In Vino Veritas

I knew the wikileaks kerfuffle reminded me of something from the distant past, but it has taken me weeks to loosen up the right memories.

Back in the 1970s, when the first generation of Star Trek was a memory and the next generation still just a project, there was a series of recordings of pseudo-episodes. I listened to three of them at one point on an LP.

The one audio Star Trek that sticks in my mind was called "In Vino Veritas." It involved a diplomatic conference among three powers each claiming the same planet: the Federation, the Klingons, and the Romulans. Because of a truth serum that a trouble maker has slipped into their wine, they start saying things that are grossly inconsistent with their diplomatic positions, and the conference breaks down.

The troublemaker went by the unlikely alias of Jack Spratt. (Why would you adopt "Jack Spratt" as a name if you were trying to blend into a conference as an inconspicuous "Federation" delegate???) Were they serving fat at the conference, in between toasts of wine, and he wanted an excuse not to partake, so "Jack Spratt" seemed logical?