Kirk and company are trapped on a strange planet where war is waged "theoretically" with computers and people willingly walk into death chambers in order to avoid serious environmental damage.
This episode had a clever enough premise: wage 'theoretical' war to save physical structures and avoid even more catastrophic loss of life. But the alternative-- simple peace-- is really pretty obvious. I give the episode some credit for starting with a moderately interesting idea, but the solution is so obvious that the episode can hardly be considered to be a great one.
Indeed, another simple alternative would have been precisely what the USA and the USSR had for many years: mutually assured destruction (MAD), thereby preventing either side from ever initiating an attack. Even if negotiations were impracticable, MAD would surely be preferable to ongoing death.
Scotty got a chance to shine here, refusing to back down against the dim-witted ambassador and preserving the safety of the ship.
Where was Sulu? Yeoman Tamura seemed to be his 'sub' for the episode.
This episode featured the usual silly fight scenes with Kirk, which appeared to be thrown in purely for spectacle; they have unintended comedic camp value.
This episode had a clever enough premise: wage 'theoretical' war to save physical structures and avoid even more catastrophic loss of life. But the alternative-- simple peace-- is really pretty obvious. I give the episode some credit for starting with a moderately interesting idea, but the solution is so obvious that the episode can hardly be considered to be a great one.
Indeed, another simple alternative would have been precisely what the USA and the USSR had for many years: mutually assured destruction (MAD), thereby preventing either side from ever initiating an attack. Even if negotiations were impracticable, MAD would surely be preferable to ongoing death.
Scotty got a chance to shine here, refusing to back down against the dim-witted ambassador and preserving the safety of the ship.
Where was Sulu? Yeoman Tamura seemed to be his 'sub' for the episode.
This episode featured the usual silly fight scenes with Kirk, which appeared to be thrown in purely for spectacle; they have unintended comedic camp value.