The Enterprise's crew encounters the
flagship of the "First Federation" that is crewed by an
alien being, Balok, who falls prey to possibly the worst bluff in the
history of bad bluffs. To escape certain death, Captain Kirk claims
that the Enteprise has incorporated into it something called
Carbomite, which he describes as being both a material and a
device which guarantees mutually assured destruction should anyone
attack them.
Huh?
Just what is this supposed to mean?
And just how did this bluff work on
anyone possessing more than two neurons to rub together?
It's a good thing that Harry Mudd
wasn't along for this voyage of the USS Enterprise, otherwise, he
probably would have introduced the people of the "FirstFederation" to poker and cleaned those suckers out and touched
off an interstellar incident.
The Carbomite Maneuver is noteworthy
for something else besides Captain Kirk saving the day through the
use of a bluff so unbelievably that it might as well be classified as
a deus ex machina. For one thing, it's one of the few episodes of
Star Trek: The Original Series where the Enterprise's crew actually
venture off to where no man has gone before.
It also posits that an alien
civilization that is advanced enough to be capable of space-flight
must also be capable of understanding and appreciating the
Enterprise's mission of peace.
In light of the Enterprise crew's later
run-ins with the Romulans and Klingons, not to mention the Gorn, this
seems like a pretty naive position to take.
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