"A Private Little War" is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek.
Written by Gene Roddenberry, based on a story by Don Ingalls (under the pseudonym Jud Crucis), and directed by Marc Daniels,[1] it was first broadcast on February 2, 1968.
In the episode, the crew of the Enterprise discovers Klingon interference in the development of a formerly peaceful planet and joins them in what becomes an arms race.
The Federation starship USS Enterprise orbits the planet Neural, a primitive world that Captain Kirk has visited before.
The two are attacked by an indigenous creature called a Mugato,[note 1] which bites Kirk with its venomous fangs before McCoy can kill it with his phaser.
She then proceeds to treat Kirk, pressing a mahko root into his injury with her hand which was cut with a knife just before the ritual began.
Once there, they locate a forge in which they find a chrome steel drill and virtually carbon-free iron, evidence of outsiders' involvement.
This episode has been analyzed as an allegory for the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, in both the 1997 book, Inside Star Trek: The Real Story,[2] and a 2016 The New Yorker article.
[3] Don Ingalls' first draft of the script had specific references to the Vietnam War, such as Mongolian-type clothes and a character described as a "Ho Chi Minh" type.