Starship Nomadic, Northern Ireland STARSHIP NOMADICA NORTHERN IRELAND STAR TREK FAN GROUP
TOS · SEASON 33×14

Whom Gods Destroy

NOMADIC PICK · FOR COMPLETISTSA great villain in a thin story.
FIRST SHOWN (US)
3 January 1969
ON
NBC
STARDATE
5718.3
DIRECTED BY
Herb Wallerstein
PRODUCTION NO.
71

WRITTEN BYTeleplay by Lee Erwin; story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl

IN BRIEF

SPOILER-FREE

Kirk and Spock deliver a new medicine to an asylum for the criminally insane, only to find a brilliant former starship captain in charge, and he can wear any face he likes.

SYNOPSIS

SPOILERS
Red alert: the full plot, ending included. Haven't watched yet?REVEAL SYNOPSISHIDE SYNOPSIS

Kirk and Spock beam down to Elba II, a Federation asylum for the criminally insane, carrying an experimental drug that may cure its last few inmates. They discover the patients have taken over. Their leader is Garth of Izar, once a celebrated fleet captain and a hero to Kirk, whose mind was shattered after an injury. Garth has learned to change his shape, and he has disguised himself as Governor Cory, who is now his prisoner. Garth wants the Enterprise. Posing as Kirk, he contacts the ship, but Scotty insists on a prearranged password, and the bluff fails. Garth tortures Kirk and Cory and sets his devoted follower Marta on the captain, all to no avail. In the climax Spock faces two identical Kirks and must decide which is real. He picks correctly and stuns Garth. The asylum is restored to order, and the new treatment begins to heal Garth's mind, though he remembers nothing of what he has done.

DID YOU KNOW?

  1. 01The BBC did not screen it in the UK until 1994, reportedly because of its sadistic elements and Marta's dance.
  2. 02In the original script Spock found the real Kirk through questioning. Director Herb Wallerstein added more action; James Blish's prose adaptation kept the original approach.
  3. 03The first episode made without co-producer Robert H. Justman, who had worked on the series since “The Cage” in 1964.
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