February 23, 1967: premiere date of Star Trek episode ‘A Taste of Armageddon’.
On the day I was born, this episode premiered.
On Eminiar VII, the Enterprise finds a civilization at war with its planetary neighbor. Unable to discern any signs of battle from orbit, Captain Kirk leads a landing party to the surface where he discovers the entire war is fought by computer. Even though the war is simulated, citizens who are listed as virtual casualties still report to termination booths to be killed for real. After the Enterprise is destroyed in an attack simulation, Kirk must fight to keep his crew from death.
I always liked this episode, because it was basically a real live war game run by computers. Much like what I’ve been playing most of my life on my computers and game consoles.
This episode includes one of my favorite Spock lines:
Sir, there is a multi-legged creature crawling on your shoulder.
Since I bought the entire series on DVD and later blu-ray, I make a point to watch this episode on or around my birthday.
