Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Day of the Dove" (season three, episode seven; production code: 066; 1 November 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Could have been a much stronger episode. I'm glad Kang (played by Michael Ansara) returned for an episode of Deep Space Nine ("Blood Oath," season two, episode nineteen), but not glad Kang returned for an episode of Voyager ("Flashback," season three, episode two), that series's thirtieth anniversary of Star Trek episode. "Flashback" is emblematic of Voyager, being dull & utterly forgettable compared to Deep Space Nine's magnificent thirtieth anniversary episode, "Trials and Tribble-ations" (season five, episode six).

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Less Than Jake, "Weekends All Year Long" from See the Light (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Spent a year stuck in this groove,
Another year of standing in these shoes,
Living like time's all that's left to lose.

"There's a record on repeat,
It's been spinning endlessly.
With the effects but not the cause,
Helps me feel less lost.
It's all the mirrors and the smoke,
Swallowing me whole,
And I never seem to know myself
Or how to keep control…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: Cinco de Mayo

Less Than Jake, "Richard Allen George… No, It's Just Cheez" from Hello Rockview (Rude Boy Miguel Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Cinco de Mayo is not Mexico's independance day, that's celebrated on 16 September. Cinco de Mayo is more of an American holiday than a Mexican holiday. ¡Happy Cinco de Mayo!

"Ay, ay, ay ay, Cinco de moustache!
The kids that are hip, they grow hair on their lip,
They throw down their razors and don't give a shit,
Then grow and grow and grow,
So let your moustache go!
Oh yeah!"

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: Freedom 7

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 65th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3
Me First and the Gimme Gimmes, "Rocket Man" from Me First and the Gimme Gimmes Have a Ball (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Commentary:

"Why don't you solve your little problem, & light this candle!"

The Wayback Machine Tour of Mercury-Redstone 3
Special: The 60th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3
№ DCCXLVII: The 59th Anniversary of Mercury-Redstone 3

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Less Than Jake, "Liquor Store" from Pezcore (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: A word search of my music library reveals only three songs with the word "liquor" in the title, all by Less Than Jake. L.T.J. is also the only band with the word "sobriety" in a song title.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" (season three, episode eight; production code: 065; 8 November 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Prior to this rewatch, I recalled the plots of many of these episodes only vaguely. With a few notable exceptions, third-season episodes do not spring readily to mind when the desire to enjoy an episode of The Original Series arises. "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" is better than I remember it being; at least, there was the seed of a good episode there, even if it was lost in execution. "For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" should have been an interesting story about a generation starship, but instead it's boilerplate about primitives worshipping a computer as a god (see also: "Return of the Archons" [season one, episode twenty-one] & "The Apple" [season two, episode five]) with a melodramatic subplot about McCoy experiencing a terminal medical diagnosis & falling in love with—& marrying!—the alien culture's high priestess. Captain Kirk also married an alien culture's high priestess just a few episodes earlier, in "The Paradise Syndrome" (season three, episode three), but she is killed,leaving him a widower; McCoy simply abandons his wife once her culture's medical knowledge cures his otherwise uncurable disease. Not a good look.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Mustard Plug, "Mendoza" from Evildoers Beware! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"She took a rusty stiletto and she slaughtered my heart,
Wrapped her finger 'round my mind, that was only the start,
Dumped cement in my stomach just to even the score,
And when she was done I only asked for more (More! More!),
'Cause you're too much woman for a man like me
And my love grows faster than a growing weed,
Mendoza, Mendoza, why can't you see
That you're the only girl, you're the girl for me?…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episodes o' the Day
"In a Mirror, Darkly" (season four, episodes eighteen & nineteen; production codes: 418 & 419; 22 April 2005 & 29 April 2005): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: We take a slight detour from our rewatch of The Original Series with the Enterprise duology, "In a Mirror, Darkly," which is, almost four decades later, a direct sequel to "The Tholian Web." In "The Tholian Web," the U.S.S. Defiant NCC-1764, a sister ship to the Enterprise NCC-1701, is lost in a dimensional interphase. "In a Mirror, Darkly" reveals that the alternate dimension to which the Defiant disappeared is the Mirror Universe, & not only was the Defiant displaced dimensionally, but also temporally, traveling back from the 2260s to the 2150s.

"In a Mirror, Darkly" holds the distinction of being the only episodes set entirely in the Mirror Universe, with no living beings phasing between the universes, only the Defiant. The producers went so far as to give these two episodes an alternate opening title sequence. Brilliant!

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the V Sunday o' Easter

The Fifth Sunday of Easter
Melanie Rea & Daniel Schmit, "This Is Jesus" from It Is Well: A Collection of Hymns (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

Reel Big Fish, "Everything Sucks" from Turn the Radio Off (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"She said someday we'll get back together maybe
She said someday things will be much better, baby
But I don't believe her
I don't think I need her anymore!
Yeah, yeah, yeah!…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Tholian Web" (season three, episode nine; production code: 064; 15 November 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "The Tholian Web" is a classic, one of the best episodes of the series. This episode has it all: a mystery in space, a memorable alien antagonist (the Tholians were referenced in dialogue a few times during the T.N.G.-era, but not seen on screen again until Star Trek: Enterprise, yet the visual of the Tholian web remains iconic), & possibly the most intense conflict between Spock & McCoy in The Original Series.

The final joke of the episode—in which Spock & McCoy pretend not to have watched Captain Kirk's video will during the time when they believed that captain had been lost in space, even though watching Kirk's exhortation had been vital in convincing them to stop quarreling & work together—is unfortunate, & uncuts the episode. This is not the only time a serious episode has been undercut by the obligatory final joke, one of The Original Series's worst tendencies, which developed during the second season.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "They Will Need Music" from The Magic of Youth (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"They will need music to uplift,
It'll be a Godsend, it'll be a gift,
And hope and glory to coincide,
They'll need the strength and warmth and comfort that the music will provide!…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Empath" (season three, episode twelve; production code: 063; 6 December 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: The Vians are vile & despicably self-righteous.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKAfter Party

"Weird Al" Yankovic, "Your Horoscope for Today" from Running with Scissors (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: The opening drums of "Your Horoscope for Today" started running through my head yesterday. Dan Regan & Tavis Werts of Reel Big Fish played horns on the track,adding realauthenticity to the styleparody of third-wave ska-punk.

Don't stop skankin'!

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Monday, 20 May 2019
The Interrupters, "She's Kerosine" from Fight the Good Fight (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Reminder: SKApril was displaced almost three weeks in 2019; there was a different R.B.D.S.O.T.D. for 30 April 2019, but that wasn't the last day of that ninth SKApril.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Is There in Truth No Beauty?" (season three, episode five; production code: 062; 18 October 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: That was a pleasant surprise. "Is There in Truth No Beauty?" is a much better episode than I remember it being. Not great, but decent, & certainly not offensively awful like the last couple of clunkers. Huzzah!

The Queue: Easter Edition

"Any book which inspires us to lead a better life is a good book."
—Venerable Fulton Sheen (1895-1979)

I listen to both of Bishop Barron's weekly podcasts & many other Word on Fire resources. There was nothing particularly new in reading An Introduction to Prayer, but it was vivifying reading the bishop's reflections in front of the Blessed Sacrament during Eucharistic Adoration.

While Israel Slept is a journalistic account of how & why the State of Israel fell into complacency, allowing Hamas to carry out the October 7th massacres (2023), the worst pogrom since the Shoah.

"Recently"
Josh Young, Expedition Deep Ocean: The First Descent to the Bottom of All Five of the World's Oceans
Pope Leo XIV, Dilexi Te: On Love for the Poor
Bishop Robert Barron, An Introduction to Prayer

Currently
Yaakov Katz & Amir Bohbot, While Israel Slept: How Hamas Surprised the Most Powerful Military in the Middle East

Devotionally
Kevin Belmonte, editor, A Year with G.K. Chesterton: 365 Days of Wisdom, Wit, and Wonder
anonymous, Cultivating Virtue: Self-Mastery with the Saints

Presently
Brendan O'Neill, After the Pogrom: 7 October, Israel, and the Crisis of Civilization
Bernard-Henri Lévy, Israel Alone
Kiel Phegley & Jacques Khouri, Strikers: A Graphic Novel
Andy Saunders, Apollo Remastered: The Ultimate Photographic Record *
Andy Saunders, Gemini and Mercury Remastered *
Joe Heschmeyer, The Eucharist Is Really Jesus: How Christ's Body and Blood Are the Key to Everything We Believe
Mike Aquilina, Understanding the Mass: 100 Questions, 100 Answers
Pope Leo XIII, The Leonine Encyclicals: 1878-1902

*Coffee table books.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Reel Big Fish, "S.R." from Turn the Radio Off (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: You know, in the almost twenty-nine years I've had Turn the Radio Off in my music library, I've never thought to look into the music of Suburban Rhythm. Maybe they should be part of next year's SKApril?

"Whatever happened the Suburban Rhythm?
Why did Ed and Scott quit?
Please don't go, Suburban Rhythm,
All the other bands are just shit!

"Well, they're Reel Big Fish and they got it made,
Because they signed up with a company that don't get paid,
I said they messed up all the lyrics and they got no style,
So, they gonna get it right, but it might take a while,
So, uh, don't touch that dial…"

&

Reel Big Fish, "S.R. (the Many Versions Of)" (live) from Our Live Album Is Better Than Your Live Album, Disc 1: More Shtick Than You Can Shake a Stick At (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wherein the Fish try to improve "S.R." by playing punk rock, blues, disco, country, garage rock, old-school rap, death metal, & emo versions of the song.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Thursday, 29 April 2021
Reel Big Fish, "Thank You For Not Moshing" from Why Do They Rock So Hard? (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Spock's Brain" (season three, episode one; production code: 061; 20 September 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "Spock's Brain" could have worked as a farce, as intentional comedy, but played straight it's just bad. I'm not sure it's worse than "And the Children Shall Lead," though. This is a really rough stretch.

Operation ÖSTERREICH: Easter Feaster Edition

Please Stand By | Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea máxima culpa!

Weekly Wednesday Weigh-in
Last weigh-in: 330.2 lbs. (12 June 2024)

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Half Past Two, "Scratched CD" from Half Past Two (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: "Scratched CD" treats a scratched compact disc as an updated version of a broken record: an endless repetition. In this case, romantic love gone bad.

"You're like the same song stuck on repeat!…"

Wait, a scratched C.D.? To the extent that my Gen Z nieces & nephews prefer physical media, having been inundated with digital media their whole lives, I am encouraged.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Tuesday, 28 April 2020
The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, "Wonderful Day for the Race" from While We're at It (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

"What a wonderful for the race,
Every smile on every face!
Every day until it's done
I'm talking bout the human one…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"And the Children Shall Lead" (season three, episode four; production code: 060; 11 October 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Possibly the worst episode of the series.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Roka Hueka, "Escape Musical" from ¡Volar! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: A reality with which I wrestle every SKApril: There aren't enough hours in the day or days in the month for all the great ska music out there, no matter how many years I've been doing this (sixteen) nor how many more years I do this (known only to the the Lord). So, I shine the SKApril limelight on those bands & songs I can, & I don't worry if I included the "right" bands & songs.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Potshot, "Other Side" from Dance to the Potshot Record (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: At 3:06, "Other Side" is lengthy for a Potshot song, not their longest, but longer than most. I have more Potshot albums than any other Japanese band, but because they sing primarily in Japanese & secondarily in heavily accented English, I have precious little idea what they're usually singing about.

"Gone to the other side,
Gone to the other side…"

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Saturday, 27 April 2013
The Loose Ties, "Let's Go Out Drinking" from Champ of the Week (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. Let's hearit for Flint's own ska band, The Loose Ties!

The Explorers' Club, № MCLII

Operation AXIOM: The 40th Anniversary of the Chernobyl Disaster
26 April 1986: Reactor 4 of the Chernobyl Nuclear Plant of V. I. Lenin suffered a catastrophic failure; operator incompetence, lax safety culture, & poor reactor design lead to explosions, meltdown, fires, & the massive release of radiation; thirty-one deaths are directly attibuted to the disaster, mostly from radiation poisoning; the Soviets did not publicly admit to any accident until two days later, 28 April.

Commentary: Chernobyl could—& should—be an entire series of episodes: the inept & corrupt Soviet construction of the plant, the known design flaws in the reactor that weren't addressed, the exposure of first responders & later "liquidators" to unsafe levels of radiation, the delayed evacuations of Pripyat & Chernobyl, the Exclusion Zone, the "sarcophagus," the New Safe Confinement, the February 2025 Russian drone strike, & the tragic poetry that the disaster was triggered by a safety test. Someday.

Semper exploro.

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Tuesday, 26 April 2016
Catch 22, "San Francisco Payphone" from Alone in a Crowd (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the IV Sunday o' Easter

The Fourth Sunday of Easter
Marty Haugen, "Shepherd Me, O God (Psalm 23)" from Shepherd Me, O God (Saint Mike Papa Whiskey)

Bonus! Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI!

The Aquabats!, "Phantasma Del Mar!" from The Fury of The Aquabats! (Captain Thumbs Up!)

Skammentary: If all goes to plan, I should see The Aquabats! in concert in a couple months, maybe twice in three days!

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Thursday, 25 April 2024
Roka Hueka, "Skank It!" from ¡Volar! (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Enterprise Incident" (season three, episode two; production code: 059; 27 September 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: Romulans! "The Enterprise Incident" is the first really good episode of season three & marks the second & final appearance of the Romulans in The Original Series, after their introduction in "Balance of Terror" (season one, episode fourteen). The Romulan Bird-of-Prey warship was seen again in "The Deadly Years" (season two, episode twelve), but no Romulans themselves; sadly, in "The Enterprise Incident," the Bird-of-Prey is nowhere to be seen & the Romulans are using the new Klingon battlecruiser introduced in "Elaan of Troyius."

"The Enterprise Incident" is an espionage story, full of deceptions & betrayals, setting the pattern for many T.N.G.-era Romulan stories.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Club99, "Move!" from Club99 (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Italian ska band Club99 returns for the first time since 2023 thanks to SKAffirmative Action. In the meanwhile, I've learned they are from South Tyrol, a German-speaking region annexed by Italy after the Great War; so, I'm classifying them in the same Austrian ska basket as Tobeadded & The Rocksteady Conspiracy. SKAustria?

The Stars My Destination: The Soyuz 1 Disaster

Operation AXIOM: The Space Race—The 59th Anniversary of Soyuz 1
Fifty-nine years ago to the day, 24 April 1967, Pilot Vladimir Komarov perished when his Soyuz 1 capsule crashed into the Earth's surface after its parachutes failed to deploy during atmospheric re-entry, the first man to die during a spaceflight.

Three cosmonauts were meant to launch aboard Soyuz 2, equipped with the same flawed parachute-deployment system, & rendezvous in orbit with Komarov aboard Soyuz 1. The Soyuz 2 launch was called off due to thunderstorms near the launch site; otherwise, they would have perished, too. After the tragedy, the Soyuz program was delayed for eighteen months while the parachute system was redesigned, amidst other refinements.

The Wayback Machine Tour of Soyuz 1
The Explorers' Club, № DCCCLXXVII

Bonus! Space Race Song o' the Day: In Memoriam
The Phenomenauts, "Heroes" from For All Mankind (Space Cadet Mike Papa Whiskey)

Requiescat in pace.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"The Paradise Syndrome" (season three, episode three; production code: 058; 4 October 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: The plot of "The Paradise Syndrome" is weak, but an amnesic Captain Kirk's brief, doomed marriage to Miramanee reminds me of James Bond's brief, doomed marriage to Teresa "Tracy" Bond in On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969, based on the 1963 book of the same name).

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Friday, 24 April 2015
Magic!, "Rude" from Don't Kill the Magic (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. We have always taken a very liberal attitude toward ska during SKApril, encompassing the successor genres (subgenres?) rocksteady & reggae, as well as ska- or reggae-influenced rock & pop songs. We intend always to maintain that very liberal attitude.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Five Iron Frenzy, "Plan B" from Five Iron Frenzy 2: Electric Boogaloo (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: We welcome back Five Iron Frenzy, who were part of that first SKApril way back in 2011, but have not enjoyed the SKApril limelight since the annus horribilis 2020, when we were all encouraged—in many cases, required—to give up on life & just lay about the house all day.

"Fell asleep with my clothes on,
Dropped my keys on the front lawn,
Waking up, I watch the drool a-gleaming
From my mouth to the carpet, it is streaming.

"Giving up
Never felt so good,
Welcome to plan B! (Welcome to plan B!)

"I'll eat some moldy bread,
Then I'm going back to bed,
I know how this day will crescendo:
I'll fall asleep while I play Nintendo.

"Giving up
Never felt so good,
Welcome to plan B! (Welcome to plan B!)
Giving up,
What is the likelihood
Life could be so free? (Life could be so free?)…"

As was so well stated in The Shawshank Redemption, "Get busy living or get busy dying."

Bonus! Song o' the Day: From the SKArchives

Sunday, 23 April 2023
Kemuri, "Go! Go! Go! Go! Glow!" from Freedomosh (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: Wayback Machine. In a world full of doomsayers & "blackpilling," be a rebel. Have a Positive Mental Attitude.

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Elaan of Troyius" (season three, episode thirteen; production code: 057; 20 December 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: The title is a reference the mythological Helen of Troy, but the plot is based on the Bard's The Taming of the Shrew. (As modern adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew go, I prefer the 1999 feature film 10 Things I Hate about You.) This episode would have been more successful if it had been more comedic, a farce instead of a melodrama.

The Next Generation episode "The Perfect Mate" (season five, episode twenty-one; 21 April 1992) has many parallels to "Elaan of Troyius."

The most enduring legacy of "Elaan of Troyius" is the design of the Klingon battlecruiser, which debuted onscreen in "The Enterprise Incident" (season three, episode two), which was produced after "Elaan of Troyius" but broadcast before.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

The Dendrites, "Never Knowingly Serious" from the Fly Casual E.P. (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary: "Never Knowingly Serious" is an instrumental work, as are most of The Dendrites' songs. The Dendrites are a SKAffirmative Action pick, having not enjoyed the SKApril limelight since SKApril XI in 2021.

The Rebel Black Dot Song o' the Day: SKApril XVI

Less Than Jake, "Gainesville Rock City" from Borders & Boundaries (Rude Boy Mike Papa Whiskey)

Skammentary:

"Well, I'm half-awake
And half a world away,
All my past mistakes
And every misspent day,
Proves that I'll never change,
I'll always stay the same,
I wouldn't have it any other way…"

Rewatching Star Trek (The Original Series, 1966-1969)

Episode o' the Day
"Spectre of the Gun" (season three, episode six; production code: 056; 25 October 1968): Wikipedia-link.

Commentary: "Spectre of the Gun" is one of the many episodes of the third season with which I have only a passing familiarity. It's not like "Balance of Terror" (season one, episode fourteen), "The Trouble with Tribbles" (season two, episode fifteen), or "The Doomsday Machine" (season two, episode six), episodes I've seen over & over again.

Upon re-watching the episode, it's interesting to see the strong pacifist streak throughout, a streak at odds with many other episode of The Original Series. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Scott, & Chekov (no disposable "redshirts" this time) are trapped in a surreal representation of the American frontier town of Tombstone on the day of the far-famed Gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Time and again, our intrepid heroes decline to engage in violence against the Earp brothers & Doc Holliday & are eventually released from the cage when they realize that nothing in it can harm them unless they believe it can. Jim Kirk as a pacifist is an interesting idea to explore, but it is utterly consistent with many other episodes (including, but not limited to, the aforementioned "Balance of Terror" & "The Doomsday Machine"), which is to say it feels too conveniently tailored to this particular episode.

The other odd aspect of the episode is the Enterprise's mission to establish friendly relations against the express wishes of the Melkotians to be left alone. A Melkotian probe intercepts the Enterprise as she approaches the Melkotian plnet & warns them away; Kirk presses on regardless, obedient to his orders. When Kirk & company beam down to the planet, a Melkotian appears & sentences them to death for trespassing. Once they prove themselves non-violent in the weird Tombstone scenario, the Melkotians agree to talk, but should Kirk have even pressed the issue? I'm aware of the Perry Expedition (1852-1855) & the forced opening to trade of Japan by the United States & other Western powers, but is that consistent with Federation ethics?