GUEST STAR PATROL
Barbara Babcock (Mea 3) was Phil Esterhaus' secret lover on "Hill Street Blues", and appeared in other Trek episodes, like "Squire of Gothos", and "Plato's Stepchildren".

Yeah, and considering Sgt. Esterhous DIED from
her feminine whiles, it have made an
interesting and ironic way to dispatch Kirk. Certainly moreso than being squashed like a bug by
some steel bridgeworks.

Hey - there's a reason Phil only made Sergeant. Kirk soul've handled her handily.

GUEST STAR PATROL
Barbara Babcock was also the mayor of Los Angeles on Cop Rock. I loved that show, all 6 eps, lol
she is married to Bochco right? How else would she be in all his shows, his mistress maybe? j/k

Kirk comments on the disintegration chambers "People enter but they don't leave" or something like that. What the hell does he think a turbolift looks like?

Riserius--He means no one ever comes out. People exit the lift all the time.

Mr. Blue, you are thinking of Barbara Bosson. I believe Barbara Babcock was "Barney Miller"'s wife.

I thought Barbara Barrie, not Babcock, played the part of Barney Miller's wife.

Oops... premature senility!

Guest Star Patrol made a mistake. We may have heard Barbara's voice in The Squire Of Gothos, but she didn't make an appearance.

Ambassador Fox says that thousands of lives have been lost in this quadrant and seems to think that a port would somehow stop that. Wouldn't the simpler solution be to stay out of that quadrant? Also how big is a quadrant? Classic Trek seems to use the term in the same way that the Next Generation uses Sectors. So do they mean 1/4 of the galaxy or do they have another definition for quadrant? If they do mean 1/4 of the galaxy, then I fail to see how one planet serving as port would do any good. The version of this episode that I saw doesn't say why thousands of lives have been lost in this quadrant, but unless the unedited version contains a different reason, I do have a theory. Klingons! Some reference works indicate that the Klingon empire is in the Beta quadrant and there is a similarity between the Eminian weapons and the Klingon weapons.

If Vendikar is the third planet in this system, then why isn't it called Eminar III? (Maybe that's what caused the war? The Eminians wanted all the planets to be called Eminar with a number after it, but the Vendikarians liked having an individual name. It also explains why both Federation ships visited Eminar VII instead of Vendikar, because Starfleet likes that method of designating planets.)

When the Enterprise is hit, a man says, "Just as it happened 50 years ago.", but if this planet is the seventh one out from it's sun, then wouldn't 50 Eminian years be longer than 50 Earth years?

The planet on the monitor above Uhura's station seems to move around the screen throughout the show.

Anan 7 speaks and sounds like Kirk, but I believe it is stated that Anan 7 is using a device to duplicate Kirk's voice. So either the device is implanted in Anan 7's vocal cords, or showing Anan 7 speaking, but sounding like Kirk, is a mistake.

Spock refers to his people as Vulcanians.

The people have gathered at a disintegration chamber to die, but when Kirk waves a weapon at them, and tells them to leave, they run as if they are afraid of being killed.

Scott says they can't fire full phasers with shields up, but he could treat them to a few photon torpedoes. Why can he fire the one, but not the other? Does this mean that the Enterprise is vulnerable to photon torpedo fire, even with its shields up? Does not being able to fire full phasers mean that they can fire partial phasers?

Mr. Osborn is the only crewman to hold a weapon on the Eminian man, but then he turns his back on him to get the communicators and phasers. Why didn't the Eminian jump Mr. Osborn?

This episode has both grill ends and spherical ends on the Enterprise nacelles.

I wonder if Kirk could have convinced the computers that the Enterprise could have avoided destruction if the attacks had been real, since the Enterprise would have kept its shields up, etc?

>Wouldn't the simpler solution be to stay out of that quadrant?

Yes, but manifest destinists like Fox don't think that way.

The *yeoman* guards the door while there are two security guards available.

Kirk doesn't leave when he has the chance but rather continues to violate the prime directive by destroying their war computer. No big deal, I guess.

Yeoman Tamura's name is spelled "Tamula" in the credits.

My reference books (Star Trek Concordance and the Encyclopedia) lists Frank da Vinci as the actor who played Osborne. Da Vinci also played Lt. Brent in "The Naked Time" and they don't look anything like each other.

Kirk's staement about the disenigration chambers
reminded me of an old 1970's commerical....
"The Roach Motel"

in this case it'd be....

"The Eminiar 7 Motel"....Eminiarites check in, but
they don't check out.

Boy, Mea 3 (Barbara Babcock) got the shaft on this
episode...after Spock tells Yeoman Tamula to "keep an eye on her, sit on her if necessary"
Mea 3 is never seen in the episode again.

What no parting words for Kirk?
No goodbye kiss?

Not your typical Trek episode

Sorry it was Spock who made the remark about the disinigration machine.

PLUS there's a real odd edit too.

When Spock nerve pinches the guard, another man
from Eminiar 7 appears in back of him,
however when the shot changes, the man is nowhere in sight.

He was disintergrated. ;-)

BEST SCENE:

Spock's telepathy sequence is very well done

How did Ambassador Fox beam down with the shields up? There was no mention of them going down.

Doesn't Uhura know what General Order 24 is?

When Scotty annouces to the Emimians that all cities have been targeted for destruction,Uhura turns abruptly in her chair and gives Scott the "Are you serious?" look.

The doors on the planet make no sense whatsoever.

Some doors have hinges and open like ours do,and some doors open by themselves.

The only door that makes sense is the door for the room with our heroes inside...it required that knob-gizmo to open /shut it.

Check out Barbara Babcock as Clint Eastwood's wife in "Space Cowboys". Her role is small in this basically macho story, but she is right on target. "Space Cowboys" is one terrific flick, Clint's best in a very long tome.

When Spock is "escorted" to the disintergration machine, he approaches the guards at the chamber and knocks the disrupter out of his hand using a karate chop.....what happened to the Vulcan Neck Pinch he used earlier in the show?

The communications panel in the councils' chambers have those oval shaped monitors attached to them, like the ones seen in "The Cage", however, the gooseneck apparatus is missing.

Man, the end credits are messed up in a lot of episodes....once again, they list a "scpipt supervisor"

If I remember correctly Nimoy invented the Vulcan neck pinch on the spot just before they shot the scene it first appeared in. If thats the case its likely the distintegration booth scene was filmed before the "earlier" scene, and hence before Nimoy's flash of inspiration.

Sorry, Tim. The Vulcan Nerve Pinch was invented by Nimoy in "The Enemy Within"

Spock went up to the Eminian guard and said, "Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder." (Hope there was an Eminian insect or bug, else he lied!) The guard turned to see (never mind there was a pointed-eared alien talking to him who must be one of those interred off-worlders), and Spock pinched him, then grabbed the sonic disruptor as the guard crumpled to the floor.

Yes, but it was first used in "The Enemy Within". Spock pinched Evil Kirk.

I figure General 24 is only meant to be a bluff and no Starship captain is expected to actually carry it out.

And what is this about "killing being instintive"? I have no instinct to kill.

Not even Pokemon?

I don't believe Kirk was bluffing about General Order 24. It has been noted that a Starship has enough phasor power to blow away an entire continent. How do I know that? It's mentioned in "The Cage" & "The Menagerie"....they mention it in the briefing room when they discuss on rescuing Pike from the Talosians.
Also, in "Errand of Mercy" & "Let That Be Your Last Battlerfield" it was noted that Kirk & Co. are ready to sacrifice their lives for the preservation of Starfleet & its property.

By the way....everyone has the instinct to kill...when provoked.

If you don't believe me, read the headlines sometime.

Sorry, but I don't buy that.

If that were true, then murders shouldn't be held accountable, since they are acting on instinct. WHich I don't believe is the case.

And about Pokemon, I just wanna torture the creator of that show, not kill him ;)

Good point...Perhaps the line SHOULD have been, "Killers by nature" instead of "Killers by instinct"

While I'm on the subject, the capability to decimate a planet is also mentioned in "Bread & Circuses"

I'm assuming, Rene, that when you say you have no instinct to kill we're talking about people here, and not flies or mosquitos, which seem to exist only so we can swat them.

Ambassador Fox must not be very important, he has no bodyguard....granted he has an aide, but he's no bodyguard...that's for sure.

When I was a kid in the late seventies, I played a personal computer game called Trek-80 (probably primitive by today's standards, but very sophisticated for the time) in which you commanded the Enterprise in a mission to destroy a fleet of Klingon ships. If the Enterprise were destroyed and you lost, the game would end with a log entry by a "Captain Fox" of the U.S.S. Exeter saying that his ship had discovered the debris of the Enterprise. It made me think that perhaps the ambassador Fox in this episode took over command of the Exeter after Captain Tracy wigged out.

Phil mentioned that the doors on this planet look very simular to the ones in "Return of the Archons"...but I noticed the rotating chamber for the disintegration chamber is simular to the rotating chamber used in the absorption room in "Return of the Archons" (Just a re-dress)

You've heard about "The Magic Bullet Theory" in JFK? Well, in this episode we see the "Magic Disuptor Beam"...when Spock, Fox, his aide & the others confront the guards in the hall, disrupters go off and Fox's aide falls down....WHY? He was standing BEHIND Mr. Spock!
Did the disruptor beam make an unusual turn AROUND Mr. Spock & hit Fox's aide? Someone call Oliver Stone!

When Spock enters to "rescue" Kirk, he goes into the computer toom and opens the FIRST computer door and starts tinkering. He then closes that door. However, when Kirk enters, the SAME FIRST DOOR IS OPEN and Spock is STILL TINKERING!!!!

Sorry...I meant "Computer ROOM" not "Computer "TOOM" " jeez, that "Scpipt supervisor" disease is contagious, ain;t it?

Spock identifies the ship that contacted Eminiar VII 50 years earlier as the USS Valiant.
Yet, in the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, the Enterprise is near the edge of the galaxy and encounters the ship recorder of the USS Valiant, which is determined to be 200 years old. Spock, although uncertain, thinks the last entry into the recorder was the captain ordering the ship’s destruction. This HAS to mean that the Federation gave the ship up as “lost at sea” some time earlier and commissioned a second ship to bear the name of Valiant. One wonders if the bridge of the Valiant had a memorial plaque stuck on the wall, or a model of the earlier vessel in the Captain’s Quarters.

Well, I guess after he blows up the computer, it *is* a computer *tomb*!

Unanswered questions:

The leader's name is Anan 7...does this mean there was an Anan 1-6?

Ditto for Mea 3...was there a Mea 1 & 2 ?

Uhura disappears from her chair after Spock gets the Eminiar communicator working...funny thing is, she was there a minute ago.

OOPS!...My mistake...I just watched the scene again today, she's still there...barely.

However, when Kirk requests Anan 7, you see a whisp of smoke on the left side of the screen.

Also, after Spock nerve pinches the guard, he vanishes...shouldn't he be on the floor?
(Now THAT'S one nerve pinch..pinch 'em & poof! )

...does this mean there was an Anan 1-6?

No, I think those were just supposed to be their last names. But no matter which way you work it, it's an awfully confusing scenario, 'cause there's only so many numbers you can use before it really gets ridiculous. Either there're thousands and thousands of, say, Mea 3's out there, or somewhere there's a Mea 729,256,413!

They sure did get a lot of mileage out of the matte backgrounds for this ep. I think they reused them something like five times. They are beautiful and believably futuristic...but they're also extremely distinctive. After awhile you start thinking, man, not only does the entire galaxy somehow look 'just like Earth', they also share the same architect (from the looks of it, probably a descendent of IM Pei).

Wonder if Anan 7 and Gary Seven were related? Or has this been asked before?

Given that Gary Seven is supposed to be someone from Earth, the answer would be no.

Right before a commercial break, we hear Anan 7 tell his men that when the Enterprise lowers her shields, to destroy her. After the break, we see Ambassador Fox beam down with a landing party. (It is assumed that he got his way, outranking Mr. Scott) I guess we must assume that the calculated "hit" on the Enterprise was deemed possible because she lowered her shields and that's what Anan meant, not her actual destruction.

Why is Ambassador Fox carrying a BOOK when he beams down?

They use PADDS in the 23rd century.

When Spock nerve pinches the guard by the disintegration machine, he falls to the ground....however, when the camera pulls back, the guard is no where in sight!

David Opatoshu (Anan 7) also starred in the 1960 movie "Exodus" as Akiva Ban Canaan, Brother of Barak. (An excellent movie, BTW)

Why is General Order 24 only the 24th. The person sitting there writing the "Starfleet General Order Catalogue" would surely have thought of destroying the planet long before this. After all, we're all killers by insinct.

And yet, Ryan, by the time ST:TMP comes along we have this "sort-of" general order ...

Kirk: Mr. Scott, be prepared to execute Starfleet order 2-0-0-5.
Scotty: When, sir?
Kirk: On my command.
Scotty: Aye, sir.
Ensign: Why has the Captain ordered self-destruct, sir?
Scotty: I would say, lass, because he thinks ... he hopes ... that when we go up, we’ll take the intruder with us.
Ensign: Will we?
Scotty: When that much matter and anti-matter are brought together, ah yes, we will indeed.

This standing (or general) order certainly has killing as a topic. Not only is it "self destruct", but with an added desire of "destructing" everything else in the general area. I would guess that general orders 1 thru 23 have a generous sprinkling of these types of orders. Now, as to WHY planet destruction is number 24 on the list ... *(shrugs)*. Just as viable a question would be, why is self destruct by allowing matter and anti-matter to come in contact with each other number 2005?

**Leslie Alert** OK, OK..he's not Mr. Leslie in this episode, but he's still Eddie Paskey & he appears as one of the citizens of Eminiar 7. Does Kirk know about this?

Heck, *I* don't know about this! Where does Paskey show up?

RE: WHERE IS EDDIE PASKEY? You have to look VERY QUICKLY. Eddie Paskey is standing next to the disintegration chamber that Spock destroys. (after rescuing Robert Fox) Eddie Paskey is wearing a light green hat & in the background near the control panel.

Anti-nit: Phil says that it doesn't make sense for the fusion bomb simulation to classify Mea 3 as dead, but not Kirk since they were right next to each other.

However, the simulation may have just worked on a simple survival zone simulation. So Kirk and Mea 3 may have been in the 20% fatalities zone. In a real attack, Kirk would have been seriously wounded, but the Eminiar simulation apparently only dealt with fatalities, not any other sort of injury or damage.

Interestingly, this is the only time a transporter is considered as a weapon. (The simulation had fusion bombs materialized over the city and detonated.) Maybe that's why the deflectors are impervious to the transporter -- it prevents an enemy from beaming a bomb into the ship.

Quick thing I noticed: Anan 7 holds the landing party hostage until the crew of the Enterprise beams down for distintegration. In other words, Anan 7 thinks that the remaining 425 people on the Enterprise will beam down and die just so the five people in the landing party can live? If it was one group or the other, I'd say that 5 deaths instead of 425 is pretty good. (I think that NCC-1701's crew complement was 430, though "The Cage" put it at 203. Either way, hundreds compared to a handful is nothing.) So how does Anan 7 think that he has any leverage over the crew?

Another issue. I'm not sure you can call this a nit, but it's at least an observation. The Eminians claim that the death of everyone on the Enterprise is justified because they were warned. First of all, they were not warned that a war was taking place. Second, since there are no physical signs of an impending attack, aren't the Eminians and Vendikarians obligated to tell incoming vessels how to patch their computers into the ongoing war game?

Consider: Eminiar VII receives "warning" of an "attack" shortly before fusion bombs are beamed into the capital. They receive this "warning" because their system is connected to the system on Vendikar. Mathematically, everything is simulated so that the "signs" of an impending "attack" registed on each side's equipment. But, with the Enterprise not being tied into this network, they have absolutely no way of knowing that an attack was launched until notified. Shouldn't there be some protocol ordering visitors to (a) leave, (b) tied their computers into the war network, or (c) be destroyed with actual weaponry?

Maybe this has come up before, but has anyone pointed out that Anan 7 and Gary Seven both consist of FOUR letters followed by "7"? Perhaps this is an early use of the infamous Star Trek 47.

Spockania: I wonder if Kirk could have convinced the computers that the Enterprise could have avoided destruction if the attacks had been real, since the Enterprise would have kept its shields up, etc?

I thought of this before, too.

Anan: Your ship has been classified as destroyed by a tricobalt satellite explosion.

Kirk: We don't know anything about that.

Anan: It was a virtual explosion. I'm deeply sorry.

Kirk: Ah...well, we had our virtual shields up. So we'll be going now.

John A. Lang: The leader's name is Anan 7...does this mean there was an Anan 1-6?

No, but there was a Logan 5.

OR --

The Anans 1 through Anan 6 were...not entirely successful.

Bill: Right before a commercial break, we hear Anan 7 tell his men that when the Enterprise lowers her shields, to destroy her. After the break, we see Ambassador Fox beam down with a landing party. (It is assumed that he got his way, outranking Mr. Scott) I guess we must assume that the calculated "hit" on the Enterprise was deemed possible because she lowered her shields and that's what Anan meant, not her actual destruction.

The ship had already been classified as destroyed before that point and the Emininans had already used real weapons as well (how come that didn't violate the treaty?). It appears either Fox beamed down through the shields (not sure that's possible--they couldn't beam up through the shields in "Arena") or Scotty lowered them and we just didn't see it. Strange considering how adamant Scotty was about not lowering them.

At one point, an aide says Vendikar is complaining about a discrepency of "thousands". Given that there's around 450 on the Enterprise, what's with the rest? Did Kirk wipe out a *lot* of disintigration stations? It looked like they took about 30 seconds to process each person, so they must have a lot of them to handle that many within 24 hours.

How did Vendikar know the complement of the Enterprise? Spock did say they were scanned by Eminiar; it's possible this was fed into the war computers.

Great confusion surrounds casualties from the war. In the beginning, Anan 7 tells Kirk that 1 to 3 million people die each year from direct enemy attack. after 1 attack, he claims that "a half a million people have just been killed!". So according to Anan 7's earlier statement, they will only have around 3 or 4 more attacks for the rest of the year, Or alot more people are killed from INdirect enemy attacks.

At the beginning of the episode, Kirk orders "Yellow Alert"...yet the Red Alert siren is heard. Shouldn't there be a different sound for "Yellow Alert" to keep things from becoming confusing?

Also, for some wierd reason the Council Chambers' doors are HINGED...the others are automatic.

So, if I were to live in a house that had hinged doors and sliding glass doors, that'd be nit? Or how about say Wal-Mart, which also has a combination of automatic doors (the entrances) and hinged doors (the bathrooms), would that be a nit? Could it just be an architectural preference based on some alien psychology?

Live long and prosper.

I never thought of that...thanx.

CG enhancing: Following up on an idea in the Space: 1999 threads, if Star Trek the Classic Series could be enhanced with CG, these are ideas I have for this episode.


At the beam-down location, both for Kirk's party and again for Fox and his aide, there is an obvious change of colour for the lawn and the sidewalk between the real part and what may be a matte painting. Maybe this could be evened up. Also, it is curious how the Eminian city looks exactly like Starbase 11 where Commodore Mendez commands. A little touch-up here?

Some of the shots of the Enterprise in orbit might have a bright star in the background - Vendikar's sun.

(Long ago, I realized that Planets III and VII in a system would not normally be habitable, as it implies a wide "life zone". However, this is a multiple star system. My solution is that Eminiar (Eminiar VII) orbits the secondary star, and Vendikar (Eminiar III) orbits the primary star. The planets are numbered consecutively starting with the four or five planets that orbit the primary star, and continuing with those that orbit the secondary star. I actually had fun writing a theoretical story detailing how the war became a computer war, and the difficulties in the early days of trying to eliminate "casualties" before disintegrator stations were developed: "homicide camps", and before propaganda conditioned people to the high consciousness of duty that Anan spoke of.)

When "hits" appear on the Eminian computer screens, a nice touch would be a line of alien text (perhaps vertical, like far Eastern languages) that indicates "ground zero" coordinates and early estimates of casualty effectiveness. The second "hit" shown would indicate motion information for the Enterprise. (An illustration of the Enterprise's shape should be inserted inside the bright "hit", flashing and then vanishing.) This detail wouldn't be readable even if you had a close-up, as it would be in Eminian lettering and numbering, not English, but it lends realism to a very high-tech computer system.

Spock should never tell a lie, so when he tells the guard at Disintegration Station #12 about a multi-legged creature on the guard's shoulder, it should be the truth. Possibly animate a black speck - an Eminian insect, on the guard's shoulder, which quickly takes off and vanishes from camera view. (Actually, it's too bad one of those insects that plagued Star Trek production didn't actually show up on cue for its "credited" appearance!)

After Spock neck-pinches the guard, he backs away, and Kirk orders everyone there to stand away. There is no sign of the unconscious guard! Should he not be visible on the floor, and be dragged away? You could animate his legs on the floor showing from around the corner, and, a second after all Eminians have stepped out of sight, show the legs being pulled away.

NANJAO: Uhura pronounces Eminiar with one heck of a long e. "Message coming in from Eeeeeeeeeminiar 7" or some line like that.

I know this has been brought up three times already, but when Spock nerve pinches the guard, and the guard falls to the ground, the camera then pans back and the guard isn't there!!!!

Read past posts people!

So the last attack killed about half a million of people. Right. They have about 24 hours to disintegrate them. Right. First the 'kill'em all'-department has to locate all the deads and warn them that they have to get to the nearest disintegrator. Some of these people may be on holiday, or they are asleep or perhaps they are drinking some local schnapps at a local pub. There must be some dead-police in order to trace those who couldn't be reached by phone, mail, SMS, telegram or post-pigeon... Right. As this is a quite civilised planet the authorities will give some time for the deads to take care of legal, business, family, personal and religious matters. Suppose that all administrative hassle takes 16 hours and that there is only 8 hours left to start the actual disintegration. In 8 hours time 500000 people have to die, that is 62500 an hour. Suppose that every disintegration takes about 3 minutes, I think that is quite realistic. So you need 3125 disintegration chambers. Apparently some more because nowhere in the episode you see a lot of people standing in queue to die. What is my point? Well first that I love statistics and second that destroying a disintegration chamber will never have a huge impact: 160 deads less per chamber isn't a lot compared to the half million.

And a second point: has the council never heard of a mirror back-up server at a different place?

...and this isn't nitpicking but general order 24 is IMO far too powerful to give it into the hands of a Captain and a Captain alone.

Captain: General Order 24 on planet ChineseTakeAway!
First officer: But why Captain?
Captain: Their number 24 tastes awful!

In this case: before ordering number 24 shouldn't the Enterprise try to contact the other planet Vendikar and negotiate with them first. Isn't there an United Planets organisation that should first try to send a bunch of Blue Helmets over there?

Since Eminiar is not a member of the Federation, its transmission of Code 710 suggests that that code is a universal signal. Yet Fox, supposedly an experienced diplomat, expresses ignorance as to the code's meaning at the beginning of this epsiode.

Code 710- they got it from the old starship

But Anan7 dont know about General order 24?

Some of these people may be on holiday, or they are asleep or perhaps they are drinking some local schnapps at a local pub.

Wouldn't only people physically in the area that was hit be ordered to report to a disintigration station? If I was in an area on holiday which was not hit by a 'weapon', I wouldn't have 'died' from it.

There's been some discussion about how Fox and his aide beamed down to Eminiar VII, despite raised shields. I think this is what happened;
Fox left the bridge in a huff after Scotty declined to lower shields, at which point Fox threatens to have Scott's name figure prominently in his report to headquarters. Having watched Fox up until now, is there anyone that believes he just left the bridge to sulk in his cabin, despite how important this mission seemed to him? I doubt it. I think he composed a message to Headquarters, laying alot of blame on Scotty, and asking them to order Scott to lower the shields. He put it on a tape, had Uhura transmit it, and a reply was receieved quickly, of which Scott was now no longer in a position to decline the order, since a high-ranking admiral could have issed the order. They crossed their fingers, and beamed Fox down, but weren't attacked. Why? Because Anan 7 realized that at least a few numbers listed on their war computers was better than nothing, especially if he started to doubt the effectiveness of his weaponry to destroy the Enterprise. She could have taken a few hits, raised shields, and he'd be back to square one.

Anan 7 wasn't lying to Fox when he gave his word that the landing party was alive and well. This is the truth; what he left out was that they were on the run as fugtives.

Someone mentioned why Yeoman Tamura was left to guard Mea 3 when there were two security guards in the landing party. True, but they were much more useful in the line of battle, than wasting time, standing in a room guarding a woman who, Spock correctly assumed, wasn't about to pick a fight.

After Kirk has overwhelmed the council guards, and Spock barges in with reinforcements, Kirk says that it seems like the only way he can save his crew is by stopping the war. This isn't quite true; they were free to leave, having disarmed the council and their guards. All that was left was to warp out before a shot could be fired up at them.

Scott wonders if the party are still alive, and mentions 'its a big planet'. How hard could it be to use the sensors to locate one Vulcan life reading? And if there are 4 humans in the same room, that's probably the rest of the landing party.

Kirk and team beam up minutes after they destroy the computers, and Anan 7 leaves with Fox to contact Vendikar. I hope he didn't forget to beam up Tamura, and find out if Fox's Aide was alive or dead.

Eminiar and Vendikar have been at war for nearly 500 years, after Eminiarians colonized the planet. It makes me wonder how many millions colonized that world all those centuries ago, because for Vendikar to keep fighting after 500 years must mean it has a population close to Eminiar's, otherwise they'd eventually be wiped out, numerically.

It would have been an interesting sequel to see the Enterprise go back to this system, and find out that Vendikar had lied about every single death in 500 years, and now their population outnumbers the honest Eminiarians!

Interesting solar system; a planet third from the sun, and the seventh planet from the sun have similar environments (gravity, atmosphere, land, water) to support humanoid life.

Isn't there an United Planets organisation that should first try to send a bunch of Blue Helmets over there?

That would be a Prime Directive violation, unless both sides requested the Federation's help.

Dotter31 wrote:
(Sending some Blue Helmets to the planet...) would be a Prime Directive violation, unless both sides requested the Federation's help.

I understand that sending some Blue Helmets over there is against the Prime Directive. But... what about Order 24 then? The Federation Parliament (with members of all planets systems) can't send a peace mission, but a captain can decide to wipe out the entire planet? I feel a contradiction somewhere.

Unless Order 24 doesn't really exist and it is just a poker bluf type of thing...

Kirk was using General Order 24 because he was being held hostage to force him to allow his crew to be killed. Threatening them was a response to his kidnapping, not an arbitrary choice.

The Federation was brought into the Eminiar's society by the Eminiars, not Kirk. No violation. The Federation wasn't involved in the other planet's society until Fox's offer of mediation(which was a request, not something imposed on them)

Jerry Finnerman really overused the soft focus for Barbara Babcock here. Either too soft a lens, or too much Aqua-Net sprayed on a normal lens. I know he shot many of the women of Trek like that. But, he really overdid it here.

The statue in Anan 7's office (a thin figure with both arms raised and hands clasped together) was also seen on Scalos in "Wink Of An Eye."

GREAT ENHANCED MOMENT

New monorail seen traveling by the buildings

MISSED OPPORTUNITY

They could've added beams of light coming from the disrupter pistols, but they didn't.

Weren't they sonic disruptors? In that case, they wouldn't have a visible beam. They could have done a distortion effect to show the air being disturbed.

I never thought of that.

The remastered "A Taste of Armageddon" airs next weekend.

I have to say,this was another remastered episode that I felt came off as just "meh".The Enterprise as it heads towards the star cluster is very nice. Though the CGI tech team have done terrific looking futuristic cities & buildings on other episodes,this one came off as surprisingly bland.I did like the mono-rail in the background of the Eminiar capital city though.Beyond that it was only the new CGI scenes for the Enterprise & the planet,which are certainly beautifully done but also are expected for any episodes involving planets at this stage.I felt that they could have tweaked the destruction of the disintegration booths,perhaps with arcs of electricity forming all over it.Still,this is a wonderful episode for the original series.

New orbital shots, mixing up the angles: an extreme closeup on the saucer and warp nacelles, and a view from the rear.

The main other enhancement was the Eminiar VII matte painting. The colors are matched much better. The buildings are more or less identical to the ones in the original, but there's now a monorail and people walking around.

There are some weird music stings in this episode. When we first meet Mea 3, there's a huge rush of romantic strings which normally foreshadows a dalliance with Kirk, but that never happens. There's a also a big dramatic sting when they first see the Emeniarian council, which seems overblown for some politicians sitting in a very plain office.

The voice of the planetary defenses was used in another episode, but I can't recall which it was.

Did Gene Lyons (Fox) really have those huge bags under his eyes? I can't find a picture of him from outside this episode of Trek. The one under his right eye looks like a bad makeup effect.

I like Kirk's confidence that he can bring down the planet with just him and a disruptor.

What would have made a powerful & chilling scene in this episode would have been to show a mother & her child as they walked into a disintegration booth.I'm sure that would have been vetoed back in 1966 when this ep first aired.Then again,perhaps the two planets exempted anyone below,say,18 years of age,from being required to step into a booth.I'm curious as to what the issues were that caused this war in the first place,& for it to continue for 500 years!!! Talk about a grudge match.I wish that the CGI teach team could have put in a scene of the planet Vendikar in the distance as the Enterprise was orbiting Emniar 7,how about some sattelites or drones in orbit of Emniar 7 too?

When we first meet Mea 3, there's a huge rush of romantic strings which normally foreshadows a dalliance with Kirk...
First heard in "Mudd's Women", by the way. In which one of the women did want a romantic dalliance with Kirk.

There's a also a big dramatic sting when they first see the Emeniarian council...

First heard in (IIRC) "The Corbomite Maneuver".
What I've liked about the enhancements are the extreme close-ups of the Enterprise, something we previously never got in the series.

The monorail reminded me a bit of the ones at Disney World and Hershey Park.

I remembered where I heard the voice before: Spock's fake message to the Enterprise in "The Menagerie".

Another music note: the same stock music cue is used for each establishing shot of the Enterprise.

In the map room we see the map of Emeniar and part of another map which could be the other planet.
When there's a strike on the capital city, we see two oval shapes superimposed. Maybe one is deaths, one is injuries. How are the hypothetical injuries handled?
And the size of the oval shapes implies a HUGE fraction of the planet. Something like one-tenth of the planet's surface area. Wouldn't they have said the strike hit a lot more than just the city?

There wasn't any evidence that they modeled anything other than fatalities. I think it would detract from their no pain, no fuss "neat" war. As I mentioned above, this answers Phil's nit over why Mea 3 "died" and Kirk didn't. They were in a zone where Mea 3 would have been killed and Kirk would have been severely injured, but they don't count injuries.

I don't think the scanner screens were intended as a literal representation of the planets. We don't really know how to correctly read them (and I doubt the creators had an clear idea other than "make it look interesting").

Keith A. M.: If Vendikar is the third planet in this system, then why isn't it called Eminar III?

Why should it be? Look at our Solar System--each of the planets have distinct names. We don't call the fifth planet Sol V, we call it Jupiter. I'm sure other, alien races do the same thing. (Except for the Malcorians who, as we find out in the TNG ep "First Contact," are kind enough to use the Federation nomenclature for their own planet!)

Jesse - Why should it be?
Well, maybe if you'd read the NEXT SENTENCE of my post you'd see I addressed that as well.
Me - (Maybe that's what caused the war? The Eminians wanted all the planets to be called Eminar with a number after it, but the Vendikarians liked having an individual name. It also explains why both Federation ships visited Eminar VII instead of Vendikar, because Starfleet likes that method of designating planets.)
I agree that in reality alien races probably would give their planets different names rather than Science Fiction's general numbering system, but the numbering is normal for Star Trek so the different name becomes a nit. *shrug*

Someone mentioned why Yeoman Tamura was left to guard Mea 3 when there were two security guards in the landing party. True, but they were much more useful in the line of battle, than wasting time, standing in a room guarding a woman who, Spock correctly assumed, wasn't about to pick a fight. - Steve McKinnon

If this is referring to the post by MattS:

The *yeoman* guards the door while there are two security guards available.

This does not appear to be referring to the scene where Tamura is left behind to guard Mea 3. There is a different scene in the same room, in which Kirk tells Tamura to guard the door while the two guards are also in the room.

Not even close to my favorite episode. Really sloppy writing:

Why does Tamura have to be ordered by Spock to take sensor readings? She's carrying the sensor isn't that her function? She should be scanning all over the place.

I have to believe there was some script continuity discussions about giving Spock these "limited" telepathic powers. Sheesh. Making a guy on the other side of a wall behave in opposition to his orders is a pretty "broad" power. Do we ever see this ABILITY again?

You would think in 500 years they'd develop a more efficient way of carrying out the elimination of casualties than one at a time.

When Spock gets the communicator modified to reach the Enterprise among his first comments to Scotty is the line "The captain is overdue!" What?? Scotty has no conceivable frame of reference to make any sense of that!

While Spock's comments to Tamura about guarding Mea3 are glib (consistent with his character in THIS episode) he tells her "this is a killing situation." What? Keep her from killing herself even if you have to kill her?

Yeah, yeah I know the ambassador is a self-described "quick learner" but I think when Kirk tasks him with keeping about 20 people at bay in the hall with a disruptor it might he might be a little bit out of his depth.

Mea3 says she needs to be disintegrated by "noon tomorrow." Okaayyyyy. So is this just a loose universal translation, or does this planet conincidentally have the same rotation period as earth and the same temportal nomenclature as English.

Very sloppy writing throughout

Couple of production notes:

The display screens of the not-WOPR system are supposed to, I guess, have radar-screen-like beams that scan across. But don't they immediately remind you of big propellors located behind the "screens"?

I can't figure out a logical and consistent function for the knob gizmo. Seems like it pretty much just figures out what the user wants from the door and does that. Kind of like the cabin doors on the Enterprise!

The bags under Fox's eyes are not only remarkable, they're inconsistent from shot-to-shot. And for some reason, Fox reminds me of a South Park character, I have no earthly idea why.

The costume design team really runs the gamut here. You've got Babs Babcock's awesome wraparound-is-it-going-to-stay-up-or-what. But then, on the other hand, those laughable guard outifts that are right out of a B movie shown only on MST-3K.

RUMINATIONS:

During the Fox/Scotty confrontation on the bridge there is a lot of back and forth about raising and lowering the "screens." Did they refer to the defense system as "sceens" through the whole episode? The whole series up to this point? When did it become "shields"?

One of my favorite moments from the episode is Kirk's bowling ball attack to escape capture. He's siting on a chair or something, but he jumps up knocks down the closest guard then rolls into three more guards near the wall knocking them down like tenpins!

It occurred to me that General Order "Twenty-four" could actually be written General Order 20-04, thereby eliminating the apparent inconsistency noted above with a General Order 2-0-0-5 noted above. So maybe they're consecutive listings in the General Order book......or, as suggested maybe Kirk and Scotty are just making these things up as a bluff.

Yikes. Reread my posts. Talk about sloppy writing!!! I've got scpipt supervisor disease!

"The people have gathered at a disintegration chamber to die, but when Kirk waves a weapon at them, and tells them to leave, they run as if they are afraid of being killed." -KAM

Well, isn't that the point? they're afraid of violent death, warfare, etc. They still value their lives... they follow a sense of duty to the disintegrators, but it doesn't mean they have no sense of self-preservation. :-)


"I don't believe Kirk was bluffing about General Order 24. It has been noted that a Starship has enough phasor power to blow away an entire continent. How do I know that? It's mentioned in "The Cage" & "The Menagerie"....they mention it in the briefing room when they discuss on rescuing Pike from the Talosians." - John A. Lang

Plus, it's logical... that's what's always bugged me about weapons-fire on ground targets in TNG-onwards... Let's do this as a simple mathmatical equation, eh?
Shields>'Primitive' Nuclear Devices (Balance of Terror nonwithstanding :-) )
Phasers>Shields
Nuclear Devices = Enormous Destructive Power On Land Based Targets (EDPOLBT)
Therefore (and yes, I'm sure this is eminenetly nitpickable math :-) )
Phasers>Shields>Nuclear Devices, or Phasers = Much greater than EDPOLBT!

But whenever we see weapons fire on a planet's surface, explosions seem to be 'hand grenade' size, not even 'cruise missile' size, much less nuclear size or 'enough power to overwhelm shields that laugh at nuclear power as puny and pathetic' size! :-)


"By the way....everyone has the instinct to kill...when provoked. If you don't believe me, read the headlines sometime." - John A. Lang
"If that were true, then murders shouldn't be held accountable, since they are acting on instinct. WHich I don't believe is the case." - Rene

I agree with you, John. Sorry, but deep down, we are all barbarians. And isn't that the point, Rene? As the old saying goes, the abaility to think and reason BEYOND instinct, to ignore instinct, is what separates man from animal, sentient from non-sentient. We have the instinct to touch bright, pretty things like fire, yes? And once we know it burns us, we have the instinct to avoid fire at all costs! And yet, we have firefighters, and even ocassional civillian heroes, who enter burning buildings to rescue people. Why? Because they act beyond their instincts. Thus, you can have an instinct, and not act on it- I'd say that's what a legal system is all about, since acting selfishly at the cost of others is about the most basic instinct at all. We have the instinct to kill, steal, lie, cheat, do whatever benefits us... but we don't, because we're human, and so though our instincts are still around, they don't control us.


"Spock identifies the ship that contacted Eminiar VII 50 years earlier as the USS Valiant.
Yet, in the episode Where No Man Has Gone Before, the Enterprise is near the edge of the galaxy and encounters the ship recorder of the USS Valiant, which is determined to be 200 years old." - Derf

Actually, the SS Valiant was the WNMHGB ship, whereas this is the USS Valiant.

The remastered "A Taste of Armageddon" airs next weekend, with "Who Mourns for Adonis?" the following week.

The left scanner in the war room has a reddish blob that apparently represents the capital city -- that's where the simulated hit on the city was reported. In the remastered version, as the Enterprise orbits the planet, you can see a large blob of city lights that appears to be the same shape. Good job!

Anan 7 says that the direct channel to Vendikar hasn't been used in centuries, but they obviously have some sort of communication -- the got a message earlier from Vendikar complaining about the casualties not being processed.

but they obviously have some sort of communication -- the got a message earlier from Vendikar complaining about the casualties not being processed

That could merely be a computer-computer protocol, like most of the war.:

Vendikar computer: Report casualties
Eminar computer: 32431
Vendikar computer: That should be 32522
Eminar computer: HEY CARBON BASED LIFE FORMS!!!! VENDIKAR SAYS WE'RE MISSING 91 CASUALTIES!!!!

I think Anan 7 was referring to a "hot-line" type thing, Eminar live leadership to Vendikar live leadership.

I thought of that, but it seemed a little more personal that that: "Vendikar is accusing us of violating the treaty", not just the computer says the count is off.

Is Fox really a good choice for the negotiations, considering how well he was hoodwinked by Anan 7?

Anan 7: The Vendikar peace mission sure looks like a fleet of battle cruisers.
Fox: Nonsense. Lower your planetary defense screens at once to show your peaceful intent.
[the shields go down, and Vendikar starts bombing]

I could just picture the Mirror Universe Kirk carrying out General Order 24 after all, once his landing party was safe.
In fact, a neat continuity link was missed in 'Mirror, Mirror', when the computer tells Kirk and McCoy of evil Kirk's 'accomplishments'. A mention of destroying Eniminar 7 would have been cool.

As Kirk gets the ship ready to break orbit at the end, he asks Scotty if he's ready, and Scotty replies, "Space detail set." Huh? Any real-life sailors out there that can explain what that means? I'm assuming he means the warp drive is ready and functional, but 'space detail'? Sounds very maritime-ish, but also archaic.

After 500 years, it's surprising that Anan7 and the present-day Eminians woudl care what started the war in the first place. Do you guys care what started any conflict from the 16th century? It's amazing that the society of the Eminians would think it really is worth killing people you don't even know, let alone even see, considering Anan 7 said the channel to Vendikar hasn't been used in a long time.

So the Enterprise can destroy a planet in this episode, but in "The Paradise Syndrome" they can't even destroy a lousy asteroid?

In this case, "Destroy" may mean, "Turn the planet into a radioactive parking lot".

For that matter, is there any evidence that General Order 24 isn't a bluff?

Or to clarify, is there any evidence that there really is a General Order that authorizes the destruction of a planet & isn't a Corbomite-style bluff.

Obviously Enterprise has several methods of making a planet lifeless (or nearly so): phasers; photon torpedoes; flushing engine waste into the atmosphere; using the tractor beams to slam asteroids into the planet; crashing into the planet at high speed; detonating the warp reactors in the planet's atmosphere; overriding local TV & radio waves to broadcast William Shatner singing... ;-)

overriding local TV & radio waves to broadcast William Shatner singing...

No!!! Not THAT!!! ANYTHING but THAT!!! WE SURRENDER!!!!!

Heyyyy...Mister...Tambourine...Man...!

I agree with KAM, though, as Scotty mentioned installations. Just torpedo some reactors, generators, dams, etc, and watch cities go BOOM!

I'm wondering how, in the 'civilized' era of the 22nd century that such a General Order would exist. Perhaps a left-over from the Romulan War?

Spock telling Tamura that it's a "killing situation" may mean that Mea may be willing to attack and risk killing Tamura in order to get to a disintegration station, and alert security along the way. It could also mean that Tamura could have to take extreme measures to keep Mea from escaping and alerting security.

The universal translator probably translates the Eminian word for mid-day as the English ("Standard") word "noon".

As I had written earlier, I believe that, since this is a trinary star system, Eminiar (VII) and Vendikar probably orbit different stars. Possibly, Vendikar orbits the primary star, one of perhaps five planets, while Eminiar orbits the secondary star, perhaps four planets. The stars are close enough together to limit the sizes of each system before gravity perturbations interfere. The planets were numbered in order outward from the A star, then the B star, then any planets that orbit both (if the third star's gravity allows it).

I speculated in my made-up history that the war started as a "war of independence" by Vendikar, violent, destructive, then during a ceasefire, each side did computer simulations to try to figure out how to launch a decisive pre-emptive strike, and that led to someone's light-bulb moment about 500 years ago.

I also put together an origin for "Vendikar" and "Eminiar" as being names that derived from numbers and star names, and mongrelized into names of their own.

The sonic waves hitting the Enterprise are reported at an intensity of decibel 18 to the 12th power, wich computes as 1,156,831,381,426,176 decibels. That's a LOT. Even the Big Bang didn't come anywhere CLOSE to that amount of energy.

However, the intensity of those sonic waves is a moot point, since sound does not travel in space.

Those disintegration stations are built well. Even after Kirk blows one up and sets it on fire, the light indicating that the unit is active keeps right on blinking.

After Kirk turns the tables on the Eminiarians, he states that the only way to save his ship is apparently to end the war between Eminiar and Vendikar. Well, no genius. At that point you could just have everybody beamed back to the ship and warp out of there, leaving the two planets to sort out the mess. It's not like either of them has the technology to stop you.

Keith Alan Morgan on Thursday, April 15, 1999 - 6:07 am: The people have gathered at a disintegration chamber to die, but when Kirk waves a weapon at them, and tells them to leave, they run as if they are afraid of being killed. They probably think Kirk's weapon would result is a death which is messier and more painful than that caused by the disintegration chambers.

John A. Lang on Tuesday, June 20, 2000 - 12:11 am: How did Ambassador Fox beam down with the shields up? There was no mention of them going down. Fox could have been transported through a sensor window without the Eminians noticing.

Well, if Scotty could beam Fox down through a sensor window then why not beam Kirk & co. up? Or send down a tactical team of security to help them? If a sensor window existed Scotty should have taken advantage of it for more important things than to send down Ambassador Fox.

When Kirk asks Anan 7 to tell him where the phasers and communicators are kept, Anan answers they are in the war room, going LEFT when exiting his apartment. After Kirk is knocked out by the two guards Anan summoned, he tells them to bring him to the counsel room and they go to the RIGHT. Aren't the war room and counsel room in the same location?

In the remastered cityscape, the people walking around do so vveerryy sslloowwllyy.

I wonder how this crazy set up got started. How do you get people to voluntarily step into a disintegration chamber? Didn't ANYONE say "Oh hell, no!" and run away?

I'm thinking that they're given an implant early in life along the lines of Yonada's Instrument of Obedience. If you try to avoid disintegration, which might be quick and painless, the implant causes great pain or blows off a limb or something horrible. The disintegration chamber would be the less painful way to die.
As I said in 2010, do any of us care what our ancestors from the 16th century did, and could fight a war over it? Not likely. So I think the Eminiarians virtually blackmailed their own people into continuing the war by threat of an actual painful death.

Kirk; "I'm Captain James Kirk of the USS Enterprise, representing the United Federation of Planets."
Mea 3; "Yes, I know."
She does? How? She must know that he and his party are from the Federation, but not who he is specifically.

And what is Mea 3's function, anyway? Is she some type of Governor or Mayor? She meets with the landing party, she knows about the message warning the Enterprise away, and deals with the Council, but she doesn't sit with them. She's also dressed in civilian clothing, and not the Eminiarian uniform and hat. She doesn't give a title, but Anan 7 asks her to arrange guest quarters for Kirk's people.

A secretary?

And the reason why the war has lasted so long is because doing it by computer removed the true horror of it.

But your point of why someone would obediently walk into a disintegration chamber is correct-- WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?! And what was the war about originally? Isn't that a long-dead, irrelevant issue? As I pointed out, there had to be some kind of incentive where the chamber isn't the worst thing that could happen to you.

The explicitely stated incentive is that if either side reneges on the treaty, the other will break out real weapons and restart a real war. Anan 7 also says that ending the war is pointless because they are inherantly a violent predator species that would just start a new one sooner or later. Doing war by computer satisfies that killer instinct while still allowing their cultures to thrive.

And that validates Kirk's point. Since they've made war so clean and sanitized, they had no need to end it.

Let's hope the Federation was able to successfully mediate a peace treaty. This was another episode's storyline that should have been addressed later on (on TNG or one of the other later shows).

Trek recycling: The statue in Kirk's quarters on Eminiar was reused in "Wink of an Eye"; it was placed near the fountain when we see the Scalosians' taped plea.

Originally they used the same background for Scalos. Trek remastered did away with this nit.

Trek recycling part 3; the far wall that Kirk, Spock, and Sar 6 stand in front of, with the war computers in the forefront, is the basic wall panel that was used as Landru, after some alterations.

Also, it's always bothered me that Eminiar had communicators with a flip-top like Starfleet, because I thought, what are the odds? And then it hit me-- Eminian communicators are based on the ones confiscated from the crew of the USS Valiant 50 years prior! Eminians simply took them apart, figured out how they worked, and mass produced them for themselves. We already know that Starfleet communicators from Archer's time are somewhat similar to Kirk's time, so these fit right in for the Valiant time-line.

Occasionally I like to check imdb.com for other credits for guest stars of Trek, and sometimes I get surprising results.
Sar 6, Anan 7's assistant, was played by Robert Sampson (never heard of him), and was glad to see he's still alive. However, I also found out that after Star Trek he's had almost one hundred other tv shows and movies that he's appeared in! More if you count the numerous episode appearances on the same show, like the 8 episodes of 'Falcon Crest' or the 5 in 'Police Story'. He also appeared in 'Knight Rider', 'Knots Landing', 'Hill Street Blues', 'Dallas', 'The Jeffersons', and 'Mission: Impossible' to name just a few.
And before 'A Taste Of Armageddon' he has 51 listings! Man, he was busy from 1954 to 2008!

I did hear of Robert Sampson, way back when. He played the title character's father in the classic Twilight Zone episode "Little Girl Lost" c. 1961.

Eminian communicators are based on the ones confiscated from the crew of the USS Valiant 50 years prior!

Works for me!

David Opatoshu (Anan 7) can be seen (without his toupee) in the 1966 Hitchcock Cold War thriller Torn Curtain.

He made a good villain here.

I'm just guessing here, but I came up with another 'incentive' for the Eminians willingly walking into a disintegration machine. It occurred to me that one way to get them to do it would be to guarantee that it's painless.
To do that maybe the chamber actually runs on the same priniciple as the transportrer, which essentially disintegrates you (painlessly), and rebuilds you somewhere else. However, on Eminiar VII and Vendikar, the matter stream is just shut off, and nobody is sent anywhere except oblivion.

Why did Kirk ask Mea 3 how to get back to the War Room? Was the landing party brought to their waiting room blindfolded?

I have an old copy of the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph, who listed the USS Valiant as 'lost in the line of duty', which is a reference to the Valiant mentioned in this episode. The timeline is wrong, however. The Valiant in the book is listed as one of the fleet that includes the Enterprise, Yorktown, Excalibur, etc, but the Valiant that was lost in this episode visited Eminiar VII 50 years ago. Kirk's ship, and the others like it, are definitely not 50 years old. The only way to explain it is that the ship mentioned in the Tech Manual is the THIRD Valiant (including the one mentioned in 'Where No Man Has Gone Before'), and it, too, was lost like the previous two.

I know why Kirk didn't drink the Trova he poured for himself and Anan 7.
He didn't want to experience The Trova With Tribbles a second time!

To do that maybe the chamber actually runs on the same priniciple as the transportrer, which essentially disintegrates you (painlessly), and rebuilds you somewhere else. However, on Eminiar VII and Vendikar, the matter stream is just shut off, and nobody is sent anywhere except oblivion.

Most likely they would have it be merciful and quick.


I have an old copy of the Starfleet Technical Manual by Franz Joseph...

Let me stop you right there, Steve.

Not canon, doesn't count.


I know why Kirk didn't drink the Trova he poured for himself and Anan 7.
He didn't want to experience The Trova With Tribbles a second time!

*groan!*

Mind you, Kirk hadn't experience the tribbles the first time at this point.

"Not canon, doesn't count."

Fair enough. She's never mentioned in an episode-- just in a list of potential names in some memos sent between the producers, as seen reprinted in 'The Making of Star Trek' book.
Supposedly, you can see the name 'Valiant' on the board behind Commodore Stone in 'Court Martial', but the names have never appeared clear enough for me to prove that.
Mark it up as an error on the part of Franz Joseph, the author and artist of the Tech Manual.

Guess they must have blown the Valiant up in orbit.

Good thing it was a Klingon or Romulans. They would have responded in kind and Eminiar VII would be toast.

Do you suppose Tamura is still guarding Mae all these years later? We never saw either of them again.

I think someone went back and told her it was okay to let Mea3 out now.

I think the war started with Eminiar 7 saying "IBM is better!" and Vendikar saying "Apple is better!"

Or vice versa.

Funny.

All kidding aside, it is a question that's never really answered. Vendikar was colonized by Eminiar, and a war broke out, but why? Was there royalty on Eminiar that was insulted by colonists that rejected the monarchy? Did Vendikar forcibly take whatever they wanted from Eminiar to build up their cities and civilization?
Maybe Vendikar was rich in natural resources, but Eminiar was told, 'Hands off! You can't have this, period!'
Obviously the episode is an allegory of sorts between the U.K. and colonists (the U.S.) that don't want to be told what to do or be under the thumb of rulers that live so far away, just taken to extremes (500 years at war rather than whatever it was here).

Maybe they were playing Trivial Pursuit and got into an argument over Moors vs Moops.

The reason the war lasted so long is because it was nice and clean.

But HOW did it start? Sure the computer-war meant buildings and cities were left intact, but the actual REASONS must have been impossible for either side to say, "I was wrong. Let's end this."
Maybe it was racial. Maybe the people of Vendikar are black or brown or green.

How it started was really not relevant to the plot. That's probably why it wasn't mentioned.

Yeah, it's not like human history has started wars for trivial reasons.

Maybe a Vendikar ship blew up near Eminar (or vice versa) and war was declared?

Maybe a lunatic assassinated a minor official and war was declared?

Maybe the accountants for a munitions company convinced/bribed some officials that war is good for business and war was declared?

Yeah, all of those.