Dagger of the Mind - What was Dr. Adam's Plan ?

Turn it around. Imagine a male psychiatrist hypnotizing a female patient into thinking that she wanted to have sex with him. That would obviously be a sexual assault. But our culture has a gendered double standard and falsely assumes that a woman can't sexually assault a man. But it's not about gender, it's about power. If you have power over someone, if they're unable to give or withhold consent and you take advantage of that to do something sexual, that is a violation.

They had already confirmed that it was very effective at implanting a suggestion without the patient's knowledge, when she made Kirk think he was hungry. So she already knew she could implant desires in him, and she implanted the suggestion that he desired her. That was taking advantage.

One other thing that was cut from the episode was an explanation that Kirk had only danced with Helen at the Christmas party because he'd thought she was a visitor rather than a crewmember. That's why he was so embarrassed and uncomfortable when he learned she was part of his crew -- because, contrary to Kirk's later reputation, he was a responsible, ethical commander who would never try to romance a woman under his command (which was why he fought his attraction to Rand so fiercely, as seen in "The Naked Time" and elsewhere). So the scenario that Helen implanted, even before Adams took over and amplified it, was one that portrayed Kirk violating his own professional ethics. Hardly a frivolous indulgence.

That's one way of looking at it, but the episode never identified it as a related device; rather, the production just reused the prop to save money, the same way that the Elba II control room in the same episode reused the semicircular console that had previously been seen as Landru's brainwashing console, the Romulans' cloaking device console, and others. We certainly were not meant to believe all the uses of that console were actually the same technology; it was just a reused television prop. And the same goes for the treatment chair.

Of course, in-universe, it's entirely possible that the chair design and the emitter design are standard components used in numerous pieces of therapeutic technology. No need to reinvent the wheel every time; the external parts could be off-the-shelf tech and the differences are inside.

 

I now kind of want to see an alternate ending to the episode in which Helen turns Kirk into her puppet and sets out to take over the galaxy...

 

Oh, I didn’t notice that.

 

Adams may indeed be the least sane of them all; a narcissist who believes that he's always right and anything that is either competition or defiance is wrong and needs to be fixed. In essence, he's removing their free will.

Helen and Kirk were just talking about their last encounter at the party. I imagine it's still on her mind, it being so awkward when they see each other again.

As a matter of fact, here's the exchange:

@Christopher what is Kirk certain that both he and Noel are certain of, other than their party encounter?

 

I'm revising my earlier opinion that Adams was not narcissist. He wanted Kirk's and Helen's admiration and grandstanding with his toast:

KIRK: I believe regulations call for me to check my weapon.
ADAMS: No, no. That won't be necessary in your case, Captain. Just keep it out of sight, hmm? I know you people feel as naked without a weapon as we do without a medikit. A small toast. Do you mind? It's such a great day for us here on Tantalus when we have visitors, no matter what the excuse.
...
ADAMS: Yes. And now to the toast, hmm? You'll forgive us, Lethe. There you are, Captain. To all mankind. May we never find space so vast, planets so cold, heart and mind so empty that, that we cannot fill them with love and warmth.​

 

His toast seems to be overcompensating for his total lack of true compassion.

 

...A rather natural stance to assume, considering he deals with the dregs of mankind for a profession! That is, it would be very, very difficult to argue that any of his victims were innocent.

And how is this description inapplicable to Kirk?

Timo Saloniemi

 

(Prime) Kirk doesn't neutralize Spock and McCoy for disagreeing; he simply asserts his authority as captain and does what he thinks is best. But he at least listens to them and does what they think, if he agrees with them.

 

And if he doesn't, he doesn't. So basically he just ignores all advice contrary to his own ideas...

Timo Saloniemi

 

But at least he doesn't wipe their minds.

 

Narcissism is not insanity, just a behavioral disorder. "Insane" is a term that has no formal medical use or definition anymore, but legally, it means incapable of distinguishing right from wrong or being responsible for one's actions, so that one is not competent to be tried for them. Adams was rational enough to invent the technology, use it to victimize other people, and make plans to cover his crimes and gain power, so he had to be legally sane.

(Of course, by that definition, the Joker and most other Batman villains are legally sane; it's a narrative convenience to misrepresent psychopathy as psychosis to explain why the bad guys keep getting sent to Arkham Asylum instead of prison.)

That's the point that a lot of people miss -- that seducing a member of his crew was something Kirk would never, ever do, so the suggestion was grossly out of character, which was how they'd know it was false. A lot of people misread the scene and believe that Kirk actually did get intimate with Helen at the Christmas party, not understanding that it's just a fantasy sequence. But the whole point was that he never would have done that in real life. Indeed, the Kirk of the early first season was such a stiff that Adams's attempt to brainwash him into being hopelessly in love with Helen proved absurdly easy to shake off -- all Kirk needed was a little nudge and he was back to being the cold, all-business commander, ruthlessly ordering Helen to risk getting electrocuted to death in the maintenance tunnel.

 

They had no other extremely memorable shared history. I suppose Kirk could have stated a well-known historical fact, something about Earth history that is common knowledge, instead. Maybe he wanted something they not only knew, but had an emotional connection to. Saying, "Earth is not a planet, it is a star" may be a known fact (duh), but it's not something shared between them.

 

Even so, the point stands -- a therapist making a hypnotized/suggestible patient believe they feel sexual desire for the therapist is always, always going to be unethical, no matter the excuse. It's just as unethical as Kirk seducing a crewmember would be -- exploiting one's power over another person in a sexual way. Surely "we slept together" isn't the only possible imaginary scenario Helen could've conjured relating to the Christmas party. She could've easily found an innocuous, non-sexual alternative like "Santa Claus suddenly appeared and gave us all presents" or "Spock got drunk on eggnog and started singing carols."

 

Good point. Presumably they redacted this part of the incident to spare her career and both the embarrassment.

 

A momentary lapse in professional judgement. Helen redeemed herself by cutting the power to the security force field. In the end, the mission was a success; bad guy defeated, good guys win. I forgive her.

 

If Dr. Adams ever offers you a chair to sit in, don’t take it!

 

Did anyone wonder about seeing this and then Kor has his own mind reading device not too long after? Maybe Dr. Adams already made a sale.

I think Dr. Adams wanted to start his own Theme Park.

 

But the neutralizer didn't read minds, it just brainwashed them. It put stuff in -- or overwrote what was there -- rather than taking stuff out.

 

No, they didn't confirm it with that test. She could have made that random suggestion and Kirk then coincidentally commented that he was hungry. That's why he asked Noel to try another test with something more out of the ordinary.

Her and Kirk acting on their attraction to each other was obviously the first thing that popped into her mind. Not the most professional suggestion, to be sure, but she wasn't acting as Kirk's doctor at that point, she was taking an order from her Captain. She had no way of knowing her random suggestion would be so effective that it would jeopardize their mission.

I agree with you here. Kirk's reputation as a horndog is massively overblown. A few years ago I read the Star Trek/Legion of Super-Heroes crossover comic from IDW and DC, and I lost all patience with it when the writer had Kirk hitting on Shadow Lass in the middle of a firefight. That's not James T. Kirk, that's a character from Animal House.

 

And anyway, it seems obvious to me that Dr. Adams' entire plan was to get Dr. Noel to beam down.