Star Trek - The Original Series, Vol. 12, Episodes 23 & 24: A Taste Of Armageddon/ Space Seed

Tidbit: Barbara Babcock would reappear in Plato's Stepchildren during season three.

Space Seed-This classic episode first introduces us to the eugenically bred Khan. Here we have another thoughtful episode that prophesizes an issue ('unnatural' selection) that would feature prominently in the headlines today. It is interesting to see Kirk and company portrayed as 'inferiors' (in a narrow sense of the word) for much of the episode. The scene that ends with Khan threatening Kirk is particularly tense and threatening. Ricardo Monteblan is also effective in his scenes as leader and seducer.

The acting performances and tight script lend an air of subtle believability to this episode that wouldn't always be present on Star Trek. The conflict and drama are well developed. Also interesting is Kirk's ultimate compassion, which of course distinguishes him from the 20th Century leader. Trek, like many great westerns, often found a way to show that compassion and humanity did not have to be synonymous with weakness, passivity, or the absence of charisma. These are important messages for young viewers. Left open here is whether that compassion here will ultimately come back to hurt the Federation. The difficult question is whether one must follow their conscience even when the long term consequences may be detrimental.

Tidbit: This episode features one of Star Trek's most notorious bloopers, in which a dropped phaser visibly distresses several onlookers, particularly DeForest Kelley. (4.5 stars)

Greg West

"A Taste of Armageddon" is what Captain Kirk and his landing party get on Ameniar 7, a planet that theoretically has been at war with one of its neighbors for centuries. But Kirk and his party find nothing wrong on the planet - no ruins, no signs of violence, no injuries or bodies. Bureaucrat David Opatoshu sadly informs the landing party that they and their ship were blown up in orbit - and since Kirk and the others are obviously quite well, and a quick call on their communicators confirms that, yes, the Enterprise is, too, the mystery deepens. Opatoshu explains that, in order to avoid the bloodshed of real war, Ameniar and its enemies long ago decided to fight their wars by computers. Those areas listed as casualties are obliged to report their populations to disintegrator booths, for neat disposal. Now, if the Captain and his crew will merely oblige, by walking into the disposal ovens...

A solid script, and a chilling premise. Opatoshu is a squirrelly and cagey bureaucrat, the charming Barbara Babcock a credible tender trap, and Gene Lyons really shines as a humorless by-the-book Starfleet diplomat who nearly gets the Enterprise destroyed by his own lack of common sense.

"Space Seed" was the forerunner story to the second movie in the later film series, "The Wrath of Khan." The Enterprise encounters a centuries-old derelict in space, with the cryptic enough name of "Botany Bay." It contains several dozen cryogenically frozen perfect human specimens, the leader of whom, Khan, is awakened for questioning. Khan turns out to be Khan Noonian Singh, the leader of an uprising of eugenically created Nitzschean supermen that nearly destroyed Earth in an atomic war at the turn of the 21st century. With the aid of the Enterprise's romantic Lieutenant Marla McGivers - who is helplessly smitten with Khan's physique and dominant persona - Khan attempts to take over the Enterprise, and conquer the universe it will give him access to in this new age.

Ricardo Montalban lends his unique charisma to the role of Khan, and Madlyn Rhue sympathetically plays the lieutenant of divided loyalties. One of the more satisfying melodramas of the series, it also contains at least one of Star Trek's famous amusing bloopers, if you pay attention - a crewmember who runs straight back into a gas-filled room he was easily escaping, as if responding to the off-camera director signalling, "No! Go back! Go back!"

Both quite good, "Space Seed" especially.