star trek private little war cast

A Private Little War (episode)

• View history
• 1.2 Act One
• 1.3 Act Two
• 1.4 Act Three
• 1.5 Act Four
• 2 Log entries
• 3 Memorable quotes
• 4.2 Filming
• 4.3 Continuity
• 4.5 Apocrypha
• 4.6 Production timeline
• 4.7 Video and DVD releases
• 5.1 Starring
• 5.2 Also starring
• 5.3 Guest stars
• 5.4 Featuring
• 5.5 Uncredited co-stars
• 5.6 Stunt doubles
• 5.7 References
• 5.8 External links

Summary [ ]

On a scientific mission to Neural , a primitive, pre- first contact planet protected by the Prime Directive , Spock , Kirk , and McCoy are doing some minor research on indigenous plant life and chemical compounds . Spock finds large footprints of the mugato , a white ape-like creature. Kirk remembers his first planetary survey as a lieutenant thirteen years prior on this very planet. Spock comments on the qualities of the planet, how Earth -like it is. Kirk notes that the inhabitants have stayed at the same technological level for centuries, and that bows and arrows are still the tools of hunting. He also explains that the people are peaceful and never fight amongst themselves.

Kirk and Spock hear yells from some of the inhabitants and run over to see what is going on. It is obvious the men are not holding bows and arrows, but flintlock firearms . Kirk explains that it would be impossible for them to have invented these types of weapons in the duration since his previous visit.

Coming toward them is a band of men, one of whom is Tyree , the man Kirk lived with while on his original mission. They are walking directly into a trap set by the armed men. Warned by Spock that the use of his phaser is expressly forbidden, Kirk throws a stone and distracts one of the men, causing him to fire his weapon and give away his position. The other men scatter for cover, as do Kirk and Spock. The armed men make chase and McCoy quickly prepares the USS Enterprise through his communicator for the landing party 's return. Spock is shot in the back by one of the flintlock guns and goes tumbling to the ground. Kirk hurries to the aid of the wounded Spock, whose pale blue uniform shirt is stained with green blood , helps him back to his feet and they run to McCoy. The three of them beam up, leaving the armed men wondering where they could have gone.

Act One [ ]

The landing party arrive back on the ship, with Dr. Joseph M'Benga and Nurse Chapel waiting in the transporter room ready to treat Spock. " Lucky his heart is where his liver should be or he'd be dead now ", McCoy says. As they hover over Spock, a red alert is called by Lieutenant Uhura ; a Klingon vessel is approaching. Before leaving for the bridge with Montgomery Scott , Kirk asks McCoy about Spock's condition, and he can only reply, " I don't know yet, Jim. "

Kirk arrives on the bridge. Ensign Chekov explains that the Klingon ship does not know of their presence, since the Enterprise is holding the planet between them. Uhura offers to contact Starfleet , but Kirk warns that it could give away their position and alert the Klingons.

Kirk begins to contemplate the likelihood that the inhabitants of the planet could have developed firearms in the few years since they started forging iron . Scott, Chekov, and Uhura on the bridge offer explanations as to how it could have happened progressively but Kirk abruptly cuts them off. He later apologizes, stating to them that he's worried about Spock.

Spock's condition is poor because there are no replacement organs available to treat him. They are forced to wait and see what happens. However, Spock is also in excellent hands with McCoy's immediate subordinate, Dr. M'Benga, who has considerable experience in treating Vulcans , having interned in a Vulcan ward. Kirk explains to McCoy that they must go down to the planet, together, overruling McCoy's preference to treat Spock personally by reminding him of his own recommendation of M'Benga, and must discover what has happened with the disparity in weapons. While asking Scott to have the ship's stores prepare period clothing, Kirk is warned that Enterprise may have to leave orbit to avoid being discovered. They set a time for a rendezvous.

McCoy and Kirk, wearing their Neural-style clothing, beam down to the planet. McCoy reminds him of their orders. Kirk recalls it was his own recommendation not to permit contact with the inhabitants.

As the men walk, Kirk is attacked by a mugato , an ape-like creature with white fur and a large horn on its head. He is bitten and suffers from the effects of its poison fangs. McCoy pulls out his phaser and vaporizes the mugato. Rushing to Kirk's side, McCoy's small collection of medical supplies will not be sufficient to save his life. He attempts to contact the ship but to no avail – it has left orbit. Kirk tells him to get Tyree's men, the Hill People , who have already found them.

McCoy explains to them that they must take Kirk to Tyree or he will die.

Act Two [ ]

Tyree's men bring Kirk and McCoy into their camp.

Tyree and his wife, Nona follow some men with guns. She explains to him that they must obtain the same " fire sticks ", making them strong and able to take the enemy's houses and supplies. Tyree is sure that the enemies will someday return to peace again. She does not agree.

She brags that she is a kahn-ut-tu , valued by men because they aid in achieving power. Tyree claims he accepted her because she cast a spell on him. She explains about many spells that she uses to keep him. She pulls out a sprig of leaves and rubs them on his face and arm, driving the plant's contents into his skin. He is obviously affected by its presence. He grabs her and kisses her intensely.

They are interrupted by a scout, Yutan , from the camp requesting their presence. Tyree is dazed by the plant but Nona heads back. She asks Yutan to bring Tyree when his head has cleared.

McCoy notes Kirk's struggles. Hoping to keep him warm, he uses his phaser to heat rocks in the cave where Kirk lays. As he is heating the last of three stones, Nona returns and sees him firing the weapon. She is surprised and awed. She steps out of the cave, avoiding being seen by McCoy.

As Tyree returns to camp, Nona asks him to explain who these men are before she will help them. Tyree tells her that he promised Kirk silence. She says she is his wife, and that she too will remain silent or Kirk will die without her help.

Back on the Enterprise , Nurse Chapel takes Spock's hand as she watches the medical panel. Dr. M'Benga walks in and Nurse Chapel quickly puts Spock's hand down. M'Benga comforts her and assures her that Spock is concentrating on his healing and that is why his readings are so low. It is self-induced hypnosis . He says that Spock is aware of them and what they are saying but that he cannot show it. He also says that Spock probably knows she was holding his hand. Nurse Chapel looks at him in surprise, then in embarrassment.

Tyree and Nona enter the cave. She pulls out a Mahko root and holds it above Kirk's chest. It moves in her hand. McCoy asks what it is. Nona replies that few know how to use it.

She offers Tyree her knife, and he cuts the palm of her hand. She puts the root on Kirk's bite, then places her hand over the root. Her blood and Kirk's blood mix through the Mahko root. Nona flails about as if she is seeing what is going through Kirk's mind and his knowledge. Tyree softly pounds on a drum. The poison is extracted and Kirk regains his consciousness, then promptly falls asleep. McCoy removes the root showing that the injuries have been completely healed. Nona claims that Kirk belongs to her now.

Tyree explains to McCoy that legend says that no man can refuse a woman who is joined with a man in this way.

Act Three [ ]

McCoy wakes up to find Kirk missing, but discovers that Kirk is sitting in the next room. As he rouses Jim, Tyree stands. Kirk and Tyree are reunited. Kirk remembers nothing since the animal attack, but knew that Tyree would find a kahn-ut-tu to heal him.

Kirk asks Tyree to tell him about the weapons the enemy has acquired. Tyree assures him that he will hear everything.

Back on the Enterprise , Spock's readings fluctuate, but have improved. Dr. M'Benga tells Spock that someone will constantly be at his bedside. M'Benga tells nurse Chapel that if Spock awakes, she is to do whatever he asks.

Tyree tells Kirk that the "fire sticks" arrived about a year ago, and that the villagers are producing them. McCoy asks if any strangers have been seen with them. Tyree answers in the negative. Kirk then asks if they can spy on the enemy during the night. Tyree warns about the Mugato, which travel at night. Since McCoy killed one earlier, its mate will not be far.

Nona walks to the table, alluding to the fact that Kirk and McCoy have enough tools and strength to make Tyree a very powerful man on Neural. Kirk explains to her that they are simply visitors from another village. She interrupts him and claims that they come from the sky and that they have powers far above "fire sticks". Tyree warns her to not speak about any of this with anyone. Nona claims that the act of kindness she did brings her the right to be rewarded. Kirk admits he is grateful, but explains that his people's weapons grew faster than their wisdom. This leads to his vague explanation of the Prime Directive .

Nona assumes that this implies that Kirk will not help them. She is disgusted. Tyree understands the issue and yet refuses to kill anyone. McCoy mentions to Jim that it could be the Klingons who have dabbled in this conflict, and that there may be a way to balance things out. But that possibility disturbs Kirk.

Tyree, McCoy and Kirk make their way to the other village. Kirk knocks out a guard and Tyree takes the man's gun.

Krell discusses giving more "fire-sticks" to Apella

An enemy villager named Apella walks into a room with a Klingon, Krell , inside. The Klingon tells him to bring in the man who did the most killings because he is to be rewarded as an example to the others. He offers the man another improvement to the flintlock weapon. He mentions other improvements that will make the weapon more effective and more accurate.

McCoy and Kirk continue their spying. They find coal for forging, and sulfur which is used in making gunpowder . They enter the building and find the forge, some drill points, and barrels of extremely high quality, none of which could have been manufactured by the planet's inhabitants. It is further proof that the Klingons have been providing these weapons.

Krell and Apella

Voices can be heard outside, forcing Kirk and McCoy to hide. The Klingon man and Apella enter, discussing the rewards for bravery and conquest. Krell assures that rewards will be granted, including power over the planet, and making Apella a governor in the Klingon Empire someday.

As the men are talking, McCoy's tricorder is somehow activated, its high-pitched whirring sound announcing their presence. Kirk leaps from behind the forge and attacks Krell, causing him to discharge the flintlock rifle he carries. It fires harmlessly into the floor. A fight ensues, and though they defeat Apella and the Klingon, they are caught at the door by two more men with rifles.

Act Four [ ]

They escape by clubbing the men with fists and gun barrels. As they run, voices cry out that intruders are in the village. The men are chased through the streets of the village, with the villagers firing their flintlocks at the fleeing Kirk, McCoy, and Tyree.

In sickbay, Spock partially arises from his hypnosis. He calls to Nurse Chapel and asks her to strike him. At first she refuses, but does so to appease his request. Spock barely feels her first few strikes; he asks her to hit him harder. He explains that the pain will help him return to consciousness. She then hits him repeatedly, much harder.

Just then, Scott enters the room and, assuming Spock is under attack, restrains Nurse Chapel. Dr. M'Benga runs into the room and pulls Spock into a sitting position. He slaps Spock in the face with great swings. After several strikes, Spock catches his hand and explains that he is sufficiently revived.

Witnessing this bizarre ritual, Scott questions the practice. Spock and M'Benga tell him that it is a natural Vulcan response to self-healing.

On the planet, Kirk explains to Tyree and his men how to use a flintlock weapon and how to work the trigger and hammer. Tyree brings the weapon to his shoulder and fires it, shattering a clay cup on his first shot.

McCoy requests to speak to Kirk about this new development. He is intensely upset that Kirk has now introduced these weapons to both sides in the battle. Kirk defends the decision. McCoy reminds him about the power that Nona supposedly has over him. Kirk explains that they must equalize the fighting forces, even though McCoy is worried about a never-ending war. They discuss the 20th century Brush Wars on Earth, and how it led to the balance of power. They struggle with their decisions, but know there is no better way. Since Tyree refuses to fight, they hope to convince Nona to sway him.

Spock returns to the bridge as the Enterprise re-enters orbit. They are approaching the rendezvous time. They also detect that a Klingon is beaming back to his ship.

Kirk follows Nona to a waterfall but she believes that she willed Kirk to be there. She pulls out the same leaves she used on Tyree and begins tempting him. Kirk simply wants to talk. He is obviously affected in the same way as Tyree, who happens upon the two of them. His jealousy is aroused, but Kirk walks away from Nona only to return to her. Tyree raises his gun and cocks the hammer. Kirk and Nona kiss, but Tyree can't bring himself to fire. He throws the weapon to the ground and runs into the trees.

As Tyree flees, a mugato appears and makes its way to attack Kirk and Nona. Kirk is dazed by the effects of the leaves and cannot help her. The animal pushes her around repeatedly but Kirk finally pulls out his phaser to vaporize the creature. As he is still recovering, Nona hits him on the head with a stone and takes the weapon.

Tyree returns to the camp. McCoy notices he no longer has his gun. After asking him about it, McCoy asks him to take him back to where he left it. When they arrive, they find Kirk rubbing his head and still fighting off the effects of the plant.

Nona runs to the enemy villagers. She asks them to take her to Apella, because he will know how to use the new weapon. She brandishes the phaser and shows it off to them. The men know she is a kahn-ut-tu , and they only want her for themselves. They surround her and she begins to fight them.

McCoy offers to give Kirk an injection from his hypospray . He refuses and discovers that his phaser is missing. They realize that Nona has taken it.

Nona tells the villagers that the weapon she holds is more powerful than their "fire sticks". They continue to fight her. As the fighting continues, Tyree, McCoy and Kirk catch up to them. Tyree calls out to Nona. The villagers think it is a trap set for them. They stab Nona and throw her to the ground.

A gunfight ensues, and McCoy is struck in the arm but it is only a simple nick. Tyree and Kirk fight the men. A distraught Tyree catches his wife's assailant and bludgeons the man to death with a rock, only stopping when Kirk physically restrains him. McCoy informs them that Nona is dead .

Tyree is angered and asks Kirk for more weapons. He no longer has a desire for peace. McCoy returns the phaser to Kirk. They are upset about the outcome, but there was no other option.

Kirk calls to the ship, and Spock responds. McCoy is almost surprised to hear that Spock is alive, but then tells him that a computer could never die.

Kirk asks Scott to construct a hundred flintlock rifles for the people. Scott is confused about the request, but Kirk changes his request to, " Serpents, serpents for the Garden of Eden. " He adds, " We're very tired, Mr. Scott. Beam us up home. "

The Enterprise leaves Neural's orbit and heads off into space.

Log entries [ ]

• Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2268

Memorable quotes [ ]

" And you have ways as far above firesticks as the sky above our world. "

" Blast it, do something! He's dying! "

" We once were as you are – spears, arrows. There came a time when our weapons grew faster than our wisdom, and we almost destroyed ourselves. We learned from this to make a rule during all our travels – never to cause the same to happen to other worlds. "

" I'll make a Klingon of you yet. "

" What are you doing, woman?! "

" I thought my people would grow tired of killing. But you were right. They see that it is easier than trading and it has pleasures. "

" Jim, that means you're condemning this whole planet to a war that may never end! It could go on for year after year! Massacre after massacre! "

" A balance of power. The trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all, but the only one that preserves both sides. "

" Well, war isn't a good life, but it's life. "

" Touch me again and this small box will kill you. "

" Well, I don't know why I was worried. You can't kill a computer. "

" A hundred what? " " A hundred ... serpents. Serpents for the Garden of Eden. "

Background information [ ]

• The first draft script was completed on 30 August 1967 . The episode was filmed late September .
• Although the script specifies that the planet is named " Neural ," that name is never mentioned in the episode itself. Similarly, Krell 's name is never mentioned, either.
• In Don Ingalls' original story outline, the Klingon antagonist was Kor from the episode " Errand of Mercy ". In a May 26, 1967 memo, Bob Justman criticized this point, writing, " Here we are in the outer reaches of our galaxy and who should Captain Kirk run into, but good old Kor – an adversary that he has encountered before and with whom he has been unable to get very far. Just think of it – billions of stars and millions of Class M-type planets and who should he run into, but a fella he has had trouble with before. No wonder Kor doesn't recognize him at first. The coincidence is so astounding, that he must feel certain that it couldn't possibly have happened. " In Don Ingalls' second draft story outline, the character's name was changed to Krell . [1] [2]
• This episode was intended as a comment on the ongoing Vietnam War. ( Star Trek 30 Years )
• The original writer of this episode, Don Ingalls, put the pseudonym Jud Crucis on it after Gene Roddenberry rewrote it. Ingalls' original contained many more overt Vietnam analogies than what finally appeared. According to Allan Asherman 's The Star Trek Compendium this script referred to Apella as a "Ho Chi Mihn-type" and the tribesmen wearing Mongolian clothes. Though friends with Roddenberry since their days as LAPD officers, Ingalls did not like the changes, and the pseudonym was his wordplay on "Jesus Crucified."
• The original script called the creature a "gumato", but DeForest Kelley kept saying it wrong, so it was changed. ( citation needed • edit ) The credits still retain the original name. Stock footage of the White Rabbit 's footprints from " Shore Leave " were used for the mugato prints.

Filming [ ]

• Despite directing ten episodes of the series previously, this is the first time Marc Daniels got to film on location with Star Trek . The majority of the episode's location scenes were filmed at the Bell Ranch , separating the San Fernando Valley (in Los Angeles County) from Simi Valley (in Ventura County), with additional filming at Paramount Pictures ' B Tank , where the village set stood, previously built for another production. ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Two , pp. 378-382)

Continuity [ ]

• This is the only episode in Season 2 to not have a happy ending music.
• This is the only episode in which Spock and Kirk are both incapacitated in two separate incidents with different causes for an overlapping time period.
• George Takei ( Sulu ) does not appear in this episode.
• This episode marks the first of two appearances of Booker Bradshaw as Doctor Joseph M'Benga . The next one occurs in " That Which Survives ".

Apocrypha [ ]

• In the comic book " The Order of Things " in the Blood Will Tell miniseries, the story is told from the Klingon point of view.
• The novel Serpents in the Garden , which takes place just prior to Star Trek: The Motion Picture , has Kirk returning to Neural to investigate the increasing Klingon presence there.
• The background book Worlds of the Federation reports that, in the aftermath of the Enterprise 's departure, the Hill People and village people splintered into five separate factions, all fighting each other.
• A cat version of "A Private Little War" was featured in Jenny Parks ' 2017 book Star Trek Cats .

Production timeline [ ]

• Story outline "Ty-Ree's Woman" by Don Ingalls: 30 April 1967
• Story outline "A Private Little War": 1 June 1967
• Revised story outline: 5 June 1967
• Second revised story outline: 10 June 1967
• First draft teleplay: 7 August 1967
• Second draft teleplay: 30 August 1967
• Final draft teleplay by Gene L. Coon : early- September 1967
• Revised final draft by Gene Roddenberry : 20 September 1967
• Second revised final draft: 25 September 1967
• Additional page revisions: 26 September 1967 , 27 September 1967 , 28 September 1967
• Day 1 – 29 September 1967 , Friday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge , Transporter room , Sickbay
• Day 2 – 2 October 1967 , Monday – Bell Ranch  : Ext. Forest , Clearing , Ambush trail
• Day 3 – 3 October 1967 , Tuesday – Bell Ranch  : Ext. Mugato attack site , Waterfall
• Day 4 – 4 October 1967 , Wednesday – Bell Ranch  : Ext. Tyree's camp , Clearing
• Day 5 – 5 October 1967 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Cave
• Day 6 – 6 October 1967 , Friday – B Tank : Ext. Village , Int. Workshop
• Original airdate: 2 February 1968
• Rerun airdate: 23 August 1968
• First UK airdate (on BBC1 ): 6 July 1970
• First UK airdate (on ITV ): 9 January 1983
• Remastered airdate: 17 May 2008

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• Original US Betamax release: 1986
• UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video ): Volume 24 , catalog number VHR 2359, 2 April 1990
• US VHS release: 15 April 1994
• UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 2.6, 2 June 1997
• Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 23, 5 June 2001
• As part of the TOS Season 2 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

• William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring [ ]

• Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Guest stars [ ]

• Nancy Kovack as Nona
• Michael Witney as Tyree
• James Doohan as Scott
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Ned Romero as Krell
• Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel

Featuring [ ]

• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• Booker Bradshaw as Dr. M'Benga
• Arthur Bernard as Apella
• Janos Prohaska as The Gumato
• Paul Baxley as Patrol Leader
• Gary Pillar as Yutan

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• William Blackburn as Hadley
• Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
• Jeannie Malone as villager
• Bob Orrison as villager
• Eddie Paskey as Leslie
• Roy Sickner as villager
• Neural Hill People patrol 1 and 2
• Neural Hill People woman 2 and 3
• Neural village guard 1 and 2
• Neural village patrol 1
• USS Enterprise medical technician

Stunt doubles [ ]

• Jay Jones as stunt double for Ned Romero
• Regina Parton as stunt double for Nancy Kovack
• Stunt double for DeForest Kelley
• Stunt double for Leonard Nimoy
• Stunt double for William Shatner

References [ ]

20th century ; 2255 ; 2267 ; advice ; agony ; ambush ; ammunition ; answer ; antibody ; antitoxin ; anvil ; ape-like ; arrow ; Asian continent ; balance of power ; barrel ; battle stations ; beast blood ; " Bones "; bow and arrow ; box ; bravery ; breechloader ; brother ; Brush Wars ; carbon ; carnivore ; cave ; century ; chance ; choice ; chrome steel ; class M ; coal ; coincidence ; cold rolling ; communicator range ; compassion ; compliment ; computer ; consciousness ; contact ; coranalin ; costume ; culture ; cure ; custom ; D7-class ( unnamed ; day ; debate ; distant orbit ; dizziness ; dream ; drill point ; drum ; Earth ; Earth-like ; emergency ; Enterprise , USS ; evil ; fang ; fear ; firearm ( gun ); fire stick ; flintlock ; forge ; fragrance ; free will ; friend ; friendship ; furnace ; Garden of Eden ; gentle ; giant power ; goods ; governor ; groove ; gun barrel rod ; gunpowder ; gunshot wound ; hammer ; hand ; hand laser ; head ; heart ; herb ; Hill People ; Hill People woman, captured ; home ; home base ; homemade ; hour ; house ; Human (aka Mankind ); hunter ; hunting ; hybrid ; idea ; internship ; interstellar war ; inhabitant ; intruder ; iron ; job ; judgment ; Kahn-ut-tu ; kiss ; Klingon ; Klingon Empire ; Klingon way ; knowledge ; land ; landing party ; Latin language ; lead projectile ; leader ; leaf ; legend ; light ; liver ; logic ; machine gun ; madness ; massacre ; Mahko root ; medic ; mile ; mind ; minute ; name ; Neural ; Neural village ; night ; night of madness ; nurse ; orbit ; order ; organ ; organic compound ; pain ; palm ; pan (firearms) ; panel ; patient ; people's exhibit ; phaser ; physiology ; pig iron ; place ; plan ; planet ; planet survey ; plant ; poison ; powder horn ; pressure packet ; Prime Directive ; priming powder ; print ; problem ; profit ; promise of silence ; question ; recorder tape ; red alert ; remedy ; rendezvous schedule ; rendezvous time ; report ; research ; rifled barrel ; risk ; root ; rule ; scanner tape ; scientific mission ; self-healing ; self-induced hypnosis ; ship's store ; shock ; sister ; serpent ; skin ; sky ; sleep ; smell ; social development ; solution ; soil culture ; soul ; space ; spear ; spell ; starbase near Neural ; Starfleet ; Starfleet Command ; status quo ; sterilite ; stranger ; strength ; striker ; subspace message ; sulfur ; superstition ; status quo ; thing ; trading ; trap ; treasure house ; Treaty of Organia ; tricked ; trigger ; Tyree's camp ; venom ; victory ; village ; village furnace ; villager ; Vitalizer B ; voice ; Vulcan ; Vulcan (planet); Vulcan ward ; Vulcans ; walking ; war ; water ; weapon ; wisdom ; witch ; year ; yellow alert

External links [ ]

• " A Private Little War " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " A Private Little War " at Wikipedia
• " A Private Little War " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• " A Private Little War " at the Internet Movie Database
• 3 Erigah (episode)

Star Trek: The Original Series

A Private Little War

Cast & crew.

Nancy Kovack

Michael Witney

Majel Barrett

Nurse Christine Chapel

Gary Pillar

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Star Trek Re-Watch: “A Private Little War”

Season 2, Episode 19 Production episode: 2×16 Original air date: February 2, 1968 Star date: 4211.4

Mission Summary

Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are conducting a scientific survey on the planet Neural, home to peaceful, pre-industrial natives. Kirk lived with them thirteen years ago on his first planetary survey, and describes the planet and its people as a veritable Garden of Eden (aside from the “ape-like carnivores” that are mentioned off-hand). As McCoy and the others collect interesting plant life, they see a group of dark-haired natives approaching on a nearby outcrop—but these men have flintlock rifles, not bows and arrows. That’s not right! They’re setting up an ambush for a group of white-haired natives (with bows and arrows), one of whom Kirk recognizes as his friend Tyree. Kirk draws his phaser but Spock reminds him that the Prime Directive forbids them from displaying such technology, so he throws a rock at the aggressors, successfully revealing his own position. Whoopsie.

They chase the three men, and Spock is shot by one of them, bleeding green blood. McCoy is able to signal to the Enterprise and Kirk orders Scotty to beam them out of there. Just as they arrive, Uhura tells the captain that a Klingon vessel has entered orbit around the planet. They can remain out of sight, but it might mean eventually breaking orbit around Neural. Spock is led away to Sickbay, and McCoy doesn’t know if he’ll make it.

Kirk thinks the Klingons are responsible for the rifles, but the rest of the bridge crew seem skeptical—they could have developed the technology on their own (albeit very quickly), and there’s no evidence that the Klingons were involved. If they had been, why not give them lasers, or phasers, or more advanced technology? Kirk snaps at them before quickly apologizing, and admits he’s worried about Spock.

Doctor M’Benga is assigned to watch over Spock, and Kirk and McCoy beam back down to the planet (this time in native costume) to suss out whether or not the Klingons are responsible for the flintlock rifles. If they are, they’ve broken the peace treaty, and that might begin an interstellar war.

They make their way to Tyree’s encampment, but suddenly a terrible costume emerges from the brush! What looks like an ill-conceived white ape children’s party costume (who would want one? EXACTLY) has been modded with a tail, a top horn, and spines all down the back. The “ape-like carnivore” pounces on Kirk, biting him. After a brief scuffle McCoy is able to vaporize it with his phaser, but it’s too late—Kirk has absorbed the poison, and the Enterprise has broken orbit and cannot be contacted. Without an antidote Kirk will die, and before Kirk passes out he tells McCoy: “Tyree. Some of his men. Cure.”

Luckily, some of Tyree’s men show up, and agree to take Kirk back to the village. McCoy wraps the feverish Kirk in animal furs and awaits Tyree’s arrival.

Tyree is delayed thanks to his wife, Nona, a “kahn-ut-tu” witch-woman in leather bellbottoms and a feathered bra top. He explains that she put a spell on him, and Nona seems pleased he’s realized this—she details the numerous other spells she has put on him in order to entrap him as a husband. Lady Macbeth here then tries to persuade him to get the “fire sticks” and rule the world, but Tyree just wants peace. She rubs some kind of plant over him, and in an agonizingly long scene we watch Tyree, her “huge, angry man,” become aroused and go nuts over her. Ughhhh. Their little Skinemax show is interrupted by a tribesman who tells Tyree that Kirk is there, and that he’s been bitten by the mogatu. Tyree is too dazed and confused by the “stimulant” to react, but Nona returns with the tribesman to the village.

She finds the cave and spots McCoy using his phaser to heat up rocks. Intrigued by this powerful weapon, she doesn’t go in, and waits for her husband to return. Tyree eventually makes it back to the village and begs Nona to save his old friend, but she refuses unless Tyree tells her the truth about Kirk. Not wishing for his friend to die, he tells her the truth off-screen, and she goes in to save Kirk.

Back on the Enterprise, Spock is fighting for his life, and Nurse Chapel is by his side, holding his hand. M’Benga enters and tells her that when Spock awakes, she should do whatever he tells her to do, no matter how odd. File that away for now.

Nona, meanwhile, puts a “mahko root,” which looks more like a piece of fossilized poo, on Kirk’s wound. She then slices open her hand and bleeds into the root, before writhing sexually and chanting over Kirk. When this scene is THANK THE GODS over, Kirk comes to, and Nona smiles mischievously. She says that Kirk is “hers” and that he can refuse her nothing now. Because you know what Star Trek needed more of? Slut-witches.

But it’s not even close to being over! When Kirk recovers, he speaks to Tyree about the weapons situation. Tyree says the rifles appeared about a year ago, but he’s sure they make them themselves because he’s seen it in their village. Kirk asks to be taken to the village and Tyree agrees, but Nona bursts into the meeting and demands the phaser technology. Tyree is embarrassed to have revealed Kirk’s secret origin but Nona says it was “the price for saving your life.” She wants the weapons to make Tyree the most powerful man on the planet, but Tyree says again that he will not kill. In any case, Kirk refuses:

KIRK: We once were as you are, Spears, arrows. There came a time when our weapons grew faster than our wisdom, and we almost destroyed ourselves. We learned from this to make a rule during all our travels, Never to cause the same to happen to other worlds. Just as a man must grow in his own way and in his own time. NONA: Some men never grow.

Ouch! Later that night, Kirk, McCoy, and Tyree sneak into the dark-haired people’s encampment. They take out a guard and find the forge area where the weapons are made. They easily spot technology too advanced to be native to Neural. The Klingons have obviously interfered, and as Kirk and McCoy catalog the various violations present in the room they hear voices approaching. They both hide as a Klingon and a dark-haired native named Apella enter. The Klingon is telling Apella that one day he will be a governor of the Klingon empire. Unfortunately, because you can’t take McCoy anywhere , his tricorder beeps and alerts the Klingon. A scuffle ensues and Apella and the Klingon are quickly dispatched by our heroes. Two more men enter but Kirk and McCoy take care of them, too, before grabbing Tyree and fleeing into the woods.

On Enterprise Spock has awoken, and tells Nurse Chapel to hit him. What? And you thought Star Trek wasn’t kinky enough! She does as she’s told, because he needs the pain to focus (or something…). Mr. Scott enters and drags her away. M’Benga breaks it up, though, and takes over her role slapping Spock around until he comes to, completely healed. If you thought this interlude was weird and unnecessary, well, you’re going to miss it in the next few scenes.

Kirk has taken it upon himself to show Tyree’s people how to make their own firearms, something McCoy is none too happy about:

MCCOY: Do I have to say it? It’s not bad enough there’s one serpent in Eden teaching one side about gun powder. You want to make sure they all know about it! KIRK: Exactly. Each side receives the same knowledge and the same type of firearm.

McCoy again expresses his opposition to this, but Kirk explains that there’s nothing else they can do. They refuse to give them superior weapons, but it would be wrong of them to leave Tyree’s people defenseless against this technology. He then invokes the “20th-century brush wars on the Asian continent” (Vietnam) and uses that as a model , saying that a balance of power must be achieved, no matter the cost.

MCCOY: And if the Klingons give their side even more? KIRK: Then we arm our side with exactly that much more. A balance of power. The trickiest, most difficult, dirtiest game of them all, but the only one that preserves both sides.

McCoy points out another uncomfortable truth: Tyree’s pacifism means he will be one of the first to die. Kirk decides to appeal to Nona, and try and persuade him to a life of violence, to save him.

And you know where this is going…

Kirk goes to Nona’s bathing pool and finds her changing.

KIRK: Nona. Pardon me. NONA: You are here because I wished you here. KIRK: Oh? I thought it was my idea. NONA: Yes. They always believe they come of free will. Tyree thought the same when I cast my first spell on him.

She then uses the same plant she used on Tyree to seduce Kirk. Unaware, Tyree is hiding in the background, watching all of his. He aims his new rifle at Kirk. The captain resists Nona at first, but his mind becomes muddled by the drug and eventually he succumbs, kissing her. Tyree presses his finger against the trigger, but cannot bring himself to commit an act of violence. He throws the gun down in disgust and runs away, just in time for a mogatu to emerge from the woods. It attacks Nona, but Kirk is still drugged by the plant. It takes an awkwardly-choreographed mogatu fight before he’s able to draw his phaser and kill the mogatu.

Nona then hits Kirk on the head and steals his phaser. She runs away, and eventually comes upon a group of four dark-haired people. She shows them the phaser and promises that this device is more powerful than anything they’ve ever dreamed, and it is a gift to Apella, a man strong enough to actually use it (and not a peacenik like her loser husband). The men don’t believer her and instead all grab her, sexually assaulting her. The scene goes on for many uncomfortable seconds before Kirk and the others show up. The dark-haired men believe it was a trap, and they stab Nona.

A fight ensues between the two sides, and after some man-wrestling Tyree’s people are victorious. But Tyree has changed. Kirk has to stop him from smashing one man’s head with a rock, and he turns angrily to Kirk:

TYREE: I want more of these, Kirk. Many more! Yutan, two of those who killed my wife have escaped. Track them down. I will kill them.

McCoy tells Kirk that he finally got what he wanted, and Kirk responds that it’s not what he wanted—it’s “what had to be.”

He hails the ship and tells Scotty to replicate a hundred flintlock rifles.

SCOTT: I didn’t get that exactly, Captain. A hundred what? KIRK: A hundred serpents. Serpents for the Garden of Eden. We’re very tired, Mister Spock. Beam us up home.

This episode is an atrocity. What on earth was Gene Roddenberry thinking? Forget the mogatu, this was by far the most sexist and obscenely offensive episode we’ve seen so far. Nona the slut-witch uses sex for power over men, a violent, aggressive wolf in the fold of peaceful sheep. She embodies every awful stereotype imaginable about women’s sexuality and spirituality. In the end, she is subdued by an attempted gang-bang and murdered. Star Trek and I are not speaking right now. It needs to sit in the corner and think about what it’s done.

But let’s put the slut-witches aside for a moment and talk about the heart of the episode. “A Private Little War” is obviously intended as a Vietnam war allegory. Like in “City on the Edge of Forever,” pacifism is indicted as naïve and dangerous idea, one that will, in the end, get Tyree and all his people killed. His desire for peace is considered juvenile, and Nona constantly emasculates him to demonstrate how ill-fitted he is to be a true leader. Kirk implicitly agrees and explicitly evokes the Vietnam war as the model he’s trying to replicate here, emphasizing that what he’s doing is just because it assures a balance of power.

History, of course, has taught us a different lesson about Vietnam. Saigon didn’t fall until 1975, over seven years later, and I suppose there’s no way that Gene Roddenberry could have known. By then four to six million people (or more) had died, Vietnam was devastated by defoliants and a staggering loss of life, and any illusions about stopping the spread of communism were shattered as Cambodia and Laos fell under the red banner. I couldn’t possibly expound here in a few paragraphs (or books) why the war was lost, but it should be fair to say that one reason was because the USA’s tactics and strategies failed. Knowing this now, it’s interesting to see Kirk believe that his own strategy will be successful. To watch this episode unfold with the knowledge of how this hypothetical eventually played out is an uncomfortable and heartbreaking experience.

But it doesn’t make any sense here. Kirk is starting a civil war. He dooms the entire planet to centuries of warfare, rape, and bloodshed, for what? Why doesn’t he sit the two tribes down and have them come to some kind of agreement? Tyree’s people don’t want war, and it’s possible the other tribe might not want it if they knew what kind of people the Klingons were, and what they did to their conquered worlds. That kind of solution may seem naïve in the real world, but a show as optimistic as Star Trek should have taken the plunge. Some would say Star Trek was bold to discuss the topic at all; I wish it had been so bold as to dare to imagine that peace was possible.

Torie’s Rating: Warp Factor 1

Eugene Myers: Ugh. I had a bad feeling when they found the tracks for yet another “ape-like” creature in the teaser. Just about the only thing I remembered about this episode was the mugato, memorable only because it’s possibly the most ridiculous costume ever seen on the series. That sort of sets the tone though, because the rest of the episode is alternately ridiculous and offensive.

I’m hard pressed to find anything redeeming about “A Private Little War.” Once again the Garden of Eden motif is trotted out and the metaphor is strained and beaten to death from the teaser to the last lines of dialogue. I think that today most show runners would say “We’ve already done the Garden of Eden, what else have you got?” But on Star Trek it must have been more like “Hey, we haven’t had a Garden of Eden episode in a while.” Comparisons to paradise and Eden are just too easy to draw, and it’s disappointing that writers weren’t more imaginative when they had centuries of literature and culture to at their disposal. At least they didn’t blame it all on the actions of a woman this time.

Similarly, the growing conflict between the hill people and the villagers is drawn just as simplistically—the enemies all have silly black hair, while the “good guys,” Kirk’s friends who don’t have guns, all have silly white hair. No surprise then when Nona, Tyree’s dark-haired kahn-ut-tu wife turns out to be unabashedly evil. The question of whether Klingons are interfering in the development of these people could have been interesting, but it almost seems incidental. They barely turn up at the end, and then they’re all but forgotten. Wouldn’t the Klingon ship try to stop Enterprise from leaving, or otherwise attempt to prevent them from helping Tyree’s people? Are there any consequences to their clear violation of the Organian Peace Treaty? Why do Kirk and McCoy call the evidence against them “People’s Exhibits” when they’re in the 23rd Century, and anyway this would be a case of the Federation vs. the Klingon Empire? How can Enterprise ’s sensors pick up the Klingon ship from the other side of Neural, but the Klingons don’t know they’re there?

Kirk seems less concerned in the end with proving that the Klingons are involved and more interested in resolving the small-scale arms race by evening the playing field. This is a bad plan. For one, the Klingons seem to be teaching the black-haired villagers how to manufacture flintlocks, so just giving Tyree’s people a hundred guns isn’t going to help anything. There’s also the glaring fact that the weapons aren’t the problem. Before the Klingons turned up, both the hill people and the villagers had bows and arrows but lived together peacefully; it was only when the Klingons convinced one group of people that they could rule the planet that the fighting began. The unequal balance of power worsened the situation, but giving them the same weapons won’t end the arms race—each side will continue to improve the technology and gain the upper hand, all the way up to the atom bomb. The better solution would be to expose the Klingons’ motives and bring the two warring groups to peace talks. Has Kirk really forgotten how he resolved the power struggle in “A Piece of the Action”? He was adamant against giving away phasers then, but now he’s fine with handing over guns?

One interesting thing about this episode is the introduction of Dr. M’Benga, a specialist in Vulcan physiology. Unfortunately, he only makes McCoy look less competent, and the insights we have into Spock’s biology are kind of goofy. Spock ordering Chapel to hit him (“Blast you! Strike me!”) is not his finest moment. I did like the green bloodstains on Spock’s tunic after he gets shot though. I was surprised that McCoy didn’t investigate the curative properties of Nona’s novelty poo, since it’s unclear if it was the mahko root alone that healed Kirk from the mugato wound or whether her witch doctor gyrations had anything to do with it. Her black magic may have helped Kirk, but it made me feel a little sick.

In the end, this episode only serves as a reminder that we’re creeping ever closer to the third season…

Eugene’s Rating: Warp Factor 1

Best Line: M’BENGA (To Nurse Chapel, re: Spock): He knows we’re here and what we’re saying, but he can’t afford to take his mind from the tissue he’s fighting to heal. I suppose he even knows you were holding his hand.

Syndication Edits: None, it seems.

Trivia: The creature was actually called a “gumato,” but DeForest Kelley couldn’t say it right so they changed it.

TNG’s “ Too Short A Season ” was apparently supposed to be a sequel to this episode, with Kirk returning to the planet and attempting to heal the wounds of civil war.

Other Notes: Jud Crucis is a pseudonym for Don Ingalls, the original writer of the episode. (This is the man who brought you “ The Alternative Factor .”) The original draft of the script had many more overt references to the Vietnam war, calling Apella “a Ho-Chi-Minh type” and he had all the natives dressed like “Mongolians.” He did not like Roddenberry’s re-write and Jud Crucis is a play on “Jesus Crucified.”

Previous Episode: Season 2, Episode 18 – “ The Immunity Syndrome .”

Next Episode: Season 2, Episode 20 – “ Return to Tomorrow .” US residents can watch it for free at the CBS website .

This post originally appeared on Tor.com .

About Torie Atkinson & Eugene Myers

Not a favorite of mine. Advocating war seems out of step for TOS.

BTW: did anyone else notice that the Mugato footprints were actually those left by the white rabbit in “Shore Leave”? The six foot bunny would probably have been just as scary as the Mugato.

Had to go before I could finish my comment, to whit:

I also have a problem with the whole Klingon plot. What are they hoping to gain with this convoluted power play? There is no indication in the story that there is anything that the Klingons would usually find valuable ( dilithium, topaline, ovaltine…whatever the usual Macguffin is ).

Why go to all this trouble with such a slow-moving plan? As we saw in “Errand Of Mercy”, subtlety is not a hallmark of Klingon plots. Why didn’t they just send in an occupying army as they did on Organia? Considering the blase way Kor went about it, that would be S.O.P. for the Empire. I suppose you could argue that the Organian Peace Treaty might have something to do with it, but considering how rarely the Organians intercede after their introduction, it hardly seems likely. Though, if it does, you would think that Ayelborne and his friends would hardly find this game of brinksmanship sporting and put a stop to it ( or do they only care when it involves their world?

Sorry, I love this one. I’ve been waiting to find it again, after having its lines echo in my head for 25-30 years (“Serpents. Serpents for the Garden of Eden”). The theme of loss of innocence, evoking all the pains and no-win scenarios inherent to growing up were irresistible to me as a young teen, and are damn near irresistible now. Different strokes and all that, but I don’t understand why you keep saying that Kirk was so gung-ho about the prospect of arming the villagers. He’s clearly destroyed about it, and of course chooses against that very course of action at the end of the episode–which is the only unhappy ending in TOS thus far save “The City on the Edge of Forever.” Certainly it is unfair to accuse the writers of failing to understand the folly of this course of action. Besides the producers’ well-documented horror about what was happening in Viet Nam, they have Bones continually point out the madness and inevitable tragic end to this course, even as Kirk hopes against hope to find a way out, something to left to save of what used to be so precious to him.

No doubt there is a process available to lodge a complaint against the Kingon Empire for its activities on the planet. No doubt Kirk went on to exercise it. Can’t put the genie back in the bottle. Can’t get back what was lost.

I can only think that the writer had Spock unconscious in Sickbay for most of this episode because he knew that Spock would never permit Kirk to behave so foolishly. When you have to write your smart character out of the episode or your plot falls apart, you know that you have failed!

I agree with Kevin about the ending: at the last minute, Kirk sees the futility of the situation and decides against arming the hill people after all. After he sees how violent his formerly peace-loving friend Tyree has become (Kirk has to restrain him after he bashes an opponent’s head in with a rock), he starts to have second thoughts. The episode ends with Kirk saying, “We’re very tired, Mister Spock. Beam us up home.” Next we see the Enterprise leaving orbit.

I’m not sure why so many people seem to assume that Kirk arms the hill people at the end of the episode; if he does, you need to imagine that it takes place between the last spoken line and the final shot, which is only a few seconds of screen time.

By the way, there is an excellent series of articles over at Star Trek Fact Check that goes through the history of how this episode was written.

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Midnite Reviews

Detailed analysis of classic sci-fi movies and tv shows, star trek episode 48: a private little war.

Technical Specs

Director: Marc Daniels

Writer: Gene Roddenberry

Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Nancy Kovack, Michael Witney, James Doohan, Nichelle Nichols, Ned Romero, Majel Barrett, Walter Koenig, Booker Bradshaw, Arthur Bernard, Janos Prohaska, Paul Baxley, and Gary Pillar

Composer: Gerald Fried

Air Date: 2/2/1968

Stardate: 4211.4

Production #: 60345

Also, the character of Nona makes for an unnecessary addition to an already cluttered narrative, especially when considering that a scientific explanation behind her witchcraft is never provided. At one point, Spock is critically injured after being struck with a projectile from one of the Klingons’ flintlocks; however, this subplot also feels superfluous given that no emotional weight is added to the uncertainty of Spock’s fate.

Concluding Comments

Overall Quality: 7/10

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A Private Little War (Q3487169)

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Recap / Star Trek S2 E19 "A Private Little War"

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Original air date: February 2, 1968

Kirk, Bones and Spock beam down to a peaceful, idyllic planet where some years previous Kirk had befriended a native called Tyree (Michael Witney). Kirk intervenes when he sees a group (including Tyree) about to be ambushed by a rival group armed with flintlocks. Which is odd, because this society is supposed to still be in the Bronze Age. In the ensuing melee, Spock gets shot and has to be taken back aboard the Enterprise .

While Spock convalesces, Kirk and Bones beam back down to investigate this ongoing war. It seems those darn Klingons are at it again! They convinced one faction of natives that they could be more powerful than the others. All they needed was better weapons. As if dealing with them wasn't bad enough, there are these critters called the mugato to contend with. Kirk gets poisoned by one. Fortunately, Bones is able to get him to Tyree's tribe, where his wife Nona (Nancy Kovack) is able to heal Kirk.

Private Little Tropes:

• All There in the Script : Krell's name is never mentioned but is shown in the script.
• Attack on the Heart : Spock is shot through the center mass by revolutionaries on planet Neural. He only survived because his Vulcan heart is located where the Human liver is.
• Attempted Rape : Four villagers try to gang-rape Nona, who...well, kinda fights back (for a loose definition of "fights"). Once Kirk, McCoy , and Tyree show up, however, the villagers simply kill her.
• The Bro Code : Even Kirk must live by it! At least, he tries to.
• Captain's Log : Used in every episode, but at one point, the narration switches to the medical log with Bones narrating since Kirk is indisposed.
• Censor Decoy : There was a scene where Nona showed some skin getting out of the water. A flash of bare breast was there to distract the censors. Sorry boys! It didn't distract the editors for the remastered editions! Another possible example is Spock's gunshot wound. A wound that gory usually wouldn't get past the censors of the time. But, as Spock was given green blood , the censors overlooked it.
• Crazy Jealous Guy : Tyree almost shoots Kirk when he sees Nona and a drugged Kirk making out.
• Early in the episode, Kirk identifies Mugato tracks. Not long after, he gets attacked by a Mugato.
• This leads to another one: after McCoy kills the mugato, Tyree tells him its mate will be nearby. Guess what shows up near the end.
• The love herb that Nona uses on Tyree early in the episode makes an encore appearance, being used on Kirk.
• Cruel to Be Kind : Spock needs to be put in pain to be brought out of his trance. Scotty pulls Chapel away from Spock, thinking she's gone mad, slapping her patient around. Then M'Benga steps in to apply the necessary striking until Spock stops him, saying the pain is sufficient.
• Description Cut : Kirk describes the planet's inhabitants as simple and peaceful—right before seeing villagers with flintlocks stalking the hill people.
• Doctor Obvious : At the end, when Kirk calls the Enterprise and a fully-recovered Spock answers. Bones: Spock, you're alive? Spock: An illogical question, Doctor, since obviously you are hearing my voice.
• Does This Remind You of Anything? : The episode is an allegory of the then-ongoing Vietnam War .
• Downer Ending : A vengeful Tyree demands that Kirk supply him with enough weapons to go to war, and Kirk sadly and reluctantly complies to offset the advantage the Klingons gave the other side. The episode ends with the two factions going into all out war and arms race with Kirk ordering up several hundred "serpents for the Garden of Eden", as Kirk poetically refers to the flintlock rifles.
• Famous, Famous, Fictional : At one point it's noted that if the Klingons weren't taking things slowly they might have equipped their patsies with breech-loading rifles or machine guns or "old-style hand lasers".
• Fascinating Eyebrow : Bones does this far more than usual during the healing ritual. Then again, with Spock out of action, someone has to pick up the eyebrow slack.
• Femme Fatale : Nona will do anything and anyone to get what she wants.
• Firearms Are Revolutionary : Kirk is surprised to find that a planet's people who only had bows and arrows the last time he saw them suddenly have guns. Some of his crew argue that they could've discovered them naturally, but it turns out the Klingons introduced the new tech as part of a plan to take over the planet. Paradise has been destroyed, and all Kirk can do is give them more guns to try to equalize the balance of power.
• Bones shows a lot of concern and care for the wounded Spock and only agrees to leave him with a doctor who has worked extensively with Vulcans. At the end of the episode, they're back to snarking each other.
• Also, when Kirk tells Scotty to take the conn so that he can go to Sickbay and check on Spock.
• Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold : Tyree and his hunter-gatherer buddies are blond good guys, while the villagers who kill them are evil brunets. Nona also has dark hair, and has no qualms about betraying Tyree.
• Vulcans have a version of this, which saves Spock's life. With their Mind over Matter powers, Vulcans can go into a healing trance which would focus all their mental and physical resources on repairing injuries (in this case, a bullet wound). Apparently it is a little-known ability, since Nurse Chapel seems clueless about what is happening.
• Hit Me, Dammit! : Spock tells Chapel to hit him to bring him out of his trance. She gives him a tap that wouldn't hurt a baby. He demands that she hit him harder. She finally nerves herself up to do it, only for Scotty to walk in and stop her . Doctor M'Benga then takes over until Spock finishes pulling himself together.
• It's Personal : This is more than a random little planet for Kirk, having spent quite some time in the past familiarizing himself with it, and becoming close friends with the tribal leader Tyree. If the Klingons spoiling this "Garden of Eden" was not enough to make it personal, the first encounter with the imported weaponry results in Spock getting shot and nearly killed.
• Kissing Under the Influence : Nona uses a certain plant as an aphrodisiac to make men fall in love with her and do what she wants. Tyree is a sucker for it. Kirk finds it rather difficult to resist.
• Klingon Scientists Get No Respect : "Research is not the Klingon way."
• Lady Macbeth : Nona is constantly pushing Tyree to try to gain more power and destroy their enemies.
• Layman's Terms : A Klingon explains that "rifled barrel" means the weapon will shoot further and more accurately.
• Love Makes You Stupid : Tyree doesn't even try to resist Nona's charms. Not even when he sees her using them on Kirk behind his back. Not to mention seeing Nona seducing Kirk using the same aphrodisiac that she actually told him about before, and getting jealous of his drugged friend.
• Low Culture, High Tech : The people of this planet are cave dwellers and early sedentary villagers, now armed with flintlock guns.
• The Main Characters Do Everything : Averted in this episode, as Spock's trauma care is being handled by Dr. M'Benga, and Kirk reminds Dr. McCoy of that fact when he orders the doctor to join him in the investigation planetside.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender : Subverted— Nona, the Femme Fatale , is stabbed to death at the climax of the episode.
• Nubile Savage : Nona, of the furry bra and leather pants variety. Her clothes look suspiciously new and clean, and she has makeup as well. (Cosmetics go back to prehistoric times, so this isn't too unrealistic.)
• Organ Dodge : It's a good thing Vulcans have their liver where a human would have their heart.
• Our Monsters Are Weird : The mugato looks like a cross between Godzilla and Snowflake the Albino Gorilla. Oh, and it has a poisonous bite.
• Palm Bloodletting : Part of Nona's healing ritual. When the ritual is finished, the wound is gone.
• Patrick Stewart Speech : Eat yer heart out, Picard! Kirk beat you to it, pointing out how humanity was once like Tyree's people, and in time they too could emerge as a peace-loving intelligent society.
• Proxy War : The Klingons supplying increasingly advanced firearms to one tribe of a primitive planet, to install them as a puppet leader of that world. Another tribe, one that Kirk had met years before, begins to demand similar weapons by the end, and Kirk begins arranging a Federation-aligned alliance of tribes to oppose the Klingon-controlled ones. He even references the brush wars of the 20th century as he does so.
• Pummeling the Corpse : The previously violence-averse Tyree snaps when he sees his wife stabbed to death. In the ensuing climactic battle, Tyree rushes and quickly overpowers the man who stabbed his wife, and caves in his head with a large rock. Tyree's mind, clouded with Unstoppable Rage , does not register that his opponent is dead, so he spends the rest of the battle bashing the corpse's shattered head . Even after the battle ends, Tyree continues to bash the unresisting corpse until Kirk stops him.
• Schizo Tech : Discussed by the main characters, along with Technology Levels , to the point of Conversational Troping . Upon first discovering that the villagers have flintlock rifles, but not knowing they were provided by Klingon arms-dealers, the crew considers whether the people of this planet might progress differently than the people of Earth. Later, upon their discovery of Klingon intervention, Uhura wonders aloud why the Klingons didn't just give the villagers more advanced weapons like phasers or "old-style hand lasers." The rationale is that the Klingons could teach the villagers how to make their own flintlocks, with the added benefit of making it less obvious that the technology had been supplied by outsiders. See Technology Uplift below.

• Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right! : Kirk was advised to stay out of this private little war, but he didn't like the idea of Klingons instigating a war and making things uneven.
• Stock Footage : Clips of the White Rabbit's footprints from " Shore Leave " were used for the mugato prints.
• Technology Uplift : The Klingons drip-feeding weapons technology to one local group, with the intention that they'll take over the planet as Klingon vassals.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill : Tyree's moral code. Until his wife is killed.
• Too Clever by Half : Nona uses all her guile to get her hot little hands on a phaser. However, she doesn't know how to use it and is killed by a stab from a simple knife.
• Training the Peaceful Villagers : When Kirk and Bones discover that the Klingons have been doing this, Kirk decides to train the other side to maintain the balance.
• Bones gives this speech to Kirk when Kirk tells Tyree he will give him weapons to defend himself against his enemies. However, Bones doesn't have any better ideas.
• Nona chews Kirk and Tyree out for not wanting to obliterate the villagers.
• Witch Doctor : Nona uses herb lore and a bit of mysticism to heal Kirk.
• Star Trek S2 E18 "The Immunity Syndrome"
• Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
• Star Trek S2 E20 "Return to Tomorrow"

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How the Original ‘Star Trek’ Addressed the War in Vietnam

By: Roy Wenzl

Updated: November 3, 2021 | Original: September 7, 2018

When the TV show “ Star Trek ” first aired in the late 1960s, the program was nowhere near the blockbuster money machine of syndication and sequels it later became. Ratings were low. Only the sci-fi geeks cared. 

But in the 1970s, fans watching reruns helped helped breathe new life into the franchise—in part, because they appreciated how the show took risks, sometimes wading into the most divisive issues of the day.

Like the war in Vietnam .

The show's creator, Gene Roddenberry , says that setting the drama in space gave him the distance to address hot-button cultural topics. “It seemed to me that perhaps if I wanted to talk about sex, religion, politics, make some comments against Vietnam, and so on..." he said, "that if I had similar situations involving these subjects happening on other planets to little green people—indeed it might get by. And it did.” 

Killing Off the Pacifist

In early episodes, Roddenberry and the show’s other creators appeared to be more or less supporting America's interventionist role in the world, says cultural historian and author H. Bruce Franklin, history professor emeritus at Rutgers University and author of four books on the Vietnam war. Franklin also guest curated the '90s exhibit “Star Trek in the Sixties" at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. 

On April 6, 1967, for example, producers aired “City on the Edge of Forever,” in which Enterprise captain James T. Kirk stops his medical officer Dr. Leonard “Bones” McCoy from saving the life of Edith, a prominent peace activist. His reason? Because if she lives, she will prevent the U.S. from getting into World War II in time to stop the Nazis . It’s an episode where Kirk goes back in time to try and correct the timeline—while also falling in love with the woman who needs to die to correct it.

The episode’s Vietnam War subtext came to the fore in the script-revision process, says Franklin. While the original script focused on the tragedy of doomed love, with no reference to Edith's peace activism, the revised script shifts the story focus. In it, first officer Spock speculates that if Edith were to live, she might spread her pacifist ideas, slowing America’s entry into World War II and thus altering its outcome.

In the episode as it aired in 1967, Spock’s speculation became a major plot point whose subtext was the growing anti-war movement of the time. Asked 25 years later whether show runners intended the episode to contain contemporaneous anti-Vietnam-war references, producer Robert Justman replied, "Of course we did."

The Center Seat: 55 Years of Star Trek premieres Friday, November 5 at 10/9c on The HISTORY ® Channel

Support for Containing Communism

In “A Private Little War” (aired Feb. 2, 1968), the Enterprise crew discovers that their Klingon enemies have been arming one tribe on a primitive planet with flintlock muskets. After Kirk gives muskets to the other tribe, claiming it will create a balance of power, doctor McCoy strenuously objects. This excerpt from an episode transcript echoes the Cold War superpower tensions that led to America’s containment policy—and ultimate involvement—in Southeast Asia. Kirk even makes a direct reference to the Vietnam War:

MCCOY: I don't have a solution! But furnishing them firearms is certainly not the answer!

KIRK: Bones, do you remember the 20th-century brush wars on the Asian continent? Two giant powers involved, much like the Klingons and ourselves. Neither side felt they could pull out.

MCCOY: Yes, I remember. It went on bloody year after bloody year.

KIRK: What would you have suggested—that one side arm its friends with an overpowering weapon? Mankind would never have lived to travel space if they had. No. The only solution is what happened back then: balance of power.

“It’s what the U.S. was trying to do in Vietnam,” says Franklin, referring to the American efforts to limit Soviet expansion and deter a nuclear showdown between Cold War superpowers.

READ MORE: 8 Ways the Original 'Star Trek' Made History

As the Nation Soured, So Did the Show’s Creators

By early 1968, American public opinion about the war underwent a significant shift.

In February of that year, North Vietnam shocked the U.S. with the Tet Offensive , a massive surprise attack on American and South Vietnamese strongholds. A month later, American soldiers committed atrocities against Vietnamese civilians in the My Lai massacre . The takeaways were tough: The war was increasingly unwinnable. The U.S. government had been lying about that fact as it sent more young men to fight. And Yankees weren't always the good guys.

Around the same time, the show creators seemed to undergo their own radical shift. Case in point: “The Omega Glory,” episode 23 in the series’ second season, which is blatantly anti-war. To make his point, Roddenberry puts the Enterprise crew on a planet with two bitterly warring tribes, the Yangs and Kohms, with subtexts about biological warfare and the immorality of outside interference. If those names weren't obvious enough, the Yangs (Yanks) have somehow in their history obtained an exact copy of the original U.S. Constitution , and revere it as a sacred text—though they don’t understand it.

In the climactic scene, Kirk holds up the Constitution before the chief of the victorious warring faction, declaring that the document and its principles of basic human rights were written for all people, even one's enemies.

But while Kirk was touting America's ideological superiority, Franklin says, declaring that Communists (or Kohms) deserved the Constitution’s protections was a dangerous risk to take on television at that moment in history.

More than a decade after U.S. Senator Joseph McCarthy convened 1954 Senate hearings to identify and condemn anyone believed to have Communist sympathies, tens of millions of patriotic Americans still regarded Communists not only as enemies, but as toxic carriers of an ideological disease: "red fever." And even though mass anti-war protests had broken out around the country by 1968—questioning why young U.S. men were being sent across the world to fight and die to stave off Communism—there were still plenty who thought those protesters disgraced the most heroic, generous and decent nation on the planet.

The episode aired just days after the Tet Offensive ended, leaving nearly 4,000 American soldiers dead in only a month of fighting. Roddenberry’s message was timely.

“The Omega Glory” could have ruined Roddenberry, who was already pushing the show upstream against terrible ratings and pressure from NBC executives. By 1968, “Star Trek” was losing $15,000 an episode, the equivalent of $500,000 per episode today, says Marc Cushman, author of These Are the Voyages , a history of the show.

“Later on, when it became hugely successful, ‘Star Trek’ became an enormous industry, with a whole different set of values than what they had in the beginning,” says Franklin. “But in the beginning, they tried to say something.”

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A Private Little War – Episode 48

A Private Little War was the nineteenth episode of Star Trek’s second season to air, with two tribes on a planet forced to take up arms against one another by outside agitators. In this episode Gerry and Iain discussed the value of communal haircuts.

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Visiting a planet where he was once posted as a young Lieutenant, Kirk is surprised to see an old friend, Tyree ( Michael Witney ) and his wife Nona ( Nancy Kovack ) at the head of a tribe that has been isolated and hunted by their neighbours.

Suspecting Klingon involvement, Kirk finds that village leader Apella ( Arthur Bernard ) is taking counsel from the Klingon Krell ( Ned Romero ). With this knowledge, he sets about redressing the balance of power.

A Private Little War was directed by Marc Daniels , his eleventh of fourteen Star Trek episodes. The writer was Don Ingalls , the last of his two stories for the show.

In this episode Gerry and Iain considered what war is good for.

The discussion continues in the comments below and please keep in touch with us on Twitter , Facebook and Instagram where we’re @trekpodcast.

You can listen to the show here on the website, on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube , Pocket Casts , TuneIn , Stitcher , Google or wherever you find your podcasts.

A Private Little War was released in 1968. It is 50 minutes long and originally aired on the NBC network. It can be viewed on CBS All Access in the United states, Netflix in the UK and is available on DVD and Blu Ray in other countries, including a comprehensive remastered set of all three seasons released by Paramount Home Entertainment.

Star Trek : "A Private Little War" / "Return To Tomorrow"

A more political minded fella than myself could make some good hay out of the premise of the first part of this week's double feature. "A Private Little War" has Kirk revisiting a pastoral society and finding that things have changed considerably since his last trip; they've gotten more violent. The question becomes, what responsibility does he have to the people he left behind, and how far should he go to fix things? Civilizations don't develop at the same rate, and it's human nature to want to interfere with your neighbor, especially when that neighbor lives in cave and still thinks sticks and stones are a really good idea. But it's impossible to see to the end of things, and no matter how good your intentions are, there's no telling what a couple of guns and some helpful physics lesson might lead to.

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The "non-interference directive" has come up on the series before, but "War" is the most serious we've gotten on the subject. It's a surprisingly ambiguous take on the issue, too; impossible to say for sure how much of that ambiguity was intentional, but I left "War" with a bad taste in my mouth, for all the right reasons. (Wow, there are a lot of really horrible jokes I could make right here, aren't there.) Things start off with a bang. In the first ten minutes, Kirk learns that the peaceful locals have gone from bows and arrows to flintlock rifles, he and Spock break up an ambush, Spock gets shot, they beam back up to the Enterprise where Spock's life is in danger, and there's evidence that there's a Klingon ship in the area. That's all before the opening credits. After the credits, Kirk and McCoy beam back down to the planet so Kirk can make contact with Tyree, Kirk's old friend back from his first trip to the planet. Kirk gets attacked by a local beastie called a mugato , which is actually pretty effectively weird, at least by TOS standards; a guy in a white gorilla suit with spines sticking out the back and a horn on his head. It's goofy, but it's plausibly goofy, if you follow. The thing manages to take Kirk down and poisons him with it's talons before McCoy zaps it with a phaser. Oh, about the phaser use; Spock goes to great pains to keep Kirk from firing his phaser while he's on the planet. Non-interference means blending in (which doesn't explain why they're wearing regular Starfleet uniforms; I doubt the original plan was to meet Tyree, but why risk being seen?), and that means that using highly advanced weapons in front of the natives is a no-no. One of the nice things about the episode is that, without anybody making a big deal of it, Spock's concern is proven well-founded. McCoy shows precious few reservations about using his phaser when the need dictates, and while it was almost certainly necessary that he use it on the mugato to save Kirk's life, the fact that later on he heats up a bunch of stones with the damn thing—and that Tyree's power hungry wife, Nona, catches him doing it—is fine proof that rules exist for a reason. With Kirk sick, McCoy has to rely on the friendliness of the natives. Fortunately, he gets picked up by some of Tyree's men; there are two different societies fighting it out (hill people, with white hair and bows and arrows, and the village people, with dark hair and guns), and McCoy ends up with the "good guys." Tyree's fallen in love in the years since he last saw Kirk, or at least lust—his wife Nona is a witch woman who uses herbs to bind Tyree to her. The skin tight pants and puffy orange bra probably don't hurt either. (I guess there are wild Muppets in the area, 'cause at least a few of them died to make that top.) Plus, she's got make-up and a fake-looking tan. No red fingernails or ankle bracelet, but maybe she's still finding her way. Nona heals Kirk of the mugato 's poison, with some hoo-doo that supposedly binds him to her. "War" has some dark questions, but it doesn't stint on the overheated melodrama—a spoonful of sugar and all that jazz—and Nona's "treatment" is hilarious. As is Nona in general. Although the campiness is definitely entertaining, she's probably the episode's weakest element; she's basically Evil Power Hungry Temptress 1a, and we never get any reason for her to be so desperate beyond that whole "powerful women are evil!" thing. Really, though, the episode is about Kirk and McCoy trying to decide how to handle the situation. Once Kirk is back on his feet, he and McCoy check out a nearby village to have their suspicions confirmed; the Klingons have been supplying the townsfolk with guns. (It's interesting that they've been doing this in such a surreptitious fashion; the natives probably would've developed guns on their own eventually, and the Klingons go to great pains to ensure that the flintlock rifles they provide at least look like they could be home grown. Is the "non-interference directive" a universal treaty?) Now that the natives are all trigger happy, there's no way to put things back the way they were, so Kirk is faced with a dillemma. Does he let the townsfolk take over because of their advantage in arms, or does he make some guns of his own? It's not that difficult a choice for Kirk. He makes up his mind without us or McCoy being in on the process; it's guns, guns, guns all around. When he states his case to McCoy, it's hard to argue with him; he's using the "balance of power" justification that led to nuclear proliferation for the second half of last century, and while it's a dangerous road, it's not an easy one to step off of. The Klingons have given Kirk enough wiggle room to lend aid to his friends, and he's going to take advantage of that as much as he can. What's great is that this is never presented as an unequivocal good. The Klingon that Kirk and McCoy fight with never gets shot, there's never any feeling of heroism when hill people start to fight back. It seems more like an impossible situation that gets an unpleasant solution, and whether or not you agree with it, I think the episode presents its point fairly. The one hold-out of the hill people to Kirk's plan is Tyree, who refuses to kill. That gets complicated when he catches Kirk making time with Nona. After Nona saw McCoy using the phaser, she decided she wants herself a piece of that; so with her "magic," she seduces Kirk to try and bend him to her will. Tyree sees them making out, and nearly shoots Kirk, but he changes his mind and drops his gun, leaving just before a mugato (probably the mate of one McCoy killed earlier) jumps out. Kirk's in too weakened a state to defend himself and Nona, well, she's a girl, so what're you gonna do. Kirk eventually busts out his own phaser and kills the beast; in lieu of thanks, Nona knocks Kirk unconscious, steals his gun, and makes her way to meet the village folks, determined to find someone who'll be willing to put her new toy to good use. There follows some unpleasantness, as the town people don't really appreciate Nona's offer, and she can't seem to figure out the phaser well enough to hold them back. Tyree and the others catch up in time to see Nona get killed, and Tyree wigs out. There's fighting, the villagers are either killed or run off, and Tyree has made up his mind; he wants guns and he wants vengeance, in that order. Kirk's finally got his wish, but nobody seems too pleased about it. Ordering up the flintlocks from the Enterprise, Kirk asks for "100 serpents… for the Garden of Eden." The line is a little too on the nose, but it's hard to disagree with the sentiment. "War"'s all about what happens when advanced civilizations decide to muck around with cavemen; and "Return To Tomorrow" is actually about the same thing, only this time, it's the Enterprise that's living on rocks and shadows, and an alien race that far outpaces them. In a way, we're dealing with another race of god-beings, but for once, they aren't here torment Kirk and the rest. This time they actually need help, and it's not because they're bored. They're stuck in these orbs, see, and they're all energy, no life. The wisdom of the ages, but if they want to get anything done, they'll need to get a little physical, and to do that they need bodies. And y'know, Kirk has one of those. So does Spock. So does this week's crew-woman guest star, Ann Mulhall, played by Diana Muldaur. Muldaur is best known to Trekkies as Dr. Pulaski, from the second season of Star Trek: The Next Generation ; her character there was controversial, to say the least (speaking for myself, she was more annoying that Tasha Yar), but she does a fine job here. She isn't given a whole lot to work with, to be sure, but at least she doesn't spend her time bitching Spock out for being emotionless or something. The Enterprise is moving through unexplored space when they get a hail from a dead planet; the hail becomes a sonorous voice that must be pretty lonely, because he's asking for some company. And he's incredibly powerful, so it might not be a good idea to refuse his request. Communication with Starfleet is on a three week delay, so Kirk is on his own. He tries to play it safe, telling Spock to stay behind on the ship while he and the others beam down, but the power goes out, and Kirk gets the message; Spock is invited. Mulhall receives a similar summons to the transporter room. (Odd that the voice, who calls himself Sargon, resorted to indirect communication when he clearly doesn't have any problem explaining himself in words.) Inside the planet, our heroes find a orb that blinks light. Sargon's consciousness exists inside that orb, and when he asks Kirk to come closer, that consciousness jumps into Kirk's body. And oh lord, how the Shatning does commence. In general, "Tomorrow" is a solid morality play with sci-fi (SyFy?) trappings; but for that brief moment when Kirk is first possessed, it's something else entirely. I mean, he actually feels himself up. The idea that anybody on set could see that number and not bust a gut laughing is beyond me. Sargon's invasion naturally puts everybody on the edge, but it seems like his intentions are pure. He's just borrowing Kirk, not buying, and the only real damage he does is ramping up Kirk's metabolism to dangerous levels. Once McCoy's calmed down, Sargon lays out the deal: his race died out thousands of years ago, after being so incredibly powerful that they could do just about anything. (He keeps calling everybody "my child," and there's some speculation that his people might've got the Vulcan race going.) But there were some problems, you know how it goes, and the planet's atmosphere got a little, what's the word for it, destroyed. Now the only three beings left of Sargon's people are Sargon himself, his wife Thalassa, and a dude named Henoch. They've been waiting in these giant ping-pong balls for ages, just for some conscious life to come close enough to contact, and now that Sargon has made new friends, he needs to ask a favor. If he and his two companions can borrow Kirk, Spock, and Mulhall's bodies, they can build humanoid robots to house their energy in. Much like "War," there's as much time spent talking about what needs to be done as there is actually doing it, and I count that as a point in both episodes' favor. In "War," there was a terrific discussion on the bridge about the relative speeds of a society's development, plus the arguments between Kirk and McCoy on the planet; here, we get Kirk pushing to let Sargon have his way, while McCoy and Scotty express their serious reservations. In all cases, nobody seems over-matched or foolish. Kirk wins out, but he has to work for it, and I love his final argument—that it's important to take a risk and trust Sargon, because of the incredible opportunities an advanced race like Sargon's can provide. Sure, there's something odd about Sargon wanting the Enterprise 's captain and its first officer; this isn't intentional plotting on Sargon's part (he, at least, is worth of Kirk's trust), but the simple mechanics of putting a ship's two highest ranking personnel out of commission for an unknown length of time seem prohibitive. But while I don't think Kirk's enthusiasm is exactly practical, I appreciate that he needs to get his way for the good of the episode, and I enjoy how he justifies himself. What follows is an entertaining mini-tragedy; of the three invading presences, Henoch (who takes over Spock's body) proves himself most untrustworthy, driven half-mad after all his time imprisoned, and really not that keen on leaving such a nifty Vulcan body behind for the confines of circuits and steel. Nimoy gets a chance to ham it up here, and it really pays off. He has a half-smirk on his face most of the time, and he makes a great contrast to the somewhat overplayed nobility of Sargon and Thalassa and their love. Just as interesting is that Henoch's temptations actually start to work on Thalassa; I guess her being a woman and all, she's really keen on sensuality, and wants to get more passionate hugging in her with husband before they go all cybernetic. Things come to a head when Henoch decides he has to kill Sargon to get his way. (Actually, the decision comes pre-made; five minutes after jumping into Spock, he's already messing with the meds that will keep Sargon from overheating Kirk's body.) There's an unconvincing attempt to generate suspense by telling us that Kirk is dead, and then by having Spock poisoned to force Henoch out; the spheres are destroyed; but everything turns out okay, with Henoch destroyed, Kirk and Spock restored, and Thalassa and Sargon happily consigned to mutual oblivion. (She keeps asking "Can we go there together?" I'm not sure she understands what oblivion actually means.) Nobody gets any shiny new tech, but that's probably for the best. Given what we saw in "War," it's a wonder that Kirk is so eager to jump start his race's knowledge. Oh, Starfleet is wonderfully peaceful and perfect, no question; but I'm willing to bet that Sargon's people thought themselves pretty perfect too, and look where they ended up. It doesn't matter that most everybody has the best of intentions. In the end, all it comes down to is that one guy in the back suddenly thinking, "Y'know, it wouldn't be that hard to get away with," and everything gets complicated. For now, at least, it's better that those complications won't destroy any planets. Grades: "A Private Little War": B+ "Return To Tomorrow": B+ Stray Observations:

• The sub-plot in "War" about Spock's health problems is so-so (Spock's self-induced coma was interesting, Chapel's infatuation less so), but it's nice to get anothe African-American profession into the show; this time it's Dr. M'Benga (Booker Bradshaw), an expert on Vulcan biology who we'll never see again. Ah well, at least he gets to slap Nimoy around before he goes.
• There's a great bit in "War" when one of the armed natives says, "I thought my people would get tired of killing," but then admits that they've actually developed a taste for it. Balance of power or not, that's messed up.
• The visual style of "Tomorrow" is really striking. Ralph Senensky has directed episodes we've already covered, but this is the first I remember noticing the difference.
• Next week, Nazis in "Patterns of Force," and presumably non-Nazis in "By Any Other Name."

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A private little war (1968), nancy kovack: nona.

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Nona : You would let him die when you have weapons to make him powerful and safe? Then he has the wrong friends, and I have the wrong husband.

Nona : Our blood has passed through the mahko root together. Our souls have been together. He is mine, now.

Tyree : She must sleep, also.

Dr. McCoy : "He is hers?"

Tyree : When a man and woman are joined in this manner, he can refuse her no wish.

Nona : I am a Kahn-ut-tu woman. In all this land, how many are there? Men seek us because through us they become great leaders.

Tyree : I took you because you cast a spell upon me.

Nona : And I have spells that help me keep you. Remember this leaf? The night we camped by the water?

Tyree : Mmm. The night of madness.

Nona : Touch me again and this small box will kill you.

Dr. McCoy : What's that?

Nona : A mahko root.

Dr. McCoy : A plant? It moves.

Nona : For those who know where to find it, how to use it, how to pick it.

Nona : You are here because I wished you here.

Capt. Kirk : Oh? I thought it was my idea.

Nona : [laughs]  Yes. They always believe they come of free will. Tyree even thought the same when I cast my first spell on him.

Nona : There's an old custom among my people: When a woman saves a man's life, he is grateful.

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A Private Little War Stardate: 4211.4 Original Airdate: 2 Feb, 1968

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Why Michael Burnham Was Right to Violate a Sacred Star Trek Rule

• Star Trek: Discovery explores the consequences of violating the Prime Directive in Season 5, offering a unique perspective on moral decision-making.
• Breaking the Prime Directive is often portrayed as the morally right choice for Starfleet characters, despite being against official protocol.
• "Whistlespeak" highlights the complicated nature of Prime Directive violations, showing that even good intentions can have unintended negative effects.

The following contains spoilers from Star Trek: Discovery , Season 5, Episode 6, "Whistlespeak," which premiered on Paramount+ on May 2, 2024.

As Star Trek: Discovery plays out its final season, the sixth episode of Season 5 is a fresh take on a classic franchise premise. In Episode 6, "Whistlespeak," Captain Michael Burnham and Lieutenant Sylvia Tilly undertake an away mission on a planet that has not yet discovered warp drive. They are not the first Federation people to visit, and the scenario they face is one not seen since The Original Series . Michael Burnham violated the Prime Directive, Starfleet's most sacred rule, and she was probably right to do it.

When the Prime Directive was first instituted in Star Trek it was a unique statement against colonialism in the 1960s when America was looking spread "democracy" everywhere. Many of the stories in Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Next Generation and even new series like Star Trek: Strange New Worlds bring up the Prime Directive in order to break it. While this is not the right thing to do in the eyes of Starfleet, it is often painted as the morally right decision for the characters. Even the second reboot film, Star Trek Into Darkness , begins with Captain Kirk and company violating the Prime Directive to save both an indigenous population from destruction and Commander Spock. However, the far-future setting of Star Trek: Discovery Season 5 allowed the storytellers to offer a unique perspective on the consequences of the Prime Directive well after the moral intervention first takes place.

Why Michael Burnham Violated the Prime Directive on Star Trek: Discovery

A 57-year-old star trek mystery has finally been solved.

In "Whistlespeak," Burnham and company have to find the fourth piece of the puzzle that will lead them to the technology of the Progenitors. These ancient aliens are the founders of all humanoid life in the galaxy, and two space-pirates named Moll and L'ak are looking for it to sell to the highest bidder. The situation that leads them to the planet of Halem'no, where advanced technology is the only thing keeping its indigenous population from dying in planet-wide storms. These weather control towers were built by Denobulans, the species of Dr. Phlox from Star Trek: Enterprise . Apparently, their planet faces similar weather troubles. The Denobulans built the towers, itself a Prime Directive violation.

It's not clear if the Denobulans were caught in the act. The "Mother Compeer," whose fatal journey inspired a sacrificial ritual, may have been aware of this technology. In order to fix it, she sacrificed herself and the people built a religion around it. Michael only reveals the presence of the USS Discovery and that the towers are technological in order to save Tilly . She won this race in order to find the clue, not knowing it would end with her death. But in doing so, Burnham and the Discovery crew can help the locals learn to fix the towers rather than needlessly sacrifice themselves.

Over the centuries, four of the five weather control towers stopped functioning due to lack of maintenance. Perhaps the Denobulans would secretly return and repair them, until "the Burn" made warp travel all but impossible. They also may have thought in the intervening 800 years the society would advance enough to figure out how to fix them on their own. The opposite happened. The towers' failure led them to create a brutal ritual and build a religion around it. This is the cost of violating the Prime Directive even for the best of reasons. It also suggests once Starfleet's General Order Number One is violated, it's best for them to come to clean to the people on the planet.

Starfleet Has an Exception to the Prime Directive

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In Star Trek: The Original Series the USS Enterprise is sent to check in on a pre-warp culture that was contacted by early Earth travelers before the Prime Directive. Season 2, Episode 17's "A Piece of the Action" revealed the people of Sigma Iota III based their entire society around a book the explorers left behind about Chicago organized crime in the 20th Century. This was very much like what happened to the people of Halem'no with a key difference: the Denobulans didn't reveal themselves. For all the downsides of the Sigma Iotian culture, being a gangster wasn't a religion. With no answers for how the "High Summit" protected them, the people of Halem'no had to create a mythology around it.

The Denobulans saved these people without fully violating the Prime Directive, but they did not foresee the consequences of doing it. Kirk and company were allowed to visit the Sigma Iotians because the Prime Directive had been, essentially, violated . Since the Denobulans kept themselves a secret, Captain Burnham and Tilly couldn't fully help the people understand what they needed to do to fix their weather and, possibly, reclaim the land lost to the "dust" when the other four towers failed. Just as Kirk and company likely affected the culture after their visit, Burnham and her crew do the same on Halem'no.

In fairness to the Prime Directive purists, Ohnahz told Burnham that attempts to stop the sacrifices led to violence among the people before. Yet, this was because there was no answer to replace the mythology. Now that they know shifting around some iso-linear chips can fix the towers, there would likely be less discord among the inhabitants. Burnham broke the Prime Directive out of desperation to save Tilly, but the effects of her doing so might be even more positive than the Denobulans only half-breaking it .

Countless Starfleet Crews Break the Prime Directive for Good Reasons

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In "A Piece of the Action," Kirk, Spock and McCoy use the culture they developed to try to push the people towards a more sensible societal order . Burnham and the others were less aggressive in this approach, but it was ultimately what happened. In the first Prime Directive-breaking episode, "Return of the Archons," Kirk and Spock destroy a computer controlling a society. After he's successful in talking the computer to death, the Enterprise leaves Starfleet personnel behind to help guide the culture , much in the way Burnham promises to teach Ohnahz and the others to repair the weather control towers.

In Star Trek: TNG's "Who Watches the Watchers," Starfleet observes a pre-warp culture from an invisible "duck blind." The plan inevitably goes awry, and Captain Picard becomes the subject of worship by the culture. Rather than letting the religion continue, he dissuades the culture by revealing the truth . If the Denobulans had done something similar, countless more lives could have been saved because the other four towers wouldn't have failed. Again, it's possible the Denobulans had a contingency for tower maintenance that was disrupted when the Burn happened, making warp travel difficult.

What makes "Whistlespeak" such a fresh take on this concept is the addition of time. To the Denobulans in the 23rd or 24th Century, saving these people was an unquestionably moral good. They could help and, thus, they should. Yet, in only half-violating the Prime Directive, they may have impeded the society's technological development. Instead of scientific advancement, they believed feats of endurance and sacrificing their lives was what pleased the "gods," the language they used to describe the effects of technology. While Michael Burnham was right to come clean with Ohnahz, the episode also suggests saving a culture for the right reasons may not be "saving" them at all.

How the Prime Directive Is Both Good and Bad In Star Trek

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The Prime Directive, like many of Star Trek 's best concepts, came from an idea of Gene Roddenberry's that was developed in scripts by the "other Gene," Gene L. Coon . In the 1960s, many Westerners thought it was a moral duty of developed cultures to bring education (and, usually, a religion of their own) to "primitive" cultures. This almost always leads to Imperialism, which is what Star Trek 's Genes were railing against . Anti-colonialism was not a popular way of thinking in the 1960s, and the kind of message that sci-fi allegory is perfect to explain. In The Original Series' "A Private Little War," Kirk regrettably breaks the Prime Directive to arm a society in an allegory for the Vietnam War.

The Prime Directive is mostly broken for Spider-Man's favorite reason . With the great power of Starfleet's technology, they have an equally great responsibility to use it to help those in need. "A Piece of the Action" is meant to show what happens when cultural influence is used irresponsibly. However, "Whistlespeak" presents a scenario where even responsible Prime Directive breaking can have a deleterious effect . The indigenous people of Halem'no likely prefer their brutal religious practices to total annihilation. Yet, the episode reveals that something as simple as mechanical entropy can make breaking the Prime Directive for "good" reason equally problematic.

Star Trek: Discovery debuts new episodes Thursdays on Paramount+.

Star Trek: Discovery

Release Date September 24, 2017

Cast Oyin Oladejo, Emily Coutts, Anthony Rapp, Sonequa Martin-Green, Doug Jones, Mary Wiseman

Main Genre Sci-Fi

Genres Drama, Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Rating TV-14