Fix an episode --- The Mark of Gideon

[Gary7]

Posting this in the spirit of what Grant has going with several other episodes. He hadn't gotten to one of the episodes I consider the most troubled. "The Mark of Gideon".

Not one of my least liked episodes, but definitely not a favorite. One of the redeeming qualities of "The Mark of Gideon" are the uncrowded shots of the bridge and passageways of the Enterprise.

But to my eye there are some seriously painful mistakes and oversights to this episode.

1. The transporter has not only multi-redundancy of buffers built-in but also validation subroutines. The system knows when it successfully rematerialized an object or being somewhere. Knowing how the transporter can suffer faults, Scotty would be absolutely certain Kirk was safely delivered to the coordinates given -- no question about it. No need to debate or wonder otherwise.
2. Doesn't someone beaming down somewhere always have a communicator on their person? Why didn't Kirk carry one? Or if he did, why didn't he think to use it? Nobody answered at the comm station on the transporter console. Using the communicator would be the next logical step.
3. Why didn't Spock, with his extraordinary memory, instantly realize that the second set of transporter coordinates were different from the ones used for Captain Kirk? He does later... but much to the fault of Spock's abilities. Way too late.

Given how Gideon perfected their people's condition where they have incredibly long lifespans, certainly they know a thing or two about diseases and viruses in their databanks. While being isolationist, they could have at least sent someone outside their solar system to collect all kinds of viruses and bacteria from other cultures. They target someone most difficult to reach, a starship captain? And then create a nearly complete facsimile of the Enterprise just to fool him, so they could take some blood from him? The construction costs to make such an enormous replica would have been staggering, not to mention the fact that space is such a premium on Gideon. That they could know the Enterprise to that level of detail, such that Kirk would operate instrument panels and see normal operation?

If Gideon really wanted Kirk, all they'd need to do is subdue him into unconsciousness the instant he materialized, bring him to a medical ward and take his blood. And given their LEVEL OF INTELLIGENCE, they'd have known about how one can be a carrier. Kirk was one! So, others could be as well. Like Odona... who even later realizes she can do that for Gideon.

And yet... in the grand scheme of things, all that Gideon needed to do was ASK. "We're in dire need of some blood that has endured a specific disease." McCoy would draw a pint from Kirk in sickbay and Scotty would beam it down to them. Job done!

Is it fixable? NO. Not in my opinion. Because what fixes it inevitably kills the whole story.

I really do like the idea of an empty Enterprise and Kirk being alone on it. Surely there could be other scenarios dreamed up in which to make an episode. The premise of "The Mark of Gideon" was so flawed, I just don't think there's much that could be done with it.

 

[Warped9]

There are a lot of shortcuts and logic holes to this episode. I find it hard to imagine that it would have been made in the earlier seasons.

 

[PDX Trek]

This episode could have been avoided with some birth control...

 

[Grant]

It's a one out of five episode--it's not worth fixing.

 

[Warped9]

The problem is that if you fix the problems to this story you have no story. That isn't a great loss really, but there it is. At least we might have gotten something better in exchange.

This is a case of producing a story just to have something to broadcast because practically nothing in it makes any sense.

 

[Melakon]

That business with the coordinates first happens in the teaser I think, which seems sort of a cheat since the needed clue doesn't appear until after main title. Regardless, I was 3 or 4 acts ahead of the characters in figuring out the mystery during first run as a high school student.

Doesn't someone beaming down somewhere always have a communicator on their person? Why didn't Kirk carry one? Or if he did, why didn't he think to use it? Nobody answered at the comm station on the transporter console. Using the communicator would be the next logical step.

Somehow the Gideonites knocked Kirk out as soon as he beamed in, took a blood sample, and put him in the soundstage Enterprise without him realizing it. The episode cheats the audience by making it look like he's in the same transporter room, with no break in time. They would have had plenty of time to sabotage any equipment he was carrying.

 

[Grant]

Everything about this episode does not work.

A reclusive race with exact detail of a particular federarion starship.
Kirk not knowing he was on a fake ship.
You sit in a chair every day of your life and you know damn well if it's your chair or one that just looks like it.
The foolish conceit that no-one notices the co-ordinate difference. Spock who in seconds calculates everything to the decimal and beyond.
And especially convoluted logic that makes zero sense involving their "love for life."
They love life so much that contraception is a method they won't even consider, but there will be "all the brave young volunteers" who will allow themselves to be infected at a young age with a fatal disease.

So instead of using contraception or asking the extremely old to take euthanasia (ala' soylent green)---they want young people to volunteer for a painful fatal disease?

That kind of overpopulation doesn't happen overnight--how about colonizing other worlds--you seem to have the ability to build exact replicas of starships already?

That's horse sh*t logic and beyond horse sh*t writing.

Hey Stanley Adams--you're a bad enough actor--forget writing

 

[Melakon]

Adams defended it by saying what he submitted was not what wound up on air. Can't find the source for that now though.

Hey Stanley Adams--you're a bad enough actor--forget writing

He can't hear you, dead since '77. And you need to include the other writer credited as well.

 

[BillJ]

I don't find this one too bad, but find it hard that the Gideons could pull it off without Federation help. But if they had Federation help, they could have just gotten a blood sample of someone without all the antics they pulled.

 

[T'Girl]

The transporter has not only multi-redundancy of buffers built-in but also validation subroutines. The system knows when it successfully rematerialized an object or being somewhere.

The Enterprise Dee didn't have this ability in Data's Day, why would the earlier Enterprise be able to do this?

Nobody answered at the comm station on the transporter console. Using the communicator would be the next logical step.

Given that he thought himself to be aboard the ship, why would he try his communicator?

Why didn't Spock, with his extraordinary memory, instantly realize that the second set of transporter coordinates were different from the ones used for Captain Kirk?

Likely he did realize this when the representative of Gideon beamed up.

Given how Gideon perfected their people's condition where they have incredibly long lifespans, certainly they know a thing or two about diseases and viruses in their databanks.

They couldn't create anything that would get past their immune system.

While being isolationist ...

Answered your own question.

so they could take some blood from him?

Access to something they had no other way of obtaining.

The construction costs to make such an enormous replica would have been staggering, not to mention the fact that space is such a premium on Gideon.

Holodeck.

If Gideon really wanted Kirk, all they'd need to do is subdue him into unconsciousness the instant he materialized, bring him to a medical ward and take his blood.

Reverence for life (strange given what they wanted to do to their own population) wouldn't let them imprison Kirk, they wanted him to stay of his own wish.

all that Gideon needed to do was ASK.

It's fairly obvious that they were attempting to hide the size of their population. How would they explain their need?

 

[plynch]

I think I have not played this card on these threads yet, but I'm gonna have to say . . . NOT FIXABLE.

This is "The Prisoner" one. All-alone-on-the-Enterprise one. That's its one conceit and once you know the trick, it's not worth watching again. "Well, we have to make an episode this week. Let's have Kirk be on the Enterprise by himself mysteriously, and then with a hot chick."

 

[Shawnster]

This episode could have been avoided with some birth control...

Religious or cultural taboo.

Of course, this ignores the fact that religious and cultural taboos change in the face of great pressure. Such overcrowding, for example, would drive people to commit murder or maybe even go to war. If people are living that close together, it's more than likely sanitation will have break downs and bring about deadly disease and plague. Extreme sports that offer risk of life would gain popularity.

Plus, any culture sufficiently advanced enough to understand space travel and actually have contact with extra terrestrial civilizations would have begun construction of space colonies and orbital habitats. Sure, remain isolationist but that doesn't prevent you from colonizing your entire star system.

As mentioned - they could have sent "representatives" out into the galaxy that would come into contact with alien disease. These diseases would then be brought back to Gideon and transmitted to the population.

Restore capital punishment for crimes and make more crimes subject to the death penalty.

Overcrowding leads to scarcity of food which leads to starvation and death.

Open Gideon's borders to tourism and trade. Let the aliens bring their diseases to you!

End the isolationist mindset and allow Gideonites to emigrate.

As mentioned, sterilization and birth control.

 

[Shawnster]

Oh, wait. This i FIX Mark of Gideon, not rip it part.

OK, sorry

To fix Mark of Gideon we would be to either steal or borrow from TNG's Future Imperfect. The Gideonites needs something... maybe it's Kirk's blood or maybe it's something else... Maybe it's not Kirk specifically but any Starfleet officer will do and Kirk was in the neighborhood.

Anyway, Kirk beams down and is immediately gassed or knocked out. Maybe he's assaulted AFTER he contacts the Enterprise and acknowledges transport. While unconscious, Kirk is hooked up to some VR headseat or strapped into a medical bed or something.

The Gideonites are telepathic and communicate with Kirk while he's unconscious. Or they implant ideas and memories through hypnosis or drug therapy or a combination thereof. The whole idea of Kirk roaming an abandoned Enterprise is an idea of Kirk's own making. It's all in his head. Even the idea of an overpopulated Gideon is a fabrication of Kirk's mind.

Odona is the interrogator or doctor in charge of the procedure. She's appearing in Kirk's head as we saw her on screen. She's necessary to either keep Kirk somewhat sane during the procedure, to monitor and control the procedure, or she's there to extract some information from Kirk's memory. As she guides Kirk through the "ship," she is guiding him toward her real desired goal.

There is no mix-up with the transporter coordinates, since Kirk beamed down to a place and was abducted. The Enterprise can beam anyone else down to the same coordinates and not find Kirk. Since Kirk is being held in a shielded room, sensor scans will not detect a human on the planet. Like Anan 7 did in A Taste of Armageddon, the Gideonites impersonate Kirk during his routine check-ins with the ship. It takes Spock and McCoy a little bit of time to figure out the voice on the other end is not Jim Kirk but an impostor. Due to the sensitive diplomatic nature of the situation, a large rescue party is not recommended. Spock beams down by himself to rescue Kirk.

Kirk is rescued. The Gideonites get whatever information or biological component they were after. The morality or social commentary about birth control and overpopulation may have to be abandoned for sake of the realism, or it's still there but purely as a result of Kirk's subconscious dream state.

Any inconsistencies or illogic can be chalked up to Kirk's dream state.

 

[Mytran]

Were it not for Spock beaming down into the duplicate Enterprise, one could indeed chalk up much of the oddities to Kirk's drug addled state as he stumbles around a partial recreation of his ship. I'm thinking of something similar to The Prisoner's "Living In Harmony" where there's just a few store fronts and cardboard cutouts (and LOTS of hallucinogens) standing for a full western town. After all, Kirk must have been drugged to have had the blood extracted in the first place (knockout gas in the Transporter Room maybe) and he comes to the conclusion that he is in a "complete duplicate" of the Enterprise in only a few moments, far less time than it would take to explore the whole ship.

Actually, Spock beaming down at the end needn't be too much of a problem, so long as he instantly recognises it as a fake (he could even walk off the edge of the set!)

 

[T'Girl]

This episode could have been avoided with some birth control...

On a prime time network show during the late 1960's?

 

[Grant]

This episode could have been avoided with some birth control...

On a prime time network show during the late 1960's?

Ah yes, actually Kirk mentions birth control in the episode as it stands now.

He talks about the modern methods to prevent conception.
That's birth control.



And say what, Stanley Adams is NOT alive and kicking at age 100? And he needed help to write that episode and OF COURSE, it was so much better as a script than what they did with it!!!
You don't say?

 

[Mytran]

Yep, they do indeed address the issue, albeit with 1960's coyness:

KIRK: Then why haven't you introduced any of the new techniques to sterilise men and women?
HODIN: Every organ renews itself. It would be impossible.
KIRK: Then let your people learn about the devices to safely prevent conception. The Federation will provide anything you need.
HODIN: But you see, the people of Gideon have always believed that life is sacred. That the love of life is the greatest gift. That is the one unshakable truth of Gideon.

 

[Warped9]

Give TOS credit. Even for a sloppy episode like this they were touching the fringes of the abortion/prolife debate at a time when that was a definite no-no on television no less. Even contraception discussed on TV was very touchy.

 

[Mytran]

Absolutely I do give them credit. While I used the term "coyness" it is nonetheless leaps and bounds beyond the stilted "birds and bees" talk in Amok Time.

 

[ToddPence]

Nobody answered at the comm station on the transporter console. Using the communicator would be the next logical step.

Given that he thought himself to be aboard the ship, why would he try his communicator?

But why doesn't the ship think of trying to contact him by communicator the instant it's realized he's missing?