Gary Mitchell victim or megalomaniac?

[Gotham Central]

After he had the power of god? Many of us would stop caring at that point, too.

Before then? "Remember those rodent things on Dimorus, the poison darts they threw, I took one meant for you." "And almost died." The real Gary loved Jim Kirk, had a cordial relationship with Spock and was a bit of a womanizer--I don't see him as a jerk. I see him as the kind of friend many of us would love to have.

I disagree. A good parallel to Mitchell's situation was that of Cmdr. Riker when he was granted the powers of the Q. Those powers were even more god like and it didn't even take time to ramp up. Riker's first response was not to go on a power trip, but to try and help his friends.

Mitchell's first response was to subtlely threaten Kirk in their first meeting after his accident. Indeed, you can't help but notice that he never once offers to help fix the ship, which was severly damaged.

 

[Zycho32]

After he had the power of god? Many of us would stop caring at that point, too.

Before then? "Remember those rodent things on Dimorus, the poison darts they threw, I took one meant for you." "And almost died." The real Gary loved Jim Kirk, had a cordial relationship with Spock and was a bit of a womanizer--I don't see him as a jerk. I see him as the kind of friend many of us would love to have.

I disagree. A good parallel to Mitchell's situation was that of Cmdr. Riker when he was granted the powers of the Q. Those powers were even more god like and it didn't even take time to ramp up. Riker's first response was not to go on a power trip, but to try and help his friends.

Mitchell's first response was to subtlely threaten Kirk in their first meeting after his accident. Indeed, you can't help but notice that he never once offers to help fix the ship, which was severly damaged.

The problem with the comparasion is you have to filter it through the Real Life efforts of the writers involved in constructing those episodes.

Gary Mitchell's 'evil' tendencies were probably accelerated in order to better fit both the timeframe of the episode and firmly establish the viability of him as a Genuine Threat to Kirk and the Enterprise. Imagine if they had two or three episodes worth of time to play with. You'd probably get a more subtle turn-around in Gary's 'development' while allowing the time for him to BE genuinely sympathetic with how it all comes for naught as the power consumes his judgment.

Riker in the meanwhile, you could arguably state that the writers in the first season of TNG were really trying to make him as near to perfect and 'Ideal' a Starfleet officer as you can get, almost to the point where he couldn't do anything wrong (I remember somebody explaining once- don't remember where or when- that Riker was being established as the 'Hero' while Picard was considered 'ineffectual' during the early portions of the series, and it was mainly Patrick Stewart's performance which pushed the series aim away from that goal). With that writing mindset in mind, of course Riker's instinct would be beneficial rather than hostile.

That is of course, if you believe Riker's efforts with those Q Powers were genuine, rather than an effort to 'bribe' his crewmates into letting him keep the powers to begin with.

 

[stonester1]

"Manipulative jerk"? Based on what? We barely get to know the guy before his personality is altered. Yeah, a bit of a womanizer. "Walking freezer unit" was in bad form. But if Jim Kirk was friends with him, I'd have to give him a lot more credit.

"That blond lab technician I pointed at you", and so on.

Yes, those little drops we got painted a picture, at least for me, that yes, he could be quite manipulative, and even enjoyed using that trait. But, as I've pointed out, I went to his defense. But he was very much an imperfect person, and his experience seemed to unfortunately amplify some of those imperfections.