I would agree that this is the best guess. Either that, or Adams neurally neutralized him just as a precaution.
Dagger of the Mind
- Thread starter Wingsley
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I would agree that this is the best guess. Either that, or Adams neurally neutralized him just as a precaution.
I had always assumed from Van Gelder's warning to Spock and McCoy that the "real" Dr. Adams had been killed and replaced by an impostor as part of some shady scheme to perfect the neural neutralizer so that it could be used for other nefarious purposes. Back in the 1970's, when I first saw this in reruns, and I heard Van Gelder's warning, I assumed right there that Adams was an impostor. At that point, none of us had ever heard of "Section 31", but I assumed something broader was going on.
Strange. After Van Gelder was neurally neutralized he started to wear mirrored sunglasses and dark cowboy hats.
Maybe Van Gelder just grammar-nazied Adams in front of the staff. You know how annoying that can be. 
...or maybe Van Gelder was really Adams, and Adams was really Van Gelder.
I'll bet you that Eli dude was the real mastermind behind this evil plot. A sinister looking fellow. Kind of looks like my congressman.
I'll bet you that Eli dude was the real mastermind behind this evil plot. A sinister looking fellow. Kind of looks like my congressman.
Wingsley, I think you are mishearing the dialogue.
VAN GELDER
Warn your Captain! Doctor Adam...Doc...Doctor Adams will destroy....
SPOCK
Destroy *how*?...*what*?
VAN GELDER
Like...death.
I see it more as the old adage about absolute power corrupting absolutely. Power over people’s minds is about as absolute as you can get.
I must be hard of hearing, too. I thought Van Gelder said:
"Light...death."
As in the "light" of the neural neutralizer.
My, oh, my. Three different ways of hearing it:
Right [which doesn't make sense]
Like [what I heard]
Light [which rhymes with right]
Someone, please, break out their shooting script!Like [what I heard]
Light [which rhymes with right]
Umm, nope.
Tantalus continued operating under van Gelder. And it was van Gelder's personal decision to scrap the neural neutralizer in that institution - but the same machine had previously been fully approved by the expert Dr. Noel. Heck, it apparently remained in use at Elba II as seen in "Whom Gods Destroy"...
There's no indication that Adams was insane. Ambitious, perhaps. Bitter, perhaps. Greedy, perhaps. But that's not insanity (except by Adams' own 23rd century criteria, of course!).
It really won't do to, say, witness a woman hit his husband with an axe and immediately claim "She must be stark raving mad to do that!". There would probably be a wholly logical reason for her actions, one having nothing to do with mental illness. And there certainly is logic to everything Adams does - the very same sort of logic he would be applying in his everyday work.
Timo Saloniemi
I must be hard of hearing, too. I thought Van Gelder said:
"Light...death."
As in the "light" of the neural neutralizer.
People hear "light death," "right death," "white death," "blank death," and "like death." Even the closed captioning--put together by people who evidently never thought to look at the script--has the nonsensical "right death."
The scripted line from the Final Revised Draft dated August 5, 1966 in Scene 89C says that Van Gelder's line is "Like death!" That is to say, the machine can drain you so completely and utterly that you are left in a state that's *just like death*.
What did you say, sonny? I can't hear too well. Did you say "Bright"? Or "Might"? Or "Sight"? Or "Tight"?
The actual dialog:
So OK, it seems reasonable that the colony will remain. But then again, it doesn't exactly say that either, while it does specifically mention destroying at least parts of it.
Defending Dr. Adams as perfectly sane isn't gaining any traction with me though at all.
"Listen to ME! This case is closed! Now leave MY courtroom and never come back or you'll be in big trouble. Do you hear me?"
It sounds like the real spoken line by Van Gelder is "Like death!"
Would Harry Mudd be insane to operate a ship without a master's license, too? Crime is most often done for a reason, and it's a sign of sanity if one sticks to committing the sort of crimes one is proficient in, the sort one can hope to get away with. That was the sort of a crime Adams appeared to be committing when adjusting first van Gelder and then Kirk... Although admittedly he was getting out of his depth somewhat towards the end.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
When Harry bought a spaceship with counterfeit currency,
he was sentenced to psychiatric treatment, not jail time.
Which nicely dovetails into both "Dagger of the Mind" and "Whom Gods Destroy" in describing a futuristic penal system where every crime is an illness and every criminal a mental patient. But conversely, that makes the madmen of Elba II less likely to be insane by 21st century / real world standards, and certainly removes an arbitrary element of insanity from Dr Adams - he shouldn't be considered mad merely because he runs a futuristic madhouse in a futuristic manner.
Timo Saloniemi
Timo Saloniemi
sbk1234 said:
Picture? Helen Noel was made to be experienced in full-motion video!
You don't have to sit through the whole episode. Just watch the choiciest bits featuring Helen Noel:
http://trekbbs.com/showthread.php?t=117851
I'm surprised people were paying such attention to the episode's dialogue. I thought they would have been... distracted.
Ah, Marianne Hill. In her prime beats Jeri Ryan in her prime. The biggest shame of TOS was not the lack of a 4th or 5th season, not the lack of Harcourt Fenton Mudd in the 3rd season, it was being limited to just one Helen Noel appearance.
It's science- hill spheres are definately made for attracting.
Ah, Marianne Hill. In her prime beats Jeri Ryan in her prime. The biggest shame of TOS was not the lack of a 4th or 5th season, not the lack of Harcourt Fenton Mudd in the 3rd season, it was being limited to just one Helen Noel appearance.
It's science- hill spheres are definately made for attracting.
Every horny dude on the Enterprise was probably chasing after Helen Noel, except for Spock and Sulu.
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