At the beginning of the episode, we learn that the asylum holds the last fifteen mental patients of the Federation. Kirk says that the medicine ferried by the Enterprise is hoped to end mental illness "for all time." We are given every indication at the end of the show that the medicine worked. Why then does the Federation of future Trek incarnations continue to maintain mental asylums? In the movie Star Trek III the Federation plans to incarcerate McCoy in an asylum when Spock's kartra makes him act irrationally. And in the TNG episode "Frame of Mind" Riker believes himself for a time to be an inmate in an asylum. Why does the Federation continue to have need for such institutions if the insane can be cured with a shot of the "wonder drug" featured in this episode?

What if the wonder drug didn't actually work?

The asylum in "Frame of Mind" was not a Federation asylum.

Orions are not members of the Federation. Why would they send one of their women to a Federation asylum? Considering that they enslave their women, you'd think that they'd just cut their losses and do away with her.

Garth is considered a madman--a homicidal maniac. How is it that he managed to bring explosives to the colony? Wasn't he searched? I hardly think that an insane asylum would have the werewithal to create such a powerful explosive. Also, why was he allowed to keep all those necklaces? I should think that an inmate would not be permitted such things, for fear that he might strangle himself with them.

McCoy frequently shows up in landing parties that do not particularly require a doctor. Why, when delivering medicine to a doctor, was McCoy left behind?

Shatner must have had fun throwing that temper tantrum.

Marta seems to have the same pale lower lip as Mara the Klingon did.

They spoke of Garth's crew mutinying (sp) against him. Is it a legitimate mutiny when you're trying to stop a madman from destroying a planet?

The pain chair had no restraints. Why didn't Cory and Kirk just hop out of the chair? Especially Cory, who guards wandered away as soon as they put him in.

Did they mention what happened to the asylum's guards? Were they killed, or just imprisoned? I noticed an Enterprise security man at the end, so presumably they were killed. Is Kirk going to leave Cory all alone with fourteen mad people whose medicine may or may not work?

I would think that it would take more than looking like a Vulcan to be able to pinch like a Vulcan, yet Garth knocks Marta out.

I believe that Marta was in on it and she was just acting it.

The music fakes us out at one point in the first act and makes us think a commercial is upcoming. After Garth in the guise of Kirk fails to get himself beamed aboard he explodes in rage and then turns himself back into Garth. The music played is a dramatic suspenseful theme. Up to this point in the series this particular piece has always built to a crescendo and immediately presaged a commercial break. This time, however, the music levels off and abrubtly stops, and the action continues.

In addition to being able to alter his physical form, Garth also must be a great ventriloqust to so well imitate the voices of the people he poses as.

When Garth returns to Kirk's cell to ask Kirk to join him for dinner, part of Kirk's stomach is sticking out in direct contact with the line of the cell force field. Shouldn't he get zapped?

All that time that Garth had Cory pinned to his cell wall, what happened when Cory needed to go to the bathroom?

The music was often edited from prior episodes, sometimes with better results, sometimes worse.

When Garth changes back into Kirk during his tantrum, look for the huge difference in acting quality.

GUEST STAR PATROL (Ha ha ha)

Yvonne Craig (Marta) was Batgirl on "Batman" for one season.

Keye Luke (Cory) was Number One Son in the Charlie Chan films, among many other things.

Geez! EVERYONE was on "Batman!" I wish I could've seen it (no reruns available, we don't have cable.)

The only reason I know so much about "Batman" is because (1) I watched it a lot on FX, and they kept commenting on guest stars, and (2) Adam West's biography talks a lot about guest stars, and has cast lists.

I don't know if it's the same in America, but on the UK BBC showings of this episode (which are the full unsyndicated versions) the teaser ends with Garth pointing a gun at Kirk and Spock and releasing the inmates. After the opening credits, suddenly Kirk's in a cell with Cory, and Spock is being dragged off unconcious. Has my version missed a bit or are we just expected to guess what happened during the credits?

It's possible that the scene in which Spock was stunned was written into the original script and maybe even filmed. However, in addition to the later cuts that were made for syndication, there were many other scenes in the various episodes edited out to trim down the running times of the episodes to the standard 52 min. before they originally aired. Alas, these scenes were all left on the cutting room floor and swept away into oblivion.

Not only can Garth change his shape, he can change his clothes.

The explosive in Marta's necklace didn't really work too well, did it? Garth says that if he drops the bottle, he will destroy the entire planet (not bad for a chemical explosive!). A single crystal (and if you look at the bottle, they are fairly large crystals) doesn't even do any damage to a domed installation less than 100 meters away. Of course, Garth was probably lying.

The other thing is I find it hard to believe that 500 grams (guesstimate on weight) of chemical explosive could blow up a planet.

Also, if Garth's stuff *IS* that explosive, why didn't the Federation analyze it and use it as a power source?

HEY!

I thought the neural neutralizer was done
away with in "Dagger of the Mind"

Spock's napping again!

He misses an "sure-fire" way to figure out which person is Kirk and which one is Garth.

How? Everybody, altogether now!

The Vulcan-Mind Meld!

What about asking a 3rd person to enter the room with a phaser in his / her hand while Spock does the mind meld?

And exactly which third person would that be? Except for Kirk and Spock, all the people running around free were inmates.

Have someone beam down from the Enterprise... and to avoid suspicion...say "Conditon Green" like Kirk did in "A Taste of Armageddon".

Let's face it...the whole 3rd series could've been much better wriiten but Roddenberry passed the baton to his producers and the show was on very late in the evening where the network knew no one would be watching.

But Scotty won't beam anyone down without the proper response to "Queen to Queen's Level 3", and neither Spock nor the real Kirk won't give it to him in Garth's presence. In addition, the force field was turned back on before the fight.

In that case I agree with Phil....

Have Spock stun them both.

And I will add to that...do the mind meld on both to see who is whom.

It's been awhile since I seen the episode.

In the Blish novelization, the real Kirk tells Spock to stun then both. Spock realizes that Garth would never do that and stuns Garth. Also a logical way to do that, but TPTB were more interested in having Kirk.v.Kirk (which was done much better in The Enemy Within).

Actually, what you said is what happened in the filmed episode. But the Blish version WAS different in that it had the REAL Garth as the one who suggested that Spock stun them both. the real Kirk then told Spock to kill, not stun, both of them, and Spock realized that Garth would never say such a thing and stunned him.

Makes ya wish they left things alone instead of making Spock look like an idiot.

Mr. Nimoy HATES this episode and used it as an example of the deterioration of the show in the third season, particularly with the Kirk v. Kirk situation.

I've always wondered why this relatively small colony needs a force field that covers the entire planet? This is pretty impractical, covering thousands and thousands of square miles where no base is set up. Think about it; the Elba II asylum is where you're reading this, and you're covered by a force field, which stretches not only across all of North America, but Central America, South America, the South Pole, The North Pole, Europe, Asia, Australia, the Middle East... Just what is the purpose of such a waste of power?
Concentrate all that force field power around the colony instead, perhaps in a hundred-mile radius, but not the whole planet!
Also, I think Marta is faking it, and wasn't really knocked out by Garth's neck pinch, because she seems to hesitate as he pinches her, as if she nearly forgets she has to be incapacitated.
Garth was a captain when Kirk was a cadet, which would make Garth a contemporary of Chris Pike; I wonder if Garth commanded one of the original 12 Constitution-class ships when they were first launched?

I thought both Garth and Marta showed an extrodinary degree of cunning for people who were supposed to be unstable: Marta to be able to play along with the whole nerve pinch scenario, and Garth to so convicingly sanely portray the roles of Governer Cory and Spock.

Reportedly, when Harve Bennett was assigned the job of coming up with a storyline for the movie Star Trek II, he screened all the original epsiodes to look for a suitable villian to return as the antagonist for that movie. If Khan had not been chosen, I think Garth would probably have been one of the high runner ups (although actor Steve Ihnat was already dead by that time) . . .

Of course Spock doing nothing when he's confronted with the 2 Kirks puts Spock in the catagory of having Capt.Harriman's Syndrome.
(Gawking & dawdling)

ALL RIGHT! Kirk gets AN ORION SLAVE GIRL for this episode! I'll bet Kirk chalked up that one in his personal log!

*Dr. Cory is wearing the same outfit as Dr. Adams from Tantalus IV...I guess it's a standard uniform for Psychaitrists at penal colonies.
*The transformations of Garth are done fairly well but could have been done better.
*Garth's ring breaks when he's pounding on the floor.
*The Phaser in Garth/Spock's hand jumps from one hand to the other when walking the hallway with Kirk.

For some reason, TPTB returned to the 2nd season opening/closing theme...no more pizazz!

KUDOS! The enviromental suits from "The Tholian Web" return!

GREAT MOMENTS:
Spock's "double nerve pinch"
Two Kirks side by side
The floating Dr. Cory
The phasers firing down on the planet
Spock touching the forcefield.
The exploding Martia was realistic looking!

One of the inmates is wearing Thelev's vest.
(Thelev was the Orion disguised as an Andorian in "Journey to Babel")

The "dirge" from "Spock's Brain" comes back in this episode too.

Forgot one...the hand phaser does NOT emit a beam again...TPTB went back to the green flash.

Near the end, Garth asks Kirk, "Do I know you?" Kirk says, "No." Now, was THAT a nice thing to your hero, Kirk? I mean, the guy was insane, got treated and appeared "normal" at the end and instead of reestablishing a "new relationship" with Garth, Kirk gives him a cold shoulder.

This episode ends with the "Closing Credits Music" from the Second Season of TOS.
I KNOW it's different because it's missing that tuba in the finale.

Maybe Kirk should have said "Yeah you know me, You tried to kill me and take over my ship." Not exactly the healing process statement that was needed at that point. Who knows after the episode maybe he and Garth sat down and had a nice long discussion.

I read Yvonne Craig took dancing classes as a young girl and that's how she was able to do the Orion Slave Girl dance so well. It's really good. It falls second place to Vina's...which is a little more seductive than Martia's.

I'm kinda glad they didn't use the Orion Slave Girl MUSIC from "The Cage" again. It's not that it's a bad piece of music, it would've "cheapened" the show because TPTB have already "recycled" so much of their music from past shows it's getting kinda monotonous.

Steve Ihnat SHOULD HAVE gotten an Emmy for his portrayal of the insane Garth. It's REALLY dynamite!

Ya' know....the ring that Garth is wearing looks familiar....GAAAA! It's the same ring that Philana was wearing in "Plato's Stepchildren"!
Garth must be REALLY insane...he's taken up wearing women's jewelry!

The Orion Slave Girl dance music was recycled, as the dance music in the pub on Argelius in "Wolf In The Fold." The music recycling throughout the series was done for purely economic reasons.
Steve Ihnat was superb as Garth, John. I believe he passed away in 1972. Does anyone know why?
When Bob Justman left Trek, with five or six shows to go, TPTB went back to using the second season closing credit music. This, I think, was the first episode done without him. (I don't know if the two circumstances are connected, but...)
The transformations were obviously done by unfocusing and refocusing the camera lens on the different actors, and editing both pieces of film together. Very indicative of the LOW budget the third season struggled under. If done today, TPTB could use CGI and make the transformations creepier.

This episode marks the last time we see an Orion Slave Girl.

NANJAO: When I saw this episode again on Sci-Fi, I noticed that Captain Garth's clothing looked slightly familiar. His tunic is dark blue, whith a light gold braiding sectioning off the front. It looks a little bit like the uniforms used 100 years earlier on Enterprise (The back of the tunic was kind of strange though. There is a flap of extra fabric which attaches to the top of the sleaves and stretches accress the back. It would seem like that flap would limit the range of motion of his arms.)

You know, with all the reused footage they used in TOS, here was an opportunity to use a good shot & they missed it! It's the shot of the Enterprise firing down onto the planet from "The Alternative Factor"... they could've spliced it in... but didn't!

The fanfare used for Garth's coronation is the same fanfare played by Alexander in "Plato's Stepchildren"

Garth's boots are different colors. Or is that intentional?

Note near the end when Spock is sitting on the floor watching both Kirks fight. When the Kirks roll on the floor and one kicks the other off and into the wall. The scene shifts and Kirk is landing at the pedestal base and not the wall.

Have someone beam down from the Enterprise... and to avoid suspicion...say "Conditon Green" like Kirk did in "A Taste of Armageddon".

That was "Bread and Circuses."

Near the end, Garth asks Kirk, "Do I know you?" Kirk says, "No." Now, was THAT a nice thing to your hero, Kirk? I mean, the guy was insane, got treated and appeared "normal" at the end and instead of re-establishing a "new relationship" with Garth, Kirk gives him a cold shoulder.

Perhaps Kirk knew Garth was in a fragile mental state and didn't want to confuse him further.

I thought it was the begining as Garth had just tried to kill Kirk and Kirk didn't wanna remind Garth of that.

Most likely, you and Nove - and welcome! to both of you, by the way - are both right.
Whatever Kirk could say about their meeting would be not much of anything a newly recovered mental patient needed to hear!

Perhaps the drug's effect on Garth and the others wound up wiping out too much of their original memories and personalities and/or had effects on their minds that did more harm than good. Possibly it was scrapped, and this may be why it is never used or even mentioned again, even though it would come in handy in episodes like "The Way To Eden" and "Turnabout Intruder".

NANJAO: Garth's outfit is the same as Galatic High Commissioner Ferris from "The Galileo Seven"

One of the inmates is wearing Thelev's outfit from "Journey to Babel"

Another one of the inmates is wearing an outfit seen on Eminiar VII (A Taste of Armegeddon)

Just why are there TWO planets for insane people? (Elba II & Tantalus IV)
Isn't there room for the 15 people on Elba II to live on Tantalus IV? Sure, the people on Elba II are more insane, but still, 15 more people on Tantalus IV shouldn't take up THAT much room! Just put an addition on one of the buildings and there you go!

(Just in case anyone is a newcomer to Nitcentral, Tantalus IV is from "Dagger of the Mind")

Makeup problem:

When Marta leaves the holding cells for the first time, you can see the bottom of her feet as she walks...they are regular skin colored. Later in the show, they are green like they should.

Steve Ihnat died of a heart attack, iirc. He was only in his late-30s--looked much older.

Sir Rhosis

At the Trek Convention I went to, Nimoy discussed how unhappy he was with the final scene of this episode. (The 2 Kirks & Spock with the Phaser)
He tried to reason with the writers on how to make the scene better but they wouldn't listen.

He tried to tell them "Spock can't figure out which one is his Captain?!! Come on! A few personal questions to the real Kirk and it would've ended the scene more quickly" AND..."Spock has the Phaser & Garth manages to take Spock out of the action. Come on!"

I cannot help but agree with Nimoy on this one.

Steve Ihnat(Garth) 1935-1972.

From what I read, there was talk of having Garth come back in the movie STII, but was scrapped because Steve Ihnat was deceased.

Khan was already insane enough, it would have been too over the top to have Garth as the villain.

Looks for a moment like Shatner got some of Craig's green make-up on his knuckles as they wrestle on the bed for the knife.

Sir Rhosis

The music fakes us out at one point in the first act and makes us think a commercial is upcoming...
I thought that, too, when I first saw this ep.

The music played is a dramatic suspenseful theme...
That music cue was first used in "The Cage," when the Talosians are punishing Pike for filling his mind with hate.

No, I'm sure that that particular theme was first scored for "Spock's Brain" and wasn't heard before it made its debut there. It is heard frequently throughout third season epiosdes.

Actually, the music while Garth is having his temper tantrum IS from that "Cage" scene you mentioned. But the theme I'm referring to, from the "Spock's Brain" score, immediately follows it.

The third season used a lot of the music from the first season. ("Lights of Zetar" lifted whole chunks of the score from "Where No Man Has Gone Before.") "Plato's Stepchildren" was the last episode to have an original score.
The music from "Spock's Brain" you mentioned was almost always used to close an act for many third season episodes, which accounted for the fake-out here. It was most notably used during the body-switch in "Turnabout Intruder."
Maybe I should get a life...

When Garth, in the guise of Kirk, is pounding on that free-standing panel during his tantrum, he knocks one of the knobs loose.
Garth must have offed the maintenance crew of Elba II. There is a piece of dirt on the floor when the Andorian and the Tellarite come to get Spock. The Andorian just kicks it forward.

This episode ends with the "Closing Credits Music" from the Second Season of TOS.
Maybe it's coincidence, or maybe not - When Bob Justman left the series (with about six or seven shows to go) the closing credits music reverted to that which was used for the second season.

Yvonne Craig's character is supposed to be named Marta, but Steve Ihnat accidently calls her "Martha" at one point when he asks her to dance for Kirk and Spock. In doing so, he quotes the title of a Beatles song "Martha, My Dear"

Just watched this again last night on DVD, for the first time in ages - and I must say that some parts of the plot are just really dumb..
First of all, the chess move question that Kirk and his senior officers came up with - why didn't they come up with series of answers to the question; one which is the correct one indicating all was well and the others used to indicate a problem. That way when Garth asks Kirk for the answer, Kirk simply gives him the incorrect one and saves himself (and governor Corey) a lot of suffering. Garth wouldn’t know it was incorrect, relay that answer to Scotty, who in turn would then know something was wrong and beam the person giving the wrong answer straight into the brig.
Secondly – the two Kirks and Spock.. As someone has already pointed out here, just stun them both for crying out loud! One of them has to be Garth, so just put both of them back into different cells and watch them both until Garth reverts back to his original form.

This episode marks the last time we see an Orion Slave Girl.

Not any more. See Star Trek Enterprise.

Must I? I'd rather count this as the last time! lol

The monitor screen, when Garth and Kirk are watching Spock skulk around the asylum, looks a lot like current HDTV monitors. Come to think of it, most of the small view screens in most Trek episodes do.

This episode marks the last time we see an Orion Slave Girl.

Not any more. See Star Trek Enterprise.

Chronologically, Star Trek:Enterprise takes place in the past, so this would be the last time we see and Orion slave girl.

(and I must say repectfully to Mr Crusher that for the most part, I liked Enterprise. Sure, there were a couple of so-so episodes but I thought it was a pretty good prequel series with an admittedly lousy last episode.)

>Secondly – the two Kirks and Spock.. As someone >has already pointed out here, just stun them >both for crying out loud! One of them has to be >Garth, so just put both of them back into >different cells and watch them both until Garth >reverts back to his original form.

Yes, but that would be bad drama! I admit the ending is logically flawed, but if I was writing the script I probably would have written the final confrontation pretty much as it is.

The floor of the Elba II asylum looks like one of those U-Coat It floors that they plug ad infinitum on Speed Channel.

I think the literary inspiration for this episode may have been Edgar Allan Poe's story "The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether". That little-known Poe story also inspired a minor hit in the seventies for the Alan Parsons Project.

While I know this is encroching on Star Wars territory, and I'm sure it's already been done in a TREK novel, I think that a new TREK series following the command of Captain Garth would be a good one, even if it was a TOS prequel. The series could follow Garth and his crew and focus on Garth's slow mental disintegration. The series finale could take place on or just before the Antos IV incident that had the former starship committed to Elba II.

Live long and prosper.

The "human sacrifice" is Marta, the blue Orion girl? Hmm.

One of the inmates standing around during the dinner scene looks like Len Lesser, who played Uncle Leo on Seinfeld.
The walls of the asylum control room look like the walls of the control room on the artificial planet in "That Which Survives."

Also, the diamond shaped wall decoration from "Trouble With Tribbles" and "Enterprise Incident" is on the asylum wall as well.

Todd wrote, a while back: Yvonne Craig's character is supposed to be named Marta, but Steve Ihnat accidently calls her "Martha" at one point when he asks her to dance for Kirk and Spock. In doing so, he quotes the title of a Beatles song "Martha, My Dear".

Probably nothing more than coincidence, however. This episode was filmed in October, 1968. "Martha, My Dear" is on the "White Album", which was released in late November, 1968. Unless the song was released as a single prior to the album release. I was 14 at the time, and IIRC, I don't think it was.

I should have said, "he inadverdantly quotes".

The original music played during Marta's dance may be the last bit of source music (aside from the songs in "Way To Eden") composed for TOS. A tip of the hat goes to the composer and TPTB. They could have used the Orion Slave Girl music from "The Cage," but chose not to.
The TV Land version cuts for a commercial as Spock knocks out the men who took him out of his cell. The music cue used at the start of Act 3, when Kirk is in the chair of pain, is recycled here. You can even hear the "whine" of the chair again.

NOTE: According to history, Napoleon was exiled to Elba. Garth (acting like Napoleon) was sent to Elba II

Yeah, I caught that one at once. Additionally, Napolean took over France again, which is what Garth was trying to do.

I wonder, if he would have made it off the planet, would there be another asylum called St. Helena II?

Oh, by the way, 'Izar' means 'star' in Basque.

Whom Kirk Destroys is enhanced next week.Hopefully I can get it..

Probably not much done here, besides the orbital establishing shots.

You think they would do something about Garth's transformation effects.

And the explosion of Marta's necklace. The explosion is waaaaayyy too small for an explosive that supposed to be powerful.

The problem with updating the live action shots is the lack of the source elements. I don't think they can do a better transformation sequence with the footage available.

New orbital shots of Elba II, showing it's greenish atmosphere, and a revised phaser shot at the planet. That's about it. Garth's -- pardon me, LORD Garth's transformation effect was unchanged.

Marta seems extra green during her dance scene -- I think they're using a green spotlight on her.

When Garth transformed as Spock with at least one phaser, going to Captain Kirk and giving him
a phaser that could not work (no fuel?), he was able to ACT just and move around just like Spock, but in reality he would have moved around like Garth, and that should/would have caught Captain Kirk's eye.

If this kind of plot hole is surprising to you, then you must be new to the mess that was the 3rd season of Star Trek.

In the Nitpicker's Guide Phil comments about Spock saying there had never been a mutiny aboard a starship, but this episode saying that Garth's mutinied.
1. It was Garth who called it a mutiny & he's not exactly a reliable witness.
2. Is it really a mutiny when a crew refuses to go along with a captain's order to commit an illegal act? (i.e. destroying a peaceful planet.)
For all we know the first officer & doctor of Garth's ship went through exactly the proper procedure we saw in Obsession, except that Garth didn't back down.

My nephew Brandon claims he saw a padding bounce when the Tellarite guard was stunned & fell. I didn't, but he claims it happened in shadow.

The Enterprise is supposedly firing on the weak point of the force field, which one would think would be turning with the planet that the field is projected from, but as the phaser hits we see the planet turning underneath.
Just a wide area of weakness or a nit?

In the Kirk vs. Kirk scene, Shatner's body double is wearing a *really* bad wig/toupee. Very noticable in the rear shots, and it darn near comes off during the fight.

---

quote:

In the Kirk vs. Kirk scene, Shatner's body double is wearing a *really* bad wig/toupee. Very noticable in the rear shots, and it darn near comes off during the fight.

---

The cells the inmates are held in are VERY spartan, just one bench, no bed, no water, no food dispenser, no toilet. You can't humanely hold someone in these cells for very long, and having to get them out every time they need to go to the bathroom would defeat most of the extensive security measures used in the asylum.

Fifteen incurably insane inmates, only one of which is a woman. Sad commentary on the intrinsic mental stability of the male gender.

John A. Lang on Friday, June 13, 2003 - 5:43 pm: Just why are there TWO planets for insane people? (Elba II & Tantalus IV) Isn't there room for the 15 people on Elba II to live on Tantalus IV? Sure, the people on Elba II are more insane, but still, 15 more people on Tantalus IV shouldn't take up THAT much room! Just put an addition on one of the buildings and there you go!
Tantalus IV - from Dagger of the Mind - may have been closed down, possibly due to either the actions of Dr Adams, the retirement of Dr Van Gelder, or both.

We can also assume that Elba II and Tantalus are hundreds of light years away from each other, and one served one sector of Federation space and the other serves the other side. It would save the hassle of transporting Criminal X to Tantaslus, which is 700 light years away from the guy's planet, whereas Elba II is just a hundred light years away.

I've come up with an explanation of why Garth's clothes change when he morphs into somebody else.
Since he learned the art of cellular metamorphosis from the Antosians, it's possible that before they found a way to transform their biology they were able to transform material from one thing to another. That lead to experiments with people and their eventual discovery of cellular metamorphosis.
So when Garth mentally imagines changing into Kirk, his mind also 'programs' his clothing to change from his coat and trousers into a Starfleet uniform.

It's not uncommon in fiction for clothing to have the ability to change-- since the Fantastic Four was created, it was revealed that their costumes are composed of 'unstable molecules', which explains why Reed Richard's costume stretches with his body, why the Human Torch's costume doesn't burn when he 'flames on', and how Sue Richards' costume turns invisible with her.

So that force field covered the whole planet? Man, it must have used major energy to maintain.

I think they could have used such a powerful world-wide force field in The Motion Picture when V'Ger showed up and in Star Trek IV when the Probe appeared.

I think V'Ger could just have blasted through it like it was not even there.

What was Marta, a non-Federation citizen, doing there?

Given what we know about Orion women, why wasn't she in charge (she could have had all the men eating out of her hands).

What was Marta, a non-Federation citizen, doing there?

Perhaps she committed a crime in Federation space? In which case, she'd fall under their jurisdiction.

I guess it depends what the crime was. If it was something petty, wouldn't they just pack her off back to Orion.

Of course, we don't know Marta's backstory. I guess if she claimed refugee status, they probably wouldn't boot her out of the Federation, but send her to a penal colony, like they did here.

Once again the lack of a Trek time line shows in this episode. Kirk and Garth speak of the Federation as something that happened within their lifetimes. Since we know that the Federation was formed in 2161 (as revealed in TNG), more than a century before, they sure look young for their ages!

They used one of the Trek regular background actors (Lt. Brent) as McCoy's assistant, when he's tending to Garth, but I think it would have made more sense to show an actual Elba II doctor there.
Garth (as Cory) mentions 'medical staff', and Cory, himself, mentions 'guards'. Where are the Elba II staff? Other than Cory, we see none of them, even after the crisis is over.

Scott says the explosion registers as 'point nine five'. Is that 0.95 megatons? That sounds pretty big to me, if it is, because my Google search tells me that one megaton is the equivalent of one million tons of TNT.

Garth (as Cory) mentions 'medical staff', and Cory, himself, mentions 'guards'. Where are the Elba II staff? Other than Cory, we see none of them, even after the crisis is over.

Considering the kind of lunatics those inmates were, it's a fair bet that all that personnel is either dead, or in no condition to do their work. I'm leaning heavily on the side of dead.

They used one of the Trek regular background actors (Lt. Brent) as McCoy's assistant...
The actor's name is Frank DaVinci. I'm not sure, but this episode may have been his last appearance.

I'm leaning heavily on the side of dead.

Garth probably had them killed. He had no qualms about murdering one of his own, Marta, after all.

Which begs the question why the other inmates continued to be loyal to him. He killed Marta, didn't it occur to any them that they might be next?


The actor's name is Frank DaVinci.

Looked him up on Memory Alpha and realized "Hey, it's that guy!"

He died in 2013.

In order to out Garth, Spock mentions a battle the Enterprise had with a Romulan ship at Tau Ceti.

Guess said battle must have been an adventure we missed, because that sure didn't happen in Balance Of Terror.

And Tau Ceti is 12 light years from Earth, so it's kinda close.

Darn tootin' it is. That would be well inside Federation space!

I'm guessing that whomever wrote this episode just tossed in the name because it sounded cool, without doing the proper research.

Sadly most SF writers just use star names they've heard of without doing any research. I've posted a few nits about the real life stars Trek writers have used.

I know that, fifty years ago, when this was written, there was no handy Internet. But there were books on stars and such. Perhaps these writers should have read a few first.

Most of my information about stars were from my astronomy books.

Heck when they were creating the show they thought about making Spock half-Martian. Thank goodness they changed that.

Heck when they were creating the show they thought about making Spock half-Martian. Thank goodness they changed that.

Amen to that.

It was less than a decade after TOS ended that the Viking probes landed on Mars and revealed a barren and lifeless world (well, by lifeless I mean no civilization existed there).

Awwww! No Ice Warriors there?! Darn!

Thank the dead gods of Krypton for the Powers That Be that decided to make Spock NOT half-Martian.

Steve, no Biker Mice, either. ;-)

And no batratspidercrabs or giant amoebas either (the movie, Angry Red Planet, 1959).

In Trek, it was we humans that build a civilization of Mars, when we colonized it, according to Harry Kim, in 2103.

Oh, and not to mention those three-legged beasties and their spaceships with long necks firing death rays (War of the Worlds).
Still, I'm holding out hope that something alien lived there long ago and its remains are petrified, just waiting for some future archeologists to find.
Or little Gray alien footprints.

I would love to see a landing on Mars.

However, I get the feeling that, by the time it happens, I'll either be dead or too old to care.

Garth and his followers thought they were going to take over the Enterprise, all four of them (including Marta).

Of this could be forgiven, as Garth was mad as a hatter.

Cory tells Kirk about Garth's learning about cellular metamorphosis to repair the damaged parts of his body. Sounds more like cellular REGENERATION to me-- repairing something that was destroyed, not just changing it's form.

They mention an accident Garth suffered, that messed up his mind, had his crew mutiny, and placed him on Elba II. The problem is, later on Kirk mentions 'the disease that changed you'. So which is it? An accident or a disease?

Starship command is such a dangerous job! You either end up horribly disfigured (Pike, Garth), mentally and emotionally damaged (Decker), mentally deranged (Tracy, Garth), or dead (Intrepid, Excalibur, Defiant).

Spock tells Kirk that he expected Garth to win the fight because of Kirk's 'depleted condition'. As viewers, we saw Kirk put through the pain-chair, phaser stunned in the back and punched in the back, but Spock never saw any of this. He was removed from the scene and left alone in his cell until he neck-pinched the two inmates.

So which is it? An accident or a disease?

Well, maybe it involved a virology lab on the planet Wuhan... ;-)

Starship command is such a dangerous job! You either end up horribly disfigured (Pike, Garth), mentally and emotionally damaged (Decker), mentally deranged (Tracy, Garth), or dead (Intrepid, Excalibur, Defiant).

Yet Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway managed just fine

Plot armor.

"Yet Archer, Kirk, Picard, Sisko, and Janeway managed just fine"

Welllll....
Kirk; salt almost drained from him, split into two people by the transporter, neural neutralizer, Miri's planet disease, Gorn fight, (actually LOTS of physical fights with various humans and aliens), suffocated by Khan, suffocated by Apollo, attacked by the Companion, nearly aged to death on Gamma Hydra IV, poisoned by a Mugato, shocked by Romulan holding cell force field, electrocuted by Provider obelisk controls, electrocuted by Yonada's Oracle, mentally-controlled by Platonians, stunned by Scalosian weapon, pain chair and phaser hit on Elba II, poisoned by Zenite gas, life essence switched with Janice Lester...
Yikes! How is this guy still alive???!!!

Picard; yadayadayada-- THERE-ARE-FOUR-LIGHTS!!! -yadayadayada...

Janeway; yadayadayada--Turned into a lizard creature--yadayadayada...

You get the picture!

Yes, but, in the end, all of them recovered and went on with their lives. Helps to be a lead character

Why isn't McCoy in the landing party, considering the medical nature of the mission?

Because Kirk thought this was gonna be a milk run. He'd deliver the cure and then leave.

The idea that Garth and his mooks had taken over the place probably never even crossed his mind.