Episode Synopsis (from the official website):
When Dr. Simon van Gelder of the psychiatric staff at the Tantalus Penal Colony escapes to the U.S.S. Enterprise exhibiting signs of manic insanity, an enraged McCoy insists that Kirk investigate the colony. The Captain reminds McCoy of Tantalus' excellent reputation, but McCoy is unconvinced.I had only a vague recollection of this episode when I first sat down to watch it. As with many of the first season episodes it has been several years since I have seen Dagger of the Mind and I wasn't sure what to expect. What I found was an entertaining if unremarkable episode of Star Trek, which probably explains why I didn't remember it.
Kirk and Dr. Helen Noel, the U.S.S. Enterprise's psychiatrist, tour the facility. They discover that the Colony director, Dr. Tristan Adams, has been using a brainwashing device, the neural neutralizer, to control not only the colony's inmates, but his staff as well. When the doctor realizes that Kirk has discovered his secret, he convinces the captain to try the machine for himself, to prove that it is perfectly safe. The result is that Kirk falls madly in love with Helen Noel and the two remain on the Colony as Adams' prisoners.
Meanwhile, on board the U.S.S. Enterprise, van Gelder is in such a distraught state from the neural conditioning that he is unable to explain to Spock what is going on at the penal colony. The Vulcan attempts a mind-meld with van Gelder and discovers what has been happening on the planet below. On Tantalus, Dr. Noel escapes through an air-conditioning duct to the power room, where she lowers the planet's defense shields, enabling Spock to beam down a security team.
I liked the basic premise of the story quite a bit, and it successfully adhered to the Star Trek ideal of telling a story that was relevant to issues in the real world while staying faithful to creating a believable science fiction future. Even 40 years later, we are still debating the appropriate methods of punishment for criminals. Many believe in rehabilitation, others in punishment, some in retribution. We can only hope that 300 years in the future mankind will have found a better way to deal with crime-and in Dagger of the Mind it appears they have.
It seems that Dr. Tristan Adams of the Tantalus Penal Colony has come up with innovative techniques to condition the minds of criminals, helping them to see the error of their ways while shedding their past-essentially being reborn as new, healthy members of society. Dr. McCoy suspects that something might be out of the ordinary and Kirk soon discovers that it is a devious brainwashing device that "cures" the criminals and makes them slaves to any suggestion or commands Adams chooses to give.
While the brainwashing and mind control angle was nothing new at the time for science fiction (and would become another overused them through the years on Star Trek), having it used as a means of forced rehabilitation on criminals was arguably ahead of its time. Unfortunately, even with good ideas and a story still relevant today, the episode ended up far more formulaic and unexciting than it needed to.
Before I arrive at my issues with episode, I must point out that it was very successful in one regard: the establishment of Kirk's legendary strength of will. One of overriding themes through The Original Series and the early movies is that Kirk is a man of both deep passions and deep convictions. When lesser men might fail, Kirk would always succeed, often through force of will alone. He had a singular purpose, a drive that would make him a legend. Dagger of the Mind is one of the first episodes where we really see a glimpse into that strength of will.
Now for the bad. To start, Dr. Helen Noel, ship's psychologist. What an awful idea-introduce yet another semi-love interest from Kirk's past, yet this time make her an insufferably annoying, rude, insubordinate psychiatrist who idolizes the man they are investigating. Her presence was entirely a plot contrivance that only serves to reinforce the Kirk as Lothario stereotype and provide him an unnecessary "object" to fight for while he is being brainwashed. The character might not have been so bad had the writers not allowed her to get away with being so insubordinate (a theme that recurs more and more towards the middle and end of Season 1 that I will discuss frequently and so completely blind to her idol's criminal behavior.
It really isn't entirely fair to pick on the special effects and props of a show that was ahead of its time and is now 40 years old. At the same time, the "neural neutralizer" looked like an oversized cardboard box with a two dollar oven dial attached to it. It just did not look good.
My final issue is with the entire concept of crime and punishment in Star Trek. I know Roddenberry's initial vision was for a future Earth and human race that was free of poverty, of war, and of crime. Yet starting in this episode and continuing through the later series, we frequently hear references to criminals, penal colonies, rehabilitation, etc. It is of course grossly simplistic to presume that without genetic manipulation any genetic factors that might influence the likelihood to commit crime would simply disappear in the next 300 years, or that laws would be so liberal as to make hard to find people guilty of crimes. We know from Star Trek history that neither of these possibilities is a factor, and thus the conclusion I must draw that while Roddenberry envisioned a future free of crime, he also realized that this ideal might not be achievable in the structured and moral Federation.
Continuity:
- While not strictly continuity, the blatant insubordination in this episode becomes a somewhat annoying recurring theme in Season 1.
- I need to do more research to understand why all the principle cast members are not in every episode.
- The uniform colors still vary, often by shades of blue or gold.
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