A Private Little War by: Gene Roddenberry from a story by: Jud Crucis and directed by: Marc Daniels

 

“A Private Little War” is written by Gene Roddenberry, from a story by: Jud Crucis, a pseudonym for Don Ingalls, and is directed by Marc Daniels.  It was filmed under production code 45, was the 19^th episode of Star Trek Season 2, the 48^th episode of Star Trek, and was broadcast on February 2, 1968.

 

Sometimes there is an episode of Star Trek that just confuses you in terms of what it does and more importantly what it’s trying to do.  “A Private Little War” is an episode that certainly has the potential to be one of the greats, especially if the actual writing of the script wasn’t in the hands of show creator Gene Roddenberry.  Don Ingalls, who wrote the lackluster “The Alternative Factor” for the first season, had an interesting idea for an episode to parallel the Vietnam War and the United States’ involvement, President Lyndon B. Johnson being largely responsible for escalations of the United States in Vietnam since he assumed the office of the presidency in 1963.  “A Private Little War”, however, would not bear Ingalls name even in a story credit, Ingalls requesting a pseudonym on the script when his more explicit references and characters inspired by Ho Chi Minh were removed.  Now to give credit to the production, removing some of these references was probably the correct call, while the show has been good at casting non-white actors on many occasions, there are still the issues of yellowface in the Klingons and an often weak writing of non-white characters.

 

In the form that the episode eventually aired, “A Private Little War” has plenty of interesting ideas and moments that can prove there was something in Ingalls’ original idea, even if much of it was heavily altered.  The plot involves Kirk directly disobeying the Prime Directive due to Klingon interference, giving one village of on the planet Neural rifles and ammunition in retaliation to the Klingons doing the exact same thing.  The episode sets up these people as people Kirk had previous contact with over a decade prior, the episode building to this escalation which Kirk has to provide for these people.  This is where the episode ends, leaving the audience on what should be an incredibly powerful and dark image to end the story on.  For much of the episode, Kirk and McCoy are down on the planet after Spock is stranded in sickbay, he is shot in the first act of the episode.  In between Spock being shot and the action on the planet proper, the best sequence of the episode occurs, an extended scene establishing the theory that the Klingons are giving these people weapons and breaking treaties, allowing standout performances from Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig as Uhura, Chekov, and McCoy attempt to talk Kirk out of going down to the planet and risking contacting Starfleet before acting on his own.  Majel Barrett as Nurse Chapel also gets a few scenes with the injured Spock while the episode introduces Dr. M'Benga, played by Booker Bradshaw, as a human doctor whose studied Vulcan physiology since McCoy is paired with Kirk for the rest of the episode.

 

The largest issues of the episode occur whenever we are on the planet.  First, there is an alien called a mugato which is this stark white gorilla with poison that feels like an over the top alien to attack and poison Kirk getting him and McCoy to the village.  It’s clearly a guy in a slightly altered gorilla suit when this is an episode where a subtler alien may have been more effective, since Kirk is poisoned perhaps a regular sized snake could have made for a more effective alien.  Luckily it isn’t in the episode often, the Klingon leader being enough of a threat despite also being more of a background threat.  What’s brought to the foreground is an evil temptress who saves Kirk from the venom using tribal magic.  Already setting up a society of villagers is slightly dicey territory considering the real world implications of an allegory for Vietnam, but Kirk being healed by tribal magic by Nona, played by Nancy Kovack, which puts him under her spell is incredibly problematic.  This character and plotline reeks of the influence of Gene Roddenberry.  Roddenberry as a writer is responsible for some incredibly sexist episodes, and some of the weaker episodes of the first season, despite creating the show.  “Charlie X” and “Mudd’s Women” both were story ideas from Roddenberry and it’s clear that with “A Private Little War” he’s added in this character and made her the A-plot of the episode.  It overlays this awful idea of a temptress being the reason this society goes to this war of escalation on a far more complex idea of outsiders interfering.   Kovack is doing her best with the material, despite her skin being visibly darkened to give this exotic look which adds another layer of discomfort due to again Roddenberry’s decisions in rewriting this script.  It also means the Klingon supplying the weapons to the other faction only can appear in two scenes when this conflict should be the main thrust of the episode.

 

Overall, “A Private Little War” is an episode that because of Gene Roddenberry is an incredibly mixed bag.  Ingalls has a great idea here and when his ideas are clearly elevated in scenes on the Enterprise and the final scenes, it’s great, but Roddenberry’s sexist writing tendencies and misunderstanding of Ingalls’ original ideas means this episode is dragged down incredibly despite the material clearly showing the true potential of the idea.  5/10.