WNMHGB Question

[Poltargyst]

The "infliction" of god-powers seems to have the same progression on the three cases we know about. The first case is on the Valiant where its Captain blows up his ship to stop the inflicted crewman. Second case is Gary Mitchell. Third case is Elizabeth Dehner. All go crazy with this god-power. The last thoughts of the last victim prove that god-powers became the only thing that matters to each victim:

DEHNER: I'm sorry. You can't know what it's like to be almost a god. (then she dies)​

In the end, even Dehner couldn't resist the influence on her to be a god. Kirk's initial appeal to her humanity failed to bring her back to his side. She only attacks Mitchell after Kirk points out that their egos will only allow for one god to survive. After she realizes that truth, she finally attacks Mitchell because she sees that Mitchell will eventually kill her, too, and/or she wants to be the one god to survive.

I disagree. I think Dehner regained enough of herself to realize Gary had to be stopped for the right reasons and not just because she wanted to be the only one to rule.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Gary was a bit of a jerk even before the power got to him. I wonder if this influenced the kind of entity he later became.

 

[BK613]

The "infliction" of god-powers seems to have the same progression on the three cases we know about. The first case is on the Valiant where its Captain blows up his ship to stop the inflicted crewman. Second case is Gary Mitchell. Third case is Elizabeth Dehner. All go crazy with this god-power. The last thoughts of the last victim prove that god-powers became the only thing that matters to each victim:

DEHNER: I'm sorry. You can't know what it's like to be almost a god. (then she dies)​

In the end, even Dehner couldn't resist the influence on her to be a god. Kirk's initial appeal to her humanity failed to bring her back to his side. She only attacks Mitchell after Kirk points out that their egos will only allow for one god to survive. After she realizes that truth, she finally attacks Mitchell because she sees that Mitchell will eventually kill her, too, and/or she wants to be the one god to survive.

Probably a bit of both. Taking on Gary because it's the right thing to do but also because Kirk is right in that there would be only one in the end. Doesn't have to be either/or.

 

[hbquikcomjamesl]

And yet, what we see as pre-transformation Gary being a general asshole would have been much less objectionable in the mid-1960s.

Like Disney's Song of the South, it must be understood in the context of its time.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

And yet, what we see as pre-transformation Gary being a general asshole would have been much less objectionable in the mid-1960s.

Like Disney's Song of the South, it must be understood in the context of its time.

Of course. Nobody's implying that Gary being a sexist prick was unusual for its time, or anything like that. Still, though, one can't help but wonder if this was part of the reason Gary became such a megalomaniac after getting "the power". I mean, that didn't happen to Dehner, did it?

And I still can't get over how Kirk managed to ultimately kill Gary...simply by dropping a ROCK on him?

I guess we're meant to assume that, no matter how powerful Gary's mental abilities were, his actual body was still human, and therefore still vulnerable to injury and death.

 

[Swedish Borg]

Of course. Nobody's implying that Gary being a sexist prick was unusual for its time, or anything like that. Still, though, one can't help but wonder if this was part of the reason Gary became such a megalomaniac after getting "the power". I mean, that didn't happen to Dehner, did it?

And I still can't get over how Kirk managed to ultimately kill Gary...simply by dropping a ROCK on him?

I guess we're meant to assume that, no matter how powerful Gary's mental abilities were, his actual body was still human, and therefore still vulnerable to injury and death.

Or more practically their godlike creation had to die one way or the other... I don't think they could have ended the episode with Gary and The Enterprise going their separate ways...

 

[Timo]

Still, though, one can't help but wonder if this was part of the reason Gary became such a megalomaniac after getting "the power".

It's a bit odd that none of his megalomania would involve any of this "sexist prick" stuff, then. Indeed, he wasn't being mean to people specifically, regardless of gender; he was factually pointing out his superiority in certain respects, but not doing any personal insulting or the like.

I mean, that didn't happen to Dehner, did it?

She wasn't the talkative type. But when she did talk, every phrase of hers, too, was about the superiority of the divine duo, mankind's inferiority, and the way things were meant to go.

Plus a single polite "please" in the mix, but I don't really see it mattering much.

And I still can't get over how Kirk managed to ultimately kill Gary...simply by dropping a ROCK on him? I guess we're meant to assume that, no matter how powerful Gary's mental abilities were, his actual body was still human, and therefore still vulnerable to injury and death.

And yet Mitchell managed to stop a phaser beam from harming his body.

Perhaps we're supposed to think that he can stop any attack, but only if he notices it and has time to actively prepare against it. And isn't distracted at the time.

Kirk really should have shot him in the back originally! From afar...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Swedish Borg]

It's a bit odd that none of his megalomania would involve any of this "sexist prick" stuff, then. Indeed, he wasn't being mean to people specifically, regardless of gender; he was factually pointing out his superiority in certain respects, but not doing any personal insulting or the like.



She wasn't the talkative type. But when she did talk, every phrase of hers, too, was about the superiority of the divine duo, mankind's inferiority, and the way things were meant to go.

Plus a single polite "please" in the mix, but I don't really see it mattering much.



And yet Mitchell managed to stop a phaser beam from harming his body.

Perhaps we're supposed to think that he can stop any attack, but only if he notices it and has time to actively prepare against it. And isn't distracted at the time.

Kirk really should have shot him in the back originally! From afar...

Timo Saloniemi

The good guys don't shoot villains in the back.

 

[Timo]

Which is how the Jedi killed millions in the Clone Wars, by first yelling "Hey, you!"... But of course it was done to show how they were the good guys "from a certain point of view".

In Trek, sniping at a distance is seldom shown to be viable. Mitchell sensed Kirk long before the latter got to within a line of sight, in the obstruction-filled terrain. But are there treknological obstacles to long distance sniping, too? Do phasers for example have inferior range or something? I guess the longest-range sniping shots were the ones indoors in "Field of Fire", across that vast space station... And those involved a transporter-assisted slugthrower. The silver medal possibly goes to the Gorn sniper in "Arena".

Of course, Kirk didn't want to kill Mitchell as such. Had he wanted that, he should simply have nuked his former helmsman from orbit, which is a good and safe and efficient range for a proper kill shot. And probably still counts as sniping, given the accuracy of starship phasers and torps.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Swedish Borg]

Which is how the Jedi killed millions in the Clone Wars, by first yelling "Hey, you!"... But of course it was done to show how they were the good guys "from a certain point of view".

In Trek, sniping at a distance is seldom shown to be viable. Mitchell sensed Kirk long before the latter got to within a line of sight, in the obstruction-filled terrain. But are there treknological obstacles to long distance sniping, too? Do phasers for example have inferior range or something? I guess the longest-range sniping shots were the ones indoors in "Field of Fire", across that vast space station... And those involved a transporter-assisted slugthrower. The silver medal possibly goes to the Gorn sniper in "Arena".

Of course, Kirk didn't want to kill Mitchell as such. Had he wanted that, he should simply have nuked his former helmsman from orbit, which is a good and safe and efficient range for a proper kill shot. And probably still counts as sniping, given the accuracy of starship phasers and torps.

Timo Saloniemi

You don't need to be in a line of sight. You can beam a bullet inside someone's heart from a great distance. That should do the trick.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

You don't need to be in a line of sight. You can beam a bullet inside someone's heart from a great distance. That should do the trick.

The potential for Transporter abuse is a serious problem. As the cost of consumer technology comes down, we can be pretty sure there will be calls for regulation, permits, "governors" hard-coded in the firmware, etc.

 

[Noname Given]

Of course. Nobody's implying that Gary being a sexist prick was unusual for its time, or anything like that. Still, though, one can't help but wonder if this was part of the reason Gary became such a megalomaniac after getting "the power". I mean, that didn't happen to Dehner, did it?

And I still can't get over how Kirk managed to ultimately kill Gary...simply by dropping a ROCK on him?

I guess we're meant to assume that, no matter how powerful Gary's mental abilities were, his actual body was still human, and therefore still vulnerable to injury and death.

Which is interesting given that earlier in the episode we see Kirk fire a phaser rifle with zero effect on Gary's body. I think the implication is that Gary was still regaining his power (It wasn't back to full strength yet); and also that Gary must be aware of the attack and be able to concentrate a bit. in the entire final fight sequence when Kirk drops the rock on Gary, The phaser blast also creates an earthquake and you can make the assumption that somehow Gary was startled or stunned for a second and wasn't able to concentrate to protect himself from the boulder that we assume ultimately smashed him flat.

 

[Swedish Borg]

The potential for Transporter abuse is a serious problem. As the cost of consumer technology comes down, we can be pretty sure there will be calls for regulation, permits, "governors" hard-coded in the firmware, etc.

But you can't prevent people from outside the federation from making transporters that don't comply with these regulations.

 

[Henoch]

How long did Mitchell have to evolve from initial infliction to his final level? A few days? Sulu describes his power growth as geometrically (doubling in power every day). If we assume that Dehner evolved at the same rate after she changed, then she was still in her infancy of power as compared to Mitchell when she attacked him (unless women mature faster than men ). Her surprise attack, though lower in power, was able to whittle him down to normal so Kirk could fight him. Shame that Kirk hesitated with the head bash, but I guess the hero can't kill the villain when he's helpless.

 

[Timo]

Then again, Mitchell's eyes didn't go opaque until fairly late in the game; he didn't have a big lead on Dehner there. And why should he? Both were "infected" at the same time.

It's just that while everybody was gasping at Mitchell's grandstand stunts, nobody had the presence of mind to look at what Dehner was doing behind their backs... Whereas she very much had the presence of mind not to reveal her cards, especially considering how the crew treated the man/God trusted upon her care!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Henoch]

IMHO, glowing eyes are required to show off your god powers.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Then again, Mitchell's eyes didn't go opaque until fairly late in the game; he didn't have a big lead on Dehner there. And why should he? Both were "infected" at the same time.

Actually, Mitchell's eyes changed immediately. Dehner's took "a little longer for it to happen to me."

 

[Timo]

Oops, right. What was I thinking? But the eye thing might be the one that "took a little longer", yet incidental to the divine powers thing...

(Who knows what other body parts went silver, and in which order? Not the audience, since costuming that early on wasn't quite as revealing as in the regular eps.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

In the James Blish novelization, Mitchell's body starts become silver. I remember Blish saying he hits Kirk with a "silver fist."

 

[Swedish Borg]

I think the gods are overrated...