The Organian Peace Treaty

[Nate the Great]

I've been reading the excellent James Blish novelizations of the original series episodes, and I'm in the middle of Errand of Mercy at the moment. A number of questions arose in my mind. I really do want discussion on these issues.

1. What would've happened if the Klingons got to Organia first?

Presumably they would've instituted martial law as they did in the episode, but without Kirk and Spock on the planet, how would events have played out? Would Starfleet have instituted their own invasion in order to drive the Klingons out, whereupon the Organians would've forced peace on them in the same way? Would Starfleet have left them alone, whereupon the Organians would've been slaves to the Klingons until the end of the war, whereupon the Klingons would've left peacefully (remember that the only thing about Organia that attracted attention was its location)?

2. How come the Organians prevented warfare between the Klingons and the Federation, but not the Federation and the Rolumulans, Orions, etc.?

After all, in Kirk's time all of the Federation's neighbors are de facto enemies OF the Federation, as any friendly world would be PART of the Federation. There didn't seem to be any such thing as a totally independent world that was known to the superpowers. The superpowers needed resources like dilithium much more in Kirk's day than Picard's. And if the Organians really only prevented Federation/Klingon warfare, doesn't that make them hypocrites?

3. Why did the Organians pretend to be ordinary peasants for so long? If they had simply said "Look, we don't want anything to do with anyone else. If you come within X lightyears of our world your weapons will blink out of existence and you won't be able to conduct any violence in our presence. Now go away and take your violence with you" things would've been so much simpler.

4. Why did they stop caring by the time of the movies?

[NAHTMMM]

1. That's a good question. I suspect that Kirk & the Federation would have wanted to invade the planet / drive off the Klingons, but was there enough Starfleet in the area to mount such an attack any time soon?

2. The Federation/Klingon fighting was near enough by to cause the Organians pain. That's why they got involved. Presumably the Romulans and others aren't so near to what the Organians consider their territory.

3. Presumably they didn't want to attract attention or curiosity. Possibly because they wished to be left alone, possibly because they wished to leave the 'lesser-evolved' races alone (sort of a Prime Directive thing), possibly for some other reason.

4. We really don't see canonical evidence of how heavy-handed the Organians were in enforcing the treaty. They may have been only intervening when necessary, to prevent full conflict, and once they liked where things were going (towards that future friendship) they quietly removed themselves from the situation. That's how I assume it was, anyway.