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star trek whom gods destroy imdb

Star Trek – Whom Gods Destroy (Review)

This July and August, we’re celebrating the release of Star Trek Beyond by taking a look back at the third season of the original Star Trek . Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the latest update.

Whom Gods Destroy is a mess.

In a lot of ways, Whom Gods Destroy is shoddy and lazy. In many ways, the episode plays like a collection of familiar Star Trek elements blended together to pad out forty-odd minutes of television with no regard for internal logic or plotting and with minimal regard for the characters caught in the middle of it all. There are very few ideas in Whom Gods Destroy that have not been done before, and done better. The episode is not only a rehash of familiar concepts, but it is an exercise in diminishing returns.

Dance with destiny.

Dance with destiny.

This is to say nothing of the chaos unfolding behind the scenes during the production of the episode. It seemed only appropriate that Kirk’s latest mission would take him to what is effectively a gothic asylum in outer space, because it seemed more and more that Star Trek was turning into a madhouse. Veteran staffers were leaving the show in droves, while tensions were mounting on the set, and Fred Freiberger was struggling to keep the budget under control. More than that, there was a clear sense that the series was over, and this was the end of the line.

Whom Gods Destroy really sounds like a disaster. It is certainly not a good episode of television. However, this is the third season. Whom Gods Destroy is interesting enough that it works much better than the season’s weaker episodes. It is elevated by a manic energy that goes some way towards covering for the more illogical elements of the plot, and three central performances that play into the high camp of the premise. Whom Gods Destroy is far from classic Star Trek , but it is much better than it has any right to be.

Absolute madness.

Absolute madness.

The plot is very much a collection of familiar Star Trek tropes and iconography, as if constructed by a production staff that had binge-watched the first season of the show been asked to put together an episode from various left-over elements. The idea of setting an episode on the “Federation funny farm” harks back to Dagger of the Mind from the first season, a similarity that even Leonard Nimoy noted in his memos to the staff. Marta is the first Orion Slave Girl to appear since The Cage . Shatner plays a duplicate evil (and hammy) Kirk like he did in The Enemy Within .

Indeed, the institution itself seems cobbled together from bits and pieces of the prior two seasons. Garth’s primary henchmen are an Andorian and a Tellarite, aliens introduced to great effect in Journey to Babel . Doctor Donald Cory wears the same kind of overalls worn by the staff in Dagger of the Mind . Even the rehabilitation chair was lifted from that first season episode. There is very little original to be found in Whom Gods Destroy . In many ways, that feels appropriate. The third season often feels like it is about preserving the iconography of Star Trek .

Music to his ears.

Music to his ears.

Whom Gods Destroy is in many ways iconic and influential. It is the only episode in which Kirk actually interacts with an Orion Slave Girl, despite the inclusion of stock footage in The Menagerie, Part II . Vina predates Marta, both in terms of production and broadcast, but Marta is very much Kirk’s original “green-skinned space babe.” That alone gives the episode a certain cultural cache. This is to say nothing of the extent to which fandom has fixated upon the character of Garth of Izar and “the Battle of Axanar” , despite the episode’s rejection of those two concepts.

None of which is to suggest that Whom Gods Destroy is a particularly well-written episode. In fact, as both Plato’s Stepchildren and Let That Be Your Last Battlefield demonstrated, it is entirely possible for an iconic and influential piece of Star Trek to be quite terrible when judged on its own terms. Whom Gods Destroy is arguably a stronger episode than either of those two examples, at least affording itself the luxury of high camp that makes it oddly enjoyable. However, it is still incredibly clumsy and awkward, refusing to make any sort of sense.

Putting the matter to bed.

Putting the matter to bed.

Whom Gods Destroy is credited to science-fiction writer Jerry Sohl. Sohl had previously contributed The Corbomite Manouevre to the early first season, although the episode had been heavily rewritten. Somethign similar happened in this case. Sohl explained the situation (and his original pitch) to Starlog :

“My idea,” explains Sohl, “was that one of the missions of the Enterprise is that it must stop every once in a while at prison  planets and check on them to make sure that  everything is all right, or if they need anything. So, they stop at this planet, beam down and the person there in charge of all the inmates takes them as prisoners before they know he’s really the chief of the inmates. All of the people who were the keepers are now in the dungeons. It’s a reversal, and of course this guy is really nuttier than hell. The upshot is that he must be  destroyed and it makes for a lot of suspense.  That was very nice. Unfortunately, once I saw the direction they wanted to go with it, I said, ‘Look, go ahead and take it. I’ve really got too much to do to screw around with it,’ and I think that was the end of my association with Star Trek, althogh I thought the series was a good thing.”

Neither producer Fred Freiberger nor script editor Arthur Singer seemed bothered by the similarities to Dagger of the Mind . Had Gene Roddenberry been more invested in the third season, he might have caught it. It seems likely Robert Justman might have done more if he were not also on the way out during the production cycle.

Sohl long and thanks for everything.

Sohl long and thanks for everything.

There is something rather gothic about the basic set up in Whom Gods Destroy . The Enterprise arrives at an institution for the criminally insane in the Federation. Although much of the dialogue references the “justice” and “compassion” afforded these individuals, the particulars suggest otherwise. They are stranded on a barren rock, kept in by a planetary force field, and surrounded by green gas that is toxic enough to kill anybody exposed to it within minutes. It recalls the eighteenth century image of such institutions built in remote locations or on cliffs over the sea.

There are a number of obvious antecedents for Whom Gods Destroy . In keeping with the whole gothic tone, the set-up of the story recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether , in which a visitor slowly comes to realise that the inmates have taken over the asylum and locked up the staff. However, there was also a much more modern influence on the episode. Much like Spectre of the Gun seemed to draw its influences from Hour of the Gun , Whom Gods Destroy was riffing on another piece of contemporary sixties pop culture.

Running the asylum.

Running the asylum.

The episode is undoubtedly inspired by Marat/Sade , the controversial sixties play that featureed a play-within-a-play set at an asylum and “directed” by the Marquis de Sade. The play was revolutionary :

It’s very hard to invoke this production without sounding nostalgic. It changed the lives of most people who saw it, including future innovative artists such as Mike Leigh and David Hare. People as different as Marowitz himself and the right-wing critic Bernard Levin hailed the breathtaking boldness of Brook’s production, which used no props, no black out, but insisted on an environment – brilliantly designed by Sally Jacobs – of grey benches and sunken baths. You can still “smell” this production in Brook’s 1967 film, which was made in just 17 days, surely a record: Jackson as a fantastically erotic Corday, Ian Richardson as a maundering Marat (posed in his bath like the Jacques-Louis David portrait) and the unrivalled Patrick Magee as a controlling De Sade; it’s one of the best “theatrical” films ever made. And, at the end, the audience on film who are watching the movie rise up and destroy the theatre in a potent metaphor of future cultural priorities; the inmates take over the asylum and undermine the artistic message and commitment of the actors, just as the Marquis de Sade suggests they should.

Garth does something similar over the course of the episode. He “plays” the role of Kirk at certain points, staging an elaborate break-out in which Kirk is an (initially) unwitting actor. He stages a showy coronation ceremony.

You don't have to be mad to work here. At least you didn't, before the coup.

You don’t have to be mad to work here. At least you didn’t, before the coup.

However, there is more to the overlap than that. While Whom Gods Destroy is in no way as provocative or bold as Marat/Sade , it does seem to inadvertently borrow just a little bit of that prophetic magic. If Marat/Sade seemed to predict the future of the strange relationship between artist and consumer in late twentieth century and early twenty-first century art, then Whom Gods Destroys can feel like a futurist in-joke. It teases ideas that seem funny when examined through the lens (and comfort) of hindsight.

There are quite a few moments in the third season of Star Trek that seem to hint obliquely at the future of the franchise in the way the production team could never have accurately predicted. That Which Survives is a trial run of The Arsenal of Freedom . Somewhat ironically, the idea of the “inmates taking over the asylum” feels appropriate for Star Trek in general and Whom Gods Destroy in particular. Look at the blurred lines between fan and creator during the Axanar controversy .

Tell it to the Tellarite.

Tell it to the Tellarite.

Of course, it could be argued that Star Trek had to deal with the issue of “running the asylum” long before the controversy over Alec Peters’ “fan” film. An entire generation of young Star Trek fans would become writers on Star Trek: The Next Generation , with their influence becoming particularly strong during the run of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine . Even Manny Coto, the producer in charge of the fourth season of Star Trek: Enterprise and who wrote Bound focusing on Orion Slave Girls, is a self-described “fan.”

Beyond that, the basic premise of  Whom Gods Destroy fits quite nicely with the themes and tones of the third season as a whole. Insanity and irrationality are core themes of the third season of Star Trek , as if the very universe itself is on the cusp of collapsing. This was a clear reflection of anxiety on the part of the show; whether anxiety about the inevitable cancellation or about the state of contemporary culture. Anybody looking at television in the late sixties might reasonably wonder whether the whole world had gone insane. Star Trek reflected that.

The king on his throne.

The king on his throne.

Is There in Truth No Beauty? featured an alien races whose mere appearance could drive people insane, leading one such individual to push the Enterprise outside the universe. And the Children Shall Lead threatens mass insanity spreading across the universe. Kirk finds himself psychologically afflicted and altered in Elaan of Troyius and The Paradise Syndrome . Spock has his mind abducted in Spock’s Brain . This is to say nothing of the mental manipulation of the crew in Day of the Dove , their memories and identities distorted to perpetuate war.

As such, having the Enterprise visit a planetary asylum feels like a logical extension of these themes. Indeed, the episode seems to obliquely hint at the idea that Garth is able to impose his own insanity upon the universe. He can change his form, literally distorting reality and reshaping it to his specifications. The episode offers a pseudo-rational explanation, like Wink of an Eye did for its fair folk, but it is very much a half-hearted handwave to account for something that makes absolutely no sense in any rational universe.

The twin dilemma.

The twin dilemma.

“The people of Antos taught him the techniques of cellular metamorphosis to restore the destroyed parts of his body,” Cory tells Kirk. “By himself, he later learned to use the technique to recreate himself into any form he wished.” Reprinted in These Are the Voyages , the script had Cory suggest something even more far-reaching:

My theory is that it’s a combination of several factors. Garth has a tremendous ego and a brain that is unique in the galaxy. He may be a madmanm but he was and is a genius. … You see, his disease has placed him permanently in a world of fantasy but it also gave him the force needed to change his fantasies into reality, even if only partially and temporarily. I think now that he learned the secret during his restoration and recuperation on Antos IV. The Antos people restored his body but may inadvertantly have done something to his mind.

The implication in the script is that Garth effectively has the ability to impose his own will upon the universe. His insanity is contagious and infectious, capable of distorting the perception of those around him. This is in many ways a continuation of the recurring third season anxiety that reality is easily fractured and shattered.

"I reject your reality."

“I reject your reality.”

Garth’s singular ability to impose his own will upon the universe also hits upon one of the more interesting ideas hinted at in a chaotic and unfocused script. The third season of Star Trek is a lot more important than most fans would acknowledge, codifying a lot of what fans expect from the franchise despite its dysfunctional production. In particular, the third season of Star Trek truly embraces the more utopian ideals of the franchise. It suggests that the futuristic world of Star Trek is truly a paradise, in marked contrast to earlier scripts.

After all, the core Star Trek ideal of “infinite diversity in infinite combinations” was first articulated in Is There in Truth No Beauty? , which would seem to be hard to reconcile with the panicked reactions of the miners towards the Horta in The Devil in the Dark . In many ways, The Empath perfectly distilled the humanism that would inform so much of the later shows. Even Day of the Dove suggested that the Federation had moved far past considering warfare as a viable political tool, in spite of earlier episodes like Errand of Mercy .

A gas old time.

A gas old time.

This is clear even in the opening scenes of Whom Gods Destroy , which make a bigger deal of a high-security psychiatric institution within that Federation than Dagger of the Mind . “The Enterprise is orbiting Elba Two, a planet with a poisonous atmosphere where the Federation maintains an asylum for the few remaining incorrigible criminally insane of the galaxy,” Kirk states in his opening log. Later in the teaser, even Spock downplays the facility’s existence. “A total of fifteen incurably insane out of billions is not what I would call an excessive figure.”

In fact, the episode is so utopian that it is implied that the Federation has actually managed to cure all forms of psychiatric illness. “We are bringing a revolutionary new medicine to them, a medicine with which the Federation hopes to eliminate mental illness for all time,” Kirk states in his opening log. The closing scenes of the episode seem to suggest as much, with the Enterprise crew curing the inmates – including Garth. This is as much a game-changer as the transwarp in Threshold or the long-distance transporter in Star Trek Into Darkness .

Fighting the future.

Fighting the future.

These utopian ideals are more than just trappings. There is a strong utopian theme running through Whom Gods Destroy , most obviously in the strained relationship that exists between Garth and Kirk. Whom Gods Destroy very heavily suggests that Garth was driven insane when he was treated by the Antos people. Describing his attempt to destroy Antos IV after they healed him, Garth simply states, “I had changed.” The implication is that his wounds (or his illness) or the treatment drove him insane. “The disease that changed you, it’s not your fault,” Kirk states.

However, there is also a clear suggestion that Garth represents something old-fashioned and outdated. Garth is presented as Federation war hero. On discovering that Garth is now an inmate at the institution, Kirk reflects, “When I was a cadet at the Academy, his exploits were required reading. He was one of my heroes.” Later, in conversation with Garth, Kirk goes even further. “You were the finest student at the Academy, the finest Starship Captain,” Kirk boasts. “You were the prototype, the model for the rest of us.”

Princes of the universe.

Princes of the universe.

This idea of Garth as “the prototype” plays out even in the context of Garth’s relationship to Kirk. When Kirk declines to play the role of “human sacrifice” during Garth’s mock coronation ceremony, Garth replies, “All right, how about crown prince? That would make you our heir apparent. Heir apparent, I believe, is the proper role for you.” Kirk is very much the successor to Garth. Indeed, those are the ground on which Garth appeals to Kirk to join him. “You, Captain, are second only to me as the finest military commander in the galaxy.”

This is ultimately the biggest difference between Kirk and Garth. Garth is a warrior, the product of an earlier time. In the context of Whom Gods Destroy , Kirk has moved past that. “I am primarily an explorer now, Captain Garth,” Kirk explains. Garth responds, “And so have I been. I have charted more new worlds than any man in history.” However, for Garth, exploration is couched firmly in imperialist terms. He describes himself as the leader of “the future masters of the universe.” He stages a coronation, with a real crown.

Gun barrel diplomacy.

Gun barrel diplomacy.

In other words, Garth is a throwback. He is an ancestor of James Tiberius Kirk in the same way that Columbus or Magellian might claim to be. Garth is an explorer, but only in as far as exploration is connected to the idea of power. Even his ability to shape-shift is appropriated from a society encountered during his exploration. When Kirk asks why Garth tried to murder the population of Antos IV, Garth responds with the familiar refrain of the jingoistic explorer. “Well, I could say because they were actively hostile to the Federation.” They were the enemy; a threat.

However, Garth is not simply a throwback to the so-called “Age of Discovery.” In many ways, he is a throwback to the earlier iterations of Star Trek as a television show. He is presented as a predecessor of James Tiberius Kirk with an Orion Slave Girl companion, elements that suggest obvious parallels to Captain Christopher Pike. His attempt to destroy Antos VI is a reminder of the destructive power of the Federation, as emphasised in earlier episodes. Kirk had threatened to destroy an entire planet under General Order Twenty-Four in A Taste of Armageddon .

Garth Vader.

Garth Vader.

This was arguably the central point of Mirror, Mirror . In that episode, Kirk finds himself beamed on board an alternate version of the Enterprise that seems far more likely to subscribe to Garth’s version of diplomacy. When mirror! Enterprise discovers a pacifist planet unwilling to trade with the Terran Empire, the mirror! Enterprise is ready to destroy the civilisation from orbit. Although Kirk would not consider such a possibility in the prime universe, it is a reminder of the kind of power that the Federation wields and the temptation that comes with it.

Indeed, even the early scenes of Whom Gods Destroy reinforce this idea. As Kirk and Spock struggle with Garth on the planet, Scotty and McCoy wrestle with their responsibility on the Enterprise. When Scotty insists that the Enterprise cannot take down the force-field around the base, McCoy reflects, “How can we be powerful enough to wipe out a planet and still be so helpless?” This would seem to be a recurring theme of Whom Gods Destroy , the sense that Star Trek is a utopia but has not always been.

Immaterial.

Immaterial.

Kirk confesses as much to Garth. “I agree there was a time when war was necessary, and you were our greatest warrior,” he concedes. The implication is that this time has passed. Star Trek has embraced a form of utopianism suggested in earlier third season episodes like The Empath or Day of the Dove . Garth’s refusal to accept this reality are what mark him as insane. Garth is a throwback and a deviant. He is a warrior in a society that has moved beyond warfare. In some way, Garth prefigures Captain Balthazaar Edison from Star Trek Beyond .

As such, Garth of Izar comes to represent a vision of a past or parallel iteration of the Federation, one cleanly divorced from the institution as it exists in the third season. Garth is more of a soldier than an explorer, and an embodiment of what Starfleet was (and could be again) if the organisation is not careful. Kirk has moved past those urges, grown from his experiences. Compare his interactions with Kor in Errand of Mercy to his collaboration with Kang in Day of the Dove . Garth would approve of the former far more than the latter.

Brought to heal.

Brought to heal.

(Of course, this reading does lend an uncomfortable Orwellian subtext to “curing” Garth. There are shades of the moralising that would later be found in episodes like Lonely Among Us , The Last Outpost or The Neutral Zone , where Federation values are presented as so self-evidently correct that they will brook no other perspective. However, given that Garth is a dangerous and genocidal madman, his incarceration and treatment seems perfectly rational. It helps that Whom Gods Destroy makes it clear that Garth is legitimately psychotic.)

The idea of Star Trek as a truly and purely utopian vision of the future is beginning to solidify. The third season is much maligned, but there is a clear sense that it is laying a lot of groundwork that the franchise will develop in the years ahead. Barring the occasional episode like The Enterprise Incident , the third season truly embraces the idea of the Federation as a futuristic paradise. Whom Gods Destroy plays upon that theme in a number of intriguing ways that render the episode more interesting than most critics would readily concede.

"Well, this is a fabulous coat."

“Well, this is a fabulous coat.”

Star Trek might depict a utopia, but there was chaos behind the scenes. Robert Justman had departed the show during the production of Let That Be Your Last Battlefield , which seems like an appropriate title upon which to bid farewell to the last of the show’s veteran senior staff. Gene Roddenberry had resigned from the series before the lauch of the third season, but was even less actively involved in the show than he had been at the start of the year. The result was that Fred Freiberger lacked a support structure that was intimately familiar with the show.

There were also rising tensions on the set. As very members of the production team have noted in tell-all books and interviews over the years, tensions between William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy reached fever pitch during the third season. In fact, both leading men seemed to wind up engaged in their own aggressive conflicts with senior members of the production team over their perceived place in the show’s heirarchy. Shatner seemed to fight for himself as leading man, while Nimoy aggressively defended Spock as a character.

Hard for Nimoy to swallow.

Hard for Nimoy to swallow.

Nimoy had already fought it out with Gene Roddenberry about the IDIC in Is There in Truth No Beauty? However, he was incensed by issues with the script for Whom Gods Destroy . In response to the episode, he rather boldly worded a sarcastic and scathing memo critiquing key decisions:

My primary interest in contacting you gentlemen is my concern over my lack of experience in playing dummies. Perhaps you could arrange to get me educated in this area. Maybe if I watched some Blondie episodes and watched Dagwood as a role model, I could pick up some pointers. Or better still, I could get right to the bottom line by wearing some braids and feathers and learning to grunt, “Ugh, Kimosabee”?

Watching the episode, it is hard not to sense Nimoy’s frustration. The basic plot of Whom Gods Destroy hinges on all manner of contrivances and inconsistencies, logical gaps and irrational decisions. Although rich in theme and imagery, Whom Gods Destroy is a phenomenally weak script.

Stunningly poorly thought out.

Stunningly poorly thought out.

There are all manner of elements that make no real sense. Most obviously, Garth should have been exposed the first time that he failed to complete the “sign” and “countersign” with Scott. Although it seems like an unusual precaution that Kirk has never employed in similar situations, the whole point of having such a safeguard is that it might serve as a warning. No matter what excuses Garth! Kirk might have made in conversation with Scotty, the gig should have been up at that point. Scotty and the Enterprise should never have trusted him after that point.

However, Nimoy was particularly frustrated about the way that Spock was treated by the script. The scene at the climax relies on Spock confronting Kirk and Garth! Kirk, unable to identify the real article. Instead of approaching the matter logically, Spock is overwhelmed and allows the two versions of Kirk to wrestle for a little while. He eventually stuns Garth! Kirk, who is unable to retain his form while unconscious. As such, it seems reasonable to ask why Spock would not stun both versions of Kirk in the beginning.

Nimoy was a real drag.

Nimoy was a real drag.

Nimoy’s scathing and sarcastic memo served to put further strain on an already tense relationship with producer Fred Freiberger. In I Am Spock , the actor acknowledged that he was having great difficulty continuing under these conditions:

Fred, naturally, sent me a memo letting me know how unhappy he was that I had again gone over his head. I wasn’t happy that I’d done it, either – but I felt I had not choice. The alternative was to watch the character of Spock slowly deteriorate. By the end of the third season, I was still under contract to Paramount for an additional two years. However, I was so distressed by the problems with the scripts that I was prepared to resist coming back to work – which would probably have led to suspension from my contract, and legal proceedings.

In some ways, this demonstrates the difficulties that Nimoy was having with his most iconic role. The third season was emotionally draining for the actor, who seemed to be constantly at odds with the production team around him. It is understandable that he had little interest in returning for a hypothetical fourth year.

Reenacting Fred Freiberger's response to Nimoy's pithy memo.

Reenacting Fred Freiberger’s response to Nimoy’s pithy memo.

In fact, Nimoy would struggle with reconciling himself and Spock for many years. He would write memoirs titled both I Am Not Spock and I Am Spock . , the latter featuring chapter introductions as dialogue between actor and character. The story ultimately has a happy ending. Despite Nimoy’s troubled relationship with his alien alter ego, JJ Abrams would convince him to reprise the role for Star Trek . “Ambassador Spock” would serve to bridge the generations of the franchise.

These difficulties with Leonard Nimoy cast a pretty heavy shadow over Whom Gods Destroy . In fact, during these sequences, Nimoy’s disinterest is palpable to the audience watching at home. Nimoy was probably the strongest actor in the ensemble, but there are several points in Whom Gods Destroy where he seems bored. In fact, the whole climax of the episode is rather limp, with Spock effectively outwitting his captors by using a lame “sleeping prisoner” ruse before hitting them with a nerve pinch and standing by while Kirk and Garth! Kirk fight.

Striking a nerve pinch.

Striking a nerve pinch.

Although Nimoy’s memo was a source of controversy, there were other issues brewing. William Shatner was having his own personality difficulties, this time with guest star Yvonne Craig. As Craig told Starlog :

“He wasn’t as warm a person. He was tired of the green makeup because it was marking up his clothes. We were supposed to shoot a love scene, and he was getting pissy that I  wasn’t allowed to touch him because he didn’t want any makeup on his costume.  And I’m thinking, ‘Oh my God, how am I going to do a love scene with him if I can’t  touch him?’ So, I figured I would just play with his hair a little— surely the makeup wouldn’t show up in his hair. One night, I go in to say goodnight to everyone and  Shatner is standing there with his hair in his hand— I didn’t know he wore a toupee!  And I’m thinking, ‘Damn! Now, he won’t let me touch his hair either!'”

To be fair, shooting a television series is a long and draining process, but Craig is far from the only person working on Star Trek to take exception to William Shatner.

Green with envy.

Green with envy.

To be fair to Shatner, he invests a lot more effort in Whom Gods Destroy than Nimoy. Fans and critics tend to deride Shatner’s performance style as hammy and excessive, but the truth is that Shatner generally pitches his performance to the level of the episode in question. When Shatner goes overboard, he is hardly the worst part of a given episode. Shatner’s performance in The Omega Glory is frequently mocked, but it is very much the best thing about that disaster of an episode.

In Whom Gods Destroy , Shatner is invited to play yet another alien masquerading as Kirk. He has tremendous fun with the role. In particular, Garth! Kirk’s temper tantrums are something to behold. When Scotty refuses to beam Garth! Kirk to the ship, Garth! Kirk proceeds to bang his fists angrily against the communications console before rolling himself into a ball on the ground and hammering the floor with sheer rage. Shatner is having a great deal of fun, and it fits the tone of the episode around him.

"GAAAAAARTH!"

“GAAAAAARTH!”

This applies as much to the episode’s guest stars. Whom Gods Destroy is notable for completing a hat trick of Batman! guest stars following Lee Meriwether in That Which Survives and Frank Gorshin in Let That Be Your Last Battlefield . This time, Yvonne Craig plays an Orion Slave Girl. According to an interview with Starlog , the make-up posed quite the challenge:

“Susan and I were supposed to be from  the same planet. Only they couldn’t  remember how they got Susan green in the first season episode — they somehow had lost  the makeup. So, they had to devise a substitute formula. I had skid marks because the makeup wouldn’t stay on. Then, they sprayed me with Liquid Bandage, which has to be removed with acetone, so my skin was all burned — I was a walking disaster. When you perspire, Liquid Bandage won’t stick, so here I was, walking around with moss hanging from my arm-pits. It was just hideous. I would take two showers at the studio, then go home and take an oil bath, and then take another shower to get the remainder of it off. Then, I would start all over again the next day.”  Craig repeated this sequence of events for eight days, a time in her life that “I remember clearly, because I thought, ‘There isn’t enough money in the world to make me go through this again.’ Three weeks later, I still had traces of green makeup in the cuticles of my toes — I couldn’t get it out.”

Nevertheless, Craig has great fun with the part. Marta is delightfully camp and ridiculous, with Craig playing her as if she suffers from hyperactive attention deficit disorder. Marta is constantly cocking her head, her attention seldom focused on one point for too long. The best writing in Whom Gods Destroy comes from the exchanges between Marta and Garth as they plot to take over the universe.

"Seriously, Garth. The plot holes are THIS big."

“Seriously, Garth. The plot holes are THIS big.”

When Marta treats the crowd to a poem that she wrote, Garth objects, “It was written by an Earth man named Shakespeare a long time ago!” Marta objects, “Which does not alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday!” When Garth threatens to beat her to death, she doesn’t miss a beat. “No, you won’t, because I am the most beautiful woman on this planet.” Garth replies, “ You’re the only woman on this planet!” Commenting on her habit of killing her lovers, Garth! Spock suggests Marta has perfected “an infallible method for assuring permanent male fidelity.”

Steve Ihnat is equally impressive as Garth, playing a delightfully deranged lunatic who is capable of alternating between the menacing tones that one expects of a Bond villains and the ravings of a demented spoilt child. These three performances from Ihnat, Craig and Shatner serve to make Whom Gods Destroy a lot more enjoyable than it might otherwise be. These three actors seem to embrace the sillier b-movie set-up of the script and choose to play into it rather than against it.

"Have you ever thought the surroundings might not be conducive to our patients' recovery?"

“Have you ever thought the surroundings might not be conducive to our patients’ recovery?”

Still, there were a number of significant issues during the production of the episode. Guest star Luke Keye explained to Starlog that production was actually held up by work on the episode’s central prop:

“I was scheduled to leave for England the day the show finished, but I couldn’t because the torture chair was such an elaborate electronic affair that they couldn’t get it finished in time, so I had to stay over an extra day. My agent came down to the set, and I went with him in his little Volkswagen, taking off my costume and  removing my makeup as we drove to the airport,” Luke grins wryly.

Given how tight scheduling had become on the series, this was a pretty major problem. The third season of Star Trek was facing impossible production demands.

A sharp stabbing pain.

A sharp stabbing pain.

Cementing the sense that the production of Whom Gods Destroy was as chaotic as Garth’s tenure running the Elba II facility, there was also a stabbing on the set. In her biography From Ballet to the Batcave and Beyond , Yvonne Craig recalls filming the wrestling sequence with Shatner on the bed:

In the struggle, he was accidentally (I swear!) stabbed in the fleshy part of his palm. Such drama! Though it was a minor injury, we shut down shooting while minions rushed to get him a soothing shot of whiskey to calm his nerves. I personally thought it would have served a more medicinal purpose had it been poured into the wound to sterilise it, but by then no one was consulting me.

It seems almost like the production was cursed. There is a book to be written about the production of Whom Gods Destroy alone, delving into the episode’s troubled production history and its turbulent production schedule. It is no wonder that the finished episode feels disjointed and uneven.

"Now let's never talk of it again."

“Now let’s never talk of it again.”

Indeed, looking at the production of the episode, it is no surprise that Whom Gods Destroy should have ended up such an unholy mess. The big surprise is that any of the episode works, even in a hokey b-movie style.

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: axanar , Federation , fred freiberger , garth of izar , Leonard Nimoy , spock , star trek , star trek: axanar , tos , yvonne craig |

25 Responses

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The plot is indeed quite similar to Star Trek Beyond. A former great captain is using technology to change his appearance in the hopes of destroying the Federation. I have to say that this episode did a better job with the former great captain plot who is now insane than Star Trek Beyond did. In this episode, it is a central theme, and it is clear that Kirk respects the man Garth was, and wishes that he could come back mentally. In Star Trek Beyond, it was an incredibly ill thought out plot twist, and I never got the feeling that anyone really cared that Krall turned out to be Balthazar Edison. It would have been interesting if they had made Krall Admiral Pike. The Federation could have tried to bring him back to life using Khan’s “super blood,” but it goes wrong, and Pike becomes deranged. The plot would have needed reworking, but I think it could have been interesting.

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Funny you mention that. I thought that Admiral Marcus would have been better served by Bruce Greenwood playing him (in Into Darkness). It felt right for the character to become more hawkish after his torture from Romulans in the future.

I don’t think they should have gone so far as to make him insane, but it seemed like a more natural place to take his relationship with Kirk… Killing in the first act struck me as too obvious.

The twist with Edison was a good one, although it left us scratching our heads. We all had to consult the wiki afterwards to figure out who was who and what the hell happened. (Apparently the pink chick was another member of Franklin, having drained the life energy from a different sort of alien…such confusion.)

I sort of your like your idea of making Pike take the place of Marcus in Into Darkness, as I would have loved to see more of Bruce Greenwood. At the same time, however, his death is pretty emotional, and I feel the film would lost something without his death. After all, it is his death that leads to Kirk behaving so rashly in the film. I have to disagree with the twist of Edison being good, however. It made very little sense. Here are some of my questions about it:How he did he get the technology to look like an alien? Why did that make him immortal? Where did he get his henchmen? I don’t mean just the pink lady, but all those soldiers who attack the Enterprise. How did he develop this swarm technology? If he served in both the Romulan and Xindi war, then why did he not get promoted to Admiral or something? Also, why did he not attack the federation earlier? His swarm seemed to pretty devastating, even without the radiation superweapon, so why was he just trapping people.

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To be fair, most of that is covered in the expository log at the end of the film. Edison explains finding “drones” that I think are implied to be meant for mining; a lot of the soldiers attacking the Enterprise are drones. He also explains finding advanced life-expanding technology.

As for serving in both Romulan and Xindi wars, it’s possible he was an anonymous MACO on the Enterprise during the Expanse mission and then probably more senior in the Romulan War. I’m under the impression that Kirk (or even broader Star Trek) style promotions are much rarer in real life than on television and in cinema. I don’t think it’s unfeasible for him to have been at a level after the Romulan War where “give him his own ship” was a feasible reward for his contribution. After all, Garth was only a Fleet Captain and he apparently saved the Federation. I can buy “war hero” translating to give the dude an old ship. (And the Frnaklin is implied to be quite old, being a Warp Four ship, although the serial number is new.)

Yep. And the guy who killed Jaylah’s father, I believe.

Although the film never explains why she stops speaking English or why Edison takes the name Krall.

I don’t know.

I think Krall could have worked if they just went with “it’s Captain Balthazaar Edison and he is super-p!ssed” from the start, instead of trying to hide it. Or if they stuck with “he’s an alien who just doesn’t like a bunch of people building giant snow domes in his backyard like they own the place.”

I think bringing back Pike would maybe seem a bit cheesy. As much as I like Bruce Greenwood, I think bringing him back would undercut his death in Into Darkness.

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>In keeping with the whole gothic tone, the set-up of the story recalls Edgar Allan Poe’s short story The System of Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether, in which a visitor slowly comes to realise that the inmates have taken over the asylum and locked up the staff.

…Which was a particular favourite of Robert Bloch, inspiring several tales of his and bringing us back full circle to Trek! A Robert Bloch-written version of “Whom Gods Destroy” would have been great (if it had been done in the first 2 seasons).

Yes. Yes it would. I really liked the insanity of Wolf in the Fold.

Although we seem to be in the minority in our Bloch love. Let’s have a Bloch party!

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About episode quality: I can forgive a tremendous amount of poor quality if what I’m watching is simply enough FUN that I don’t care.

About fandom and Garth: yes, I’m one of these people who was really hoping “John Harrison” would turn out to be him. Unfortunately, between Admiral Marcus and Captain Balthazar, he’d simply be redundant if he showed up now.

About your review: I just realized for the first time that the prison planet was called “Elba II.” Elba was the island Napoleon was exiled to after his defeat. Pointedly, NOT the one where he grew old and died – that’s Saint Helena – but the one he escaped from, very nearly leading him to restart his career as a conqueror. Definitely not an accidental name.

What I find so fascinating about Napoleon’s exile at Elba was how it seemed to bring out the best in him. He improved their agriculture, developed their mines, and overhauled their legal and educational system. The people of Elba clearly loved him, as they have a parade every year to commemorate his death.

I did not know any of that. I like the idea of a retired conqueror devoting his time and energy to something as small as making an island sustainable.

I would agree with fun forgiving a lot of issues with… well, most things.

That’s a fair point about Garth being a little redundant after Into Darkness and Beyond. On the other hand, I wouldn’t mind giving Fuller a crack at the character if he wants. I suspect Fuller’s approach would be sufficiently distinct from the Abrams aesthetic.

Good spot on Elba II!

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‘Shatner’s performance in The Omega Glory is frequently mocked, but it is very much the best thing about that disaster of an episode.’

Heh, I agree. I am unashamedly a Shatnerophile. I’m also reminded of Roger Ebert’s review of ‘Robin Hood Prince of Thieves’ where after mentioning Alan Rickman’s performance as being out of kilter with the rest of the movie means “at least the audience is being entertained.”

As I’ve said before I’m fascinated by the idea in the novelisation of ‘Star Trek the Motion Picture’ that the Pike/Kirk-era Starfleet is a bastion for Federation conservatives frustrated, or at least alienated, from the evolved utopianism back home. This is most strongly shown in ‘The Undiscovered Country’ but you can see it popping up again and again with Garth and Edison representing the extreme reactionary edge. I don’t think its a coincidence that both men are cited as heroes by Kirk, who is far more self aware and critical but at the same time feels a level of empathy and identification with them.

Finally I thought Marta was great fun, but it does show the stupidity of the ‘Enterprise’ retcon that Orion women are all supervillainesses with mind control powers and that, by Kirk’s era, Starfleet has known this for a century. I’m glad the new films dumped that nonsense.

“all supervillainesses with mind control powers…”

Sounds like we’re about due for the Orion species to be neutered and made into a member of the Enterprise (oops, too late.)!

Given the Orions as super-secret-brainwashing-matriarchy dates only from ‘Enterprise’ and as I note above makes no sense whatsoever given all ‘later’ appearances by the Orions I’m happy with dropping ‘Bound’ from continuity.

(I would in all sincerity love to see an Orion on the ‘Enterprise’ though as more than a cameo – I thought Gaila in the 2009 was pretty amusing.)

Yep, it also wreaks of half-hearted handwaving about what’s a fairly sexist genre trope. “It’s okay to enjoy this, because they are secretly empowered!” Which is almost worse than just playing the trope straight, because it tries to paint something that is trashy and silly as good. (I have less of an issue with Borderland than Bound, for example.)

Yep. I think there are moments at which TOS is a lot more ambivalent about Kirk than most fans would accept. (Kirk is not the most super-awesome thing ever in scripts like Errand of Mercy and Spectre of the Gun, where the point of the episode is that Kirk is not as evolved as he really should be, and that it is a constant battlet o work past his baser impulses.)

It does add a lot of pathos to his fears of obsolescence that you’ve brought up in your reviews. There is also that moment in ‘Flashback’ where Janeway is talking with Harry Kim about the Kirk-era Starfleet:

“… Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that.”

The irony being that Janeway is probably the most free-wheelin’ lead of the 24th century shows. Even Sisko was careful to get sign-off for his plan in In the Pale Moonlight.

>“… Of course, the whole bunch of them would be booted out of Starfleet today. But I have to admit: I would have loved to ride shotgun at least once with a group of officers like that.”

Took a lot of chutzpah for Kathryn “What Prime Directive?” Janeway to shove Kirk off his pedestal. The man saves Earth twice, destroys the Doomsday Machine and brings about peace with the Klingons to what legacy? Embarrassing ancestor? What were her professors smoking? Did Finnegan write all the history texts on Kirk as a prank?

(then again, academia is a long history of intellectuals saying, “everyone who came before me had it wrong”)

I much prefer Sisko the Kirk fanboy, particularly as it revealed something new about his character – he’s a Kirk man, not a Picard man. Like Kirk, Sisko is a warrior (often reluctant, but frequently tested by fire) and he has to struggle with inner demons (a facet of Kirk which Darren has helpfully noted each time it appears).

Kirk wouldn’t have been obsolete had he lived to see the Dominion War – Sisko silently realizing Weyoun is preparing an assault in “A Call to Arms” was like something out of Kirk’s field of diplomacy mixed with bluffing and a will to fight. The ambiguity of the conflict would have welcomed another captain who frequently charted such waters.

I’m actually kind of disappointed that Patrick Stewart was far too famous to film a guest appearance on Deep Space Nine during the Dominion War. I think it would have been interesting to see Picard as he was affected by the Dominion War. You make a good point that Kirk would probably handle the conflict quite well, but it’s more interesting to imagine how Picard would react to it. More than Archer or Janeway, Picard is the diplomat and the man of peace. What toll would that conflict exact upon him?

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This is the only episode of TOS to feature Spock’s neck-pinching two people simultaneously. I figure the episode is worth it for that, if nothing else. 🙂

I loved Steve Ihnat’s performance as Garth, but I thought he was way too young for the role. Kirk goes on and on about how Garth used to be a great captain long ago, but Garth didn’t look old enough for that. And indeed, IMBD says that Ihnat was three years younger than Shatner.

Please, do not perpetuate the lie that Leonard Nimoy wanted Spock killed in TWOK. Mr. Nimoy has said over and over again that it was NOT his idea to have Spock killed off in that movie! The writers of TWOK decided to kill Spock off, and as Mr. Nimoy said in interviews, since he thought TWOK was going to be the last Star Trek movie, it made sense to have Spock go out in a blaze of glory, saving the ship and being a hero. But it wasn’t his idea.

Thanks for the head’s up. I’ve removed the phrasing that could be ambiguous.

I didn’t mind that about Ihnat. I kinda imagine that being a shape-shifter allows you to avoid aging. I can see the appeal of appearing before Kirk as his young and dynamic self.

Yep, it’s strange that Spock doesn’t just use the same manoeuvre in The Mark of Gideon. Although I suppose the episode needed an obligatory action scene.

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“There are all manner of elements that make no real sense. Most obviously, Garth should have been exposed the first time that he failed to complete the “sign” and “countersign” with Scott. Although it seems like an unusual precaution that Kirk has never employed in similar situations, the whole point of having such a safeguard is that it might serve as a warning. No matter what excuses Garth!Kirk might have made in conversation with Scotty, the gig should have been up at that point. Scotty and the Enterprise should never have trusted him after that point.”

Well, actually the gig was up at that point. The episode clearly shows that Scotty is immediately suspicious and knows something is wrong but is unable to do anything about it because of the force field covering the penal colony.

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Craig’s performance is commendable, I agree. Both Marta and Garth play varieties of “crazy” that only exist in screenplays, but Craig sells Marta’s brand of insane dependency as believable in ways that Ihnat and Shatner don’t manage for Garth’s deluded megalomania.

It’s not really a count against either man as an actor, as Garth of Izar is, as you point out, more a doomed operatic figure, dangerous because he’s a born leader with a wild plan and a paranormal ability, not because of the vague insanity that acts as a catch-all for his motivations. Still, it’s to Craig’s credit, especially given what she went through for the role, how easy it is to imagine someone like Marta really existing in the midst of a utopia and being dangerous enough in her own way that she’d merit a lifetime of high-security observation.

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Memory Alpha

Whom Gods Destroy (episode)

  • View history

Kirk and Spock are held captive in an insane asylum by a former Starfleet hero.

  • 1.2 Act One
  • 1.3 Act Two
  • 1.4 Act Three
  • 1.5 Act Four
  • 2 Log entries
  • 3 Memorable quotes
  • 4.1 Story and script
  • 4.3 Costumes
  • 4.4 Production
  • 4.5 Other information
  • 4.6 Production timeline
  • 4.7 Video and DVD releases
  • 5.1 Starring
  • 5.2 Also starring
  • 5.3 Guest stars
  • 5.4 Uncredited co-stars
  • 5.5 Stand-ins
  • 5.6 References
  • 5.7 External links

Summary [ ]

Kirk and Spock beam down to the Elba II asylum with a revolutionary new medicine to treat the inmates' mental disorders. They are met in the asylum control center by Dr. Cory , the governor of the penal colony. He explains that in order to maintain security they are under a transport shield, and so he laughingly won't take "no" for an answer on his invitation to Kirk and Spock to dinner. He also explains that the colony has just increased the number of fourteen inmates by one, and that new inmate is Garth of Izar . Kirk mentions that Garth was a legendary Fleet Captain before going insane, and that his exploits were required reading for cadets at the Academy .

Kirk asks to see Garth, so Dr. Cory leads Kirk and Spock to his holding cell, only to discover the actual Dr. Cory restrained and looking roughed-up. At this point, the man who had appeared as Dr. Cory reveals himself to be Garth and electronically opens the remaining holding cells, releasing the inmates of Elba II, including a Tellarite , an Andorian and a beautiful, young, Orion woman.

Act One [ ]

After Spock is stunned by Garth with a phaser and dragged away by the Andorian and Tellarite, Kirk is placed into the holding cell with the real Dr. Cory. Garth demands to be called "Lord Garth" and talks about destroying his enemies. Destroying the medicine, he is intent on taking command of the USS Enterprise , seeking vengeance against his former crewmembers, planning to hunt them all down. He instantly morphs into Kirk in front of the real Kirk and goes to the control room.

When he leaves, Dr. Cory explains that Garth had learned how to morph his cellular structure from the Antos natives on Antos IV to look like other people, unfortunately only after he had escaped his cell. Dr. Cory also says, "He claims to have developed the most powerful explosive in history and I believe him."

Scott , who is in command of the Enterprise , asks "Kirk" for the transport code sign: "Queen to Queen's level three," but Garth/Kirk is unable to respond with the correct countersign. Finally understanding, Garth/Kirk tells Scott that it was just a test and signs out. Fortunately, Scott is suspicious, and considers options to investigate. Garth/Kirk becomes enraged over almost succeeding to escape the planet, causing him to revert to his true form. Standing silently after his rant, Garth tells the Andorian and the Tellarite that they will take over the Enterprise even if he has to " shatter every bone in Captain Kirk's body. "

Garth goes mad

Act Two [ ]

Realizing that he can't board the Enterprise without the countersign, Garth returns to Dr. Cory's cell and renews his dinner invitation for Kirk and Spock but states that Governor Cory is not on the guest list, an intentional oversight, as Garth puts it. They all proceed to an elaborate feast with the inmates providing the entertainment, including a seductive dance by Marta , the Orion inmate seen earlier. Kirk and Spock whisper to each other the idea of causing some sort of distraction which would allow Spock to get to the control room and de-activate the shield. Kirk surmises that Scott has already put together a security detail on the Enterprise and all they need is a few seconds. Garth silences them and asks that they instead pay attention to Marta's recitation of her " poetry ", which is actually by Shakespeare and Housman.

After the feast, Kirk and Spock talk with Garth about his record including the battle of Axanar as well as his attempt to destroy the inhabitants of Antos IV. He clearly had gone insane over some rejection and his crew mutinied to prevent his actions. Spock tries to reason with him, only to be carried away.

Garth then brings in a rehabilitation chair which he has modified to cause pain. He places Governor Cory in the chair and tortures him for a short while, demanding that Kirk provide him with the countersign. Kirk still refuses to give in, then Garth places him in the chair for some torture as well. Marta begs that Garth cease the torture on Kirk, but Garth continues.

Act Three [ ]

Marta again protests the torture, saying she can convince him, and Garth agrees. Kirk is placed in a separate room where Marta pours him a drink and goes over to him. She begins to seduce him on his bed. While they kiss , she suddenly reaches for a dagger under a pillow and tries to stab Kirk, who manages to fight her off. Spock arrives with a phaser and Marta explains that Kirk is " her lover and she must kill him. " Spock prevents her from doing so, apparently by administering a Vulcan nerve pinch .

Spock and Kirk proceed to the control room, which is guarded by the Tellarite inmate. Spock stuns the Tellarite and retrieves Kirk's phaser from him. Once inside the control room, they contact the Enterprise and lower the planetary force field . Spock attempts to get Kirk to give the countersign to Scott. Kirk suspects a trick and demands that Spock give the countersign himself. He steps back and draws his phaser instead. Overhearing the commotion between Kirk and Spock, Scotty prepares to beam the security detail down to intervene. At this point, "Spock" morphs back into Garth and energizes the force field again. Kirk's phaser, not surprisingly, is uncharged.

Kirk now tries to appeal to Garth's better impulses, asking him to remember the man he was "before the accident." Kirk wants Garth to be the sort of man he was before he went mad, the sort of man that Kirk and so many others admired. Garth is nearly persuaded, until he wavers and shouts, "I am Lord Garth! You doubt me only because I have not as yet had my coronation." Unsuccessful, Kirk rushes for the shield controls. Garth, however, stuns him before he can reach them.

Act Four [ ]

When Kirk awakens, Garth is trying yet another tactic: he has arranged an elaborate coronation ceremony for himself, also naming Marta as his consort , giving her a necklace, and names Kirk as his heir apparent, perhaps as an appeal to Kirk's vanity. When the ceremony is over, however, Kirk is not returned to his cell, but brought to the asylum control center. There, as a show of power, Garth displays the explosive Dr. Cory had alluded to earlier that has enough power to destroy an entire planet and explains that he has put a very small portion of it in Marta's necklace . Through the window in the control room, Kirk is forced to watch Marta choke in the poisonous atmosphere of the planet, brought out in the open by inmates in environmental suits . With no real motivation or remorse behind his actions, Garth is clearly and completely insane. Garth kills Marta by triggering a massive explosion.

The explosion registers above the planet. Scott and McCoy on the Enterprise change their orbit to focus their phaser banks on weak areas of the force field, to no avail.

Meanwhile, Garth has decided he may get further in his quest for the code with Spock, since he is "a very logical man." He sends the Tellarite and Andorian inmates to retrieve him from his holding cell. Spock feigns unconsciousness when the inmates approach. They de-activate the cell force field and carry him out, each with one arm around their neck . After a few steps, Spock jumps to his feet and incapacitates them both with a double Vulcan nerve pinch. An alarm sounds in the control room. Garth turns on a security monitor and sees Spock with a phaser walking alone in the corridors and making his way toward the control room.

Spock enters the control room and finds two Captain Kirks. Obviously, one of them is Garth in Kirk's form once again. Spock asks for the countersign to "Queen to Queen's Level Three", but one of the Kirks refuses to answer, claiming that's exactly what Garth wants to know while the other Kirk rebuffs the claim, saying it's what he was going to say. Spock arranges for a security team from the Enterprise to be beamed down, but one of the Kirks objects, saying they may beam into a trap, while the other one agrees. Spock asks the two Kirks what maneuver the Enterprise recently used to defeat a Romulan vessel near Tau Ceti . One of the Kirks answers with the Cochrane deceleration maneuver , but the other Kirk states that every starship captain would know such a classic battle strategy, to which Spock agrees. Spock decides that whoever is Garth must be expending a great deal of energy to assume the appearance of Captain Kirk, which cannot be maintained indefinitely. He intends to wait Garth out and begins to pull up a chair. However, Garth, still disguised as Kirk, attacks Spock. The two Kirks begin to struggle, with one of them gaining the upper hand on the other. This Kirk prepares to clobber the other Kirk with the chair and demands that Spock realize that he is his captain and shoot the other. The other Kirk agrees that Spock must indeed shoot, but he must shoot both of them, as it is the only way to ultimately guarantee the safety of the Enterprise . This is all the evidence Spock needs; he shoots the Kirk holding the chair, who crumples to the floor and resumes his true form of Garth. Deactivating the force field, Spock signals the Enterprise and gives the proper countersign: "Queen to King's level one."

Spock two Kirks

Spock encounters Kirk and Garth (disguised as Kirk)

Dr. McCoy has beamed down to the asylum with Lieutenant Brent to administer newly synthesized doses of the medicine to the inmates. Dr. Cory places Garth in the rehabilitation chair (the non-painful version) and returns him to a sedated state. As he is being moved from the chair to his cell, he notices Kirk and very calmly asks if they know each other. Kirk tells him that they do not, and Garth is led away. Kirk asks Spock why it was so impossible for him to determine who the real Kirk was earlier. Spock tells his captain the interval of uncertainty was actually fairly brief; it only seemed long for him. Kirk notes that Spock let himself be hit on the head by Garth to make his determination, a method he does not think that King Solomon would have approved of.

Log entries [ ]

  • Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2268

Memorable quotes [ ]

" How can we be powerful enough to wipe out a planet and still be so helpless? "

" We are going to take the Enterprise . Do you hear me? We are going to take her if I have to shatter every bone in Captain Kirk's body. "

" Why can't I blow off just one of his ears? "

" I may have you beaten to death. " " No, you won't, because I am the most beautiful woman on this planet. " " You're the only woman on this planet, you stupid cow! "

" You wrote that? " " Yesterday, as a matter of fact. " " It was written by an Earth man named Shakespeare a long time ago! " " Which does not alter the fact that I wrote it again yesterday! "

" What is your reaction, Mr. Spock? " " Well, I find it, uh, mildly interesting and somewhat nostalgic, if I understand the use of that word. " " Nostalgic? " " Yes. It is somewhat reminiscent of the dances that Vulcan children do in nursery school. Of course, the children are not so… well-coordinated."

" Gentlemen, you have eyes, but you cannot see. Galaxies surround us. Limitless vistas. And yet the Federation would have us grub away like some ants on some… somewhat larger than usual anthill. But I am not an insect. I am master of the universe, and I must claim my domain. "

" They were humanitarians and statesmen. And they had a dream. A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars. A dream that made Mr. Spock and me brothers. "

" On your knees before me!! All the others before me have failed! Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Lee Kuan, Krotus! All of them are dust! But I will triumph! I will make the ultimate conquest! "

" In the midnight of November, when the dead man's fair is nigh. And the danger in the valley, and the anger in the sky. "

" He's my lover and I have to kill him. "

" Captain Garth, starship fleet captain. That's an honorable title. "

" Captain Kirk, I presume. "

" Queen to queen's level three. " " Queen to king's level one. "

" Letting yourself be hit on the head, and I presume you let yourself be hit on the head, is not exactly a method King Solomon would have approved. "

" Should I know you, sir?" " " No… Captain."

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

  • The title is based on an anonymous Greek proverb often wrongly attributed to Euripides [1] , and quoted by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in The Masque of Pandora : "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad."
  • The story outline was produced 26 July 1968 . In the first draft script ( 5 September 1968 ) Garth of Titan threw the asylum guards out into the poisonous atmosphere. The conditions inside the asylum were also more graphic, with inmates displaying symptoms of various mental illnesses. Produced mid- October 1968 .
  • The plot of inmates taking over the asylum and impersonating the warden closely resembles " Dagger of the Mind ", right down to the "agony chair" prop which is reused from that episode. In his memoir I Am Not Spock , Leonard Nimoy shares a memo that he wrote to the producers to complain about the similarities.
  • According to an interview published in Star Trek Lives by Sondra Marshak and Joan Winston, Nimoy also complained at some length about discrepancies in the script, including but not limited to inconsistencies in his own character. He blamed the director for making changes in the script to focus on "action" rather than on intelligent problem-solving, and felt the changes were a form of lying to the audience. He also complained about Spock not being able to tell the difference between the real Kirk from the impostor. Nimoy sent the memo to both producer Fred Freiberger and Paramount Television executive in charge of production, Douglas S. Cramer . [2]
  • Kirk tells Spock that he doubts King Solomon would have approved of the Vulcan 's manner of determining who was Kirk and who was Garth . The two of them, along with Dr. McCoy , met Solomon (an immortal Human who was born Akharin and was then living as Flint ) not long afterward in TOS : " Requiem for Methuselah ". Similarly, Garth had earlier referred to Alexander the Great , another of Flint's assumed identities.
  • Kirk refers to Spock as his "brother" and Spock agrees with this figurative interpretation of their relationship. Kirk referred to Spock as his "brother" again in Star Trek V: The Final Frontier .
  • Spock's sentence " Captain Kirk, I presume? " is an allusion to the famous question asked by explorer Henry Morton Stanley (1841-1904) to David Livingstone (1813-1873) on the shores of Lake Tanganyika on November 10, 1871: " Doctor Livingstone, I presume? ". The question was later alluded to in the title of the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode " Doctor Bashir, I Presume ".
  • Despite the apparent success of the drug in this episode being able to cure the mental illness of Garth and the other inmates, it seems never to have been employed again. In future episodes of TOS, the Enterprise crew encounters characters who are pronounced insane (such as Dr. Sevrin from " The Way to Eden "; Lenore Karidian from " The Conscience of the King " and Janice Lester from " Turnabout Intruder "), but no mention is made of using the drug introduced in this episode to cure them. (It could be, however, that this drug was only successful in the treatment of criminal/homicidal insanity and not all mental illness generally.)
  • There is no need for Spock to watch Garth and Kirk fight in order to determine who the real Captain Kirk is as he can stun both men non-fatally and reveal the impostor. This is obvious later as Garth sits unharmed in the chair receiving the insanity cure. In his interview in Star Trek Lives , Leonard Nimoy said the original script called for Spock to ask a series of questions and determine from the men's answers which is the real captain. When Kirk makes a remark about the safety of the Enterprise being more important than his own life he establishes his own identity. (This is the version of the story used by James Blish .) According to the Star Trek Lives interview with Nimoy, this is what the director threw out in favor of more "action".
  • Although the Elba II asylum is mentioned in this episode as being the last of its kind, mental asylums are mentioned as being maintained in future incarnations of Star Trek , such as the "Federation Funny Farm" from Star Trek III: The Search for Spock and the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode " Frame of Mind ", though the former may simply be an unofficial nickname for the Elba II asylum. Unless, Captain Kirk's claim that Elba II was the only treatment facility for "the few remaining incorrigible, criminally insane of the galaxy" is meant to differentiate criminally or homicidally insane individuals and those individuals suffering from mental illness or insanity of a type without criminal or homicidal tendencies. In such a case, there may be many other institutions throughout the Federation to treat mental illness without there being another, beyond Elba II, for the treatment of the criminally insane.
  • Elba II derives its name from the Earth island of Elba where Napoléon I was exiled to following his forced abdication. This notion is reinforced by the further dictatorial similarities between Garth and Napoléon, as well as the scriptwriters including the French emperor among the names of those failed leaders whom Garth references.
  • After already having claimed to have written a poem that is really by Shakespeare, Marta later recites another poem she claims to have written. It is not original either: they are from Last Poems XIX , by A. E. Housman . The exact fragment is " In the midnight of November, when the dead man's fair is nigh. And the danger in the valley, and the anger in the sky. "
  • In the episode, Garth is stated to have already been a famous Starfleet Captain when James Kirk was at Starfleet Academy, and was known as the "Hero of Axanar" which was a battle established to have taken place sometime in the mid 2250s, approximately 15 years prior to the episode. The script notes also called for Garth to be an "aged starship captain in his late 40s or mid 50s," thus implying that Garth is perhaps fifteen to twenty years older than Kirk. Actor Steve Ihnat was in fact three years younger than William Shatner and wore silver hair coloring on his temples to make himself appear older. ( Star Trek Compendium (3rd edition); Star Trek: The Magazine  Volume 1, Issue 12 , p. 34)
  • This is the second consecutive episode to guest star an actor from the Batman TV series – namely, Yvonne Craig , and the third in a row to feature an actor connected to Batman , as Lee Meriwether ( Losira in " That Which Survives ") played the Catwoman in the 1966 feature film. Previously, Frank Gorshin who played the Riddler played Commissioner Bele in " Let That Be Your Last Battlefield ".
  • Walter Koenig ( Pavel Chekov ) does not appear in this episode.
  • According to James Doohan , Yvonne Craig was considered for the role of Vina in " The Cage " (mostly because of her exceptional dancing skills). [3]
  • Steve Ihnat worked with Gene Roddenberry (and DeForest Kelley ) in his failed pilot Police Story , which led to the former being cast as Garth. [4]

Costumes [ ]

  • Garth's uniform appears to be the same one worn by Commissioner Ferris in " The Galileo Seven ". It also appeared in the second season episodes " Wolf in the Fold " and " Journey to Babel ", worn by background extras. However, Garth wears the outfit with one silver boot and one gold boot. Garth's furred robe is the same one worn by Anton Karidian in " The Conscience of the King ".
  • The dress Marta wears in the Teaser was originally worn by an Tantalus Colony inmate played by Jeannie Malone in " Dagger of the Mind ".
  • While the Andorian inmate is wearing an almost boa-like red costume, one of the Human inmates is wearing the traditional Andorian costume seen in the second season (and which can be seen again on an Andorian corpse in " The Lights of Zetar ").
  • The environmental suits are reused from " The Tholian Web ".
  • The treatment smock worn by Dr. Cory has the same insignia as the one worn by Adams in " Dagger of the Mind ".
  • Garth's uniform includes a medallion from which three beads are hanging. In the scene where he is shouting and punching the floor, right after shifting from Kirk's form, one bead can be seen falling and spinning next to him, and when he stands up, his medallion has only two beads. In later scenes the beads are restored back to three.
  • In The Fifty-Year Mission: The First 25 Years , Yvonne Craig recalled having her eyebrows shaved off without her knowledge, and Nimoy's humourous response when her heard of it. " I adored Leonard Nimoy, he just had the most droll sense of humor. The first time I went into makeup I had my eyes closed, and when I got home I realized they had shaved my eyebrows. They could just as easily cover them with mortician's wax and I was furious. I said, 'If my eyebrows don't grow back, I swear to God I will sue them..."Leonard said, 'Yvonne, I couldn't help but overhear what you were saying and I just wanted to say when I started the show I went to a dermatologist and he assured me that anyone who can grow a beard can grow their eyebrows back.' And with that he turned and left. So I'm standing there saying, 'Grow a beard?' He was so funny. He has a great sense of humor." [5]

Production [ ]

Shatner and his stand-in, Whom Gods Destroy

Shatner and his split-screen stand-in during filming

  • This was the first episode produced without co-producer Robert H. Justman , who had been with the series, in different capacities, since the production of " The Cage " in 1964. He left the series to work on other projects, specifically the series Then Came Bronson . According to the book Inside Star Trek: The Real Story , Justman broke his contract with Paramount Television, and didn't set foot on the lot for almost twenty years (when he began working on Star Trek: The Next Generation ).
  • Footage of the Enterprise firing phasers down to the surface of a planet is reused from " Who Mourns for Adonais? ".
  • Garth's torture chair is a reuse of the chair in the neural neutralizer room from " Dagger of the Mind ", except this time with the addition of earpieces mounted on either side.
  • The bridge scenes were directed by Jud Taylor , who finished filming " Let That Be Your Last Battlefield " running a day over, at midday on Monday 14 October 1968 , and jumped into directing this episode in the remainder of that day. Herb Wallerstein took over the next day, Tuesday 15 October 1968 . ( These Are the Voyages: TOS Season Three )
  • The music accompanying Marta 's dance (titled "Arab Hootch Dance") was composed by Alexander Courage , and was recorded during the " Plato's Stepchildren " sessions, on 25 October 1968 . ( Star Trek: The Original Series Soundtrack Collection liner notes )
  • During the syndication run of Star Trek , no syndication cuts were made to this episode.

Other information [ ]

  • This is the only episode where Spock performs a simultaneous double Vulcan nerve pinch on two distinct alien species.
  • In this episode a Human, Garth, performs a Vulcan nerve pinch while impersonating Spock, although it is possible that Marta is playing along with the deception. This is also one of four episodes where Leonard Nimoy plays a character other than Spock, the others being: " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ", " Return to Tomorrow ", and "" Mirror, Mirror ".
  • In the United Kingdom, the BBC skipped this episode in all runs of the series through to the early 1990s, due to its content. An official BBC statement by Sheila Cundy of the Programme Correspondence Section reads: " After very careful consideration a top level decision was made not to screen the episodes entitled " Empath " [sic] , "Whom The Gods Destroy" [sic] , "" Plato's Stepchildren "" and "" Miri "" [actually transmitted in 1970, but not re-aired until the '90s] , because they all dealt most unpleasantly with the already unpleasant subjects of madness, torture, sadism and disease " (BBC form letter, undated, Reference 28/SPC). "Whom Gods Destroy" was finally shown for the first time on 19 January 1994 . The UK satellite channel Sky had already acquired the rights to show the banned episodes before the BBC did. [6]
  • Contrary to popular belief, the Tellarites in TOS always had three fingers, even in this episode. The fingers are sleeker in appearance than they were in Season Two. " The Lights of Zetar " would be the only time we see a Tellarite with five fingers in TOS.
  • This was the last appearance of the Orions in a live action episode or movie until ENT : " Borderland " in 2004 . However, Orions also appeared in the Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes " The Time Trap " and " The Pirates of Orion ".
  • In Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country , Kirk and McCoy must escape a penal facility that is surrounded by a force field. Their escape is ultimately facilitated by a shapeshifter named Martia, who impersonates Kirk.

Production timeline [ ]

  • Story outline by Lee Erwin , 18 July 1968
  • Revised story outline: 26 July 1968
  • First draft teleplay: 16 August 1968
  • Second draft teleplay: 28 August 1968
  • Revised second draft teleplay: 5 September 1968
  • Additional page revisions: 17 September 1968
  • Final draft teleplay by Arthur Singer , 7 October 1968
  • Additional page revisions by Fred Freiberger , 10 October 1968 , 11 October 1968 , 12 October 1968 , 14 October 1968 , 17 October 1968
  • Day 1 – 14 October 1968 , Monday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge (directed by Jud Taylor )
  • Day 2 – 15 October 1968 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Elba control room with view to Ext. Elba II surface
  • Day 3 – 16 October 1968 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Elba control room , Elba corridors
  • Day 4 – 17 October 1968 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Elba control room ; Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Elba corridors , Security cells
  • Day 5 – 18 October 1968 , Friday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Security cells , Dining room
  • Day 6 – 21 October 1968 , Monday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Dining room
  • Day 7 – 22 October 1968 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Dining room , Security cells , Elba corridors
  • Day 8 – 23 October 1968 , Wednesday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 10 : Int. Kirk's guest quarters
  • Original airdate: 3 January 1969
  • First UK airdate (on ITV ): 24 June 1984
  • First UK airdate (on BBC2 ): 19 January 1994
  • Remastered episode airdate: 24 May 2008

Video and DVD releases [ ]

  • UK VHS release ( CIC Video ): catalog number VHR 2084, October 1984
  • Original US Betamax release: 1988
  • UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 37 , catalog number VHR 2433, 4 February 1991
  • US VHS release: 15 April 1994
  • UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 3.6, 5 January 1998
  • Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 36, 23 October 2001
  • As part of the TOS Season 3 DVD collection
  • As part of the TOS-R Season 3 DVD collection

Links and references [ ]

Starring [ ].

  • William Shatner as Kirk

Also starring [ ]

  • Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock
  • DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy

Guest stars [ ]

  • Steve Ihnat as Garth
  • Yvonne Craig as Marta
  • James Doohan as Scott
  • George Takei as Sulu
  • Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
  • Richard Geary as Andorian
  • Gary Downey as Tellarite
  • Keye Luke as Cory

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

  • William Blackburn as Hadley
  • Frank da Vinci as Brent
  • Lars Hensen as Elba II inmate
  • Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli
  • Jeannie Malone as Yeoman
  • Five Elba II inmates
  • Operations crewman

Stand-ins [ ]

  • Unknown actor as photo double for William Shatner

References [ ]

accident ; advice ; address ; address ; Alexander the Great ; amusement ; Andorian ; anger ; animal ; ant ; anthill ; Antos IV ; Antos native ; arm ; armed detail (aka security detail or security team ); artery ; asylum ; asylum dome (aka protective dome ); atmosphere ; attention ; Axanar ; Axanar ; Axanar Peace Mission ( Axanar Peace Mission personnel ); betrayal ; billion ; boasting ; body ; Bonaparte, Napoléon ; bone ; brain damage ; brother ; cadet ; Caesar, Julius ; candidate ; cell ; cellular metamorphosis ; ceremony ; chair ; chance ; chess ; chess problem ; children ; choking ; Cochrane deceleration maneuver ; commanding officer ; compassion ; conscience ; consort ; control room ; coronation ; course ; cow ; crown ; crown prince ; crystal ; courtesy ; dance ; dancer ; danger ; day ; death ; demonstration ; disease ; dinner ; divertissement ; doctor ; dream ; dust ; ear ; Earth ; Elba II ; Elba II asylum ; elite ; emotion ; enemy ; energy ; energy level ; enlightened self-interest ; entertainment ; environmental suit ; explorer ; explosion ; eye ; fact ; fasting ; Federation ; figuratively ; flattery ; flask ; flavor ; fleet ; fleet captain ; force field ; friend ; galaxy ; Garth's crew ; Garth's starship ; Garth's guard ; genius ; governor ; gratitude ; greatness ; guest ; guest list ; hand ; hand-to-hand struggle ; head ; health ; heir apparent ; hero ; history ; Hitler, Adolf ; hope ; hospitality ; humanitarian ; Human sacrifice ; image ; infinity ; injection ; inmate ; insanity ; insect ; intramuscular ; intravenous ; invention ; Izar ; jealousy ; justice ; Kuan, Lee ; King ; knee ; Krotus ; leader ; liar ; lie ; Lord ; lover ; madman ; maimed ; maneuver ; margin of safety ; master of the universe ; May ; medical staff ; memory ; mental illness ; Mental illness medicine ; midnight ; mile ; Milky Way Galaxy ; minute ; mistake ; model ; morning ; mutiny ; necklace ; November ; nursery school ; objection ; orbital coordinates ; orbital path ; order ; Orion ; pain ; paint ; patrol ; peace mission ; pedestal ; performer ; permission ; persuasion ; pessimist ; phrase ; picture ; place ; plagiarism ; poem ; poetry ; poison ; politician ; proof ; protective dome ; prototype ; queen ; rapport ; reality ; rehabilitation chair ; Romulan vessel ; room ; sand ; science officer ; second ; secret ; sensor ; serpent ; Shakespeare's sonnets ; Shakespeare, William ; shuttlecraft ; sky ; solar system ; Solomon ; star ; Starfleet Academy ; starship ; statesman ; stubbornness ; student ; subordinate ; suggestion ; summer ; symbolism ; synchronous orbit ; table ; Tau Ceti ; Tellarite ; thing ; thousand ; three-dimensional chess ; throne ; tissue ; title ; transporter room ; trap ; tricked ; ultrasonic wave ; universe ; valley ; victim ; Vulcan ; Vulcan neck pinch ; warrior ; weakling ; wealth ; wind ; wine ; word ; world

External links [ ]

  • "Whom Gods Destroy" at StarTrek.com
  • "Whom Gods Destroy" at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
  • " Whom Gods Destroy " at Wikipedia
  • " "Whom Gods Destroy" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
  • 1 Kenneth Mitchell
  • 3 Kol (Klingon)
  • Cast & crew
  • User reviews

Whom Gods Destroy

Release info

  • Whom Gods Destroy

Release Date

  • January 3, 1969
  • February 20, 1983
  • May 9, 1988
  • January 19, 1994
  • September 26, 1998

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“Whom Gods Destroy” Remastered: Review + Screenshots & Video [UPDATED]

| May 25, 2008 | By: TrekMovie.com Staff 104 comments so far

star trek whom gods destroy imdb

REVIEW by Jeff Bond

It seems like whenever I come down hard on a TOS episode in one of these reviews it’s at least one reader’s favorite episode—I’ll be curious to see if anyone’s fave is “Whom Gods Destroy.” Like “Dagger of the Mind,” “Whom Gods Destroy” takes place on a Federation “insane asylum,” this time Elba II, named after the island where Napoleon was sent into exile. Elba II has its own Napoleon, Garth if Izar (Steve Ihnat), a former fleet captain who went mad and ordered his crew to destroy a race that had helped the captain recover from an accident that had partially destroyed his body and in the process given him advanced shapeshifting powers.

The story begins with Kirk and Spock arriving at the facility to deliver a medicine that will cure the last 15 “incurably insane” people in the galaxy—which is an idea so big that it deserves a book trilogy devoted to it rather than a 48 minute teleplay. One of the peculiarities of Lee Erwin’s and Jerry Sohl’s script is that it leaves Dr. McCoy on the bridge of the Enterprise to fidgit while Kirk and Spock deliver this historic medical treatment—wouldn’t McCoy want to at least observe the curing of the last 15 mental patients in the galaxy?

It turns out the real chief of the facility, Donald Kory (Keye Luke) has been imprisoned by Garth, who’s now running the show with the rest of the inmates. In addition to being a military genius and a man who can change his shape—clothes included—at will, Garth is also a master inventor who’s created a powerful explosive that he demonstrates in the episode.

“Whom Gods Destroy” is colorful in the manner of an episode of the Sixties Batman TV series—all it’s missing is the tilted camera angles. It’s impossible not to compare this to the relative subtlety of “Dagger of the Mind,” in which an apparent raving madman is actually a victim of psychiatric treatment gone wrong and a genial, reasonable administrator is really a torturing monster. Garth has exactly one level to his character—he’s a grandly eloquent egomaniac given to fits of screaming—and Steve Ihnat is no Morgan Woodward. The more interesting performance is turned in, ironically enough, by a regular from the Batman show, Yvonne Craig as Orion slave girl Marta. She at least occasionally convinces you that there’s a sane woman somewhere at the center of her twitchy (but comely) exterior, and she gets what’s probably the episode’s best line in regard to her prisoner Spock (“Can’t I blow just one of his ears off?”).

The episode is at its best when it stops taking its premise seriously. Leonard Nimoy was vocal in his dissatisfaction with this story, noting that it was just a less-than-intelligent retread of “Dagger of the Mind” and complaining that Spock’s intelligence is shortchanged in the script, particularly when he proves incapable of quickly determining which of two Kirks in front of him is actually Garth (it’s clear from one of the first scenes in the story that Garth, no matter what guise he is in, is always just a few seconds away from a temper tantrum). Spock therefore functions best in the episode when he’s calmly needling the explosive madman as in the story’s early “party” sequence that provides a thin excuse for Marta to do a sexy dance number. Garth’s “ REMOVE THIS ANIMAL!! ” on the heels of one of Spock’s quite reasonable dissections of his behavior is genuinely funny.

Masquerades and torture sequences are the episode’s stock in trade (it was actually banned from the airwaves in Britain for years because of the torture scenes although they’re not much different and in fact are notably less effective than the similar “neural neutralizer” scenes in “Dagger”), but while there’s some token nods toward Kirk’s anguish about one of his former heroes turning into a madman, there’s not much drama to be had either. This is Trek at it’s most cartoonish but on that level at least it’s moderately entertaining.

CBS-D doesn’t have a great deal to do here although this is a rare case where they get to create a “non-Earthlike” planet, and the look of a lifeless gray moon covered with poisonous green mists is effective. Scenes of the Enterprise under Scotty’s command firing phasers to try to break down the facility’s defensive screen involve stock shots of the ship firing phasers culled from earlier episodes and two new shots of phaser fire hitting the surface of Elba II. Not much, but then this isn’t an episode that calls for heroic efforts.

SCREENSHOTS by Matt Wright

Remastered vs. Original

star trek whom gods destroy imdb

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An un-earhtlike planet!

I like the design of the planet.

I don’t care if Marta was crazy, she was hotttttt! RIP

why do the old screenshots always look superior?

#4-Beats me, because I feel just the opposite, at least about these.

I AM MASTER OF THE UNIVERSE!!!! TREMBLE AT MY MIGHTY PIMPHAND FOR IT IS STRONG !!!! STAND IN AWE AT MY BLING AND MY MAGESTIC FUR TRIMMED TECHNICOLOR DREAMCOAT !!!!!! BEWARE MY MUTE TELLERITE AND HIPHOP PINK FUR CAPE ROCKING MUTE ANDORIAN !!!!!

LORD GARTH HATH SPOKEN LET MY WORDS SHAKE THE VERY CORE OF THE GALAXY !!!!!!!

MARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRTA !!!!!!!!

Sorry if this has been answered elsewhere, but how do the phaser beams diverge from the Enterprise and then converge on one spot on the planet?

The remastered shot added a new effect…. Garth must now have deployed a green CW logo as a defense mechanism against Federation Starships… LOL

Finally — a non-blue-and-white planet! A very nice change of pace.

Bring on the purple planets! :-)

By the way, I’ve been following the Phoenix Mars mission live. I have two computer screens streaming NASA TV and one cable TV screen previously tuned to CNN’s live coverage, and now to a PBS special on the mission.

Awaiting first images as I write.

Star Trek, like JPL, is all about the peaceful exploration of space. Let’s hope that future generations will see our steps as only the first in a relentless forward march in to the universe.

Surely only the mad would disagree? ;-)

At least the Enterprise no longer goes from Grey to White to Blue to Grey again.

Garth is very good at morphing his wardrobe. He even smashes one ring while pounding on the floor, then has it good to go in the next shot. Amazing ability.

I can’t love this ep all that much. It’s so tired. So much of the costumes, jewelry, computer consoles, stock shots are recycled… along with the basic sci-fi of the mind-bender chair. (Lord Garth, couldn’t you get Desilu to get you a new costume? Why did you let them give you Galactic High Commissioner Ferris stinky hand-me-downs? And which Trek chick gave you that ring you busted, anyway?

Still, Green Batgirl be hot.

“I don’t know which one to shoot!”

“Flexo! Shoot Flexo!”

Seriously, the Big E looks great in the “after” shots. Glamorous lady!

I met Yvonne Craig at New York comic con 7 , 8 years ago. She’s still great. She blushed when I very diplomatically told her how exciting she was to a young boy in the ’70’s.

I’d like to point out another favorite line from this episode when Garth nonchalantly threatens to beat Yvonne’s character to death. “I should have you beaten to death”. One of few gems from this episode. Plus an original Andorian,….albeit a stocky stuntman who doesn’t invest a lot into the character.

CmdrR – That costume you ridicule was pulled with my bare hands from Ferris’s stinking rotting corpse!!!! As I choked the last few breaths of life from his cursed body!!! It was Ferris whose force of miscreants first captured me at XIXON 5 and he paid for that insult!!! I proudly wear his simple garb under my magestic chinchilla trimmed Technicolor dreamcoat as a trophy and reminder to those that would defy me!!! The ring was crafted by Marta herself in the asylum craftsroom do not dare to ridicule my sweet green biotch’s gift only I can ridicule and blow my beloved to bits!!!!

It seems my needling has paid off in the form of a colorful diatribe.

Let’s see if we can up the ante.

Like your crown, Garth. Did you kill Jughead to get that, too?

Did anybody notice that when Kirk is grappling with Marta, he has green makeup on his hands? Or maybe it was just my TV, which admittedly has been behaving bizarrely lately.

Steve Ihnat & Yvonne Craig work well together in an episode which offers little more than 4 walls to work with (except for the surface shot where Marta is executed). It’s 3rd season after all. Bob Justman- “We didn’t have ANY Money.”

Donald Kory (Keye Luke) knows Kirk very well (first name basis). Apparently a long friendship which goes back to the Academy? Unknown.

Captain Garth was one of Kirk’s idols. The “Captain Kirk” of his time. It would be interesting if the Federation Captain in the next film turned out to be Garth.

No one has mentioned the Famous Password within this episode: “Queen to Queen’s Level Three” “Queen to King’s Level One” Used it throughout College and beyond. When you meet someone who knows the answer – – you know you’ve found a fellow fan.

I wonder why nobody’s made a fanfilm about Garth’s early, not-cookoo-for-cocoa-puffs days….

One of the “All Time Stinkers” in Trek history. Has to be the worst episode of the original series.

“Worst episode ever.” As comic book guy from the Simpsons would say. Anybody have an episode that will top it?

My Mom was bipolar so maybe a planet of crazies hit a little to close to home when I watched this as a young child.

She used to parade around the house in her furry green bathrobe and jughead crown and make use kids call her Captain uh Lord Garth.

They don’t diverge/converge. It’s perspective. Two parallel lines will appear to converge or diverge if they’re coming at you. The effect is more pronounced (and less realistic) in the original shot.

THIS WAS THE BEST EPISODE EVER! WHO CAN FORGET SHATNER’S HORRIBLY ACTED TEMPER TANTRUM AS HE POUNDS THE FLOOR IN THE CONTROL ROOM WHEN HE COULDN’T BE BEAMED ABOARD THE SHIP. “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!—NO! NO!-NO!”

AND OF COURSE:

“I had risen above this decadent weakness… which still has you in its command, Captain.” “Gentlemen, you have eyes but you cannot see. Galaxies surround us, limitless vistas ! And yet the Federation would have us grub away… like some ants on some… somewhat larger than usual anthill ! But I am not an insect ! I am master of the universe, and I must claim my domain.” Limitless power…limitless!”

#7… it’s the same reason train tracks look diverging in one direction, then turn around, and they’re converging. yeah, that’s it. sure… train tracks. I always thought that Garth of Izar would have been a cool character to see in his heyday. ah well.

Was there some reason not to show the colony on the surface of the planet? i.e. a structure? Its been so long since I’ve watched this one, I can’t remember.

I find one thing confusing. If they didn’t know there was an inmate that could change his shape at will, why would they create a password in order to beam up? Almost like they knew something like that would happen.

Not a showcase from a remastering standpoint, but well worth watching nonetheless. It’s almost like watching an episode of “The Prisoner”: camp as bunk beds, but with a genuinely unsettling undercurrent of darkness. The late Steve Ihnat, so theatrical that he makes Shatner look subdued, gives a fascinating and unpredictable performance as Garth. Obviously shot on the cheap (note the recycled Andorian and Tellarite costumes), but tense and filled with fabulous dialogue. I love Kirk’s defense of the philosophy of the Federation, and Garth’s meandering fustian. One of the handful of winners from season three, it’s compelling from beginning to end.

19. “Way to Eden” is still worse (and on so many levels!). But I think this one’s on a par with “Spock’s Brain” — only Yvonne Craig single-handedly lifts it a notch above that one.

Steve Inhat was terribly cast. He’s about as threatening as Liberace — and dresses like him as well. “Behold! This bottle of conditioner in my hand is actually the MOST POWERFUL EXLOSIVE IN THE HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSE!” And for the last 15 pychopaths in the galaxy they sure are a smiling and well-behaved lot. The feather boa around that Andorian’s neck is just too much.

It really does remind me of the old Batman TV series (why has that not been released on DVD yet?!) and for that I can forgive it for it’s many short-comings. Even the crazy guys wearing re-used Fabrini costumes remind me of any number of guest Bat-villains’ silent stunt-henchmen.

I have been bothered that CBS-D is so inconsistant about how they show phasers on stun setting. There’s no actual beam, just an impact and sound effect. I don’t care for it.

The original viewscreen shot is the color I think of when TOS bridge shots come to mind. Why did they remaster it blue/grey with muddied out railings and no outline on the screen?

Ship shots are, ..meh. Planet looks good though.

#27 Even in the original FX, stun wouldn’t actually show a beam from phaser I (the small one that looks like a keyless entry thingee), stun would just show a blue splash effect. Now I don’t remember correctly if it does show from Phaser II (probably not). Actually, for something that is not supposed to be related to lasers as far as the physics of the thing is concerned, you shouldn’t see any beam at all on any setting just like you can’t see microwaves or ultraviolet, x-rays, gamma rays etc….

I think it would have been neat to see a new matte shot of the outside of the facility, especially with the phasers hitting the force-field. But that planet was very well done. If it was possible, a reworking of Garth’s changing shape to make it less weird than what they did before.

This makes me wonder… did Garth ALWAYS have shape-shifting abilities? I would guess the crew was aware of this, since they made the whole “queen to qeens level 3” thing…. on the chance Garth escapes.

Another thing I’ve realized: there are quite a number of former starfleet captains who end up going rogue or crazy… doesn’t bode well for that job, lol! :-D

They don’t. Let it go.

This episode was unshown in the UK for years – the BBC decided it was so bad they didn’t screen it.

Although “Kory” mentions his staff and at least one guard, he seems to be the only resident of the asylum who is not an inmate. We never see anyone else except for the “criminally insane.” Perhaps the staff is being guarded by the 5 inmates we never see. I believe, at maximum, we only see 10 out of the 15 incorrigibles. Even in the epilogue, the extra personal are all Starfleet. Where is Kory’s staff?

Actually, I wonder if the “torture scene” which supposedly got this episode banned in Britain might not have been the one the “rehabilitation chair” but rather the scene in which Marta is being held in the poisonous atmosphere by two inmates who are essentially asphyxiating her.

The nature and depiction of her ultimate demise is also quite striking for TV at the time. How often back then did one see a sociopath commit a senseless, cold blooded, on screen, premeditated murder for “fun?” How often did one see a victim beg for mercy only to be dismissively blown to bits? I would think that this scene woudl have been a much more likely reason for the episode to have been banned rather than the scene with the “uncomfy chair.”

This episode is really bad and ridiculous!! We’ve seen lots of insane people since this episode!

On a less serious note, Yvonne Graig is decidedly ordinary and kind of chunky.

“Yvonne Craig is decidedly ordinary and kind of chunky.” I love those kinds of comments from guys posting on message boards. I’d love to see what the guys who make these kind of dismissive comments about women look like: my guess is more like Twinkies than Power Bars (I make no claims to buffness myself, btw).

Re: 27 Izbot sums it all up, way too well… :-(

Yvonne Craig is stunning. Not like the anorexic actresses of today.

” The more interesting performance is turned in, ironically enough, by a regular from the Batman show, Yvonne Craig as Orion slave girl Marta. She at least occasionally convinces you that there’s a sane woman somewhere at the center of her twitchy (but comely) exterior, and she gets what’s probably the episode’s best line in regard to her prisoner Spock (“Can’t I blow just one of his ears off?”).”

When i watch this episode on my projector (picture is 11 feet corner-to-corner) Yvonne is absolutely riveting, even thru the green makeup you can tell she was one of the better – and better looking – actresses of the day. When she’s onscreen my pulse speeds up – no joke!

For this reason alone I HIGHLY recommend this episode to friends.

Just to refresh myself I took a look at an Yvonne Craig/Marta pic on the Internet–anyone who says she is chunky is a lunatic or at has stuck their finger down their or their girlfriend’s throats one too many times.

Marta is the only positive aspect I can find in this poor episode!

There was a novel that was a follow up to this episode titled Garth of Izar.

I can’t understand why they would ban it in England Just because of a torture scene. I have seen things on English TV that they wouldn’t even dream of showing on American TV.

So, perhaps I’m out on a limb on this one:

“Killed while trying to escape.”

“Yeah, its a classic.”

Have anyone talked about whether or not Kirk’s escape attempt from Rura Penthe in ST:VI is a reference to this episode? Other than Bones being run over by two Kirk’s, for me the two scenes have always felt quite similar..!

C’mon guys, first we have some more classic stuff for our collection – this time it’s Euripides and Longfellow being the inspiration for the ep’s title, and we have an allusion to Dr. Livingston when Spock asks “Captain Kirk, I presume”. Then, there’s this wonderful scene when Kirk speaks about Spock as his brother, and Spock’s high-eyebrow comment about his Captain speaking with undue emotion but nevertheless being correct (paraphrasing), and the look Kirk throws at him…priceless. We were enriched by the unforgettable “Queen to queen’s level three” moment; and be honest – who has never experienced a moment of “He’s my lover and I have to kill him”? ;)

Ok, it’s an overall stupid episode, but it still has its moments – let’s appreciate them.

I think Spock delivers the best line in this episode… something about Batgirl devising the perfect method to ensure male fidelity…

I, too, used to think this was one of the worst episodes, UNTIL I saw the remastered version this past weekend, I have a new-found interest in it now! Either it is because when I saw it back in the late 60’s I decided never to watch that crappy episode again and forgot about it, or watching it, now that I am older, I read more into the story than the costumes and props… either way I rank this episode much higher than ever before.

#37: I stand by what I said. She’s not ugly by any means, but definitely ordinary. It makes me wonder why there was so much focus on her in this episode. What I would have LOVED was a decent episode with Gart of Izar demonstrating his full abilities.

And actually yeah, I’m in pretty decent shape myself.

#22 LouisG and of Course Admiral Dirty Darendoc You shall most certainly have a ships in my fleet. Admiral Dirty Daren Doc shall command the Flagship Dreadnaught Bismark II while Louis shall command the USS Loknar !!!

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Whom Gods Destroy

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Midnite Reviews

Detailed analysis of classic sci-fi movies and tv shows, star trek episode 69: whom gods destroy.

Technical Specs

Director: Herb Wallerstein

Writer: Lee Erwin

Cast: William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Steve Ihnat, Yvonne Craig, James Doohan, George Takei, Nichelle Nichols, Richard Geary, Gary Downey, and Keye Luke

Composer: Fred Steiner

Air Date: 1/3/1969

Stardate: 5718.3

Production #: 60043-71

star-trek-whom-gods-destroy

Though somewhat lacking in philosophical substance, “Whom Gods Destroy” benefits from a number of entertaining interactions between Kirk and Garth. Also commendable are the villainous attributes stemming from the latter character’s brilliant but dangerously unstable mind, which generate a most intimidating atmosphere that would not have been possible had a less sophisticated actor played the part.

star-trek-whom-gods-destroy

On more than one occasion, Kirk/Garth attempts to beam aboard the Enterprise only for Scotty to request verification via the captain’s reply to a chess move. Certain viewers may attribute this unique security feature to Kirk’s ingenuity as a captain, though others will likely question why such measures are never implemented on other missions involving would-be imposters.

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Recap / Star Trek S3 E14 "Whom Gods Destroy"

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Original air date: January 3, 1969

Spock and Kirk beam down to Elba II to deliver a new miracle drug to a Penal Colony in hopes of curing the patients permanently. Governor Donald Corey greets them warmly, accepts the medicine, strongly insists on them staying for dinner and visiting the poor unfortunates that they have come to cure. An Orion female ( Yvonne Craig ) insists that she's perfectly sane and that Corey is an imposter. Corey tuts over the poor woman's delusions and shows them the cell of the infamous Garth of Izar...only to find a severely battered Donald Corey in the cell. Suddenly, the screen goes fuzzy and "Boing!" The person they thought was Donald Corey is really the mad captain ( LORD! ) Garth of Izar!

Garth was once a well respected Fleet Captain, but after being badly maimed in a tragic accident he was saved and taught the art of shapeshifting by the healers of Antos IV. Perhaps due to brain damage in the wreck he decided he was through with his Starfleet career, feeling it was just grubbing away "like some ants on some... somewhat larger than usual anthill. " No! He was made for bigger things! He is not a mere captain but a God-Emperor ! He is the true Master of the Universe, so sit and spin, He-Man! His only mistake was overestimating the Federation's tolerance for mass genocide.

The inmates are running the asylum! The Big Bad is a shape shifter who makes Mystique look kind and reasonable in comparison! The planet's atmosphere is unbreathable! There's no escape! And Marta plagiarizes Shakespeare!

Whom Tropes Destroy:

  • Ain't Too Proud to Beg : Kirk is shown the downsides of pleading. After a brief Hope Spot where Garth remembers how he was, Kirk gets smacked around and made to kneel more often. Clearly if he can beg once, he can do it again.
  • Amnesiacs are Innocent : At the end of the episode, after being given the new treatment, Garth appears sane again and has also forgotten everything that happened since he went mad.
  • Artistic License – Medicine : Kirk states in his opening log that the Federation hopes the new medicine they are transporting will "eliminate mental illness for all time". Yes, apparently all mental illness will be cured by this one medicine. Never mind that "mental illness" is an umbrella term covering a wide spectrum of disorders, with a variety of different causes.
  • Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny! : Quite literal for Marta. She's often shown admiring shiny objects.
  • Authority in Name Only : Garth's title of "Lord" exists only in his own deluded mind.
  • Bad Boss : Garth tells Kirk that he's developed a bomb that could possibly destroy an entire planet. What does Garth do to demonstrate its power? He sends his minion Marta, who he just made his consort, outside the asylum, which has a poisonous atmosphere, and blows her up with a portion of the the explosive that he implanted in her necklace. The explosion is so violent , it shakes The Enterprise , which is in orbit . ( The guy was clearly in an insane asylum for a reason... )
  • Bad Liar : Marta was a pathological liar (likely one reason she was in the asylum), going so far as to recite Shakespeare's Sonnet XVIII and claim it was her own work. Not even Garth believes a word she says.

star trek whom gods destroy imdb

  • Actually, whatever the Torture Chair was originally meant to do, it was explicitly said to be completely painless until Garth made his "modifications". It may not even have been meant as an analogy to shock therapy.
  • Big "NO!" : Garth lets one out when he reverts back to his true form.
  • Broken Pedestal : Seriously, Kirk, what is it with your heroes becoming insane megalomaniacs?
  • Can't Take Criticism : Garth. He becomes anything from mildly annoyed to hysterically angry if you point out anything he did wrong.
  • Captain Obvious : Spock, when he responds to Kirk's claim that they are "brothers" by saying that Kirk is speaking "somewhat figuratively and with undue emotion."
  • Cassandra Truth : Marta feigns being sane. She tells Kirk that Corey isn't who he seems. Just because she's right doesn't mean she isn't crazy!
  • Chekhov's Gun : Garth isn't lying about the explosive he created.
  • Chess Motifs : The prompt for the password for Scotty to override the security shield and beam Kirk up is "Queen to Queen's level three". The password is "Queen to King's level one".
  • Coat Cape : Garth wears his green mink coat this way during the coronation.
  • Complete-the-Quote Title : The episode isn't about people being destroyed, by gods or otherwise. However if you know the entire quote "Whom gods destroy, they first drive mad", you'll see it's a perfect title for an episode about an insane asylum.
  • Complaining About Rescues They Don't Like : "What took you so long?" Kirk says after Spock figures out which Kirk is the real one. He tells Kirk that he perceived it to take longer than it did.
  • Crosses over with recycled props, but the chair too is a re-use from that episode. What makes it a potential continuity nod is that when it is first wheeled out, Kirk says he recognises it and knows what it is used for, which given he was put under it the last time it appeared makes perfect sense.
  • Damned by Faint Praise : Garth calls Kirk the second best tactician in Starfleet. He considers himself to be the best.
  • Deadpan Snarker : At first, it seems Spock is just laying out another Vulcan zinger with "She seems to have worked out an infallible method for assuring permanent male fidelity." upon stopping her from stabbing Kirk. Surprise! It was Garth all along!
  • Death Glare : Kirk gives a cold, silent, livid one to Garth after he murders Marta by blowing her up.
  • Earth-Shattering Kaboom : Of a variation; Garth's explosive, as mentioned above, is so powerful that the Enterprise feels it in orbit . The explosive itself would also cause the name of the trope if more of it were used.
  • Enlightened Self-Interest : Name-dropped by Garth when he tries to convince Kirk and Spock that they should be friends (with the implication that the other option would be "or I kill you"). Spock : On what, precisely, is our friendship to be based? Garth : Upon the firmest of foundations, Mister Spock. Enlightened self interest.
  • Evil Genius : Garth was apparently able to design and build a new doomsday weapon while locked up in an insane asylum on a deserted backwater planet.
  • Fallen Hero : Kirk describes Garth as his personal hero.
  • Famous, Famous, Fictional : Garth: All the others before me have failed. Alexander, Caesar, Napoleon, Hitler, Li Kuan, Krotus! All of them are dust! But I will triumph! I will make the ultimate conquest!
  • Femme Fatale : Marta fancies herself this. Kirk submits to some kisses, but the two women he just can't go for are the under-aged and the under-sane.
  • Forced to Watch : Garth uses Cold-Blooded Torture on Governor Corey to make Kirk reveal the password. And forces Kirk to watch Marta be blown up.
  • Green-Skinned Space Babe : Marta, of course. She is the only green space babe Kirk actually kisses or, indeed, has anything to do with.
  • Hair-Trigger Explosive : The madman Garth of Izar has developed an explosive so powerful that a single flask of it could vaporize a planet . It will go off if dropped to the floor.
  • Ham-to-Ham Combat : Kirk vs Garth.
  • Have We Met? : Garth, having newly come out of treatment, says this to Kirk at the end of the episode.
  • Heroic RRoD : Well, maybe not "heroic". Discussed. Spock concludes that Garth is expanding a lot of energy keeping Kirk's form, so he decides to wait it out. It seems Garth doesn't have near the patience of a Vulcan.
  • Human Sacrifice : Garth suggests doing this to Kirk at his coronation. Kirk is not enthused.
  • "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight : Kirk tries to get Garth to remember the great man he was before his insanity set in. It almost works, too.
  • Idiot Ball : Spock, while trying to determine which "Kirk" is really Garth, asks Kirk a question that Garth could also have known the answer to, and then gives up that line of reasoning altogether rather than asking a very specific question about their past that only the real Kirk could possibly know. Leonard Nimoy objected to this, but the director really wanted to do a fight scene. The other obvious answer gets a nod at the end of the fight, when the real Kirk says to just stun both of them.
  • Insistent Terminology : Captain—"LORD!"—Garth.
  • It Works Better with Bullets : After a jailbreak, Kirk threatens Garth with a phaser stolen from a guard; Garth, who orchestrated the jailbreak in an attempt to learn the Trust Password , reveals that he made sure Kirk got a phaser that wasn't charged.
  • Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique : Garth uses this on Dr. Cory and Kirk in an attempt to learn the transporter code word.
  • Judgment of Solomon : Kirk lampshades the similarity of Spock's choice to this with the episode's final words. Mr. Spock, letting yourself be hit on the head—and I presume you let yourself be hit on the head—is not a method King Solomon would have approved.
  • Just Testing You : Garth's excuse to Scotty when he doesn't know the counter password 'Queen to King's level one'.
  • Kill Us Both : Spock is faced with both Kirk and Garth of Izar who was impersonating Kirk. Kirk ordered Spock to shoot them both to prevent Garth from taking over the Enterprise. Spock only shot one. Luckily it was the right one. Subverted in that it's a phaser on stun, which is harmless, and Spock was just going to shoot the winner too since it would logically be the healthy Garth.
  • Kneel Before Zod : Garth demands that all kneel before him. Kneel, I say!
  • Large Ham : Kirk has certainly met his match with " LORD " Garth. Especially whenever Garth transforms into Kirk.
  • Love at First Sight : Marta claims to feel this way about Kirk. If she does love him, it's in an " I want to wear your skin " sort of way.
  • Meaningful Name : Elba II, the isolated planet that is now home to the imprisoned megalomaniac Garth, is named after the island where Napoléon Bonaparte was exiled.
  • Men Are the Expendable Gender : Subverted when LORD!Garth subjects Marta to the big ol' kablooie.
  • Mercy Kill : Garth kills Marta just to prove he can. But, since she's his consort, he'll blow her up instead of letting her suffocate.
  • Mood-Swinger : Garth can go from Affably Evil to Unstoppable Rage at the drop of a hat.
  • Moral Myopia : Garth alleges that he was treated terribly. As pointed out by Spock, not only was he treated fairly, but also he failed to treat any of his intended victims compassionately.
  • No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine : When Garth first invites Kirk and Spock to dinner, it seems friendly, since he's borrowed the guise of Donald Corey. Then he forces the invitation at gunpoint.
  • Noodle Incident : Garth fought at the Battle of Axanar, which was so important that his tactics became required reading at Starfleet Academy. Too bad nothing about it has been officially revealed.
  • Overly Narrow Superlative : Marta declares that she is the most beautiful woman on the planet. Garth bluntly reminds her that she's the only woman on the planet.
  • The Paragon Always Rebels : Kirk describes Garth as the Federation's greatest warrior, and he was seemingly Starfleet's most legendary captain until his newly acquired abilities drove him mad with power.
  • Please Spare Him, My Liege! : Kirk is reluctant to recognize Garth's claim to be a king, however, he will play with his ego to make him let an innocent man go.
  • Plagiarism in Fiction : Briefly played as a joke. After Garth takes over the asylum, he has the other patients put on a show. Another patient, Marta, agrees to perform a sonnet she claims to have written that morning. A minute into her performance, Garth jumps out of his chair yelling " You wrote that ?" He points out that it was actually written by William Shakespeare . She admits that he wrote it and says she wrote it again that morning. Later in the episode, she recites another poem; although nobody bothers to point it out this time, it's equally unoriginal, being the first stanza of one of A. E. Housman 's Last Poems .
  • Playing Sick : Spock pretends to be passed out when Garth's two minions come to collect him. This gives him the opportunity to neck pinch both of them.
  • Psychopathic Man Child : When Garth doesn't get what he wants, he kicks and pounds the floor like an angry child. The other inmates are somewhat more subdued versions, having a fondness for wheelbarrow races. (Cut from the remastered episode, unfortunately.)
  • Sanity Has Advantages : The fact that Garth was a madman and both Kirk and Spock were sane was clearly the two protagonist's biggest advantage here. The fact that the villain flew into a rage on more than one occasion when he was frustrated (such as when he realized he needed to know a countersign in order to board The Enterprise ) showed that his madness was hindering him greatly. Garth's attempt to intimidate Kirk by murdering his lover with the super-powerful bomb he created does nothing more than prove to Kirk - and the viewers, most likely - that he's a lunatic, and when he thinks he'll have more luck with Spock due to Spock being a "very logical man", Spock's logical thinking is, in fact, what leads to Garth's final defeat.
  • Sapping the Shapeshifter : While Garth is impersonating Kirk, both Kirk and Garth/Kirk are held at phaser-point by Spock, who points out that Garth is undoubtedly spending a great deal of energy to maintain Kirk's form and that he can't do so indefinitely, so all he has to do is wait. Naturally, Kirk and Garth start fighting, so Spock has to take another route to determine which is the real Kirk.
  • Shapeshifter Default Form : Garth is a human being who learned the ability to shape change. His default shape is his original (humanoid) body.
  • Shapeshifting : Garth of Izar. After an accident left him badly maimed, the gentle beings of Antos IV nursed him in his darkest hour, and gifted him with their technique of cellular metamorphosis to repair his mangled body. With Great Power Comes Great Insanity .
  • Shapeshifting Sound : Whenever Garth of Izar shapechanges to another form, the change is accompanied by an odd metallic "wobbling" sound effect.
  • Shell Game : Garth shape changes into the form of Captain Kirk and fights him, so neither the audience nor Spock know which one is which.
  • Shout-Out : Marta's first poem is, as Garth points out, identical to a well-known Shakespearean sonnet. (See Plagiarism in Fiction above.)
  • Sissy Villain : Garth wears a dark green mink coat over a purple jacket with glittery highlights. A presumed insane Andorian wears a fluffy pink boa. WHAT ARE THEY INSINUATING?

star trek whom gods destroy imdb

  • Some Kind of Force Field : All the cells in the asylum have invisible forcefields on the doors, indicated by lights set in the doorframes that light up when the field is active. Spock provides the obligatory moment of poking the air to elicit a temporary glowing effect and demonstrate the field's existence.
  • Spot the Imposter : Near the end, Spock has to determine which "Captain Kirk" is the real thing and which one is Garth. He decides that the one who orders his own sacrifice for the safety of the Enterprise must be his Captain.
  • Stock Footage : Footage of the Enterprise firing phasers down to the surface of a planet is reused from " Who Mourns for Adonais? "
  • Take Over the World : Garth's goal is to take over the universe.
  • Teleport Interdiction : Kirk and Spock aren't getting out of this that easily! Security force fields must be deactivated to allow beaming up or down.
  • That Wasn't a Request : Garth asks Marta to dance for the benefit of Kirk and co. Marta clearly doesn’t want to, leading Garth to clarify that he wasn’t merely requesting it of her.
  • Trust Password : When Garth atttempts to beam up to the Enterprise in the form of Kirk, he learns that Kirk, presumably foreseeing the possibility of a break-out attempt by one of the inmates, set up a sign and countersign. The rest of the episode is him trying to get Kirk to reveal the countersign.
  • Underage Casting : Fleet Captain Garth of Izar, whose exploits were studied by Kirk at the academy, is played by a 34-year-old actor. Steve Ihnat was in fact younger than William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. This may be a result of the Antos IV aliens rebuilding him.
  • Ungrateful Bastard : After the pacifist natives on Antos IV saved his life, Garth offered them power in gratitude. When they turned it down, he ordered the destruction of their world. His crew promptly removed him from command and he was placed in psychiatric care.
  • Star Trek S3 E13 "Elaan of Troyius"
  • Recap/Star Trek: The Original Series
  • Star Trek S3 E15 "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield"

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12 comments:

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Oh my...... I have completely forgotten about this one. And a lot of ep's as well. Maybe I should make myself a ST 66 marathon ?? Blast from the Past... Quoting you : "What a missed opportunity, huh?" You'll have to wait in 2004 with a spectacular show that shall remain nameless, but on which I've been commenting about at full throttle (wink wink). *** A different comment : OMG ! The gigantic amount of pages on this blog ! Insane (in a very positive way)

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:) Yes, there are an alarming number of pages on this blog. We're closing in on 4,000 reviews, if you can believe it. I've been writing since 1997, and guest writers have been contributing since 2005. It certainly adds up.

4000 !!? let me quote Sawyer : "aw SOB !!!!" (still on a very positive way)

People change. As a kid I loved 3.1 Spock's brain. Today ? I raise my eyes. But, I'd like to point out 2 ep's that are still fabulous, event today. a) 2.6 The Doomsday Machine. Still intense, awesome musical score, and, yes, a stellar performance by William Windom (comm. Decker). And probably the one best served by the new CGI effects. b) 1.14 Balance of Terror. Submarine vs battleship in space. (a special note to, again, the music of 2.1 Amok Time, a classic)

"Balance of Terror" is great. "The Doomsday Machine" is my favorite episode of Star Trek .

star trek whom gods destroy imdb

Both of those are excellent, although Arena is my overall favorite thanks to the Gorn!

I made a full comment on this one separately, but they were close together, so maybe it didn't show up for approval? Not sure how your system works!

Booyah My "lost" sister separated at birth LMAO Aw crap, I'm getting close to The End...Life won't be the same after my completed marathon...

Besides the batty (I know but I couldn't resist) Marta there's one other thing I liked about this episode, namely Steve Ihnat actually managed to outscenery chew William Shatner. How often does that happen?

"Garth and Marta Destroy the Universe" Is that the next "Bill & Ted" sequel?

Yeah, not a great one, but it does have Batgirl painted green and showing off her moves, and I loved 60s Batman, so that's a bit of a win. And agreed, Spock once again is a highlight of the show. Shatner can be great, but I feel that Nimoy was the glue that held the show together through some of its worst ebbs, and while I wouldn't rank this one as low as Spock's Brain, it's not great. Classic Who reused a lot of stuff too, most notably 'space hand guns' as you'll see the same prop weapon used from the 1st Doctor to at least the 4th, if not beyond! I don't knock this one too much for the reused props, but for the reasons you mention here Billie and Ben. So many of these episodes in shows like Star Trek and Doctor Who just feel like if they'd push it just a little bit further, a meh episode/story could have been good if not great, and this one has that feeling to me.

I particularly loved Garth in the end when he said to Kirk "Do I know you, sir"? It showed me in that one line that he was a Captain, and even a man's man. I was sad he passed at such a young age.

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Star Trek – Season 3, Episode 14

Whom gods destroy, where to watch, star trek — season 3, episode 14.

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Cast & crew.

William Shatner

Capt. James T. Kirk

Leonard Nimoy

DeForest Kelley

Dr. Leonard McCoy

James Doohan

Engineer Montgomery Scott

Nichelle Nichols

George Takei

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“Whom Gods Destroy”

2.5 stars.

Air date: 1/3/1969 Teleplay by Lee Erwin Story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl Directed by Herb Wallerstein

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

Kirk and Spock beam down to the Elba II penal colony to deliver a new medicine that may cure the insane patients who are imprisoned there. Unfortunately, the megalomaniacal Garth (Steve Ihnat), one of the insane who was once a starship captain, has other plans and takes them prisoner. Garth subsequently uses his ability to change his physical form and masquerade as Kirk, planning to take Kirk's place as the Enterprise captain.

If you accept the magical plot concept of a human who has acquired the ability to shapeshift (complete with the proper clothes, etc.), you might find this episode somewhat entertaining. The Dual Kirk Plot is a cliché, but Garth nevertheless makes a good villain, torturing the colony administrator and launching into fury after his plan is halted via Kirk's "chess game" security.

Some of this is hopelessly corny and overplayed, especially Shatner's take on the Garth-as-Kirk tantrum. But I did at times enjoy Ihnat's character, as he pronounces himself "Lord of the Universe" and, in one particularly cruel scene, blows up Marta (Yvonne Craig), his own partner in crime. But, insane or not, Garth gets off too easy. It all bears very little scrutiny, but the lively glib entertainment level keeps the show afloat.

Previous episode: Elaan of Troyius Next episode: Let That Be Your Last Battlefield

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Comment Section

48 comments on this post.

This episode reminded me of the two episodes involving the quartet of mental health patients Dr. Bashir treated on DS9. Either way, I found this episode entertaining, in part because of the interesting makeup and costumes worn by some of the guest characters, as well as the redressed Enterprise set.

The maniacal Lord Garth was, in my opinion, a better and more memorable villain than was Khan in Space Seed. A shapeshifting nutcase bent on universal domination? That would be an interesting character to re-visit.

This really could have been a great episode, because there are some good ideas -- and it's kind of cool to see Kirk and Spock SO totally out of control. Even the hammy performances by some of the guest stars can be explained by the fact that they're playing crazy people. My main complaint has to do with how the Enterprise is completely incapable of rendering assistance. McCoy and Scotty have some dialog about what they could do -- but I find it hard to believe that the protective field would need to be so big to secure 15 people on a barren planet. This is also an episode that doesn't quite fit with Star Trek history. Dialog from Kirk, Garth and Spock seems to indicate that a war within recent years -- where Kirk and Garth fought -- helped forge (or at least strengthen?) the Federation. This is in contrast to a lot of TOS history, not the least of which Carol Marcus's line from Star Trek II about how Starfleet had kept the peace for 100 years. Finally, Kirk and Spock should have been able to find a way to foil Garth in the control room without needing a fight. Spock could have asked Kirk the first weapon used in "Amok Time," or countless details that are likely not kept in any official recording.

If there's an interesting idea in "Whom Gods Destroy," it's that certain temperaments may make a person great in one set of circumstances and horrible in another. Garth seems to have gone completely insane as a result of an injury, but one thing that the episode does return to at a few points is that Garth's megalomania may once have been ambition, his total instability a milder kind of restlessness, his irrationality bravery. In times of war, when there were external foes to throw himself against, Garth may not only have been more able to function, but if we believe Kirk and Spock, was even an incredible, important man, doing great work, essentially fighting for the possibility of a new era of peace which, as it turns out, he would not be able to function in. If we read his insanity in those terms, of a man who never quite recovers from "war injuries" and from the type of thinking that goes along with constant battle, Garth comes a bit more into focus. Another thing that I do find interesting about Garth is one of the problems when talking about insanity: what exactly does it mean to "cure" someone of insanity? It's one thing if a person has thoughts and feelings that they very much do not want, or are unable to function in certain respects that they can recognize. But Garth believes that those around him, those peaceful people around him, are cowards, and that his hyper-aggressive hyper-expansionism is the only "true" way to live. The problem there is that certain types of madness are such that those caught within it cannot see themselves as mad, which does not actually mean that they aren't mad; it's clear that even setting aside the immorality of Garth's philosophy, his ambitions are out of touch with reality. Still: it's my understanding that there is some correlation between certain kinds of mental illness and certain kinds of creativity and intelligence, and so there is an open question of how much is lost in administering the medicine to Garth. Given that Garth is, while still crazy, a dangerous, murderous psychotic, it's not as if I'm advocating letting him loose. But it's hard to know how to read the way Garth responds with his memory wiped, with a docile kind of confusion, at the episode's end; I don't know if we're supposed to view this as hopeful, or recognize that something of what made Garth of Izar a war hero has probably been crushed in this particular medical treatment, administered against his will. Given that he's as dangerous as he is, even in a cell, it's maybe the least bad option. The episode is maybe still intended to show us a Garth who seems like he can function properly, and for us to cheer on the miracle of one day having cured mental illnesses entirely, but I have doubts. Other thoughts, somewhat scattered: a lot of this episode really is just watching crazy people be crazy, and crazy as in: violent, psychotic, emotionally unstable, destructive in a way that suggests some self-destructive impulses. After the molasses-slow pacing in "Elaan of Troyius," it's nice to get something of higher energy. There is something effective in the way Garth and Marta turn on the ones they seem to be attracted to -- Garth killing Marta, Marta nearly stabbing Kirk. Spock's not wrong, in pointing out that it ensures that Marta ensuring that killing Kirk would ensure that no one else could have him; and I think something similar might be going on with Garth, who maybe kills Marta just to prove how horrible he is, maybe does it to guilt Kirk as much as possible, and maybe does it because Marta seemed to be genuinely attracted to Kirk. I also really like Spock's explanation of how he planned to take down the winner of the Kirk v. Kirk (Garth) duel. That Garth names Kirk his potential successor, and spends so much time in Kirk's guise, and that Kirk ends up as a romantic rival of sorts for Marta's affections, make it worth thinking about whether Kirk has something of Garth in him; Kirk is, after all, the person capable of fighting war, with an adventurous spirit and an ego somewhat inflated by command, who holds some similar ability to deceive and trick his opponents that Garth does. The difference, of course, is balance -- Kirk keeps these elements of his under control, rather than letting his understandable and healthy high self-esteem that comes with the responsibility of commanding a starship run away from him into ultra-solipsism. And part of the reason is that he has Spock -- Spock, who prioritizes logic, is the opposite of the deeply irrational Garth and Marta, and Kirk's use of logic and his openness to Spock's sound and logical advice is what keeps Kirk grounded in reality. It's still a bit thin -- I've said a bit about it, but on some of it I feel like I'm reaching, more than usual. But it is entertaining and kind of weirdly effective. I think that 2.5 stars sounds right.

I always wondered: if insanity is so easily treated and cured in the TOS universe, why was it always treated so seriously when a character was insane or went insane, or the possibility of being driven insane came up. After all, it seems like now only a temporary condition.

Fairly simple plot with some interesting scenes (Spock having to pick the right Kirk) as well as a great guest performance from Steve Ihnat as Garth -- really portrays the psychotic megalomaniac well. Marta was also an interesting character. The story behind Garth is an interesting one I think - the man's clearly supposed to be a genius given all the praise Kirk heaps on him. But his quest for glory leads to some kind of accident and then he apparently tries to destroy a race and then, understandably, there's the mutiny of his crew. Might make an good episode on its own. I wonder if the Antos race was ever picked up on by later Trek series as far as shapeshifters. Obviously with DS9, there's Odo but he's completely different. Not too much to say about "Whom Gods Destroy" - good enough to get to 2.5 stars though. More fun with penal colonies like "Dagger of the Mind" -- a bit of humiliation as in "Plato's Stepchildren" and a pretty convincing psycho hell bent on conquering the universe.

Beam-up passwords are like the subcutaneous transponders from Patterns of Force. Why not always use them? Sure was convenient they happened to institute them for this case when they had no idea they'd be needed ahead of time. And then Spock was made a moron for not being able to figure out who is who. And the middle third of the episode really drags. The hall of fools dinner scene is crap. And yet I somehow liked this episode. It's not great but it's a neat little twist at the beginning and Garth is a very memorable character. And in Spock's favor he gets an understated character moment. Garth is ludicrously insisting he be addressed as "Lord". Spock simply shrugs and deadpans "as you wish" and calls him Lord Garth after that instead of stubbornly holding to a "you are not X therefore I will not call you X" principle. Garth looks partly disappointed and partly amused.

My TOS buddies can't understand why this episode is in my top 10. The answer is plain and simple - it contains 3 of the most compelling and entertaining scenes of all time. All 3 take place in the control room: 1. Garth as Kirk attempts to beam up when Scotty issues the "Queen to Kings level 3" directive 2. Garth as Spock and the real Kirk attempt to beam up when Kirk becomes suspicious 3. Garth as Kirk and the real Kirk are confronted by Spock who is confused as to the identity of the real Kirk. Unfortunately the rest of the episode is fairly weak filler although Steve Ihnat, who plays Garth does a masterful acting job. If those same 3 scenes were used in a more meaningful plot, we'd be talking about the #1 ranked episode by far.

I agree with Jerry above; this episode - like much of season 3 - has fantastic and intriguing ideas, and little scenes which rank amongst Trek's best, but just can't quite manage to pull together a completely good script. Tweak this script and jettison the filler and you'd have a neat game of cat and mouse.

Spock could have just stunned both of them. Where were all the other inmates after Spock neck-pinched those two? Surely Garth would have had orders to protect him at all times? Yeah, this planet has an impenetrable force field around itself? If that's possible, then why isn't Earth so protected? That would have been handy.

I absolutely love this episode, it's so much fun. But "Whom Gods Destroy" is also a thoughtful examination of the thin line between genius and insanity. I give it 3 1/2 or maybe 4 stars. One thing I appreciate is that "Gods" teases the "take over the Enterprise" trope without actually carrying it out -- it's much more fun to spend the episode inside Crazy Town, where Garth is the mayor, than to devolve into a more standard ship takeover plot. Steve Ihnat is extraordinarily entertaining as Garth and his fellow inmates/cronies, drawn from the Federation's major races, are likewise colorful -- especially Marta. The bizarre banquet scene hints that Garth's crew may actually be incapable of carrying out the ship takeover even on the best of days, but we still feel Kirk and Spock are in danger because the nuts are so deeply insane. As has been occurring with the most ridiculous scenarios throughout Season Three, Spock has some great deadpan moments in this one, especially his delicious response to the two Kirks in front of him. Nimoy and Shatner -- especially when Garth is impersonating him -- really shine in this one. I also like how Kirk devised the sign-counter sign with Scotty before beaming down, as his voice and/or likeness have been impersonated in so many episodes by this point that it's nice to see the series learning from its own history. I also love how Garth's cure at the end makes it clear that he was simply "off his meds" during the story and had no memory of his actions. That's an utterly charming and unexpected angle for Trek: Sometimes people are evil just because they're having a bad meds day. But even off his meds, Garth is threatening enough to maintain tension in the story, and moments like his killing of Marta make it clear that he's a threat even when he's delusional about things like forming a fleet of allies with the Enterprise. This episode quite effectively plays off the universal fear of being trapped in an asylum run by the inmates, but maintains a sense of skewed fun throughout the runtime. In some ways, this episode recalls the strong Season One episode "Dagger of the Mind," although that was about psychiatric experiments on high-security prison inmates whereas "Gods" is simply about a mental institution. Kirk even ends up in a psychiatric torture chair in both episodes. But while I like Helen Noel and the whole story of "Dagger" quite a bit, I find James Gregory's prison psychiatrist villain to be a bit unconvincing, as his motivation for being evil is never once made clear. One thing we can say for "Gods" over "Dagger" is that Garth's megolamania is always clearly motivated by psychiatric instability, and yet the story ends with some sympathy for him. Kudos to the screenplay for maintaining some realism in the midst of all the nuttiness of "Gods," hinting at deeper complexities beneath the character actions.

I get annoyed with the passwords-of-the-week that come and go as needed.

...Also annoyed when "Insane" is used as a kind of catch-all term for any and all wacky behavior and it always involves thinking you're Napoleon. The nature of Garth's madness is never really explained. Also I would have enjoyed him "waking up" more so we could see him sane.

Though I have to say I really love this episode, mostly because it frightened me as a child. And Garth and Marta do come off as tragic. A few really memorable lines. I love how Spock manages to endure all the illogic of the situation. I was really looking forward to the Anaxar fan film until it got shut down after Paramount/CBS(?) decided it was getting too big for its britches, as "Sane Garth" was a character in it.

Startrekwatcher

2 stars. Idea in principle for this episode is a potentially interesting one but the actual story executed around it fizzles. The best part were some of the inmates

One of the absolute worst. Repetitive and mind numbingly boring, with cringe worthy acting. Bottom of the barrel. I envm I would watch it again if you paid me, but only if you paid me. At least $25.

Sarjenka's Brother

I'm sorry Garth killed Batgirl. She was fun crazy.

Sleeper Agent

SPOCK: Please forgive me, but exactly where is your fleet? GARTH: Out there waiting for me. They will flock to my cause, and for good reason. Limitless power, limitless wealth, and solar systems ruled by the elite. We, gentlemen, are that elite, and we must take what is rightfully ours from the decadent weaklings that now hold it. Boom! The first true barn burner of Season 3. Love it, absolutely love it. IV of IV

Party on, Garth

I had completely forgotten this episode since the last time I watched it, and now I know why. It's utterly over-acted, cringe-worthy dreck. Very reminiscent of Dagger of the Mind, even down to Kirk being strapped in a chair and having his brain scrambled. And at the end, why doesn't Spock just stun them both? It's an excuse to get Kirk to fight himself. Half a star, only because of the (really tame) Orion slave girl dance getting it banned by the BBC.

I cant recall any other episode where a beam up password was used. And at the very last scene, when the real Kirk asks for a beam up, Scotty won’t ask for the password anymore. How convenient... Other than that, I loved some of Spock’s lines (“where exactly is your fleet?”), plus the fact that at the dance scene he looked utterly bored.

I have long thought that Voyager's writers missed an opportunity to make use of Spock's line about Vulcan children dancing in nursery school. When Neelix pleaded with Tuvok to dance, Tuvok should have said he had not had need of such an exercise since early childhood. I can see how dance could be an exercise in physical and mental discipline and might speak to the Vulcan sense of structure.

Another observation: This watching was the first time I recall noticing that in a few, mostly solo shots, Marta's green color is more vivid and covers not only her skin but also her teeth and the whites of her eyes, while in most shots in which she appears with other characters, it looks more like a relatively drab color only on her skin. I wonder, did they change their mind about how to produce the green skin effect partway through shooting, and didn't bother to reshoot the scenes already in the can?

LandoSystem

@Trish, my best guess is that in certain shots they lit her with a green light.

Prelude to Axanar The Four Years War Part III Mal’s review before Jammer's “Yeah sure I’ll tell you. They called me Queen Bitch Whore of the Federation.” - Captain Sonya Alexander 3 stars (out of 4) Set about 20 years before the events of "Whom Gods Destroy,” this incredible 21 minute feature tells the story of the the Ambush at Inverness V at which Garth of Izar earned his nom de guerre. The all-star cast is incredible. Tony Todd (Jake Sisko in “The Visitor”) plays Admiral Ramirez, the head of Star Fleet. Todd's stirring speech at Archer stadium more than makes up for the fact that we never actually got to see Captain Archer make a speech in the Enterprise finale. The feature also stars two nBSG alumni. Richard Hatch (Apollo in the original BSG, Tom Zarek in the reboot) plays the Klingon nemesis. He brings the same underdog anxious gravitas to his role as Klingon Supreme Warlord in “Prelude” as he did as Interim-President of the 12 Colonies on Battlestar Galactica. And the always fun Kate Vernon (Mrs. Ellen Tigh) plays a potty-mouth starfleet captain in exactly the style you hope for. Yes, she even tells us about her drinking! Rounding out the all-star cast is Soval (Enterprise), played by the original actor from the show, and Martok-actor J. G. Hertzler plays an Admiral and has perhaps one of the funniest lines of the episode: “A Vulcan’s gonna go what a Vulcan’s gonna go. But the Andorians. They were happy to supply us the phasers.” Trust me, his delivery is hilarious! The action SFX are top notch and clearly take inspiration from nBSG. There is a particular shot of a Klingon battle cruiser descending through the atmosphere that reminded me of Galactica falling through the sky above New Caprica City in Exodus part 2. Here is how @Jammer describes the scene from nBSG, "In one scene, the Galactica FTL-jumps to a point high in the sky above New Caprica City, does a free fall while on fire.” I would love to see @Jammer’s review of “Prelude to Axanar.” This feature certainly does a better job than all but the best of TOS season 3 episodes, and more than 90% of ENT and VOY, and it is far superior to all of nuTrek. In "Whom Gods Destroy," all we learn about Axanar is a quick line from Kirk, KIRK: I agree there was a time when war was necessary, and you were our greatest warrior. I studied your victory at Axanar when I was a cadet. In fact it's still required reading at the Academy. GARTH: As well it should be. I can say without reservation that “Prelude to Axanar” is better than, and will actually enhance your enjoyment of, "Whom Gods Destroy.” Finally, I absolutely love the uniforms from this time period, a faithful call-back to The Cage. Seeing Garth in his prime, tell you how he earned his named is - without doubt - worth the price of admission. https://youtu.be/1W1_8IV8uhA

I’ve been re-watching the entire series in order on Netflix thanks to one undercooked bat, and this is the first episode that I found to be a bit lame. I can totally understand why Leonard Nimoy got argumentative with the Director over this one. After all, he was just some vacuum salesman so what would he know!?! I can imagine that the senior execs at NBC must have been so uncomfortable with a show that totally went against the norms of the time! I mean they were pushing the edge of the known envelope for the 60’s! I haven’t watched TOS since I was a little kid, and it brings back so much joyous nostalgia for me. I can remember being glued to a small black and white television watching Star Trek after school, and my grandfather walking in. “What are you watching on that gadget?” Star Trek Grampa. “Ahhh git on with you. Why ain’t ya out huntin or fishin? Why during the Great Depression we never had time to...blah, blah blah...” You know what? Every kid in school knew who Spock was and did the Vulcan salute. Nobody cared what colour your skin was. Nobody could understand why the adults were so terrified of the Russians. Chekhov seemed like an okay dude... And yes, there probably were aliens. For 1966, this series is awesome. I can’t believe they came up with this on min wage and no budget. Spock without a doubt is the best First Officer in Starfleet. Scotty is always going to have your back in a bar fight. He’s all in, all the time. I mean did he really lead 120 men off Juno beach and get shot 3 times? Who wouldn’t want Bones for their doctor? Sulu at the helm? Uhuru on the comms? And Kirk? Nope, your best is not good enough. I want that third option! My wife says I don’t have enough emotions, but I’ll tell you guys what. When Shatner goes, I’m going to go where nobody can see me, and have a damn good cry...

I don't like the "We're here to deliver magical anti-crazy pills" set-up, and there are some other nitpicks like the costuming and makeup, but it's a fairly entertaining hour. Dream casting for LORD Garth? Vincent Price. He was doing tv work by then and he would have owned that role.

The episode title made no sense to me until I found out that the full quote is "Whom Gods destroy, they first drive mad."

ANOTHER episode I swear I haven't seen before! (Like "Plato's Stepchildren" and "The Empath"). So I did some research and came up with an incredible fact: The BBC banned four episodes of TOS and didn't show them for decades. The three I listed above, plus 1 other. So having watched TOS on the BBC since the early re-runs of the early 70s, and through the 80s, I never got to see those episodes, and never even knew they existed. The BBC used the excuse that these particular episodes contained themes (cruelty, torture, insanity) that were not suitable for the 'childrens show' they considered Trek to be. Even Roddenberry was roped in to trying to get the Beeb to change their mind, to no avail. Anyway, to this one... I wasn't that impressed, though there were some good 'Journey To Babel' aliens, and the roles of Garth and Marta were well acted. I rather easily guessed that the appearance of Spock with phaser was the shapeshifter Garth, and the torture scenes in the chair were somewhat pathetic. I did like Spock's careful judgement of which Kirk was the 'wrong one' at the end. The 'Queen to Queen's rank 4' gambit was admirably clever, but - with all due respects to the plot needs - it was poorly thought out. There should have been at least three responses: 'King to Queen's rank 1' (or whatever it was): "All is well, beam us up" 'Knight to Rook's rank 3': "Give a reassuring response but do NOT beam us up - stand by for further instruction" 'Rook to Rook's rank 5': "We are in danger! Intervene but do not endanger the ship" 2 stars only

Everything felt recycled in this episode. A form shifting villain like the man trap, a green seductive alien woman doing a dance like in the cage, the torture chair like the other rehab episode gone wrong with the hand logo uniform insignia from that same episode. Even the aliens were recycled from previous shows. This was like a cost cutting hodgepodge of things from previous shows put together due to an obviously strained budget. D+ at best. You’d think a minimal 2 man security escort preferably 4 men would have been prudent given the danger of beaming the Captain and First Officer into a n asylum, penal colony ripe with danger.

This episode is very disturbing to me, I think because of the cruelty displayed. I'm kind of desensitized now because of multiple viewings over the years, but upon initial viewing it seemed very dark for a Trek episode. Garth and his girl steal the show as others have said. Plot holes abound but that's typical for Trek. I'd give it a 60% rating.

worse than Spock's Brain

As someone said upthread this was one of the banned episodes in the UK. Being in Trek fandom at the time,I took part in a letter campaign to try to get the BBC to change the decision, but to no avail. Their objection was that this and The Empath, Plato's Stepchildren, and Miri (which they had shown once), contained disturbing scenes of torture and madness. They routinely showed worse, of course, but the BBC always views science fiction as being for children, an attitude Dr Who has also suffered from. Subsequently I haven't seen those episodes very often. I'm not keen on this one, finding Garth loud and histrionic. A quiet, driven madness would have been more effective. There are plot holes as people have pointed out - a forcefield round the whole planet would take an unbelievable amount of power for a start. Why not have it underground as in Dagger of the Mind and just a local forcefield as in that episode? It's also odd that Garth, as Spock, has his dry wit and skill with the neckpinch as if he takes on the mental attributes of his models but that can't be the case, not least because he presumably would know the password if he could copy minds. I struggle with the whole idea that the aliens who nursed him back to health somehow taught him shapeshifting anyway, especially since they don't seem to have cured his mental illness. Another thing that stretches my suspension of disbelief is that Garth is some kind of engineer who can adapt the chair gizmo (complete with recycled bits from the torture room on Dagger of the Mind) AND a chemist who has invented the galaxy's most powerful explosive which doesn't seem very impressive in action - even if only a sand grain sizecd piece was used it would surely pack a more powerful punch. How does a starship captain get to have such abilities? I know Kirk is quite handy with circuit rewiring as we saw in Doomsday Machine, presumably a legacy of the jobs he did earlier in his career, but I find it hard to credit that Garth is such an all round genius. It would only have taken a line of dialogue to explain that a couple of his henchmen were engineers and chemists. Anyway there are too many plot holes for me and the final straw is Spock letting himself be jumped instead of just stunning both of them.

What's not to like, Batgirl prancing around as an Orion and some of the Spock talk is epic. Plus, a double neck pinch Spock drop is totally badass.

Steve Ihnat is an excellent villain as Garth. I caught him in a Mannix episode once again as a maniacal villain. This episode has some really good moments.

Theta Signa

Say what you will about the episode, I genuinely cheered when it turned out that Garth couldn’t beam onto the Enterprise! The takeover plots had become my least favourite at this point for how often they happened and how inept they were making the whole crew look. It was nice that just once, Kirk had a contingency. The exploration of an interest setting and villain we instead get is far preferable to me and makes it one of the S3 episodes I actually enjoy and go back to. It’s not perfect, but it’s fun.

This one is really, really bad. Not quite as bad as "Plato's Stepchildren", but close. Ridiculous plot, practically unwatchable. I am sure Steve Ihnat was a great actor, and by all accounts a good man as well. Let's hope that "Axanar" is one day finished, to more properly depict Captain Garth. But this drivel is beneath someone of Mr. Ihnat's stature and ability. It was stuff like this that ultimately got Star Trek canceled.

I enjoyed Garth's Grade A ham portrayal. But I did get confused because of the repeated elements from Dagger of the Mind. 2.5/4

Another season three outing that, while not a great episode, has a surprising depth to it. The title “whom gods destroy” is an abbreviated phrase from the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem “Masque of Pandora” that was actually “whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad”, which is itself a variant on an aphorism that stretches back evidently into prehistory. Both Sophocles and Plato employed versions of this idea, which they both treated as an old-timey saying from their vantage point, not to mention that it seems to have some connection to ancient central/South Asian culture as well. For such a poetically tragic maxim, it sure has some deep roots. However, what I find curious is that the title of the episode drops the “would”, and goes for the truncated “whom gods destroy”, which is odd considering TOS wasn’t known for its brief show titles. The quote from Longfellow’s poem is spoken by Prometheus as a warning to his brother against accepting gifts from the gods, in this case the gift was the beautiful Pandora. Prometheus was still a bit bitter about the whole bringing fire to man and getting chained to a mountainside and eaten by vultures thing, so he was loathe to trust any offering of generosity from the gods. Perhaps it was thought dropping the “would” made the title more catchy, but I also wonder if it wasn’t deliberate, possibly suggesting that those of exceptional mind are destined for “madness”, before seeking redemption. If there is indeed a connection to Longfellow’s poem outside of the title, it’s interesting to ponder what role captain/lord Garth represents. The people of Antos IV gave Garth the gift of regenerative shape shifting after he had suffered some major injury, after which he tried to destroy them for their failure to recognize his grandeur. Some change had befallen him that fundamentally altered his perspective, making him unable to accept his limitations, much like Prometheus whose bitterness towards the world was so implacable that he rejected all, even benevolence. Prometheus viewed himself as a savior and felt himself misused and entitled to gratitude that he felt never manifested, even when it appeared in the form of the perfectly crafted Pandora. It seems Garth perhaps plays the role of Prometheus, a once great man now enveloped in the cloud of his own ego. I think he’s a pretty tragic figure, whose loss of perspective has robbed him of enjoying the true rewards of his efforts. He helped to solidify and protect the Federation, he was one of its greatest champions. He should be participating in the glory of those achievements, but instead he’s been reduced to being the king of the jesters. In one of my favorite quotes about the Federation, Kirk notes “they were humanitarians and statesmen, and they had a dream. A dream that became a reality and spread throughout the stars, a dream that made mister Spock and me brothers.” Here we have both a fantastic declaration of just how deeply the TOS crew understand the incredible achievement that is the Federation, and a subtle statement about the Kirk/Spock friendship that undergirds the heart of TOS. Both elements of this sci-fi world that Garth has tragically lost. I think for this episode to really work we needed a bit more exploration of what made Garth “insane” as opposed to just being a big stupid jerk. He obviously suffers from emotional instability and megalomania, but the origins of his mental disturbance are left so vague that he sometimes comes across as just blandly crazy and yet displays enough ability and rationality to raise the question of whether he should be considered a mental patient or if he’s just a dickbag. In any event, an ok episode, and Yvonne Craig played her crazy part pretty well, plus she was a pretty hot Orion. Also, double the Shatner, double the haminess! 2.5/4 three dimensional chess moves.

My assumption has been that the ability he gained on the planet simply turned him into a different person. The real Garth is dead; this is basically a doppleganger that can assume his form or anyone else's. If you want to go the Prometheus route, we could wonder whether he was really given this skill, or stole it from them as Prometheus stole fire. And like Prometheus, stealing such a thing and 'giving his gifts' (in this case his rule) to the world would damage it irrevocably. It basically means that someone bent on bringing destruction to the world must be locked away forever, in this case in a penal colony version of Prometheus' rock.

Interesting, I never got the impression that this was a remplacement Garth, and the real Garth is dead. Did you mean that literally or figuratively? If literally, it would totally change the episode. Great, now I have to watch it again, thank a lot!

It doesn't matter whether it's literal or figurative. I mean that if he can change his form on a molecular level now then there is no more "him", not the same being that existed before. Whatever he changed himself into, the old Captain is gone.

@Peter G. and Idh2023 There is some evidence to that assumption. When Kirk tries to talk some sense into Garth and to make him remember who he once was, Garth says: “I can't remember. It's almost as if I had died and was reborn.” It seems like they managed to heal his body on Antos IV, but somehow he lost his memory and his mind in the process and is now left with the id part of his personality and nothing to control it… that’s why he’s so volatile and erratic. It’s an interesting contrast that in an over-the-top moment like the “coronation” scene, he comes across as crazy but harmless while he seems at his most dangerous when he appears calm, reasonable and almost sane, like in this scene: Garth: “(…) By the way, I assume you play chess.” Kirk: “Occasionally.” Garth: “So do I. How would you respond to queen to queen's level three?” Kirk: “I'm sure you're aware that there are an infinite number of countermoves.” Garth: “I'm interested in only one.” Kirk: “I can't for the life of me imagine which one.” Garth: “For the life of me is a phrase well chosen. It could literally come to that.” Which brings me to think that, while the story is not very inventive, it has a lot of really good dialogues in it… this is only one of them.

Neo the Beagle

Batgirl got blowed up real good. On my enhanced version you can see flecks of green flesh hitting the window. Just proves Garth REALLY was insane to kill the hottest woman on the planet. Madness! Why didn't he just...wait a moment... SQUIRREL!!!

"How can we be powerful enough to destroy a planet and still be so helpless?" My favourite bones quote besides the jail cell scene with Spock monologue.

So what fell off of Garth's costume during his tantrum after being denied beamup by Scotty?

I think it was the mouse, or the mouse nest, that was stuck in the costume since the last time it was used in macberh. The actor nailed the part and there wasn't time to do another take, and no one would notice that piece of stuff on a 19" black and white. I wonder what Commissioner Gordon thought of his daughter getting blown up?

Lars Tarkas

It felt like campy rendition of Dagger of the Mind. Yvonne Craig (Who also played Batgirl) really got to ham it up. She reminded me a bit of Harley Quinn - so is this hospital Trek's version of Arkham Asylum? It certainly didn't hurt that Yvonne Craig was gorgeous. It was fun, and I did like them using a password for beaming up - something they never used again. They should have had a duress code.

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Whom Gods Destroy

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The peaceful planet of Elba II is the home of a mental institution, housing the most violent and unstable inmates in the universe. However, despite its remote location, it is an integral part of the intergalactic community, providing the Federation with a unique and essential service. Little do the crew of the Enterprise know, however, that the Elba II facility is home to a particularly dangerous inmate: the former powerful ruler of the planet, Garth of Izar.

Garth, a renowned leader, explorer, and brilliant strategist, is now held prisoner at Elba II, due to his own deteriorating mental state. As his mind has unraveled, he has become a dangerous psychopath, ruling his cell with an iron fist. When the Enterprise arrives at Elba II to investigate mysterious occurrences around the facility, they soon discover that Garth has escaped and is intent on wreaking havoc. In order to protect innocent lives, Captain Kirk and his crew must locate the fugitive before he is able to carry out his mission of destruction.

As the crew of the Enterprise pursues Garth, they soon realize that he is far more powerful than they initially assumed. He is able to bend the laws of physics, manipulate others to do his bidding, and create illusions to confuse and distract his pursuers. In addition, Garth is able to tap into the power of the gods, making him nearly unstoppable.

With Garth’s formidable powers and the Enterprise in pursuit, the battle between man and god ensues. In the end, the fate of the universe hangs in the balance as Kirk must find a way to outwit Garth and prevent him from enacting his plans of destruction. In a thrilling climax, the Enterprise crew must face the wrath of the gods and prevent Garth from achieving his ultimate goal. As Garth’s powers grow, Kirk and the crew must make a desperate stand against a force far more powerful than even they could imagine.

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  1. "Star Trek" Whom Gods Destroy (TV Episode 1969)

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  1. Star Trek: how to utterly destroy a Klingons honor

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COMMENTS

  1. "Star Trek" Whom Gods Destroy (TV Episode 1969)

    Whom Gods Destroy: Directed by Herb Wallerstein. With William Shatner, Leonard Nimoy, DeForest Kelley, Steve Ihnat. Kirk and Spock are taken prisoners by a former starship captain named Garth, who now resides at, and has taken over, a high security asylum for the criminally insane.

  2. "Star Trek" Whom Gods Destroy (TV Episode 1969)

    Dr Cory (Keye Luke) is the Governor. Kirk and Spock beam down to the planet's surface where all seems in order. Marta (Yvonne Craig), an inmate, tries to warn Kirk that Cory is not the real Governor of the facility. They soon find the inmates now run the asylum, led by Garth (Steve Ihnat) (at one time a star-ship Captain, whose exploits were ...

  3. Whom Gods Destroy (Star Trek: The Original Series)

    List of episodes. " Whom Gods Destroy " is the fourteenth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek. Written by Lee Erwin (based on a story by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl) and directed by Herb Wallerstein, it was first broadcast on January 3, 1969. In the episode, Captain Kirk faces off with a deranged ...

  4. "Star Trek" Whom Gods Destroy (TV Episode 1969)

    Whom Gods Destroy was a reasonably good show which portrayed the mentally ill inmates running the the penal colony of Ebla II. Captain Garth, a former starfleet captain, does a good job of acting as the lunatic inmate's leader in trying to trick Captain Kirk in revealing the password for beaming aboard the Enterprise.

  5. Star Trek

    This July and August, we're celebrating the release of Star Trek Beyond by taking a look back at the third season of the original Star Trek.Check back every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for the latest update. Whom Gods Destroy is a mess.. In a lot of ways, Whom Gods Destroy is shoddy and lazy. In many ways, the episode plays like a collection of familiar Star Trek elements blended together ...

  6. Whom Gods Destroy (episode)

    Kirk and Spock are held captive in an insane asylum by a former Starfleet hero. Kirk and Spock beam down to the Elba II asylum with a revolutionary new medicine to treat the inmates' mental disorders. They are met in the asylum control center by Dr. Cory, the governor of the penal colony. He explains that in order to maintain security they are under a transport shield, and so he laughingly won ...

  7. Whom Gods Destroy

    Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy. Release Calendar Top 250 Movies Most Popular Movies Browse Movies by Genre Top Box Office Showtimes & Tickets Movie News India Movie Spotlight

  8. "Star Trek" Whom Gods Destroy (TV Episode 1969)

    a list of 24 titles created 7 months ago. STAR TREK THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON 3 (1968) (7.9/10) a list of 24 titles created 19 Aug 2012. STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES SEASON 3 RATINGS. a list of 24 titles created 15 Jul 2019. Friends of 1966 Batman (by StuOz) a list of 46 titles created 12 Jan 2020.

  9. "Whom Gods Destroy" Remastered: Review

    In addition to being a military genius and a man who can change his shape—clothes included—at will, Garth is also a master inventor who's created a powerful explosive that he demonstrates in ...

  10. The Trek Nation

    Whom Gods Destroy By Michelle Erica Green Posted at November 10, 2006 - 5:33 PM GMT ... Fluff, but entertaining fluff, and in Star Trek's wildly uneven third season, that's satisfaction enough.

  11. Star Trek Episode 69: Whom Gods Destroy

    Shatner's goofy acting aside, "Whom Gods Destroy" presents a captivating scenario based upon an otherwise clichéd trope centering on a madman and his quest for vengeance. In addition, an unintentionally amusing outburst from Kirk/Garth will appeal to viewers who enjoy Star Trek for its campy elements. Overall Quality: 7/10.

  12. Star Trek The Original Series Rewatch: "Whom Gods Destroy"

    "Whom Gods Destroy" Written by Lee Erwin and Jerry Sohl Directed by Herb Wallerstein Season 3, Episode 16 Production episode 60043-71 Original air date: January 3, 1969 Stardate: 5718.3…

  13. Star Trek S3 E14 "Whom Gods Destroy" / Recap

    Original air date: January 3, 1969. Spock and Kirk beam down to Elba II to deliver a new miracle drug to a Penal Colony in hopes of curing the patients permanently. Governor Donald Corey greets them warmly, accepts the medicine, strongly insists on them staying for dinner and visiting the poor unfortunates that they have come to cure.

  14. Episode Preview: Whom Gods Destroy

    © 2023 CBS Studios Inc., Paramount Pictures Corporation, and CBS Interactive Inc., Paramount companies. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc.

  15. Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy

    Star Trek: Whom Gods Destroy. "Queen to Queen's level three." I know, I know, I know. They had no money, everyone was tired and the series was limping to a close. But it's still disappointing that instead of giving us something new, they recycled "Dagger of the Mind," added a touch of "Space Seed" and a bit of "Plato's Stepchildren," and ...

  16. Star Trek TOS (Preview S3-E14)

    Kirk and Spock are taken prisoners by a former starship captain named Garth, who now resides at, and has taken over, a high security asylum for the criminall...

  17. Star Trek: Season 3, Episode 14

    God Save Texas: Season 1 ... Whom Gods Destroy Aired Jan 3, 1969 Sci-Fi Fantasy Adventure. ... Buy Star Trek — Season 3, Episode 14 on Vudu, Amazon Prime Video, Apple TV.

  18. "Whom Gods Destroy"

    Set about 20 years before the events of "Whom Gods Destroy," this incredible 21 minute feature tells the story of the the Ambush at Inverness V at which Garth of Izar earned his nom de guerre. The all-star cast is incredible. Tony Todd (Jake Sisko in "The Visitor") plays Admiral Ramirez, the head of Star Fleet.

  19. star trek

    I remember seeing the uncut episode of "Whom Gods Destroy" (TOS, Episode 3x16) in the 1970's which included a scene with Kirk, Spock and Scotty discussing the security question involving chess move "queen to queen level 3", at the very beginning of this episode on the Enterprise! Since then, I have never seen it again.

  20. Star Trek

    "Very Persuasive." Garth of Izar makes Kirk an invitation/offer that he can't refuse.

  21. Whom Gods Destroy

    Whom Gods Destroy The peaceful planet of Elba II is the home of a mental institution, housing the most violent and unstable inmates in the universe. However, de. Home; Choose Your Star Trek Series. The Original Series; The Next Generation; Deep Space Nine; Voyager; Enterprise; Discovery; Picard; Strange New Worlds; Choose By Year. 1966; 1967 ...