Synopsis: The Enterprise recovers a stolen Federation shuttlecraft, and its unusual occupant.
On its surface, “Let That be Your Last Battlefield” can easily be seen as a lesson on the irrationality of prejudice. Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise see the humanoid aliens Lokai and Bele as members of the same race, with skin that is white on one side of their bodies and black on the other. But to Bele and Lokai, the difference as to what side of their bodies is white and what side is black has led the humanoid population of their planet Cheron to annihilate each other.
But if we look deeper, there is another divide here. That between the irrational Eros, here embodied in Lokai and Bele, and the rational Logos, symbolized by Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. Acting as the conscious driven ego, Kirk threatens to destroy the Enterprise rather than let Bele use his thoughts to steer her to Cheron – the place of unrest and irrationality. But Kirk does not blow up the ship and Bele learns how to disarm the self-destruct device, so the vessel ends up at Cheron anyway. Because the episode is written from the perspective of the Logos-driven Starfleet, once the Enterprise arrives at Cheron, the two irrational aliens are left on the planet of despair to fight to the death. But this is not a possible outcome for our psyches, at least not if we want to remain healthy. Alien ideas cannot merely be transported out of sight to fight among themselves. They must be acknowledged and dealt with compassionately.
Original post created 24 March 2021
mydailysoultrek 