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Dr. Simon Van Gelder and the Neural Neutralizer

Could someone summarize Adams’ motivation? It is a really glaring omission in the storytelling of the ep as aired imho.
 
^^I am sure i read somewhere that the Adam charactor had come to resent the fact that apart from his reputation, he had gained nothing else from his work, so he decided that here on this colony he would be ruler and god, and have ultimite power over all......and we all know what happens with totoal power.

Of course none of that was on screen, but i am sure i read it somewhere that it was in the actual shows script describing the why Adam acted like this, so either it was that, or he just had a surplus of Neural Neutralizers that he did not want going to waste. lol
 
Could someone summarize Adams’ motivation? It is a really glaring omission in the storytelling of the ep as aired imho.
To make a cliche - Kirk dated Adam's daughter and Kirk dumped her and van Gelder was collateral damage in getting to Kirk.
A real explanation - Adams thought he was getting somewhere with his cure but illegally experimented with the patients and some died. van Gelder found out but Adams didn't want to kill a fellow scientist so he just experimented on a sane subject - van Gelder.
 
To make a cliche - Kirk dated Adam's daughter and Kirk dumped her and van Gelder was collateral damage in getting to Kirk.
A real explanation - Adams thought he was getting somewhere with his cure but illegally experimented with the patients and some died. van Gelder found out but Adams didn't want to kill a fellow scientist so he just experimented on a sane subject - van Gelder.
Neither track with the deleted scene.
 
What was the deleted scene? What happened in it?

I have that book. It quotes a patch of dialogue that was cut in which Adams explains that all he had to show for his work was a brilliant reputation. He wanted more out of life, so he decided at some point to get enjoyment from wielding raw power over the people he controlled.
 
Been a while since I saw this episode, but that line "cure mental illness for all time" is an impressive one that gets glossed over. It's an interesting throwaway line.

Well said; very well said in fact. I have always found it utterly fascinating that Star Trek devoted two of its 79 episodes to the plight of the mentally ill and the facilities and mechanisms invented to help them. (The episodes are also about as far away from one another in production order as possible, meaning that this was less likely one or two people on staff beating the same drum repeatedly.)

My fascination is heightened by the somewhat taboo nature of mental illness as a topic in the 1960s. Talk about being ahead of its time! Bravo, Star Trek. :)
 
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