Hal, the answer to your question is Yes.

Remember that this show is wrapped around ambiguities. I always have
had a problem with the Evil Force lurking on the edge, lusting for conquest,
looking to take over the galaxy, because then the inevitable question becomes,
"Yeah, but what do you DO with it?" I have no patience with or interest in
cackling bad-guys.

Once again, as with all our characters, they're set up to look one way,
so you're lulled into a sense of predictable familiarity. "Oh, okay, now I
know who all the players are and what they're after." Only to discover that
this ain't necessarily so. There's a great scene in "Wrath of Khan" (if I may
be permitted a ST reference) in which the Enterprise is able to get the upper
hand because Khan is going back and forth in his search, not up and down, not
taking advantage of the full XYZ axis. "Two dimensional thinking," Spock
calls it. If one wishes to hit the target there, and in this show, one must
set aside two-dimensional thinking.

jms