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YMMV / Star Trek S1 E9 "Dagger of the Mind"

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  • Angst? What Angst?: Dr. Adams says the machine brought Dr. Van Gelder to his knees in pain. Kirk not only withstands the pain, but shrugs it off later without any real consequences.
  • Complete Monster: Dr. Tristan Adams is a psychologist and a director of a Federation Penal Colony on Tantalus V. Though regarded as a brilliant psychologist who revolutionized Federation penal colonies, Adams eventually became corrupt and used a device called a Neural Neutralizer to turn the staff and inmates on the colony into brainwashed zombies. Anyone who resists the Neural Neutralizer suffers from extreme pain. When Adams used it on his assistant Dr. Simon Van Gelder, Van Gelder went insane and escaped to the Enterprise. Van Gelder is willing to cripple the Enterprise rather than return to Tantalus. After Kirk decides to investigate, Adams seems friendly at first, but eventually decides to use the Neural Neutralizer on Kirk, mentally assaulting Kirk in order to break him down and make him a zombie.
  • Genius Bonus: Adams says to Kirk, "Captain, you remind me of the ancient skeptic who demanded of the wise old sage to be taught all the world's wisdom while standing on one foot." This is a reference to a legend about the first-century BCE rabbi Hillel the Elder, found in the Talmud Bavli, tractate Shabbat 31a. Of course, Hillel's response to the skeptic was to say "What is hateful to you, do not do to others." Considering what happened when Dr. Adams experienced firsthand what he did to others, it seems he hadn't read to the end of the story.
  • Harsher in Hindsight:
    • Bones urges Spock to use the Vulcan Mind Meld on a human. He'll be less enthusiastic when he's on the receiving end.
    • Spock describes the Vulcan mind meld as a "hidden, personal thing to the Vulcan people, part of our private lives." In short, it's similar to Vulcan attitudes to pon farr. In Star Trek: Enterprise, it's revealed that Vulcans of a previous generation treated mind melding with similar abhorrence, akin to sexual deviancy.
  • Retroactive Recognition: Dr. Adams is played by character actor James Gregory. About a decade after this appearance, he would land his most famous role, that of Inspector Luger on Barney Miller.
  • Theiss Titillation Theory: Dr. Noel's uniform is even shorter than what female crew members usually wear.
  • WTH, Costuming Department?: That ugly ass dress Lethe wears. Did she forget how to color co-ordinate as well?

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