Any ST series, film, or species.
For me, TOS: Dagger of the Mind, because it introduces the concept and sets up the initial rules for the Vulcan version of the game. Nimoy establishes key words and actions we see repeated in nearly every presentation of it since. "Open your mind" had another meaning as well to the youth audience in the 60s.
But Morgan Woodward is the one who sells it. We first see him completely out of his mind in the first examination. There's a slight sign of recognition when Spock repeats neural neutralizer, and Van Gelder seems surprised to hear it, unaware he screamed it a moment earlier. Drugs relax him a bit. And when finally in the meld, it's like a dreamy trance, a complete opposite of the horrors in Adams' chair. Woodward does several variations on the personality, but we never see what Van Gelder is normally like. He'd probably be a lot different from Ron Tracey too.
For me, TOS: Dagger of the Mind, because it introduces the concept and sets up the initial rules for the Vulcan version of the game. Nimoy establishes key words and actions we see repeated in nearly every presentation of it since. "Open your mind" had another meaning as well to the youth audience in the 60s.
But Morgan Woodward is the one who sells it. We first see him completely out of his mind in the first examination. There's a slight sign of recognition when Spock repeats neural neutralizer, and Van Gelder seems surprised to hear it, unaware he screamed it a moment earlier. Drugs relax him a bit. And when finally in the meld, it's like a dreamy trance, a complete opposite of the horrors in Adams' chair. Woodward does several variations on the personality, but we never see what Van Gelder is normally like. He'd probably be a lot different from Ron Tracey too.
