Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (episode)edit this page

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"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
TOS, Episode 3x15
Production number: 60043-70
First aired: 10 January 1969
Remastered version aired: 19 January 2008
← 71st of 80 produced in TOS →
← 70th of 80 released in TOS →
← 54th of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 70th of 727 released in all →
Teleplay By
Oliver Crawford

Story By
Lee Cronin

Directed By
Jud Taylor
5730.2 (2268)
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The crew of the Enterprise find themselves caught in the middle of an intractable conflict with a bizarre fugitive alien and his equally belligerent pursuer.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

On a decontamination mission to the planet Ariannus, the USS Enterprise encounters a shuttlecraft reported as stolen from Starbase 4. The vessel's life support systems are failing and the pilot may be suffocating in the lack of atmosphere. Captain Kirk orders that the shuttlecraft be brought aboard.

When the pilot emerges and subsequently collapses, he displays a unique appearance; black on the left side of his face and white on the other.

[edit] Act One

Lokai.

Brought to sickbay, the pilot is revived by Dr. McCoy and identifies himself as Lokai from the planet Cheron. Although grateful for the rescue, he is combative when questioned about the theft of the shuttlecraft. Concluding that Lokai's coloration is a mutation of some kind, Kirk plans to return Lokai to Starbase 4 to face theft charges once the Arrianus mission is completed.

En route, however, sensors pick up a highly sophisticated (and invisible) vessel on an apparent collision course with the Enterprise. At the last moment before impact, the ship appears to disintegrate, but deposits its pilot on the bridge; Commissioner Bele – similar in appearance to Lokai, but the colors are reversed.

[edit] Act Two

Bele

Bele identifies himself as an official from the Commission on Political Traitors from Cheron, who has come to apprehend Lokai.

When Bele is brought to sickbay to see Lokai, we learn that Bele has been pursuing Lokai for a long time; 50,000 Earth years as it turns out. Bele charges that Lokai led a revolt of people who are black on the left side against the ruling order, which is black on the right side. Lokai counters that the black/right (white/left) order enslaved the white/right (black/left) people of Cheron and continues to oppress them. Bele demands that Kirk surrender Lokai, while Lokai claims political asylum with the Federation. Kirk ends the bickering and submits a report to Starfleet Command, looking for a solution.

Bele is not satisfied with the situation and commandeers the Enterprise by using his mental powers to drive the ship to Cheron. Kirk is forced to activate the self-destruct sequence in order to force Bele to relinquish control of the ship.

[edit] Act Three

Having failed through confrontation, both Bele and Lokai attempt to enlist the sympathies of the crew while en route to Ariannus.

Starfleet's answer is at last received. Since Cheron has no diplomatic treaties with the Federation, Starfleet cannot hand over Lokai without due process. Once the decontamination mission is complete, however, Bele sabotages the self-destruct program and regains control of the ship, headed for Cheron once more.

[edit] Act Four

Upon arrival at Cheron, however, sensors reveal massive destruction of all major cities and huge piles of unburied corpses - the entire population of Cheron has mutually annihilated itself in civil war. Blaming each other for the holocaust, Bele and Lokai fight, despite Kirk's offer for them to live with the Federation. The pair then chase each other through the ship, each eventually finding the transporter room and returning to the planet's surface to continue their fight... the last two sapient lifeforms on a dead world.

[edit] Log entries

  • Captain's log, stardate 5730.2. The planet Ariannus is vital as a transfer point on regular space commercial lanes. It has been attacked by a bacterial invasion which threatens to render it lifeless unless checked. Our mission, to decontaminate it.
  • Captain's log, stardate 5730.6. In a deliberate act of sabotage, Commissioner Bele has burned out our destruct mechanism and, through the power of his will, has again taken over directional control of the Enterprise.
  • Captain's log, stardate 5730.7. Having completed our mission to Ariannus, the Enterprise is now on course to Starbase 4. The crew is on normal routine and we are proceeding without incident.

[edit] Memorable quotes

"When in doubt, the book prevails, Mister Spock. I've run tests. Blood is blood, even when it's green like yours."

- McCoy, on treating Lokai


"I'm grateful for your rescue."
"Don't mention it. We're pleased to have caught you."

- Lokai and Kirk, in sickbay


"You monotone humans are all alike. First you condemn and then attack!"

- Lokai, upset with Kirk's accusations


"I am captain of this ship, and it will follow whatever course I set for it, or I will order its destruction."
"You're bluffing."
"I will destroy it!"

- Kirk and Bele


"You can no more destroy this ship than I can change color."

- Bele, to Kirk


"Disgusting is what I call them."
"That description is not scientifically accurate."
"Mister Spock, the word disgusting describes exactly what I feel about those two."

- Scott and Spock, on Bele and Lokai


"There was persecution on Earth once. I remember reading about it in my history class."
"Yes, but it happened way back in the twentieth century. There's no such primitive thinking today."

- Chekov and Sulu, trying to understand Cheron's civil war


"You're black on one side and white on the other."
"I am black on the right side."
"I fail to see the significant difference."
"Lokai is white on the right side. All of his people are white on the right side."

- Kirk and Bele


"Change is the essential process of all existence."

- Spock, to Bele


"I once heard that on some of your planets, people believe they are descended from ... apes."
"The actual theory is that all lifeforms evolved from the lower levels to the more advanced stages."

- Bele and Spock, on evolution


"What do you do? Carry justice on your tongues? You will beg for it, but you won't fight or die for it!"

- Lokai, pleading with the Enterprise crew to kill Bele


"You're dead! You half-white!"
"You useless pieces of bland flesh! I'll take you with me! You half-black!"

- Bele and Lokai, before lunging at each other


"All that matters to them is their hate."
"Do you suppose that's all they ever had, sir?"
"No, but that's all they have left."

- Spock, Uhura and Kirk, after Bele and Lokai arrive on the dead planet

[edit] Background Information

  • The original story concept did not have the aliens with bi-colored skin. It was episode director Jud Taylor who came up with the idea shortly before the episode began filming. His original suggestion was that they be half-black/half-white, one color from the waist up and the other from the waist down, but each one opposite. The idea stuck, only the colors were finally separated on the vertical axis rather than the horizontal.
    (citation needed • edit)
  • This episode was among those of which producer Fred Freiberger was the most proud of during his tenure on the show.[1]
  • Bele and Lokai have brown hair on their head, but their eyebrows are black and white to match their faces.
  • This episode represents the last on-screen appearance of the hangar deck in the original series. The shuttlecraft makes one last appearance on the planet set of "The Way to Eden".
  • Stock footage from "The Galileo Seven" was used for all of the original episode's shuttlecraft shots. As a result, despite dialog stating that it has been stolen from Starbase 4, the shuttlecraft tractor-beamed into the hangar deck is labeled NCC-1701. In the remastered version of the episode, the stolen front and sides were updated to show "Starbase 4" and a new registry number.
  • Gene L. Coon's association with the series ended with the production of this episode. As with all of his contributions to the third season, the story was credited to Lee Cronin.
  • This episode was filmed in early October 1968.
  • In a continuity error during the recreation room scene, although both Walter Koenig and George Takei are heard speaking lines of (dubbed) dialog in this scene, Koenig is not in the room.
  • No other episode in the original series features close-ups of the Enterprise model. Zoom shots from below and above the saucer section are used, representing some of the rare 'beauty shots' of the ship filmed during the series (episodes "Operation -- Annihilate!" and "Metamorphosis" have unique shots of the Enterprise as well). During the opening credits in the first scene, for example, the camera glides underneath the saucer to an extreme closeup of the saucer's phaser section and light.
  • The self-destruct sequence from this episode is repeated exactly in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; however, in Search for Spock, it is Scott who gives the second command in place of Spock, and Chekov who gives the third command instead of Scott.
  • In a syndication cut which was only used by the Sci-Fi Channel, the self-destruct sequence is considerably trimmed where Kirk activates the entire destruct sequence by himself and then in the next scene he is giving the activation code for the countdown. In the normal syndication broadcast which appeared on network television, the entire destruct sequence can be heard.
  • The "chase scene" between Lokai and Bele through the corridors of the Enterprise is mixed with footage of burning cities from air raids during World War II, as each imagines what has happened to their planet.
  • Bele's totally invisible ship perhaps is the most noticeable effect of the biggest budget cut in the original series.
  • The close-up of Chekov's hand operating the decontamination of Ariannus is a recycled shot of Kirk's hand from "The Doomsday Machine" (also used as Spock's hand both in "Obsession" and "The Immunity Syndrome").
  • The director included a unique effect in this episode. During the "red alerts," the camera zoomed in and out quickly on the blinking red alert signal, and was tilted at an angle. According to several sources, among them The Star Trek Compendium, this effect allegedly paid homage to Frank Gorshin's role as the Riddler in Batman.
  • In the third season blooper reel, several sequences from this episode are featured. In one, Frank Gorshin does a James Cagney imitation while on the transporter pad. In another, he and Lou Antonio collide forcefully as they are running through the corridors. Finally, footage of nude swimmers in a pool was inserted at the point where Kirk asks, "Could it be a Romulan ship, using their cloaking device?"
  • Both Bele and Lokai wear gloves the entire episode.
  • In some editions of Allan Asherman's The Star Trek Compendium , this episode is incorrectly titled "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield."
  • In the 1970s, the Mego toy company created a "Cheron" action figure doll, but unlike Bele and Lokai's makeup and costuming, the doll had no hair, and its costume was entirely half-black and half-white, right down to the boots.
  • The first story outline was submitted one week after the release of the final report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders, known as the Kerner Commision after its chair, Illinois Governor Otto Kerner, Jr., which President Lyndon B. Johnson appointed in the wake of the rebellion in Detroit, Michigan, from July 23-27, 1967, the worst social uprising in U. S. history up to that point. Johnson directed the commission to determine the causes of such urban disorders, which had become annual spring and summer events since 1963, and make recommendations to prevent their recurrence. The central thesis of the report was: "Our nation is moving toward two societies, one black, one white — separate and unequal." Johnson, however, was mired in a military and political quagmire in Vietnam, which was becoming increasingly costly in blood and treasure and draining resources, attention and support from his ambitious Great Society social programs. Rejecting the commission's recommendation to pour greater financial resources into addressing the causes of racial injustice and inequality, Johnson, breaking protocol, refused to meet with the commissioners or allow them to present their report to him in person.
    (citation needed • edit)

[edit] Production timeline

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and references

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also starring

And:

[edit] Guest stars

[edit] Uncredited co-stars

[edit] References

20th century; Ariannus; ape; bacteria; blood; Cheron; Cheron native; Cheron scout vessel; Civil Rights Movement; class F shuttlecraft; Coalsack; command frequency 2; Commission on Political Traitors; commissioner; Da Vinci; death warrant; destruct sequence; directional control; due process; evolution; extinction; extradition; genocide; hangar deck; history; hull breach; intergalactic treaty; lava; logic; master computer; master race; memory bank; Mendel; Ministry of Health; nucleotide; oxygen; political asylum; racism; recreation room; recuperative powers; Romulans; sabotage; sapient lifeform; scope; sentience; shields; skin; slavery; spray tank; Starbase 4; Starfleet Command; stealth; theft; tractor beam; United Federation of Planets; United Fleet of Planets; vocal cords; volcano; Vulcan (planet); Vulcans.

[edit] External link


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"That Which Survives" 		Star Trek: The Original Series
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"Whom Gods Destroy"
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"The Mark of Gideon"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"Who Mourns for Adonais?" 		TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"The Enemy Within"
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