Production Order Group Viewing 2018

I don't mean to sound like a broken record, but Marianna Hill or Sally Kellerman, someone like that, should have been the ship's doctor and third-billed from the word go. With a well-cast woman in place of Kelley, the Triad could have been an interesting triangle. She could have byplay with Spock that didn't require McCoy's low-brow, ethnic antagonism, because the gender difference would open up a whole other set of avenues.

Kirk could still be in the middle, between Spock's hyper-rationalism and her humanism, but at times she would be in the middle, playing the two men off each other. Again, richer relationships.

In "The Empath," Kirk and Spock are both protective of McCoy, who eventually overpowers them and takes the sacrifice on himself. If the doctor had been a beautiful, popular woman we were all fond of, think how much more punch the episode would have packed.

 

Can't ditch DeF Kelley though. An oft-recurring, Scotty-level character, however, like a first-contact specialist or A&A, which would have played into many planet-encounter eps. I could go for that. McKenna (counselor) kinda fills that role on STC.

 

<sigh> Helen

But this is another time with a better villain - Lord Garth and his trope of zany followers. They could have have labeled "Henchman #1" and "Henchman #2", etc. on his henchmen, and put a big "POW!" in the fist fight with Kirk and Garth. Did a Batman writer write this script by any chance: redo of "The Curse of Tut"?

 

MARK OF GIDEON

Another high-concept bottle show! Sadly, the concept isn’t developed as much as it could have been, with a bizarre and unnecessary plot element designed only to prolong the mystery and vague story resolution.

There is an all too brief but nonetheless cutting edge (for the 1960s) discussion as Kirk openly talks about sexual sterilisation and contraception. And as with LTBYLB, the episode doesn’t sympathise with Hodin and his extremist pro-life view. After all, it’s lovely to espouse that a “love of life is the greatest gift” but given the current planetary conditions it’s just irresponsible.
Put a sock on it, Hodin!

Aside from that scene, most of the plot is devoted to wandering around the duplicate Enterprise and arguing with diplomats or repeating coordinates. Incidentally, if the council’s plan was just going to abduct Kirk and then dump him into the replica Enterprise later on, why not give him the council chamber coordinates to begin with? Oh, because then Spock wouldn’t have uncovered the mystery (AKA lazy writing)

The story ends as Spock breaks through the paper thin mystery and Odona is cured. However, how does the plan (using the death of a high ranking official as a moral example to the populace) even work any more, given that she is now cured?
Is Odona instead going to work her way through the population one at a time like some sort of Typhoid Mary?

The lack of solid answers leads to a somewhat lacklustre ending to this interesting concept of a story that wasn’t explored to its best potential.


GIDEON IS ENCASED IN A LIVING MASS OF PEOPLE
This sounds like hyperbole, especially as Hodin is doing his best to persuade Kirk to stay at that moment. There’s also Odona’s statement to Kirk:

Taking her statement literally makes no sense, because if space where so limited that even the beaches are jam packed with people then there would be no streets, individual houses or undeveloped land of any sort!
This sounds like a party line or public propaganda she is just repeating.
After all, these people still need to be fed, don’t they? Instead I can see the population of the planet mostly crammed into a few mega-cities across the planet, with the majority of the land given over to agriculture and food production.

This also gels with the reports of Gideon being a “paradise” rather than an overdeveloped Coruscant style world. Scans from orbit may be forbidden but the surface of the planet is still visible, right?


THE DUPLICATE ENTERPRISE
This episode gets a lot of flak for the unnecessary and unplausible step in the Gideonite’s plan of contructing an entire duplicate Enterprise (especially on a planet where space is at a premium). However, there are lots of indications that it’s only a partial recreation and that Gideonite Council are constantly having to make adjustments on the fly in order to fool Kirk and the timeline of events is really short:

9 minutes of Kirk’s life disappeared, in which he was knocked out, his blood extracted and beamed back into the replica Enterprise. He then wandered to the Bridge, wandered the corridors and at some point recorded a log entry in which he claims to have searched the entire ship. We then cut to Mr Spock who states that Kirk beamed down “moments ago”. That’s less than an hour and probably not much more than the 9 missing minutes – definitely not enough time for Kirk to explore the replica ship in person.

As regards the accuracy of the replica, let’s not forget that Kirk may not be in his right mind, at least for the first hour or so on board the replica (having been subjected to medical treatments). Spock on the other hand (not having his faculties muddled) isn’t fooled for a second.
As the drugs wear off, Kirk begins to hear the heartbeats of the Gideonites (the drug probably got burned out of his system more quickly because he recently engaged in some vigorous physical activity too). After that the plot takes over and he’s less interested in the duplicate Enterprise and more interesting in solving the mystery.

Honestly, my biggest gripe with the replica Enterprise is how unnecessary it is to the Gideonite’s plan – just extract all his blood and be done!


OTHER THOUGHTS:

• This is an innovative use of the standing sets to do a bottle show that technically might not be (since the sets depict a duplicate ship on the planet’s surface)
• The episode begins with the Enterprise being the pushy negotiating arm of the Federation. If Gideon doesn’t want to be part of the UFP, why struggle with negotiations? Probably some great strategic advantage in the planet, such as we’ve seen before when the Feds get very insistent on another world joining their exclusive club.
• There’s a nice shot of Kirk and Spock walking along a crowded corridor at the start of the episode provides a good contrast to the deserted ship later on
• The initial effect of Kirk being all alone on the Enterprise is good and spooky, but they ought to have held out longer before cutting back to Spock and the others; it really undercuts the tension and the mystery
• Spock’s snark at the procrastinating diplomats is well justified and replaces the usual McCoy/Spock conflict, thankfully
• Odona does her best to persuade Kirk to surrender to a life alone with her, but she’s not as successfully manipulative as Deela in Wink Of An Eye. She just feigns a lack of knowledge and tries to distract Kirk. Despite her naivety in the art of deception, she does seduce him much more quickly though!
• Hodin and his aides are later revealed to be spying on Kirk and Odona the whole time. I might comment on the lack of privacy but given the state of the planet Gideon that’s probably not a societal norm.
• So, is the viewscreen on the replica Enterprise a window? It transitions from the stars into several faces peering in. The porthole “window” that Kirk opens also seems to be a plain transparency, at least until it polarises into picture of space. Unreliable Gideonite technology, maybe?
• Again usage of WNMHGB music to good effect, as Hodin begs Kirk to stay on the planet.
• In addition to Odona being naïve, Hodin’s plan does not seem very well thought out either given the ease at which it is foiled.
• Also, when begging with Kirk Hodin says of Odona “she hoped you would love her and wish to stay”. I guess the Prime Minister who learned of Kirk’s medical history didn’t gain access to his personnel files.
• It seems the FX budget couldn’t stretch to one more transporter effect – Kirk calls “transporter control” from a hallway com-panel to get Odona off the ship. Then he glowers at her for some reason.

Kirk’s psyche is really taking a battering in the third season; in the last 2 months he’s been:

• stranded in a universe all by himself
• forced into hyper-accelerated time and isolated from his crew
• stranded on planet with the Enterprise destroyed and no water
• and now the entire crew of the Enterprise has vanished into thin air!

I reckon he’ll be ready for a desk job after the 5YM ends.

 

You know, I never thought of that angle. I'll keep it in mind the next time I watch this episode. Thank you.

 

The Gideonites didn't have the latest Enterprise layout. The flash to engineering shows the old Season Two engine room with the blue heat exchanger on the floor gizmo. It was already established in Season Three that the blue heat exchanger was replaced by the Dilithium Crystal toaster. Good thing for the Gideonites that Kirk didn't change his quarters over the last two years.

 

I hadn't noticed the heat exchanger, good point! It shows that the Gideonites had been planning this for some time then.
As well the fact that Kirk never changed his decor

 

David Hurst, who played Hodin, passed away last week at the age of 93.

 

A couple of original sources, I think:

https://star-trek-tafelrunde.blogspot.com/2019/09/DavidHurst.html
https://www.warp-core.de/news/david-hurst-verstorben/

They are in German (since that's where he retired to) but Google translates them well enough.
It says he died on 15th September as a result of a stroke and pneumonia

He was 93?! That is not a bad age at all.

RIP Hodin
It's been a heavy couple of weeks for Trek losses

 

The Mark of Gideon

I wonder what the title means. It's an obvious reference to the planet Gideon, but it sounds biblical or Shakespearean or something. And yet, I find nothing when I Google. Hmmm.

I'm wondering why the Federation is trying so hard to accept Gideon. They were sold a bill of goods on what a paradise it supposedly was, but still.

Spock: "May I have the coordinates for beam down to Gideon, please? "
Uhura: "867-5309. They say for the Captain to ask for Jenny when he arrives."

And somehow offscreen they abduct Kirk, take his blood, wipe his memory, and set him loose again in their duplicate Enterprise.

Spock's in command again! He seems to be in a much better mood than the last time he was in command in That Which Survives. No annoying taking things overly literally, although he comes close with that "well, the duplicate is in orbit because it's on Gideon which is in orbit" thing. He's back to his friendlier persona here.

So Spock's in command, that must mean that McCoy is being a dick. But no! McCoy is NICE to Spock! He's even SUPPORTIVE of Spock defying Star Fleet and beaming down! At the end of The Tholian Web there's a moment where McCoy seems to finally accept and respect Spock's leadership, and it looks like it's carried over here.

So they went to all the trouble of making all the buttons on the ship (and there are a lot of them on the bridge alone) actually appear to do what they are supposed to. That is some attention to detail.

Huh. The Enterprise's power regenerates indefinitely. Don't they have to replace the dilithium crystals every so often or something?

Kirk: "Odona...canyou...remember...why your people dream of being alone?" Haha. Kirkspeak.

This planet could not possibly be THAT overcrowded. I mean literally having people touching you on all sides at all times everywhere? Is there no farm land? How do they eat? But the episode is delivering a message, so we'll just accept it and move on.

Okay, all those people suddenly looking in the viewscreen was creepy.

What was the point of letting them hear the hearbeats and then see the people looking in the window? Trying to scare them so Kirk would feel protective of Odona? A simple mistake by the Gideons?

Are all Starfleet admirals dicks? Seriously, in this whole series is there one time we meet a Starfleet higher up who is a nice reasonable person? So the admiral won't let Spock investigate Kirk's disappearance until Spock can explain Kirk's disappearance to him? Dick. And just how was the admiral expecting to get Kirk back? Or did he care? Or...was he in on it in cahoots with the Gideons?

Kirk Fu fails! Although it did take two goons to subdue Kirk. Later, Spock subdues the same goons with a neck pinch and by simply throwing one of them away. Spock Fu is very strong.

Huh. Sterilization doesn't work on these people. They just regenerate organs?

Quite a provocative discussion between Kirk and Hodor...er...Hodin, Hodin taking a religious fundamentalist stance, and Kirk the more liberal stance on birth control. I swear I catch a hint of a pro choice abortion stance in Kirk's speech as well.

It's been much discussed here about how the Gideons could possibly have such a perfect replica of the Enterprise. They aren't even part of the Federation! Maybe the Federation is in on it and provided the plans. Maybe the Gideons have really good spies in the Federation. I've seen it expressed here that maybe it was a holodeck. But it's one thing to have a replica of the Enterprise, but having all the little touches that Kirk would know is something else. Like the stain on his desk from when he spilled his coffee, the burn mark on the wall from when he fired a phaser at Deela. It's been speculated that maybe it's a telepathic holodeck, like the pleasure planet, reading Kirk's thoughts and showing him exactly what he expects to see on the Enterprise.

If the Federation is involved in the plot, what makes Gideon so attractive? Do they have big dilithium deposits or something?

Kirk says his ship goes all over the galaxy. Federation ships can go across the whole galaxy in reasonable amounts of time. That would be news to Janeway.

So let me get Hodin's evil plan straight. We have a planet full of Wolverines who regenerate from anything and almost can't die. That and their refusal to consider actually hindering the conception and birth of people means that the planet is way overcrowded. So Hodin decides he needs to interject death back into the population, and somehow he knows that Vegan choriomeningitis will kill his people, and he just happens to learn that Kirk had it, and his blood can be administered to his people to infect them. So he concocts this crazy plot to construct an exact duplicate of the Enterprise, insist that Kirk and only Kirk come to his planet so he can capture Kirk, get some of his blood, infect Odona, and have Kirk hang out with Odona, fall in love with her, and be so dedicated to her cause that even after she's died, he will willingly stay on Gideon to keep infecting people.

That is fucking nuts. I mean that is beyond Bond villain-level crazy. Hodin was counting on Kirk dedicating his life to this project after a couple hours with Odona? Really?

And the duplicate ship. Seems like way too much trouble to go to. What was it for anyway? To make Kirk feel comfortable by being in a familiar place while bonding with Odona? That is WAY too much trouble to go to for that. Surely there were other ways to arrange for Kirk and Odona to spend some time together.

Another episode with a social message you can't miss. I read on Memory Alpha that the guy who played Cyrano Jones co-wrote this episode because he was greatly concerned with overpopulation. So the message is that there needs to be some balance in preserving life while also accepting death as a natural part of the process and not going too far in holding it off. And maybe a baby doesn't need to result from every time you have sex.

Fun facts:
Population of Earth in 1969: 3.61 billion.
Population of Earth in 2019: 7.7 billion.

This episode is pretty meh. Captain! We're trapped in the Void of Meh Episodes! A madman got us in, and it's beginning to look like only a madman can get us out.

Alien Watch! Gideons! There's just too may of them!

Season 1
Talosians
That big ugly Rigellian guy Pike fought in illusion
Vina as an Orion girl in illusion
Glimpse of other aliens captured by Talosians
Ron Howard's brother
That dog from Enemy Within
Salt monster
That hand plant...Gertrude
Spock (duh)
Charlie's parents (Thasians)*
Romulans!
(Ruk)
Miri's planet kids (bonk bonk)
Giant ape creatures of Taurus II
Shore Leave Caretaker guy
Trelaine and his folks*
Gorn
Metrons*
The Lazerii
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Beta 3. (RotA)
The remarkably human-looking aliens of Emineminar VII (AToA)
The Triffids of Omicron Ceti III (TSoP)
The refreshingly non-human-looking Horta
Organians*
Klingons! (Remarkably human looking).
(The Guardian of Forever)
Flying pancakes

Season 2
Sylvia and Korob
The Companion
The remarkably human looking (though tall) Cappellans.
Native Pollux IV-ians (Apollo and his gang)
Full-blooded Vulcans
The remarkably human looking citizens of Argelius II (WitF)
Redjac
The People of Vaal (Gamma Triangulians)
Crew of the ISS Enterprise
The remarkably human-looking** (except for maybe a dot on their forehead) Halkans
Tribbles (not at all human looking)
The remarkably human-looking citizens of...892-VI. Is that what they call this planet? (The Roman one.)
Tall guys, short guys, Andorians, Tellurites, purple lady, Orion made up like an Andorian. (JtB)
The remarkably human-looking people of Neural. (APLW)
The awesome Mugato!
Shahna, Lars, Tamoon, Kloog, Thrallmaster Galt, and the Providers
The Cloud from the Tycho system.
The BIG FREAKIN' AMEBA!!!!!
The remarkably human-looking Iotians. (Gangsters)
Kelvans! Who really look like big, cool squids but choose to look remarkably human.
Sargon and the gang of not-quite-omnipotent aliens.
Remarkably human looking Zeons of Zeon and Ekosians of Ekos. (PoF)
The remarkably human looking Yangs and Coms of Omega IV.
Isis! Who looks remarkably like a cat until she wants to look remarkably human.

Season 3
The decidedly non-human looking Melkotians.
The remarkably human-looking Elasians and not so human looking Troyians.
Lawyer in a muumuu. Remarkably human-looking but maybe that was on purpose.
The remarkably human-looking Morgs and Eymorgs of Sigma Draconis.
Kollos the Medusan
Gem the Empath (remarkably human looking)
Vians (the OTHER bumpy-headed aliens)
Tholians!
The remarkably human-looking Fabrini of Yo Mama.
The malicious swirly ball of hate (DotD)
The remarkably human-looking Platonians who are douchebags except for Alexander
The fast, but still remarkably human looking Scalosians.
The remarkably human-looking image of Losira.
The Cheron boys, Bele and Lokai
Lackey's of Garth's some of whom are more human-looking than others.
Way too many remarkably human-looking Gideons.

*Alien Watch sublist: omnipotent aliens!
**By request

 

My theory:

I'm not sure of the origin of the name of the episode, but I'd suppose it has something to do with the Biblical military leader Gideon, whose story is told in Judges 6-8. There is a point when Gideon is forming an army to fight the Midianites when God tells him that his army is too big for the victory to be perceived as divine salvation. So, Gideon has to reduce the size of his army. Maybe that's where it's from.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gideon​

https://www.trekbbs.com/threads/50th-anniversary-rewatch-thread.283256/page-99#post-12769616

 

Perhaps the script was written on top of a Gideon Bible?

More seriously, I think more about Jephthah (also from Judges) who may or may not have sacrificed his own daughter.

 

<cracks knuckles> De-crystallization of the dilithium crystals is first discussed in STIV:TVH:

So, when a dilithium crystal is "drained" of its energy, then it starts to de-crystallize which permanently destroys the crystal in about 24 hours in this case. Apparently the Klingon vessel does not have a re-amplification machine to re-energize the crystal before it is either fully drained of its energy, or before it starts to de-crystallize (maybe there is a window of time or delayed time effect as indicated). Maybe the BoP is too small or too underpowered to support a re-amplification facility; only capital ships are capable. I propose that re-amplification, regeneration or re-energization or whatever is required on an "almost" drained crystal to save it as seen in The Alternative Factor:

We see a steady technical evolution of the main power system throughout the three seasons, though these changes were never explained in the series. Skipping to Season Three, we see the paddle dilithium crystal in an articulation frame in the engine room floor gizmo. IMO, the purpose for this engineering feature is just that, recrystallization/re-amplification/regeneration/re-energization of the dilithim crystal due to any degradation/draining, so, under normal conditions, the dilithium crystals are now self-sustaining.

Once the new technology of using high energy photons to re-crystallize the dilithium matrix is incorporated into the next generation (pun intended) of power systems, then they can probably reduced the number of crystals down to one.

<edit. I didn't mean "recrystallization"; I meant the same list my first paragraph which included "regeneration">

 

I always liked the mysterious concept of the deserted replica but the resolution was just too convoluted and meh. Odona playing it so dumb robs her of all apparent agency and she just becomes a victim in need of a man to, ahem, 'protect' her.

The deception by the Gideonites was very amateurish considering the level of technology that could have been available to them.

I do love how Scotty's exasperation starts to rub off on Spock though.

 

Stanley Adams eventually committed suicide, though I doubt this fear was a motive.

 

I never realized how much context "The Way to Eden" gives The Final Frontier and vice versa, especially considering Spock's views and history. I haven't watched the episode in basically 20 years or more, and forgot most of it, while an edit of TFF is in my regular rotation.

 

Fascinating.

 

I'm thinking it was on their ability to feed an entire planet of multiple billions yet still keep the world a virtual paradise. Such a technology would end famine on Federation worlds and was exactly the ruse that Doctor Leighton used to lure Kirk with, back in Conscience Of The King.
The Gideonites were at least partially truthful...

Not at all - Spock explicitly calls the duplicate Enterprise out as being "completely inoperative".
Kirk appeared to use the controls to "bring the ship out of warp" but that was probably just due to an offscreen Gideonite changing the viewscreen image

I mused on this upthread - Kirk was on drugs. LOTS of drugs

Yeah, there's really an abundance of super powerful humanoid aliens in Season 3.
Remember back when those sort of creatures used to be non corporeal blobs of light?

I hear that episode will be broadcast in a couple of weeks or so! Did you get a preview reel?

 

Oversight on my part. It's been awhile since I checked this thread and I thought you guys would be that far by now. Sorry.

 

I was only joking.
I honestly hadn't considered the connection between ST5 and WTE before and very much look forward to seeing the episode again with that in mind.