fiasco

Sorry I missed yesterday. I was too tired. Which I guess is fitting for this episode.

Synopsis

During a cargo exchange, the Enterprise picks up a stowaway from a penal colony/mental hospital. They capture the fugitive and discover that he's Dr Simon van Gelder, one of the staff psychiatrists. He's pretty deranged, and winces in pain whenever he tries to talk about the colony.

The Enterprise returns, but McCoy insists Kirk investigate. Kirk beams down with a psychologist, Dr Helen Noel, and gets a tour. Everything seems to be in order, except for a strange treatment room.

Spock mind melds with van Gelder—the first time that power is used—and discovers the treatment room is a "neural neutralizer." It empties the subject's mind completely, which makes them tremendously suggestible.

Kirk asks Noel to demonstrate the neutralizer by using it on him, but midway through the facility director, Dr Tristan Adams, catches them and implants his own suggestions: Kirk loves Noel and would destroy his career for her. Nonetheless, Kirk has Noel sabotage the colony's power supply, which lets Spock beam down.

Adams gets caught in the neutralizer, alone, and dies of loneliness. Van Gelder apparently ends up in charge of the facility. The Enterprise sails away.

Commentary

The 60s coined the expression, "insanity is a sane response to an insane world." Which is to say, psychiatry was a pretty controversial topic at the time. As for the expression, there's some truth to it, but only some.

I referenced The Prisoner in the last commentary, and I'm gonna do it again. Its version of this episode was called "A Change of Mind," and... really you should watch that instead. "Dagger of the Mind" isn't bad, but Patrick McGoohan pulls this premise off in a way Shatner just can't.

Anywho, both of them are based on the same idea: that the "goal" of psychiatry is to eliminate the individual, in order to make humanity a bunch of crude automata subservient to social order. This is why The Prisoner is more pointed, since its social order is completely deranged. Star Trek had to make a megalomaniac psychiatrist, while The Prisoner just needs The Village.

There's another thing I'll reference more and more, a book called The Eden Express by Kurt Vonnegut's son Mark. You see, Mark Vonnegut was a hippie, and after a bad trip, his schizophrenia manifested. Today I think his condition would be called bipolar schizoaffective disorder, but whatever, it was called schizophrenia at the time.

Being a good hippie, Vonnegut initially believed that axiom about insanity, and he and everyone around him learned the hard way that it isn't true. But it is a hard line to draw, isn't it? Vonnegut's illness was debilitating, but our insane world still causes depression and anxiety, things the DSM-V classifies as trauma- and stressor-related disorders.

Even taking the view that mental illness is something that negatively impacts your life, you're the one who's supposed to change. It's all a bit like Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect trapped on a Stone Age Earth with a bunch of middle managers, while "What a Wonderful World" plays in the background.

Here's a curious fact... Christine Chapel accompanies Kirk in this episode. The android bodyguard, Ruk, is played by Ted Cassidy, who was Lurch on The Addams Family. Chapel, of course, is played by Majel Barrett. Ruk is instructed to protect Chapel, and to follow her orders.

In The Next Generation and Deep Space Nine, Majel Barrett played Lwaxana Troi, Deanna's mother. Lwaxana's valet, Mr Homn, is played by Carel Struycken, who was Lurch on The Addams Family.

Synopsis

The Enterprise is sent to search for Roger Korby, an anthropologist presumed dead on an icy planet. Chapel is engaged to marry him. They do get in contact with Korby, and he asks Kirk to beam down alone. Kirk brings Chapel along, and when they arrive and don't find Korby, Kirk has two red-shirts follow.

Lurch kills the red-shirts while nobody is looking, and it's quickly revealed that Exo III is a den of androids and Korby is the ringleader. Kirk makes Korby tell Lurch to protect Chapel, and to follow her orders.

Korby makes a robot double of Kirk (who we'll call Klanker) to help with his master plan: to take his android-making equipment to a colony world, so he can start turning people into androids. Klanker beams up to the Enterprise, but Spock sees through the deception—he doesn't know what the deception is, just that something weird is going on.

Kirk gets beaten up by Lurch, but later on asks Lurch what really happened to the Old Ones who built him. Lurch says that the Old Ones went all Animatrix on them, so they were forced to kill their creators. Kirk tells Lurch that Korby is repeating history, and in the confusion, Korby is forced to destroy Lurch.

The hot chick android mistakenly destroys Klanker, and it's revealed Korby transferred his consciousness into an android body. The transfer was lossy, and that's why Korby has turned into such a dick. Korby has a final moment of humanity, and destroys himself and hot chick android.

Commentary

The 60s were, frankly, more aware of the reality of computers than we are today. There's also a very nice episode of The Prisoner, "The General," with a similar take—on the fundamental incompleteness of computers as "thinking machines."

The inadequacy of AI is a bigger topic than I can fit here. I will say, I don't actually mind Data, not least because his characterization takes this episode's premise from the other direction. The Next Generation makes it abundantly clear that Data's "human-ness" is a façade, an illusion, especially when we get to "In Theory" (TNG 4x25). That's also why "The Measure of a Man" (TNG 2x09) doesn't make my list of very special episodes, despite being one of the most famous episodes of the entire franchise.

Likewise, I love Robert Picardo's performance as the Emergency Medical Ham, but I don't care for their half-baked attempt at remaking "Measure" ("Author, Author," VOY 7x20). Picardo puts on a consistently great performance, but by then I think Star Trek got lost too far up its own ass when it came to AI.

The transition from Korby to Data is like the transition from the artificial neural networks and logistic regression of the 60s, to the deep learning of today: the illusion is more convincing, but if you find yourself at a magic show watching a woman being sawed in half—don't call the paramedics.

There are some episodes/movies that are so special, they deserve special recognition. I glanced through episode lists, and found sixteen: TOS—Balance of Terror, The City on the Edge of Forever; TOS movies—The Wrath of Khan, The Undiscovered Country; TNG—Family, The Drumhead, The Inner Light, Lower Decks, All Good Things; DS9—Duet, The Visitor, Homefront, Paradise Lost, Far Beyond the Stars, In the Pale Moonlight, It's Only a Paper Moon.

It's not that Voyager and Enterprise are bad; they have a lot of fun episodes, and a lot of good episodes, but not that good. I may have missed some, and there are some great episodes (like "The Best of Both Worlds") that don't quite make the cut for me.

These entries will not have synopses. You owe it to yourself to watch them, and if you've already seen them, you owe it to yourself to watch them again.

Commentary

Game theory is a domain for insane people. I don't mean this lightly. If you've ever seen Dr Strangelove, the titular character is based on real people, chiefly John von Neumann, Edward Teller, and Werner von Braun. Though A Beautiful Mind exaggerated it, John Nash was schizophrenic.

This is the Cold War in a nutshell. It's still geopolitics in a nutshell, or at least that was my experience living in Los Alamos, New Mexico.

"Balance of Terror" is about people who know war, and are trapped between duty and—I don't quite know what. Compassion isn't right. Maybe it's regret, maybe it's exhaustion. This pushes Kirk and the unnamed romulan captain (played, weirdly, by Mark Lenard) into a game they both excel at, and they both hate.

They both know the stakes. If the Bird of Prey makes it back to Romulus, it'll be justification for war. Neither captain wants that, but they both have subordinates who do. The romulan captain is particularly trapped, since he's the aggressor. Trapped between the phasers of the Enterprise, and possible execution if he goes home defeated.

I talked about Teller and Nash because, well, Roger Waters put it well: "Hey bartender over here / Two more shots and two more beers / Sir, turn up the TV sound / The war has started on the ground / Just love those laser guided bombs / They're really great for righting wrongs / You hit the target and win the game / From bars 3,000 miles away / 3,000 miles away."

"In a different reality, I could have called you friend," the romulan captain says. "We are creatures of duty, Captain. I have lived my life by it. Just one more duty to perform."

The Enterprise faces the worst threat in the galaxy: a seventeen-year-old boy with godlike powers.

Synopsis

The science ship Antares transfers a passenger to the Enterprise, and the captain of the Antares can't leave fast enough. Charlie Evans runs into Yeoman Rand, and his hormones leave him paralyzed.

In a recreation room, Spock plays the lute and Uhura sings—first about Spock, then about Charlie. Charlie can't handle being the center of attention, and uses his mind powers to silence Uhura. He tries to hit on Rand with card tricks, which entertains her, but doesn't seal the deal.

His powers become increasingly apparent. Kirk initially manages to play the adult and keep him somewhat in line, but eventually Charlie's rebelliousness overtakes his submissiveness. He starts making people vanish, including Rand.

Kirk figures Charlie can't simultaneously control the Enterprise and defend himself from attack. He tells Spock and McCoy to try and jam him, by spuriously running ship systems. This doesn't exactly work, but the aliens who gave Charlie his powers show up and take him with them.

Commentary

By my count—and it's been a while since I've fully watched the original series—Roddenberry created four gods: Gary Mitchell (TOS 1x01, "Where No Man Has Gone Before"), Charlie Evans (this episode), Trelane (TOS 1x18, "The Squire of Gothos"), and Q (TNG 1x01, "Encounter at Farpoint"). He also co-opted some gods for "Who Mourns for Adonais?" (TOS 2x04). I may be missing some.

What's interesting is that two of them are children, and Q is child-like. The big connecting thread is what utter contempt Roddenberry had for God. TNG even pulled the same gambit, that mommy and daddy show up and scold God (TNG 3x13, "Deja Q"), though I'm pretty sure by that time Rick Berman was in charge.

Star Trek is a franchise about secular humanism, that we can overcome ourselves and not just reach for the stars, but deserve the stars. In that sense, the greatest threat is debasement and degeneracy, and nothing is more debased and degenerate than God.

On a separate note, I wish Nichelle Nichols had gotten more time in the spotlight. A few people tried to do music after the original series ended: there's William Shatner's awkward cover of "Rocket Man", and Leonard Nimoy's "Ballad of Bilbo Baggins", but Nichelle Nichols was actually good.

A drunk Irishman and a gay Asian walk into engineering...

Synopsis

The Enterprise has a dual mission: check in on a research station, and monitor the breakup of the planet. The research staff are all dead, frozen to death and apparently indifferent to their deaths. Starfleet's finest extra takes off his glove to scratch his nose and gets infected with—something.

The breakup of the planet requires precision control of their orbit. Meanwhile, the infection is spread by contact and makes the infected act drunk. McCoy can't figure it out. Sulu goes on the hunt for Cardinal Richelieu. And as said above, a drunk Irishman takes over engineering.

This is the second episode with Majel Barrett; she was the first officer in "The Cage," but now she's been demoted to nurse. She gets infected and starts hitting on Spock. Then Spock gets infected and has an emotional breakdown.

So the clock is ticking: Lieutenant Mick turned off the engines, and they need to cold start them. McCoy finds that the infection is an aberrant form of water, and starts treating the crew. Spock figures out how to get the engines going, but the overload sends them back in time. This will be used in increasingly preposterous ways, culminating in Kirk yelling at a San Franciscan, "Double dumbass on you!"

Commentary

This episode is a ton of fun, but there are two serious things that happen.

We get our first glimpse of the torrent of emotions hiding just below the vulcan surface: "My mother... I could never tell her I loved her. An Earth woman, living on a planet where love, emotion is in bad taste. I respected my father, our customs. I was ashamed of my Earth blood. Jim, when I feel friendship for you, I'm ashamed."

And we get our first look at Kirk's melancholy: "Love... you're better of without it, and I'm better off without mine. This vessel... I give, she takes. She won't permit me my life; I've got to live hers." Then later, "Never lose you. Never."

This point, in particular, we'll get back to in my least favorite of the original series movies, The Search for Spock.

The first monster of the week, but as for the screenshot... Sulu lunches in the botany lab, where he has this plant that was probably once owned by Morticia Addams. I just thought it was cute, having a flower that's really obviously a hand puppet.

Also, "The Man Trap" was the first episode by air date.

Synopsis

The Enterprise stops at a desert planet to give an annual physical to Professor and Mrs Crater, who've been alone and doing an archaeological dig for several years. Initially, everyone sees a different woman when they look at Nancy Crater. Not long after, the extra they brought along so someone could die turns up dead.

Cause of death: total salt depletion. Spock does a search of internet message board arguments but finds nothing.

I'll cut to the chase on this, since the mystery isn't very interesting. There's a telepathic, shapeshifting, sentient alien that feeds on salt. It killed Nancy a year or two prior, but Bob Crater couldn't bring himself to kill it. Instead, he allowed the creature to masquerade as his wife.

After the third murder, the creature imitates a crewman and gets transported up to the Enterprise. They bring Bob up to the ship and have The Debate: Bob says that the creature is intelligent but the last of its kind, comparing it to the American bison; Kirk says that the difference between the creature and the bison is that it's been committing murder.

The creature kills Bob, then flees to McCoy's quarters. Nancy and McCoy were former lovers, and McCoy still holds out a candle. McCoy popped a bunch of benzos earlier and has been asleep most of the episode, so being out of the loop he defends "Nancy" from Kirk. It attacks Kirk, and McCoy is forced to kill it.

Commentary

This is a surprisingly messy episode if you stop and think about it. Bob's arguments for saving the creature boil down to, it's intelligent and just trying to survive. You can't really argue that it just doesn't understand humans, since it's been living with Bob for at least a year. Also, it's telepathic.

It feels like a TNG version of this episode would have the creature be a bit more sensible, and Picard would've bullied Bob into telling them what's really going on, and then they would've supplied the creature with all the salt it could need.

Indeed, this is more or less the plot of "Home Soil" (TNG 1x18).

Kirk probably would've done the same, but the creature went straight for predation rather than telling anyone what it was and what it needed. So how intelligent is it, really?

The standard view in wildlife control is that, if a dangerous animal becomes accustomed to humans, even a relatively sophisticated animal like a black bear, it has to be put down. This is basically how the episode plays out, so any possibility of moral complexity goes out the window and it reverts back to being a monster of the week.