Your TRIZ class was engaging in the way you connected with us. It helped broaden the way we approached problems.
Podcast Enterprise: S2E19 Private Little War
Space, the final frontier. These are the podcasts of the Podcast Enterprise. Its only mission: to explore story structures, to analyze our favorite characters and plotlines, to boldly talk what everyone has seen before
We will analyze all episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series or TOS for short using the following guiding structure:
- Synopsis or summary of the episode
- Story structure
- Character analysis
- Our likes and dislikes
The synopsis: When this episode opens, what you have is McCoy, Kirk, and Spock. They’re on this planet called Neural, and it’s pretty green, and it’s pretty lush. And These three are there to do some scientific experiments on the plants of this planet, because the plants apparently have medicinal value, and These three crew members want to collect samples and kind of develop them into whatever they can be developed into.
But as they are conducting their investigations, they find that the inhabitants of this planet for some reason suddenly have firearms. And as far as they know, this is a planet that is still in its primitive stages. So the civilization here hasn’t become a civilization and they are supposed to be in tribal societies.
And something has obviously happening. to them that they have suddenly got firearms, which is way too advanced for them at this point. And it is here that Kirk sees that one group of tribesmen with firearms is trying to attack another group of tribesmen. And he knows the leader of the other group of tribesmen and he wants to save him because Kirk apparently has been to this planet some 13 years back as as a younger officer and he has befriended this particular tribesman and he saves him from an ambush.
But while all of this is happening, Spock is attacked by an ape like creature called a mugato and apparently that thing’s bites and slashes are poisonous. While they managed to defeat this mugato, he saved his friend, but then that action actually brought them in sight of the other tribesmen, and now they get attacked.
Spock is shot, and they have to make an emergency teleportation back to the ship so that he can be healed. And while this is going on, Kirk is actually pretty confused because like I said before, this is not a planet that has had much development. They are also protected by the prime directive, which means outside interference cannot happen.
So someone or something has broken that and allowed them to develop firearms or they were given firearms as form of some sort of bribe. We don’t know at this point. They get back to the ship. Spock is in very bad condition, and we are also introduced to a new character, Dr. Nenga, who has to treat Spock.
And while and The thing is, now Kirk wants to go back to the planet and try and find out what is happening there and why they have firearms. So he, along with McCoy, teleport, transport themselves back to Neural. When they do that, this mugato comes back, the mate of the mugato, I think, or another mugato, I’m not very sure, comes back, attacks Kirk, and poisons him.
And now he’s in a very serious state. McCoy manages to contact Kirk’s friend and have him take him to the village on Neural. And the Apparently, this friend’s wife has some healing capacity, so she will be able to extract the poison from Kirk, is what we understand. And Kirk’s friend is now chieftain his wife is a very ambitious woman.
She comes back to where Kirk is being stationed. She heals Kirk and now she has designs on Kirk and then eventually you learn that she also wants her husband to be one of the most powerful individuals on that planet. This particular tribe does not have firearms her husband is something of a pacifist.
He does not want weapons and violence, but the other tribe does have weapons and violence, and she wants him to be like that so that the tribes are equal and he gets more power. Kirk, after he has recovered from the poison, somehow takes her point of view because it dawns on him that the other tribe has firearms because of the Klingons. It all gets pretty complicated as as the story progresses. Kirk manages to infiltrate the other tribe along with Spock and his friend Tyree. And they’ve, no, apologies, he manages to infiltrate the other tribe, They find that the other tribe is being given firearms by the Klingons, just as he has suspected, and then now Kirk is completely I wouldn’t call it influenced, but he is kind of swayed by his friend’s wife to kind of arm the peaceful tribe also with firearms and he begins to do so thereby breaking the prime directive.
And as this is happening, One event leads to another, and then It also comes to be that this particular woman, the wife of Kirk’s friend, is also something of a traitor. She wants power. She manages to steal Kirk’s phaser because that is the most powerful weapon she has ever seen.
First of all, she tries to seduce Kirk. When that doesn’t work very well, or it, something goes awry, she steals Kirk’s phaser. She goes to the other tribe, she’s ambushed by the other tribe, and then she’s killed by the other tribe. And this is, Her killing was actually the catalyst that brought about total change on that planet, because Kirk’s friend Tyree, now he decides that he will opt for violence as a form of vengeance and the episode ends there.
That brings us to the end of this episode. Thank you for listening to the Podcast Enterprise. Please do share your reviews with us and please share this podcast with any of your writing friends or trekkies. Live long and prosper!
Stay tuned in for our next episode! Enjoy!
