This episode has been criticized because it seems its main point is applied with a sledge hammer. And yet, if you watch the episode carefully, there are subtle hints that there's a lot of blur about what its ultimate message could be. The Starship Enterprise has inadvertently crossed paths with two alien beings who have been at odds for 50,000 years, Lokai and Bele. A shuttlecraft was stolen from a Starbase 4 and the Enterprise is in pursuit. They use a tractor beam to "rescue" the shuttlecraft and a strange humanoid who is black on one side and white on the other. His name is Lokai and he said he "borrowed" the shuttlecraft to escape a commissioner from the planet Cheron who has been pursuing him. When McCoy examines him, he determines that Lokai would be regarded as a superhuman when compared to average humans from Earth.
Shortly thereafter another humanoid obviously from the same planet appears on the Enterprise, Bele. He says the Enterprise holds "precious cargo": Lokai. Bele also has the same trait of having a black side and white side. We learn that Bele regards Lokai as of an inferior race and that Lokai's "people" were destroying their civilization. By contrast, Lokai contends that Bele's people enslaved his people. Bele also demonstrates abilities far above those of earth humans. When the difference between the two is finely revealed, Kirk and Spock are somewhat flabbergasted as to the characteristic which distinguishes the individuals.
While this story device of humanoids with a black side and a white side may appear to be an obvious commentary on contemporary racial relations, the story does well to keep from portraying one side as being "right" and the other "wrong". Lokai's claims his people were oppressed by the people represented by Bele may at first seem like the obvious choice for our sympathies. But then we learn that Lokai's people engaged in destruction on a mass scale. He also continually admonishes the crew for not carrying out justice because they are not willing to kill Bele. Simultaneously Bele believes he is pursuing not only Lokai but justice and that his apprehension of Lokai represents the greater symbolic rightness of "justice".
This is a subtle story if you examine its depth. Its not really about who was right or wrong in terms of the "facts" of who was more or less oppressed and/or who was more destructive. The final message is that no matter which point of view may be right, the real villain is the hate which emerges from the conflict. And as the final scenes attest, hate becomes the overriding destructive force which may be the unintended consequence of pursuing justice, however that is defined.
Shortly thereafter another humanoid obviously from the same planet appears on the Enterprise, Bele. He says the Enterprise holds "precious cargo": Lokai. Bele also has the same trait of having a black side and white side. We learn that Bele regards Lokai as of an inferior race and that Lokai's "people" were destroying their civilization. By contrast, Lokai contends that Bele's people enslaved his people. Bele also demonstrates abilities far above those of earth humans. When the difference between the two is finely revealed, Kirk and Spock are somewhat flabbergasted as to the characteristic which distinguishes the individuals.
While this story device of humanoids with a black side and a white side may appear to be an obvious commentary on contemporary racial relations, the story does well to keep from portraying one side as being "right" and the other "wrong". Lokai's claims his people were oppressed by the people represented by Bele may at first seem like the obvious choice for our sympathies. But then we learn that Lokai's people engaged in destruction on a mass scale. He also continually admonishes the crew for not carrying out justice because they are not willing to kill Bele. Simultaneously Bele believes he is pursuing not only Lokai but justice and that his apprehension of Lokai represents the greater symbolic rightness of "justice".
This is a subtle story if you examine its depth. Its not really about who was right or wrong in terms of the "facts" of who was more or less oppressed and/or who was more destructive. The final message is that no matter which point of view may be right, the real villain is the hate which emerges from the conflict. And as the final scenes attest, hate becomes the overriding destructive force which may be the unintended consequence of pursuing justice, however that is defined.