taronga

I, too, am a bit uncomfortable with this story. They literally force Federation views and values upon a culture that knows nothing about them. Kirk and McCoy claim this is done for the good of the people and only Spock is a voice of reason. Now, this is of course very similar to what western civilization has been doing for a long time to what they think of as "lesser" cultures. But this episode doesn't take a stand against that but rather promotes it. There is the point made that the influence of the landing party turned the peaceful inhabitants, that didn't know the concept of killing, into murderers. But it is again shrugged off, even laughed off, by Kirk and McCoy.

Furthermore, what exactly is/was Val? Where did he/it come from? Was he evil in forcing the inhabitants to serve him or benevolent by caring for them? Is this another case of a civilization building a machine to help them that then turned against them ?

Plot holes over plot holes.

What I found interesting was that Kirk told Scotty to seperate the main section of the ship. I missed that detail before. I also missed David Soul (of Starsky & Hutch fame) being in this episode.