Omega IV

From Memory Alpha, the free Star Trek reference.

Omega IV was a planet which was in or near Federation space. The planet was inhabited by the Kohms and Yangs who fought a bacteriological war centuries ago.

While apparently not physically resembling Earth, at least not in detail, Omega IV apparently shared a history nearly identical to Earth's, up to the 1990s or slightly beyond. Omega IV once had a political unit called "The United States" similar to Earth's own United States of America, with a handwritten constitution appearing identical to that of Earth's.

By 2267, most of Omega IV's civilization appeared to be in ruins.

The Yangs were a Caucasian race which dressed in tribal attire. They lived in the hills and mountains surrounding a ruined city. The city was inhabited by Kohms, who appeared to be Asiatic and dressed similarly to Earth's Mongolians.

The Yangs were attempting to take the city from the Kohms, calling it "the last of the Kohm places" and declaring "that which is ours will be ours again." Apparently, as a result of the long-ago war, the Kohms had invaded the Yang homeland and driven the Yangs out of the cities. The Yang attack on the city was the final assault in reclaiming Yang territory.

Amid this, Captain Ronald Tracey of the starship USS Exeter beamed down with a landing party to survey the planet for research purposes. He found the Kohm city and established friendly relations with the Kohms. However, unbenownst to him at the time, he and his crew had contracted a plague which had been one of the primary weapons of the war. While on the surface, they appeared to be protected and had no symptoms, but once some of the landing party beamed back to the ship, symptoms immediately appeared. Within a short time, the entire crew of the Exeter had been reduced to a small pile of crystals, the result of the removal of all water from the Human body.

At about this time, the Yangs attacked the city in force. Tracey, without a ship or a crew, sided with the Kohm villagers and used his phaser to drive off the Yang attack, in apparent violation of the Prime Directive.

The arrival of the starship USS Enterprise was initially met with enthusiasm by Tracey. Tracey asked Captain Kirk and his officers for help in defeating the Yangs, calling them "animals who happen to look like us," but when Kirk and his crew refused, Tracey had the Kohm villagers take them prisoner.

Tracey had discovered that many of the Kohm villagers were very old. Many were hundreds of years old; at least one was more than one thousand years old. Tracey believed that there were agents on the planet that not only were keeping the people alive against the plague, but also prolonged their lives. Tracey wanted Dr. Leonard McCoy to isolate this "serum" so that Tracey could have the secret to immortality.

However, McCoy discovered that the only reason the people of Omega IV lived so long is because they had adapted to their new contaminated environment, and it was now their natural lifespan. He said that the plague resembled bacteriological warfare research conducted on Earth in the 1990s.

At this time, the Yangs attacked the city in full force and were able to take control. They held rituals in the presence of Tracey, Kirk, McCoy and Spock, and eventually produced a tattered United States flag.

Kirk and Spock deduced that this planet had developed nearly identically to Earth up until the time of the bacteriological war, which Earth had avoided. The Asiatics – the Kohms or "Communists" – had won, and the Yangs – or "Yankees" – having been driven from their cities, took to the ways of the "American Indian" for survival. Kirk was then able to explain to the Yangs the meaning of many of their documents and "holy words," which were in fact foundational and traditional American works such as the Pledge of Allegiance.

Kirk took Tracey from Omega IV and allowed its people to rediscover their own "history and liberty." (TOS: "The Omega Glory")

[edit] Background

A curious historical note: Spock mentioned that the Omegans had "fought the war that [Kirk's] Earth avoided." Certainly he could have been talking about a large-scale bacteriological war, but given the context of the sentence and episode, it seems that he was referring to a war which destroyed all or much of civilization. We know that Earth fought a Third World War, which was devastating; apparently, it wasn't quite devastating enough to rate.

Omega IV was mentioned as a small note on a very large star chart graphic created for TNG: "Conspiracy". It was the image behind the chair in the room where Dexter Remmick was killed.

The planet was recreated by CBS Digital for the 2007 remastered version of "The Omega Glory".