5THE PLOT
The Enterprise is on a vital mission to MacGuffin a space infection that threatens the population of a Federation planet. It is on course when it detects a stolen Starfleet shuttlecraft, leaking oxygen. Kirk has the shuttle brought aboard, and its unconscious occupant taken to sick bay.
The thief, Lokai (Lou Antonio) is a half white/half black man with incredible recuperative abilities. He denies stealing the shuttle, stating that his "need" to use it justified his "use" of it. He plays the victim when Kirk questions him and refuses to provide any answers. Shortly thereafter, the Enterprise detects an alien ship. Using a technology far beyond Starfleet transporters, the ship deposits another alien - a half black/half white man named Bele (Frank Gorshin), who is hunting Lokai as a fugitive.
Lokai is a member of his world's half white/half black minority, oppressed by the half black/half white majority. Both are from the planet Charon, located in the uncharted Deep South of the galaxy (no, I'm not making that up - honest!). Bele demands custody of Lokai, and Lokai demands political asylum from Bele. Kirk flatly turns down both of them. But when Bele uses his superior technology to take control of Enterprise, diverting from its mission to his home world, Kirk must risk extreme measures to regain control!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: Shatner's hammiest tendencies show themselves at the very end, when he calls on Bele and Lokai to "give up (their) hate." Shatner can't quite resist going for the full pleading widow, and the result is unintentionally quite funny. With that exception, he's actually on good form. He has a particularly good scene around the midpoint. Bele has used his technology to seize control of the ship, and Kirk threatens to destroy Enterprise if the alien won't give up that control. Bele accuses him of bluffing - so Kirk demonstrates that he is not by feeding his code into the computer. Then Spock. Then Scotty. Then Kirk, feeding in the final code, never taking his eyes from Bele's and never blinking as the computer counts down.
Spock: Gets the best line of the episode, when he responds to Uhura's bewilderment that the conflict between Bele and Lokai doesn't make sense by replying that, "To expect sense... of two such extreme viewpoints is illogical." In 1969, both the line and the entire episode were doubtless meant to reflect the conflict between white racists (particularly in the South) and the most violent factions of black separatists. But both the conflict, and Spock's line, could just as easily apply to conflicts today in multiple parts of the world, including by times that between the extreme right and extreme left in this country.
Scotty: Gets the second-best line of the episode, when he dubs both Lokai and Bele as "disgusting," and defends that as the word best suited to describe them. We also see his resolve, and his faith in Kirk, as he doesn't hesitate in providing his own destruct code during the big confrontation sequence.
Villains of the Week: Bele (Frank Gorshin) and Lokai (Lou Antonio) are both extremists, as Spock observes. Bele is a cold man, showing no emotion other than anger. He is used to being in control, and has no patience for allowing anyone else power. Lokai is equally unpleasant. He is every bit as manipulative as Bele accuses him of being. Even in his very first interactions with Kirk, he tries to deflect Kirk's very reasonable questions by playing the persecuted victim. Kirk observes that Lokai seems to have quite a knack for surviving while his followers die around him. From a modern standpoint, this has an extra resonance if you equate Lokai with terrorist leaders who encourage children to go out with bombs strapped to themselves, while putting himself in as little direct danger as possible.
THOUGHTS
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is a very earnest episode. From a story by Gene Coon (under the pseudonym Lee Cronin), and capably directed by Jud Taylor, this is a Star Trek episode that wants very much to do something interesting. It attempts to use a science fiction setting to draw a parallel with racial unrest that was prevalent in the late 1960's, and it does so in a way that refuses to let either side off the hook. It is a commendable effort, and for its ambition alone I have far more time for it than I do for something like That Which Survives.
As an allegory of racial conflicts, it lacks subtlety. It partially makes up for this by expanding beyond simply being a racial allegory. The nail is hit on the head at the end, when Spock describes both men as representing "extreme viewpoints." Take away black and white, and Lokai and Bele can represent so many conflicts over time, many of them ones that post-date this episode. When one looks back on this more than 40 year old piece of television and reflects on how relevant the extremist, hate and rage-filled violence between the two guest stars remains, it's chilling.
Taking it down to the level of just an episode of Star Trek, though, there are two big problems. The first is the lack of subtlety. There are scenes in which the on-the-nose dialogue makes me physically cringe. The second is that this is a plot that makes the Enterprise crew into spectators of a conflict between two guest characters who are impossible to care about. Our only rooting interest is that these two horrible people don't take our regulars down with them.
The episode does try to overcome the "sidelined regulars" problem. The subplot/MacGuffin of the contaminated planet is used to decent effect, allowing for some nice procedural scenes in which we see the crew doing the routine jobs that most episodes don't have time for. All of the confrontations between Lokai and Bele are filtered through Kirk's viewpoint. It is repeatedly hit home that the conflict between these two directly threatens Kirk's ship and Kirk's command, which keeps the situation from being one that we have no stake in. Compare with truly dire Next Generation "guest star"-centric episodes such as Loud as a Whisper or Too Short a Season, and it's evident that this script does a far better job of striking that guest star/regular balance.
Overall, I this episode holds up better than I expected it to. The episode had bored me as a child, and the "half-black/half-white and half-white/half-black" conflict is painfully heavy-handed. But despite the lack of subtlety, the episode ends up being a lot more effective and thoughtful than I had remembered.
Rating: 6/10.
The Enterprise is on a vital mission to MacGuffin a space infection that threatens the population of a Federation planet. It is on course when it detects a stolen Starfleet shuttlecraft, leaking oxygen. Kirk has the shuttle brought aboard, and its unconscious occupant taken to sick bay.
The thief, Lokai (Lou Antonio) is a half white/half black man with incredible recuperative abilities. He denies stealing the shuttle, stating that his "need" to use it justified his "use" of it. He plays the victim when Kirk questions him and refuses to provide any answers. Shortly thereafter, the Enterprise detects an alien ship. Using a technology far beyond Starfleet transporters, the ship deposits another alien - a half black/half white man named Bele (Frank Gorshin), who is hunting Lokai as a fugitive.
Lokai is a member of his world's half white/half black minority, oppressed by the half black/half white majority. Both are from the planet Charon, located in the uncharted Deep South of the galaxy (no, I'm not making that up - honest!). Bele demands custody of Lokai, and Lokai demands political asylum from Bele. Kirk flatly turns down both of them. But when Bele uses his superior technology to take control of Enterprise, diverting from its mission to his home world, Kirk must risk extreme measures to regain control!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Ham: Shatner's hammiest tendencies show themselves at the very end, when he calls on Bele and Lokai to "give up (their) hate." Shatner can't quite resist going for the full pleading widow, and the result is unintentionally quite funny. With that exception, he's actually on good form. He has a particularly good scene around the midpoint. Bele has used his technology to seize control of the ship, and Kirk threatens to destroy Enterprise if the alien won't give up that control. Bele accuses him of bluffing - so Kirk demonstrates that he is not by feeding his code into the computer. Then Spock. Then Scotty. Then Kirk, feeding in the final code, never taking his eyes from Bele's and never blinking as the computer counts down.
Spock: Gets the best line of the episode, when he responds to Uhura's bewilderment that the conflict between Bele and Lokai doesn't make sense by replying that, "To expect sense... of two such extreme viewpoints is illogical." In 1969, both the line and the entire episode were doubtless meant to reflect the conflict between white racists (particularly in the South) and the most violent factions of black separatists. But both the conflict, and Spock's line, could just as easily apply to conflicts today in multiple parts of the world, including by times that between the extreme right and extreme left in this country.
Scotty: Gets the second-best line of the episode, when he dubs both Lokai and Bele as "disgusting," and defends that as the word best suited to describe them. We also see his resolve, and his faith in Kirk, as he doesn't hesitate in providing his own destruct code during the big confrontation sequence.
Villains of the Week: Bele (Frank Gorshin) and Lokai (Lou Antonio) are both extremists, as Spock observes. Bele is a cold man, showing no emotion other than anger. He is used to being in control, and has no patience for allowing anyone else power. Lokai is equally unpleasant. He is every bit as manipulative as Bele accuses him of being. Even in his very first interactions with Kirk, he tries to deflect Kirk's very reasonable questions by playing the persecuted victim. Kirk observes that Lokai seems to have quite a knack for surviving while his followers die around him. From a modern standpoint, this has an extra resonance if you equate Lokai with terrorist leaders who encourage children to go out with bombs strapped to themselves, while putting himself in as little direct danger as possible.
THOUGHTS
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is a very earnest episode. From a story by Gene Coon (under the pseudonym Lee Cronin), and capably directed by Jud Taylor, this is a Star Trek episode that wants very much to do something interesting. It attempts to use a science fiction setting to draw a parallel with racial unrest that was prevalent in the late 1960's, and it does so in a way that refuses to let either side off the hook. It is a commendable effort, and for its ambition alone I have far more time for it than I do for something like That Which Survives.
As an allegory of racial conflicts, it lacks subtlety. It partially makes up for this by expanding beyond simply being a racial allegory. The nail is hit on the head at the end, when Spock describes both men as representing "extreme viewpoints." Take away black and white, and Lokai and Bele can represent so many conflicts over time, many of them ones that post-date this episode. When one looks back on this more than 40 year old piece of television and reflects on how relevant the extremist, hate and rage-filled violence between the two guest stars remains, it's chilling.
Taking it down to the level of just an episode of Star Trek, though, there are two big problems. The first is the lack of subtlety. There are scenes in which the on-the-nose dialogue makes me physically cringe. The second is that this is a plot that makes the Enterprise crew into spectators of a conflict between two guest characters who are impossible to care about. Our only rooting interest is that these two horrible people don't take our regulars down with them.
The episode does try to overcome the "sidelined regulars" problem. The subplot/MacGuffin of the contaminated planet is used to decent effect, allowing for some nice procedural scenes in which we see the crew doing the routine jobs that most episodes don't have time for. All of the confrontations between Lokai and Bele are filtered through Kirk's viewpoint. It is repeatedly hit home that the conflict between these two directly threatens Kirk's ship and Kirk's command, which keeps the situation from being one that we have no stake in. Compare with truly dire Next Generation "guest star"-centric episodes such as Loud as a Whisper or Too Short a Season, and it's evident that this script does a far better job of striking that guest star/regular balance.
Overall, I this episode holds up better than I expected it to. The episode had bored me as a child, and the "half-black/half-white and half-white/half-black" conflict is painfully heavy-handed. But despite the lack of subtlety, the episode ends up being a lot more effective and thoughtful than I had remembered.
Rating: 6/10.
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Oddly enough I found your blog while looking up actress Hildy Brooks, who turned out to be Lou Antonio's sister-in-law! And when you're a big fan of Battlefield, this is Lou Antonio's great moment in Western Civ.
ReplyDeleteThe main flaw in this ep is the painfully obvious padding of numerous scenes, clearly showing signs of a 35-minute script being desperately stretched to 60. Aside from that, it's simplistic but so memorable.
Strengths
-- Surprisingly even-handed and ambiguous playing of the conflict, rather than making Lokai just a noble victim.
-- I actually like the change of pace nature of this script, with Kirk and crew reduced to helpless spectators. Those who hate can only stop themselves.
-- Some of the throwaway dialog is sharp. Gorshin gets the best line, smugly explaining how seemingly "two of a kind" can be so opposed: "Captain, you don't seem to understand. Lokai is white on the right side. All his people are white on the right side." The baffled looks on Kirk's and Spock's faces speak volumes, rather than giving them lengthy speeches about tolerance and inclusion blah blah blah.
Gorshin and Antonio are wonderful, and I think now represent for many TV fans the archetypal standoff between angry nations or individuals who just won't budge an inch toward compromise.