THE COLD WAR BETWEEN THE FEDERATION AND THE KLINGONS RUINS LIFE ON A POOR LITTLE PLANET

 Episode Title:  A Private Little War

Air Date: 2/2/1968

Written by Don Ingalls and Gene Roddenberry 

Directed by Marc Daniels

Cast: William Shatner as Captain James T. Kirk    Leonard Nimoy as Commander Spock             DeForest Kelley as Dr. Leonard H. McCoy AKA “Bones”              James Doohan  as Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott AKA “Scotty”        Nichelle Nichols as Lieutenant Nyota Uhura          Eddie Paskey as Lieutenant Leslie                 Booker Bradshaw as Dr. Joseph M'Benga       Roger Holloway as Lieutenant Lemli                        Frank Da Vinci as Lieutenant Brent       Bill Blackburn as Lieutenant Hadley           Majel Barrett as Nurse Christine Chapel      Walter Koenig as Ensign Pavel Chekov                 Nancy Kovack as Nona                Michael Witney as Tyree          Arthur Bernard as Apella       Janos Prohaska as the mugato     Gary Pillar as Yutan         Paul Baxley as Patrol Leader          Roy N. Sickner  as unnamed Villager                     Jeannie Malone as unnamed Native Woman       Ned Romero as Krell         

Ships: USS Enterprise NCC-1701, unnamed Klingon K't'inga-class battle cruiser

Planets:  Neural

My Spoiler filled summary and review: A landing party consisting of the Enterprise’s most senior and experienced officers of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are exploring the beautiful and peaceful planet of Neural.  It is a place Kirk once visited before as a young lieutenant. He found their Stone Age inhabitants to be intelligent, resourceful, and peaceful with their neighbors.  However today on this return trip after they get done admiring the environment’s natural beauty they notice something awful.  Kirk and Spock see a couple of Villagers carrying flintlock guns and appear to be about to ambush a group of Hill People.  Among the Hill People is Kirk’s old friend Tyree.  Realizing his old friend is about to be killed Kirk wants to use his phaser but Spock instantly reminds him that that would be of the violation of the Prime Directive.   Instead Kirk chooses to throw a rock, and it accomplishes what he intends the Villagers stop paying attention to the Hill People and turn their fire on Kirk and Spock.  The two run back to Dr. McCoy but they are not completely successful as Mr. Spock is shot in the back.  The bullet seems to have gone right through him as there is blood on both sides of his shirt.  They call for an emergency beam out and get back up to the Enterprise.

Once back on the ship McCoy rushes Spock to sick bay and tells Kirk that he can’t give him a definite answer on whether or not Spock will survive.   Kirk doesn’t have much time to worry about it because as they are caring for Spock the red alert siren goes on.  The Klingons have entered the system!  Kirk gets the bridge and the bridge crew notices that the Klingons seem to be unaware of them.  Their ship is on the other side of the planet’s orbit, and they seem to be communicating with their ground crews.  Kirk drops the Enterprise back onto yellow alert. Kirk now knows how it is the Villagers were able to develop flintlocks so quickly: the Klingons were supplying them.  The bridge crew consisting of Scotty, Chekov, and Uhura are skeptical to the Captain’s claims.  Just because it took Earth a long time ago from early Stone Age to flintlock weapons doesn't mean it has to take this species the same length.  More evidence would be needed to confirm that the Klingons are behind the Villagers’ sudden technological advance. 

Shot through the what ever that is on a Vulcan

Despite the fact his instincts tell him that the Klingons are knee-deep in this, Kirk realizes his crew was correct.  He needs to find more evidence if he wants to be able to help directly.   A young doctor working in McCoy’s sick bay, whose name is Joseph M'Benga, had his internship on Vulcan and is an expert Vulcan physiology.  He must’ve just transferred to the Enterprise just yesterday because we sure could’ve used his help last week.   With Dr. M'Benga in charge of Spock’s care, Dr. McCoy’s free go back down to the surface with Captain Kirk. 

His worst fear since that airplane trip

               Kirk and McCoy beam back down to the planet’s surface and our attacked by a mugato, one of Neural’s native creatures.  The creature is large with deadly poison claws.  McCoy is able to disintegrate it with his phaser but not before the creature was able to get its claws on Captain Kirk.   McCoy tries to call up to the Enterprise only to discover that the ship had to leave orbit in order to prevent detection from the Klingons.  Kirk tells McCoy that he needs to get him to Tyree’s people for they can help him.  Kirk knows that the Hill People have an established relationship with a group of individuals called the kahn-ut-tu.  The kahn-ut-tu are witch doctors who know how to treat this type of poison.

It turns out Tyree doesn’t just know a kahn-ut-tu he happens to be married to one.  Tyree and his wife Nona are discussing what to do about the now violent Villagers.  Nona wants to find a way to get their guns while Tyree is hoping for more diplomatic solution.  They start talking about the nature of their relationship and Nona insists that Tyree sought her out because women like her can make men powerful.   Tyree says he’s pursued Nona because she put a spell on him, now at first I thought he was joking but this does turn out to be the case.  We see Nona drug Tyree into a trance and starts making suggestions to him on what he should be doing and how he can’t resist her.  This is when the other Hill people arrive to tell them of the arrival of the strangers who claim to know Tyree.

When the couple shows up Nona is able to catch McCoy using his phaser to heat rocks to help a sick Captain Kirk.  She is able to cure Kirk what appears to be a giant turd.  She cuts her hand with a knife and places her bleeding hand on the turd and places that over Kirk’s wound.  This surprisingly works but apparently is going to give her an “in” on Kirk’s mind.

Tyree and Nona

Backup on the Enterprise Spock is going under his own unusual treatment.  Chapel starts to talk to Spock only to hear from our new doctor that Spock can hear everything she is saying even though he is unresponsive.

Kirk and Tyree talk about what’s going on.  Tyree tells them about how the Villagers have developed these fire sticks and are using them to harm the Hill People.  Kirk also learns that Nona who has saved his life also knows his origins.  As his wife Tyree is bound to share everything with her even his secret that his friend Jim Kirk comes from the stars.  Nona confronts Captain Kirk about her knowledge of the phasers.  Kirk responds by explaining to her the Prime Directive, and Kirk actually gives a very simplistic understandable explanation to why it exists.  Nona then tells Kirk that despite its honorable intentions the Prime Directive really sucks.  Nona leaves in anger and Tyree tells Captain Kirk not to be bothered that he knows that Kirk and his friend will help in ways that his wife does not understand.  

Nona cures Captain Kirk

Tyree and Kirk make plans with Dr. McCoy to sneak into the village to see the source of the fire sticks.  Kirk has mixed feelings he wants to help his friend and his people but he also knows if they discover the truth and that the Klingons are in fact behind this as he suspected originally then he fears what he will have to do.

The trio heads down to the village and Kirk, with his supreme fighting skills unparalleled anywhere in the galaxy, is able to knock out one of the guards and get his team in building where the fire sticks are being made.   They find the forge used to create the fire sticks and their tricorder readings confirm that the technology is of Klingon origin.  They hear noise so they all hide and two people enter the room.   One is a leader of the Villagers whose name is Apella and the other is a Klingon whose name is Krell.  We, the audience, are privy to the entire conversation between the Klingon ambassador the village leader.   Apella confesses that he was afraid that his people would soon grow tired of killing, however now they have been killing and taking what they want they find the rewards are great.  Being a conqueror is intoxicating.  He has found some unexpected problems that he does have to deal with.  He tells Krell that the last raiding party only managed to capture one woman and he did not know how to divide one woman amongst a bunch of men.   Krell tells Apella that he should reward the woman to his soldier who killed the most enemies this will show his men of the most warlike among them will be rewarded.  Krell then goes over his long-term plans for the planet and how his people will allow Apella to take control of this world is one of their Imperial governors.

Krell and Apella making plans for ruling a planet and dividing women!

 Then McCoy’s tricorder goes off and they’re discovered but fortunately with Captain Kirk, the greatest fighter in the known universe is on their side and he easily defeats the two would-be planet conquers.  The other Villagers try to stop them from escaping and they easily could’ve been killed fortunately the Villagers aim like Stormtroopers and the plot armor protects the trio from being harmed. 

 Back on the Enterprise Mr. Spock recovers from his ordeal in a very amusing way.  In his unconscious state he asks Nurse Chapel to beat him. This confuses her but Dr. M’Benga said to do anything Mr. Spock requests so she does.  Scotty sees this and thinks she has gone mad and tries to stop her.  M’Benga enters and tries to stop him. Spock however has fully recovered.

Kirk’s training the Hill People in the uses of the flintlock. Tyree is still troubled by what they must do and not yet fully committed.  Nona, on the other hand is becoming impatient.  She decides solve her trouble by seducing Captain Kirk.  Since our Captain is not the type of man sleep with another man’s wife particularly the wife of his friend he refuses her.  Nona decides to deal with this by pulling a Cosby and drugging Captain Kirk to make him more receptive to her advances.  This begins to work and Kirk embraces Nona.  Poor Tyree comes to see Kirk and sees this instead.  Naturally upset as he feels that he is the only man who Nona should be drug rapping, he throws down his firearm and leaves angrily.  As he storms off a mugatoe arrives and attacks.  Kirk is able to disintegrate it with his phaser but is knocked unconscious.  Nona has decided she is had enough of her husband, his friends, and their collective weakness.  She grabs Kirks phaser decides to defect to the Villagers for Apella is a much more daring man than her husband.

Kirk training the Hill People

               Nona finds one of the Villagers hunting parties and approaches them.  She demands they take her to Apella so she can offer him the weapon.  Unfortunately for Nona these Villagers don’t have upgrade weaponry in mind but rather rape.  They talk to themselves and they bring up the fact that if they were they to bring her to Apella he would just reward her to whoever amongst them had killed the most Hill People.  Since none of them had been the top killer that week they would lose their only opportunity to rape Nona.  So they decide to gang rape her right now instead, this way they can each have a turn.  While they’re attempting their assault a number of Hill People showed up.  McCoy had berated Tyree for leaving his weapon on the ground.  They came back found Captain Kirk and now they found Nona.  The gang rapists feel that this was all a trap and decide to cut their losses and just kill Nona.  The two sides battle, McCoy is slightly wounded but will recover, and Tyree kills his wife’s murderer with a rock. The rest of the Villagers retreat in the now widowed Tyree swears vengeance and asks Kirk the weapons that he promised.  Kirk will provide.  The Captain is disappointed that he is the one who must ruin paradise.

Tyree, ready to kill

Additional thoughts: The poor mugatoes these are the true victims of the story.  The strange aliens beam down to their world and into their territory and while they’re defending their territory one of them is disintegrated by phaser.  Later his mate upon seeing the ones who destroyed him tried to avenge his death, and she too was likewise disintegrated.  A sad end to such noble creatures.

So the first thing we have the talk about is the obvious Vietnam War criticism.   The people of Neural are clearly a Third World nation where the Federation and the Klingon Empire represent the two superpowers of the United States of America and the Soviet Union.  The local people’s lives, world , and politics gets interfered with and played around through no fault of their own.  They are but unwilling pawns in the game between the great powers.  Now this presents some issues.  I, for one, fully believe the US was the “good guy” compared to the communist superpower, but we were hardly innocent.  The Federation, on the other hand, just wants to leave this poor planet alone and would if it weren’t for those nasty Klingons.  The Federation motives are completely pure where real life was much more complex.

This also makes me think about the other powers the galaxy particularly the Organians.  What do they think of this? After all this is partially their fault.  If they had just allowed the Federation and the Klingons to duke it out themselves then they wouldn’t be stuck playing these cold wargames with these poor little planets serving as proxies.   Now granted the Klingons might have come here eventually but they would have had to deal the Federation directly first.

Always good to see more people in the medical department

On a lighter note I want to point out how much I love it when we see members of the Enterprise crew who aren’t the senior staff or bridge crew. I mean Dr. McCoy supposed to be the chief medical officer so who are the people he is supposed to be the chief of besides Nurse Chapel? In the first season episode “Dagger of the Mind” we got Dr. Helen Noel now we get Dr. Joseph M'Benga, an expert on Vulcan physiology.  Considering all the pon farring and Vulcan heart attacks that have been happening on the ship the season, we can easily see why Dr. McCoy went out to recruit him.

To Nona sexual assault is a means to an end.  To the Villagers it is the end.

You know this is probably the most rape or attempted rape we have seen in a Star Trek episode.  First we have Nona doing her best Bill Cosby impersonation, by drugging all of her potential suitors when they turn away her affections.  We have Apella discussing with Krell about how to divide captured women amongst the men.  Then Nona, now is a potential victim to a group of villagers at the end. A bit of irony there with the rapist becoming a potential rape victim.  The thing is I don’t actually have an objection to the presence of sexual assaults in the episode seeing as the episode is supposed to represent the horror of war and that has been part of war historically.

FINAL GRADE 4 of 5