Questions about episode of Star Trek: "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

From: Michael Fitzgerald [[email protected]]

I was at a Meetup with a philosophy group earlier this week. After a
videotaped lecture on Schopenhauer, everyone wanted to watch an episode of
the original Star Trek series ("Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," Season
3, Episode 15). I guess they feel this series dealt with a lot of
philosophical issues.

I told the host of the group about Doug Kellner's hypothesis that the series
was more or less an allegory about the Kennedy administration with Kirk
serving as a sort of stand-in for JFK. I first encountered this view in his
and Michael Ryan's book Television and the Crisis of Democracy. So, looking
at this episode through that lens, the theme of the episode sort of
crystallized for me: the episode seems less about racism, as the show's
authors have proclaimed (and has been parroted by other sources) and more
about the Cold War (or perhaps WWII).

Here are the complicating factors I noted:

.         Bele (Frank Gorshin) and Lokai are very similar, belonging to the
same race, as Spock points out--their physical differences are minor. So how
can this be about racism if they are in fact the same race?

.         Lokai accuses Bele of enslaving his people (this could be
analogous to US whites literally enslaving blacks or it might in a Cold War
sense refer to Russians subjugating any number of surrounding countries,
i.e., Poles, Belorussians, Czechs, Chechens, Afghans, etc.).

.         Bele wants to take Lokai back to Cheron to stand trial for mass
murder. This makes no sense in the context of the preferred reading.

.         Bele and Capt. Kirk clearly engage in Cold War "brinksmanship,"
with references to MAD ("mutually assured destruction").

Here is my interpretation: Kirk is indeed a stand-in for JFK (or perhaps LBJ
or the US itself). Bele might represents Kruschev (it seems he even has a
slight Russian accent). Can't quite pinpoint who Lokai might represent.
Whoever he is, he is very much "like" the Russians, as Spock points out, but
has committed mass murder and is roaming about the universe (world) seeking
sympathetic allies. Also I'm wondering if the standoff between Kirk and Bele
represents the Berlin crisis, the Cuban missile crisis or some other example
of "brinksmanship."

Any ideas or suggestions? I have consulted Nancy Reagin's book Star Trek and
History, which clearly delineates other episodes in their Cold War and
Vietnam-conflict context. However, I find no mention of this episode.

Thanks, Michael Ray FitzGerald, Jacksonville (Fla.) University

 --