It would also destroy the lithium cracking station and probably render the ecosphere uninhabitable.
Why did Kirk Kill Mitchell?
- Thread starter Crazyewok
- Start date
It did.
I think it would have been interesting if it turned out Mitchell gained his powers not through the ion storm (the humans just assumed it was the storm), but it was actually the Q who caused him to gain the power as a test, so that they could gauge humanity and see how much a threat humanity could be to the Q Continuum. I mean if a mere human can take down someone approaching some level of the power of Q, what would the Q think. We already know the Q are billions of years old, so maybe that is why 78 some odd years later, they finally decided to act, and it happened to be as Picard was on his way to Farpoint. Because, when you are billions of years old, 78 years is not that long to wait.
OTOH, it's rather amusing to think that godlike intellect and powers are just random occurrences, like some sort of nasty infections you get from a broken toilet seat... Puts us intelligence-worshipping monkeys in our place, really.
I can't really see Kirk first calmly arranging for Mitchell's ultimate destruction via radiation bombardment, and then succumbing to red haze and deciding that he absolutely needed to punch him in the jaw as well... "He had to be stopped, period!" would be no rationale or excuse for going after him, not unless Kirk had become utterly deranged.
On the other hand, "He had to be stopped, ellipsis and question mark" would be. Perhaps reason and mercy still stand a chance of working? Nothing will be lost by trying, except of course for Kirk's own life.
Timo Saloniemi
I can't really see Kirk first calmly arranging for Mitchell's ultimate destruction via radiation bombardment, and then succumbing to red haze and deciding that he absolutely needed to punch him in the jaw as well... "He had to be stopped, period!" would be no rationale or excuse for going after him, not unless Kirk had become utterly deranged.
On the other hand, "He had to be stopped, ellipsis and question mark" would be. Perhaps reason and mercy still stand a chance of working? Nothing will be lost by trying, except of course for Kirk's own life.
Timo Saloniemi
I think that despite John de Lancie being great in the role, Q was a directional mistake for ST:TNG. Q's inexplicable bromance with Picard was like a cross between the "deus ex machina" of an ancient Greek play and Kazoo of The Flintstones.
Kirk had his run-ins with superbeings, but none of them became a semi-regular, impishly helping and hindering Kirk's missions for sport. Q, as a vastly powerful and eternal superbeing, should never have found one particular Frenchman with a British accent so fascinating.
On the other hand, purely as an alternate universe story, it might be fun to imagine WNMHGB ending differently. Suppose after Gary bit the dust, Elizabeth had stood up, brushed herself off, and said "Good work, Captain. Let's get back to the ship."
And then she stays in Star Fleet, using her superpowers to get the Enterprise out of every jam. She could have put Kirk on equal footing with Charlie Evans, Trelane, and Apollo.
She could have captured the Romulan ship intact in "Balance of Terror." If she was in the landing party that got snatched by the Gamesters of Triskelion, she could have emancipated the slaves in two minutes and given each Provider a wicked-ass migraine headache.
It might make for lousy one-hour drama, but being her would be a blast.
Not that it matterd as It was unmanned and there were willing to sacrifice it anyway if Kirk had died.
I don't mind punching Gary to further make him dazed and confused, but if you're going to kill a guy, a punch to the gut, a double fist to the neck, two chops and a flip aren't the best ways to do it. A punch to keel him over and then choke the life out of him. Or grab that rock a little sooner and don't pause to ask for forgiveness.
I love the episode and the fight is great, but it just seems a little silly that the intent to kill is depicted in a standard TV style brawl. Of course, with the clarity of 45 years of watching the episode, it's easy for me to say stuff like "I would have bought it if Kirk tried to start with a killing blow, but Gary blocked and it became a fight as Mitchell defended himself." The episode was still awesome from start to finish and sold the series. I'm nitpickin', but only to pass the time.
I was under the impression that the radioactive bombardment was meant to destroy life, not the station.
Yes, that's why Kirk specifically wanted the planet subjected to a lethal concentration of neutron radiation in the event he failed to kill Mitchell. The neutron bomb, a weapon designed to cause maximum casualties from radiation rather than heat and blast, was very much in the news at the time.
