"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" exemplifies the Star Trek morality play at perhaps its most strident, bypassing subtlety altogether with a scathing rebuke of the idiocy of racism. One of Star Trek's most famous alien makeup schemes ever (that melting black and white facial bifurcate, left begging for a creative checker-cloth wig) anvils the viewer with simple surreality found similarly in other "Lee Cronin" episodes. Few guest stars might upstage both Shatner and Kirk (on his own ship no less!) yet Frank Gorshin's tight-assed but big-bulged Commissioner Bele certainly comes close. His Emmy-nominated performance is so riddled with barely-controlled angst it shadows co-star Lou Antonio's outstanding performance as the also bulging Lokai (something in the water of Cheron?) even with his one act headstart.

It's never clear whether Bele and Lokai are just as they claim or to what extent their story has drifted due to their lengthy antipathy. They register as lifeforms on the ship's scanners yet their millennial lifespan, their conspicuous coloration, and other odd abilities (like reprogramming a starship computer with no contact!) suggest artificial beings which would also enhance the irony already exaggerated in the plot. Bele's ship represents an advanced and impressive technology, completely cloaking a fast scout ship that literally disintegrates to transport its pilot to his destination. (Though for all as advanced as they seem to be, it's nice to see they use zippers on Cheron.)

Small but impressive touches throughout the episode redeem it from sinking under its own over-pondered ponderousness. Rare and excellent zooms highlight the beautiful NCC-1701 model, Scotty's cute quip to "Let her rip!" during decontamination instantly changes an entire planet's atmosphere, and of course the hangar bay sequence is always welcome. There are a few flat notes here too, including the ridiculous wobbly-focus red alert, several awkwardly staged scenes, and an inexplicable reference to "the southernmost part of galaxy." And what's up with the goofy extreme close-ups during the otherwise notable self-destruct sequence? (One might also mention a 3D chessboard with five attack boards but let's not get too nerdy!)

Over five series and a few generations we've gone from the more accurate epithet "monotone" to Shran's cruder and clearly racial "pinkskin," indicating our advancement past the black and white of the issue. For all its plot padding (such as running sequences through corridors ad nauseum), cliché-tinged verbal taunts ("carry justice on your tongues"), or pithy platitudes ("change is the essential process of all existence") it's still a story that deserves telling, until no more battlefields remain.


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