AND Secret Agent!
I’ll do the Prisoner with you. Once a week? It’s short, and I can fit it in with some re-views. I am VERY up on the series, I am a bit of a McGoohan fanboy.
Ok, when you are ready, one a week?
Regarding “Miri”
I’m lukewarm on this episode. As other have mentioned, the premise of a duplicate Earth is really stupid and doesn’t figure into the story in any meaningful way. My wife thought that maybe they did it to ensure the crew could catch the disease but I don’t buy it. Pretty weak.
However, the rest of this was pretty good. I actually enjoyed a much of the dialogue between the crew and between Kirk and Miri (although it was a bit creepy in places).
While the kid actors were not so great I really liked Michael Pollard as the ringleader. There’s something about how he knows he’s in control of this mob of kids and can get them to do anything. When Kirk is trying to reason with all of them, the camera cuts to Pollard a couple of times and he’s got this smug look on his face like he know’s he’s holding all the cards.
Regarding Pod’s comment about how they are 300 years only and still act like kids. Well, they still are kids. Their brains and bodies haven’t developed so they still only think and reason like children. At least that’s my take.
Notes:
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“No Blah Blah Blah!” That’s my favorite line. My wife and I use it all the time as shorthand for “you’re talking too much.”
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I always thought their were called “Grubs”.
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I like the Scab effect
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Sleeveless Kirk!!
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Why are their uniforms so easy to rip? You’d think fabrics in the future would be more durable
-Greg out!
Oh yeah - I’ve been using this gif forever and now I know where it came from!
Hmmm…saying things when you have no idea what they really mean…
I really thought about that one, I think it was a (poor) decision to reflect the passage of time on the planet? Dirt would have sufficed…
“Miri”.
Another episode that’s not as bad as I was afraid it was going to be.
Remember how in the beginning of the episode, they find another Earth? So, for some reason, someone made a duplicate of Earth? Like the whole planet? This is going to be so stupid, I thought.
But no, they kind of ignore that once the real story gets going. And the real story is about 300 year old kids that age really slowly. And how kids are really monsters.
So bravo Star Trek. I think I’ll have nightmares tonight about being attacked by spoiled brats.
All right folks, let’s kick off this week’s discussion with a new episode. This time it’s “Dagger of the Mind”.
This is another one that I can’t remember much of anything about. I found this episode to be … strange, in ways that I am finding hard to explain. It’s tonally a little off, kind of all over the place. For instance, McCoy brings up concerns about the escaped Van Gelder and what he’s been telling him about the Tantalus penal colony. Spock, often the foil and source of arguments for McCoy, backs him up professionally. But Kirk’s attitude seems to be humorous, almost contemptuous of McCoy’s concerns. And he clearly appears to be taking the side of Adams, who Kirk has never met and only knows by reputation (and if nothing else, their experiences in “What Are Little Girls Made Of?” should make them wary of that) over his own chief medical officer.
And Kirk’s first meeting with Noel in the transporter room is a little odd. They get around to explaining that there was some incident at a Christmas party, but Kirk doesn’t seem to take her very seriously either. Then they beam down and take a rocket elevator ride, which isn’t really explained but gives them a chance to get very close to each other.
But after that things kind of level off. I have to give credit to the incidental actors in this episode, they do a good job of giving just enough blankness to their performances to indicate things are a little off on the colony, but not enough to make you suspect there’s any foul play, yet. There’s a shot of Lethe that I thought was really effective:
The way one eye is in the light and one is in shadow gives her a kind of otherworldly look. Have to call out the actor that played Van Gelder too - he takes the chance to play bug-eyed crazy with both hands and runs with it. Wikipedia says that the actor felt he was being typecast in westerns and leaped at the chance to do something different. I’d say it shows.
In the end, I find it hard to say if I liked this episode or not. It kind of seems like “Miri” in that I think there were some interesting ideas here, and certainly interesting performances, but I’m not sure they come together into a very cohesive whole. Maybe someone else will have a better take on this episode than I have.
Dagger of the Mind
S1E09
Written by: S. Bar-David
No magilla this week. A decent exploration of the perils/temptations of mind control and enforced “betterment” of humanity by a kindly state…and how that can go wrong. Interesting themes if you click on the writer’s link above and look at his bio.
Having said that, I disagree with Dive on some things (I think the tension regarding who believes Dr. Adams and why is quite believable - the ambitious Kirk doesn’t wanna make waves over just a hunch), and agree with others (the whole Christmas party/Romance that never happened is just kind of…awkward. It feels shoehorned in at the last minute).
The episode is decent, but kind of boring. A little better than Miri. This episode had a lot more interest for me due to the great direction and cinematography.
And the great Guest star appearances by Morgan Woodward and
James Gregory.
We’ll see Woodward later.
And Gregory is…well fantastic all the time.
I can’t wait for next week.
Navaronegun’s Running Re-View Rankings ™
1.) The Man Trap
2.) Where No Man Has Gone Before
3.) The Naked Time
4.) Charlie X
5.) Dagger of the Mind
6.) Miri
7.) The Enemy Within
8.) What Are Little Girls Made Of?
9.) Mudd’s Women
TOS Week 9 Guest Star Death Match Round 1
As we approach the 10th episode, pick your favorite guest star from the ones we have seen so far. This will be narrowed down to 1 or 2 Guest Stars through other polls. This will be held every 9 weeks (ish).
The Below Poll Closes on SAT 29 SEP 2018. After which a heat of the Top 4 will be held.
Note: To Participate in any poll you should have seen all episodes referenced in the poll.
- Jeanne Bal as Nancy Crater in The Man Trap
- Alfred Ryder as Dr. Crater in The Man Trap
- Robert Walker as Charlie Evans in Charlie X
- Gary Lockwood as Gary Marshall in Where No Man Has Gone Before
- Sally Kellerman as Dr. Elizabeth Dehner in Where No Man Has Gone Before
- Roger C. Carmel as Harry Mudd in Mudd’s Women
- Karen Steele as Eve McHuron in Mudd’s Women
- Michael Strong as Dr. Roger Korby in What Are Little Girls Made Of?
- Ted Cassidy as Ruk in What Are Little Girls Made Of?
- Kim Darby as Miri in Miri
- Michael J. Pollard as Jahn in Miri
- James Gregory as Dr. Tristan Adams in Dagger of the Mind
- Morgan Woodward as Dr. Simon van Gelder in Dagger of the Mind
0 voters
Daggers of the Mind
It’s mildly distracting that this episode starts off with the Enterprise orbiting a gorgeous looking planet. Stop it special edition’s new gorgeous special effects! You’re making me wonder how ugly the original planet must have looked in the original version of this episode.
The episode starts off with some exposition about how you can’t beam things when the penal colony’s forcefield is up. I have to remind myself that this is the first time they’re establishing this in the rules of the Star Trek universe. Which led me to the train of thought that whoever designed the transporter in the first place for television was a pretty imaginative person. My random meanderings are brought to a halt because the guy at the transporter turns around to take notes from a series of blinking lights behind the transporter console!
What are you doing? We’ve seen this once before when Evil Kirk shows up. When they make a point of showing you how lax security is in the transporter room, something is about to go down! And sure enough, what follows is a reminder to me that long before I started scoffing at how lax security was under Worf’s lead as head of security on the Enterprise D, I’m suddenly reminded that I have no idea who is even in charge of security on this original Enterprise. And they really need someone in charge, because they’re pretty disorganized here. Not as incompetent as in some previous episodes, because Spock does try to isolate sectors as they’re searching for the escapee, and the guy who spots the convict doesn’t first try to report his occupation and duties when he reports to the bridge.
The rest of the episode goes through the motions. Do they believe this convict over an esteemed scientist who Kirk is starstruck for? As McCoy snookers Kirk into investigating, he also assigns a really sassy lady to the away team. She’s got such a smirk on her face at all times. It really bothered me how long they strung that out, keeping from the audience the history between her and Kirk.
And oh my god, she’s an even bigger sycophant towards the man being investigated than Kirk. She’s useless! She’s useless and she’s still smirking.
And yet, even though this man invented this mind manipulation machine, she knows how to work it. And admittedly, despite her little speech that she’s a scientist, it is just two dials. The first dial is intensity and the other is an on-off switch for god’s sake. So don’t cover yourself with too much scientific glory there Missy.
Despite my hostility towards her though, when Kirk is in trouble, she’s the one that comes through. She takes down the security team single handedly through stealth and the fact that she’s a badass. I have to admit, I almost cheered at how kick ass this lady turned out to be. I didn’t even care about the rest of the episode at that point.
Oh, and for the first time we get to see a version of the Vulcan mind-meld. It’s more like a mild form of it here.
Before signing off, I feel compelled to point out one more thing here. For some reason, this episode doesn’t take place on a duplicate of Earth. Huh. Imagine that.
P.S. One final thought. I felt like this was the first time I felt a genuine warmth between the three lead characters. I felt it a little in the Man Trap maybe, and then a little bit last week in Miri. But here it seemed real for the first time to me. These three are starting to develop a genuine affection.
So did you like it? I kind of couldn’t tell. I am getting a lukewarm "Pretty Good " vibe from reading your impressions.
Just like most of the episodes in Season 1, it’s kind of hard to give an overall thumbs up or down. There’s moments in the episode where I was curious, moments where I was leaning in, moments when I was bored, moments when I was antsy with the smirking girl, and then finally moments when I was grinning like an idiot when she turned out to be one of the most competent people we’ve seen on the Enterprise.
The ideas presented in the episode were a bit muddled. When they beam down, she’s saying well of course we have to manipulate the prisoner’s minds and make them forget things. As if that’s what civilized society does. But then when they see the results of that in person, they’re suddenly horrified by it? So it’s only bad when it’s happening to you? I don’t know, it was weird.
As a science fiction idea, I didn’t think they made a clear case of what is acceptable and what isn’t. It all got lost in the minutiae of what happens to Kirk and Superwoman.
I agree. The only two solid Thumbs up with no hesitation from me so far are Man Trap and Where No Man. I found the episode competent, but kind of boring. Interesting ideas, in concept but not utilized well. Good thoughts on the Psychiatrist from the ship. She was kick ass. I just couldn’t get past the clumsily written romance-thingee that it feels like got shoehorned in (Geeeene…).
I actually liked what they were trying to do. Its as if Adams is respected, “He’s a published genius”, he’s done so much,etc. Everything sounds good. And then when allowed to take his ideas to their natural conclusion (A Clockwork Orange-ish here before the film) the practical result is abhorrent. Humanity got lost in all the self-congratulatory theoretical talk.
I like that concept.
I don’t know why I have it in my head that it was Scotty? Could be only because he’s the highest-ranking redshirt on the ship, but I seem to recall an episode where he’s giving orders to security guys?
I thought it was Spock, as Kirk’s always telling Spock to sort out security related things?
Does the Enterprise actually have security people, or are they all just Engineers that are forced to go to the gym and practice with laser guns?
Dagger of the Mind
I made some brief notes:
- I like how the inmates wear the medical/science jumpsuit. Even penal colonies use Starfleet uniforms.
- That door guard is as bad a Worf. “There’s an intruder on a ship, so I’ll guard the turbolift with my back to it and not bother to turn around when it opens”. The rest of the bridge crew had faster reactions than this guy, including when he first entered the bridge!
- I like that the Enterprise has a psychologist. The Enterprise-D had to make do with a Counsellor and a bar tender, but here we have a full fledged Dr.
- I feel like you get a lot more named misc crew members on this series than in TNG. Shame most of them are eye candy babes so far.
- Speaking of eye candy: Her uniform is really badly tailored around the neck and doesn’t fit/far too short on the rear! You can see her blue under-shorts when she’s just walking around!!
- In this episode, when Kirk and the psychologist beam down, the new FX is a lovely 60s style Matt painting which they beam down “into”, whereas the old FX is a physical set ! I wonder why they decided to cover that up? It’s the traditional polystyrene world type thing.
- It starts with a rather progressive view on mental health for the late 60s, but then quickly descends into something worse than electro shock therapy, and Dr. Noel implies this kind of machine is standard on Earth?
- This is a sort of “space detective” episode, with the Captain taking the lead.
- When it comes to away missions Kirk is already cavalier enough, for my tastes, as he’s always wading into danger on his own. And now he voluntarily experiments on himself with a mind wiping machine. What’s wrong with him? Why is he so reckless? I can understand not wanting to order Dr. Noel to get in, but why strap yourself in? Especially as he did it solo at first, until Dr. Noel comes to his rescue! What a loon.
- Though Dr. Noel is no better. A “harmless suggestion” is indeed “you’re hungry”, but “ps you love me and we didn’t go far enough at the Christmas party” wasn’t really professional, now was it? This is as bad as when the Yoeman talks about her legs in Miri. Do all ladies in Starfleet fall for Kirk?
- Aside from the unrequited love, the rest of the time she acts like she’s good at her job and repeatedly tells Kirk to stuff it when he questions her competence. And, as mentioned by @Rock8man, she’d also be a good stand in for John McClane. Overall, it’s a surprisingly “positive” role, given what we’ve seen of other women in Starfleet.
- Also: Christmas, or at least Christmas parties, still exists! Interesting choice from Roddenberry there.
- A Mind meld! Which Spock claims is rare, yet they manage to do it all the time from now on :)
- How does the doctor think he’s going to get away with it? Is he going to phone up the Enterprise and say “sorry, your Captain and psychologist accidentally fell into the machine”.
Overall I though this episode was a watchable blend of space sleuthing, ACTION!, and warnings about superhumanism.
(ps, notch up another episode about transcendism. It’s either that or ancient dying races so far.)
Current Ranking
Great
N/A
Good:
- S1E4: The Naked Time
- S1E5: The Enemy Within
Mediocre:
- S1E9: Dagger Of The Mind
- S1E7: What Are Little Girls Made of?
Awful:
- S1E3: Where No Man Has Gone Before
- S1E6: Mudd’s Women
- S1E8: Miri
Skipped:
- S1E0: The Cage
- S1E1: The Man Trap
- S1E2: Charlie X
I know, right? First suggestion really was harmless. The second suggestion she starts writing romantic fiction into Kirk’s head. If the villain hadn’t interrupted her, that would have been the entire rest of the episode.
Hahahah. I’d forgotten about that guy. When the guard first appears, the whole bridge crew is startled and turn around, but it’s only a guard. And then later I forgot about him because he was overpowered so quickly without turning around. How useless!
By the way, I know you’re going off some kind of online list, but I would recommend both The Man Trap and Charlie X. They’re both better than most of the episodes you’ve watched so far IMO.