Original image via Wiki Media Commons
Welcome to part five of my Star Trek watch through! I had some downtime over the holidays and was able to get back on track with my watching habits. This post will cover The Original Series, Episodes #8 and #9, “Miri” and “Dagger of the Mind.” Other posts in this series can be found linked at the bottom, and the watch order can be found on the first post, here.
Episode #8 – “Miri”
Captain Kirk, Dr. McCoy, Spock, and Yeoman Rand beam down to a new Earth in what seems to be an exact replica of our solar system after they receive a distress signal. The planet seems to be halted sometime in the 1960s, and the crew only finds children alive. One of the older children, a girl named Miri, explains that the ‘grups’ (grown-ups) all contracted a disease, went crazy, and died. The crew of The Enterprise soon discover that the ‘disease’ was a failed attempt at immortality, and that it slows aging to a rate of 1 month of aging to every 100 years in children, but rapidly sends adults into a frenzy that ends in death. The children are the only survivors, and they will contract the ‘disease’ when they hit puberty. Before they are able to make this discovery, the oldest boy alive and defacto leader of the children, who call themselves ‘onlys’, leads a team to steal the crew’s communicators, so they have no contact with the ship or its computers to use in finding a cure. The crew begins contracting the disease after making contact with the children.
I think Cpt. Kirk is supposed to be attempting to manipulate Miri in order to get answers about the children, the planet, and the disease, but in all honesty, he just creepily hits on her for the entire episode, while also flirting with Yeoman Rand, which nearly turns Miri and the children against him. There wasn’t much, if any, plot movement in this episode aside from the actual search for a cure.
Episode #9 – “Dagger of the Mind”
The USS Enterprise is delivering supplies to the Tentalus Penal Colony when a Dr. Simon VanGelder, sneaks aboard and asks for asylum. Dr. McCoy asks Captain Kirk to perform a full investigation and Kirk beams down to the penal colony along with Dr. Helen Noelle, to act as his medical eyes and ears. Once on Tantalus, Cpt. Kirk and Dr. Noelle follow the lead penal doctor, Dr. Adams, through a full inspection of the facilities, including a Neural Neutralizer that Dr. Adams explains doesn’t work all that well, but none-the-less was the cause of Dr. VanGelder’s brain injuries.
Back on the ship, Dr. McCoy and Spock try to get some answers out of Dr. VanGelder, who seems to be in immense pain any time he tries to recall something of note. Spock attempts Vulcan Mind Reading on a human for the first time, whereupon they discover that Dr. Adams has been wiping peoples’ memories and filling them with his own ideas. After a struggle with Dr. Adams, Kirk is freed when Dr. Noelle electrocutes a guy and short circuits the security barrier, allowing Spock to beam down to the penal colony with a rescue team.
The two most notable things about this episode are, firstly, the past between Cpt. Kirk and Dr. Noelle, who apparently hit it off at a Christmas party. Kirk seems uncomfortable beaming down to the colony with her and tells Spock to pass a message to Dr. McCoy, that Dr. Noelle had better be the best damn assistant he’s ever had. I assume the feeling here was supposed to be that McCoy let Noelle go with Kirk because she liked him, but it came across as either she was way more interested in him than he was in her and couldn’t let it go, or that he has trouble keeping his hands off of her. Either way, it was icky. Made more so by Dr. Noelle attempting to ascertain if Kirk has feelings for her and Cpt. Kirk falling prey to mind control and then sexually assaulting Dr. Noelle. The over-sexualization of Dr. Noelle’s garb and that single loose lock of hair were all ridiculously over the top as well. That chunk of hair would get annoying fast. No woman would walk about without spare bobby pins in her pocket (do their uniforms have pockets?). And also if you’re a medic, why bother curly your hair like that all the time when a ponytail works so much better.
Secondly, the Neural Neutralizer, which is clearly a basic prototype from which we get the Neuralizers found in the Men In Black films. Flash someone and fill in the blank for their memory. Genius! Put it in all the things!
Overall, not a terrible episode, just the glaring sexualizations that really irked me. I don’t think I will ever get used to it.
Other Posts in This Series:
Star Trek – The Original Series: Season #1
Part 1: “The Cage” and “The Man Trap”
Part 2: “Charlie X” and “Where No Man Has Gone Before”
Part 3: “The Naked Time” and “The Enemy Within”
Part 4: “Mudd’s Women” and “What Little Girls Are Made Of”
Part 6: “The Corbomite Maneuver” and “The Menagerie, Part 1” (Coming Soon)
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