A Brief Guide to Star Trek

the genetically engineered Khan. His biological superiority, a legacy of the Eugenics War of the 1990s, allows him to feel it is his right to dominate those around him. Khan uses crewmember Marla McGivers to facilitate his takeover of the
Enterprise
, and she eventually joins him in his exile to Ceti Alpha V after Kirk regains his ship. The story provided the springboard for Nicholas Meyer’s
The Wrath of Khan
.
    The many other episodes featuring superior or God-like beings include ‘Catspaw’, a Hallowe’en trifle that puts the
Enterprise
crew at the mercy of Korob and Sylvia, powerful aliens exploring human emotions, and ‘Obsession’ (yet another
Moby Dick
variant) in which Kirk faces off against a truly alien gas cloud responsible for the deaths of fellow crewmembers earlier in his career. Most of
Star Trek
’s superior beings, however, are humanoid, like those in ‘The Gamesters of Triskelion’. They force the
Enterprise
crew to take part in gladiatorial contests for their amusement, an idea echoed in ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’ that again sees the crew acting against their natures at the behest of superior powers. In ‘By Any Other Name’, the
Enterprise
is hijacked (again) by powerful beings from Andromeda (although, as in ‘Catspaw’, we only ever see two of them due to the limited budget). They intend to use the ship to invade another galaxy, but Kirk is able to use extreme human emotional states against them, thus recapturing his beloved vessel.

    The 1960s was a peak period of the Cold War stand-off between the United States and the Soviet Union, culminating in the October 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The Vietnam War hadescalated throughout the decade, and by the late 1960s, when
Star Trek
was on air, public opinion was increasingly turning against it. War, conflict, political matters and diplomacy became a central part of Gene Roddenberry’s plan to use ‘far-off polka-dot people on far-off planets’ to make his political comments through drama.
    A variety of episodes depict straightforward conflicts that allow Kirk to become a mouthpiece for a variety of views, mainly from Roddenberry and Coon. Sometimes, the use of force is justified whereas at other times the need to battle an enemy is a cause for lament. Early in the first season, ‘The Corbomite Maneuver’ sees the human race branded as aggressive savages by Balok, who threatens to destroy the
Enterprise
. Only the bluff of the title, that the
Enterprise
has a weapon that deflects energy back upon the aggressor, allows Kirk to stop Balok. ‘Balance of Terror’ shows the battle of wits between Kirk and a nameless Romulan Commander (Mark Lenard) where the technology of destruction available to each is almost equally balanced. ‘A Taste of Armageddon’ takes this idea one step further, pitching two equally matched war-like cultures against each other. The war between Eminiar VII and Vendikar has lasted for 500 years, but there is no destruction of property – each planet abides by casualty figures produced by computer and a docile populace meekly turns up at the disintegration booths in the required numbers. Clearly a comment on Vietnam, the satirical intent was buried beneath a great science fiction concept. The Vietnam issue was even plainer in ‘A Private Little War’, a story that sees the Klingons and the Federation arming opposite forces in a conflict on a developing world. The only way to ‘preserve both sides’, according to Kirk, is to create a balance of power by arming both forces equally, driving Kirk to match the Klingons move by move. Interviewed on
Good Morning America
in 1986, Roddenberry made the claim that
Star Trek
was ‘the only dramatic show that ever talked against Vietnam. We set it on another planet. Kirk essentially played the role of our presidents in those years, where he’d gotten into it and was having troublegetting out of it. It’s a pity: Vietnam would have ended many years sooner if it had been on dramatic shows on television because of the impact of these dramatic shows. If Dr Marcus Welby had come out and said something against Vietnam, my maiden aunts would have carried placards!’
    A later episode, ‘Day of the Dove’, reversed this plot by having an alien entity arm both the Klingons and the
Enterprise
crew with swords, setting them against each other. Kirk and his Klingon opponent Kang have to stop fighting each other and cooperate if they are to understand what’s happening. Like