I failed to mention one thing in last night’s Trek Review of “A Taste of Armageddon.” Kirk’s move to call for General Order 24 towards the end of the episode.
General Order 24: An order to destroy all life on an entire planet.
Now, was Kirk bluffing, was he making up regulations? Remember what he did in “The Corbomite Maneuver,” in his great bluff of Balok to not destroy the ship. I don’t think he was bluffing here. While Kirk doesn’t have to go through with it here, the notion of it does come up again in the Third Season episode “Whom Gods Destroy.” Captain Garth doesn’t go through with it then, either, but still… the notion of this order is frightening!
I don’t think Kirk ever wanted to go through with it, but given the situation of being held hostage by Anan Seven and the high council of Eminiar VII, he had no choice but to do his duty. If I were in the same scenario, I would probably be a bit hesitant to do it, but ultimately I would do it too.
Does that make me a bad person? Depends on your point of view, doesn’t it?
What do you think of when you think of war? The first thought that would probably come to everyone’s mind is devastation, chaos or innocent people who are caught in the middle of the conflict. Now imagine if that same scenario played out, but there was no actual bloodshed. Instead, the attacks are carried out by computers and the casualties are tallied up on a computer. The victims of the “attack” have to step into a disintegration chamber and die willingly. I’ve just described what is going on between the planets of Eminiar VII and Vendikar in the episode “A Taste of Armageddon.”
The subject of war is a very touchy subject, especially in 1967. The Vietnam war was in full swing. While this story wasn’t a direct result of that conflict, the end result of what took place on Eminiar VII certainly could be construed as a commentary about the war that was going on.
Think about this: any conflict is still a conflict, no matter if someone is actually shot or not. People still die, especially in a disintegration machine. That’s the point that Kirk hammers home, and it’s a very good one. War is hell in every sense of the word.
In the case of these two planets, they’ve been at war for hundreds of years. The conflict was handed down from generation to generation. But why? Why does an entire culture just blindly keep going on with the same thing that continues to cause death? That would be an interesting philosophical debate. I can only imagine that the terror of doing anything different is what kept the Eminians and their terrestrial neighbors on Vendikar locked into the conflict. Eventually, our heroes convince the two sides to negotiate and resolve their differences.
When I first saw this episode, that ending is the one I was hoping for. I have a good feeling that it was what everyone viewing the show for the first time would have hoped for as well.
Spock practicing his mindful skills
If there is one cool thing I always liked in this episode, it’s the scene where Spock uses his mind probing techniques to get one of the guards to open the door to the room in which they are being held.
All in all, a great episode all around with themes that are just as prevalent today as they were 50 years ago. Next week, an episode that was almost called “The Way of the Spores”!
