Whom Gods Destroy (Star Trek: The Original Series)
"Whom Gods Destroy" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It is episode #69, production #71, and was broadcast on January 3, 1969. It was written by Lee Erwin, based on a story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl, and directed by Herb Wallerstein.
Overview: Kirk faces off with an insane starship captain determined to control the universe.
Plot
On stardate 5718.3, the starship USS Enterprise arrives at the planet Elba II, an inhospitable world known for its very poisonous atmosphere and underground asylum for the criminally insane. The Enterprise brings with her a shipment of experimental medicine that may be a potential cure for insanity.
Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock beam down to the facility with the shipment of drugs and meet with the facility director, Donald Kory, who oversees the treatment of 15 of the most dangerous mental patients in Federation custody. Along the way, one of the inmates, Marta, a mentally unstable Orion female, warns Kirk and Spock that their host, Dr. Kory, is not who they think he is.
They soon discover the real Kory is imprisoned in a cell, put there by the impostor, who is none other than Fleet Captain Garth of Izar, a famous starship captain and one of Kirk's personal heroes. Garth's crew had mutinied against him when he had gone insane; the result of terrible injuries he endured on a tragic rescue mission. Garth also has a unique ability to shapeshift, taking whatever guise he wishes. This ability was taught to him by a race of shapeshifters on the planet Antos (and was intended to heal injuries suffered during the mission referenced above, Garth later taught himself how to shapeshift); which was also the planet Garth tried to attack before his crew went against his orders and took him into custody.
Garth locks Kirk and Spock up with Kory as he reveals his plans of stealing the Enterprise and taking over the Federation. He shapeshifts to appear as Kirk and then commands Mr. Scott on the Enterprise to beam him up. Kirk however, has a secret pass phrase with Scotty, who would mention "queen to queen's level three", in reference to a 3D Chess move, where Kirk would reply "queen to king's level one". When Garth is unable to give the correct response, Scotty refuses to transport him aboard. Garth then activates a force field that prevents Scotty from attempting a rescue.
Garth later invites Kirk and Spock to a dinner where they hear Marta recite some Shakespearian poetry that she claims she wrote herself. She then performs a strange "exotic dance" that Spock compares to a dance performed by Vulcan schoolchildren. In the meantime, Garth boasts about his incredible career as a starship captain, bragging that he has charted more planets and catalogued more star systems than any other man in history. He fishes for Kirk's pass phrase, but Kirk doesn't fall for it.
Angered, Garth threatens to torture Dr. Kory until Kirk divulges the code. Kirk still refuses even after Garth carries out his threats. Kory is strapped to a medical chair and prodded with painful jolts. Garth then puts Kirk himself in the chair, and tortures him further. Marta comes in and decides at a new approach for extracting the information. Garth leaves the room and Marta attempts to seduce the exhausted Captain. Kirk plays along hoping to get an opportunity to excape, but Marta tries to attack him with a knife, saying "He's my lover and I have to kill him!". She is surprised and nerve-pinched by Mr. Spock, who enters and frees the captain.
The two make a run for it, reaching the control room and deactivating the shield. Kirk however, has a feeling that it is going "too easy" and thinks he is being duped. When Kirk makes contact with the Enterprise, Kirk tells Spock to give the pass phrase instead. Spock can't give the code and reveals that he is the shape-shifted Garth. Scotty informs Kirk that a security team will beam down to his location, and a struggle over the force field ensues. Garth subsequently wins and reactivates the shield before the team can beam down.
Garth rounds his fellow inmates and declares himself "Master of the Universe" as he places a sheetmetal crown on his head, and names Captain Kirk his heir apparent, and Marta his consort, giving her a necklace. He then parades once back and forth across the room, to polite applause from the other inmates, and finally seats himself in his throne, a simple chair placed on a table. The inmates applaud again. He celebrates his victory by testing a powerful new explosive he made which is placed in Marta's necklace. He ejects Marta into the poisonous atmosphere outside the dome where she struggles to breathe. Garth puts her out of her misery by detonating the explosive. Garth then orders his men to fetch Spock. Spock, however, fakes unconsciousness in his cell and nerve-pinches the guards after they arrive to take him. Spock acquires a phaser and makes his way to the control room...only to find two identical Captain Kirks.
Spock attempts to distinguish between the two by asking "what maneuver was used against the Romulans near Tau Ceti?" One Kirk replies "the Cochrane Deceleration", but the other points out that it is a classic battle maneuver any good captain would know. The two Kirks begin to fight, but eventually one tells Spock to stun them both to ensure the safety of the Enterprise. Knowing that only the real Kirk would make a demand like that, Spock stuns the other and he's revealed to be Garth. With the matter resolved and Garth back in custody, control of the station is given back to Dr. Cory. The experimental drugs are administered to Garth and the other inmates who begin a long road to possible recovery.
Notes
 | This article contains a list of miscellaneous information. (December 2007) |
- The title of this episode is from the Roman proverb, "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make insane" (Quem deus vult perdere, dementat prius).
- Keye Luke, who played Dr. Kory in this episode is more known for playing Eldest Son in the Charlie Chan movies of the 1930s and 1940s, and Master Po in the television series "Kung Fu".
- Leonard Nimoy disliked this episode, complaining that Spock was not allowed to use his intelligence to identify the impostor. For instance, he could have easily asked highly personal trick questions that only his best friend would know how to answer properly, or have stunned both, anticipating that Garth needed to be conscious to maintain Kirk's form. The scenario comes from a classic situation most often attributed to the biblical King Solomon who had to decide between two women to whom a baby truly belonged. After running out of questions that he could ask them, he declared that he would offer the baby to both of them by cutting it in half. One of the women immediately responded that "the other woman could have the baby." Solomon decided, correctly, that only the woman who said this could be the true mother.
- In an interview with Sondra Marshak, published in her book Star Trek Lives, Nimoy revealed that the original script had in fact called for this sort of coolheaded deductive reasoning; but the director had decided that the audience wanted to see "action" -- the two Captain Kirks fighting each other. He suggested that Garth jump Spock and knock him out cold. Nimoy objected on the grounds that Spock would be on guard for such a thing, and it had already been established that he couldn't be rendered unconscious that easily. He settled for pretending to be unconscious, instead sitting on the floor and watching the fight. Nimoy told Marshak he had felt the director's changes amounted to "lying to the audience" and that the scene as played lacked integrity.
- This is the only time in the original series where Spock used a "double" nerve pinch, stunning two people simultaneously, one with each hand.
- In the United Kingdom, the BBC skipped this episode in all runs of the series in the 1970s and 1980s, due to the torture scenes. It was however released on home video with other "banned" episodes, and was shown on Sky One in 1991. It was broadcast for the first time on the BBC in January 1994.
- Yvonne Craig, who plays Marta the Orion slave girl, played Batgirl in the 1960s Batman TV series. Frank Gorshin, who played The Riddler in Batman, appeared in the next episode, "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield."
- The medical chair Garth uses on Kory and Kirk is a slightly reworked version of the neural neutralizer from Dagger of the Mind - in fact, Kirk says "Yes, I recognize it."
- The planet "Elba II" is a reference to the island of Elba, which served as a prison for Napoleon I of France. This may reference Garth being imprisoned in "exile", and it may also refer to the cliched portrayal of insane people believing they are Napoleon.
External links
- Whom Gods Destroy at StarTrek.com
- Whom Gods Destroy at Memory Alpha