Let That Be Your Last Battlefield - Definition

Let That Be Your Last Battlefield is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #70, first broadcast January 10, 1969, and written by Oliver Crawford, based on a story by Lee Cronin and directed by Jud Taylor. This episode guest stars Frank Gorshin, best known for his role as The Riddler on the Batman television series.

Quick Overview: The Enterprise picks up the last two survivors of a war torn planet who are still committed to destroy each other aboard the ship.

On stardate 5730.2, the Enterprise is on a mission to help clean up a bacteria infestation on the planet Ariannus, when sensors track a Federation shuttlecraft reported stolen from Starbase 4. The craft is disabled and brought aboard, along with its strange alien pilot who is found injured and taken to sickbay. The man later awakens and identifies himself as Lokai, a political refugee from the planet Charon, and he requests asylum. The most striking feature of the man is that his skin is half black and half white, the two halves split perfectly down the center of his body.

Shortly thereafter, sensors detect an another spacecraft in fast pursuit of the Enterprise. The ship's engines struggle to keep up and is near overload. Seconds later, another alien beams himself aboard just as the pursuing ship breaks apart. The second alien identifies himself as Bele, and he is obviously of the same race as Lokai, however the sides of his black and white skin are reversed.

Bele explains he is a police officer from Charon, on a mission to retrieve political traitors. His current quarry is Lokai and he instructs Captain Kirk to take him to see his "prisoner". Bele is taken to Lokai, but Lokai reacts fearfully to Bele's presence, and strongly demands he be taken away. The two aliens begin arguing and almost come to blows. It is quickly shown that Bele believes his black and white coloration is superior to Lokai's, even though Kirk sees no difference in the two.

Kirk decides to ignore their racially prejudice arguments, and returns to the bridge. Bele then heads to the bridge and demands that Kirk change course to Charon. Kirk refuses, informing him that the aliens' quarrel is of no concern of his, and that he has more urgent matters to attend to at the moment. He offers to allow Bele and Lokai to remain aboard, and offers to drop them off at Starbase 4 once the mission is complete.

Tired of Kirk's babbling, Bele invokes a strange power which takes control of the ship, steering it toward Charon. With no way to return control, Kirk threatens to destroy the Enterprise. Bele believes Kirk is bluffing until Kirk activates the ship's auto-destruct sequence with voice code approval of his first officer Mr. Spock, and chief engineer Mr. Scott. Bele nervously watches as the countdown nears zero, then finally relents control at the last seconds. Kirk cancels auto-destruct and changes course back to Ariannus.

Once the Ariannus mission is completed, Bele takes control of the Enterprise again, this time he deactivates the auto-destruct in the process, and sends the ship to Charon. Once there, they find a planet completely wiped out by a global war fueled by insane racial hatred. Both Lokai and Bele stare silent at the destruction on the monitor realizing they are the only ones left of their race.

Instead of calling a truce, the two beings begin to blame each other for the destruction of the planet and a physical brawl ensues. As the two aliens fight, their innate powers radiate, cloaking them with an energy aura that repels anyone who tries to break the fight up and threatens to severely damage the ship. Without another choice, Kirk sadly allows the two aliens to chase each other down to their obliterated world to decide their own fates, consumed by their now self perpetuating mutual hate.

External Links

"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield (http://www.memory-alpha.org/en/index.php/Let_That_Be_Your_Last_Battlefield)" article at Memory Alpha, a Star Trek wiki