Episode complete credited cast: | |||
William Shatner | ... | Capt. Kirk | |
Leonard Nimoy | ... | Mr. Spock | |
DeForest Kelley | ... | Dr. McCoy | |
Steve Ihnat | ... | Garth | |
Yvonne Craig | ... | Marta | |
James Doohan | ... | Scott | |
George Takei | ... | Sulu | |
Nichelle Nichols | ... | Uhura | |
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Dick Geary | ... | Andorian (as Richard Geary) |
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Gary Downey | ... | Tellarite |
Keye Luke | ... | Cory |
The Enterprise travels to the planet Elba II, home of the last asylum for the criminally insane, to deliver a serum that should cure all of its remaining inmates. Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet's surface where all seems in order, but they soon find the inmates now run the asylum, led by Garth (at one time a starship Captain, whose exploits were required reading at the Academy). Garth, who's learned how to shape-shift, can take on the appearance of anyone, including Kirk or Spock. In the process of learning this ability, he lost his sanity. Garth plans to pose as the Captain, beam up to the Enterprise and take over the ship, but Kirk has a roadblock set up to overcome. Written by garykmcd
This is the second episode where bad things are happening in an asylum. Obviously, thing have not changed much in about 400 years. They're still locking people up. The patients are abused. Every kind of malady is treated the same way. In this one, a man named Garth, a former starship captain has gained control of the facility, driving the iconic administrator out. Garth is monumentally cruel. He is a total narcissist, caring only for himself and using the other patients for his own purposes. This pretty much forces Kirk and Spock to deal with a totally irrational man. They must decide life and death situations concerning the other patients and bear the cruelty of Garth. The end is a bit anticlimactic and pulls some of Garth's responsibility off the table. It's hard to see his villainy when it is revealed that he is not responsible for his mental illness.