Enterprise Flashback: A Taste of Armageddon

If I'd had to name 10 episodes of classic Star Trek, rapid fire, I doubt that "A Taste of Armageddon" would have come time to mind. But having recently re-watched it, I think it may actually be one of the more important episodes of the show.

Under the direct orders of a visiting ambassador, Enterprise visits the planet Eminiar VII -- despite a regulation declaring it is not to be approached for any reason. There, the crew finds a government embroiled in a centuries-long war with another planet... which has nevertheless maintained society through an agreement to conduct that war virtually. Attacks are registered by computer, and victims dutifully report for disintegration when so ordered. But not the Enterprise, when it is logged as "destroyed" in an "attack." Not if Captain Kirk has anything to say about it. He's determined to end their computerized war and force the people of Eminiar VII to confront the real thing.

If I had to guess, I'd say that the writers of this episode -- Robert Hamner and Gene L. Coon -- had two key points of inspiration for this tale. Nuclear warheads were still a quite-recent invention, allowing for death at a previously unthinkable scale all at the push of a button. Also, the U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War was newer still, but had already reached the point where the gap had grown miles wide between the bureaucrats prosecuting the war and the people embroiled in it. Roll those ideas up, add the sci-fi twist of computerization, and I think you get "A Taste of Armageddon."

It may seem over-the-top that a world's population would, without protest, consent to suicide whenever told to do so by a computer. Yet I think this episode has only grown more topical in the years since it was made. Now, computers really do play a much larger role in warfare. We have more precise forms of attack that can nevertheless feel as impersonal as the dropping of an atomic bomb. The line between combat drones and a realistic video game is so thin that the human mind may not be equipped to fully appreciate the difference. "A Taste of Armageddon" isn't exactly prescient, but I do think it feels less fanciful today.

Not that every aspect of it holds up brilliantly. The writers are already starting to lean too much on the Vulcan mindmeld as a plot device; it's gone from a dangerous and intimate exchange to a parlor trick Spock does through a wall to overcome a guard. The fact that every name on Eminiar ends with a number feels especially dated. It seems odd for the ships of the Federation to have a General Order they can call by number to exterminate an entire planetary population. And we have yet another overbearing, upholstery-clad bureaucrat wielding power over our heroes to artificially inject jeopardy into the episode. (A "popinjay," Scotty pegs him.)

The tone is also curious. We are talking about mass genocide, at a global level. But there's a lot of humor in this episode. ("There is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.") I can't quite tell if this is the show not quite knowing how to balance drama and comedy, or if this is actually part of the toxic allure of a virtual war... you can't really take it seriously.

But beside the searing metaphor, you get many great moments for the characters. Kirk's solution is so quintessentially Kirk. The banter between him and Spock is delightful. Up on the ship, Scotty has one of the first of many great runs taking the captain's chair in Kirk's absence. (And great banter of his own too, with McCoy.) For one of the first times, I felt keenly aware that Star Trek really had figured itself out by this point -- telling the kinds of stories it wanted to tell, actors playing the characters the way we came to know them, and more.

Other observations:

• The lighting of the hallways on Eminiar VII is wild -- real "aren't you glad you bought a color television set" stuff.

• At least this overbearing diplomat actually redeems himself at the end of the episode instead of being a heel to the bitter end.

I really appreciate the story of "A Taste of Armageddon," and the way it uses the regular characters. I'm less certain about its lighter moments, and of the several tropes employed along the way. But overall, this is one of the better episodes of the show... that maybe isn't as well-regarded as some of the most famous? I give it a B.