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Episode
070
Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
Two people with god-like powers pursue each other for thousands of years across the galaxy. What drives their hatred? It’s almost too silly to say. But say we will when we put Let That Be Your Last Battlefield in the Mission Log.
Found behind the scenes pic
Very cool.
Cool! I always wish they’d extended that station to the left of Spock’s just a foot or two, so we didn’t subtly see Spock’s cut off. Nitpicking, I know, lol.
Holy double split personalities Batman !
Batman is positively GIANT next to that Robin!
This is one of my least favorite episodes. Despite the clever analogy of space racism…the rest of the episode is just boring. The parts where they are chasing each other with a video montage goes on forever and appears to me to be cheesy filler.
I love the TOS overall, but this episode is one of the worst. I like Spock’s Brain better than this one.
Frank Gorshin was not the only Star Trek guest star to appear on the Ed Sullivan show the night the Beatles made their debut. Charlie Brill, who played Arne Darvin in both live action Tribbles episodes, and his wife Mitzi McCall were also on that night. I heard them humorously recount the story on an episode of This American Life. Being overshadowed by the Fab Four was probably not a blow to Frank Gorshin’s career, since I think he was already pretty well established, but is was a disaster for McCall and Brill, who thought this was going to be their big break, only to be forced by Sullivan to retool their act at the last minute for a horde of fourteen year old girls who were just there to see their favorite band. After the show, Gorshin took the two out to dinner at Sardi’s to console them. Throughout the sixties, they cringed every time they heard The Beatles, but at least they were able to look back and laugh at it years later.
Indeed you are right! If you’re going to be upstaged by anyone, it might as well be The Beatles. Still too bad, though, but I can totally understand the hurt feelings.
I think the thing that bugs me about this episode more than anything else is that the crew have once again managed to find an alien with inexplicable mind powers that can completely dominate them…and it is kind of just glossed over. No one ever explains why Bele can control the Enterprise with his mind. Is it an aspect of his race (does this explain why Lokai and all the other “half-whites” are supposed to be inferior since he obviously doesn’t share this ability)? Was he somehow just granted this ability to hunt Lokai down? And shouldn’t someone who can control an entire starship have a lot less trouble catching a single prisoner? It seems like kind of lazy writing, which I think the third season suffered a lot from. “Don’t know how to adequately challenge the crew? Throw someone with insane mind powers at them!” It kind of drew me out of the episode a little. That and Frank Gorshin’s really odd running form. Having said that, I really love Gorshin, but I kept wanting him to turn to Kirk and say “Riddle me this, Captain!”
The odd running form was due to the camerawork; both actors had to keep a certain distance from the camera or risk going in or out of focus, and did so with a guide rope attached to the retreating camera; occasionally in the shots, you can see the rope.
Quite fittingly, Frank Gorshin’s gravestone has a final riddle inscribed on it: “What does it all mean?”
Effects Trivia: Originally – this episode re-used an effects shot that showed an Enterprise Shuttlecraft ( you know …. the one) even though dialog in the episode stated that this craft was stolen from Starbase 4. This would be corrected in 2008-with the CGI release.
I see the “Starbase 4” added… is there also a name? I can’t read it if there is.
One of my favourite episodes, providing a message I don’t think can ever be too obvious. And I liked that I was on the same page with you abotu the many powerful themes, to which I might add: We might not be able to solve our problems overnight, bring about that Utopia in a day Bele talked about. We might not even have the solutions to those problems – now. But that doesn’t mean we just throw up our hands in defeat and say it can’t be done.
The iconic anti prejudice white/black vs black/white message stuck with me from 45 years ago which demonstrates the episodes power even if it seems obvious nowadays.
There are a lot of excellently composed shots where we see both aliens black sides or both white sides which sets us up for the twist.
A personal reason for liking this episode-
I remember my dear old dad spotted the point that the two aliens were mirror images, hence their antipathy before it was revealed.
It turned out when he was at school soon after WW2 in a bombed city in England about one of the only theatrical experiences they had was when a guy came to the school and did one of those performances with half his face made up as one character and half as another turning around to change roles and that’s why dad realised what was going on in this episode.
I think this episode is great. The message is to point out how ludicrous it is to use arbitrary physical characteristics to create meaningful cultural groupings. Perhaps people with similar traits may share ancestry or backgrounds that may lead to parallel beliefs or behaviors but appearance is ultimately an unimportant side-effect of those diverse histories.
It is an unfortunate habit of humans to obsess over traits such as skin color or hair texture that aren’t actually inherently indicative of anything.
In today’s world, we must uncover and confront the ways we still leverage physical characteristics to create social constructs. Then, only when these unjust constructs have been truly and fully dismantled, perhaps we can finally let these traits be what they are: irrelevant.