Star Trek Thoughts: A Taste of Armageddon

In having already experienced a good number of Star Trek episodes through the "secondary source" of James Blish's short-story adaptations, I suppose I've had some favourites for quite a while now. One of those was "A Taste of Armageddon," in which Captain Kirk and his landing party get stranded on a world that's been fighting a war for five centuries by computer and disposing of those designated as casualties in disintegration chambers. On getting around to watching the actual episode at last, I did notice a good number of silly hats. However, this didn't altogether distract me from the idea I'd long been contemplating...
( 'Diplomats! The best diplomat I know is a fully activated phaser bank!' )