MARK OF GIDEON
Another high-concept bottle show! Sadly, the concept isn’t developed as much as it could have been, with a bizarre and unnecessary plot element designed only to prolong the mystery and vague story resolution.
There is an all too brief but nonetheless cutting edge (for the 1960s) discussion as Kirk openly talks about sexual sterilisation and contraception. And as with LTBYLB, the episode doesn’t sympathise with Hodin and his extremist pro-life view. After all, it’s lovely to espouse that a “love of life is the greatest gift” but given the current planetary conditions it’s just irresponsible.
Put a sock on it, Hodin!
Aside from that scene, most of the plot is devoted to wandering around the duplicate Enterprise and arguing with diplomats or repeating coordinates. Incidentally, if the council’s plan was just going to abduct Kirk and then dump him into the replica Enterprise later on, why not give him the council chamber coordinates to begin with? Oh, because then Spock wouldn’t have uncovered the mystery (AKA lazy writing)
The story ends as Spock breaks through the paper thin mystery and Odona is cured. However, how does the plan (using the death of a high ranking official as a moral example to the populace) even work any more, given that she is now cured?
Is Odona instead going to work her way through the population one at a time like some sort of Typhoid Mary?
The lack of solid answers leads to a somewhat lacklustre ending to this interesting concept of a story that wasn’t explored to its best potential.
GIDEON IS ENCASED IN A LIVING MASS OF PEOPLE
This sounds like hyperbole, especially as Hodin is doing his best to persuade Kirk to stay at that moment. There’s also Odona’s statement to Kirk:
...there are so many of us. So many. There is no place, no street, no house, no garden, no beach, no mountain that is not filled with people. Each one of us would kill in order to find a place alone to himself. They would willingly die for it, if they could.
Taking her statement literally makes no sense, because if space where so limited that even the
beaches are jam packed with people then there would be no streets, individual houses or undeveloped land of any sort!
This sounds like a party line or public propaganda she is just repeating.
After all, these people still need to be
fed, don’t they? Instead I can see the population of the planet mostly crammed into a few mega-cities across the planet, with the majority of the land given over to agriculture and food production.
This also gels with the reports of Gideon being a “paradise” rather than an overdeveloped Coruscant style world. Scans from orbit may be forbidden but the surface of the planet is still visible, right?
THE DUPLICATE ENTERPRISE
This episode gets a lot of flak for the unnecessary and unplausible step in the Gideonite’s plan of contructing an entire duplicate Enterprise (especially on a planet where space is at a premium). However, there are lots of indications that it’s only a partial recreation and that Gideonite Council are constantly having to make adjustments on the fly in order to fool Kirk and the timeline of events is really short:
9 minutes of Kirk’s life disappeared, in which he was knocked out, his blood extracted and beamed back into the replica Enterprise. He then wandered to the Bridge, wandered the corridors and at some point recorded a log entry in which he claims to have searched the entire ship. We then cut to Mr Spock who states that Kirk beamed down “moments ago”. That’s less than an hour and probably not much more than the 9 missing minutes – definitely not enough time for Kirk to explore the replica ship in person.
As regards the accuracy of the replica, let’s not forget that Kirk may not be in his right mind, at least for the first hour or so on board the replica (having been subjected to medical treatments). Spock on the other hand (not having his faculties muddled) isn’t fooled for a second.
As the drugs wear off, Kirk begins to hear the heartbeats of the Gideonites (the drug probably got burned out of his system more quickly because he recently engaged in some vigorous physical activity too). After that the plot takes over and he’s less interested in the duplicate Enterprise and more interesting in solving the mystery.
Honestly, my biggest gripe with the replica Enterprise is how unnecessary it is to the Gideonite’s plan – just extract all his blood and be done!
OTHER THOUGHTS:
- This is an innovative use of the standing sets to do a bottle show that technically might not be (since the sets depict a duplicate ship on the planet’s surface)
- The episode begins with the Enterprise being the pushy negotiating arm of the Federation. If Gideon doesn’t want to be part of the UFP, why struggle with negotiations? Probably some great strategic advantage in the planet, such as we’ve seen before when the Feds get very insistent on another world joining their exclusive club.
- There’s a nice shot of Kirk and Spock walking along a crowded corridor at the start of the episode provides a good contrast to the deserted ship later on
- The initial effect of Kirk being all alone on the Enterprise is good and spooky, but they ought to have held out longer before cutting back to Spock and the others; it really undercuts the tension and the mystery
- Spock’s snark at the procrastinating diplomats is well justified and replaces the usual McCoy/Spock conflict, thankfully
- Odona does her best to persuade Kirk to surrender to a life alone with her, but she’s not as successfully manipulative as Deela in Wink Of An Eye. She just feigns a lack of knowledge and tries to distract Kirk. Despite her naivety in the art of deception, she does seduce him much more quickly though!
- Hodin and his aides are later revealed to be spying on Kirk and Odona the whole time. I might comment on the lack of privacy but given the state of the planet Gideon that’s probably not a societal norm.
- So, is the viewscreen on the replica Enterprise a window? It transitions from the stars into several faces peering in. The porthole “window” that Kirk opens also seems to be a plain transparency, at least until it polarises into picture of space. Unreliable Gideonite technology, maybe?
- Again usage of WNMHGB music to good effect, as Hodin begs Kirk to stay on the planet.
- In addition to Odona being naïve, Hodin’s plan does not seem very well thought out either given the ease at which it is foiled.
- Also, when begging with Kirk Hodin says of Odona “she hoped you would love her and wish to stay”. I guess the Prime Minister who learned of Kirk’s medical history didn’t gain access to his personnel files.
- It seems the FX budget couldn’t stretch to one more transporter effect – Kirk calls “transporter control” from a hallway com-panel to get Odona off the ship. Then he glowers at her for some reason.
Kirk’s psyche is really taking a battering in the third season; in the last 2 months he’s been:
- stranded in a universe all by himself
- forced into hyper-accelerated time and isolated from his crew
- stranded on planet with the Enterprise destroyed and no water
- and now the entire crew of the Enterprise has vanished into thin air!
I reckon he’ll be ready for a desk job after the 5YM ends.
It was already established in Season Three that the blue heat exchanger was replaced by the Dilithium Crystal toaster. Good thing for the Gideonites that Kirk didn't change his quarters over the last two years. 
