Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
- Episode aired Jan 10, 1969
- TV-PG
- 51m
The Enterprise encounters two duo-chromatic and mutually belligerent aliens who put the ship in the middle of their old conflict.The Enterprise encounters two duo-chromatic and mutually belligerent aliens who put the ship in the middle of their old conflict.The Enterprise encounters two duo-chromatic and mutually belligerent aliens who put the ship in the middle of their old conflict.
- Lieutenant Hadley
- (uncredited)
- Lt. Brent
- (uncredited)
- Lt. Lemli
- (uncredited)
- Yeoman
- (uncredited)
- Enterprise Lieutenant
- (uncredited)
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThe original story concept did not depict the aliens with bi-colored skin. One was a devil with a tail and the other was an angel. Episode director Jud Taylor came up with the idea of bi-colored skin 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 wearing reversed color schemes. The central idea stuck but the colors were finally separated along the vertical axis rather than along the horizontal.
- GoofsChekov reports that Bele's ship is "out there" while at his station at the helm. The camera shot from behind the helm shows Kirk and crew looking at the display screen appears, Hadley rather than Chekov is at the navigation station. When they cut back to a shot from the front angle as before to show the crew's faces, Chekov is back in his seat and Hadley is in Sulu's position at the helm.
- Quotes
[last lines]
Mr. Spock: [On the bridge, after Lokai and Bele have beamed to the surface of Charon] And another life form has appeared on Cheron.
Uhura: That doesn't make any sense.
Mr. Spock: To expect sense from two mentalities of such extreme view points is not logical.
Sulu: Their planet's dead. Does it matter now which one's right?
Mr. Spock: Not to Lokai and Bele. All that matters to them is their hate.
Uhura: Do you suppose that's all they ever had, sir?
Captain James T. Kirk: No, but that's all they have left. Warp factor two, Mr. Sulu. Set course for Starbase 4.
- Alternate versionsSpecial Enhanced version Digitally Remastered with new exterior shots and remade opening theme song
- ConnectionsFeatured in William Shatner's Star Trek Memories (1995)
There's a reason, by default, that this episode may not rate higher: with no one to root for, the story lacks a focal point or someone we can relate to. We listen to both Bele & Lokai angrily espouse their views throughout the episode, reminding us of various speeches by political leaders, but, in the end, it all comes off as pointless ranting and babbling - neither one is worth listening to. It's a 'message' episode, watch out. And, in this case, the message seems to be that if you're filled with hate, you'll end up running around the Enterprise corridors to no purpose. That's it, after 50,000 years? I would've preferred a number of 50 years or even 50 centuries, but, according to this episode, these two guys have been running around the galaxy since Cro-magnon man first developed on Earth. I suppose this extreme length of time was meant to stress the futility of their irrational hatred or to lend a cosmic slant to their never-ending antagonism, but come on, Trek. So these guys are immortal, have personal force shields and Bele can control the ship with his mind. Were all their race so accomplished? We'll never know. This episode does have the marvelous self-destruct sequence initiated by Kirk, in which Spock & Scotty join in to voice the self-destruct codes. This sequence manages to squeeze out every bit of suspense possible for such a televised few minutes and foreshadows the now-famous sequence later duplicated in the 3rd Trek film, "The Search For Spock." Knowing what we do now about that movie, the countdown to doom in this episode is all the more chilling.
- Bogmeister
- Mar 3, 2007
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