[Nate the Great]

February 2nd, 1968, "A Private Little War"

Fiver (by IJD GAF)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Main points:
* Depending on the scene the Prime Directive either does or does not exist. Depending on the scene the Organian Peace Treaty either does or does not exist. The problem is that editing wouldn't fix the plot; it's fundamentally flawed no matter what the current state of Federation regulations or diplomatic relations with the Klingons are.
* It was a big mistake to not introduce a natural resource or strategic position to justify the Klingon presence here. They're devoting a lot of attention and resources to claiming this planet. If they were going to take the locals elsewhere to put them to work as slaves they could've done it a few people at a time and the Federation wouldn't have known until it was too late.
* I did a lot of research into how well the history of firearm development on Earth corresponds to what's going on here, but it got to be too lengthy and this episode is not worth two posts. Suffice to say that while the general sequence of weapons shown is acceptable, a lot of the needed infrastructure is simply ignored. The Klingons are devoting a lot of men and resources to a planet that has no exploitable resources.

UHURA: Message to Starbase, sir?
KIRK: No point in giving ourselves away, Lieutenant. Not until we find out what's going on.

I suppose alternatives like sending a probe aren't even worth discussing, they wouldn't get a response in time.

SCOTT: We can hide for a while, sir, but we may have to go out of orbit to keep it up for long.

Insert questions about how far away you have to be from a planet before you can go into warp here. If the implication is that Starfleet sensors are better than Klingon sensors in this case, why can't the Enterprise keep hiding if they know where the Klingon ship is?

Captain's log, stardate 4211.4. Keeping our presence here secret is an enormous tactical advantage, therefore I cannot risk contact with Starfleet Command. I must take action on my own judgment. I've elected to violate orders and make contact with planet inhabitants.

What orders? The Prime Directive? The opportunity to preserve that is gone. Couldn't Kirk say that he doesn't have time to wait for orders from Starfleet?

NONA: I am a Kahn-ut-tu woman. In all this land, how many are there? Men seek us because through us they become great leaders.

So these women don't want power directly, they want to use their husbands as puppets? There's a debate I won't pursue further...

NONA: Our blood has passed through the mahko root together. Our souls have been together. He is mine now.
TYREE: She must sleep also.
MCCOY: He is hers?
TYREE: When a man and woman are joined in this manner, he can refuse her no wish. But it is only legend.

Another debate I don't care to pursue further. I'm not in a poke-the-anthill-with-a-stick frame of mind today.

TYREE: The firesticks first appeared nearly a year ago. Since that time, many of my people have died.
KIRK: You say they make the firesticks themselves? How can you be sure?
TYREE: I've looked into their village. I have seen it being done.

The Klingons set up the infrastructure and taught the locals how to use it in a matter of months? I'm reminded of Kirk in "The Trouble With Tribbles": Though the Klingons are brutal and aggressive, they are most efficient.

KIRK: We once were as you are, Spears, arrows. There came a time when our weapons grew faster than our wisdom, and we almost destroyed ourselves.

Totally not an anti-Vietnam message, honest! One could almost wonder when our weapons technology didn't grow faster than our wisdom...

KIRK: But we're wise enough to know that we are wise enough not to interfere with the way of a man or another world.

I get what he was going for, but that certainly doesn't seem like the most efficient way to say that...

MCCOY: Do I have to say it? It's not bad enough there's one serpent in Eden teaching one side about gun powder. You want to make sure they all know about it!
KIRK: Exactly. Each side receives the same knowledge and the same type of firearm.
MCCOY: Have you gone out of your mind?

Yes, he has. Stun everyone, take all the guns and associated equipment, and let them figure out how to make these things from scratch. Problem solved, and it's hardly the worst Prime Directive violation these guys will be guilty of.

KIRK: Bones, do you remember the twentieth century brush wars on the Asian continent? Two giant powers involved, much like the Klingons and ourselves. Neither side felt could pull out.
MCCOY: Yes, I remember. It went on bloody year after bloody year.
KIRK: What would you have suggested, that one side arm its friends with an overpowering weapon? Mankind would never have lived to travel space if they had. No. The only solution is what happened back then. Balance of power.

And removing all of the guns to achieve balance of power isn't an option? I appreciate the anti-Vietnam message, but Kirk takes it in an odd direction. I can't agree that "lengthy war"="will never reach space". If that were the case we'd have never reached space ourselves.

The Fiver

McCoy: (ahem) Reporting as ordered, sir.
Kirk: How's Spock? Hic.
McCoy: Dunno. Some crazy upstart doctor who claims to have interned at a Vulcan hospital is with him.

M'Benga a "crazy upstart doctor"? Where'd that come from?

Kirk: Me tired. Kirk go sleep now.
Nona: Your captain is now mine forever. (faints)
McCoy: I feel like I missed something very wrong and very dirty.

I suddenly wonder if Nona blood and Elaan tears cancel each other out.

Klingon: Come, let me show you the next technological improvement we will make to your weaponry.
Apella: I still can't think of a logical reason why Klingons would be giving weapons to pre-warp civilizations.
Klingon: We're turning you into Klingons, not Vulcans, dammit!

Hehe. I've covered this before.

McCoy: Just what in the hell do you think you're doing?
Kirk: Teaching them to fight back against the village people.
McCoy: First, they're villagers, not village people. Second, that's the single worst violation of the Prime Directive I've ever heard.

Y.M.C.A.! It's not the single worst violation of the Prime Directive that I've ever heard of. I'd have to give it some thought, but I'm sure this episode is not it.

Kirk: Can't... stupefied by... infatuation....

Tyree: Look! He has been stupefied by my wife's spells!

"Stupefied" means either shocked or being influenced by an ingested mind-altering substance. I think you meant "dazzled" or similar.