[5.4/10] “Hey viewers, did you know that the Vietnam War is bad? Or wait, maybe it’s a necessary evil? Actually...uh...we’re not sure, but we’re hoping you’ll be distracting by this evil witch lady slinking around enough that you won’t actually think about it too hard and notice that this episode is kind of incoherent.”
Look, I can’t start every damn Star Trek write-up with an acknowledgment that times have changed since 1967 and social and political norms will read very differently someone watching this show in 2017 that they did fifty years ago. But still, the obvious allegory for Vietnam, and (sigh) once again the gender politics of the episode, play much different now and it makes “A Private Little War” come off as very dated and even backward.
Let’s start with the problems inherent to the episode regardless of the times, though. It is a very loud and blunt episode about what it’s referencing. If it wasn’t already clear that the Federation and the Klingons giving the locals weapons and setting them against one another was an allegory for Vietnam, Kirk and Bones have a conversation specifically discussing it to make sure you get it. I try not to be all-in on subtlety -- there’s soom for directness in art -- but if the show were being anymore hamfisted about what it was commenting on it would have just been forty-four minutes of Gene Roddenbery reading an essay entitled “Vietnam: My Thoughts.”
The other big problem with that is that the episode was nigh-incoherent, or at least a little contradictory about the point it wanted the audience to take from this. On the one hand, there’s a “war is a terrible terrible thing” message to the episode that is pretty loud and clear, with Kirk wanting to do everything possible to instill the importance of peace. But then he’s just as gung ho that balance of power is the only way to preserve these things and totally willing to give his favored locals guns to fight the Klingons (rather than, I don’t know, taking away all the modern, or at least more modern, technology from the opposing locals?). The show seemed to be at odds with itself -- damning war on one side and claiming that arming our Vietnamese allies was a necessary evil on the other.
Those two thoughts aren’t incompatible, but it does seem like a weird peacenik-meets-”war is inevitable” perspective for the show to take. If anything, it makes me wonder if there wasn’t some network censorship or arm wrestling matches in the writers’ room that led to some degree of hedging. The one point the episode harps on to an embarrassing degree is how this sort of conflict spoils an otherwise idyllic paradise. Again, if you weren’t sure that Star Trek wanted you to understand that the escalating conflict between the locals was regrettable, Kirks facepalm-worthy line about needing “twenty snakes for the Garden of Eden” lays it on thicker than an offensive lineman at an all you can eat buffet.
Speaking of Kirk, this is a notably poor outing for William Shatner, which, man is saying something. The acting, if you can call it that, that he delivers when he’s supposed to be in shock from the unicorn yeti attack, is just third grade play-level bad. Speaking of which, I realize a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief is necessary with this show, but the alien sasquatch looked more like a community college mascot than a fearsome presence, which really weakened any supposed tension in these scenes.
And then there’s Nona...
Let’s get this out there. Nancy Kovack does a great job as a guest actress here. She commands the screen, gives you different shades of what could easily be a flat character, and chews the scenery a bit but makes it work as an outsized character in a ham-fisted episode. She does everything that’s asked of her and does it well and, in principle, Nona should be one of the most redeeming aspect of this one.
But man, the femme fatale/manipulative witch routine is really uncomfortable. To some degree, this is just Star Trek tapping into the Lady MacBeth vibe it’s employed from time to time, but it feels off here, like Nona is written as little more than a conniving temptress who will do anything for power. She’s like a non-comedic Tammy 2 from Parks and Recreation.
Then there’s the scene where a bunch of locals try to rape her and it’s played for cheap drama, with her being killed in what plays like it’s supposed to seem karmic rather than something horrible. As I’ve said before, this show just isn’t equipped to handle anything approaching sexual assault in a fashion that won’t make a modern viewer cringe, and this is no exception.
The big shame about “A Private Little War” is that it’s a great premise for an episode with an execution that is botched pretty badly. The notion of a primitive (or at least developing) culture on a planet being stoked and armed by two warring factions is a compelling story -- Vietnam allegory or no. But this episode just can’t get out of its own way in hammering home messages about the real life conflict or doing weird slinky temptress stuff to actually tell that story. I spent a good chunk of the episode wondering when things were going to progress in the escalation between the locals or come to a head. Instead, it’s a lot of pontificating and weird witch doctor stuff.
It’s fine to have a different focus or want to make sure your message gets across, but it immediately makes “A Private Little War” feel like a product of its time and not a compelling episode in its own right. The premise is a solid one, and as problematic a character as Nona is, Kovacks’s performance is quite good, but there’s so much other didactic and contradictory dialogue and story beats weighing the rest of this one down that it never rises above serviceable. “War is bad, but you have to do it anyway” seems to the point, and that’s an odd thing for the optimistic Star Trek to suggest, even in the tumultuous sixties.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-06-04T05:55:03Z
[5.4/10] “Hey viewers, did you know that the Vietnam War is bad? Or wait, maybe it’s a necessary evil? Actually...uh...we’re not sure, but we’re hoping you’ll be distracting by this evil witch lady slinking around enough that you won’t actually think about it too hard and notice that this episode is kind of incoherent.”
Look, I can’t start every damn Star Trek write-up with an acknowledgment that times have changed since 1967 and social and political norms will read very differently someone watching this show in 2017 that they did fifty years ago. But still, the obvious allegory for Vietnam, and (sigh) once again the gender politics of the episode, play much different now and it makes “A Private Little War” come off as very dated and even backward.
Let’s start with the problems inherent to the episode regardless of the times, though. It is a very loud and blunt episode about what it’s referencing. If it wasn’t already clear that the Federation and the Klingons giving the locals weapons and setting them against one another was an allegory for Vietnam, Kirk and Bones have a conversation specifically discussing it to make sure you get it. I try not to be all-in on subtlety -- there’s soom for directness in art -- but if the show were being anymore hamfisted about what it was commenting on it would have just been forty-four minutes of Gene Roddenbery reading an essay entitled “Vietnam: My Thoughts.”
The other big problem with that is that the episode was nigh-incoherent, or at least a little contradictory about the point it wanted the audience to take from this. On the one hand, there’s a “war is a terrible terrible thing” message to the episode that is pretty loud and clear, with Kirk wanting to do everything possible to instill the importance of peace. But then he’s just as gung ho that balance of power is the only way to preserve these things and totally willing to give his favored locals guns to fight the Klingons (rather than, I don’t know, taking away all the modern, or at least more modern, technology from the opposing locals?). The show seemed to be at odds with itself -- damning war on one side and claiming that arming our Vietnamese allies was a necessary evil on the other.
Those two thoughts aren’t incompatible, but it does seem like a weird peacenik-meets-”war is inevitable” perspective for the show to take. If anything, it makes me wonder if there wasn’t some network censorship or arm wrestling matches in the writers’ room that led to some degree of hedging. The one point the episode harps on to an embarrassing degree is how this sort of conflict spoils an otherwise idyllic paradise. Again, if you weren’t sure that Star Trek wanted you to understand that the escalating conflict between the locals was regrettable, Kirks facepalm-worthy line about needing “twenty snakes for the Garden of Eden” lays it on thicker than an offensive lineman at an all you can eat buffet.
Speaking of Kirk, this is a notably poor outing for William Shatner, which, man is saying something. The acting, if you can call it that, that he delivers when he’s supposed to be in shock from the unicorn yeti attack, is just third grade play-level bad. Speaking of which, I realize a certain amount of willing suspension of disbelief is necessary with this show, but the alien sasquatch looked more like a community college mascot than a fearsome presence, which really weakened any supposed tension in these scenes.
And then there’s Nona...
Let’s get this out there. Nancy Kovack does a great job as a guest actress here. She commands the screen, gives you different shades of what could easily be a flat character, and chews the scenery a bit but makes it work as an outsized character in a ham-fisted episode. She does everything that’s asked of her and does it well and, in principle, Nona should be one of the most redeeming aspect of this one.
But man, the femme fatale/manipulative witch routine is really uncomfortable. To some degree, this is just Star Trek tapping into the Lady MacBeth vibe it’s employed from time to time, but it feels off here, like Nona is written as little more than a conniving temptress who will do anything for power. She’s like a non-comedic Tammy 2 from Parks and Recreation.
Then there’s the scene where a bunch of locals try to rape her and it’s played for cheap drama, with her being killed in what plays like it’s supposed to seem karmic rather than something horrible. As I’ve said before, this show just isn’t equipped to handle anything approaching sexual assault in a fashion that won’t make a modern viewer cringe, and this is no exception.
The big shame about “A Private Little War” is that it’s a great premise for an episode with an execution that is botched pretty badly. The notion of a primitive (or at least developing) culture on a planet being stoked and armed by two warring factions is a compelling story -- Vietnam allegory or no. But this episode just can’t get out of its own way in hammering home messages about the real life conflict or doing weird slinky temptress stuff to actually tell that story. I spent a good chunk of the episode wondering when things were going to progress in the escalation between the locals or come to a head. Instead, it’s a lot of pontificating and weird witch doctor stuff.
It’s fine to have a different focus or want to make sure your message gets across, but it immediately makes “A Private Little War” feel like a product of its time and not a compelling episode in its own right. The premise is a solid one, and as problematic a character as Nona is, Kovacks’s performance is quite good, but there’s so much other didactic and contradictory dialogue and story beats weighing the rest of this one down that it never rises above serviceable. “War is bad, but you have to do it anyway” seems to the point, and that’s an odd thing for the optimistic Star Trek to suggest, even in the tumultuous sixties.