History Recap / StarTrekS1E23ATasteOfArmageddon

* ArtisticLicenseSpace

* DisintegrationChamber: Citizens who have been deemed to be "casualties" by the computers have 24 hours to report to the "disintegration machines".
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness

* ForgottenPhlebotinum

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight

* ThatsAnOrder

* RealityEnsues: Anan sends a message disguised as one from Kirk to get the Enterprise's entire crew to come down to the planet, saying the situation has been resolved. Scotty easily sees through a ridiculous order for entire crew to leave the ship.

** Using ''sonic'' disruptors against a starship? ''[[ArtisticLicenseSpace Space does not work that way!!]]''

** Using ''sonic'' disruptors against a starship? ''SpaceDoesNotWorkThatWay!!''

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy

** Unless Kirk was just bluffing (as he was admittedly often known to do), the idea that Starfleet would have a "General Order 24" that covers ''total extermination of all life on a planet'' (and that this order can be enacted simply by the Captain, on his own say-so, giving a verbal command over a communication link) would be ''unthinkable'' in later ''Star Trek.''

** Anan 7 [[VoiceChangeling uses a voice duplicator to pose as Kirk]] and orders Scotty to bring the entire crew down for shore leave. Fortunately, Scotty's not fooled; the computer analysis tells him what he's already figured out.

** This episode is the kind of thing Captain Janeway talked about in the ''Voyager'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback "Flashback"]] when she said that the [=TOS=] crew were "a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive." Kirk, without a second thought, blatantly violates it here, even though it's to make an important point.

--> "All right. It's instinctive, but the instinct can be fought. We're human beings with the blood of a million savage years on our hands, but we can stop it. We can admit that we're killers, but we're not going to kill today. That's all it takes, knowing that we're not going to kill ''today''."

** Spock's telepathic abilities are another exercise in continuity. Most people think he has to be touching the intended contact with his hands for any sort of telepathic event [[note]]Bones even voices this in "Immunity Syndrome", "But I thought you had to be in physical contact with a subject before..." and Spock implies he heard the ''Intrepid'' crew dying because they were Vulcans like himself and there were 400 of them.[[/note]] However, this is one of several times he's shown making non-meld mental contact without touching, when he noodges a guard standing on the other side of a solid wall several inches thick. (This wasn't a mind ''meld'', just projecting a general sense of irritation/suspicion, a "I better go check on them." It's made much clearer in lines that were cut from the script, but preserved in Blish's novelization.) He'd also made a preliminary contact with the Horta without touching her, before explaining he'd have to touch her to communicate in more detail. He did a more extensive non-meld mental contact with a Kelvan (to see what they were really like) through a wall in "By Any Other Name", and in "The Omega Glory" he contacted the mind of Cloud William's mate (in the same room) and got her to pick up and open a communicator.

* TheFederation: While such a group was named in "Arena," this episode formally introduces the United Federation of Planets, the government that the ''Enterprise'' serves.

The episode opens with the ''Enterprise'' shuttling an [[AssInAmbassador obnoxious ambassador]] to the planet Eminiar VII to negotiate a diplomatic agreement with its people. However, after several days of communicator silence from the planet, Eminiar finally responds with a universal code warning the ship not to enter their space for any reason. For once, Kirk is fairly eager to respect the wishes of the planet and stay out of Dodge... but the ambassador is not, and serves the crew with some absurd ambassadorial authority the Federation's leadership has granted him, ordering the ship to proceed to the planet.

The episode opens with the ''Enterprise'' shuttling an [[AssInAmbassador obnoxious ambassador]] to the planet Eminiar VII to negotiate a diplomatic agreement with its people. However, after several days of communicator silence from the planet, Eminiar finally responds with a universal code warning the ship not to enter their space for any reason. For once, Kirk is fairly eager to respect the wishes of the planet and stay out of dodge... but the ambassador is not, and serves the crew with some absurd ambassadorial authority the Federation's leadership has granted him, ordering the ship to proceed to the planet.

* LivingIsMoreThanSurviving: Kirk destroys a computer that was keeping a planet's people in a stagnant, mollycoddled existence, and argues that this isn't a Prime Directive violation because the people didn't really have their own culture at all, after having become indifferent to their "war".

* BatmanGambit: Kirk pulls one off by destroying Anan's computer, suspecting that he would rather talk peace than continue a messier war.

* MisappliedPhlebotinum: The Eminians and Vendikans both obviously have access to immense computing power capable of calculating all the complex variables involved in military operations to a staggering degree of accuracy. They use this to engage in simulated strikes with both parties taking "casualties" by a mutually prearranged agreement in order to spare the actual destruction of critical infrastructure that a real shooting war would cause. A simpler solution would have been to simply ''simulate the entire damned war'', then allow the loser to concede without having to inflict ''any'' real damage to either people or property.

* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy:

* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** Spock is referred to as a "Vulcanian" again, as he was in Mudd's Women and Court Martial. This would be the last time the term was used.

* ForgottenPhlebotinum:

* ThatsAnOrder:

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Scotty [[Awesome/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries wisely refuses to follow Fox's tactically stupid orders,]] despite acknowledging that Fox outranks him. This episode is the kind of thing Captain Janeway talked about in the ''Voyager'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback "Flashback"]] when she said that the [=TOS=] crew were "a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive." Kirk, without a second thought, blatantly violates it here, even though it's to make an important point.

* ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: Scotty [[Awesome/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries wisely refuses to follow Fox's tactically stupid orders,]] despite acknowledging that Fox outranks him.
** This episode is the kind of thing Captain Janeway talked about in the ''Voyager'' episode [[Recap/StarTrekVoyagerS3E2Flashback "Flashback"]] when she said that the [=TOS=] crew were "a little slower to invoke the Prime Directive." Kirk, without a second thought, blatantly violates it here, even though it's to make an important point.

** Fox's aide gets shot, but it's never said if he's killed or just stunned.

* GoLookAtTheDistraction: Spock tells one of his victims "Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder." [[TheGuardsMustBeCrazy The guard tumbles to his ploy]]... literally.

** Ambassador Fox, along with his assistant, beaming down to Eminiar 7 while the Enterprise's "screens" were up, after Scotty specified that he'd have to lower the screens to beam Fox down. This is reinforced in numerous other episodes; it's often a plot point that beaming people on or off the ship while the energy shields are up is impossible. (The crew from ''Series/DeepSpaceNine'' were only able to exploit a vulnerability in the shields to slip through them in "Trials and Tribble-ations" because they had fast-working 24th century transporters.) Nothing more is ever said of these "screens" and whether they're the same as the shields or some modified version of them, however, nor do we ever hear of them again.