OH6@PSUVM.BITNET (01/06/86)
in a posting entitled "A private little war" Ellen Bart writes, (and I'm
paraphrasing) she can't accept that Kirk would send flint locks to the hill-
people. that he only said it because he was under the power of Tyree's wife.
She may not have been serious - we can only hope.
This has long been one of my favorite episodes. It is a rare example of a
television program addressing a serious, and real, moral delemma frankly and
honestly...with NO punches held. Was Kirk under Tyree's wifes magic - as Tyree
points out such a power was only legend. Would Kirk reverse his order for more
flint locks - Why? was it better to let the hill-people get wiped out, let the
klingons turn it into a savage garason? As Kirk pointed out to McCoy, as awful
as bloody a solution as his was...it was the only solution that preserves both
sides. Did Kirk violate the prime directive - well, as much as I'm convinced
Kirk never took the prime directive seriously, this time he was in the right,
the normal developement of that planet had already been interupted, it was now
Kirks duty to salvage what he could of it's culture. Was Kirks solution
morally wrong - that's the beauty of this story...
...you have to figure that out yourself.
Kevin M. O'Boyle
OH6 at psuvm.bitnet
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PS - If you disagreed w/ Kirk, I'm curious, what would your solution be?