“Prime directive? What prime directive?”
Leaving aside the “Kirk knows best”, this was an interesting episode. Not sure if it was intended as a Vietnam war analogy or a cold war analogy, but it raises an interesting dilemma. Is a ‘clean war’ a bad thing, because it allows the war to go on forever?
It’s a pity then that the writer’s answer (‘no’) was allowed to stand with very little discussion. It would have been interesting if, for instance, Spock was attracted to the idea. I think Kirk comes to the right conclusion, but his methods are a bit questionable. Couldn’t he have just forced the two planets to negotiate for peace without directly triggering imminent ‘real’ war?
Great trek moment: as far as I can tell, the first clear reference to the “United Federation of Planets”.
(OK, for the Star Trek nerds: arguably they had warp technology. But there’s no sign in the episode).
23 down, 714 to go. And as I’m now 60 minutes ahead of where I need to be, I think I’ll just watch the one episode tonight.