Whom Gods Destroy (Star Trek: The Original Series)

"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. The title is based on a quote often misattributed to Euripides: "Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad."

Overview: Kirk faces off with a demented shape-shifting 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 Cory, who oversees the treatment of fifteen 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. Cory, is not who they think he is.

They soon discover the real Cory is imprisoned in a cell, put there by the impostor, who is none other than Fleet Captain Garth of Izar (Steve Ihnat), 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 injuries in a rescue mission. Aliens from Antos tried to teach Garth just enough shapeshifting abilities to heal said injuries; he taught himself complete shifting. Garth tried to attack Antos before his crew rebelled.

Garth imprisons Kirk and Spock and tries to beam to the Enterprise. He plans to sell it as part of a plot conquering the Federation. Scotty does not receive a certain passcode from "Kirk" and refuses the beam up. 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 Shakespeare's Sonnet 18 which 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.

Garth tries to get the code by torturing Doctor Cory and Kirk. This fails. Marta's seduction attempt fails when Spock subdues her. The duo manage to communicate with the ship. A concerned Kirk has Spock give the code; he cannot, for he is actually Garth.

Kirk is subdued again. The crew on the Enterprise learn they cannot break through the shield without killing many innocents. Garth puts on a farce, declaring himself "Master of the Universe"; the other inmates are delighted. He kills Marta to demonstrate an explosive he had created. Spock disables his guard, acquires a phaser and finds two Kirks in the control room.

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 of them 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 (putting the safety of the ship ahead of his own), Spock stuns the other Kirk, who is 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 recovery.

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired in the United States on 24 May 2008 as part of the remastered Original Series. It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered "A Private Little War" and followed a week later by the remastered "The Mark of Gideon".

Aside from the standard remastered video and audio, along with the all-CGI animation of the USS Enterprise, specific changes to this episode also included:

• The planet Elba II has been given the appearance of a lifeless surface shrouded by a thick, cloudy atmosphere.
• The phaser barrage on Elba II by the Enterprise has been remastered.

External links

• Template:StarTrek.com link
• Whom Gods Destroy at IMDb
• Template:TV.com episode
• Review of the remastered "Whom Gods Destroy" at Trekmovie.com
• Whom Gods Destroy at Memory Alpha