Review 22 - Episode 23The One with the war that is played out on computers but people actually die.
Yet another high concept episode. Two planets are fighting a war, but they do it through simulation on computer, where the "casualties" have to report to disintegration chambers.
There were a lot of things I liked about this episode. Scotty and McCoy on the bridge were excellent as you don't really see these two together. I also liked that Scotty was clever enough to realise that the call wouldn't be the Captain. One thing I've noticed really is that McCoy is rather superfluous in the past few episodes. Apart from the man trap he hasn't had a big story.
It's extremely hard to believe that people would actually do this and report for death calmly just because authorities tell them too, but it's enjoyable watching Kirk discussing how insane yet in a sense, logical system this is. It was amusing to see the shore party trying to make sense of the war that was happening around them, when clearly nothing was actually occurring.
There was also a fairly huge violation of the prime directive again, this time more serious I think. The planet did tell them to stay away and now Kirk may have started an interplanetary war, but that's why he's the daddy really for all the risks he takes.
A difficult high concept to swallow, but entertaining and thought provoking.
3/5
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