STAR TREK
"The Mark of Gideon"

From Wikipedia:

"The Mark of Gideon" is a third season episode of Star Trek: The Original Series, and was broadcast on January 17, 1969. It is episode #71, production #72, written by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams, and directed by Jud Taylor.

Overview: A race of overpopulated aliens abduct Kirk to solve their problem.

More here.

Watch it here.

Notes and pics:

* Diplomatic visit to an isolationist planet. Interesting.

* Cool shot of the bridge.



* Nice job establishing that the ship is empty.

* An asshole diplomat episode. Haven't had one of these in a while. At least it's not one from the Federation this time.



* What, is she tripping on acid or something?



* Man, she's an awful actress.



* While kind of boring overall, I'm liking the parallel narrative, with one storyline on the empty Enterprise, and the other on the normal Enterprise.

* I'm not liking this girl. I guess I should be thankful that Kirk's not coming on to her. Yet.

* Wow, I really hate this Gideon guy, and I mean that in a good way.

* I also like his weird bald assistant.



* His outfit is fucking weird. I'm not sure what to make of it.



* You know, I'm really not giving a fuck about what's going to happen next.

* Aw shit. Now he's coming on to her.



* Oh man, this girl is horrific. And this scene is lasting forever.

* Of course. They're kissing.



* Okay, the weird faces on the screen while they kiss is a very welcome development.



* Creepy loud disembodied heart beats are always fun.

* Oh yeah! More weird faces!



* Okay, now he's going off on her. Actually, that's a pretty cool turn of events. I mean, I hate her, so this is great.

* I like the voyeurism. Reminds me of butthead aliens.



* Kirk was so obviously kidnapped. Why is this Star Fleet official being such an idiot? This should have been a Federation diplomat, instead. It would have made more sense and fit into the tradition of a long line of asshole Federation diplomats.



* These guards are kind of goofy. But nice fight.



* It strains credibility a bit, the fact that they didn't notice the difference in transporter coordinates until now. At least it puts Scotty in command while Spock is planetside.

* I love the group of people milling around outside the window.



* This is funny. They're overpopulated because they won't use birth control, which, like Catholics, they see as destroying life. On the other hand, they're trying to introduce disease to the planet in order to cull the population. Go figure. Actually, that's not too far from today's Protestant pro-life position, which rejects abortion, but embraces capitol punishment and war.

* Okay, even after Spock's explanation, I'm still confused: why did they make an exact replica of the Enterprise? It seems extreme if all they were trying to do was get him to fall in love with the bimbo. And how does an exact replica of the Enterprise help do that, anyway?

* Shouldn't these guards have better posture? Well, Spock dispatches them easily enough.



* Lots of zoom-ins in this episode.

* Ugh. Sickbay scene with Kirk and bimbo. This hurts to watch.



* "The Mark of Gideon" is severely problematic. It has some extraordinarily good ideas, but only a few good moments. Really, the whole thing is just poorly executed. In addition to an awful guest star, the episode utterly plods, a real yawn inducer. I mean, I like Gideon's leader a lot, but there's not enough of him, and far too much of his daughter. I could go on like that, but I'm sure you get the idea.

Two and a half stars.

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