As the Enterprise nears the planet Ariannus on a mission to decontaminate its atmosphere another ship is spotted; a Federation shuttle that had been stolen from a nearby star base. It is brought aboard and a strange alien emerges; his left side is white, his right side is black. He identifies himself as Lokai and states that he is fleeing persecution on the planet Cheron. Spock and McCoy state that they believe his appearance must be due to a unique mutation
a theory is soon disproved when another ship appears carrying a very similar alien
although this one, who identifies himself as Bele, is black on the left and white on the right. Bele states that Lokai is a traitor he has been pursuing for fifty thousand years! It soon becomes apparent that on Cheron those whose left side is white are considered a lesser race while those who are white on the right dominate. Bele insists that Kirk takes them both back to Cheron and when Kirk refuses he uses a telepathic power to force steer the Enterprise towards his home planet
something Kirk is determined to stop; even if that means destroying his ship.
The racial message of this episode is handled in an interesting way; to the viewer and the Enterprise's crew the two aliens look almost the same; which side of their bodies are black and which are white is irrelevant however to them it is everything. Once that is realised the message that such racism is ridiculous is a little heavy handed but that doesn't really matter as the message is still valid. The ending proved to be rather interesting as they avoided the cliché of having the two realise the stupidity of seeing trivial differences as reasons to hate; instead we see where the hate led their civilisation as their chase goes on. On the down side the idea that these two have been hunter and hunter for 50,000 years is crazy to say the least. The acting is solid enough with guest stars Lou Antonio and Frank Gorshin doing good jobs as Lokai and Bele. Overall an okay episode which is memorable as 'the one with the black and white aliens'.
The racial message of this episode is handled in an interesting way; to the viewer and the Enterprise's crew the two aliens look almost the same; which side of their bodies are black and which are white is irrelevant however to them it is everything. Once that is realised the message that such racism is ridiculous is a little heavy handed but that doesn't really matter as the message is still valid. The ending proved to be rather interesting as they avoided the cliché of having the two realise the stupidity of seeing trivial differences as reasons to hate; instead we see where the hate led their civilisation as their chase goes on. On the down side the idea that these two have been hunter and hunter for 50,000 years is crazy to say the least. The acting is solid enough with guest stars Lou Antonio and Frank Gorshin doing good jobs as Lokai and Bele. Overall an okay episode which is memorable as 'the one with the black and white aliens'.