Wanderlust

3.14 – “Whom Gods Destroy”

3.14 – “Whom Gods Destroy”

Plot: Kirk and Spock beam down to a mental asylum for the incorrigibly criminally insane, established as a domed colony on a poisonous planet. They bear a revolutionary new cure for the 15, er no, 16 patients in residence. When they arrive they discover the newest patient, Garth, has taken over the asylum and now intends to hijack the Enterprise, escape, and conquer the galaxy. While our heroes are taken prisoner, can Scott and McCoy back on the ship puzzle out a way to penetrate the planet?

Thoughts I have mixed feelings about this episode. It is colorful and full of surprise and adventure, although perhaps the third act could use more plot complications. There is a charismatic guest star, an Andorian, a Tellarite (those are the aliens that look like Ugnaughts), and only the second appearance of an Orion slave girl in TOS (based on TOS’ reputation, you’d expect to see them more often). Garth comes off like a villain from Batman (1966-1968)–grandiose and a bit silly–but he’s a fun character, complete with a rogues gallery of colorful henchmen. The resemblance to Batman is even appropriate, as the green Marta is played by none other than Yvonne Craig, fresh from her role as Batgirl in Batman’s final season.

On the other hand, the episode is replete with offensive stereotypes. Worst is the sexist treatment of Marta, who is portrayed as decorative and of no use to the men. I cringed when she unconvincingly tries to prove her intelligence by pointing out her skills at poetry, painting, and dance–all women’s arts; she couldn’t possibly be good at science or logic. Yvonne Craig is an excellent dancer–but I would have felt better about enjoying it if the character was more developed. Then, of course, Garth caps off the misogyny by blowing her up.

I always find it curious to see persons with mental illness depicted as supervillains. My experience working with patients committed to inpatient psych wards shows how unlikely this is. When patients get committed it is frequently because they are too disorganized to care for themselves and eat safely–not the kind of circumstance where someone would be prepared to hijack a starship. I guess forensic commitments are a little bit different.

I imagine it would be very expensive to colonize a poisonous planet just to house a small asylum. Do people never think of these things? This does not speak well about the attitude towards mental illness in the 23rd century. Spock’s right, however–15 patients among billions in the galaxy is pretty good.

Spock’s dialogue as he grudgingly admits he and Kirk are brothers, with his arms folded across his chest, is delicious. I don’t know why he didn’t immediately stun the two Kirks at the end and just raise the force field–pretty slow thinking for our science officer. Apparently Nimoy was irate about the way his character was written for the episode, and wrote a letter of protest to the studio about it.

Kirk’s dialogue to Garth, “I am primarily an explorer now,” suggests he has a history as a military commander that would have been fun to explore. Did he serve during the Romulan War?

3 out of 5 disrespected asylum Governors.

Edit: I can’t seem to get this one out of my head. Post-season, I’m retroactively bumping it up to a 3.5.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whom_Gods_Destroy_(Star_Trek:_The_Original_Series)

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4 responses to “3.14 – “Whom Gods Destroy””

  1. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Agree with basically everything you said, Kev.  

    I have never worked in forensics, but agree that all those with mental illness I have seen are not sufficiently organized to plan a world take-over nor invent complex scientific equipment that actually works.  I guess there is the Uni-bomber, but I don’t think that was any kind of new technology really.

    It is interesting that supposedly Garth went insane when his body was physically healed.  I was really curious whether that was a side effect of whatever wounded him or of the healing process, how he got hurt, why people with such extraordinary healing powers are not more widely known nor utilized, etc.  Potential for some great back-story here.

    I think the point of a poisonous planet is that if anybody escapes there is no place to run to.  Kind of an update of Alcatraz.

    Agree that Spock should have stunned the 2 Kirks immediately, that was my thought also, but I guess they figured this would extend the plot.

    It was campy and fun but not much substance, I thought.  My favorites were:

    1) the fact that the governor is an elderly Asian man.  The fact that this is not remarked upon in any way is pretty neat for the time.

    2) I agree the brothers scene was great, but my favorite line is actually:

    “She appears to have arrived at an infallible method for insuring permanent male fidelity.”  Spock, I didn’t know you had it in you.  (It is kind of sexist also, in that I think cheating rates are about equal for men and women these days, but not sure if that was the case in the 60’s… )

    Rating: 3 out of 5 sparkly vases of mass destruction.

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  2. Randi Cohen Avatar
    Randi Cohen

    Let me revise that comment on mental illness to read, those I have known with mental illness severe enough for reality treating to be altered and for hospitalization to be required. I do know of people with severe mental illness who are quite creative and smart, especially when symptoms are controlled.

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  3. Kevin Black Avatar
    Kevin Black

    At Norwescon this weekend I attended a panel titled “Mental Illness in Comics”–and while we spent most of the hour talking about autobiographical/confessional style graphic novels, we did detour into a brief discussion of the Batman rogues gallery, and figures like the Joker and Harley Quinn as representations of mental illness. I think there’s something more going on with these larger than life figures–the stories get some mileage out of the notion that the characters are unpredictable and could do anything at any moment, but at a metaphorical level I think it’s more about them being people who renounce societal inhibitions and let it all hang loose as a villain than it is about depicting anything like the realities of mental illness.

    Forensic psychology is a bit of a different circumstance in that it is more typical for a person to remain in commitment for longer periods of time after acute symptoms have subsided or been controlled, under the theory that you can’t trust the person not to decompensate and then do something dangerous if they don’t remain under supervision. Also one suspects that political needs, in the sense of managing and appearing to be responsive to public outrage, are allowed to trump clinical needs in some cases. But the trends are still moving away from long term commitments even in this area.

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  4. R. Alex Reutter Avatar
    R. Alex Reutter

    Interesting patch on Governor Cory’s uniform.

    Good setup.  One of the inmates claims Cory isn’t Cory.  Hunh.  Moments later, she’s revealed to be correct, and in on the “joke”.  

    Wow, Kirk plays along with Garth almost immediately, and shows canny use of psychology.  This is the starship captain we want to see more of!

    Oh, boy.  A chance for Shatner to overact as “Garth”, then we sproing back to the actor playing Garth, who is so much better at acting throwing a tantrum.  Sigh.  

    So many of the sounds in Star Trek are perfect, that it’s a shame that the shapechanging noise is so… sproingy.

    Stuff happens.  There’s some nice cat-and-mouse when Garth pretends to be Spock.

    Spock has a phaser with a stun setting.  Stun them both and sort it out with the security team on-planet.  Oh, then Kirk suggests it.  We all immediately thought this.  Spock is logical, the writers are not.  

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