The War to End All Wars

"The War to End All Wars" was the 12th of 13 regular episode scripts prepared for the abortive development of the television series Star Trek: Phase II. Although the episode went unproduced, a detailed synopsis was published in the reference work Phase II: The Lost Series.

In this story, in the Phase II continuity, a war for profit was conducted through android avatars.

Publisher's description

 * Story Introduction
 * Even considering the demands of "In Thy Image", this is the most elaborate and technically demanding of Phase II's first scripts. Indeed, it is hard to imagine how this story could be told within an hour, and within the budgetary and production restrictions of weekly television, and still have included a space battle, derelict spacecraft, android armies, war ruins, alien tanks, an underground civilization, and war control chairs. That said, it is an involving story with a classic Star Trek theme, putting Kirk against an alien world where war has evolved into the ultimate spectator sport.

Summary
The crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) reviewed survey records of the non-aligned planet Shadir made two centuries earlier by a Federation starship, revealing it to have a highly cultured civilization, yet Xon could not detect intelligent life on the surface. Nyota Uhura picked up a distress call from Yra, who was pinned underneath wreckage aboard a nearby Shadirian spacecraft of the green faction. James T. Kirk beamed aboard her vessel and used a phaser to free her. Yra explained that Shadir was in the midst of a war. Suddenly, a warship from the blue faction approached and fired on the Enterprise, inflicting significant damage. With Yra's targeting help, Kirk returned fire and destroyed the warship, but its explosion further disabled Yra's ship, and both quickly beamed aboard the Enterprise.

In sickbay, Leonard McCoy ascertained that Yra was an android. The starship faced four days of repairs, but sensors showed that a second warship would be launched at the Enterprise in two days. Yra offered to beam down with a landing party to help stop the launch. Kirk, McCoy, Xon and Yra materialized near combat between green and blue factions, and McCoy's tricorder confirmed no signs of life among the combatants — they were all androids. The landing party was ambushed, captured by blue faction troops, and taken to planetary ruler Plateous III, who put the Starfleet officers in a prison. He had corrupted the Shadirian principle of preserving peace through war without any loss of life, replacing it with a corrupt system motivated by greed and thrill-seeking.

Yra sneaked into the prison to break out the landing party. She explained that any captured living beings were supposed to be removed from the combat area and brought underground. They climbed into a tank and Yra drove toward an underground lift. Green faction troops disabled the tank and damaged Yra, but she managed to hide the vehicle behind an apartment building. Kirk, McCoy and Xon took the lift downward, revealing an underground city full of living Shadirians. They discovered a war room full of Shadirians seated and connected by electrodes to consoles. Each person was operating an android avatar in combat, battling for credits. Interactive equipment not only operated the avatars, but also heightened the operator's senses, raised their pulse, and compelled them to feel hate, anger and the urge to kill.

Kirk knocked out one of the Shadirian operators and took his place. Once plugged in, he operated an android, ready to abort the warship launch, but his android arm froze inches away from the abort controls, and he had to be pulled out of the chair by McCoy and Xon. He confessed that the system controlled him so much that it made him want to kill even those aboard the Enterprise. Xon was then fitted into the console, and his Vulcan self-control allowed him to successfully aboard the launch. However, an alarm sounded and guards apprehended them all, including Yra, who was charged with treason. Willard Decker and a team of security officers then materialized, and they all escaped back to the ship.

Kirk offered to bring Yra to a more peaceful planet, but she asked to be returned to the surface near a rebel group. Their goal was to overthrow Plateous III and return their civilization to its previously ways of peace. Kirk let her know that war had been overcome on many planets, so there was always hope.

Characters

 * Willard Decker • James T. Kirk • Leonard McCoy • Plateous III • Montgomery Scott • Hikaru Sulu • Nyota Uhura • Xon • Yra • Zeylo

Plateous I • Plateous II

Starships and vehicles

 * USS Enterprise (NCC-1701) ( heavy cruiser)

Shadirian spacecraft • tank • unnamed Federation starships

Locations

 * Shadir

Earth (Berlin • London)

Races and cultures

 * Human • Shadirian • Vulcan

States and organizations

 * Federation

Science and classification

 * android • communications • communicator • computer • coordinates • deflector • elevator • engine • force-field • fusion engine • laser • medication • microtape • phaser • photon torpedo • robot • scanner • sensor • tractor beam • tricorder • viewscreen • weapon • welder

Ranks and titles

 * captain • Federation Starfleet ranks (2260s) • guard • helmsman • medic • rank • science officer • spy • Starfleet ranks • warrior

Other references

 * 20th century • adrenaline • air • battalion • beam • beta wave • brain • bridge • bridge crew • city • civilization • credit • day • distress call • farm • food and beverages • homeworld • hotel • hour • humanoid • infantry • landing party • lifeform • martial arts • mining • myth • park • peace • pollution • prison • races and cultures • Shadirian War • sickbay • space • standard orbit • transporter room • treason • war • wine • World War Ii • year

Background

 * Writer would become known as a supervising producer, executive story editor and writer for the CBS TV series Dallas. During his tenure on the US Comic Strips series, writer/artist Ron Harris was also involved in Dallas, producing a comic strip adaptation of it for the Los Angeles Times Syndicate.

Related media

 * – Planets Eminiar VII and fought a war by computer, yet required simulated casualties to be disintegrated for real.

Chronology

 * 1945 : In the aftermath of World War II, the conditions of London and Berlin were cited.
 * 2170s : Shadir was surveyed by a Federation starship.
 * 2273 : Enterprise visited Shadir