What a surprise! Kirk and landing party find themselves tossed into a savage and uncaring empire ("Mirror, Mirror"), the spectacular promise of their star trek twisted into a pain-filled path of destruction. Though they manage to secure a happy ending by returning to their upright position, imagine the mess left behind. Spock-2 is convinced down to the decade that the Empire will inevitably be overthrown. But what could they do were there no alternate universe to which to return? Kirk answers eloquently, some of the best lines delivered in TOS.

"I submit to you that your Empire is illogical because it cannot endure." Any civilization without a sustainable culture is "illogical," suffering a self-inflicted wound, usually the slowest to heal. "I submit that you are illogical, to be a willing part of it." (Amen to that brother - in fact, the whole logic-2 thing remains hazy - what's life like aboard the Imperial Vulcans on I.S.S Intrepid?)

"The illogic of waste," he warns. "The waste of lives, potential, resources, time ..." All these are too precious to squander, along with others left unlisted - culture, art, even good old goodwill (as a man of integrity in any universe should agree!). An empire that depends on terror to subjugate, will not survive. Cooperation rewards better than killing.

"If change is inevitable, predictable, beneficial, doesn't logic demand that you be a part of it?" Where the past and future don't suture, a change in the present is required. Sometimes these changes are subtle and we pay them little mind. Others come like a loud knock at the door when you least expect it. Where they cannot be ignored, they must be pressed into more peaceful applications. Then, "push till it gives."

If it's true "that a man must have the power," then such a man (unarmed with a device to make him invincible) can but pray for the proper strength at the proper time. If it's true that "in every revolution there is one man with a vision," then it becomes us all not to lose sight of what counts.

"What will it be?" So by our conscience do we maintain our fate. "Past or future? Tyranny or freedom? It's up to you." It is up to each one of us, everyday. And it is time, since there's no alternative universe for us to abandon - leaving only pain, destruction, and antipeace (dis-ease?) found littering society for us to remove. Litter is unnecessary waste, and there is no logic in this. We should consider it too.