Customer Reviews

Star Trek - The Original Series, Episode 45: A Private Little War [VHS]

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The crew of the Enterprise visits an idyllic, pre-industrialized world inhabited by the docile hill-people and the greedy villagers. Not incorporated into the Federation of Planets, this pre-techno world is supposed to be free of any interference by either the Federation or the Klingon empire. Nevertheless, on a routine survey, the villagers attack the hill people with crude rifles - though that requires technology beyond them. With Mr. Spock severely injured, Kirk stays behind looking for evidence that the Klingons are illegally supplying technology that will allow the villagers to conquer the planet and rule it for the Klingons. Reuniting with the Hill People, among whom Kirk once lived, Kirk hooks up with their leader, Tyree and his wife, the bewitching Nona. Sneaking into the Villagers' stronghold, Kirk finds evidence of non-indigenous technology (carbon-free metal tools are a big tip-off). Though implicating the Klingons, Kirk now faces an even bigger quandry - allow the rapacious villagers to conquer the planet, or give the hill-people the means to fight back. Either alternative gurantees bloodshed, with the decision coming down to ensuring either the genocide of the hill people or a ceaseless and bloody war with the villagers. Dr. McCoy, who stayed planetside with Kirk, provides the perfect moral foil for Kirk who is defiantly pro-defense.

I must have seen this episode a hundred times as a kid, never knowing that it was obviously a take on the war in Vietnam which had already escalated by then. The weird part is how this film makes as the enemies, the urbanized and technologically advanced villagers, which is more analogous to the Southern Vietnamese regime. Like the very best sci-fi, when it must be topical, the script is dignified enough to explore both sides. It's a weak episode of Trek, suffering because the comedy team of Bones and Spock spends much of the time apart (with Spock stuck on the Enterprise, recuperating from the attack in the beginning of the episode). The script tries juicing things up with the wicked-hot Nona and an attack by the "Mugato", a sort of white, horned gorilla with poison fangs, that both seem to distract from the message of the show (which may have been the biggest reason for putting them there - the guys who write for Trek were brave, but to a fault). A flawed but still important episode.

I once overlooked this episode and it took me a number of years to realize just how good it is. Along with Friday's Child, the Cloud Minders and Operation:Annihilate, this is one of the most underated episodes of the series. Yes, the Mugato looked like it would put a gleem in Irwin Allen's eye and the Natives wear third rate poofy wigs, but the story is just terrific. They took a foreign intervention story and stuck it out on a primitve planet plus Kirk fights a healer's influence and Spock fights off a possibly fatal attack. This episode is well written and carried out in fine fashion.

I loved the episode so much when I first saw it six years ago,that it inspired me to begin an original serial using a Nona type character as the lead, and Tyree's people as my character's adopted people. Some reading this would say "so what?" but others would say that if an episode that has such good writing can inspire a budding writer, it's gotta be good! As to the Viet Nam parallel that people are referring to, I see the episode as just good story telling on it's own merit.

Kirk takes McCoy and Spock on a reunion to a lesser-developed world he visited as a lieutenant, garbed in native costume to preserve the Prime Directive. When Spock is wounded by gunfire on a world where firearms shouldn't exist, Kirk realizes the Klingons have interfered by introducing the advanced weaponry to the nearby villagers. Faced with the decimation of old friend Tyree's hill people, Kirk wants to start an old-fashioned arms race to keep the balance of power -- and halt the erosion of innocence in Tyree's world.

This episode depicts one of the most likely and desirable scenarios that could arise when humanity moves out into space and encounters another space traveling species. Assuming that neither species is technically dominant and aggressive enough to overwhelm the other, the two sides would be evenly matched. Since the ability to travel in space would mean each is capable of harnessing great power, it is likely that both sides would possess terrible weapons capable of destroying the other side. This would preclude an all-out war between them.
The only viable solution would be what has transpired on Earth for centuries, the balance of power. Two powerful entities would continue their rivalry using proxies and where neither proxy would be allowed to win or lose as long as both of the powerful entities considered a loss to be a greater cost than continuing the fight.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy are visiting a planet that Kirk lived on several years ago. When they discover that one side, the villagers, have developed flintlock rifles and are hunting the hill people, Kirk prevents an ambush and Spock is shot and near death. The landing party beams up to the Enterprise where Spock undergoes emergency treatment. Even though Spock's condition is still critical, Kirk and McCoy beam back down and make contact with Tyree, the peaceful leader of the hill people. However, Tyree's wife Nona is less passive and when Kirk is injected by poison from an apelike creature, Nona cures him.
When Kirk and McCoy realize that the Klingons are providing the villagers with their flintlocks, Kirk makes the decision to provide the hill people with flintlocks to defend themselves. Nona steals a phaser from McCoy and attempts to give it to a group of villagers. However, they kill her and the enraged Tyree kills one of them with a rock and then demands that Kirk provide them with all the flintlocks they need. Tyree then sets off in a hunt to kill the remaining villagers who participated in the murder of his wife.
Although it may appear that Kirk is destroying a society, he is in fact providing the only mechanism that will allow both sides to live. As long as the Klingons continue to intervene on the planet, the only way to keep the villagers from annihilating the hill people is to arm the hill people. The only alternative is to confront the Klingons and risk a horrendous and costly war between the Federation and the Klingon Empire that could cost billions of lives.
It is often stated that this episode is a comment on the American involvement in the Vietnam War, which it is. However, that is because it was a war by proxy between two great powers, an event that the human race seems destined to repeat. This episode just pointed out that it may be repeated in space. When you consider that the alternative could be the annihilation/ subjugation of an entire species or mutual annihilation, in the relative sense, this scenario looks good.

In "A Private Little War," there are many different kinds of difficulties that the Enterprise crew must face. Spock gets hurt, and Captain Kirk is struck by an Abominable Snowman-looking creature and is poisoned. With the help of a woman who uses some mysterious spell to bring Captain Kirk back, Kirk and Dr. McCoy find out that they also have to deal with some Klingons who are stirring up trouble.

That's what makes this episode a good one, there's more than just one problem that the Enterprise crew have to face. Some of the parts of the episode that you'll remember it by are when you see the creature that strikes Kirk, and when Spock tells the doctors onboard to hit him so he can come to.

I recommend anybody who likes Star Trek to get "A Private Little War," it's a good episode.

The first half dozen times I watched this episode (as a kid) I took it as pro-Vietnam-war propaganda. Later I watched it and realized that it's a CRITIQUE of the Vietnam War. The ending is a little ambiguous, but I really believe that Kirk changes his mind about the rightness of a "Vietnamization" policy at the very last moment.

There are things to quibble about -- such as the crappy California landscape used to portray "Eden" and the incredibly cheap wigs thrown on the planet denizens -- but a couple of things are outstanding. First, Kirk and McCoy argue over what is essentially a Federation "Vietnam" policy, made obvious by Kirk's reference to "twentieth-century brush wars in Asia." The great thing about this scene is that both Kirk and McCoy give their side the best possible argument. McCoy retorts, "Yes, I remember. They went on for year after bloody year!"

We are given reasons to mistrust Kirk. As McCoy points out, Kirk is under the influence of a local witch (Nancy Kovack) who is greedy, seductive, and selfish and trying to get him to provide her people with guns. But Kirk stands his ground. "Say you're right, that I am under her influence. What would YOU do, Doctor?" You see, the Klingons are arming one side in this fight and Kirk feels the need to back the anti-Klingon proxies. It's the hill people vs. the village people. It could've been the river people vs. the mountain people. Whatever. These primitive folks are just pawns in the Federation-Klingon Cold War.

Another outstanding moment is Shatner's acting of that final line. It is a difficult scene -- the entire episode depends on it -- and Shatner delivers the episode's ambiguous, but ultimately anti-war statement. Flintlocks? "Serpents, Mr. Scott, serpents for the Garden of Eden. Just beam us up." For all its flaws, this episode communicates a deeply heartfelt message that our Cold War involvements in the 20th century were depressing, tragic, and frought with moral perils. Peace was the way, but sometimes there were no easy answers. Maybe, despite the costs, it is better to just "beam up" and get out. None of this should be lost on people today as they think about how to get out of Iraq -- site of the original Garden of Eden.

In watching this episode, remember that in 1967 the debate over the Vietnam War was just heating up and there were still many millions of people who insisted we needed to be there. This helps explain the ambiguous tone that Roddenberry gives the episode. But the fact that Kirk is seduced by the witch gives you a clue as to Roddenberry's real leanings.