Dagger of the Mind (3 Nov. 1966)

Kirk and psychiatrist Helen Noel are trapped on a maximum security penal colony that experiments with mind control and Spock must use the Vulcan mind-meld to find a way to save them.

Director:

Vincent McEveety

Writers:

Shimon Wincelberg, Gene Roddenberry (creator)

Stars:

William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, James Gregory

Cast

Episode complete credited cast:
William Shatner	...	Captain James T. Kirk
Leonard Nimoy	...	Mr. Spock
James Gregory	...	Dr. Tristan Adams
DeForest Kelley	...	Dr. McCoy
Morgan Woodward	...	Dr. Simon van Gelder
Marianna Hill	...	Dr. Helen Noel
Nichelle Nichols	...	Uhura
Susanne Wasson	...	Lethe
John Arndt	...	Ingenieur Fields
Larry Anthony	...	Berkeley
Ed McCready	...	Inmate
Eliezer Behar	...	Eli (as Eli Behar)

Storyline

When a psychologically disturbed member of the staff of the Tantalus penal colony, Dr. Marcus Van Gelder, manages to escape on to the Enterprise, Captain Kirk and Dr. Helen Noel beam down to the planet to see exactly what is going on there. The head of the prison is a renowned penologist, Dr. Tristan Adams, greatly admired for the advances he has made in treating criminals. While Dr. Noel can find no fault with Dr. Adams or the practices at the colony, Kirk isn't so sure. Mr. Spock must use the Vulcan mind meld on Van Gelder to get too the truth.

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Plot Keywords:

penal colony | mind control | escaped prisoner | 23rd century

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Genres:

Action | Adventure | Sci-Fi

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 November 1966 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Desilu Studios - 9336 W. Washington Blvd., Culver City, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Desilu Productions, Norway Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

50 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Doctor Helen Noel, a former Christmas affair of Captain Kirk, was named after the most beautiful woman in Greek mythology, Helen, and the French word for Christmas, Noël.

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Goofs

When Van Gelder reaches the Enterprise's bridge, he attacks and disables a security guard. McCoy is on the bridge at the time, but even after Van Gelder is subdued, he never so much as glances in the unconscious guard's direction.

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Quotes

Mr. Spock: What did he do to us?
Dr. Simon van Gelder: He can reshape any mind he chooses. He used it to erase our memories, put his own thoughts there. He was surprised it took so much power. We fought him, remember? But we grew so tired. Our minds so blank, so open, that any thought he placed there became our thoughts. Our minds so empty, like a sponge needing thoughts, begging, empty. Loneliness. So lonely to be sitting there empty, wanting any word from him.

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Connections

Spoofed in South Park: Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods (1998)

User Reviews

The Vulcan mind meld

Dagger of the Mind has everything one would expect from a good Star Trek episode: suspense, great dialogue and a subtle reflection on a contemporary issue, in this case the medical treatment of insane people.

The Enterprise is orbiting around a planet that serves as a prison colony, specifically designed for the criminally insane. When an inmate manages to get on the ship, Spock and McCoy do everything in their power to capture him, while Kirk and the crew's psychiatrist, a woman with whom - what a surprise - he appears to have a history, beam down to the planet to talk to Dr. Adams, whose revolutionary discoveries are well known throughout the galaxy. The truth, it turns out, is rather different from what they thought: the escaped convict is actually someone who used to work at the facility, and has been driven mad by Adams' latest creation, a device that allows him to control the human mind. And now, in order to protect his secret, the doctor intends to use it on Kirk.

The episode originally aired at a time when psychiatric hospitals and various forms of treatment for mentally ill patients were still a controversial subject (Frederick Wiseman's harrowing documentary Titicut Follies, which was banned for its explicit look at what goes on in a "mad house", was released in 1967), and so the writers used the excuse of Trek being nothing but an average sci-fi show - which Gene Roddenberry always stressed it wasn't, and still isn't - to get away with their own look at the issue, hidden under the usual mix of thrills and wit.

Fans also remember Dagger of the Mind fondly because it introduces the famous Vulcan "mind meld", which is essentially a form of telepathy used by Spock to get information when all other methods have failed. It adds a lot to the alien nature of the character, and went on to become a recurring element throughout the series. An iconic moment, and undoubtedly one of Leonard Nimoy's best on the show.