The Women of Star Trek- Mea 3 from ‘A Taste of Armageddon’
What kid from the 1970’s DOESN’T remember the women of Star Trek? Every episode featured not only smart and sexy female regular characters among the crew, but also exotic sometimes alien women that the Enterprise would encounter each week. For no real reason I’ve chosen to start with an Alien.
MEET MIA 3!
In one of my favorite episodes, ‘A Taste of Armageddon” we see both one of the very best dystopic societies Star Trek ever presents in Ermeniar 7 as well as a bunch of Continuity issues in regards to the level of benevolence and interventionism the Federation is willing to exercise. An aggressive humanitarian stance is the only motive mentioned for the ‘diplomatic mission’. The annoying and fiery Mr Fox, Special Ambassador from the Federation, is aboard the Enterprise on a mission of Diplomatic Intervention designed to force a truce on the planets Vendekar and Eminiar 7, their destination. Fox can and does over rule Kirk and later Scotty, as he is highly and lawfully empowered by the United Federation of Planets to do anything to achieve the missions goals. The mission is completely at odds with the Prime Directive, which stresses Non Intervention, but hey,it’s season 1 and the Star Trek lore isn’t fully established yet (for example Spock also refers to himself as “Vulcanian”).
Unknown to Federation, whose first contact attempt had ended with the ship listed as lost a half century earlier, the two planets have somehow managed to negotiate their vicious war into a surgical endeavor via transferring all tactical actions to an adversarial Real Time Strategy Game where theoretical attacks result in actual casualties with those classified as victims willingly reporting to Disintegration Booths spurred on by an innate sense of duty and order. Those traits and some jaunty fashion choices are the only differences we can see between humans and the Erminians. Theres no makeup, brow ridges,etc. They appear as earth type humans.
When one of the theoratical battles causes massive ‘casualties’ and ‘takes out’ the Enterprise (hypothetically). A frustrated Kirk is told that for the greater good he and the entire ships compliment, as well as tens of thousands of Ermenians will all hop into suicide booths. Anan apologizes and gamely offers to return the Enterprise (for deposit?) to the Federation. Kirk doesn’t bother posturing, pointing to his ships superior technology and his confidence in his crew he confidently promises to destroy every city on the planet.
Mea 3 is the beautiful assistant of the leader of the planet, douchebag liar and video game junkie Anan 7. A functionary with a deep appreciation for the savage nature of his race (and that of the interloping humans who blew off a warning to stay away.)
Anan is evil prick who is simply overmatched and out savaged by Kirk and the Crew, who practice straight up war all the time. He ham handedly tries to fool Scotty, in temporary command with McCoy in semi executive role. After its clear his rouse failed Ana decides to attack the Enterprise outright with even less success than his attempts at deception. He continues to attack the ship to no avail.
Fox and Scotty clash when the later decides a few photon torpedoes might just get his point across to the Ermenians when he reasserts how they will destroy the surface of the planet after a failed attempt to convince Anan to play ball. Fox makes contact with Anan and gets a pack of platitudes and lies which seem to reassure the otherwise canny Fox. The final straw comes when Scotty refuses orders to drop shields (Anan is seen ordering an immediate attack as soon as the shields are down) as a sign of good faith. Scoffing at a threat of jail Scotty and McCoy assume an attack posture via attaining a higher orbit as Fox and his assistant beam down to the planet and are promptly scooped up for execution, albeit with a deep apology from Anan.
Mea is played by TV stalwart Barbara Babcock. She’s tooling for Anan dressed to kill in yoga pants and a drape strategically wrapped around her. A platinum blonde and complete stranger to modesty she never gets with Kirk or anyone else and is not overly passionate about anything outside her duty, even when that’s as grim as hopping in a suicide booth to be blown to bits, depriving her planet of her super flat stomach and alluring eyes.
On the other side of the coin Mea never gets slapped, punched, phazed or otherwise roughed up by Kirk. She gets off with a grab of the arm and a firm shove. Since this is to prevent her from dutifully committing suicide though we’ll give James Tiberius a total pass on what amounts to mildly accosting her.
Mea is pivotal in the episode. She represents everyone on the planet outside the political upper class (she’s merely a dutiful administrative assistant). She has to thread together some tough dialog and very lofty intellectual plot elements as well as show the inner nature of her planet’s inhabitants. She’s also the test case for Kirk’s highly imaginative strategy. He’s gonna mind fuck and terrorize the planet into negotiating an end to the 500 plus year war as well as establish relations with the Federation. She believably portrays how an essentially human type alien with an exaggerated sense of duty could buy into Kirk’s plan, as much as he reveals it, based on duty and trust. She flips loyalty and aids the Enterprise party in a violent raid where several Ermenians get killed by the red shirts Kirk bought along, neither of whom manage to die, likely because after the initial escape they toss their uni’s and put on native dress.
The real target of the raid, which started out as a diplomatic mission, are the instruments of the war, namely the Suicide Booths.
Shocked by the overt violence prosecuted by the now Raiding Party from the Enterprise she’s probably the first Ermenian to start to believe they can maybe end this war. She may also be somewhat inspired by the gorgeous youeman Tamarand, who takes a relatively hands on and violent in the whole operation too.
The final showdown between Kirk and Anan takes place in the council room and is best seen right before watching Seth MacFarlane parody it.
It’s a great, imaginative episode with an unforgettable Trek Chick who maintains believability in a challenging role on preposterous sets (that we all simply love).
In the end she seems to be set up to take a leading role in the new society,which opts to allow Fox to remain behind and attempt a dialog and treaty to finally, truly end the war. Hopefully they thrown Anan in one of the suicide booths before they retire them.
Kirk, Spock and McCoy, together for the first time in the episode remark on Kirk’s strategy on the bridge. He took a ‘calculated risk’, betting a small violent intervention would be a wake up call to the inner fear of what a real war would visit upon them. Fox’s final report, via subspace radio from the planet is prospects for peace appear promising.