Episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and City on the edge of forever is what made OG Star Trek stand out among its peers of sci fi TV shows. Good reaction.
I'm impressed. You caught that their black and white sides were reversed immediately. I didn't catch that on my first watch until it was pointed out to me.
"Battlefield" is anything but subtle. Yet that's exactly what some of the audience in the late 1960s needed. Frank Gorshin sounds so ridiculous when he says that they look nothing alike, but so does anyone who tries to argue that any two members of the human race (a species with no competing subspecies, one that contains about 0.1% genetic diversity) are nothing alike.
Last battlefield is a bit in your face with it all. But one of the strengths of Star Trek was how they look at actual social issues at a time when you couldn't discuss it on TV. But if it's 'aliens' we can look at it. The Gideon one wasn't one of my favorites.
IMO, possibly some don't fully understand "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." The idea is that both sides are in the wrong. Both sides are refusing to be moderate, and by this are causing their entire conflict. They're polarized. One side overreacts, and this brings a compensating overreaction from the other side. They see things in black and white, without any gray. That's the story. The second episode was about fears of overpopulation, and the planet was named "Gideon" because the writer blamed overpopulation on religious people. Kirk thinks the right idea is to "sterilize" people. It would be another decade before China decided to pursue its one-child policy. FWIW, the Earth's population has doubled since this episode was made.
I say this to people all the time (to many blank stares). One side overreaches. Other side pushes back w/overreach. When 1 social or political narrative goes frm a push to a shove (which is what we always get), there is then push back (which we're seeing now). Extremism, Polarization & Tribalism is dangerous. Worries me we're going down a road w/no turns on a runaway truck building momentum. Politically, it's not Left & Right wing nuts that represent the majority, can sit down & get stuff done (w/o walking away w/100% of wht they want, but usually get a lot). But, it's the path were on. No secret, it's in plain view. You're correct things are Not "Black & White." Reality is infinite shades of Gray. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Yes,I seem to remember that Frank Gorshin played the riddler in;Batman.This was about racism,threw science fiction in Star Trek.I must’ve:’jumped threw’the hoop,so to speak,about these topics,I guess?
These show’s really showed;’the human side’of Star Trek!How we can overcome our difference’s,here.Gene Roddenberry really knew how to:”pull those punche’s’with human issue’s in the show!🫡❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👍👍
I commend you for catching on to Bele and Lokai being mirror-images. I didn't notice it until Bele spelled it out (granted I was seven when I first saw it). I found the sea of faces out the view port in "Mark of Gideon" really scary when I first saw it ('cuz, like I said, I was seven).
After seeing "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", can you believe there are actually people who contend that Star Trek is in no way political, and has nothing to say on social issues? Incredible, but they really are out there (in every sense of the phrase).
It was at its best when it presented current issues thinly disguised as sci-ti adventures set in the future. But notice that the episodes don't usually preach that one side is good and proper while the other is always evil and wrong. All views are given voice, and the audience is free to reach its own conclusions. That is markedly different from the approach used in modern Trek which demands that viewers see everything the way its own writers see them, and those who do not march along in lock step with Kurtzman Trek are the evil ones who are "Not Of The Body" and Landru must punish them.
@@zoppie So they didn't take any sides in A Pattern of Force? Or Bread & Circuses? While they don't appear to in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, you can easily tell who each one represents, and I wouldn't say that Bele comes off as sympathetic. One of the things that everyone appears to have a problem with in modern Trek is representation. I've seen plenty of comments to the effect of they're trying to eliminate white men from Star Trek, or that their show of diversity is at the expense of them. The whole point of Star Trek has always been that humanity would evolve to the point where we see all people as equal. Different sure, but equal, with the only thing people were judged on was the content of their character, their actions. But because the original series was filmed in the 60s, they couldn't show it that way completely as the studios didn't want any backlash that could lose them ad revenue. The Next Generation through Enterprise was better on that front, but there were still a majority of white people on the show. As for LGBTQ as part of the crew, the closest they came to that prior to Discovery was the episode showing Jadzia Dax having a same sex kiss. While they did tackle many of those issues, it was always happening somewhere else or to somebody else. The only thing Discovery and modern Trek did was show that it still existed in humanity. Prior to that, anyone could look at Star Trek and assume that anything LGBTQ related had been eliminated on Earth. While that wasn't the intention of the writers, the studios back then were too fearful to push the boundaries that had been set since television's inception. It's only been in the last decade or so that a more accurate depiction of the real world is being shown in media. You said that the writers are saying this is right and you're wrong if you don't accept it. POC & LGBTQ people exist, it's not up for a debate, and they have their own views just as anyone else does. But from what I've seen, the only times the writers have painted a group as bad is when they're trying to kill someone because of who they are. I'm a straight white male and have absolutely no problem with people like that being depicted as "the bad guy." I do have a problem with demeaning or demonizing anyone because of their color, sex, religion, or orientation. Infinite Diversity, in Infinite Combinations.
@@JMO_1976 Live long and prosper, JMO of the straight white males. My objections with Discovery have nothing to do with that. 1) Discovery represented the first time any Star Trek series was behind a pay-wall (subscription to CBS All Access just to watch 10 episodes per year). 2) The "25% different" mandate (to satisfy lawyers at Paramount who had movie rights to Star Trek) which led to the drastic reinterpretation of Klingons, Andorians and Tellarites. 3) The technology does not appear to be less advances than the TOS era, breaking continuity. For these reasons I have never watched a single episode of that series, so I can't fairly judge the stories. As to representation, I have always been annoyed at how many Americans and Northern Europeans there seemed to be in Starfleet, given that over half the human population is Asian. You can say that the demographic make-up was radically altered in the aftermath of WWIII, but it's never clearly addressed. Worse, virtually all of the Starfleet crews were human. Gene Roddenberry tried, and succeeded in being "inclusive" and "representational" to a significant degree, despite push-back and the times he lived in.
Hey, Courtney! "Are you mad? Can you not see? His face is black on the left and white on the right while mine is black on the right and white on the left! It's intolerable! He is an inferior creature and his kind are everything that's wrong with my world!" I'm paraphrasing Bele's sentiments but the not-so-subtle allegory to racism sums up its absurdity more cleverly and succinctly than a thousand speeches and sermons! Lol. "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is one of Star Trek's more famous episodes with its iconic dichromatic make-up. Frank Gorshin, who played Bele the pursuer, is most famous as THE RIDDLER from the 1960s "Batman" TV show with Adam West! He is also a remarkable impressionist.
Excellent Court!! I have waited a long time for you to see this episode!! Yes, Star Trek is great for addressing social issues like racism!! And yet maga thinks they were not "woke" until the series Star Trek Discovery, which focuses on a black woman (apparently maga hates that show because not only is the lead character a woman, but she's black!). It's been woke since Day 1 🙂 Stay woke, Star Trek! And the rest of us should stay woke as well. 🙂 Gideon addresses a fear that was common in the 60s after the Baby Boom, that the earth would become overpopulated....but we have swung the other way now, we're not having enough kids....if the trend continues humanity will become extinct, so I hope it can be reversed. Hope you and your husband are considering having children. 🙂I wanted it, but it never worked out, women don't like me in that way. 🙂
Even as an eight year old who watched this when it first came out, I realized it was kinda cheezy and corny, and yet it was absolutely PERFECT. Sad how little things change in a lifetime.
How little things change in a lifetime? Look at the planets they had on even Star Trek; Voyager and compare them to some of the Extra Solar planets we now know exist _for real._ You will see how much we have advanced our understanding of outer space. In fact, if you use that as a measuring scale for the difference between what we can and do _imagine_ and what reality really is like, then I _more than ever_ assert that if there is extraterrestrial Life, it is bound to be so Entirely different from any kind of Terrestrial Life, that at first we probably won't recognize it as being alive.
...... Unless you are speaking of Human Nature and Human Psychology. 🎭 If you look at this as a work of art, then I don't find it to be corny by that standard at all. ♥️ & (brain emoji) In that
Interesting to note that Spock didn't seem to notice opposite coloring on those two right away. It's likely he actually did, but didn't regard it as a matter of immediate relevance.
These episodes represent the type of topics that science fiction was used to discuss in the 50s and 60s. Programs like star trek, the twilight zone, one step beyond, all dealt with topics that the networks might not otherwise allow on tv. But since it was presented in these formats they could sneak in these topics.
That's why sci-fi in all its form's like 1984, Animal Farm, Logan's run, Blade runner are so popular. They put you in a setting where you can divorce yourself from the issues.
Good point. ⭐ However, overpopulation is the result of more than just people getting pregnant accidentally. Often a couple will want to have more than two children or three children.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 1. Not one of my likes. 2. Tell me Kirk and Co don't have balls. I dare you. "The Mark of Gideon" 1. GOOF/Plot hole: If every inch of the planet is nothing but people, how is there space to build a replica the exact same size as a starship? 2. The Federation is inept because losing a Starship Captain is a huge loss. 3. Any time they give us eye candy (and they have a great track record) I'm in.😈
As "in-your-face" the message of this story is, the reality is that hate is still a major factor in world relations. Israel-Gaza is right there. So polarized, black/white. In some ways, SW's light/dark side of the Force is no different. Calm/anger. I don't see things changing anytime soon.
Here's something to look forward to: The self-destruct sequence in this episode returns in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Great reaction today! I can't wait for your future reactions! ❤️
Shouldn't you have at least given a spoiler alert? Now when I watch her react to it, it won't be as suspenseful for her or exciting because she has been prepped. Who looks forward to ruined surprises?
My Mom used to watch Star Trek with a lack of interest but the ending of Let This be Our Last Battlefield" really got her attention and we talked a lot about race relations in America at the time
Roddenberry had designed the original Star Trek to be "episodic" on purpose. For one reason, it could sit on the TV in the background, with people like your mom getting used to it being there, and then one day... A piece of gold like this flys up and reels in a new fan. 🎣
@@TheNoiseySpectator That is accurate. Episodic TV was the mainstay of TV into the 80's. The only time a themed show came on was when there were Mini series which were novellas. The only exception were the daytime Soap Operas. Which BTW dark Shadows ( a gothic horror afternoon daily serial program about a tormented vampire) was on. Babylon 5 was the first SciFy show to have a complete story arc for it's entire run That started in Jan of 1994. So say STDS9 but that was a close second
Riddle me this, riddle me that, Bele is after the Bat! Frank Gorshin played the Riddler in the old Batman series. I know two people for whom "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was their first exposure to Trek. It really turned them off from the series, and they never returned. I think they were both so uneasy with the story that they turned it off before Kirk's pleading about the futility of race wars, and that impression persisted. Interestingly, Pluto's moon Charon was discovered about 10 years after this episode first aired. The pronunciations of Charon and Cheron (the planet in this episode) are so close that one wonders if the episode influenced the naming of the moon. Or perhaps they were both coincidentally named after the same mythological character. Oh, no: Now Elaan, Deela, Shahna, Miri, Miramanee's people, and countless others will come down with Vegan choriomeningitis. Maybe they need more meat in their diet. 😉 Given that the Gideon people's organs regenerate, one wonders how a degenerative disease will kill them; they're bound to quickly build an immunity. Otherwise, vast numbers of them are bound to die horribly, and perhaps faster than the survivors can adapt to sustain themselves. I imagine them retreating into ever smaller pockets of populations that are periodically ravaged by disease, leaving most of their planet to ruin.
Gideon is an impossible nightmare. No ecosystem could support a humanoid population so dense. Gideon is depicted as so crowded that there is no room to sit or lie down. Mating under such circumstances would be problematic, and actually giving birth much more so. And don't get me started on the sanitation problems! Worse, it seems unrealistic that they have enough room to produce enough food to keep much of the population from dying of starvation, even if they begin eating their dead.
@@megalictis9002 .... On the other hand, maybe the Federation could learn a lot about feeding a large population from them. 💡 Maybe they grow their food on other planets that are uninhabitable to the Gideons, themselves. And ship out their sewage and other waste the same way. 🚀🔴 🚀⚪. 🚀🔵
@@megalictis9002 Paul, I am sure you would agree there must be many more people who this episode hooked into the series than those who it turned away. 💡☺️
Good point. But, these were new aliens, and he decided the best thing to do would be diplomatic. These two episodes really illustrate how diplomats can only make progress in dealing with foreign powers if they swallow a lot of shit! (Pardon my French).
Two excellent episodes that tackle important social issues. Very bold content for the 1960s. I appreciate your reaction. My guess is in the Mark of Gideon, they intended for the disease to be sexually transmitted, but that was too risqué, so they added the part about Kirk's arm being injured.
Odona's people must be technologically advanced to have an open dialogue with the Federation. Surely they have reasonable space flight capabilities, yet they never thought to colonize other planets? Even with "harsher" planets they can construct artificial bio-domes. I'm a bit perplexed whenever I come across this episode, and I'm not a Trek newbie. Colony worlds can take a lot of stress off of an origin world's population issues. If they called every human in Federation colony worlds BACK to Earth, then the Earth might suddenly find itself severely overpopulated.
Hey, space travel is very, VERY, *VERY* Difficult. In reality, only the _governments_ of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth have been able to develop a sustainable manned space program. Not even private industry has been able to do that, it is just plain beyond their capabilities. Organizations like Space X are running into problems they just can't overcome. Personally, I am surprised they have come as close as the have. 👏👏👏
Besides, maybe the Gideons do have space travel within their own solar system, but not faster than light (FTL) travel. It is plausible that Gideon is the only habitable planet in their solar system, so there was just nowhere for them to go. In fact, future negotiations with the Federation could have centered around helping them terraform other planets in their solar system.
@@TheNoiseySpectator Plausible thoughts, but it's always been my understanding that the Federation doesn't openly talk to those who don't have FTL. That they're not ready. Oh, they research them, disguise themselves as they study inhabitants but not more.
@@photonicus Oh yes, they do under the right circumstances. ☺️ If the Gideons had developed subspace receivers and been listening in on our radio and TV broadcasts, there would not be too much damage we could do by acknowledging to them that we do exist. We could just decline to share with them any FTL technology. Other times like in "Fridays Child" or "A private little war" they could already have been contacted by aliens. And in "Taste of Armageddon", they didn't seem to have the technology to travel even very far into their own solar system. I got the impression their population had settled there thousand of years ago. Remember the TNG episode "First Contact"? Or _Who Watched The Watchers"? They just have to be mindful of if they are giving them knowledge for which they are not ready. 📑⚖️
Well, of course. What are you getting at? Wait, yes. By Law, Kirk was _required_ to bean Lokai back up and take him back to the Star base to stand trial _over there._ That would really be "rubbing salt in his wounds", but it is required by law that he pay for his crimes in the Federation, too. 😭
Excellent reaction I hope someday we can get past the people of Sharon and we can get become really one people I really believe in that it’s possible to do. I hope I’m not being foolish, but I really believe we can we do episode. I don’t understand why they don’t just go to other planets. Call other plans instead of being so crowded to their regeneration of their body parts because they’re on the planet soon as they leave it though start to die or if it follows them then they can explore space colonize only plants solar system space kill so much better than death-colonized space thanks for the fun until next time
I think kirk represented the UN where they not suppose to take sides and act wisely but its that inability to act or seemingly not empathic is what frustrated lokai and even the commisoner. He showed them the same attitude.
@@stevenwoodward5923 Ummm, learn some history bring more than platitudes. Immediately after the country was founded, we ended the slave trade and outlawed slavery in the northern states. Massachusetts 1783, for example. Slavery wad forced on the colonies by Britain. The southern states became addicted. The northern colonies were always antislavery
@@FloridaMugwumpIt took a Civil War to end slavery. In the south it was baed on racism. On March 21,1861 In the "Cornerston Speech" given by Alexander Stephens then Vice President of the Confederacy said "Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.
Saw this in the early 70's, i think, I can still hear the voice in my head say "just as ridiculous if their faces were all black or all white". I truy feel this changed (or reinforced) something very deep inside me. Thanks
this episode of let that be your last battlefield is a real life reference to black and white people at that time having racial issues between each other if anybody didn't get the meaning.
24:32 "Oh, that would get _so_ annoying." Well, yes, but it's worse than that. Originally, we valued the lives of other human beings, at least in part, because we had room to get _away_ from other human beings if we wanted to. Privacy was an option that was always present. But it's a social commentary this episode makes that, as other sentient beings become unavoidably numerous, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to attach value to their lives.
26:12 "See? Look at all those people." Yeah. Now that would be quite annoying after a few minutes. But if it was like that _all_ the time, morning, noon and night, if _years_ of your life passed like that, it would quickly become hell.
28:42 "That is the one _unshakable_ truth of Gideon." "Not when everybody is jam-packed like a _sardine."_ Now you've _got_ it. If you remove _all_ the population-control measures nature imposes, you have to recognize that those measures exist for a _reason_ and follow-up by imposing population-control measures of your _own._
I have always interpreted as Beil's saying he was chasing Loki for 50,000 terrestrial years as 50,000 LIGHT years. It was more of a measurement of distance than of time.
@@TheNoiseySpectator They can control a Starship with their minds also burn out its curcits also with their minds. They have apparently natural biological shields that can withstand phaser fire also if they fight each other they produce so much energy they could have destroyed the Enterprise. Maybe they aren't as powerful as the Q since they needed to use the transporter to go down to Charon,, but compared to humans their powers were god like.
In the mid-70's run I had as a kid there was one figure that was identified as "The Keeper" who was supposed to be a Talosian from "Menagerie" but looked like Balok's puppet from "The Corbomite Maneuver." There was also a Gorn from "Arena" that was made from a combination of a the Gorilla Soldier body (from their Planet of the Apes line) and the Lizard Man's head (from their Spider Man line) dressed in a Klingon Uniform. A rare third edition in 1976 included a decent looking Romulan and Andorian, a figure called "Talos" that was a closer approximation of a Talosian, and a rendition of the horned ape Mugato from "A Private Little War" (which inexplicably has clothes).
Love that she avoids the disingenuous virtue signaling and wokeness. She also doesn’t have the fake reactions of most popular reactors. One of the few reactors I respect! Great job.
Episodes like Let That Be Your Last Battlefield and City on the edge of forever is what made OG Star Trek stand out among its peers of sci fi TV shows. Good reaction.
FWIW, "The Mark of Gideon" was co-written by Stanley Adams, who played tribble salesman Cyano Jones.
?????
Really?
I have never heard that before.
I'm impressed. You caught that their black and white sides were reversed immediately. I didn't catch that on my first watch until it was pointed out to me.
I'm also impressed with that. 👍
But, I was also kind of disappointed because she skipped to the end, and there was no surprise. 😞
"Battlefield" is anything but subtle. Yet that's exactly what some of the audience in the late 1960s needed. Frank Gorshin sounds so ridiculous when he says that they look nothing alike, but so does anyone who tries to argue that any two members of the human race (a species with no competing subspecies, one that contains about 0.1% genetic diversity) are nothing alike.
Last battlefield is a bit in your face with it all. But one of the strengths of Star Trek was how they look at actual social issues at a time when you couldn't discuss it on TV. But if it's 'aliens' we can look at it. The Gideon one wasn't one of my favorites.
Exploring harsh social conditions through the lens of science fiction was a hallmark of Star Trek.
"Let This be Your Last Battlefield" is great commentary on bigotry.
IMO, possibly some don't fully understand "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield." The idea is that both sides are in the wrong. Both sides are refusing to be moderate, and by this are causing their entire conflict. They're polarized. One side overreacts, and this brings a compensating overreaction from the other side. They see things in black and white, without any gray. That's the story. The second episode was about fears of overpopulation, and the planet was named "Gideon" because the writer blamed overpopulation on religious people. Kirk thinks the right idea is to "sterilize" people. It would be another decade before China decided to pursue its one-child policy. FWIW, the Earth's population has doubled since this episode was made.
I say this to people all the time (to many blank stares). One side overreaches. Other side pushes back w/overreach. When 1 social or political narrative goes frm a push to a shove (which is what we always get), there is then push back (which we're seeing now). Extremism, Polarization & Tribalism is dangerous. Worries me we're going down a road w/no turns on a runaway truck building momentum. Politically, it's not Left & Right wing nuts that represent the majority, can sit down & get stuff done (w/o walking away w/100% of wht they want, but usually get a lot). But, it's the path were on. No secret, it's in plain view. You're correct things are Not "Black & White." Reality is infinite shades of Gray. A house divided against itself cannot stand.
Frank Gorshin, the cop in last battlefield, was a master impressionist. Also played the riddler
Similar skills to Jim Carrey, no wonder he was cast as the riddler as well.
My partner in crime.
Yes,I seem to remember that Frank Gorshin played the riddler in;Batman.This was about racism,threw science fiction in Star Trek.I must’ve:’jumped threw’the hoop,so to speak,about these topics,I guess?
These show’s really showed;’the human side’of Star Trek!How we can overcome our difference’s,here.Gene Roddenberry really knew how to:”pull those punche’s’with human issue’s in the show!🫡❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹❤️🩹👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👽👍👍
@@bettyleeist pulling a punch means not hitting as hard as you could.
I commend you for catching on to Bele and Lokai being mirror-images. I didn't notice it until Bele spelled it out (granted I was seven when I first saw it). I found the sea of faces out the view port in "Mark of Gideon" really scary when I first saw it ('cuz, like I said, I was seven).
After seeing "Let This Be Your Last Battlefield", can you believe there are actually people who contend that Star Trek is in no way political, and has nothing to say on social issues? Incredible, but they really are out there (in every sense of the phrase).
It was at its best when it presented current issues thinly disguised as sci-ti adventures set in the future. But notice that the episodes don't usually preach that one side is good and proper while the other is always evil and wrong. All views are given voice, and the audience is free to reach its own conclusions.
That is markedly different from the approach used in modern Trek which demands that viewers see everything the way its own writers see them, and those who do not march along in lock step with Kurtzman Trek are the evil ones who are "Not Of The Body" and Landru must punish them.
@@zoppie So they didn't take any sides in A Pattern of Force? Or Bread & Circuses? While they don't appear to in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, you can easily tell who each one represents, and I wouldn't say that Bele comes off as sympathetic.
One of the things that everyone appears to have a problem with in modern Trek is representation. I've seen plenty of comments to the effect of they're trying to eliminate white men from Star Trek, or that their show of diversity is at the expense of them. The whole point of Star Trek has always been that humanity would evolve to the point where we see all people as equal. Different sure, but equal, with the only thing people were judged on was the content of their character, their actions. But because the original series was filmed in the 60s, they couldn't show it that way completely as the studios didn't want any backlash that could lose them ad revenue. The Next Generation through Enterprise was better on that front, but there were still a majority of white people on the show. As for LGBTQ as part of the crew, the closest they came to that prior to Discovery was the episode showing Jadzia Dax having a same sex kiss. While they did tackle many of those issues, it was always happening somewhere else or to somebody else. The only thing Discovery and modern Trek did was show that it still existed in humanity. Prior to that, anyone could look at Star Trek and assume that anything LGBTQ related had been eliminated on Earth. While that wasn't the intention of the writers, the studios back then were too fearful to push the boundaries that had been set since television's inception. It's only been in the last decade or so that a more accurate depiction of the real world is being shown in media.
You said that the writers are saying this is right and you're wrong if you don't accept it. POC & LGBTQ people exist, it's not up for a debate, and they have their own views just as anyone else does. But from what I've seen, the only times the writers have painted a group as bad is when they're trying to kill someone because of who they are. I'm a straight white male and have absolutely no problem with people like that being depicted as "the bad guy." I do have a problem with demeaning or demonizing anyone because of their color, sex, religion, or orientation. Infinite Diversity, in Infinite Combinations.
@@JMO_1976 Wow.
@@zoppieWoke Trek.
@@JMO_1976 Live long and prosper, JMO of the straight white males.
My objections with Discovery have nothing to do with that. 1) Discovery represented the first time any Star Trek series was behind a pay-wall (subscription to CBS All Access just to watch 10 episodes per year). 2) The "25% different" mandate (to satisfy lawyers at Paramount who had movie rights to Star Trek) which led to the drastic reinterpretation of Klingons, Andorians and Tellarites. 3) The technology does not appear to be less advances than the TOS era, breaking continuity. For these reasons I have never watched a single episode of that series, so I can't fairly judge the stories.
As to representation, I have always been annoyed at how many Americans and Northern Europeans there seemed to be in Starfleet, given that over half the human population is Asian. You can say that the demographic make-up was radically altered in the aftermath of WWIII, but it's never clearly addressed. Worse, virtually all of the Starfleet crews were human. Gene Roddenberry tried, and succeeded in being "inclusive" and "representational" to a significant degree, despite push-back and the times he lived in.
Too bad they didn't have a scene with Bele looking in a mirror on the wall and seeing his reflection.
THE MARK OF GIDEON was written by CYRANO JONES
Try to see the half white half black episode through a 1968 lens. It was groundbreaking.
Hey, Courtney!
"Are you mad? Can you not see? His face is black on the left and white on the right while mine is black on the right and white on the left! It's intolerable! He is an inferior creature and his kind are everything that's wrong with my world!"
I'm paraphrasing Bele's sentiments but the not-so-subtle allegory to racism sums up its absurdity more cleverly and succinctly than a thousand speeches and sermons! Lol.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" is one of Star Trek's more famous episodes with its iconic dichromatic make-up.
Frank Gorshin, who played Bele the pursuer, is most famous as THE RIDDLER from the 1960s "Batman" TV show with Adam West! He is also a remarkable impressionist.
Excellent Court!! I have waited a long time for you to see this episode!! Yes, Star Trek is great for addressing social issues like racism!! And yet maga thinks they were not "woke" until the series Star Trek Discovery, which focuses on a black woman (apparently maga hates that show because not only is the lead character a woman, but she's black!). It's been woke since Day 1 🙂 Stay woke, Star Trek! And the rest of us should stay woke as well. 🙂
Gideon addresses a fear that was common in the 60s after the Baby Boom, that the earth would become overpopulated....but we have swung the other way now, we're not having enough kids....if the trend continues humanity will become extinct, so I hope it can be reversed. Hope you and your husband are considering having children. 🙂I wanted it, but it never worked out, women don't like me in that way. 🙂
Even as an eight year old who watched this when it first came out, I realized it was kinda cheezy and corny, and yet it was absolutely PERFECT.
Sad how little things change in a lifetime.
How little things change in a lifetime?
Look at the planets they had on even Star Trek; Voyager and compare them to some of the Extra Solar planets we now know exist _for real._
You will see how much we have advanced our understanding of outer space.
In fact, if you use that as a measuring scale for the difference between what we can and do _imagine_ and what reality really is like, then I _more than ever_ assert that if there is extraterrestrial Life, it is bound to be so Entirely different from any kind of Terrestrial Life, that at first we probably won't recognize it as being alive.
......
Unless you are speaking of Human Nature and Human Psychology. 🎭
If you look at this as a work of art, then I don't find it to be corny by that standard at all. ♥️ & (brain emoji)
In that
Interesting to note that Spock didn't seem to notice opposite coloring on those two right away. It's likely he actually did, but didn't regard it as a matter of immediate relevance.
These episodes represent the type of topics that science fiction was used to discuss in the 50s and 60s.
Programs like star trek, the twilight zone, one step beyond, all dealt with topics that the networks might not otherwise allow on tv.
But since it was presented in these formats they could sneak in these topics.
That's why sci-fi in all its form's like 1984, Animal Farm, Logan's run, Blade runner are so popular. They put you in a setting where you can divorce yourself from the issues.
Well, I mean, maybe life is sacred, but _contraception_ is nice, too.
Good point. ⭐
However, overpopulation is the result of more than just people getting pregnant accidentally.
Often a couple will want to have more than two children or three children.
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
1. Not one of my likes.
2. Tell me Kirk and Co don't have balls. I dare you.
"The Mark of Gideon"
1. GOOF/Plot hole: If every inch of the planet is nothing but people, how is there space to build a replica the exact same size as a starship?
2. The Federation is inept because losing a Starship Captain is a huge loss.
3. Any time they give us eye candy (and they have a great track record) I'm in.😈
As "in-your-face" the message of this story is, the reality is that hate is still a major factor in world relations. Israel-Gaza is right there. So polarized, black/white. In some ways, SW's light/dark side of the Force is no different. Calm/anger. I don't see things changing anytime soon.
Two very contemplative episodes, enjoyed your reactions Courtney.
Hmmm, second episode seems to about "the pill" and legal abortion. Big topics at the time
And overpopulation. There was concern even then that the Earth would soon be unable to sustain the vast and growing population of humans.
In the 3rd and 6th Star Trek movies , Kirk had to deal with his own hate towards the Klingons for killing his son .
Here's something to look forward to: The self-destruct sequence in this episode returns in Star Trek III: The Search For Spock. Great reaction today! I can't wait for your future reactions! ❤️
Shouldn't you have at least given a spoiler alert? Now when I watch her react to it, it won't be as suspenseful for her or exciting because she has been prepped. Who looks forward to ruined surprises?
JDLewis, You have crossed into spoiler territory. 😠
As a teen watching these stories, on never realized the mirror being held up in those days, as we were being educated.
Two issues in the 60's that were everywhere, science fiction a classic way to teach, warn, and entertain at the same time.
My Mom used to watch Star Trek with a lack of interest but the ending of Let This be Our Last Battlefield" really got her attention and we talked a lot about race relations in America at the time
Roddenberry had designed the original Star Trek to be "episodic" on purpose.
For one reason, it could sit on the TV in the background, with people like your mom getting used to it being there, and then one day...
A piece of gold like this flys up and reels in a new fan.
🎣
@@TheNoiseySpectator That is accurate. Episodic TV was the mainstay of TV into the 80's. The only time a themed show came on was when there were Mini series which were novellas. The only exception were the daytime Soap Operas. Which BTW dark Shadows ( a gothic horror afternoon daily serial program about a tormented vampire) was on. Babylon 5 was the first SciFy show to have a complete story arc for it's entire run That started in Jan of 1994. So say STDS9 but that was a close second
Riddle me this, riddle me that, Bele is after the Bat! Frank Gorshin played the Riddler in the old Batman series.
I know two people for whom "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" was their first exposure to Trek. It really turned them off from the series, and they never returned. I think they were both so uneasy with the story that they turned it off before Kirk's pleading about the futility of race wars, and that impression persisted.
Interestingly, Pluto's moon Charon was discovered about 10 years after this episode first aired. The pronunciations of Charon and Cheron (the planet in this episode) are so close that one wonders if the episode influenced the naming of the moon. Or perhaps they were both coincidentally named after the same mythological character.
Oh, no: Now Elaan, Deela, Shahna, Miri, Miramanee's people, and countless others will come down with Vegan choriomeningitis. Maybe they need more meat in their diet. 😉
Given that the Gideon people's organs regenerate, one wonders how a degenerative disease will kill them; they're bound to quickly build an immunity. Otherwise, vast numbers of them are bound to die horribly, and perhaps faster than the survivors can adapt to sustain themselves. I imagine them retreating into ever smaller pockets of populations that are periodically ravaged by disease, leaving most of their planet to ruin.
Gideon is an impossible nightmare. No ecosystem could support a humanoid population so dense. Gideon is depicted as so crowded that there is no room to sit or lie down. Mating under such circumstances would be problematic, and actually giving birth much more so. And don't get me started on the sanitation problems! Worse, it seems unrealistic that they have enough room to produce enough food to keep much of the population from dying of starvation, even if they begin eating their dead.
Personally, I think the Enterprise would be able to see the crowds of people from space.
@@megalictis9002 .... On the other hand, maybe the Federation could learn a lot about feeding a large population from them. 💡
Maybe they grow their food on other planets that are uninhabitable to the Gideons, themselves.
And ship out their sewage and other waste the same way. 🚀🔴
🚀⚪. 🚀🔵
@@megalictis9002 Paul, I am sure you would agree there must be many more people who this episode hooked into the series than those who it turned away.
💡☺️
I hope you continue on with TNG when you finish TOS.
We Believe in you too Scotty!
@9:36 Court.....NAWH U DIDN'T pull a WOODY (from the YSL trial) "WHATCH-U-MEAN"😂🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
9:21 "I will stand for no interference with the function of this ship."
You may want to render these men unconscious.
Good point.
But, these were new aliens, and he decided the best thing to do would be diplomatic.
These two episodes really illustrate how diplomats can only make progress in dealing with foreign powers if they swallow a lot of shit!
(Pardon my French).
Two excellent episodes that tackle important social issues. Very bold content for the 1960s. I appreciate your reaction. My guess is in the Mark of Gideon, they intended for the disease to be sexually transmitted, but that was too risqué, so they added the part about Kirk's arm being injured.
Odona's people must be technologically advanced to have an open dialogue with the Federation. Surely they have reasonable space flight capabilities, yet they never thought to colonize other planets? Even with "harsher" planets they can construct artificial bio-domes. I'm a bit perplexed whenever I come across this episode, and I'm not a Trek newbie. Colony worlds can take a lot of stress off of an origin world's population issues. If they called every human in Federation colony worlds BACK to Earth, then the Earth might suddenly find itself severely overpopulated.
Hey, space travel is very, VERY, *VERY* Difficult.
In reality, only the _governments_ of the most technologically advanced nations on Earth have been able to develop a sustainable manned space program.
Not even private industry has been able to do that, it is just plain beyond their capabilities.
Organizations like Space X are running into problems they just can't overcome.
Personally, I am surprised they have come as close as the have. 👏👏👏
Besides, maybe the Gideons do have space travel within their own solar system, but not faster than light (FTL) travel.
It is plausible that Gideon is the only habitable planet in their solar system, so there was just nowhere for them to go.
In fact, future negotiations with the Federation could have centered around helping them terraform other planets in their solar system.
@@TheNoiseySpectator Plausible thoughts, but it's always been my understanding that the Federation doesn't openly talk to those who don't have FTL. That they're not ready. Oh, they research them, disguise themselves as they study inhabitants but not more.
@@photonicus Oh yes, they do under the right circumstances. ☺️
If the Gideons had developed subspace receivers and been listening in on our radio and TV broadcasts, there would not be too much damage we could do by acknowledging to them that we do exist. We could just decline to share with them any FTL technology.
Other times like in "Fridays Child" or "A private little war" they could already have been contacted by aliens.
And in "Taste of Armageddon", they didn't seem to have the technology to travel even very far into their own solar system. I got the impression their population had settled there thousand of years ago.
Remember the TNG episode "First Contact"?
Or _Who Watched The Watchers"?
They just have to be mindful of if they are giving them knowledge for which they are not ready.
📑⚖️
18:37 Impressive, I think, that these people were able to duplicate the _Enterprise_ to such a high degree of technical accuracy. Even the 1MC works.
I always wondered how they found the room. Enterprise isn't a small ship.
@@Poizenne Okay. That's a really good point.
@@Poizenne They just pushed people out of the way.
Maybe that is why they were later rioting and pounding on the exterior.
It is said at the beginning of that a shuttlecraft was stolen from a starbase.
Well, of course. What are you getting at?
Wait, yes.
By Law, Kirk was _required_ to bean Lokai back up and take him back to the Star base to stand trial _over there._
That would really be "rubbing salt in his wounds", but it is required by law that he pay for his crimes in the Federation, too. 😭
There are seemingly powerful forces even NOW foment hatred between us.
Back in the day we all knew the destruct sequence codes by heart, and could recite them along with Kirk, Spock and Scotty.
Excellent reaction I hope someday we can get past the people of Sharon and we can get become really one people I really believe in that it’s possible to do. I hope I’m not being foolish, but I really believe we can we do episode. I don’t understand why they don’t just go to other planets. Call other plans instead of being so crowded to their regeneration of their body parts because they’re on the planet soon as they leave it though start to die or if it follows them then they can explore space colonize only plants solar system space kill so much better than death-colonized space thanks for the fun until next time
I think kirk represented the UN where they not suppose to take sides and act wisely but its that inability to act or seemingly not empathic is what frustrated lokai and even the commisoner. He showed them the same attitude.
Mark of Gideon has elements of The Cage
In the sixties we dreampt of a colourblind society.
That ended in the seventies.
Actually it end in 1968 with the death of Dr. King.
@@stevenwoodward5923 No, it was when people decided that racial culture was important. Can't have both colorblindness and cultures based on race.
@@FloridaMugwump So I assume you never believed in a colorblind society because this country was founded in the beginning by a culture based on race.
@@stevenwoodward5923 Ummm, learn some history bring more than platitudes. Immediately after the country was founded, we ended the slave trade and outlawed slavery in the northern states. Massachusetts 1783, for example.
Slavery wad forced on the colonies by Britain. The southern states became addicted. The northern colonies were always antislavery
@@FloridaMugwumpIt took a Civil War to end slavery. In the south it was baed on racism. On March 21,1861 In the "Cornerston Speech" given by Alexander Stephens then Vice President of the Confederacy said "Our new Government is founded upon exactly the opposite ideas; its foundations are laid, its cornerstone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery, subordination to the superior race, is his natural and moral condition.
0:44 Why do things like this always happen when they are on their way to deal with an emergency?
Saw this in the early 70's, i think, I can still hear the voice in my head say "just as ridiculous if their faces were all black or all white". I truy feel this changed (or reinforced) something very deep inside me. Thanks
The assistant who beamed up also played Ben Childress on Mudd’s Women and played another role on TNG. 31:37
Recheck your time index tag, at 31:37 Only Kirk and that lady were in the scene.
Great call on the reversed facial colors.
17:05 That is so very True.
👏👏👏👏👏
this episode of let that be your last battlefield is a real life reference to black and white people at that time having racial issues between each other if anybody didn't get the meaning.
Black people and white people?
What about _Any_ two kinds of people who often butt heads?
24:32 "Oh, that would get _so_ annoying."
Well, yes, but it's worse than that. Originally, we valued the lives of other human beings, at least in part, because we had room to get _away_ from other human beings if we wanted to. Privacy was an option that was always present. But it's a social commentary this episode makes that, as other sentient beings become unavoidably numerous, it becomes increasingly difficult for us to attach value to their lives.
26:12 "See? Look at all those people."
Yeah. Now that would be quite annoying after a few minutes. But if it was like that _all_ the time, morning, noon and night, if _years_ of your life passed like that, it would quickly become hell.
28:42 "That is the one _unshakable_ truth of Gideon."
"Not when everybody is jam-packed like a _sardine."_
Now you've _got_ it. If you remove _all_ the population-control measures nature imposes, you have to recognize that those measures exist for a _reason_ and follow-up by imposing population-control measures of your _own._
@@lazyperfectionist1 I suspect that "phantom engine noise" they heard inside were people outside rioting and pounding on the exterior.
I have always interpreted as Beil's saying he was chasing Loki for 50,000 terrestrial years as 50,000 LIGHT years. It was more of a measurement of distance than of time.
No. He was talking about the amount of time.
@@TheNoiseySpectator
It appears that way but I don't think so, but it is true they appear god like.
@@arrow1414 "god like"?
Perhaps greatly advanced over StarFleet, but I wouldn't say "godlike".
@@TheNoiseySpectator
They can control a Starship with their minds also burn out its curcits also with their minds. They have apparently natural biological shields that can withstand phaser fire also if they fight each other they produce so much energy they could have destroyed the Enterprise.
Maybe they aren't as powerful as the Q since they needed to use the transporter to go down to Charon,, but compared to humans their powers were god like.
We all know how people from the southern part of the galaxy are.
It's a bad stellar neighborhood. Potholes, trash, supernovae.
Actually, we don't, because it is largely unexplored, as stated. 💡
IIRC, a Chevron black and white alien was the only episode specific alien figure Mego released in the original Star Trek action figure collection.
In the mid-70's run I had as a kid there was one figure that was identified as "The Keeper" who was supposed to be a Talosian from "Menagerie" but looked like Balok's puppet from "The Corbomite Maneuver." There was also a Gorn from "Arena" that was made from a combination of a the Gorilla Soldier body (from their Planet of the Apes line) and the Lizard Man's head (from their Spider Man line) dressed in a Klingon Uniform. A rare third edition in 1976 included a decent looking Romulan and Andorian, a figure called "Talos" that was a closer approximation of a Talosian, and a rendition of the horned ape Mugato from "A Private Little War" (which inexplicably has clothes).
You think Lokai and Bele are mad know, wait til they find out it is up to them two to repopulate the planet!
We don't know the whole story. Cheron may have colonized other planets that escaped the consequences of the homeworld's civil war.
Love that she avoids the disingenuous virtue signaling and wokeness. She also doesn’t have the fake reactions of most popular reactors. One of the few reactors I respect! Great job.
It would be nice if you actually said what you think instead of saying, ‘I’m just going to leave it like that.’
Where was the Enterprise during Covid?