Martin Luther King and Star Trek

On Monday I was watching TV while I was exercising and saw that an episode of the original Star Trek was on. I liked Star Trek its first time through, but it was a real favorite in reruns when I was in college. In honor of Dr. King they were playing THE most didactic (and many of the episodes were pretty didactic) racial episode of all.

It's about two mortal enemies whose faces are black on one side and white on the other, whose people have been in constant war for the last 50,000 years. Why have they been at war, you might ask? Well, one of them is of the ruling race and the other is of the oppressed. Why, again you might ask? Well, one of them is black on the left side of his face and white on the right side of his face, and the other is white on the left side of his face and black on the right side. It ends with both races wiped out except for the two of them, chasing each other around their lifeless planet.

I'm sure there's a message in there somewhere but I can't figure out what it is because they keep banging me over the head with it. There is some value in bringing things like prejudice up for ridicule, I suppose, but this one makes me groan.