![]() No one can say exactly what effect those vivid scenes have on American opinion. Johnson had to concede the impact that these broadcasts were having on the popular perception of the war:Īs I sat in my office last evening, waiting to speak, I thought of the many times each week when television brings the war into the American home. Speaking to The National Association of Broadcasters at the start of April, even President Lyndon B. The true horror of the Vietnam War was finally being shown to the American public. While A Taste of Armageddon had decried the coverage of the Vietnam War as nothing more than idle statistics, the images were finally filtering through. Beamed by satellite from Japan, the first news images of the carnage and chaos in the cities of Hue and Saigon, thought to be citadels of American control, hit the nightly news shows of the three major networks just hours before the didactic episode of NBC’s short-lived by eternally syndicated series. Three days earlier, the Viet Cong launched the Tet Offensive, the high-stakes semi-suicidal assault that turned allegedly pacified regions of South Vietnam into raging combat zones. The Tet Offensive would end with the North Vietnamese suffering heavier losses than the American or South Vietnamese forces, but the attacks would have a devastating affect on public opinion.Īs Thomas Doherty notes in Vietnam and Film, advances in media technology meant that American audiences would have been treated to images of the destruction wrought by the Tet Offensive shortly before the broadcast of A Private Little War:įor twentieth-century viewers, the telecast date of Star Trek’s A Private Little War – Friday, February 2, 1968, at 8:30-9:30pm EST – must have been more resonant than the star date entered in the captain’s log. However, North Vietnamese forces had launched the Tet Offensive only a few days earlier – the campaign would land through the end of March. ![]() ![]() A Private Little War was produced in late 1967. However, there were factors at play outside the control of the production team. Part of this is due to the script and the production, which makes explicit reference to “the twentieth century brush wars on the Asian continent.” With the Klingons and the Federation meddling directly in the conflict on a small backwater planet, comparisons invite themselves. However, A Private Little War is perhaps the definitive Vietnam episode. Shows like Errand of Mercy and A Taste of Armageddon reflect the conflict in a number of ways that were not possible in the scripted dramas of the time. Journey to Babel touches on the gap felt between conservative parents and liberal children ready to embrace life’s possibilities.Īnd then there’s the Vietnam episodes. The Ultimate Computer, Return of the Archons, The Apple and The Changeling all speak to concerns and insecurities about the rapid advance of technology and the people left behind. The Naked Time, This Side of Paradise and The Way to Eden all play with the idea of social liberation. The Second World War is treated as the beginning of the future, while much emphasis is put on mankind’s expansion to the stars.Įven outside of these general parallels, there are episodes that speak to particular facets of the sixties. The Cold War colours a significant portion of the series, reflected in the Klingons and elsewhere. The show’s costume and set design speak to the decade, as do the series’ sexual politics. It’s possible to see the decade reflected in just about every facet of the production. ![]() ![]() Star Trek is a pop culture relic of the sixties. You can check out our first season reviews here. To celebrate its fiftieth anniversary, this December we are reviewing the second season of the original Star Trek show. The first Star Trek pilot, The Cage, was produced in 1964. ![]()
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