I
always wonder if things really were simpler back in the 1960s. If television is to be believed, men worked
outside the house and women took care of the house and children. Children were usually happy and obeyed their
parents. (I suppose that by this same
reasoning, people might look back on today’s media and assume the opposite is
true.)
Star
Trek, on occasion, also tended to present things simply. The United Federation of Planets represented
the good guys. The Klingon Empire
represented the bad guys. And by good
guys and bad guys, I mean Americans and Soviets. Thus, when Captain Kirk shows up on Capella
IV, it’s troubling to find Kras, a representative of the Klingons also vying
for the planet’s resources.
The
Capellans are a warrior race. This would
seem to give the Klingons an advantage, as they would seem to have similar
values. When Kirk offers medicine, it’s
of little value. (Those that lose in
battle are usually left to die.) What’s
a Starfleet Captain to do? I will say
that it does require a rather interesting solution wherein McCoy has to gain
the trust of the mother of the future leader of the Capellans.
It’s
been pointed out that races on Star Trek tend to be a little monolithic. It’s something I’ve noticed myself. It’s not like there’s one sect of Capellans
that value aggression. It would seem
that they all do. There’s not a
scientific class of Klingons. All Klingons
are conquerors. It would seem that only
the Federation has diversity. I’m not
sure if this is a product of the era or if the episodes usually tried to focus
on the message.
My
only real complaint about the episode is the side plot of the Enterprise being
called away by a ship in distress. It
seemed like it was a way to fill time.
The landing party didn’t seem to be in any real danger, not that a main
character would have been killed off anyway.
The distress call was a decoy, but it wasn’t clear to what end. I’m sure there’s an explanation for it.
I
can see why this was one of the episodes I didn’t recall. You have a basic culture of the week with a
stereotypical enemy and the good guys win.
In the end, the Capellans grant the mining rights to the
Federation. It would appear that the
only one unhappy would be Kras. Of
course, that’s to be expected. I don’t
recall the good guys losing too many times in The Original Series.
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