Who would you classify a villain in TOS?
- Thread starter The Laughing Vulcan
- Start date
That's true, he didn't ask for what happened to him. It was an accident. Nevertheless, Gary's growing powers corrupted him resulting in him becoming a threat to the crew, even going so far as to murder Lt. Kelso. He was the villain of the episode with burgeoning mental powers and a Machiavellian megalomania to match that power. IMO, that qualifies as a villain.
It's interesting to consider the possibility that Tracy was a sociopath who somehow managed to hide it from Starfleet's psych screeners and advance to the position of a starship captain. His behavior in TOG is classic sociopath, and leads one to wonder rather perhaps if he didn't have something to do with his crew's demise.
Contrast this with Matt Decker, who probably was a normal commander who became unhinged when his decisions led to the death of his entire crew. Decker displays genuine remorse and grief for their loss.
Tracy, on the other hand offers a few token words about losing "my entire crew, people I worked with" in a flat, emotionless voice because he knows that expressing such a sentiment is what is expected of him. There's no real emotion behind his sentiments.
Did someone in Tracy's original crew divine his intentions and threaten to expose him to starfleet, and was this why Tracy perhaps arranged somehow for the demise of the entire EXETER crew? The last log entry of the EXETER surgeon has him start to say something about Tracy, only to succumb to the virus before he can get any further. Was this the beginning of a warning that Tracy had gone rogue?
Contrast this with Matt Decker, who probably was a normal commander who became unhinged when his decisions led to the death of his entire crew. Decker displays genuine remorse and grief for their loss.
Tracy, on the other hand offers a few token words about losing "my entire crew, people I worked with" in a flat, emotionless voice because he knows that expressing such a sentiment is what is expected of him. There's no real emotion behind his sentiments.
Did someone in Tracy's original crew divine his intentions and threaten to expose him to starfleet, and was this why Tracy perhaps arranged somehow for the demise of the entire EXETER crew? The last log entry of the EXETER surgeon has him start to say something about Tracy, only to succumb to the virus before he can get any further. Was this the beginning of a warning that Tracy had gone rogue?
If Merik/Merrick washed out because his mental fitness was found lacking, and the expression of that condition was in choosing to lead a sybaritic existence with very nice perks (though the decision did result in most of his crew's elimination), I highly doubt that the type of pathology you ascribe to Tracey, would have escaped detection at some point during his matriculation, or certainly in the many years of service afterwards. To have masked such a personality for so many years, with no intimation of what lay underneath, would have been a truly extraordinary feat, and most likely an implausible one.
Heck yeah! You spend all your time producing the show and fronting 50 percent of the money for production and a bunch of suits in the tower (who have never read a science fiction book in their lives!) tell you how to produce your series.
Yeah, NBC was evil. Check out NextGen and tell me Gene wasn't told what he had to do on TOS.
Janice Lester. I don't consider motivations and intent, just acts and consequences. No pass because society didn't tuck you in or even if you've been badly warped. Many people DON'T commit evil acts who have had many bad events shape their lives.
And Gary Mitchell is definitely a villain. Somehow Sally Kellerman DID retain her morality (can't recall character's name oy vey).
And Gary Mitchell is definitely a villain. Somehow Sally Kellerman DID retain her morality (can't recall character's name oy vey).
Um, who fronted 50% of the money? Not Gene.
Max Bialystock: The two cardinal rules of producing. One: Never put your own money in the show.
Leo Bloom: And two?
Max Bialystock: [yelling] Never put your own money in the show!
Leo Bloom: And two?
Max Bialystock: [yelling] Never put your own money in the show!
The show was paid for by NBC and Desilu.
NBC wasn't evil. Gene liked to portray them as such, but the papers from his own collection (many of which I've read) paint a different picture. He even claimed to had to fight them for things they told him they wanted (minorities in the crew being a biggie). Oh sure, he disagreed with them, but he also needlessly antagonized them.
Well, since TOS is a much better show than TNG ever was (IMO), I suppose I owe NBC a thank-you note.
I don't agree about Mitchell. Putting aside that it was his "friend's" foolhardy leadership that caused his transformation in the first place, I think it requires unsubstantiated and unknowable parsing of Mitchell's character prior to the incident, to make the case that what he turned into was inevitable, because the acquisition of such power and the overwhelming impressions of a new existence being thrust upon him, necessarily was a reflection of innate flaws that were previously hidden or suppressed, but now were allowed a genuine and unfettered expression. I find that it's much more plausible to make the case that anyone so affected would have their behavior evolve in a very similar fashion, even Kirk. We know that the power had the same impact on the crew member of the Valiant, albeit without any information at all about that person's personality. As for Dehner, her conversion came much later, but she clearly had a fascination for what Mitchell was offering. I don't doubt that if Kirk's plea had come much later in her evolution, it would have been seen in the same light as Mitchell's perspective, that is from an inferior and insignificant creature.
I have to say that it would've been interesting to see how Spock would have processed and integrated such a change, which I think one can make a good case should have been the outcome given what was later to be developed for the character as regards his extraordinary perceptual abilities.
I don't think the argument that Spock would have or should have been affected by the barrier is valid. Even if he is half human, he is half Vulcan, and not only are Vulcans a completely different species to begin with, but the mechanism of their telepathy may well be something that the barrier doesn't stimulate. The Valiant crew were, at last description, all human to my recollection.
Right...and why are we putting "friend's" in quotes...as if to imply that Kirk wasn't Gary's friend...??
Such as?
Different species, yes. "May well be something that the barrier doesn't stimulate", possible, but in reality is only basic speculation and doesn't positively render the idea as being invalid. What's most likely, and which I intimated, is that Spock's abilities hadn't yet been developed, or at least certainly not affirmatively shown, as part of his makeup.
I understand that this has to be seen in the light of a series, let alone concept, that was just being introduced and had to hit the ground running and not be bogged down in overly technical gewgaws or speechifying, but I've long long felt that given even the slight information that contact with this totally unknown part of space had resulted in such catastrophic consequences for the Valiant, it would have been more than prudent, serious, and ultimately would have shown at least a slight concern for the safety of his crew, for Kirk to have even in some perfunctory manner, chosen to act differently. Rather than professionally, with some degree of probity, try to establish the parameters and meaning of what befell the Valiant, IMO he played the immature rookie here with the only justification that could reasonably be presented to rashly proceed as he did, was simply the superior propulsion system that the Enterprise enjoyed, something that he didn't even intimate as allowing him to responsibly go ahead.
I'm not suggesting at all that he unilaterally decide to disobey his orders. However, even without the evidence as presented, why not send a probe in first to qualify the potential impact on a craft of their own, rather than just assume that the qualities of where they were about to venture would be the same as traveling through just any other segment of regular space? As the Valiant's data clearly suggested, there seemed to be a clear intersection of advanced esper abilities and the experience that the ship endured in the barrier. A few hours of examination, could've been made to be a few minutes of screen time. That this wasn't trivial, would certainly seem to be at least broached by the incomplete, but somewhat intelligible indication that what happened afterwards appeared to occasion the ship's commander to destroy his own vessel. How about making an attempt to extrapolate the impact of the constituent factors of the barrier, either discerned by their own sensors or by the aforementioned probe, as to a potential impact on individuals so endowed? If inconclusive, extraordinary caution no doubt, but why not consider identifying those crewmembers and putting them off ship, so as not to inflict on them the same experience and results that apparently overtook the Valiant itself?
But no, this inflexible, inexperienced. inside the box type, only took to the strict and immediate sanctity of orders, in the best tradition of damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead! Rash, brash, and stupid. Not exactly a display of a shining beacon of the mantle of greatness that was to be thrust upon him in the future, IMHO.
As for the relationship with Mitchell, sure they were intimated as being such before the incident, barely. But for a friend, one does favors, hardly what the rook consigned for Mitchell, not to mention the crewmembers that were killed, Kelso, and but if not for only a slightly shorter time in Dehner's transformation, the destruction of the Enterprise itself. I've long thought it appropriate that in some tale, canon or not, the repercussions of his actions would play themselves out on a much more contemplative Kirk who might, just possibly, soberly assess the consequences of his very serious missteps in judgement, when thinking of that friend someday.
Well, at least at the beginning, I think we can definitively say about him, Kirk you're no Christopher Pike!!!
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I have always wondered if the light in Gary's eyes was not power that Gary himself attained but some kind of energy being that was assuming greater control the more powerful he became, therefore it was not actually Gary that was the bad guy but he was possessed by the energy being that was trapped in the barrier. Even the esp angle seems to fit that as those people might be most susceptible to possession. And maybe Dr. Dehner would have ended up the same way but maybe her will was stronger or the sparky wasn't able to dominate her as easily as Gary.