"Star Trek" A Private Little War (1968)

User Rating:

6.9/10   

Director:

Marc Daniels

Writers:

Gene Roddenberry (teleplay)
Don Ingalls (story)

TV Series:

"Star Trek" (1966)

Original Air Date:

2 February 1968 (Season 2, Episode 19)

Genre:

Adventure | Sci-Fi

Plot:

Kirk returns to the planet Neural which he had spent time 13 years before. A friend of his from his previous visit is now leader of his people...

Plot Keywords:

Federation | Space | Starship | Computer | Vulcan

Cast

William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Nancy Kovack	...	Nona
Michael Witney	...	Tyree
James Doohan	...	Scott
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Ned Romero	...	Krell
Majel Barrett	...	Nurse Chapel
Walter Koenig	...	Chekov
Booker Bradshaw	...	Dr. M'Benga
Arthur Bernard	...	Apella
Janos Prohaska	...	The Gumato - Mugato
Paul Baxley	...	Patrol Leader
Gary Pillar	...	Yutan

Runtime:

60 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Argentina:Atp

Company:

Paramount Television

Trivia:

Janos Prohaska owned the ape suit, having acquired it from a previous film project.

Goofs:

Crew or equipment visible: Nimoy's double is visible when Spock is shot by the Klingon-style flintlock.

Quotes:

Capt. Kirk: Spock, ask Scotty how long it would take him to reproduce 100 flintlocks.
Scotty: I didn't get that exactly, Captain. 100 what?
Capt. Kirk: 100 serpents. Serpents for the Garden of Eden.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Star Trek: The Counter-Clock Incident (#2.6)" (1974)

Cheesy-waxing philosophical about war

The cheese factor is very high in this one, but that's part of what I find attractive in the original series.

This episode waxes philosophical about war--a fairly common theme on the original series, which was made all the more poignant because it aired smack dab in the middle of the Cold War. Like usual, Gene Roddenberry (along with story writer Judd Crucis) has apt things to say about war and the necessity of taking up arms should an opposing group choose to do the same. More strongly, and this is especially relevant in retrospect, here in the early 21st Century, the crux of the episode is really superpowers creating/supporting/funding wars among third world peoples.

But as good as it can get on philosophical content, Star Trek excels because of its peculiar mixture of often cheesy or at least cheesily played elements, and this episode has that in spades. Not one, but two principal cast members almost die as they visit that same rocky scrub brush location in California again that always stands for some different planet. Another principle cast member is injured. This time they meet up with some ridiculously wigged primitive folks--one of whom Captain Kirk became friendly with on his first mission to another planet over a decade before. While there, they meet and fight with a ridiculously costumed "mugato" (maybe the problem was that they forgot the traditional "Domo arigato, Mr. Mugato" greeting?), and a ridiculously hot and beautiful Nona (Nancy Kovack), a member of a "witch tribe". This latter fact leads to some romantic scenes for Kirk, of course, and even a pretty racy (for prime time television in 1968) "healing" scene. This episode is also the source of a very humorous way of waking Vulcans out of a particular kind of "meditative" state.