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

[johnnybear]

Obviously Adams just wanted to help people but the effect of his work or maybe even the machine itself corrupted him! But his trying to brainwash Kirk reminds me of either Roger Korby or a man desperate to keep his utopia secret or maybe even set up medical centres like it throughout the galaxy!
JB

 

[ZapBrannigan]

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.

For TV scripts of the period, it was a fabulous piece of writing. And if, as you see it, she "did wrong" and yet was one of the protagonists, then the scriptwriting was even better, and about 40 years ahead of its time.

Sometimes we love Star Trek as a whole so much, we can't see how brilliant the pieces were.

 

[Pauln6]

For TV scripts of the period, it was a fabulous piece of writing. And if, as you see it, she "did wrong" and yet was one of the protagonists, then the scriptwriting was even better, and about 40 years ahead of its time.

Sometimes we love Star Trek as a whole so much, we can't see how brilliant the pieces were.

Noel as a character is something of a rarity in Trek: she's a female foil for Kirk, someone with gumption and a taste for risk taking. She's not scared of risking her life. It feels more in keeping with that sort of personality to tease Kirk in such a way. It would have been way weirder for Rand to push it that far, although I can see her maybe giving him a romantic nudge, perhaps that they shared a dance at the party and maybe a kiss under the mistletoe.

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

"Spock got drunk on eggnog and started singing carols."

No neural neutralizer is needed to implant weird ideas in my mind. Christopher did it with words.

And it's probably better to have Spock singing Christmas Carols than "Maiden Wine".

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

Noel as a character is something of a rarity in Trek: she's a female foil for Kirk

I like your observation. If there had been a Phase II this would have been an interesting thing to explore over a season behind the planet of the week and computer talked to death of the week main plots (and Kirk mentoring Decker, Spock mentoring Xon etc.).

Yeah give Kirk a recurring lady foil. An alien. Another Starfleet Captain. A civilian attached to the Enterprise. Dr. McCoy's daughter. An ambitious young officer eager to make her mark. It wouldn't have had to be Star Trek Moonlighting but it could be there building up as the season goes on behind the main storylines.

You also see the potential for this in Wink of an Eye. I always liked Deela because of the attraction vs. conflict characterizing her relationship with Kirk. She really likes him but she's got her own agenda and she can be as ruthless as she is charming and beautiful. She's as much his equal as any lady was going to be allowed to be in 1969.

 

[DonIago]

IIRC Peter David did a run on the TOS comics set post-TVH where he tried to do that, but TPTB insisted that that character along with several others exit the series.

 

[Pauln6]

Areel Shaw, Carol Marcus, Edith Keeler and Gillian Taylor can all cut Kirk dead in their own way. Deela enjoyed duelling her wits with him as well. You can see he has a type that suits him best, a woman who will not so much challenge him, but undercut his opinions with flaws that he's aware of but reluctant to acknowledge. Elise Mckenna in STC is another good example - she's a mix of Troi and Noel.

This always seemed to me to be the problem with the implementation of Rand. She was meant to be inspired by Miss Kitty and Marshall Dillon but Kitty could be blunt in a way Rand never could, at least not in the short amount of time she was in the show. McCoy stepped up very quickly to nudge her out of that niche and once she'd lost it, the only thing they could have done was make her more efficient and versatile. Roddenberry wanted to keep her subservient - apparently he nixed a script entry that had her at the science station, and even in the Naked Time she's manning the helm one minute and then gone the next. Why not keep her there until the end of the episode?

With Kirk and Noel both having such strong personalities and van Gelder clearly resisting repeated treatments, I do struggle to work out what Adams was planning to do to salvage his plans.

 

[Henoch]

With Kirk and Noel both having such strong personalities and van Gelder clearly resisting repeated treatments, I do struggle to work out what Adams was planning to do to salvage his plans.

Adams: "Forget all you have seen here. You had a pleasant visit and everything was in order. You and Helen have fallen in love with each other." Once back on the ship, the Enterprise crew will see the vague/short statements about the visit to be blamed on the inappropriate romance between Kirk and Noel, and best hushed up to the rumor mill.
Of course, Adams has no idea that Spock is telepathically fixing Van Gelder's mind, so, in essence, his plan had no chance in working. Spock would have immediately smoked out the brain washing in Kirk and Helen.

 

[Phaser Two]

I like your observation. If there had been a Phase II this would have been an interesting thing to explore over a season behind the planet of the week and computer talked to death of the week main plots (and Kirk mentoring Decker, Spock mentoring Xon etc.).

Yeah give Kirk a recurring lady foil. An alien. Another Starfleet Captain. A civilian attached to the Enterprise. Dr. McCoy's daughter. An ambitious young officer eager to make her mark. It wouldn't have had to be Star Trek Moonlighting but it could be there building up as the season goes on behind the main storylines.

You also see the potential for this in Wink of an Eye. I always liked Deela because of the attraction vs. conflict characterizing her relationship with Kirk. She really likes him but she's got her own agenda and she can be as ruthless as she is charming and beautiful. She's as much his equal as any lady was going to be allowed to be in 1969.

Exactly right about Deela IMO. Just one of the reasons why WOE is forever in my top episodes, and a point often missed among the superficial "Kirk Gets the Pretty Alien" critiques. Odona is in a far less well-plotted episode, but she is similar in many ways.

As for Dr. Adams, I haven't analyzed DOM too closely because it's both early S1 and a non-Scott episode, which means that I (unfairly) rewatch it far less than other shows. But I think that the idea that he wanted to create some kind of utopia and convince others of its utility is probably his primary motivation. His ultimate fate also hints (cleverly) at some underlying mental illness of his own, and as others have aptly pointed out his dialogue points to some pretty grandiose ideas. So he may not really have thought everything through as well as a dispassionate after-action report might do. I think the DOM title may be deeper than it seems because he was ironically the illogical madman, and fittingly, there's even a suggestion of Macbeth in his loss of perspective.

 

[Timo]

Insisting that Adams had a "plan" seems an undue complication to me. As the episode starts, Adams is happy as a clam doing whatever he is doing down there, with no motivation to move forward, backward or sideways. The escape of van Gelder was a complication, but one he thought he had dealt with. Why plan ahead when this one starship would soon be gone, and would not return for ages?

Adams may have had goals and aims. But the urgency inherent in a "plan" is lacking from what he's doing, and has been doing. When he can control everything and everybody around him, through burly guards and impenetrable forcefields and the ultimate in tranquilizers / reset buttons, crisis management is a pretty distant prospect!

Timo Saloniemi

 

[alchemist]

For fun, here's an excerpt from the July 30, 1966 final draft script (not the shooting script) when the character of Adams was Asgard:

INT. TREATMENT ROOM - CLOSE - KIRK
in the grip of the beam.

ASGARD'S VOICE
My work has gone far beyond the
conquest of mere violence... I
have learned to master human
selfishness.

INT. CORRIDOR AT TREATMENT PANEL - ASGARD (F.G.),
THERAPISTS (B.G.)

ASGARD
(continuing)
Man, any man, today can be
relieved of his petty meaness,
egotism, self-love... his greeds,
his jealousies, his childish
rebellions against authority --
until there is nothing to stand
in the way of his perfect happiness.

KIRK
And what if he doesn't want your
"perfect happiness?" What if he'd
rather go on just being human?

CLOSE - ASGARD
Not all disturbed by Kirk's doubts. He knows they'll soon
be gone. He turns up the volume on one of the knobs.

ASGARD
"Human?" I leave you to ponder
the ancient words of Nietzsche:
"Man is more of an ape than many
of the apes."

Lethe comes hurrying up, frantic, with a message. But
Asgard is too intent upon completing his sermon first.

ASGARD
But I have found the way for him
to shed his bestiality, and be
pure in spirit once again.

 

[plynch]

Sounds like what GR had in mind by the TNG era!

 

[Maurice]

[...]This always seemed to me to be the problem with the implementation of Rand. She was meant to be inspired by Miss Kitty and Marshall Dillon but Kitty could be blunt in a way Rand never could, at least not in the short amount of time she was in the show. McCoy stepped up very quickly to nudge her out of that niche and once she'd lost it, the only thing they could have done was make her more efficient and versatile.

The Miss Kitty analogy never worked because as a subordinate Rand could not confront Kirk the way Kitty could Dillion, nor comfort him the way she could. Bones had some power and authority that allowed him to challenge Kirk. A mere Yeoman could never be that.

 

[Pauln6]

The Miss Kitty analogy never worked because as a subordinate Rand could not confront Kirk the way Kitty could Dillion, not comfort him the way she could. Bones had some power and authority that allowed him to challenge Kirk. A mere Yeoman could never be that.

They could have got there eventually I suppose. In the Man Trap we see that she can throw her weight around if she has to with junior crew. There is an awesome scene in Battlestar Galactica where Adama gives Dee permission to speak freely and she rips him a new one. However, Rand is also hamstrung by the fact that she's only just been appointed. Both Bones and Noel have history with Kirk. The other women we've discussed have mostly been outside Starfleet, and certainly outside Kirk's command structure. The Orville plays with the pitfalls of dating within the command structure.

There is often discussion about how far McCoy takes his criticism. I can't see anyone else pulling that off. Pulaski and Trip tried and just looked insubordinate and unprofessional.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

There is often discussion about how far McCoy takes his criticism. I can't see anyone else pulling that off. Pulaski and Trip tried and just looked insubordinate and unprofessional.

Some actors just have a knack for not seeming too negative. For instance, Walter Matthau could portray anger, even fury, in a comedy and somehow not hurt the funny mood at all.

 

[J.T.B.]

They could have got there eventually I suppose. In the Man Trap we see that she can throw her weight around if she has to with junior crew. There is an awesome scene in Battlestar Galactica where Adama gives Dee permission to speak freely and she rips him a new one. However, Rand is also hamstrung by the fact that she's only just been appointed.

I agree with Maurice. Kitty was independent, ran her own business and Matt treated her as an equal. Kirk was Rand's boss, plus the great difference in military rank. She could never approach Kirk in the same way, and if she did try to get personal, as in "Miri," it would imply a breakdown in discipline that couldn't be sustained.

 

[Timo]

So, what sort of a subordinate-but-not-too-subordinate role could Roddenberry have given to Kirk's love interest without blowing the cover of the "TPTB won't let me have a female XO" story? Could Spock have been nothing but the heartless XO while Rand was the clever Science Officer whose professional opinion mattered so much that Kirk would be forced to listen to all the backtalk, too? Or might Starfleet have believed in politruks who'd be tasked with second-guessing Kirk - either because the man was too much a warrior, or too little a warrior? The latter of the latter might well have been the most entertaining option.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[ZapBrannigan]

So, what sort of a subordinate-but-not-too-subordinate role could Roddenberry have given to Kirk's love interest without blowing the cover of the "TPTB won't let me have a female XO" story?

The way to do it would have been to cast someone like Sally Kellerman or Marianna Hill as the ship's doctor. With all respect to DeForest Kelley, he wasn't needed to balance the cast. If the big three had been Kirk, Spock, and this attractive but authoritative woman, the show might have been a bigger hit.

 

[Timo]

And had this character received the Kelley treatment originally, her not being included in the main credits as an "actual" lead, the illusion of Roddenberry's casting being dictated from above could have been maintained, too.

Alternately, Kirk's contacts with alien civilizations might have called for a Contacts Officer of some sort, allowing the female de facto lead to be a guest star rather than a regular. Not every adventure would need involve inspired debates about cultural clashes... but the audience might come to look forward to those.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[DonIago]

So...we're saying TOS needed Doctor Pulaski?