A Taste of Armageddon (23 Feb. 1967)

Kirk and Spock must save their ship's crew when they are declared all killed in action in a bizarre computer simulated war where the actual deaths must occur to continue.

Director:

Joseph Pevney

Writers:

Robert Hamner (teleplay), Gene L. Coon (teleplay),

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, David Opatoshu

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
David Opatoshu	...	Anan 7
Gene Lyons	...	Ambassador Fox
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
James Doohan	...	Scott
Barbara Babcock	...	Mea 3
Miko Mayama	...	Tamura
David L. Ross	...	Lt. Galloway
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Sean Kenney	...	DePaul
Robert Sampson	...	Sar 6

Storyline

On a mission to establish diplomatic relations at Star Cluster NGC321, Kirk and Spock beam down to planet Eminiar 7 to learn that its inhabitants have been at war with a neighboring planet for over 500 years. They can find no damage nor evidence of destruction but soon learn that their war is essentially a war game, where each planet attacks the other in a computer simulation with the tabulated victims voluntarily surrendering themselves for execution after the fact. When the Enterprise becomes a victim in the computer simulation and ordered destroyed, Kirk decides it's time to show them exactly what war means.

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Plot Keywords:

ambassador | disintegration | held captive | 23rd century | blonde

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

23 February 1967 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

First episode to establish the United Federation of Planets as the principal service to which the Enterprise operated under. In previous episodes, vague and often conflicting references were made to this service. Such references included "Space Command", "Space Central", the "Star Service", and "United Earth Space Probe Agency" (the latter even abbreviated as UESPA, pronounced by Capt. Kirk as "you spah" in the episode Star Trek: Charlie X). UESPA would later go on to be the principal service to which the Enterprise NX-01 operated under on Star Trek: Enterprise, since the Federation would not be established on that series until the final episode.

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Goofs

The Eminians attack the Enterprise with a sonic weapon. However, sonics would not be effective against an orbiting starship, as the vacuum of space (or high atmosphere) would not conduct sonic energy.

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Quotes

Captain James T. Kirk: Code 710 means that under no circumstances are we to approach that planet - no circumstances whatsoever.
Ambassador Fox: You will disregard that signal, Captain.

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Connections

Referenced in Mind Meld: Secrets Behind the Voyage of a Lifetime (2001)

User Reviews

Awfully static, but the message is so good that this is indeed a standout episode

Okay, almost the entire show takes place in a sterile-looking compound, so this is guaranteed to be a rather bland-looking episode. But, despite this and the lack of a lot of action in the show, it stands out as one of the best episodes because it is so well-written and has an intriguing message. It seems that the Enterprise visits a new planet while they are being attacked by their enemies on a nearby planet. However, despite the landing party hearing the warnings, the see, hear and feel no evidence of attack. It turns out that the attack is a computer simulation and the ship (but not the landing party) are determined by the computer to be casualties in this bizarre game. However, despite not being real, this really is no game. You see, the two planets completely hate each other and would have completely annihilated each other with their high-tech weapons countless decades before had both sides not agreed to stop fighting a conventional war and begin fighting a computerized one. The logic was that BOTH societies could be preserved and the "victims" could be humanely euthanized to make the war more tolerable!!! This sick arrangement seems natural to the planet's inhabitants and they cannot understand why the crew of the ship refuse to report to the disintegration chambers in order to preserve the precarious balance and avoid a real all-out war!!!! The episode is exciting, thought-provoking and features an excellent performance by guest-star David Opatoshu--an exceptional character actor who was a frequent guest on TV (such as his great role in one of the hour-long TWILIGHT ZONE episodes).