevity or this length of pursuit for the story, IMO. Also, the complete lack of knowledge of what's been going on at home, on Cheron, is dubious, too. It's relatively easy to call home, and, quite frankly, I think this race's technology and innate abilities are superior to the Federation's, so that might make it even easier. I suppose they might be a very xenophobic race and a bunch of isolationists who refuse to use subspace communications, so you have to physically return home to find out what's been going on, and that might help explain the Federation's lack of knowledge of them despite being, as it turns out, just a few hours outside their normal patrol area - pretty near Arrianus, a hub of commerce and travel. Or maybe the entire race on Cheron died just a couple years ago - which would be a hell of a coincidence during a 50,000 year chase. But then, the Enterprise frequently shows up when a rare event has just occurred or is about to occur. Lucky, that. Well, in a way, it's lucky - for the viewer/audience, anyway.
They have a big legal problem with Lokai taking a shuttlecraft without permission - i.e. stealing it - so he'll have to answer those charges - but after the attempt of Bele to commandeer the Enterprise, they completely let that slide - like that wasn't an even bigger crime. Well, maybe Bele has diplomatic immunity, but I doubt it since the Federation apparently has no formal treaties with Cheron - so it makes no sense they'd let that matter go as a minor incident. Then again, maybe Lokai's crime on starbase 4 isn't Kirk's to dismiss, while it is his within his authority to let Bele's actions slide on his ship. He's a pretty forgiving guy, that captain. He even forgave Khan - sort of. But Bele prety much said a billion lives on Arrianus didn't matter and could go ahead and die. I wouldn't have forgiven that - or I'd at least have kept him in the brig. Of course since Bele seems to do a lot of this manipulation mentally, that may not have stopped him.
Too bad those personal force fields repel phaser stun. But why he wouldn't up the power setting to kill and see if they might get through, I dunno. I'd have tried it - or at least threatened to try it to see what they'd say - but no.
The name, Lokai, also bothers me - too close to Loki.
Shatner pronounces "sabotage" in a really weird way. Amusingly, Vic Mignogna (Star Trek Continues) pronounced it that way, too, in the wrap up two parter, To Boldly Go. I suspect he did it for laughs, but I can't be sure.
Anyway, Bele is completely unreasonable, even when he gets his way. After 50,000 years, waiting a few days longer is just not at all satisfactory. NOT AT ALL! Starfleet command even says he can have Lokai, retaining his prisoner, after Lokai answers for the theft of the shuttlecraft - which seems in direct contradiction to not giving anyone over without due process. And it's like Bele doesn't even hear this or won't take yes for an answer since it's not immediate or happening right this minute - or he thinks it means he won't be allowed to retain Lokai down the road for some new reason. I don't understand the apparent reversal of Starfleet when they say Bele can retain his prisoner, and I even understand less why Bele is unwilling to wait a few days since he's finally getting Lokai AND a ride home. You just can't please some people.
The Enterprise reaches warp 10 and continues accelerating, but it's apparently no big deal this time - no one seems too worried about the speed at all or the structural integrity of the ship tearing itself apart, or even particularly impressed they're going that fast, which should be impossible - and there's really no reason for that speed. And, it seems, Bele is able to do all that with just his mind. Incredible. By that I mean, it is simply not credible. Of course Nomad did it, too, I guess - even faster, IIRC, and also, apparently, "mentally."
While I love the scene with the self-destruct sequence - this episode's greatest and most memorable moment - it seems pretty slow to initiate, so it could hardly be practical to accomplished in an emergency (though I am impressed by all the seldom used codes and passwords they must have memorized to run that ship). I have a hard time remembering my email password. And Kirk shut the self-destruct off quite quickly, though taking longer than the 5 seconds that remained. I guess the computer puts everything on pause whenever at least one of the three command personnel utters the word, "computer" - so it awaits further instructions after that and before proceeding. The whole thing took about a minute - not 30 seconds - but in the movie, The Search For Spock, they actually start that countdown at 60 seconds, anyway, so . . . seems right. Bele really waited too long there, IMO. Down to 6 seconds? He's lucky Kirk could cancel it in 1 second. I've always felt Kirk was bluffing about that, though, and he could have canceled it anytime before reaching zero and he just lied about that 5-second rule. But I dunno. But was it a bluff he'd destroy the ship at all? I think not. Letting a ship like that fall into enemy hands makes Kirk and his crew responsible for every bad thing that happens afterwards – and they are supposed to die to prevent that. That's one of my bigger gripes with Abram's movie when Spock allows a power that can kill thousands of planets and trillions of people fall into the hands of a mad Romulan rather than self destruct. But I digress.
In case you want to see the self-destruct sequence to its completion, here it is in The Search For Spock.
I guess warp 10 is only about 5 times faster than warp 6, and we don't watch them every minute of the day, so maybe some lengthy stretches of time go by off camera. But if not, it seems weird traveling toward Cheron at warp 10, but getting back to Arrianus at warp 6 takes nearly no time, and then in even less time, Bele takes control again and they make it to Cheron is practically no time. WTF? Were Arrianus and Cheron practically in the same direction anyway? That might explain things. They were just off from one another by a few degrees, maybe. They certainly couldn't have been in opposite directions - not given the times depicted.
Kirk explains there is no need to resort to violence in the Federation anymore - but they do it all the time. Well, maybe not for internal matters - but I doubt it. We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, we come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, men.
Unless large sections of Earth's history were wiped out in the wars, I find it hard to believe Chekov and Sulu think racism was only a problem on Earth in the 20th century, and not since (or maybe not before, like the 19th century or earlier). They don't seem to have a firm grasp of history, if you ask me. Later Trek shows a level of racism, or speciesism, for non-humans - maybe they feel those are two unrelated things. But I think bigotry is bigotry, and prejudice is prejudice. I hate prejudice people. They're all the same, anyway. (jk)
Lokai seems off base in the beginning - both paranoid and a thief - but as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly clearer that Bele is a pretty flagrant racist, despite his initial claims, and he feels Lokai's people (and possibly us mono-colored trash, too) are inferior and should be subjugated and segregated. He offers no actual proof of any superior ability of his race - they both seem to have identical abilities - in fact, Lokai has evaded Bele for 50,000 years - so Lokai must be laughing at the "superior" master race. Only the insistence being black on the right side is superior to being white on the right side is given. It's meant to seem silly, as racism often is when more closely examined. Why the terms half-white or half-black are pejoratives escapes me since they are both of those things - but maybe like a Zebra, it matters if it's a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes and there's a way to tell which half is the base color. The only true differences I can see is that Bele dresses somewhat better, or maybe, unlike Lokai's people, Bele's people opened their hard boiled eggs from the little end instead of the big end, but I dunno. It all just seems a silly reason to believe in one's superiority. Bele even calls us mono-colored trash - I couldn't help but laugh at that.
Evolution
Advanced Genetic Science
Bele relinquishes control of the ship for the second time, but I don't know why since Kirk would/should turn the ship around. Only the fact they are practically at Cheron stops them. Maybe that's why - he felt Kirk wouldn't turn around since they were already there.
It's totally weird it takes those two so long to run to the transporter room. A person can normally get there in scant seconds from the bridge. Lokai and Bele make it look like they're running the 660. I guess it's not always easy padding these episodes out to 50 minutes.
Though Cheron is totally dead, the night side of the planet seems to be lit up in the remastered version. Automated lights and self-powered system, no doubt, that continue to operate even long after everybody is dead. Or maybe they just finally died and the advanced systems have yet to fail.
Side-By-Side Comparison
Some Changes
I had given this episode a 5 out of 10 before. The story warrants more, as racism is an important subject and the acting is good - well, I liked it - but the mistakes or nitpicks are too distracting, so 5. The remastered effects, however, are actually much better. While the original had a unique shot of the underside of the saucer section, and a close up of that area and this remastered version doesn't, there are lots of new angles and close ups in these remastered episodes, so I don't lament the loss of the non-stock-footage shot that much. The shuttlecraft recovery and the Enterprise at warp 10 and Arrianus and the bomb bay doors, etc. all add to it, so I'm going to raise the score to 5.5 or even 6 out of 10.
NitPicks Abound:
Despite knowing little of that area of the galaxy, they seem to know where the planet Cheron is - it's name and exact location - but they've never been. Well, maybe they know a guy who knows a guy who's been. But it's impressive Kirk doesn't even need to consult the computer to have an idea of where it is or what it's called, which seems pretty good for a planet they have no formal contact with. Maybe it's near his patrol area, and Kirk stays up on anything that comes near his ship.
That repeatedly zooming in and out of the red alert light in this episode is kind of stupid or silly looking.
Commissioner Bele's ship is invisible, and yet they have no problem detecting it and tracking its course. Why? The only reason it may have been invisible was to justify not depicting it on the screen and therefore saving money on a dwindling budget - there was no real need for it to have that ability. The explanation for why it disintegrated seems silly, too - just wore out at that moment, and Bele decided to rush the Enterprise at high velocity, too, in case they wanted to blow him out of the water to protect themselves, since it was more dramatic that way. Oh, wait – huh?
The red alert during Bele's approach and other places is inconsistent - sometimes the claxon is blaring, sometimes not, then it is again after the commercial break, or the scene changes - ramping up the volume. They realize it's annoying and muffle it or cancel it at times - but it makes little sense. In other episodes or movies, I think Kirk orders the sound to be shut off since it was annoying, but here, it just happens on its own, like it knows when not to be a distraction.
The very idea the chase between Lokai and Bele has been going on for 50,000 years is impractical and nearly impossible to believe - it suggests incredible longevity for the race and even a longer one for their culture, but practically an arrested culture that has made no significant advances in those 50 millennia, particularly technological ones. Bele claims Lokai's people were freed thousands of years ago, but for a race like that, it was just recent - and Lokai may have been a slave and not just an ancestor of slaves, and Bele a slave owner, and not just an ancestor of slave owners. Anyway, there is simply no need for this longevity or this length of pursuit for the story, IMO. Also, the complete lack of knowledge of what's been going on at home, on Cheron, is dubious, too. It's relatively easy to call home, and, quite frankly, I think this race's technology and innate abilities are superior to the Federation's, so that might make it even easier. I suppose they might be a very xenophobic race and a bunch of isolationists who refuse to use subspace communications, so you have to physically return home to find out what's been going on, and that might help explain the Federation's lack of knowledge of them despite being, as it turns out, just a few hours outside their normal patrol area - pretty near Arrianus, a hub of commerce and travel. Or maybe the entire race on Cheron died just a couple years ago - which would be a hell of a coincidence during a 50,000 year chase. But then, the Enterprise frequently shows up when a rare event has just occurred or is about to occur. Lucky, that. Well, in a way, it's lucky - for the viewer/audience, anyway.
They have a big legal problem with Lokai taking a shuttlecraft without permission - i.e. stealing it - so he'll have to answer those charges - but after the attempt of Bele to commandeer the Enterprise, they completely let that slide - like that wasn't an even bigger crime. Well, maybe Bele has diplomatic immunity, but I doubt it since the Federation apparently has no formal treaties with Cheron - so it makes no sense they'd let that matter go as a minor incident. Then again, maybe Lokai's crime on starbase 4 isn't Kirk's to dismiss, while it is his within his authority to let Bele's actions slide on his ship. He's a pretty forgiving guy, that captain. He even forgave Khan - sort of. But Bele prety much said a billion lives on Arrianus didn't matter and could go ahead and die. I wouldn't have forgiven that - or I'd at least have kept him in the brig. Of course since Bele seems to do a lot of this manipulation mentally, that may not have stopped him.
Too bad those personal force fields repel phaser stun. But why he wouldn't up the power setting to kill and see if they might get through, I dunno. I'd have tried it - or at least threatened to try it to see what they'd say - but no.
The name, Lokai, also bothers me - too close to Loki.
Shatner pronounces "sabotage" in a really weird way. Amusingly, Vic Mignogna (Star Trek Continues) pronounced it that way, too, in the wrap up two parter, To Boldly Go. I suspect he did it for laughs, but I can't be sure.
Anyway, Bele is completely unreasonable, even when he gets his way. After 50,000 years, waiting a few days longer is just not at all satisfactory. NOT AT ALL! Starfleet command even says he can have Lokai, retaining his prisoner, after Lokai answers for the theft of the shuttlecraft - which seems in direct contradiction to not giving anyone over without due process. And it's like Bele doesn't even hear this or won't take yes for an answer since it's not immediate or happening right this minute - or he thinks it means he won't be allowed to retain Lokai down the road for some new reason. I don't understand the apparent reversal of Starfleet when they say Bele can retain his prisoner, and I even understand less why Bele is unwilling to wait a few days since he's finally getting Lokai AND a ride home. You just can't please some people.
The Enterprise reaches warp 10 and continues accelerating, but it's apparently no big deal this time - no one seems too worried about the speed at all or the structural integrity of the ship tearing itself apart, or even particularly impressed they're going that fast, which should be impossible - and there's really no reason for that speed. And, it seems, Bele is able to do all that with just his mind. Incredible. By that I mean, it is simply not credible. Of course Nomad did it, too, I guess - even faster, IIRC, and also, apparently, "mentally."
While I love the scene with the self-destruct sequence - this episode's greatest and most memorable moment - it seems pretty slow to initiate, so it could hardly be practical to accomplished in an emergency (though I am impressed by all the seldom used codes and passwords they must have memorized to run that ship). I have a hard time remembering my email password. And Kirk shut the self-destruct off quite quickly, though taking longer than the 5 seconds that remained. I guess the computer puts everything on pause whenever at least one of the three command personnel utters the word, "computer" - so it awaits further instructions after that and before proceeding. The whole thing took about a minute - not 30 seconds - but in the movie, The Search For Spock, they actually start that countdown at 60 seconds, anyway, so . . . seems right. Bele really waited too long there, IMO. Down to 6 seconds? He's lucky Kirk could cancel it in 1 second. I've always felt Kirk was bluffing about that, though, and he could have canceled it anytime before reaching zero and he just lied about that 5-second rule. But I dunno. But was it a bluff he'd destroy the ship at all? I think not. Letting a ship like that fall into enemy hands makes Kirk and his crew responsible for every bad thing that happens afterwards – and they are supposed to die to prevent that. That's one of my bigger gripes with Abram's movie when Spock allows a power that can kill thousands of planets and trillions of people fall into the hands of a mad Romulan rather than self destruct. But I digress.
In case you want to see the self-destruct sequence to its completion, here it is in The Search For Spock.
I guess warp 10 is only about 5 times faster than warp 6, and we don't watch them every minute of the day, so maybe some lengthy stretches of time go by off camera. But if not, it seems weird traveling toward Cheron at warp 10, but getting back to Arrianus at warp 6 takes nearly no time, and then in even less time, Bele takes control again and they make it to Cheron is practically no time. WTF? Were Arrianus and Cheron practically in the same direction anyway? That might explain things. They were just off from one another by a few degrees, maybe. They certainly couldn't have been in opposite directions - not given the times depicted.
Kirk explains there is no need to resort to violence in the Federation anymore - but they do it all the time. Well, maybe not for internal matters - but I doubt it. We come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, we come in peace, shoot to kill, shoot to kill, men.
Unless large sections of Earth's history were wiped out in the wars, I find it hard to believe Chekov and Sulu think racism was only a problem on Earth in the 20th century, and not since (or maybe not before, like the 19th century or earlier). They don't seem to have a firm grasp of history, if you ask me. Later Trek shows a level of racism, or speciesism, for non-humans - maybe they feel those are two unrelated things. But I think bigotry is bigotry, and prejudice is prejudice. I hate prejudice people. They're all the same, anyway. (jk)
Lokai seems off base in the beginning - both paranoid and a thief - but as the story progresses, it becomes increasingly clearer that Bele is a pretty flagrant racist, despite his initial claims, and he feels Lokai's people (and possibly us mono-colored trash, too) are inferior and should be subjugated and segregated. He offers no actual proof of any superior ability of his race - they both seem to have identical abilities - in fact, Lokai has evaded Bele for 50,000 years - so Lokai must be laughing at the "superior" master race. Only the insistence being black on the right side is superior to being white on the right side is given. It's meant to seem silly, as racism often is when more closely examined. Why the terms half-white or half-black are pejoratives escapes me since they are both of those things - but maybe like a Zebra, it matters if it's a white animal with black stripes or a black animal with white stripes and there's a way to tell which half is the base color. The only true differences I can see is that Bele dresses somewhat better, or maybe, unlike Lokai's people, Bele's people opened their hard boiled eggs from the little end instead of the big end, but I dunno. It all just seems a silly reason to believe in one's superiority. Bele even calls us mono-colored trash - I couldn't help but laugh at that.
Evolution
They briefly discuss evolution, though the very idea nothing explains the black/white coloration apart from a unique mutation seems completely wrong to me. And, almost as if Bele and his more scientifically advanced people have never heard of evolutionary theory before, he states that he has heard of the (mistaken) belief some have in the Federation that people are descended from Apes (instead of simply having common ancestry, as is really the case) - I'm guessing that's supposed to be an offensive thought to some people, and so they reject the theory of evolution simply because it's offensive to them to have any kinship with any "animal" and they certainly aren't an "animal" themselves - but Spock restates the theory of Evolution a little better - though he also gets it wrong, after a fashion, introducing the subjective terms of lower or higher/more advanced life forms. In truth, or more accurately, the terms should be better suited or less suited to the current environment, and there is nothing about a human, for example, that makes it innately superior to a shark or a cow. They are different, and humans are more intelligent, yes, but placing a value on intelligence is a subjective thing to do and not something Mother Nature is striving toward. In fact, an advantage in today's environment that might be considered to make someone a "higher" or "move evolved" being could be a disadvantage if the environment changed, so the same mutation isn't innately "better" or "superior," but only better suited or less suited for the current environment. But I digress.
My guess is Spock arbitrarily equates a higher level of intelligence as having higher value or being a more advanced species, even though such intelligence may ultimately not turn out to always be good for survival - such as when a species engages in self destruction - like the people of Cheron, for example. All dead, due to ideas that can only come from "higher" thinking - or they soon will be all dead when Lokai and Bele finally kill each other. They sure can't breed with one another, I assume, so their species is effectively extinct.
My guess is Spock arbitrarily equates a higher level of intelligence as having higher value or being a more advanced species, even though such intelligence may ultimately not turn out to always be good for survival - such as when a species engages in self destruction - like the people of Cheron, for example. All dead, due to ideas that can only come from "higher" thinking - or they soon will be all dead when Lokai and Bele finally kill each other. They sure can't breed with one another, I assume, so their species is effectively extinct.
Advanced Genetic Science
Of course you never know with advance science. Tweaking the genes, maybe you can regrow a race or species - you just need to have the DNA samples, or be able to put those sequences back together if you have them mapped out and recorded somewhere and access to the right equipment.
Bele relinquishes control of the ship for the second time, but I don't know why since Kirk would/should turn the ship around. Only the fact they are practically at Cheron stops them. Maybe that's why - he felt Kirk wouldn't turn around since they were already there.
It's totally weird it takes those two so long to run to the transporter room. A person can normally get there in scant seconds from the bridge. Lokai and Bele make it look like they're running the 660. I guess it's not always easy padding these episodes out to 50 minutes.
Though Cheron is totally dead, the night side of the planet seems to be lit up in the remastered version. Automated lights and self-powered system, no doubt, that continue to operate even long after everybody is dead. Or maybe they just finally died and the advanced systems have yet to fail.
Side-By-Side Comparison
Some Changes
Hanger Bay recovers shuttlecraft (no longer the Galileo 7 stock footage, but an actual one from Starbase 4 named the DaVinci with its own serial number.
The Enterprise is off course at warp 8 - good exterior scene of the ship.
The Enterprise in a circular course at warp 10 - going nowhere, mighty fast.
The Enterprise on a long circular flight path correcting the course for Arrianus.
The Enterprise decontaminates Arrianus - a significant change in detail from the original, and it shows a spray (I think) being deployed from the lower part of the ship from something resembling open bomb bay doors. There had been more dramatic color changes (to my eyes) before, but with little detail - now the planet's changes are probably more realistic, but I can't see it as well.
The Enterprise is off course at warp 8 - good exterior scene of the ship.
The Enterprise in a circular course at warp 10 - going nowhere, mighty fast.
The Enterprise on a long circular flight path correcting the course for Arrianus.
The Enterprise decontaminates Arrianus - a significant change in detail from the original, and it shows a spray (I think) being deployed from the lower part of the ship from something resembling open bomb bay doors. There had been more dramatic color changes (to my eyes) before, but with little detail - now the planet's changes are probably more realistic, but I can't see it as well.
I had given this episode a 5 out of 10 before. The story warrants more, as racism is an important subject and the acting is good - well, I liked it - but the mistakes or nitpicks are too distracting, so 5. The remastered effects, however, are actually much better. While the original had a unique shot of the underside of the saucer section, and a close up of that area and this remastered version doesn't, there are lots of new angles and close ups in these remastered episodes, so I don't lament the loss of the non-stock-footage shot that much. The shuttlecraft recovery and the Enterprise at warp 10 and Arrianus and the bomb bay doors, etc. all add to it, so I'm going to raise the score to 5.5 or even 6 out of 10.
Last edited:
