Finally an episode where they at least try to not totally disregard the prime directive! It is almost like it is important to the Federation or something. This is an episode I have no memory of watching and it was a fun surprise. Both Kirk and Spock are seriously injured in this episode and have to trust the healing of a culture in which they don't belong which is a cool part. It also moves forward the plot about nurse Chapel being interested in Spock, but only a little.
We begin with the ship checking in on a planet Kirk surveyed 13 years earlier. When he left they were a hunter gatherer culture with a fairly advanced understanding of plants a not much more. On the surface Spock and Kirk witness a group of the natives using flintlock muskets to ambush the man Kirk worked with here 13 years before. Kirk distracts the gunmen by throwing a rock at them, but they manage to shoot Spock through the chest before they can beam up. Spock is in critical condition, but there is a specialist in Vulcan medicine on board so McCoy is free to beam back down with the captain to investigate. Just before they beam down a Klingon warship shows up out of nowhere. With Spock out of commission Scotty is left in charge with orders to avoid the Klingons.
On the surface McCoy and Kirk are attacked by a horned ape monster and Kirk is poisoned by it before McCoy can blast it with his phaser. Before he passes out Kirk tells McCoy to find his friend Tyree who can save him from the toxin. Fortunately the first group of natives he encounters are part of Tyree's group so they bring Kirk and McCoy to their village. Tyree is busy being drugged into a stupor by some plant his wife is giving him and she rushes to Kirk just in time to see McCoy heating up rocks with the phaser. Feeling a little less stoned Tyree shows up and together with a creepy moving root they manage to heal Kirk.
Kirk recovers quickly and along with McCoy and Tyree they sneak into the village of their enemies. After knocking out the guard and leaving Tyree to keep watch they sneak into a building and find a forge. But not just that, they also find chrome steel drill bits and musket barrels made to look homemade. They even encounter the Klingon who is giving them these weapons. A fight breaks out because Kirk has a hard time not punching Klingons and they narrowly escape.
Back at the village Kirk trains them how to use the musket they captured from the guard and there is a big fight between McCoy and Kirk over whether it is ethical to arm Tyree's people to match what the Klingons have done. Tyree doesn't want to kill anybody, but when he sees his wife using her plant drugs on Kirk he gets pissed. Even more so when she knocks Kirk out, steals his phaser and tries to take it to the enemy village to arm them. It doesn't work out for her though as she is attacked by rival villagers and just as Kirk shows up with Tyree they kill her. Suddenly Tyree is ready for a war. The episode ends with a recovered Spock arriving to pick them up and Kirk asking for flintlocks to arm Tyree and his people, but possibly having second thoughts. It ends kinda ambiguously.
How things went: Normally I am not a big fan of episodes with a lot of social commentary. It can get pretty heavy handed and often gets in the way of telling the story. But this one felt more like a story that is also about something rather than shoehorning in the message. Not the greatest of all time, but a little above average.
6 out of 10
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