One thing they never really show in Star Trek is the sexual harassment contact officer. It must be a full time position on Kirk’s enterprise, with Mr Chekhov off for the compulsory class this week.[^1]
Once again, Kirk shows a complete disregard of the Prime Directive. I wonder why the writers even came up with it in the first place – it seems strange given the America of the 1960s. But it’s pretty clear that in Kirk’s mind the Prime Directive goes exactly as far as his own approval dictates.
There is some very effective writing in this episode. The moment when the lead native shows the others how to kill is actually quite chilling.
Kirk needs a few more techniques for resolving conflict: “blow up the source of the mysterious powers” from orbit got used just 4 episodes ago.
A side note: clearly credits are worth a lot. Mr Spock is an officer who has done several years at the academy, as well as another 10 years on the Enterprise, and his training has cost 122,000. That would cost well over a million in current prices in reality, far more for a pilot.
Another example of pure Red Shirt in this episode. That’s 3 so far out of 34 episodes. I’d feel pretty comfortable with the red shirt based on the evidence to date. The second one (Mallory) doesn’t count – he had a name, and survived almost half the episode.
34 down, 703 to go. 5.13% complete.
[^1]: Maybe that’s what the counsellor in Next Generation was meant to spend most of their time on.