"The Charge of the Light Brigade" was a poem by the human poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson, describing a disastrous British Army cavalry charge at the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War.
Legacy[]
In 2269, Ensign Pavel Chekov quoted, "Theirs not to reason why" when asked to acquire a type of wagon for a mission on Kyros. Captain Kirk quoted the next line, "there's but to do and die," and described the circumstances of the Crimean War. When Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu asked what a light brigade was, Kirk explained that it was a group of 600 soldiers on horseback armed with pistols and swords, and that the charge was an idiotic strategy. Later, after Chekov was injured, Dr. Leonard McCoy wryly commented, "His not to reason why." (TOS novel: Spock, Messiah!)
In 2374, Miles O'Brien and Julian Bashir quoted the third verse of the poem before engaging Dominion and Cardassian Union vessels during Operation Return. Elim Garak asked them how the poem ended and O'Brien replied, "You don't want to know." (DS9 episode & novelization: Sacrifice of Angels)
Appendices[]
Background[]
| This section is written from the Real World point of view. |
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The Star Trek Online mission "Boldly They Rode" takes its title from the sixth line of the third verse. Like "Sacrifice of Angels", the mission involves retaking Deep Space 9 from Dominion forces.
External links[]
- The Charge of the Light Brigade (poem) article at Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
- The Charge of the Light Brigade article at Memory Alpha, the wiki for canon Star Trek.