The struggle against the Kohms seemed to be a big thing for these Yangs. Do you really believe that the Yangs now control the entire planet? That there are no Kohms fighting or holding territory anywhere? That's quite a stretch. Especially considering the Yangs are doing it with nothing more than spears. It would also make Cloud William the unquestioned ruler of Omega IV, since he holds the relics... which I find laughable.
You have to consider that we are comparing two hypotheses here. One, the village was a random location of a trivial strife. Two, the village was the final stage of a global play of carnage. We have a collection of evidence that fits both hypotheses - and we have a collection of coincidences necessary for the hypotheses. We have to decide which of the two is the more plausible, not merely which of the two fits the evidence.
In the first hypothesis, Tracey chooses this village at random. He ends up defending the village from local barbaric hordes that harbor local ancient secrets related to Earth. When the village succumbs, only a local culture is exterminated, and only a local culture triumphs.
The big coincidence here is that an Earthman would stumble onto a local subculture that harbors Earth secrets, out of all the possibilities. Why didn't Tracey go to one of the cities of the Germs, whose ancient struggle with the Brolgs is rooted in influences from Andoria? Or to the pastoral plains of the Hongs, who never met an alien from outer space?
In the second hypothesis, Tracey arrives at the village that in six months will be the last refuge of the global Kohm culture. Vast barbaric hordes, of ridiculous size to confront a villageful of the spear-wielding Kohms we see, converge on that village because they are needed to defeat Tracey's phasers. It's no wonder that Tracey would pick this special village, when his other alternative is the nomadic realm of the Yangs where no villages or other familiar sweet spots for cultural contact are to be found.
The biochemical warfare of the past was
definitely global. While there may have been more players globally than just the Kohms and Yangs, the easiest hypothesis in terms of coincidences is that the village lifestyle indeed only survives in this one very special spot (not counting those other villages near and far that were overrun during the six months because they didn't attract Tracey's attention originally), and that the spot is so special in the global scale that the nomads bring their exotic Earth connection there with them, eliminating another spatial coincidence.
As for Cloud William ruling the planet, I really like the idea. It's a nice storytelling twist that the bad guys win - that Yankees led by Genghis Khan are the surprise villains of the piece. Of course, they'll have about as much chance of actually controlling the world as ol' Genghis originally had...
That's why I like "Omega Glory" so much: because it works so well completely
against writer intent. The glorious words of the Declaration and the Constitution resulted in barbarians slaughtering an entire planet. A world was doomed because it was contaminated by America, probably through a well-intentioned patriot rather than a complete crook like John Gill. And on the classic road to hell paved with good intentions, a flawed hero treads comfortably: the guy rooting for the Communists does the right American thing in defending the underdogs, then suddenly sprouts Christian propaganda to undermine the main heroes. Everything is twisted and turned and forced into a grinder of rethought.
I just do not buy that it is that easy to victimize an entire starship crew... their society can exceed the speed of light, travel to other worlds, and explore them. But someone brings a bug aboard and they all die that easily?
Sounds consistent to me. Star Trek is full of deadly alien diseases that the heroes are powerless to fight, unless they get hold of Magic Rare Ingredient X. It would be out of the norm for the heroic CMO to realize what's going on and successfully fight it if he's allotted all of two minutes for it.
Tracey is trapped on the surface with no way to communicate with the Federation. He's got a communicator, doesn't he? He's the captain of a starship, and his crew is in trouble. The Federation is advanced enough to have voice control over their machines. I find it very hard to accept that he couldn't at least call for help.
You mean, somehow use the puny little hand communicator to tie in to the interstellar communicators of the derelict starship? It's a cool idea, but again inconsistent with the rest of Star Trek. Remote control of starships is basically never an option; automation always fails at the crucial moment, or codes are required and are soon overridden.
Tracey goes from being the most experienced captain in Starfleet, highly regarded, to being a criminal who abandons everything he believes in.
What does he abandon? He defends the villagers against advancing barbaric hordes - the right thing to do even if Starfleet unrealistically insists otherwise. Kirk did that at the drop of the hat, too, and never got reprimanded for it. When Kirk does try to stop Tracey from doing the right thing, it's no wonder the stranded skipper uses drastic countermeasures fitting of his newfound hardened persona. Kirk would have knocked out an evil rival, too, and gunned down his henchmen.
Timo Saloniemi
(Mental picture of fanboys hanging around the decon room whenever particularly appealing crewmembers return from Away Missions.)
