Dagger of the Mind

As I’ve already said elsewhere, if I could actually have only one of the miraculous pieces of technology from the Star Trek universe, I’d choose the food materializer. However, if I got two choices I might well add this episode’s main gizmo to the list. I can’t count the number of times I’ve gotten home after a hard stretch at work, flopped down in my chair and mumbled “I wish I could just forget this day ever happened.”

Of course the folks at the Tantalus Five penal colony might not be so happy about this particular gizmo. Our heroes first learn that something’s amiss when a crate beamed aboard turns out to be concealing Dr. Simon van Gelder (Morgan Woodward), the colony’s former psychiatric staff member and current wild-eyed nutcase. Kirk heads down to the surface accompanied by Dr. Helen Noel (Mariana Hill, an actress with a strong “producer’s girlfriend” aura about her).

The colony’s superintendant, Dr. Tristan Adams (James Gregory), introduces the captain to a device that looks like a combination of a shower head and one of those flashing light memory games that were popular back in the late 70s. He says he’s using it to erase his patients’ painful memories, thus alleviating their suffering and moving them toward cures for their illnesses.

However, he’s actually using it to implant painful blocks on their entire identities. Kirk and Noel find this out when their experimental session with the device is interrupted by Adams. The good doctor proceeds to torture Kirk, presumably to brainwash him into forgetting what was going on. Of course if it didn’t work any better than the hatchet job he did on van Gelder, he’d have one hell of a time explaining a hypno-lobotomized captain to his crew. Fortunately the crew (specifically good old Spock) figures it out on their own in enough time to put a stop to it.

This episode is notable for Woodward’s over-the-top performance, out-chewing even the great William Shatner himself. It’s also the first appearance of the ultimate Star Trek plot device: the Vulcan mind meld.

Episode rating:

Stardate: 2715.1

Episode type: Enterprise crew

Written by: S. Bar-David (Shimon Wincelberg)

Original air date: November 3, 1966

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