But Walter Koenig, the actor who played Chekov, said the Pravda explanation was made up for publicity: The showвЂ™s producers wanted a character to appeal to a younger demographic, and just decided to make him Russian. As Roddenberry recounted in The Fifty-Year Mission, a two-volume oral history of вЂњStar TrekвЂќ published in 2016, the character was added after the Russian newspaper Pravda pointed out that the show ignored the Soviet UnionвЂ™s pioneering contributions to space travel. In the showвЂ™s second season, a new navigator named Pavel Andreievich Chekov showed up on the bridge of the starship Enterprise. But it offered a positive vision for the future in the midst of Cold War tensions. One of the most controversial plot lines of that season, the story was clearly analogous to the escalating nature of American involvement in Vietnam. Kirk decides to do the same in order to preserve the вЂњbalance of powerвЂќ on both sides. The first season episode вЂњTaste for ArmageddonвЂќ was one of TVвЂ™s first allegories for the Vietnam War, an issue the show would return to most famously in the second seasonвЂ™s вЂњA Private Little War.вЂќ In that episode, the Klingons are providing weapons to a primitive planet, and Capt. ForesterвЂ™s classic naval adventure series), вЂњStar TrekвЂќ didnвЂ™t shy away from tackling moral and social issues such as war, racism and discrimination. Though marketed as a classic adventure drama (Roddenberry based the character of Captain Kirk on Horatio Hornblower from C.S. I guess people and silicates are more reasonable in the 23rd century.Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner and DeForest Kelley in the episode вЂњPlatoвЂ™s Stepchildren.вЂќ (Credit: CBS via Getty Images)

Somehow, despite many killings and a sense that everything could go to hell at any moment with one raised phaser, Kirk and Spock manage to broker an agreement which satisfies everyone. The conflict stems from the needs of basic capitalism, such as meeting standard quotas, versus protecting the natural environment and its inhabitants - a space age version of protecting owls from the tractors of modern advancement. Uncharacteristic for most of the first season, this has a happy ending. But later, it's Kirk who, for some reason, holds back on firing a killing blast, as if the heat of the hunt had worn off and he'd had time to reflect on Spock's point (I believe it was during this episode's filming that Shatner learned his father had died).

The episode throws unexpected turns in character & motivation at the audience as the story progresses Spock champions the need to possibly preserve this discovered life as Kirk takes his usual stand on preventing the deaths of any red-shirts (no half measures, as in 'The Man Trap'). He also gets to utter one of his most famous lines, 'I'm a doctor, not a bricklayer!' I found it very true-to-life in his scene where he exults in his success, though he's unable to get Kirk to share in his enthusiasm - Kirk's too busy organizing results. Besides Spock's instrumental use of his talent, McCoy gets to supersede his usual medical routine - healing a creature resembling rocks or asbestos. Thanks to Spock's telepathic ability (probably the best use of a Vulcan mind meld for plot purposes), we learn it's a highly intelligent, even sophisticated creature. Sure, this Horta, a newly-discovered silicon-based life-form, looks like a mindless monster at first glance. But, the whole theme of this episode is about what's on the inside, rather than outward appearances, anyway. This also shows in the latest matte painting, famous to Trek fans, the only way to convey a long shot of the mining operations. 'Big and shaggy' is one voiced description, but it actually turns out to resemble a big, lumpy pepperoni pizza, skittering along the ground like a silicon centipede - a limitation of the show's budget, unfortunately. We don't really see it in the early scenes and, as many of us realize, the best monsters are sometimes left to the imagination. The monster in the dark here, murdering members of a deep mining colony, creates a scary impression in the first act. Of course, I was never in danger of being burned to a crisp, as the colony chief (Lynch) is fond of describing. He reminded me of the trepidation associated with being a lone security guard at night somewhere - the type of work I did briefly about 20 years ago. I sympathized with the plight of the first man, Schmitter, we see killed in this episode.

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