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Old 01-11-2019, 12:21 AM
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January 10th, 1969, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

Fiver (by IJD GAF)
Transcript
Memory Alpha

The Episode

Captain's log, stardate 5730.2. The planet Ariannus is vital as a transfer point on regular space commercial lanes. It has been attacked by a bacterial invasion which threatens to render it lifeless unless checked. Our mission, to decontaminate it.

This implies that they wouldn't bother if Ariannus wasn't a transfer point. I know that wasn't the intention, but that's how it reads. Who cares how important the planet is, it's a Federation world in crisis!

SULU: Captain, sensors indicate a space vehicle of some sort ahead.
KIRK: Is it within visual range?
SULU: Coming into range now, sir. It's following a very erratic course.
KIRK: Put it on the screen, extreme magnification.
(A wobbly shuttlecraft appears on the viewscreen.)
CHEKOV: I think that may be a Starfleet shuttlecraft.
SPOCK: That is exactly what it is, Mister Chekov.


So a Starfleet ship can't identify another Starfleet ship at this range? What does this plot point achieve except making everyone look inept?

SPOCK: Captain, there is one living creature aboard. Humanoid. He is either injured or ill.

This is extremely petty, but I wonder why readings that indicate injury and readings that indicate sickness are so close as to be mistaken for each other. Why is this line here?

KIRK: Do we have any knowledge of a planet that could have produced such a race of beings?
SPOCK: Negative, Captain.
KIRK: Bones, what do you make of it?
MCCOY: Well, I can't give you any specific circumstance that will explain him.


Look, we could name any number of alien races that defy the common sense interpretation of evolution to create features that would be impossible to explain via natural selection. Voyager featured a race that had a strip of flesh connecting their nose to their chin, and SF Debris has a whole rant about this topic. I get that the vertical dividing line is great for quick identification and a source of petty prejudice, but there were alternate, more evolutionary sound options. One that comes to mind immediately is the skin color of one is the same as the hair and eye color of the other, and vice versa. Make sure both have beards to make the hair color more prominent, etc.

KIRK: Don't you usually know whose property you've stolen?
LOKAI: I am not a thief.
KIRK: Well, certainly no ordinary thief, considering what it is you appropriated.
LOKAI: You're being very loose with your accusations and drawing conclusions without any facts.
KIRK: Well, I do know you made off with a ship that didn't belong to you.
LOKAI: I do not make off with things. My need gave me the right to use the ship. Mark the word, sir, the use of it.

Yeah, that doesn't work. He's a thief.

BELE: We're on the way to Cheron. Captain, this ship is now under my direction.

So is there some form of device that's locked the course a la the Kelvans, or is Bele controlling the ship through sheer will? And if the latter, why can't Lolai counter it?
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