10 Most Important Episodes Of Star Trek: The Original Series

Many of the original episodes of Star Trek contained social commentary in one form or another. However, the commentary in the season one episode, A Taste of Armageddon, is easily some of the most powerful the show had to offer, as discussed not only desensitisation to war, but also man's inherently violent nature.

In this episode, the crew of the Enterprise beams down to a planet currently in the midst of a years-long war with another that's unlike anything they'd ever seen. The two worlds, as part of a treaty to end direct bloodshed, decided to "civilize" the conflict.

They would strike each other with simulated attacks and those who were declared "dead" had twenty-four hours to report to a disintegration chamber. Their reasoning is that human beings are inherently violent and that war is simply in their nature, thus theirs is the most sophisticated way to go about it.

Kirk takes it upon himself to put an end to this, destroying the simulation (which would cause the enemy to retaliate with real weapons) and gives the planet's leader a choice: go back to real war, or negotiate peace and put an end to the death once and for all.

In the process, he acknowledges the fact that humans are natural killers, which is why we must make the conscious decision that "we're not going to kill today."