Questionable Trek vol. 12

James T. Kirk does everything right, always. Well, ok, not always. He has made a couple mistakes. Today, Andrew points out one of these rare failures.

Question from Scott: Andrew, name an episode where you felt Kirk made the wrong moral choice.

Andrew’s Answer: I am troubled by Kirk’s actions in the episode Errand of Mercy. Errand of Mercy is the episode which introduces the Klingons. As the story begins, the Federation and the Klingons are on the verge of war. Kirk has been sent to Organia, a non-aligned planet on the border, which the Federation believes the Klingons will try to grab. Kirk beams down to convince the Organian council to accept Federation protection, but discovers they wish to remain neutral. As he argues with them, the Klingons invade the planet. The Organians refuse to fight back. That’s when things go wrong. Kirk takes it upon himself to start a guerrilla resistance with Spock against the wishes of the Organians. He is captured and the Organians free him. As punishment, the Klingons execute two hundred Organians. Then the two fleets meet above the planet.

At that point, the Organians reveal themselves to be energy creatures and they use their powers to prevent the Klingons and Federation from fighting. Kirk and Commander Kor are furious and scream about the Organians having no right to stop them from fighting. Eventually, they see how stupid it is to whine about someone else stopping their war and both sides go home. Kirk is then ashamed of himself for wanting war.

Here’s what troubles me. First, I am a firm believer that when you are at war, you fight back with all means at your disposal. BUT it troubles me that Kirk would begin a guerrilla war on someone else’s territory when they have declared their neutrality. That strikes me not only as “world’s policeman” stuff, which I oppose, but it also strikes me as Kirk imposing his beliefs upon the Organians. That’s the same impetus which lets liberals think they have the right to force laws upon countries or tell parents how to raise their kids.

Further, I don’t like the conclusion at all. For one thing, Kirk doesn’t espouse genuine principles, as he normally does. Instead, he’s given this childish “if we want to kill each other, then you have no right to stop us” speech. That’s not really fitting of the character. Kirk’s role in the series is to problem-solve his way through moral dilemmas and to come to the right conclusion himself, not to whine as a solution is imposed upon him. Moreover, Kirk was actually set up here by the writer because the war itself is a strawman because we’re never told at any point in the episode why they are really fighting. Thus, we have no idea if Kirk is justified in wanting it or not. Consequently, Kirk’s entire speech about having a right to fight is meaningless because we don’t even know why he’s fighting. As far as we are concerned, he’s basically a war monger because he wants to fight for no other reason than to fight.

Then Kirk realizes he’s being childish about the Organians stopping the war and he agrees that the Organians were morally right to separate the Klingons and the Federation and interfere in their business. Wrong. That’s not the Jim Kirk I know, the one who believes in self-determination. What Kirk should have done is make a very clear statement about how morally incorrect it is for more powerful countries to decide to manage the affairs of less powerful countries and to outline the importance of people being allowed to live their own lives and make their own mistakes. Then, he should have found a way to prevent the war with the Klingons -- though that is impossible because this war has no actual cause other than the writer wanting it. I find this frustrating.

Scott’s Response: Watching the episode again, it's not bad, though I felt it went a bit off the rails in the last five minutes or so (when we find out the true nature of the Organians). You can't say Kirk isn't pro-active, though I disagree that he went about imposing his beliefs - to me, it seemed to be a simple matter of self-preservation. (Star Trek has always been inconsistent in this area anyway.) Regarding the "world's policeman" concept, it would be interesting to see what other conservatives think, given that some are more agreeable to that concept. I also disagree about Kirk admitting the Organians are right: he still reminds them that, while no one wants war, "People have a right to handle their own affairs." While he later admits that he's embarrassed for underestimating the Organians, that's not the same as admitting they were right. Lastly, this episode might be rather unique in the canon: we rarely ever had a Star Trek character arguing for the right to wage war.

Andrew's Reply: It wasn't really self preservation because Kirk could have simply sat out the war in hiding as an Organian. Instead, he set about blowing up a munitions dump, and thereby forcing the Organians into it on the Federation side. On the other point, you are right that Kirk does say that people have a right to settle their own affairs, but I see that as face saving really because Kirk abandons the point rather than arguing it till he wins. All in all, it feels like an endorsement of big powers controlling small countries for their own good to me, especially when Kirk then admits that he feels ashamed of being angry at them stopping the war he wanted (another un-Kirk-like thing). Either way, this is not one of Kirk's prouder moments.