A Taste of Armageddon

ST episode
name = A Taste of Armageddon


The landing party arrives on Eminiar VII.
series = TOS
ep_num = 23
prod_num = 023
remas._num = 51
date = February 23 1967
writer = Gene L. Coon
Robert Hamner
director = Joseph Pevney
guest = Majel Barrett
David Opatoshu
Barbara Babcock
Gene Lyons (actor)
Miko Mayama
Sean Kenney
Robert Sampson
Frank da Vinci
Eddie Paskey
David L. Ross
William Blackburn (actor)
Ron Veto
stardate = 3192.1
year = 2267
prev = Space Seed
next = This Side of Paradise

"A Taste of Armageddon" is a first-season episode of "". First broadcast on February 23 1967 and repeated July 20, 1967, episode #23, production #23, and was written by Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon, and directed by Joseph Pevney.

Overview: The crew of the "Enterprise" visits a planet whose people fight a strange war with a neighboring enemy.

Plot

On stardate 3192.1, the starship USS "Enterprise", under the command of Captain James T. Kirk, is en route to Eminiar VII, to open diplomatic relations with the inhabitants there. On board is Ambassador Robert Fox who has been sent to lead the talks and to establish diplomatic relations with Eminiar VII and its sister planet, Vendikar.

Little is known about either world's people except that they have had intrasystem space travel for a few centuries, and when the cultures were first contacted, it was learned there was a longstanding war between them. Soon afterward, the Federation contact ship mysteriously disappeared and was reported lost.

Nearing the Eminiar world, the "Enterprise" receives a priority signal not to approach the planet under any circumstances. Ambassador Fox orders Kirk to ignore the warning and investigate further. Kirk sends a landing party, which includes himself, Mr. Spock, and three other personnel, down to meet with Eminiar leaders. They are contacted by representatives, Mea 3 and Anan 7, who sternly remind Kirk and his landing team they should not have come because the city has just been hit by a Vendikar fusion bomb which has killed half a million people. Curiously, everything in the city seems intact and there is no visible evidence or sensor readings of such an attack ever occurring.

The landing party soon discovers that the entire war between the two planets is completely simulated by computers which launch wargame attacks and counterattacks, then calculate damage and select the dead. When a citizen is reported as "killed", they must submit themselves for termination by stepping inside a disintegration booth. Anan 7 informs Kirk that the simulated attacks and following executions is the agreed system of war decided by both sides in a treaty with Vendikar. A conventional war was deemed too destructive to the environments and societies of both planets.

Kirk is then informed that during the last Vendikar attack the "Enterprise" was destroyed by a tri-cobalt satellite and the entire ship's crew must be terminated within 24 hours. Although the landing team is exempted from execution, they are arrested and held hostage until all "Enterprise" crew members report to the planet for execution. Mea 3 has also been reported as a casualty.

In an attempt to lure the "Enterprise" crew down, Anan 7 simulates Captain Kirk's voice and orders the crew to come down to celebrate the newly established diplomatic relations with the Eminiar people. Mr. Scott doesn't buy it and decides to have the Captain's voice analyzed. When the computer determines it's a fake, he realizes the landing party, and by extension the entire ship, must be in danger.

When Mr. Scott refuses the order, Anan orders the "Enterprise" to be destroyed, but the ship's shields easily repel the attack. Ambassador Fox declares that the attack was just a misunderstanding when he talks with Anan 7. Anan 7 lies and declares a sensor malfunctioned and it appeared the "Enterprise" was about to attack. Anan 7 apologizes and extends a warm invitation for the Ambassador to beam down and talk. Ambassador Fox accepts the invitation and orders Scotty to lower the shields.

To Fox's indignation, Scott, with Dr. McCoy's support, refuses the command, considering the planet's government has obviously captured the landing party, sent a fake message to lure them down, and had just fired on the ship. After threatening to bring Scott up on insubordination charges, Fox and his aide beam down, but are quickly taken into custody and sent to be terminated.

Meanwhile, Spock and Kirk manage to break out of their holding cell by overpowering a guard and stealing his weapon. Along the way out, they stop Mea 3 from reporting to die, destroying a disintegration chamber and disabling the operator. Kirk is then recaptured by Anan 7 while trying to locate the party's phasers.

Spock and the others disguise themselves as Eminians and rescue Ambassador Fox, destroying another disintegration booth in the process. A chastened Fox accepts that he was dangerously mistaken about the situation and volunteers to fight with the others.

With Captain Kirk in his presence, Anan 7 demands that Kirk order his ship's crew to beam down and accept their fate as determined by the wargame computers. Kirk instead orders Mr. Scott to follow General Order 24, a full attack on the planet, within two hours if he is not released. Kirk informs Anan the "Enterprise" is more than capable of destroying everything on the planet. Anan still refuses. In the prevailing state of agitation amongst the councilmen, Kirk manages to overpower the guards and take their disrupters. He orders the guards and the councilmen towards the door when Spock arrives with Ambassador Fox.

Kirk and Spock make their way to the wargame computers, and once there, Kirk destroys the entire system while Anan looks on in terror. He exclaims that the planet is doomed; with the treaty broken, the Vendikar will fire their conventional weapons again. Vendikar had in fact been in contact already to complain about Anan 7's government being slow to meet their treaty obligations created by Kirk's interference. Now, an immediate retaliation with real weaponry is imminent.

Kirk encourages Anan 7 to instead call a ceasefire so that the two planets, with the Federation's assistance, can learn to coexist in peace. A desperate Anan agrees and Ambassador Fox immediately offers to lead the negotiations. As the "Enterprise" breaks orbit, Fox reports that the peace negotiations were going relatively well.

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired December 15, 2007 as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered version of "The Return of the Archons" and followed three weeks later by the remastered version of "Day of the Dove". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS "Enterprise" that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

* The planet Eminiar VII has been given a more realistic earth-like appearance. Patterns of lights from densely populated areas can be seen on the dark side of the planet.
* The surface city backdrop has been digitally enhanced and appears more realistic. A moving tram and people walking in the background have been added to the scene.

Trivia

* The plot is underpinned by the concept of Mutually Assured Destruction, which was much debated at the time the script was written, a feature it shares with a later episode, "The Doomsday Machine". The focus on "body counts" may also be a reference to the body count statistics that were then a regular feature of news reports of the Vietnam War.

* The DC Comics version of Star Trek had a storyline called "The Trial of Captain Kirk", written by Peter David, which contained follow-ups to many TOS episodes. It was revealed therein that the peace talks broke down, and a nuclear war took place - completely obliterating Vendikar, and rendering a third of Eminiar a radioactive wasteland. This was further stated in some of the stories in the various "Strange New Worlds" anthologies, as well as the William Shatner novel "Preserver", although these stories are not considered canon.

* The idea of a simulated war where casualties can be incurred by the government but the main functions of a society are left untouched ("The Law of Reasonable War") appears in Herman Wouk's book "The Lomokome Papers". Though published in 1968, Wouk wrote a foreword saying the book was originally written in 1949. There is a copyright date on the book for 1956.

External links

* [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68706.html A Taste of Armageddon] on StarTrek.com
* [http://trekmovie.com/2007/12/15/a-taste-of-armageddon-remastered-screenshots/#more-1371 Review of the remastered "A Taste of Armageddon" at Trekmovie.com]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0708414 A Taste of Armageddon] at IMDB