Episode of the Week : Dagger of the Mind

Time to review this week's TOS classic.

Please vote and have your say, and, as usual I'll record the scores so we can rank the series in order of popularity.

This week : Noel, Noel, it's Dagger of the Mind.

 

Some silly elements but it has to score extra for Helen Noel! She's definitely one of the better female officers in TOS. I was really frustrated when the ongoing comic wrote Dr Denher out of their version of Where No Man Has Gone Before but didn't use Helen instead. She needs her own spin off series.

 

Not a favorite and one that could have offered more. I gave it a 4

 

I like it. It has issues, but it's an entertaining outing.

I give it a 7

We are introduced to the Vulcan mind meld, so a good episode
for Nimoy/Spock.

Creepy villain Dr. Adams is not an average TV bad guy.

Morgan Woodward gives a nice performance.

 

8.

Another episode that is just plain fun to watch.

 

A really great episode.

Helen Noel really annoyed me until she kicked that guy.

First time we saw the mind-meld? I like how McCoy coerced Spock into it.

I like how McCoy and Spock are willing to question Kirk's judgement. And Kirk is OK with that.

 

Eight Maids-a-Milking.

8.

 

Meh, continuing a slump I see in this part of the season. Helen Noel is irritating as f**k and easily one of the more unprofessional officers on the series. She's hot, but big deal. She keeps openly flirting with Kirk, baiting him relentlessly and he keeps having to snap her back to professionalism. Once she starts crawling through the ducts and stops making an irritant of herself, she's fine. But until then, I find her to be just too grating.

James Gregory is miscast here, far too blue collar an actor to be the brilliant Dr. Adams. He's good when he shows his colors, but until then - swing and a miss.

On the positives: Morgan Woodward is outstanding. The first glimpse of the yet-unnamed mind meld and the one and only use of what seems to be a rejected shot from WNMHGB of the Enterprise as it approaches Tantalus. It's well below the usual standard, but a fascinating angle and shot. Of course, TOS-R viewers lost that uniqueness....

A 4.

 

Good episode, but a bit dated, I mean brainwashing and things like "A shifting of memory patterns is basic to psychotherapy.". I'm not psychologist, but I'm pretty sure that repression of memories is really not a good therapy.

Marianna Hill is hot, but her performance is not great. At some moments, Helen Noel isn't so far of Lethe.

 

I'd say McCoy helped persuade Spock to use the mind-meld on Van Gelder, not that he "coerced" Spock.

I like the fact that the mind-meld was created as a clever way of getting around network censorship. (Most of us geeks are familiar with the details.)

 

To this day, I still feel that the past of Kirk and Noel is vague. Something about a science lab Christmas party. The only details provided are in an altered memory under Adams' machine influence. I don't get it.

Speaking of which, that sounds like a pretty exclusive party. Did the bridge have their own Christmas party, too?

Agreed with those above about Morgan Woodward. I'll watch anything he's in. He's great at those insanity/anger/hidden motivation-just-under-the-surface type of characters.

 

A solid 7. Interesting premise, good guest stars (especially Dr. Noel; shame she never came back!). Well done.

 

Maybe the party wasn't just for science lab personnel, but was held in the science lab. That does seem a strange place for a party, though. Wouldn't it be a bit cramped and filled with sensitive, breakable equipment?

 

I quite like this now even if it wasn't a favourite when I was younger.

A 9.

Here again we have another excellent turn at storytelling. We also get to appreciate more of Star Trek's sense of theatre. First time viewers may well get a sense of the creeps with this one and even if you've seen it before there's still an unsettling sense to parts of it.

Morgan Woodward really sells the atmosphere initially with his portrayal of the raving Dr. Simon Van Gelder. He's really unhinged, and somewhat over the top, but you still feel for him. We then get to meet one of the hottest beauties in all the franchise: Dr. Helen Noel. Dr. Adams is a disarming and very easy going mad scientist which serves to make him more chilling. We also get to see for the first time the now famous Vulcan mind meld and it's done with an appropriate eerie atmosphere.

As much as I like this episode there are still quibbles in it. Helen Noel may have been stepping beyond professionalism when she made her quite personal suggestion to Kirk while he was under the influence of the Neural Neutralizer. And Dr. Adams must really be the one unhinged to assault a Starfleet Captain in such a way---did he really think Kirk's crew and Starfleet would accept another "accident" explanation for Kirk's condition? Finally: my they have quite large ventilation ducts in those hospitals of the 23rd century!

 

While I do have issues with levels of professionalism generally in TOS and Enterprise, I think it's harsh to single out Noel because she's flirting. McCoy does far worse and in front of the bridge crew (not flirting though thankfully) and to give him a pass just because he and Kirk are friends would ride roughshod over the definition of professionalism. Medical staff on Federation ships have rarely ever been portrayed as having high levels of professionalism as officers as opposed to as experts in their field.

A more appropriate modern treatment would involve de-sensitising the harmful memory and disassociating it from harmful physiological effects rather than trying to bury it but that would be an equally viable use for the equipment.

 

I suppose he was relying on the advantage of the security force field, but It could only haved given him time. Perhaps Stafleet could have believed him because of his prestige, but it's harder to convince a loyal starship crew.

She found herself in a pretty uneasy situation at the end of the episode as officer on the Enterprise of course, but also as psychiatrist. She was a "disciple" of Adams and strongly believed in the theories he applied.

I think this episode also shows the serious inconsistency about the starship doctors in Star Trek. Usually, the medical department seems to only have the CMO as doctor, but sometimes another doctor suddenly appears. It's pretty weird to see Bones trying to diagnose alone and later saying there are psychiatrists (not only one) on board.

 

Roger Ebert's Air Duct Rule: All industrial, commercial and institutional buildings have ventilation ducts wide enough for an adult to crawl through. This rule is apparently still in effect in the 23rd century.

 

Barney Collier on Mission: Impossible was always crawling through jumbo air ducts every other week.

 

Not all adults!