Star Trek: The Original Series
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"
Air date: 1/10/1969
Teleplay by Oliver Crawford
Story by Lee Cronin
Directed by Jud Taylor
Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan
The Enterprise becomes the newest battlefield for two bitter enemies, Lokai (Lou Antonio) and Bele (Frank Gorshin), who have been at each other's throats for millennia—a microcosm of the schism based on racial hatred that divides their world. Determined to take Lokai back to his home world for punishment, Bele seizes control of the Enterprise navigation as the ship's crew is helpless.
About the only thing "Last Battlefield" has going for it are some good intentions. The story is way too unfocused and meandering to work as reasonable allegory. Reducing racism to absurdity is certainly something that provides the opportunity to be pointed by conveying the sheer stupidity of the ideas behind pointless hatred. Unfortunately, the allegory is too preachy and pretentious and fails to say anything except in the very broadest of terms. (Prejudice has many troubling shades of grey that this story fails to acknowledge.) Only one scene stands out among the mayhem—a scene where Bele is appalled that no one recognizes the reasons for his hatred.
An extended sequence involving the Enterprise self-destruct sequence only manages to draw the story further off course. And while the director of photography's choices here exhibit an ambitious need to be atypical, the results are mixed—too often distracting rather than enhancing. Morality plays are well and good, but not when they're as haphazardly assembled as this one, which is a waste of a perfectly good opportunity.
Previous episode: Whom Gods Destroy
Next episode: The Mark of Gideon
38 comments on this review
Mon, Apr 9, 2012, 5:28pm (UTC -5)
Sat, May 19, 2012, 10:01am (UTC -5)
I suppose it's possible to compare Bele's argument ("All of Lokai's people are white on the right side.") with the ridiculousness of D'Jamat's religious argument ("The expanse was created in 9 days not 10"). Yet while the cause for the Jihad in "Chosen Realm" just comes across as insulting and silly, Bele's racial hatred seems to hold more importance. I think part of it is Frank Gorshin's performance in the scene and with my interpretation for the cause of the racial hatred on their planet.
Visually, I can see Jammer's point about some of the filming choices being distracting, but outside of some of the closeups of eyes during the self-destruct sequence, I like most of the choices used. A lot of VOY and DS9 feels the same because it doesn't always seem like the directors were using a lot of different camera angles, but in this episode of TOS it feels like the director was trying lots of different things: overhead and underhead shots (not quite sure how to describe those) and even the extreme closeups during the self destruct scene are allowing the show to appear different than usual.
It's not a great episode by any means. They arrive at Cheron way too quickly after having saved Arrianus. If the two planets were so close together it's hard to understand Kirk's argument that they need to fly all the way back to Starbase 4.
But while the ending may be too extreme in the concept of the entire Cheron race having killed each other out of hatred it does provide a very striking and dark ending which usually isn't seen on TOS. Shatner's performance of a resigned Kirk "Where can they run?"), I feel, is right on target. Shatner may not be the greatest actor in TREK, but he always played Kirk to perfection.
Fri, May 10, 2013, 12:02pm (UTC -5)
Fri, May 10, 2013, 12:55pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Jun 2, 2013, 2:10am (UTC -5)
This was the point at which the quality of third-season TOS suffered its final collapse, and never recovered.
Mon, Sep 9, 2013, 10:48pm (UTC -5)
Sun, Mar 23, 2014, 10:53pm (UTC -5)
However, in 1969, beating people over the head with the idea that racism is bad wasn't necessarily a bad thing.
I often compare this one as a successful counterpart to the confused and too-subtle "The Outcast" as an example of what the latter should have been.
Tue, Apr 8, 2014, 10:51pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jun 4, 2014, 4:50pm (UTC -5)
The main value of this episode was in the scene where Kirk and Spock are oblivious to the racial difference between the two aliens, and Bele revealed it was the side of their faces that were black vs. white. Also Kirk's discussion at the end that their hatred destroyed their people. Good food for thought. But the rest of the episode was filled up with nuts-and-bolts sci-fi distractions that failed to pick up on this good sociological theme of racism and hatred.
Ah well, what little allegory it had in it was memorable, at least.
Mon, Nov 17, 2014, 2:37pm (UTC -5)
Now, I think the implication for the civil rights era is an appeal to compassion for everyone. And as far as that goes, the episode makes an important point. And certainly, I think that there is some need for "balance," that hatred and violence is not automatically justified from the oppressed any more than it is from the oppressors. I go back and forth on whether the episode sets up a false equivalence here, because someone forced into slavery hating his slavemasters is far different, and far more justified IMO, from a slavemaster hating his slave for disobedience. However, over the top as it is, the "1 million people" figure listed of the people who died in support of Lokai's cause at least makes it seem as if Lokai's crusade for freedom of his people most likely had some big unethical actions. So I don't know. The "1 million people" figure is also, it should be noted, Bele's version of events, which is not confirmed by any in-episode story; in the episode, Lokai is certainly a bit of an obsessed madman himself, but I kind of think that Bele comes off far worse, and the episode's pushing the equivalence leads to weird effects (which are only balanced out, and then some, by the implication that millions or more died because of Lokai). Lokai ultimately is just trying to get away from Bele and Bele is bringing Lokai in to get executed; Lokai is a little bit closer to just wanting to be free and escape the cycle of violence, though Bele's presence seems to agitate him back into wanting political action. The episode suggests, probably unintentionally, the ways in which white collar and blue collar criminals are sometimes treated differently: Lokai, the episode's oppressed criminal, steals a shuttlecraft to escape and Kirk continues to insist for most of the episode on his plan to bring him to Starbase 4 to face charges, largely because Lokai acts frazzled and angry, whereas Bele steals the entire Enterprise with all hands on board to accomplish an illegal extradition, and then Kirk just talks him down and the Starbase indicates that they will probably agree to Bele's request, because Bele can put off some degree of sophistication and carries some authority. I think, notably, Kirk is mostly humouring Bele at this part in the story, recognizing that Bele can retake the Enterprise if he wants to, but still, it's a pretty interesting contrast.
The episode does actually undermine some of its own points, because in spite of the suggestion that the two races are FUNDAMENTALLY THE SAME SPECIES, that Lokai and Bele's obsession with their petty physical differences as indicative of inner worth is ridiculous from any objective viewpoint, well, Bele has ridiculously powerful mind powers which can take over the Enterprise and send it hurtling through space at super-speeds and Lokai can't. My girlfriend helpfully, somewhat jokingly/somewhat seriously, suggested that maybe the difference is because Bele has more education, ha, which fits with the general political content of the episode. I can buy that. Still, it's kind of weird, and without more information directly confronting whether Bele and Lokai's apparent power differential ultimately does mark them as different species, it's hard to say that the Enterprise crew's reflexive assumption that their physiological differences are purely superficial is necessarily correct. It doesn't mean that a physiological difference that allows for super telekenesis powers in one and not the other would give Bele's species a right to enslave Lokai's, but it would change the episode's message a fair amount, and I think it's fair to say that this is something the writers probably just overlooked, in their giving Bele superpowers for mostly plot purposes. On the other hand, this exchange is kind of interesting:
SPOCK: Change is the essential process of all existence. For instance, the people of Cheron must have once been mono-coloured.
BELE: You mean like both of you?
KIRK: There must have been a time, long ago no doubt, when that was true.
(Intercom whistle)
KIRK: Excuse me. Kirk here.
SCOTT [OC]: We're orbiting Ariannus, sir.
KIRK: Very good. Commence decontamination procedures when ready. Advise when complete.
SCOTT [OC]: At once, sir. Scott out.
BELE: I once heard that on some of your planets people believe they are descended from apes.
SPOCK: The actual theory is that all life-forms evolved from the lower levels to the more advanced stages.
Now, the science of all this is, ahem, dubious, but let's presume that all the statements in this section are true. In that case, Spock's statement that life forms evolved from "the lower levels" to the "more advanced stages" suggests that Bele and Lokai are more advanced than humans -- the analogy, I suppose, is that Bele and Lokai are to humans and other monocoloured species what humans are to apes. This actually fits the fact that Bele, firstly, has extreme super brain powers, and secod that Bele and Lokai are apparently extremely long-lived. They are "more advanced" than humans -- and yet are still trapped in a cycle of hatred which they cannot escape. I think the point here is that hatred, racial prejudice, long-term effects of class differences and the resentments that come from this, etc., are not things that the intelligent are immune from: anyone, who is not careful to check themselves, can find themselves destroyed by this.
The scene where Bele expresses shock that no one can recognize the difference between him and Lokai is indeed effective. I think that many of the individual scenes with Bele and Lokai work, too. The ending is, uh, heavy-handed, yes, but there's a certain poetic desperation in it all. Frank Gorshin, probably best known for playing the Riddler in the Adam West Batman series, brings the proper self-assured disgust to his role as Bele. I do agree that the episode has several weaknesses, some of which I've mentioned, some of which Jammer and the others on the board have mentioned. The self-destruct sequence is a *huge* detour which kills the episode's tension. In general, Bele's extreme superpowers are not taken seriously enough by the narrative; it may or may not be true that Kirk could do something about them, but there is something frustrating that Kirk et al. don't even try to figure out an alternate way of dealing with Bele, some kind of way of preventing him from taking the ship over again. The episode's pacing is slow and it's somewhat more fun to talk about than to watch, and not actually hard-hitting enough to make up for this lack of fun. Still, I think it's got a fair amount going for it. I think I'd say 2.5 stars.
Mon, Mar 16, 2015, 11:07pm (UTC -5)
It would have been easy to protray Lokai as the hero, and Bele as the villain but the episode portrays them as deeply flawed individuals, entirely consumed by their "cause". Their dispute is rather academic, given that it's taken entirely out of context, without a shred of evidence presented, and they keep accusing each other of atrocities that Kirk and crew have no way of verifying...until they finally get to Cheron, that is. It's only when Bele dines with Kirk and Spock that racial prejudice comes into play (and Bele's racism is not limited to Lokai, note the "monocoloured trash" comment later on, and the way Bele makes a derogatory comment about humans evolving from apes).
The very ugly ending is also quite striking compared to other TOS episodes, which tend to end on a positive note with Kirk laughing off whatever trouble he had found himself in. Here, no one laughs and Kirk's pleas for peace and understanding fall on deaf ears. It's heavy handed, for sure, yet a lot of Star Trek is heavy handed (subtlety and Star Trek are not very good friends, I'm not even sure they're acquainted...;))
Tue, May 24, 2016, 3:36pm (UTC -5)
Wow, subtle.
Mon, Jul 11, 2016, 12:05pm (UTC -5)
Sat, Sep 17, 2016, 11:24am (UTC -5)
Fri, Oct 28, 2016, 4:02pm (UTC -5)
One - it brilliantly highlighted how trivial their differences were. As a child, I did not notice their colours were reversed until Bele pointed it out. This was a simple yet clever point of differentiation, particularly on such a low budget! As soon as Bele mentions it, your immediate reaction is to think "but that's so trivial!" - and that of course was the point.
Two - the concept that they would keep hating and pursuing each other, despite their entire planet being destroyed, because they had been doing it for so long their hate was literally all they had left. It was all that sustained them, and they could never know anything else. Bele will keep chasing Lokai until the end of time in the ruins of a wasted planet.
Pure tragedy. And pure folly. To this day it sticks with me. The producers of Star Trek should be commended for putting together such a powerful story given their limited resources.
Wed, Nov 30, 2016, 8:09pm (UTC -5)
Awful episode, extremely heavy handed, subtlety of a sledgehammer.
Just going to list all the bad: Cheron in the "southern" part of the galaxy, awful cartoony direction, atrocious acting, self-destruct sequence (much better inSTIII :-)), meandering plot that doesn't go anywhere, boring racism allegories.....
But my biggest issue, so Bele has been chasing Lokai for 50,000 years?!?!?!? Right...... yet they were close enough to reach Cheron in a few hours...... and in all that time neither had noticed the Cheroni had annihilated each other...... I'm all for a bit of socio-political commentary, but does it have to be this stupid?
Fri, Jul 7, 2017, 3:02pm (UTC -5)
I think the self-destruct sequence was well done with closeup shots of Kirk, Spock, Bele, etc. Was more dramatic and powerful than say DS9's "The Adversary". Good to see the concern/relief on the faces of Uhura, Chekov, and Sulu.
The episode is also about a battle of wills which, I think, is well done between Kirk and Bele. Kirk gets to hammer his authority over the Enterprise, which is something Shatner does well.
Who is right, who is wrong? Lokai or Bele? This episode, while not a great episode, serves an important role in the Trek cannon -- I believe a fair number of episodes from future Trek series have their roots in this one given squabbles on alien worlds, racism/prejudice, diplomacy, relations between the Federation and a new alien species.
Good performance from guest actor Frank Gorshin, in particular, an actor with a good pedigree.
As for one flaw, found it strange that Bele has the power of his will to control the ship but Lokai has no such power. Given these powers, why hasn't Bele been able to catch Lokai for 50,000 years?
Ultimately the ending scene is somewhat poignant with Bele chasing Lokai on a destroyed planet presumably for another long time to come. "All that matters to them is their hate." - Spock
I'd rate "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 2.5 stars - an iconic Trek episode but not what I'd call a classic -- difference being that it tries to do what we think Star Trek is all about (stylized exposition of a problem faced on Earth) but is heavy-handed and has enough flaws.
Mon, Jul 17, 2017, 3:07am (UTC -5)
I'd say it was right after this. While this one wasn't great, it was needed - and no more ham-handed than half of TOS anyway.
For all the lambasting season 3 endures, the first half isn't too bad - yeah it's got Spock's Brain and The Children Shall Lead, but also has The Enterprise Incident and Wink of an Eye. And Is There In Truth No Beauty and Day of the Dove and For the World is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky aren't too bad either. Granted, between two of those and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, they really needed some shorter titles.
But after that? It's a parade of stinkers up until All Our Yesterdays, which was one last high before ending the series on an absolutely rotten note (that everyone had to wait 4 months for, at that). Last Battlefield was the last semi-good episode right before the season collapsed.
Thu, Sep 21, 2017, 12:50pm (UTC -5)
"LOKAI: You have read about it in history, I see. How can I make your flesh know how it feels to see all those who are like you, and only because they are like you, despised, slaughtered, and even worse, denied the simplest bit of decency that is a living being's right? Do you know what it would be like to be dragged out of your hovel into a war on another planet? A battle that will serve your oppressor and bring death to you and your brothers? "
Sun, Oct 1, 2017, 1:32am (UTC -5)
It would be ridiculous for the enslaved to love their slaveholders, indeed when we see slaves cooperating with slaveholders we cringe. We in a free society implicitly know that the slave’s rage against his master is just and the slaver’s rage is unjust. So the problem is not hate, rage or violence, the problem is unequal power and the intellectualized justifications for breaches of justice used by the powerful.
Instead of being “preachy” this is just self-congratulatory. It’s a story that makes the white audience feel better about their racism because they know there are Black Panthers out there who “hate” the white race. After all the viewer doesn’t “hate” blacks, they just don’t want their daughter marrying one!
It’s the 60s version of “Everyone’s A Little Bit Racist.”
Tue, Nov 7, 2017, 8:46am (UTC -5)
Tue, Nov 7, 2017, 4:20pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Dec 4, 2017, 12:48pm (UTC -5)
The sequence of the two men chasing each other through the ship corridors while images of the planet are superimposed is memorable. The struggle and failure of the crew to confront the racism of Bele and Lokai add to the sorrowing feel of the show: Racial hatred defies all reason and can reach a point of insolubility. Lots of contemporary parallels in this allegory even today, with all of the ethnic cleansing and mass migration going on in the world. Maybe "Battlefield" is uncomfortable viewing for some people who view racism in the past tense, but I think it's an essential Trek episode that remains more relevant than ever. Love it or hate it, it's one of the most iconic examples of Trekkian ideals ever filmed, and the lack of resolution feels very real at the end. As a geek, I also love the introduction of the Enterprise self-destruct codes, to be re-used later as an Easter egg in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock.
Mon, Dec 4, 2017, 11:33pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Feb 7, 2018, 12:41pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Jun 13, 2018, 9:45pm (UTC -5)
Mon, Jul 16, 2018, 2:06pm (UTC -5)
Seeing the National Guard on my city streets was quite scary, Bobby and Martin had been killed - and this episode shined a light right on the same subject matter making illuminating the stupidity of the whole thing.
Yes, it may have been preachy, but to me it showed how mind-fumblingly stupid the human race can be.
Sun, Aug 5, 2018, 10:36am (UTC -5)
Sun, Oct 21, 2018, 11:17pm (UTC -5)
Fri, Mar 22, 2019, 1:27pm (UTC -5)
There is also a not so subtle nudge at conservative christians , when bele very cautiously says "I once heard that on some of your planets people believe they are descended from apes. " For those too young back then white southern christians believed they were superior to blacks.
Fri, May 31, 2019, 6:59am (UTC -5)
For its time, a brave and straightforward tackling of the subject of racism. The startling reveal that the "big difference" is "which side is which" is very creative, memorable, and effective. I mean - it is a truly large physical difference, yet one aliens (and the viewer) aren't likely to even notice. But those two are obsessed with it, and attach all sorts of significance to it.
I like how they hid this large difference in plain sight. The viewer's surprise sends the message much better than preachy Kirk. I also like that the effect of the difference is that they are mirror images of each other.
The ep does falter in its mission by being more about hate in general than racism in particular, but still: A classic.
Above average for sure.
Sat, Jul 13, 2019, 2:15pm (UTC -5)
"Bele has been chasing Lokai for 50,000 years?!?!?!? Right...... yet they were close enough to reach Cheron in a few hours...... and in all that time neither had noticed the Cheroni had annihilated each other...... I'm all for a bit of socio-political commentary, but does it have to be this stupid?"
It made me think that, if the Federation had known about all this sooner (um, if they were already so close to reach Cheron, why didn't they??) this might have actually been a place where [re: TOS "A Taste Of Armageddon" episode] Eminiar VII's plan of "civilized" war-by-computer would have actually been a plausible solution—disintegration chambers and all! In fact, Anan 7 (leader of Eminiar) would have been an excellent diplomat to lead a mission to Cheron about this.
Hear me out, please:
The Eminians encountered by the Enterprise were (after 500 yrs) a super orderly society, seemingly non-violent and peaceful in their inter-personal interactions. They found all that so distasteful—in contrast to the banal destructiveness of their computer war. Whereas the Cherons were so outwardly and inwardly filled with rage and violence. Perhaps the Eminians once were, too, and only "civilized" themselves through the course of the 500 yr war, such that by the time the Enterprise visited Eminianr VII the people had long been "Ready" for this next step: to think and act with diplomacy and end their war for good.
Self-segregation onto different planets or regions, then an "orderly war" over a few hundred years (or whatever, given their long lifespans) might have just been enough for the profound rage in each "Race" to calm itself. YES, as with Eminiar, millions would die over the time, BUT... instead of ending with a burning planet where everyone's dead, the Cherons (like the Eminians) could have survived as peoples and cultures, with the planet in tact, until some future time where they would be read for a Kirk-style intervention and finally end it all.
Thu, Jul 25, 2019, 7:39pm (UTC -5)
Wed, Aug 7, 2019, 6:59pm (UTC -5)
That secret disdain in your heart for people of a certain type? You're getting played.
Sat, Aug 10, 2019, 2:38pm (UTC -5)
But absolutely ruined by a long list of bad moves in writing, direction, etc.
Terrible episode, and I WANTED to like it.
Wed, Aug 14, 2019, 2:28am (UTC -5)
Sometimes, messages need to be preached, and sometimes the broadest of terms are required for it to be heard.
++++
>"Prejudice has many troubling shades of grey that this story fails to acknowledge."<
True point. But this was broadcast in an era where MLK had recently been assassinated and where only six weeks earlier Star Trek had aired the first interracial kiss on US television, to the dismay of some regional censors.
This episode was written for an audience that was still struggling with (and often against) the concept that "Segregation = Bad"
There are absolutely shades of gray to be explored....1969 was not the time or place for those. Hard to dive too deeply into nuance with an audience that barely understands or accepts the basics.
Sun, Sep 29, 2019, 10:06am (UTC -5)
This isn't quite as bad as And the Children Shall Lead or The Way to Eden but it's so close the distinction is hardly worth noticing. Way too preachy, way too presumptuous and in the final analysis guilty of hypocrisy while at the same time being oblivious to the fact.
Sun, Dec 29, 2019, 3:35pm (UTC -5)
There’s a false equivalency made between Lokai’s and Bele’s people that seems totally inappropriate.
The show does not acknowledge the strong probability that Lokai’s fight for freedom may be justified, nor does the show weight the blame of the conflict on the oppressors.
It’s always been true throughout history that it is the oppressors who ultimately need to disarm, stand down, accept those once-oppressed and enslaved people as equals. The question of *how to accomplish this* is a matter of tactics, and violence is an absolutely valid option on the table.
There’s certainly a place for peaceful protests, but no amount of passive resistance would’ve saved the Jews in Nazi Germany, or countless other oppressed people in history. It is true that in some circumstances you have to fight for your freedom — a fact that Star Trek even in other episodes acknowledges.
To me, I thought the show was addressing Malcom X, who was assassinated 4 years before the release of this episode. He and MLK differed on the point of total nonviolent resistance. Malcom X thought blacks should arm themselves and defend themselves if attacked. He was, obviously, very controversial, especially at this time.
It seems unlikely that the American civil rights movement would’ve made the ground they did without defending themselves in the 50s and 60s. The movement succeeded largely because BOTH blacks were defending themselves violently, AND Martin Luther King and the civil rights movement pointed to a peaceful alternative. But it was the threat of violent resistance that enabled the peaceful option.
But the show doesn’t acknowledge these realities in this episode at all. It places the blame for Cheron’s ultimate destruction on both sides without any deep reflection. As if, for example, the Jews in Nazi Germany were just as culpable for Germany’s devastation as the Nazis, or blacks in the southern states in America in 1865 were just as culpable for the South’s devastation as racist slavers.
It’s nonsense.
I get it. I get that in the time this was made, they probably couldn’t have gotten away with a more nuanced message. Not in 1969, not among the wide audience watching Trek. But still, for a modern audience to not acknowledge the deep flaws in this episode’s allegory seems wrong to me.
1/4 stars for me.
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