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| Spock performs Star Trek's first mind-meld. |
Original Airdate: Nov. 3, 1966. Written by: S. Bar-David. Directed by: Vincent McEveety.
Kirk re-enacts Marathan Man (or vice-versa, as the case may be). Turns out, it isn't safe.
THE PLOT
The Enterprise is in the midst of a routine cargo drop to a penal colony when the ship unwittingly takes on a stowaway: a crazed, violent man, surely one of the inmates. But no - it turns out that the insane man is actually Simon Van Gelder (Morgan Woodward), a respected doctor who was assigned to the colony! As the man urgently cries out that there is danger and begs not to be returned, Kirk decides to initiate an investigation.
He and Dr. Helen Noel (Marianna Hill), a psychiatrist assigned to the ship, beam down to the colony. The head of the institution, Dr. Adams (James Gregory) is all smiles and cooperation. But something about the place nags at Kirk's instincts. When Adams shows them the experimental machine which he blames for Van Gelder's current state, Kirk decides to take a less supervised look... and ends up as Dr. Adams' newest patient, literally battling for his own mind!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Kirk: His instincts are razor-sharp, and he has learned to trust them. Even though he beams down to the planet predisposed to believe Dr. Adams, he immediately senses that something just isn't right. Perhaps it's all the zoned out, glazed smiles that greet him. Whatever the case, Kirk follows his instincts, and they lead him directly to the truth. Unfortunately for him, Dr. Adams anticipates his investigation of the machine and plants some firm suggestions into Kirk's mind, including a false "love" for Helen that is meant to keep him in check.
Kirk manages to take hold of himself, in a manner not dissimilar to in The Naked Time, and he directs Helen on a dangerous excursion to thwart Adams and contact the ship. This shows once again the strength of Kirk's will. I can't recall if there is an episode in which Kirk is mentally overcome... but I'm starting to hope so, just to see it happen.
That Vulcan Voodoo You Do: This episode is the beginning of a trend in TOS - namely, that Spock's mysterious Vulcan background can be used to resolve anything too sticky for a 50-minute script to manage. This is the episode that introduces the Vulcan mind-meld, allowing Spock to break Adams' programming of Dr. Van Gelder. This could have been far too dramatically convenient, but the scene works - in no small part because Nimoy brings a lot of conviction. Notably, and in contrast to many later episodes, the mind-meld is something Spock does not undertake lightly. This is also the first episode in which we really see how well Spock and McCoy work as a team in spite of their constant sparring.
Hot Space Babe of the Week: Gorgeous Marianna Hill is Helen Noel, the object of Kirk's affections for this week. Helen's early behavior is unprofessional, with her taking umbrage at even the most reasonable of Kirk's questions about Adams. What, did she used to be Adams' personal intern? Both character and actress improve substantially in the second half, when Helen pushes Kirk into realizing that his "feelings" for her are not real. Still, I can't feel any remorse for this being her only Trek appearance; Hill would prove more interesting as a gloriously spiteful townswoman in Clint Eastwood's High Plains Drifter a few years later. Here, she's mostly eye candy.
Villain of the Week: Veteran actor James Gregory plays against Adams' villainy, doing his utmost to play the character as kindly. He doesn't thunder lines or make declarations; he speaks softly, even regretfully, about the possibility of damaging Kirk's mind. The result of this is a far more textured characterization than might have existed from a more "on-the-nose" portrayal of the part as written, and it helps make Adams more memorable than he might have been.
THOUGHTS
Dagger of the Mind succeeds both as a character piece and as a thriller. Production design on the penal colony is good for the time, and it manages to tie in with mid/late 1960's culture by using cult iconography. The robes worn by people in the colony, the serene but empty smiles, even Adams' kindly uncle persona... It all evokes the kind of pseudo-religious cults that sprang up often in the '60's and '70's.
Of course, the setting - a facility for the criminally insane - also suggests the idea of lobotomies, which had been mainstream psychiatric treatment in the none-too-distant past when this episode was aired. By the mid-1960's, the public was only beginning to become aware of the damage these procedures had done, sapping people of creativity, passion, and personality in exchange for a tranquil but expressionless facade (and that in the most "successful" cases). Adams' machine is effectively a science fiction lobotomy, and taken in that context is quite chilling.
This episode sees one of the more notable remastered effects. Instead of recycling the matte from Where No Man Has Gone Before, the new version creates a remote setting for the penal colony, one which fits better with the vast elevator in which Kirk and Helen descend. Though I'm sure some purists cried foul at the wholesale replacement of the recycled matte painting, I found this to be one of the better digital replacements to date.
Rating: 8/10.
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