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Star Trek - A Private Little War
episode 2.19
Raumschiff Enterprise - Der Erste Krieg
USA 1968
produced by Gene L. Coon, Gene Roddenberry (executive) for Desilu, Norway Corporation/NBC
directed by Marc Daniels
starring 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, Gary Pillar
story by Jud Crucis (= Don Ingalls), screenplay and created by Gene Roddenberry, music by Gerald Fried
TV series Star Trek, Classic Star Trek, Star Trek (original crew)
review by Mike Haberfelner
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Kirk (William Shatner), Spock (Leonard Nimoy) and McCoy (DeForest
Kelley) are down on a planet that Kirk left no decades ago as a virtual
Garden Eden, with its peace-loving natives and their total disinterest in
weapons. Then though the three of them witness some natives being ambushed
by other locals with primitive guns - way too advanced weapons for their
stage of development - and in an attempt to diffuse the situation Spock
gets badly wounded and has to be treated on ship. Kirk and McCoy though
decide to investigate further, especially since a Klingon ship has been
seen in the vicinity. Soon enough, Kirk is wounded by a Mugato (Janos
Prohaska), basically a horned, gorilla-like beast with a poisonous bite,
and can't be beamed aboard the ship because it's hiding from the Klingon
vessel. So he's brought to the next settlement where Tyree (Michael
Witney), an old friend of Kirk's, is leader, and Tyree's wife, the
seductive witch Nona (Nancy Kovack), indeed manages to heal Kirk. But Nona
is also a problem here: Since the neighbouring tribe has guns now
(supplied by the Klingons as it turns out to noone's surprise), she tries
to persuade Tyree to get guns on his own, so his tribe can defeat the
villagers. Tyree though is a man of peace, and won't even be persuaded
otherwise by her witchery, a mix of spells and herbs. But once she has set
eyes on Kirk's fazer, she has made her mind up to direct her
"persuasive powers" towards Kirk. Kirk, McCoy and Tyree manage
to break into the village and steal a few guns to even the odds for
Tyree's tribe, but still Tyree doesn't find a warring bone in his body.
Even when he witnesses Nona seducing Kirk, he can't bring himself to fire
the gun already in his hand and aimed at either her or him or both. But
then Nona steals Kirk's fazer and runs into an ambush by the villagers
whom she wants to strike a deal with, but they're more interested in
raping her. Kirk, McCoy, Tyree and a few of his men interfere though, but
in the conflict that ensues, Nona's killed. And now Tyree is full of
hatred and finally wants to launch a war on the villagers. And Kirk sees
himself forced to supply Tyree and company with weapons matching those of
the villagers, otherwise they will be wiped out by the Klingon-supported
adversary, and thus he destroys the "Garden of Eden" for good
... The rather pessimistic ending is probably one of the best
and certainly most thoughtful in all of classic Star Trek,
as it's miles away from the usually more propagandistic messages of the
series befitting the Cold War era, and actively relativizes the
Enterprise's mission of peace. The episode preceding this ending is not
nearly as special, but that said it's still a solid adventure, with quite
some camp trappings, sexy bits (Nancy Kovack as witch sure lives up to the
demands of the role), and enough chases, fights and shoot-outs to keep one
entertained throughout. Apart from the ending not great maybe, but if
you're into the series, you'll certainly not be disappointed.
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