Star Trek – The Original Series, Vol. 12, Episodes 23 & 24: A Taste of Armageddon/ Space Seed
Nov/095
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“A Taste of Armageddon,” Ep. 23 – The U.S.S. Enterprise is caught in a bizarre interplanetary war fought entirely by computers, but with real deaths. “Space Seed,” Ep. 24 – The U.S.S. Enterprise is commandeered by a 20th century genetic “superhuman,” Khan (Ricardo Montalban), who along with his followers has survived for centuries aboard a “sleeper ship.” This episode inspired the film “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”Amazon.com
Volume 12 in the classic Star Trek series on DVD begins with “Space Seed,” which introduced Khan Noonien Singh (a viperlike Ricardo Montalban) to Trek lore. The trouble begins when Kirk & crew discovers a derelict ship and its crew of 70 supermen aboard, all in suspended animation. Led by Khan, these strange people turn out to be the product of genetic experimentation in the 1990s and instigators of a so-called Eugenics War, i.e., the Third World War on Earth often mentioned on various Trek programs. Though displaced from his more violent time and place, Khan quickly overcomes his disorientation and shifts into conqueror mode, quickly overtaking the Enterprise with the aid of a comely Federation historian who is swooning at his feet. As any Trek fan knows, “Space Seed” inspired Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, regarded by many as the best of the Trek feature films.
“A Taste of Armageddon” is one of classic Trek’s occasional, obvious metaphors for the absurdity of the then-cold war between East and West. Gene Lyons stars as a Federation ambassador named Fox, who boards the Enterprise to reach the planet Eminiar VII, where he hopes to negotiate a peace treaty with the inhabitants. Instead the crew of the Enterprise gets caught in the middle of an interplanetary war between Eminiar and neighboring planet Vendikar. The twist is that the war is being fought on computers, and compliant residents of those “destroyed” areas obediently report to disintegration chambers, where their “virtual” death is made literal. When the Enterprise is “hit” in one of these simulations, both the warlords of Eminiar VII and Ambassador Fox fully expect Capt. Kirk & crew to report to the disintegration center. The feisty Kirk has other plans, of course. And while the madness of this controlled armageddon makes a suitably surreal satire of the arms race in the 1960s, the story also evoked the endless, daily reports of body counts during the Vietnam war, with no resolution in sight. Aside from its parable aspect, however, the episode gave Kirk one of his earliest and most compelling scenes of Kirkian preachiness in a bold monologue about peace, reportedly written and rewritten numerous times by series producer and indispensable creative hand, Gene L. Coon. –Tom Keogh
Star Trek – The Original Series, Vol. 12, Episodes 23 & 24: A Taste of Armageddon/ Space Seed
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4:54 pm on November 16th, 2009
Eugenics selects the best strains for a sampling and promotes this survival strain in a limited population group. In “Space Seeds” the Enterprise encounters the “Botany Bay” spaceship, named after a penal colony. The Botany Bay has been a drift in space for centuries and barely operational. It nuclear fission reactors have managed to keep a group of “super humans” alive and, as Kirk and the crew beam on the Botany Bay, they active the revival routine, for the leader, Khan. The enterprise team immediately becomes fearful of Khan’s reputation. Khan will manage to revive his small group of genetically enhanced warriors, who are eager too gain control of the Enterprise.
Eugenics has produced a superior human: improved reasoning capability, improved strength, improved beauty, and improved speed. Khan says, “It is true, man has improved. His technology has improved, but man, himself has not changed. Oh we will do well in this generation” It seems superior strength has produced a super ego. The Eugenic wars lead too World war III. The rhetoric of the cold war threatened a weaker nation by a stronger nation and eventually the stronger nation prevailed. Super ego not satified with mere survival; it required domination of the inferiors.
Khan has seduced, the Historian, “Marlin McGiver” into helping him gain control, of the Enterprise. Khan tells McGiver, “such men, as me, take what they will”, “open your heart”, the rape of independance, and discloses to McGiver her that he intends on taking the Enterprise. Khan becomes disgused with McGiver and tells her too leave. McGiver has fallen for Khan and says, “I will do anything”, sells out herself too power, and agrees with his evil plot too take over the Enterprise.
Khan reasons, he needs the Enterprise as means for conquering worlds. After Khan and his team gain control of the Enterprise, Khan attempts too force the crew of the Enterpise into helping him. The crew see their captain being tortured in the decompression chamber and must make a decision whether too help or watch their captain die. Khan threatens to put all of them one at a time in the chamber, if they do not break too his will. Khan would torture and kill 80 percent of the crew in order too gain the cooperation of 20 percent. Khan idealogy of force was resisted by the democratic loving enterprise crew.
The eugenic warriors did not need the humans to navigate the Enterprise; Khan himself had a complete understanding of the operation manuals; Khan wanted slaves, who would obey him against their wills.
Spock, McCoy, and Scotty were aware of the trap and refused cooperation. The Eugenic warriors were the communists dictators and their promises were all lies. Kirk had previously admired the efficiency of Khan, saying of Khan, “I’ve always admire this one, he was the was the worst of them all.” Spock was shocked and immediately protested. Kirk, Scotty, and McCoy laughed and told Spock, they could admire and oppose Khan, at the same time. Spock replied, “illogical”. Isaiah states, “The heavan wept for a son of the morning had fallen”
Eventually, McGiver comes too her senses and frees the Captain from the decompression chamber. Kirk immediately takes actions to gain control of his ship against the tyrant. Kirk gases the Enterprise with knock out gas, but Khan manages too escape and gain control of engineering and put the ship on autodestruct. Khan initiates hand to hand combat against Kirk. Khan says, “I have five times your strength” and toss Jim around like a doll. Khan is too arrogant and Kirk knocks out Khan.
Khan behavior is strange. Khan is a conqueror, one moment and a coward then next. If Khan can’t control then he must destroy all, mutual annihilation; a reflection of the philosophies of the cold war. Kirk does not want to see his ship autodestruct, so he fights Khan.
A court hearing is held against Khan and all charges dropped. Since, the Enterprise has no jurisdiction over a people from the past, Khan is somewhat freed; Khan is sent to a barren planet. Khan quotes Milten, “A he wept when their were no more worlds to conquer” – a statement about Lucifer before he was thrust down from heavan. McGiver goes with Khan rather than facing a court martial. Khan says, “It will be difficult at first even to survive” McGiver says, “I will go with him!” Khan says, “I will take her. Superior woman.” Life would not go on happily ever after, Spocks plant in our minds, this statement, “If we return in a 100 years, I wonder what plants would sprout from the seeds we planted, today.”. Khan would not flourish, bad fruit would emerge, communism would not flourish, and eventually it would rise its ugly head in another survival attempt, in “wrath of Khan”. Prophetically, Khan would repeat his same strange behavior, ending up in self annihilation attempt which would be Messiahic defeated by Spock, as he aligned the dialithium crystals bring the warp drives online; and the Enterprise escaped, the KobiHashiMaru tactic test and solution, he never took. Kirk would cheat death, “I’ve never face death like this.” Spock would sacrifice the one for the many. Jesus would sacrifice himself, so that all man could have salvation. In search for Spock, Spock would be resurrected by “Tau Pow”.
Rating: 5 / 5
6:56 pm on November 16th, 2009
“A Taste of Armegeddon” is a very well written episode about 2 planets that are fighting a war with computers with real casualties. “Space Seed” See the TOS episode that inspired “Star Trek II”
Rating: 5 / 5
8:43 pm on November 16th, 2009
One of the greatest episodes. The video and audio transfer were excellent.
Rating: 5 / 5
10:15 pm on November 16th, 2009
This is not really a review but rather a question. I would love to own the entire Star Trek Original Series on DVD but I have a serious problem with buying them two episodes at a time, which I refuse to do. Does anyone know if the origianl series will ever be released by season in a boxed set format similar to the TNG and DS9 sets? #1) If I were to pruchase them in the current two episodes per disc format it would be way too expensive for me to buy them all. #2) Not to mention that it would take too much storage space. I would NOT be reluctant, however, to purchase a boxed set of each season in the…say $$ to $$$ range. By releasing ST:TOS in this format I believe that Paramount could profit from people like me who do not want to waste their time or money purchasing ST:TOS DVDs in the current format. If anyone has any info on the possible future release of ST:TOS boxed sets, please let me know. Thank you.
Greg West
Rating: 5 / 5
11:24 pm on November 16th, 2009
Along with “The City on the Edge of Forever”, this is one of the better original Star Trek episodes. Ricardo Montalban was excellent as Khan. Desilu Studios did a superb job with this episode. It has a little sex, loyality, drama, and shows the Enterprise crew. All in all, an enjoyable episode.
Michael N. Washington
Rating: 4 / 5