This is going to be one of those episodes.
We begin as Kirk narrates a captain log about how they are enroute to Eminar VII to open diplomatic relations with the people there. Just as Uhura and Kirk discuss whether anyone is picking up the phone in response to their hails, Ambassador Robert Fox walks onto the bridge, just as Uhura confirms they got the message, and sent back a "Code 710"
Fox is all "Uh, what's that?" and is duly informed that is shorthand for "Go away and stay away."
Fox tells Kirk that is to be disregarded, and Kirk is all "Uh, they have every right to tell us to go away if they want, it's their planet."
Fox counters a lot of lives have been lost in that sector of space over 20 years, and the Federation hopes to establish a porting station on Eminar VII to put an end to it. Kirk sensibly points out they could get MORE people killed and get dragged into a war if they disregard Code 710, and Fox is all
"I'll take that risk."
Now, before we go on, this episode gives the lie to Kirk's reputation of treating the Prime Directive like toilet paper. He got an unambiguous message from a planet to please leave them alone, and instead of defying it, he intended to submit to their wishes and leave.
Of course, we won't have an episode if things go that smoothly, but here's proof Kirk is not as stupid and crazy as some of his detractors in and out of universe would attest. It's worth noting the Prime Directive is never named in this episode, but a lot of the episode hinges on it's concepts.
In fact, Kirk points out he has a ship and crew Fox is demanding he put in danger (for no sensible cause), but Fox is ordering Kirk to do so on his authority given him by the Federation, which gives Fox the power to force Kirk to jump if Fox tells him to.
As Fox storms off the bridge, Kirk and the crew have a "WTF?" look.
Once he leaves, Spock advise Kirk (in less crude language than mine) tell Fox to shove it, but Kirk realizes Fox has him over a barrel and informs the crew they are going to Yellow Alert, and throws in a bit of shade about how he hopes this can be a peaceful mission while stilling ordering phasers and deflectors warmed up as we cut away to the opening credits.
As we resume, the title displays as the Enterprise is in standard orbit around the planet.
Spock is given Kirk the background on what they know, and it goes like this: Eminar VII has been known to be warp capable and has had contact with other civilizations before, but has proven very xenophobic. Last time the Federation checked up on them was fifty years ago. They were at war with a neighboring planet. Also, the Federation away team from the ship USS Valiant sent in to check on them never turned up.
As Fox walks onto the bridge, Kirk says he's going down with a security detail to scope things out. Fox naively is all "why?", and Kirk makes him shut up with a very sensible "we don't know if they'll shoot us, and to make your mission succeed, I must keep you alive, so I'm checking things in advance". Spock then informs Kirk they were scanned by the planet, but otherwise have been ignored, which is strange.
They plan to beam down to a nearby population center that appears peaceful enough so they can say hello, Before leaving with Spock and the security team for the transporters, Kirk leaves Scotty in command.
Before we continue, some naval trivia. Scotty, as chief engineer, would be one of the highest ranking officers in line to succeed the captain in the event of his death or inability to serve.
As we cut to the planet, their security people are briefed the Enterprise crew are going to show up nearby and told to regard the away team correctly, nothing more. As they and the away team meet, the requisite attractive alien chick "Mea 3" (of their Division of Control, their main governing body) and the planet security politely acknowledge the away team and ask they follow them.
Once escorted inside, Mea asks why Kirk showed up, and the exchange goes like this:
Mea: We gave you a clear "go away". Why did you not heed it?
Kirk: I had orders to make an ass of myself unfortunately.
Mea: Well, that was stupid.You're in danger here.
Kirk: Uh, from what?
Mea: I'll let our High Council explain further.
When led to meet them, Kirk learns just how bad that is. He is given a chance to speak before their leaders, politely giving his "we'd like to establish diplomatic relations" pitch, and then learns he just put his neck under a blade.
Note: They refer to the Federation by it's full name for the first time in this episode)
In fact, their spokesman, Anan 7, he reveals they are still at war. Spock is all "you guys have a really nice looking and undamaged planet for a war". Anan is all "we still have 1 to 3 million dead every year".He elaborates and says their third planet, Vendikar, a former colony turned rival, are the foe. The Enterprise is now a target as a result.
We then cut to a panel opening behind them where some shock tubes and mainframe style computers meant to look futuristic (for the 1960s) are shown, and Anan explains they are under attack.
After a few moments, Spock puts the pieces together when he sees what looks like a war game sim being treated with deadly seriousness. The attacks are all simulated on computer between the two planets via computers, and the dead are decided based on what the computer say were those who should have died if said attacks had been quite real.
Essentially, war as a literal videogame, except the dead people are IRL.
Kirk is aghast, and the logic for this whole war becomes clear: Neither side really wants to kill each other in IRL combat, but they can't resolve their differences, so their wars are fought as theoretical combat via computers. Based on what the computers say, the people who should have died if the attack had been real report to "disintegration chambers" so their deaths will follow the computer laid out aftermath, and it's by perpetuating this cycle both planets have fought for 500 years and not ended as cultures. Spock sees the logic in this, and Anan takes this as approval, but Spock corrects him, saying he merely understands, but NOT approves.
Needless to say, Kirk is trying not to lose his shit (and who could blame him?) as he told this batshit premise for a war is considered so normal the people who are supposed to die meekly submit to their own suicides after these "attacks, and that's when Anan 7 drops an even bigger bombshell:
The Enterprise and its crew are now considered part of the "war", destroyed in theory by a tricobalt satellite explosion, and that means the lives of everyone from Kirk on down are considered signed up to die in the disintegration chambers.
And as the Eminar security show up to force Kirk and party to submit to house arrest until the Enterprise crew accept their fate (and they 24 hours to do so), it's made pretty clear this is NOT up for debate in Anan 7's eyes.
As we cut back from the intermission, Kirk and his away team are chilling in their house arrest when Mea 3 comes in and asks if they need anything. Kirk makes the obvious response, and we get this conversation:
Kirk: Do your people really not see how insane it is to walk into a death chamber to kill yourself over a simulated war?
Mea: I've been declared a casualty of that latest attack. By noon tomorrow, I'm to report to one of those chambers.
Kirk: What the-
Mea: Don't think I don't want to live like anyone else, but if I don't, then REAL attacks with REAL weapons happen. This is the better of the choices I have.
Kirk still calls bullshit on this and wants to speak to her boss, but she she leaves the room and one of the Eminar VII security guys makes sure they can't just escape as she leaves by removing the doorknob mechanism.
We cut over to Enterprise bridge, where McCoy is telling Scotty they should have heard something by now,and Scotty asks McCoy what he suggests, prompting a "I'm a doctor, not an officer of the line...."
Before we go on, McCoy both is being sarcastic and being serious. He was at "line officer" rank (Lieutenant or higher) at the time, but as the Chief Medical Officer, his place in the command structure would not have made him the first in line to make command decisions unless all other senior officers on that list were unable to do so.
Scotty continues to press McCoy on what he wants him to do, like opening fire, and that's when Uhura reports Kirk is coming in.
Kirk's message is basically a weird, super positive report that things are going great, the Eminar VII government agreed to full diplomatic relations, and it gets weird as hell with the addition that they are all invited for "shore leave".
Another pause. Even without the audience knowledge this is horseshit, this smells to the Enterprise crew like a sewer for two reasons. One, that's a DRASTIC 180 from the "go away and stay away" message they initially got, and two, even if the offer was genuine, Kirk would not, under regulations, be able to leave his ship completely unmanned for "shore leave", since no naval force in any navy, even in fiction, is to allow naval vessels to be left utterly abandoned while on duty.
The bullshit stinks to the point of being overpowering when we cut back to Anan 7 faking Kirk's voice through his communicator and saying something Kirk would never say about how they'll leave the ship in the hands of trained Eminar VII's people.
Needless to say, the rank smell of utter horseshit over something Kirk would be declared a traitor for authorizing had it really been Kirk spikes Scotty's bullshit sensors into the dark crimson.
It doesn't take long before the computer filters the message through a voice analyzer and comes back with "some jackass is faking Kirk's voice", meaning the Enterprise would be fools to fall for this shit.
We cut back to the planet as Spock and Kirk are discussing using Spock's telepathic skills, and curiously, Spock refers to his people by the term "Vulcanians", not just "Vulcans", though the latter would become the default term. As for the plan, Spock plans to use his touch telepathy to get them out of their prison.
Kirk okays the plan, and Spock plants his fingers on the wall where a guard is leaning on the other side,and it's obvious he's planting a suggestion to make the guard paranoid the prisoners escaped. The guard falls for it, puts the knob back on the door to check (which had been removed to turn the room into a cell), and Kirk judo chops him unconscious.
They prepare to find their communicators and get in touch with the ship, but before they set out, Kirk tells Spock they will need to find more weapons, and they may be forced to kill to secure their escape, to which Spock nods in logical assent to the situation. We then get some Metal Gear Solid style scenes of Kirk and crew hugging walls until guards pass as they try to sneak their way to their goals without getting caught.
As they do this, they come across the disintegration chambers, where they watch in horror as people frog march themselves into a sterile, transporter like booth that literally disintegrates them. They bump into Mea 3 about to take her turn in the chamber, but Kirk is all "Like hell you're committing suicide" as he has Spock head forward tot take out the guard manning the machine.
How he does it is hilarious.
Spock: (strolls up to guard) Excuse me, but there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.
Guard: (leans to check)
Spock: (Vulcan neck pinches him unconscious)
Whole scene plays out like some absurd comedy sketch in how causal it comes off.
After Spock relieves the now unconscious guard of his weapon and saunters back to Kirk in full view of some stunned citizens, Kirk (to Mea 3's horror) points his stolen weapon at the machine and destroys it (after telling the people to clear out).
Mea 3: You can't do this!
Kirk: I just did. We're leaving.
As Kirk, her, and everyone else go on their merry way, we cut back to the Eminar council room where Anan 7 gets the heads up the prisoners escaped and a death room got torched. This prompts Anan 7 to order the re-capture of the prisoners, dead or alive, and he also tells the planet's military to stand ready to take out the Enterprise. Once he gets word they are charged and ready, he says to fire in 10 seconds on the authority of the council.
As we cut back from another intermission, Scotty is giving a log, and as he finishes, that's when he gets word the ship is getting raked with disruptor fire. Oddly, he mentions they can't fire full phasers while deflector shields are up, which is odd, since that's not exactly how phasers work, this was obviously a line written before the writers had standardized the logic behind the relationship between phasers and shield tech.
As he idly mentions he could treat them to a few dozen photon torpedos (which somehow work through energy deflectors while phasers won't), Fox enters the bridge and shits his pants at the mere suggestion. In fact, he goes full stupendous ass insisting they are gonna make the mission to establish diplomatic relations succeed, despite Scotty practically screaming in his face:
"THEY'RE SHOOTING AT US AND HAVE OUR CAPTAIN HOSTAGE!"
Fox is hellbent on trying to establish contact, and since Fox can't fuck up anything too badly by simply talking, Scotty okays Uhura to open a channel for him.
We cut back to where Kirk and crew ingeniously returned to where they were imprisoned, figuring it would be the last place anyone would think to look for them, and as Kirk has Spock work on altering a communicator they gypped from a guard to reach the Enterprise, he tries to get Mea 3 to cooperate with him.
She's recalcitrant, but Kirk hits her with the fact that, sure, she can go off herself if she likes, but the killing will just go on and on and on. Their war will never end, the dead will continue to pile up, and basically tells her "are you really satisfied with an eternal war where the bodies never stop piling up?"
As he's managing to talk her into it, we cut over to Anan 7 and his peeps peeing themselves in fear because of the following:
1. Enterprise is still there.
2. They lost a disintegration chamber.
3. Prisoners still AWOL.
4. Their death quota has yet to be met and they fear shit will hit the fan if Vendikar hears of this.
They get wind of Fox's hail, and Anan 7 attempts again to bullshit his way out of what sees to be a crisis.
We cut to the Enterprise where Anan 7's BS is being swallowed by Fox, who is very gullibly taking bait so obvious the hook is not hidden in the least, while Scotty has this "you are one dumb SOB" look on his face Fox is oblivious to, even though the Eminar disruptors seem to have stopped in good faith. At any rate, Anan 7 is wanting the ambassador to beam down to clear everything up, and tells his guys away from the hail to open fire the second the Enterprise drops their shields.
As the call finishes, Fox tells Scotty to drop the shields and assume good faith, and Scotty shows his balls need a forklift to carry them as he tells Fox:
"No. I will not."
In fact, their conversation goes like this
Fox: Wat?
Scotty: Until the captain says to lower the screen, I'm not dropping them.
Fox: I'm pulling rank, lower the screens.
Scotty: I know about your authority, BUT THE SCREENS STAY UP!
McCoy they points out all the duplicitous BS the Eminar VII guys have pulled and tells him to quit being a naive jackass, and Scotty reiterates Fox can take his authority and shove it up his ass, THE SCREENS STAY UP.
Fox tries to threaten Scotty with imprisonment and disgrace, but Scotty does not give the tiniest damn about that. As Fox storms off the bridge, McCoy tells Scotty he just flipped a major table, but Scotty is all "yeah, the haggis is in the fire, but until I know what happened to the captain, I'm not going to drop my shields.
We cut back to the planet, where Anan 7 is about to get himself a drink cause he's had a stressful day, but that's when Kirk appears behind him. Anan 7 is perceptive enough to notice and offers Kirk a drink. Kirk turns him down and also confirms he was the one who fired the disintegration chamber, to which Anan is pretty pissed. In fact, he tries to hit Kirk with this damning indictment on his people and humanity (quote taken from the Memory Alpha Wiki and cited below)
- - Anan 7, to Kirk
Granted, he's a got a pretty valid point here, that's a sad but accurate take on humanity. Hell, if you believe the Bible, before we built anything, man committed the first murder when Abel was slain by Cain.
- Kirk shakes this off, points his disruptor at Anan, and say he wants to contact his ship. Anan is evasive and says that's small potatoes compared to a world.
- Cue Kirk pinning the guy to the wall and telling him if he wants to live, period, he'd better start cooperating. Anan pretends to agree and offers that drink again, hitting a hidden alarm switch as he reaches for his drink. Meanwhile, Kirk calls Anan on the bullshit of using computers to fight a simulated war and forcing people to commit suicide based on the results. He then drops his own bombshell on Anan, and it goes like this:
Anan: Why do you think I'm not giving you access to your ship.
Kirk: I don't need it. I'm going to do it.
Anan: With what? That disruptor in your hand?
Kirk: Bingo.
Kirk convinces Anan he's playing hardball, so Anan turns to go fetch the communicators. As they leave, Anan had an ambush security team try to take Kirk down, and while Kirk does a pretty good job, they manage to overpower him after some hokey karate.
After Anan shit talks the groggy Kirk over how he prefers to go down fighting, he has the security guys drag Kirk to the council chamber as we cut for intermission.
As we return, Fox and his aide have beamed down to the planet, in apparent defiance of Scotty, and Fox is holding his diplomatic instructions, still convinced he can talk this out as they meet Anan 7, having no idea they just walked into a bear trap as they do the basic initial pleasantries. However, Fox finally gets a clue as they walk Fox near the same suicide boxes meant for Kirk's crew and drops the bombshell he's been added to list of people to die.
Fox is 0_0 as it sinks in "yeah, that is not a joke, they aren't gonna kill you".
As Fox is led off, we cut to Spock having finally managed to rig up the communicator to reach the Enterprise (and two away team members are now in disguise as well).Spock warns Scotty anyone who comes down to the planet is doomed, and Scotty curses because Fox went down recently like an idiot.Spock tells Scotty (in the place of Kirk, which can do as first officer if Kirk is not available) to move out of maximum phaser range and stand by.
He then says he's going to find Kirk, but tells Lieutenant Tamara to make sure Mea 3 does not kill herself, even knocking her cross-eyed and sitting on her if she needs to to prevent it.
As he leaves, we cut back over to Fox being hauled to his doom, but just before they can shove Fox in to die (and he's flabbergasted they'd kill an ambassador like this), Spock and his disguised crew show up and disarm the guys about to kill Fox, then tell everyone to back away from the chamber, and brief aside before we go on.
Leonard Nimoy noted in his book "I Am Spock" he had to discipline his voice to fit the role of a thoughtful and logical person. In the original pilot and some early episodes, one can notice Nimoy's classic "Spock" voice is a lot more commanding and even emotional, as Nimoy admitted early on he was still working on it. He briefly drops the Spock voice during this scene where he orders everyone to back away from the chamber he's about to destroy, but this was deliberate to highlight the emotional tension of the scene.
As he fries the suicide box, Spock makes it clear to Fox normal diplomacy is just not going to work, and Fox has a reality check as he confirms Kirk is under heavy guard in the council room, and adds while he's not a soldier, he can learn very quickly, as even he's realizing this is not a time when ordinary diplomacy is going to solve anything.
We then cut away to Anan giving Kirk a guilt trip by saying they have an agreement with Vendikar to kill X amount of people every time they have an attack, and the Enterprise crew must take part, or they will have a real war.
Anan really pours on the guilt trip about how they will have all the horrors of an actual war if they don't comply with their simulated war terms, and Kirk strikes a nerve when he notes Anan is petrified over that alternative. Kirk casually twists Ana's tail when he comments Anan called him a barbarian and Kirk has on his trollface as he's all "what, you expected otherwise/"
Note he's doing this while sitting in chair in the center of a room where everyone is giving him looks that could kill.
Anan opens a channel to the Enterprise to deliver an ultimatum, and Kirk manages to order Scotty to initiate General Order 24 in two hours before they take him away from the microphone. Anan threatens the Enterprise with the deaths of all their hostages unless they all beam over en masse in 30 minutes.
And then we get this badass exchange:
Anan: (to Kirk) I wasn't kidding.
Kirk: I believe you. I just won't be around when you die an even worse way than me.
Anan: Wat?
Kirk: I gave General Order 24. In two hours, that means the Enterprise turns your planet into a parking lot.
Anan freaks out and tries to order the Enterprise shot down, but Spock's earlier order has kept them out of the fire zone.
And then the badass hardball continues:
Anan: (to Kirk) You wouldn't do this?! The deaths this will cause-
Kirk: (to Anan) I didn't start this, but I will be liable to finish it.
We briefly cut away to Spock's team making their way through the security forces, then we cut back to Anan getting a message Vendikar is getting pissed Eminar's death quota is not being met. Anan tries to guilt Kirk with this, but as Anan gets the news another suicide box got blown up by Spock's team, Kirk makes Anan sweat by saying he doesn't care what box this puts Anan in, he's happy to watch this get worse.
We cut over to Enterprise, where Scotty has Uhura open a channel. He then confirms Kirk was not bluffing, the Enterprise has already primed their fire control system to kill everything important with people, and we cut back to Anan about go batshit because he's now under TWO sources of potential death.
Kirk takes temporary advantage of Anan's little breakdown to overpower some guards and dual wields some disruptors as he tell them he'll talk once they line up nicely, and Spock's team shows up behind them to flip things around to Kirk's advantage.
Spock drily notes he thought Kirk needed help, but it looks like Kirk was fine. Kirk snarks back he still needs some help, and has Spock enter the war sim room. Meanwhile, he contacts Scotty, tells him to stand by for beam out in ten minutes, then adds if they don't hear anything in ten minutes, then General Order 24 is to resume.
As he ends the call, he turns Anan's guilt trip back on Anan. He admits the real horrors of war are something any sane person should avoid, but Anan and his people took an even more craven way out. They removed themselves from all the consequences of war save killing themselves in mass droves that would've happened had the war been real, and in doing so, they perpetuated an endless war that resulted in people killing themselves for nothing because they were too scared to avert the horrors of a real war while not being to stop fighting, so Kirk plans to end the war for them.
He then asks Fox to escort the Eminar VII people out and hold them there, and Fox complies. He does retain Anan's chief aide and has away team member Osborn as an assistant to keep an eye him.
They then enter the war sim area that Spock has been looking at, and as the aide is forced to hand back their weapons and communicators, Spock explains the Eminar war game computer is is constant contact with the Vendikar counterparts, and as a lightbulb clicks in the aide's head, Kirk's intentions are crystal clear, whereupon Osborn shoves the guy out of the room too.
Kirk cooks off the main circuit of the system, and then he and everyone else heads out where Fox is to duck for cover as we get a lot of smoke and fire with the war game mainframe going nova.
As the smoke dies down, Anan and Kirk have this conversation:
Anan: DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU'VE DONE?!
Kirk: I do. I gave you back the real horror of real war.
As Anan is in shock, Kirk decides to bitch slap the man with a verbal reality check:
Kirk: Sure, this means you and Vendikar might want to consider killing each other for real.....or you could consider an alternative. End it. Make peace
Anan: How?! We're a killer species, we admit it to ourselves. You're the same!
Kirk: True. But the instinct can be fought. We (referring to humans) admit we're killers too, but we can also say "we are NOT going to kill today".
As Anan is having this thought rattle around his head, Kirk hits the clincher:
Kirk: Contact Vendikar. I'm quite sure you will find they are just as terrified of a real war as you, and despite your urges to kill, your fears of the consequences can win out, and you can decide to stop the killing together.
Fox helpfully offers to stick around as neutral third party to hash things out, and Anan is forced to admit they have a communications link to Vendikar they haven't used but should still work.
As Anan finally has the realization the bloodshed just might truly stop, he peacefully leads Fox to the Vendikar comm link while Kirk orders the Enterprise to cancel General Order 24.
We cut back to the Enterprise later after they beamed back up (sans Fox, who stayed behind to be a diplomat), and Uhura informs Kirk Fox sent them a message saying the Magic 8-Ball looks good on Eminar and Vendikar finally stopping the killing.
McCoy and Spock get Kirk to admit he took a big gamble, but Kirk has a good counterpoint. The Eminar people were a very ordered society obviously terrified of the consequences of a real war, he offered them an even better alternative to what they had done to avoid it that would result in the final end to the bloodshed as well. Being rational people, they took the better way out.
As the episode ends, Spock thoughtfully concedes the point as he and Kirk have this exchange before the end credits.
Spock: Captain, you almost make me believe in luck.
Kirk: Spock, you almost make me believe in miracles.
(cue sardonic look from Spock and grin from Kirk as credits start)
This episode was less a "monster of the week" episode and more an examination of human nature. Given the series was produced during the height of the Cold War, the message was topical then but is still topical today.
No one who is aware of the horrors of an actual war wants one, and all of us want to avoid it, but the only true way to avoid all it's horrors is to truly not fight to begin with. Trying to have the cake of fighting while trying to deny the end results is as terrible, as it is just putting off the problem. Wars, even the sterile one the Eminar and Vendikar people fought, still resulted in those who shouldn't have died.
Peace, on the other hand, doesn't have to be permanent, but it can be if those who are fighting decide that the horror they want to avoid is more important to them than the urge to shed each other's blood, and while it's in our nature to wage war, that nature can be overcome, only if we are willing to do so.
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