mark of gideon star trek

The Mark of Gideon (episode)

• View history

Kirk is held captive on an empty duplicate of the USS Enterprise .

• 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
• 4.2 Continuity
• 4.3 Cast and characters
• 4.4 Reception
• 4.5 Apocrypha
• 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 References
• 5.6 External links

Summary [ ]

The Enterprise orbiting secretive Federation candidate Gideon in 2268

The USS Enterprise is in synchronous orbit over the capital city of Gideon , a candidate for Federation membership. This is itself unusual, as Gideon has repeatedly refused to establish diplomatic relations with the UFP before this. The physio-cultural reports the Gideons have submitted to the Federation describe their planet as a virtual paradise , with a germ -free atmosphere . Yet for the duration of the delicate negotiations, Starfleet has agreed to the Gideons' unusual stipulation that no surveillance scans be carried out upon their planet. Hodin , the Gideon Council 's de facto ambassador to the Federation, accordingly provides the coordinates for the landing party 's beam-down – 875-020-079 – a spot he says is within the Council Chamber. Furthermore, the Enterprise landing party must comprise of only one particular individual: Captain Kirk . After being beamed down by Commander Spock , Kirk arrives in what seems to be a completely depopulated Enterprise . He presumes the beam-down was unsuccessful, and upon arriving on the empty bridge satisfies himself from looking at the viewscreen that he and the ship are "still orbiting Gideon."

Act One [ ]

The Gideon High Council's point man in full prevarication

In a corridor , Kirk continues to search every part of the ship, and can find no-one. He has sustained a bruise on his arm, but has lost any recollection of the incident or, indeed, the minutes in which it occurred.

While speaking to Spock via a video screen, the High Council's Ambassador Hodin denies responsibility for the loss of the captain, suggesting that the Enterprise 's equipment must be faulty. Hodin repeats the coordinates for Kirk's transport that were given to the Enterprise , which Chekov confirms on a PADD that he was sent to. He frustrates ship's surgeon McCoy and even First Officer Spock with his steadfast refusal to drop his planet's sensor-jamming shields . He claims they are necessary to protect the Gideons against any "contaminating contact" with violent otherworldly nature. Hodin does assent to a "thorough search" but pretends that Spock has agreed that the High Council should be the party to institute it.

While continuing his search, Kirk encounters a young woman wandering the empty corridors of the ship in an ecstasy of new-found personal space. Telling Kirk that her name is Odona , she says that on her world " thousands pressed in against me. I could hardly breathe. " When she evinces fear Kirk consoles her, offering his hand. She notes that Kirk too seems to be troubled. The captain says he is; " I seem to be the only one of my crew left on board the Enterprise . 430… and I apparently am the only one left. "

Lieutenant Uhura tells Spock that Starfleet wants him to go through diplomatic channels – the Federation – but that the department she has been referred to, the Bureau of Planetary Treaties , has, of course, no treaty with the Gideon and wishes Starfleet to handle the crisis. Spock muses that diplomats and bureaucrats may function differently, but they seem to achieve the same results.

Seeing the chronometer on the astrogator , Kirk says that there are indeed some nine minutes that are unaccounted for since his transport. Odona is plainly a Gideon, but apparently is not in the habit of calling her world by that name. Putting the Enterprise 's forward environs onto the main viewer, Kirk finds that they seem no longer to be in orbit, but rather in some unfamiliar quadrant .

Act Two [ ]

Meanwhile, back on the real USS Enterprise , the ambassador informs Spock that Kirk is not on Gideon after conducting a thorough search of the planet by the natives. However, Spock insists on transporting to the planet. The ambassador grants permission with the provision that a Gideon co-worker beam aboard the Enterprise . Spock agrees, and Scotty beams Krodak , a Gideon representative aboard, but when Spock begins to press for his beam-down to the planet, the Gideon ambassador prevaricates again, and claims that he has acted outside his authority to grant Spock the permission to come to the planet. Spock is clearly insistent and exasperated by both the bureaucratic logjam in the Federation, and by the diplomatic stonewalling of the ambassador. He tells Uhura to demand an answer from Starfleet about the issue of beaming to the planet's surface.

At the same time, Kirk and Odona are together on the bridge of the empty Enterprise , and unable to raise any form of communication at all. At the engineering station , the captain drops the ship out of warp , explaining this to Odona, who remarks that it feels exactly the same as when they were at warp. This raises Kirk's attention because there " is no change in how the ship feels. " He grows suspicious and looks at the viewscreen, which is displaying a field of stars moving slowly. Odona asks Kirk if he is having a problem with the way the stars look.

After Odona and Kirk toy with the idea of remaining alone aboard the Enterprise , Kirk decides he has to discover and contact whoever is manipulating them. He asks Odona about her homeworld, and she says she does not remember; she only knows that she is, at the moment, happy. She explains that her home planet is packed to the brim with people. There is not one area on the surface where an individual can find solitude, in fact, there are some who would kill for it. Odona and Kirk embrace, but as they do so, the faces of other hooded people appear on the viewscreen unseen by them.

Act Three [ ]

While Kirk and Odona walk about the ship and discuss Kirk's bruise, they hear a strange thumping noise. Though Odona believes it is the engines or a storm, Kirk says he knows every sound the Enterprise makes and that is not one of them. He opens a viewport, which shows an ordinary star field after a momentary ghostly appearance of the dense planetary population en masse – all of whom wear bodysuits covering all but their faces and hands – with Kirk surmising the thumping sound was the heartbeats of all the people he saw outside the window.

As Kirk begins to request answers from Odona, she begins to feel faint with the manifest prognostics of illness as the ambassador – her father – and his aides watch on a video screen in the council chamber, unknown to them. Hodin, accompanied by two bodysuited guards, then boards what Kirk now knows to be a fake Enterprise . The captain and the ambassador partake in a brief exchange regarding Odona's health before Hodin takes Kirk prisoner and lays Odona in a bed in the captain's quarters.

Act Four [ ]

Spock contacts Starfleet Command and argues with Admiral Fitzgerald , who refuses to allow Spock to beam down to the planet's surface without being able to determine that Kirk's life is in immediate danger.

On the planet, Hodin comforts Odona in Kirk's quarters, expecting her to die. However, he asks her what pain is like, foreign to both of them, and is proud of her strength in fighting the infection. Going outside to Kirk, he reveals he knows what she has – Vegan choriomeningitis – and that they sought Kirk out because they knew he had once almost died of it. Kirk attempts to subdue the guards unsuccessfully.

On the Enterprise , Spock finally resolves to violate Starfleet orders and search for Kirk. He demonstrates the slight difference between the coordinates given them for beaming down Kirk to those beaming up the Gideon councilman, Krodak. He orders McCoy and the others to remain aboard the Enterprise , leaving Scott in command.

Hodin explains to Kirk in the council chambers how Gideon was once a paradise, and its atmosphere has always been germ-free. The people's lifespans increased, and death became almost unknown to the Gideons. The birthrate continued to rise until Gideon became encased in a "living mass," with no space to live in comfort. Hodin says sterilization is impossible as their organs renew, and contraception is unthinkable because of their "love of life." Eventually, they decided to introduce mortal illness to Gideon, choosing Kirk as its source, and Odona as an inspirational model of self-sacrificial heroism. Hodin tries to convince Kirk to stay and provide the necessary virus , but Kirk argues against it. They are notified of the approaching death of Odona and they go to her.

Meanwhile, Spock initiates a search for Kirk on the duplicate Enterprise and surmises that this is some experiment and Kirk is in danger. Reaching the captain's quarters, Spock quickly subdues the guards outside: one with a Vulcan neck pinch , and the other knocked out after Spock grabs and hurls him down the corridor. On Kirk's orders, Spock asks Scotty to beam up him, Kirk, and Odona to the Enterprise immediately. But before they dematerialize, however, Spock warns Hodin not to interfere – " I already have one serious problem to resolve with upper echelons. "

In sickbay , McCoy then cures Odona and Kirk shows her around the real Enterprise , now filled with people. She tries in vain to persuade Kirk to go live with her on Gideon, wishing her homeworld could now fit one more person on it. Kirk alerts Transporter Control that they have a person to beam down, as Kirk and Odona prepare to part ways. Kirk returns to command the Enterprise and Odona returning to Gideon to save her people. The Enterprise travels on through space, en route to its next destination.

Log entries [ ]

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

Memorable quotes [ ]

" We must acknowledge once and for all that the purpose of diplomacy is to prolong a crisis. "

" Diplomats and bureaucrats may function differently, but they achieve exactly the same results. "

" And just when I was beginning to think you might find a whole new career as a diplomat, Mr. Spock. " " Do not give up hope, doctor. "

" You're mad! " " No. We are desperate. "

" Your report to the Federation was a tissue of lies! You described conditions that would make Gideon a virtual paradise! "

" We are incapable of destroying or interfering with the creation of that which we love so deeply. Life, in every form, from fetus to developed being. It is against our tradition, against our very nature. We simply could not do it. " " Yet you can kill a young girl. "

" Your Excellency, please do not interfere. I already have one serious problem to resolve with upper echelons. "

" How can you bear to look at me after the way I deceived you? " " At least you owe me the privilege of letting me look at you. " " You are a gentleman, Captain Kirk. "

" As crowded as my planet is, I could wish for it to hold one more person. "

Background information [ ]

Story and script [ ].

• The story for this episode was co-written by Stanley Adams , who previously played Cyrano Jones in " The Trouble with Tribbles ". Reportedly, Adams was deeply concerned about the issue of overpopulation and had some casual discussions with Gene Roddenberry , during the production of "The Trouble with Tribbles", in which he suggested that Star Trek do an episode reflecting that subject matter. This episode, on which his writing partner Geroge F. Slavin collaborated with him, is the evident result of those conversations. ( Star Trek: The Original Series 365 , p. 324) Adams' writing of this episode was influenced by advice from his son. Explained the writer, " My son says, 'Dad, you're in a position to really say something about the overpopulation problem.' He stood over my shoulder while I wrote around the beehive society. " However, neither Stanley Adams nor his son were as pleased with the episode's final form. In hindsight, Stanley Adams commented, " [My son] sees the TV version. He says, 'What did they do?!' But they do it to you. When you write for TV, there's an old expression: 'Take the money and run.' " ( Starlog issue #3, p. 29) A detailed description of the episode's initial story outline can be found here .
• Fred Freiberger , producer of Season 3 , was satisfied with this episode. He related, " One of my pet themes is overpopulation and I thought this was a good idea. We were taking a shot at something fresh and gutsy, and it worked out pretty well. That one was also shot entirely on the Enterprise . I felt that if we had to do the show under those restrictions, we had to come up with good stories and that one worked. " ( Captains' Logs: The Unauthorized Complete Trek Voyages , p. 74)
• Remarkably, this episode did not run afoul of NBC censors, despite Kirk broaching such sensitive matters as sexual sterilization and birth control.

Continuity [ ]

The view from the exterior viewing port is not what Kirk expected

• This is also the only episode showing an exterior viewing port. The only other time a window looking outside the ship is seen is on the observation deck in " The Conscience of the King ". Of course, in this case, the port seen is not on the real Enterprise . The exterior viewing port from this episode is the same design as the one used to witness Marta 's execution in " Whom Gods Destroy ".
• This is the second of two TOS episodes that show an empty Constitution -class bridge, the other installment being the first season outing " This Side of Paradise " (which shows the bridge of the actual Enterprise ).
• When Kirk tries to address anyone on the ship, one of the shots, showing an empty corridor, is recycled from " Is There in Truth No Beauty? ". Also, another shot shows an empty Sickbay – with the Red Alert indicator light flashing, an obvious pickup shot from an earlier episode.

Cast and characters [ ]

• Among the many disembodied Gideon citizens seen on the viewscreen is frequent background performer William Blackburn . His face is pointed out in the finale of the bonus featurette " Billy Blackburn's Treasure Chest: Rare Home Movies and Special Memories ", offered on the third season DVD collection of Star Trek: The Original Series .
• Despite their playing father and daughter, David Hurst was actually only nine years older than Sharon Acker .

Reception [ ]

• In their unofficial reference book Trek Navigator: The Ultimate Guide to the Entire Trek Saga (pp. 138 & 139), co-writer Mark A. Altman scores this episode 2 out of 4 stars (defined as "mediocre") while fellow co-writer Edward Gross rates the installment 1 out of 4 stars (defined as "lousy").
• Cinefantastique gave this episode 1 and a half out of 4 stars. ( Cinefantastique , Vol. 27, No. 11/12, p. 104)
• In the unauthorized reference book Beyond the Final Frontier (p. 50), co-writers Mark Jones and Lance Parkin give their opinions of this installment; " An episode that starts out spooky and tense, but collapses well before the end under a mass of plot holes – leaving aside how the people of Gideon built such an exact replica of the Enterprise that even Kirk is fooled, there's just no reason why they build it. And if Kirk's so infectious, why is he allowed to beam down to planets in the first place? "
• The Star Trek Concordance (p. 82) also laments the plot holes; its synopsis of the episode unusually editorializes that " Odona … is to die as a symbol (of the faultiest logic in the galaxy). "

Apocrypha [ ]

Shane Johnson 's book The Worlds of the Federation identifies Gideon as planet number VII in the Delta Dorado star system, as the Star Trek Maps had earlier in the decade. Both Worlds and the Maps point out, first, that the planetary population was estimated at over 500 billion, exceeding the Federation's total population, and second, that the introduction of Vegan choriomeningitis ultimately wiped out some 97 percent, or upwards of 485 billion, of the inhabitants. Johnson adds that even though the planet's remaining inhabitants, estimated at just over 15 billion after the planet-wide plague, continued their repeated refusal to establish diplomatic relations with the Federation, they did accept a gift of phaser-energy disposal units to dispose of the corpses of the dead before additional diseases could develop, leaving Gideon a lonely, and largely empty, planet.

Production timeline [ ]

• Story outline by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams , titled "No Place to Die", 27 June 1968
• Revised story outline, titled "The Mark of Gideon", 12 July 1968
• First draft teleplay: late- July 1968
• Revised first draft teleplay: 28 August 1968
• Second revised first draft teleplay, 25 September 1968
• Second draft teleplay: 9 October 1968
• Final draft teleplay by Arthur Singer , 11 October 1968
• Additional page revisions by Fred Freiberger , 21 October 1968 , 22 October 1968 , 24 October 1968 , 25 October 1968 , 1 November 1968
• Day 1 – 23 October 1968 , Wednesday (Half Day) – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge
• Day 2 – 24 October 1968 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge
• Day 3 – 25 October 1968 , Friday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge
• Day 4 – 28 October 1968 , Monday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Bridge , Corridors , Observation deck
• Day 5 – 29 October 1968 , Tuesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Corridors , Kirk's quarters
• Day 6 – 30 October 1968 , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Kirk's quarters , Corridors , Sickbay , Transporter room
• Day 7 – 31 October 1968 , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9 : Int. Gideon Council Chamber
• Original airdate: 17 January 1969
• First UK airdate (on BBC1 ): 10 November 1971
• First UK airdate (on ITV ): 8 July 1984
• Remastered episode airdate: 31 May 2008

During the syndication run of Star Trek , no syndication cuts were made to this episode.

Video and DVD releases [ ]

• 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 Capt. Kirk

Also starring [ ]

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

Guest stars [ ]

• Sharon Acker as Odona
• David Hurst as Hodin
• James Doohan as Scott
• George Takei as Sulu
• Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
• Walter Koenig as Chekov
• Gene Dynarski as Krodak
• Richard Derr as Admiral Fitzgerald

Uncredited co-stars [ ]

• William Blackburn as Gideon native
• Frank da Vinci as Brent
• Jay Jones as Gideon guard 1
• Enterprise command crewman
• Enterprise sciences lieutenant
• Gideon guard #2
• Gideon natives
• Three Gideon Council members

References [ ]

accident ; agony ; agreement ; ambassador ; apology ; area ; arm ; assistant ; atmosphere ; auditorium ; authority ; beach ; beam ; " be crystal clear "; birth rate ; blood ; body ; body temperature ; " Bones "; bridge personnel ; Bureau of Planetary Treaties ; bureaucrat ; capital city ; career ; case ; children ; civilization ; clearance ; communicator signal ; conception ; conclusion ; contact ; cooperation ; courage ; crisis ; criticism ; cure ; daughter ; death ; degree ; delegation ; department ; despair ; device ; diplomacy ; diplomat ; disaster ; dream ; duplicate (aka replica ); engine ; Enterprise , USS (replica) ; event ; evidence ; evolution ; Excellency ; experiment ; explanation ; face ; father ; fear ( dread ); Federation ; Federation member ; feeling ; fetus ; fever ; five-year mission ; food ; formulation ; freedom ; garden ; germ ; Gideon ; Gideon (planet) ; Gideon capital city ; Gideon Council ; Gideon Council Chamber ; Gideon prime minister ; gift ; grief ; happiness ; idea ; heart ; heatbeat ; home ; hope ; hour ; house ; illusion ; intention ; interference ; investigation ; irritation ; isolation ; jealousy ; joy ; land ; language ; life ; life cycle ; life span ; listening ; location ; logic ; longevity ; love ; loyalty ; machinery ; madness ; malfunction ; margin for error ; meaning ; medical kit ; medical practitioner ; medical tricorder ; microorganism ; Milky Way Galaxy ; mind ; minute ; mirage ; misery ; mission ; mountain ; name ; negotiation ; noise ; officer ; opportunity ; orbit ( synchronous orbit ); order ; organ oxygen ; pain ; paradise ; patient ; peace ; permission ; person ; personal property ; physio-cultural report ; place ; plan ; planet ; population ; power ; pride ; prime minister ; prisoner ; problem ; profession ; progress ; proposal ; quadrant ; record ; red priority ; regeneration ; repairman ; representative ; result ; room ; sacrifice ; scientist ; screaming (aka shouting ); screen ; search ; sensor ; sensor scan ; serum ; session ; skill ; sky ; smile ; space ; space terminology ; speed of light ; spell ; soil ; sound ; space ; spaceship ; staff ; standing ; star ; Starfleet ; Starfleet channel ; Starfleet Command ; star system ; sterilization ; storm ; stranger ; street ; strength ; subject ; sublight speed ; surveillance ; symbol ; terminology ; thigh ; thing ; thousand ; time ; " tissue of lies "; tool ; tradition ; transmission ; transporter ; transporter control ; transporter coordinates ; transporter room ; treaty ; tricorder ; truth ; understanding ; Vegan choriomeningitis ; viewing port ; virus ; visual communication ; volunteer ; Vulcan neck pinch ; warp speed ; weapon ; wish ; word ; working order ; year

External links [ ]

• "The Mark of Gideon" at StarTrek.com
• " The Mark of Gideon " at Memory Beta , the wiki for licensed Star Trek works
• " The Mark of Gideon " at Wikipedia
• " "The Mark of Gideon" " at MissionLogPodcast.com , a Roddenberry Star Trek podcast
• 3 Ancient humanoid

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

The Mark of Gideon

• Kirk beams down to the planet Gideon and appears to find himself trapped on a deserted Enterprise. Spock on the real Enterprise must use his diplomatic skills to deal with the uncooperative inhabitants of Gideon and find the Captain.
• While beaming down to the planet Gideon, Captain Kirk finds himself still in the transporter room. He can find no one on the ship, now apparently abandoned by the entire crew. He does find one other occupant on the Enterprise, a beautiful young woman, Odona, who does not know how she got there. Back on the real Enterprise, Spock tries to deal with Gideon's representatives who claim that Kirk never arrived and claim no knowledge of his whereabouts. Soon, Odona falls deathly ill, which is exactly what the leaders of Gideon were hoping for. Spock soon realizes that there is problem with the beam down coordinates they were provided. — garykmcd
• Beaming down to Gideon (a potential Federation-member planet), Captain Kirk finds himself still in the transporter room but alone, his entire crew gone. He soon discovers one other occupant - Odona, a beautiful young woman, ostensibly from Gideon but who does not know how she got there. It's literally a large-scale deception, and back on the real Enterprise, Spock deals diplomatically with Gideon's leaders who say Kirk never arrived and claim no knowledge of his whereabouts. Their proclivity to mince words strongly suggests something's off about their story. Finding Starfleet equally unsupportive in the Enterprise finding its captain, Spock must consider breaking direct orders to cut through the bureaucratic lies surrounding Kirk's disappearance, which could also cut into Gideon's closely guarded secret. — statmanjeff
• Gideon, a potential Federation-member planet, finally agrees to negotiate but only with Captain Kirk. Though Kirk's beam out should have put him down on the planet, he finds himself alone on the ship (unknowingly an empty copy), with himself bruised during a 9-minute memory laps. He finds Odona aboard, who asks him why he brought her to his ship. She was transported from an auditorium when a feeling of asphyxiation started, and which she believes may have been on another planet. They are now, apparently, out of orbit somewhere else in space. Meanwhile, back on the real Enterprise, Gideon's ambassador Hodin denies Spock permission to search for Kirk's whereabouts on medical grounds, saying their thorough search found him nowhere. Only Spock has the self-control to stand Hodin's infuriating insinuations, and he finally gets permission to exchange visitors to test the transporter. A Gideon High Council member arrives safely, but Hodin reneges on allowing Spock onto the planet, as was agreed. Meanwhile, Odona enjoys being alone with Kirk because her home world is extremely overcrowded. As she kisses him, the viewing screen suddenly fills with the sight of hooded people watching, then turns back again. The Gideon High Council, having secretly observed the pair, now reveals their purpose in abducting and keeping the captain; but, as Starfleet Command still refuses Spock permission to intrude upon Gideon, Spock decides whether or not to break orders and act alone. — KGF Vissers
• While beaming down to the planet Gideon (which is not a part of the Federation and have refused any Federation presence on their soil. They are free of sickness. After long negotiations, they have now agreed to a delegation of One), Captain Kirk finds himself still in the transporter room. He can find no one on the ship, now apparently abandoned by the entire crew. He does find one other occupant on the Enterprise, a beautiful young woman, Odona (Sharon Acker), who does not know how she got there. Odona has no clue about what Gideon is and where she comes from. The images on board the ship show that Kirk is no longer in orbit around Gideon. Back on the real Enterprise, Spock tries to deal with Gideon's representatives (Ambassador Hodin (David Hurst)) who claim that Kirk never arrived and claim no knowledge of his whereabouts. Spock wants to send a search party to look for Kirk, but Hodin would not give his permission. The planet is protected by a screen and hence Spock cannot scan it and is reliant on the Gideons for coordinates as well. Spock contacts Federation for help, but bureaucracies are slow. Kirk tries to contact star-fleet, with no luck. But the ship seemingly responds to his navigational orders. Odona tells Kirk that where she is from, people dream of being alone as her place is too crowded, with people everywhere. Kirk and Odona soon kiss and this is witnessed (on the ship's screen) by all of Gideon's leaders. When Kirk opens a viewing port, he sees Leaders of Gideon peering inside, for an instant, before turning to views of open space. Kirk knows he is not on-board the Enterprise. Soon, Odona falls deathly ill, which is exactly what the leaders of Gideon were hoping for. Spock continues to negotiate with Hodin to beam down to the planet for a search. Hodin says that he doesn't want an incident with the Federation since Kirk has already disappeared and now Spock could also. To test the transporter, Hodin suggests beaming up one of his men instead. Hodin gives the coordinates again. Spock soon realizes that there is problem with the beam down coordinates they were provided. They are not to the location of the Gideon council chamber, but to a location nearby. Starfleet command denies Spock's request to beam down to the surface to look for Kirk. Hodin appears on Kirk's "ship" and reveals that Odona is his daughter and he wished she would get ill. Hodin takes Odona away, but keeps Kirk captive. Hodin reveals that Gideons came to know of a past disease that Kirk had, during their negotiations with federation. They used Kirk to infect Odona. Spock disobeys Starfleet and beams to the location where they transported Kirk. Hodin reveals to Kirk that Gideon had a germ free environment and people flourished. Birth rates grew and life spans increased. Planet became too crowded. So, they are introducing new germs into the population to reset the life-cycle of an entire civilization. Hodin wants to continue using Kirk's blood to spread the infection and reduce the population. Spock arrives and rescues Kirk, along with Odona. Kirk takes Odona to the Enterprise and McCoy saves her. Odona tells Kirk that now she can take Kirk's place on Gideon and he is free to leave.

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The Mark of Gideon

16th episode of the 3rd season of star trek: the original series / from wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, dear wikiwand ai, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:.

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Summarize this article for a 10 year old

" The Mark of Gideon " is the sixteenth episode of the third season of the American science fiction television series Star Trek . Written by George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams and directed by Jud Taylor , it was first broadcast on January 17, 1969.

In the episode, a race of aliens from an overpopulated planet abduct Captain Kirk to solve their problem.

The episode was co-written by actor Stanley Adams who portrayed Cyrano Jones in the Star Trek episode " The Trouble with Tribbles ".

Memory Beta, non-canon Star Trek Wiki

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• TOS episodes
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The Mark of Gideon

• View history

"The Mark of Gideon" was the 72nd episode of Star Trek: The Original Series , the 17th episode of the show's third and final season , first aired on 17 January 1969 . The episode was written by George F. Slavin MA and Stanley Adams MA , directed by Jud Taylor MA and novelized in Star Trek 6 by James Blish . A remastered version of this episode was aired in syndication, premiering on 31 May 2008 .

• 2.1.1 Episode characters
• 2.1.2 Novelization characters
• 2.2 Starships and vehicles
• 2.3.1 Shipboard areas
• 2.3.2 Planetary locales
• 2.4 Races and cultures
• 2.5.1 Medical conditions
• 2.6 Technology and weapons
• 2.7 Materials and substances
• 2.8 Lifeforms
• 2.9 States and organizations
• 2.10 Ranks and titles
• 2.11 Other references
• 3 Chronology
• 4.1.1 Adaptations
• 4.1.2 Video releases
• 4.2 Background
• 4.3 Notable cast and crew
• 4.4.1 Episode images
• 4.4.2 Adaptation images
• 4.5.1.1.1 Translations
• 4.6 External links

Summary [ ]

Enterprise .

References [ ]

Characters [ ], episode characters [ ], novelization characters [ ], starships and vehicles [ ], locations [ ], shipboard areas [ ], planetary locales [ ], races and cultures [ ], science and classification [ ], medical conditions [ ], technology and weapons [ ], materials and substances [ ], lifeforms [ ], states and organizations [ ], ranks and titles [ ], other references [ ], chronology [ ], appendices [ ], related media [ ].

Gideon's surface. ( ST reference : The Worlds of the Federation )

• Depicts the coordinates and maps of the Gideon system and homeworld , as well as the Gideonite history and clothing. Gideon is identified as Delta Dorado VII, consistent with data provided in the "Introduction To Navigation" booklet accompanying Star Trek Maps .
• Depicts the coordinates and maps of the Gideon system and homeworld .
• Kirk recalls the Gideon trick.
• Information about this episodes production and references are consistent in the 20th century versions of this work. The 21st century Star Trek Encyclopedia also relates material about this episode.

Adaptations [ ]

Video releases [ ]

Background [ ]

• Actor Stanley Adams MA co-wrote this episode after playing the part of Cyrano Jones in the second season TOS episode : " The Trouble with Tribbles ".
• The novelization by James Blish contains a scene where Odona accidentally burns off her finger with a medical instrument, and quickly re-grows the digit. This aspect of Gideonite physiology was not shown in the episode, although it was alluded that they did have a great resistance to injury. The prose version also added a scene where the crew proposes Odana will offer a symbol of illness to those she infects. The characters of Krodak and Fitzgerald were not named in the novelization.
• Actor Gene Dynarski MA (Krodak) had previously played Ben Childress and would later play Orfil Quinteros . Richard Derr MA (Fitzgerald) previously played Commodore Barstow .
• This episode marks the only time the bridge set was filmed empty, in this case representing the replica Enterprise . TOS episode : " This Side of Paradise " had previously showed the actual Enterprise bridge devoid of personnel, but with a single Omicron Ceti spore plant present.

Notable cast and crew [ ]

• William Shatner as James T. Kirk
• Leonard Nimoy as Spock
• DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy
• James Doohan as Scotty
• George Takei as Hikaru Sulu
• Nichelle Nichols as Nyota Uhura
• Walter Koenig as Pavel Chekov

Episode images [ ]

Adaptation images [ ]

Connections [ ]

Timeline [ ], production history [ ], translations [ ], external links [ ].

• " The Mark of Gideon " article at Memory Alpha , the wiki for canon Star Trek .
• The Mark of Gideon article at Wikipedia , the free encyclopedia.

• ↑ The character of Clifford Brent was not named in the episode but the same actor, wearing an officer 's Starfleet uniform , was addressed as Brent in TOS episode : " The Naked Time ". The same actor also played the character of Vinci .
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• 3 J.P. Hanson

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Star Trek – The Mark of Gideon (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.

The Mark of Gideon is in many ways a direct counterpoint to Whom Gods Destroy .

Both The Mark of Gideon and Whom Gods Destroy have what might charitably be described as “major logic problems.” Both episodes were produced on a tiny budget, with those constraints bleeding through into almost every frame of the finished production. Both stories engage with the idea of utopianism as an essential ingredient in Star Trek storytelling. Both episodes are very much third season episodes, in terms of production and construction and storytelling.

Viewing screen on.

However, Whom Gods Destroy manages to turn all of these elements into an ambitious mess. Although far from the strongest episode of the season, or even a half-decent episode of television, there is an endearing charm to Whom Gods Destroy that carries the episode far further than it should. In contrast, The Mark of Gideon is dead at arrival. It is an episode with a striking premise and set-up that has no idea where to go from that starting point and so meanders limply and lifelessly through forty-five minutes of television.

It also offers a pretty reprehensible vision of the franchise’s utopia.

This is an accurate representation of the third season’s viewing figures.

The Mark of Gideon is a very strange episode. There is actually a lot to recommend the episode in its basic set-up. The teaser is fantastic, with Kirk beaming down to an alien world only to rematerialise on the transporter pad of the Enterprise. However, the ship seems eerily abandoned. As Kirk wanders through the corridors, there is not a soul in sight. When Kirk arrives at the bridge, he finds it empty. As the teaser closes, it seems like Kirk is the only soul on the USS Enterprise.

It is a delightfully effective teaser, in that it sets up a very clear mystery about what has happened. How could Kirk possibly be alone on the Enterprise? Where have the crew gone? How long was Kirk away? What happened during transport? It is a very eerie set up. In many ways, it feels very much like the beginning of a third season episode, one that seems irrational and even supernatural. It recalls the ghost story in The Tholian Web or the haunted planet of That Which Survives .

The game’s afoot.

In some ways, the premise most accurately resembles the plot of Wink of an Eye , in which Kirk finds himself moving around the Enterprise, but out of step with the rest of the crew. The result is that Kirk effectively finds himself existing on a parallel version of the ship with a beautiful woman who also wants to sleep with him. In Wink of an Eye , Deela wants to sleep with Kirk to repopulate her race. In The Mark of Gideon , Odona is implied to want to sleep with Kirk for quite literally the opposite reason; to contract a disease to depopulate her race.

There are more interesting parallels. In Wink of an Eye , Kirk’s journey to this uncanny realm was facilitated by tainted food and resulted in time distillation. Confronting the Scalosian Queen, Kirk seemed to have travelled to be among the fair folk. There are similar forces at work in The Mark of Gideon . Kirk is transported to a strange and eerie environment, but he does not experience time distillation. Instead, Kirk experiences “missing time.” The episode makes repeated reference to this fact.

It’s a lonely job…

“The one thing that is obvious is that I suffered a memory lapse, during which time I bruised my arm,” Kirk reports in his opening log entry. Later, he tells Odona, “Do you know, I don’t even remember how this happened?” This gap in Kirk’s internal narrative recalls alien abduction stories. Memory loss and missing time became markers of UFO mythology following the popular abduction story told by Barney and Bettie Hill in September 1961 :

Perhaps the single most important feature of the Hill case was their initial amnesia about their experience. Neither Betty and Barney remembered the abduction until after they underwent hypnotic regression, though they did have strange nightmares. Abduction re searchers alternately argue that UFO-related memory loss occurs as a result of the alien’s intervention, i.e. the aliens make the victim forget, and that the memory loss occurs as a reaction to extreme trauma. Regardless, the phenomenon of amnesia following a UFO experience or “missing time” became the central feature of most, but not all, abduction accounts.

In some ways, this could be seen as a continuation of the theme of pulp history that runs through certain third season episodes. After all, Spock’s Brain and The Cloud Minders would take Star Trek back to The Time Machine . If Wink of an Eye was Star Trek filtered through stories of the fair folk, then perhaps The Mark of Gideon takes that idea one step further. The UFO mythology could be seen as a spiritual successor to stories of the fair folk.

Well, it is kind of an alien abduction…

This is a very effective set-up, and one that plays quite well into the themes of the third season. Star Trek is clearly aware of its impending cancellation across the run, and there is a sense of dread and anxiety seeded across these twenty-four episodes. The Mark of Gideon hits on these ideas, with the image of Kirk wandering through the corridors of an empty ship. Kirk feels lost and abandoned, manning a ghost ship. In many respects, he embodies the feelings of those still working on the show, exiled to the Friday night death slot.

It is also worth noting that the basic premise of The Mark of Gideon plays into the recurring sense that a lot of the foundational assumptions of the Star Trek universe are baked into the third season. Although fans frequently deride the third season for being inferior to the first two years of the show, a lot of core Star Trek mythology is seeded in these episodes, from the kiss between Kirk and Uhura in Plato’s Stepchildren to Kang as the first truly conventional Klingon in Day of the Dove to the imagery of Let That Be Your Last Battlefield .

A woman in every replica Enterprise.

In some ways, it might be possible to trace back the myth of “Kirk the ladykiller” back to the third season. As far as both fandom and wider audiences are concerned, there is a tendency to think of Kirk as something of a deep space lothario. There is certainly some basis for this in earlier seasons; he use of his charm to overload Andrea in What Are Little Girls Made Of? , his relationship with Edith Keeler in The City on the Edge of Forever and his awkward relationship with Nona in A Private Little War .

However, the third season really cements this idea. It features some of the most iconic Kirk romantic moments. The most iconic is the kiss between Kirk and Uhura in Plato’s Stepchildren , a scene that is very much divorced from its context in the cultural memory. There is also the entire plot of Elaan of Troyius , a script that hinges on the ridiculous premise that Kirk can fall head over heels in love with the Dohlman of Elaan, but his true love will always be the Enterprise. Deela even seems to tease him about this in Wink of an Eye .

Carrying on.

Kirk’s virility is something of a recurring theme in the third season. He pretty quickly establishes a family in The Paradise Syndrome , wasting little time in marrying Miramanee and conceiving a child with her. (In fact, his virility seems to come as a surprise to them both, with Miramanee shocking him by revealing her pregnancy.) More than that, the episodes Wink of an Eye and The Mark of Gideon hinge upon Kirk’s sexual potency as a plot point, simultaneously a solution to depopulation and overpopulation.

Wink of an Eye was quite candid about this, with Deela selecting Kirk to be her mate to help repopulate Scalos after a horrific disaster left the male population infertile. The episode takes considerable pride in Kirk’s sexual activity, providing a scene of Kirk putting back on his boots while Deela fixes her hair. In contrast, The Mark of Gideon is just a little more subtle. There is no explicit confirmation that Kirk and Odona had sex, but Kirk’s allusion to “what happened between [them]” seems to support the argument.

Well, that’s one way to see the captain’s bedroom.

The Gideons are hoping for Kirk to infect Odona with “vegan choriomeningitis.” The episode never explicitly confirms that it is a sexually transmitted disease, but there are quite a few hints, given Odona’s desire to seduce Kirk. As such, The Mark of Gideon becomes a very weird episode in which an alien species specifically requests that Kirk visit their planet because they heard he had a sexually transmitted disease, and so set up a scenario whereby Kirk can infect a young woman while the local population watches with anticipation.

There are also shades of Elann of Troyius to the plot, with Gideons seducing Kirk using both Odona and a replica of the Enterprise. It seems like Hodin plans to tempt Kirk by giving him two loves. Nevertheless, the choice is ultimately the same. Kirk must choose between love and duty. “I do not offer my life for this purpose,” Kirk warns Hodin. “I have many plans, and I have hopes other than death for Odona.” He realises, “So that was your plan. That I would fall so under her spell that I would give up my freedom and become a willing sacrifice.”

“I mean, c’mon. This is downright creepy.”

This is the dilemma that confronts Kirk repeatedly over the course of the third season. His sexuality is coveted and shared, but love itself is a trap. For all that Deela mocks the cliché of a captain deeply in love with his vessel, the third season reinforces the idea over and over again. Kirk is perfectly capable of seduction, but cannot surrender his love for the Enterprise. As The Paradise Syndrome demonstrated, the only way that Kirk could ever give up the Enterprise would be to become a different person.

With all of that in mind, it is interesting to watch the third season repeatedly reinforce the idea of Kirk’s masculinity. There is something deeply creepy about the third season’s fascination with the idea of Kirk as breeding stock and alien fascination with his virility, but it seems to have latched in both fan and public consciousness. After all, Kirk’s womanising is treated as something of an affectionate joke in both Star Trek and Star Trek Into Darkness . As with a lot of the popular memory of Star Trek , it seems to be very deeply rooted in the third season of all places.

Infectious affection.

Still, while  The Mark of Gideon shares quite a few themes and ideas with Wink of an Eye , it is a far less satisfying episode. Part of that is down to the mechanics of how the episode is put together and part of that is down to a number of deeply ill-judged creative decisions. While Wink of an Eye is charming enough to get past its basic “Scalos needs men!” b-movie plot, The Mark of Gideon coats its rather unsettling “Kirk is a walking STD farm” hook over a boring story with a number of deeply uncomfortable themes.

The Mark of Gideon explores the issue of overpopulation, which was very much a hot topic during the sixties. Following the end of the Second World War, there had been a population explosion. An extended period of peace and prosperity found populations increasing dramatically, leading various speculative individuals to wonder what might happen if such a pace of growth could be consistently maintained. It is hard to overstate just how serious a problem overpopulation seemed to be by the mid-sixties.

Deep personal space.

In January 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson touched on the issue of “the explosion in world population” as part of his State of the Union address . The Subcommittee on Foreign Aid Expenditure discussed it as a serious issue in 1965 and 1966 . The stakes were presented as apocalyptic. Consider the argument of Heinz von Foerster in Doomsday: Friday, 13 November, A.D. 2026 , published in 1960:

Thus, we may conclude with considerable confidence that the principle of “adequate technology”, which proved to be correct for over 100 generations, will hold for at least three more. Fortunately, there is no need to strain the theory by undue further extrapolation, because – and here the pessimists erred again – our great-great-grandchildren will not starve to death. They will be squeezed to death.

It is a powerful image, one that very much informs The Mark of Gideon . Odona describes a world where citizens struggle for space. “There is no place, no street, no house, no garden, no beach, no mountain that is not filled with people. Each one of us would kill in order to find a place alone to himself. They would willingly die for it, if they could.”

Council-ing radical action.

Of all the threats facing mankind during the sixties, the threat of overpopulation is a particularly interesting doomsday scenario. It is an anxiety rooted in declining mortality rates and rising birth rates, one that works on the assumption of extended periods of political stability and peaceful coexistence. It forsakes the kind of catastrophes that typically keep population numbers under control. It is effectively an apocalyptic nightmare rooted in prosperity, casting mankind as victims of their own success for overcoming the many obstacles that typically keep populations balanced.

It is an incredibly pessimistic prediction, one that suggests mankind is doomed even if the atomic bomb never drops or a plague never spreads. It is in many ways a dark twist on utopian thought; what if mankind does survive and what if that is a horrible thing? It is in many ways as firm a rejection of utopian idealism as Star Trek has ever presented, suggesting that it is possible to be too prosperous and too successful. (Notably, The Mark of Gideon embraces the franchise’s utopianism, centring on a society that wants to be admitted to the ultra-cool utopian Federation.)

Me’s a crowd.

In many respects, this anxiety about overpopulation taps into a number of other latent fears that were running through the sixties. It is the ultimate expression of sixties apocalyptic dread; even if mankind endures, it is ultimately screwed. In The Short Life of a Dark Prophecy , Michael Smith places the theory within the social context of the sixties:

By the mid-1960s it had become clear that the general social calm that had obtained since the end of the Second World War was being disturbed. The nonviolence of the early civil-rights movement had succumbed to the desperate urban realities of racism in the North, and it seemed that the apocalyptic predictions invoked by Malcolm X and James Baldwin could no longer be discounted. The dire predictions of Silent Spring also seemed to have prophetic qualities for the population doomsayers as they observed Lake Erie dying, Los Angeles’s air turning sulfuric, and the extinction of animal species accelerating. Moreover, not only did technological developments of the previous twenty years place human existence in jeopardy, but also technology itself offered no solutions to the population problem, other than as a tool for repression. The angst of the era affected even the most apparently dispassionate scientists. The debt incurred from overpopulation, in short, led to quite a fatalistic view of the future.

In many ways, these fears about overpopulation also play into the recurring sixties about children. The sixties saw parents increasingly confounded by the choices their children were making, a fear expressed in episodes like This Side of Paradise and And the Children Shall Lead . Overpopulation taps into those same basic ideas, the underlying uneasiness about children and the risk that they pose to the established order.

“You know, aliens generally don’t invite me down to their world when they want to DE-populate.”

As such, the issue of overpopulation was prime fodder for a television series like Star Trek . After all, the franchise had developed a reputation for slipping controversial ideas past the censors by couching them in science-fiction terms. This had allowed for the series to engage with the Vietnam War in episodes like A Private Little War and The Omega Glory , and to explore the Cold War in stories like Errand of Mercy or The Trouble with Tribbles . Although the series was not always as liberal and progressive as its reputation suggests, it was generally quite bold.

Overpopulation was understandably a thorny issue, tied as it was to concepts like sexual reproduction and religion. In fact, The Mark of Gideon ultimately finds itself skirting around these potentially controversial topics. Naming the planet “Gideon” is an obvious nod towards the religious drives behind rapid population growth, the religious orthodoxy that condemns both birth control and abortion. Kirk even broaches the issues in his conversations with Hodin, albeit somewhat obliquely.

“I’m sorry, Kirk, but the only condoms Gideon will tolerate is body condoms on its fascist guards.”

“Let your people learn about the devices to safely prevent conception,” Kirk urges. “The Federation will provide anything you need.” Hodin refuses to even consider that possibility, despite the stakes. He falls back on familiar pro-life rhetoric. “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. And this overwhelming love of life has developed our regenerative capacity and our great longevity.”

Just in case the audience doesn’t quite get what Hodin is saying, the diplomat restates his point more forcefully later in the conversation. “We are incapable of destroying or interfering with the creation of that which we love so deeply,” Hodin assures Kirk. “Life, in every form, from fetus to developed being. It is against our tradition, against our very nature. We simply could not do it.” It is very much a rejection (from moral first principles) of the concepts of contraception and abortion.

“Dammit man, what will broadcast standards and practices think?”

It should be noted that the writers were somewhat frustrated by the limitations imposed on them. Talking to Starlog , writer George F. Slavin complained about Fred Freiberger undermining the story:

“The original thrust of the idea was a little more controversial than what he wanted, so it was diluted quite a bit to get what you’ve seen on film. Freddie liked the  basic concept, but every time we talked about it, he started watering it down! “Finally, he said, ‘Well, do it your way, go ahead.” So, we wrote it our way, and of course after the first draft story conference, he started to water it down considerably. Wherever it dealt with the basic idea of population control — and you know how many different ways there are to do that —  he softened it. We were treading on the Catholics’ toes; we were treading on everybody’s toes! Nobody wants to do anything about the population problem.”

Slavin joins a long list of third season writers complaining about Freiberger as a producer, including Margaret Armen, D.C. Fontana and David Gerrold. It fits the conventional narrative that developed around the third season in the eighties.

Oh damn, Odona.

The reality is much more complex. As Marc Cushman argues in These Are the Voyages , the big block on the story was always going to come from the network. NBC was understandably anxious about dealing with these themes and ideas. Stanley Adams was Slavin’s co-writer, and had guest starred in The Trouble with Tribbles . In an interview with Starlog , Adams took a much more pragmatic view of the situation:

“Television is run by the sponsors and the advertisers. They tell you what to say, not what you should be saying. Like The Mark of Gideon. My son says, ‘Dad, you’re in a position to really say something about the overpopulation problem.’ He stood over my shoulder while I wrote  about the beehive society. Then he sees the TV version. He says, ‘What did they do?!’ “But they do it to you. When you write for TV, there’s an old expression: ‘Take the money and run’.”

From the perspective of Slavin and Adams, it is amazing that the production team got away with as much as they did. After all, the implication seems to be that Kirk left Gideon having turned Odona into some kind of plague mule. “You are no longer needed on Gideon,” she tells Kirk. “I can take your place there.” The episode presents this as a happy ending, Kirk having introduced death to a culture of near immortals.

Oh, let’s Gideon.

There is something rather discomforting about all this. The Mark of Gideon seems to argue that death is required on an impossibly large scale simply to keep society ticking along. The suffering and mortality of the individual is secondary to the needs of the larger society, and it is perfectly reasonable to ask people to sacrifice themselves so that the rest of the world might enjoy a bit more space. It is particularly disconcerting given how earnestly this argument is presented in the increasingly utopian universe of Star Trek .

After all, The Mark of Gideon is cut from the same cloth as other idealistic third season episodes like Day of the Dove or Whom Gods Destroy . The episode’s starting point is that Gideon wants to end an extended period of galactic isolation. When Hodin expresses anxiety about reaching out to the wider universe, Spock assures him, “Your Excellency, the wars between opposing star systems no longer prevail in our galaxy.” It truly is a time of galactic peace and relative abundance.

“For the record: This? Extremely creepy.”

So why is death on such a large scale treated as the only viable solution to Gideon’s overpopulation problem? Why can’t the Federation work to resettle the inhabitants of Gideon across the stars? After all, space is very big . The Federation has seemingly abolished scarcity. Why isn’t there a better solution to this dilemma than the one presented by the episode? Indeed, Kirk’s angst at the climax of the episode hinges on the fact that he does not want Odona to die. So why is he okay with millions (if not billions) of strangers dying?

There is something very unsettling about this, something which also applies to the underlying fears of overpopulation. It seems like a lot of the problems of overpopulation have alternative causes and alternative solutions. There is a strange academic detachment to most fears about population growth, with many debates on the subject featuring wealthy and developed nations effectively lecturing poorer and developing natures about how to reduce their own population growth. Tying these lectures to foreign aid, there’s a faint scent of imperialism to it .

It’s always the little guys who get it in the neck.

In some ways, reducing these problems to problems of “overpopulation” is a way of passing the buck to the disadvantaged. As Fred Pearce argues, those developing countries are not responsible for many of the gravest challenges facing mankind :

Let’s look at carbon dioxide emissions: the biggest current concern because of climate change. The world’s richest half billion people—that’s about 7 per cent of the global population—are responsible for half of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile, the poorest 50 per cent of the population are responsible for just 7 per cent of emissions. Virtually all of the extra 2bn or so people expected on this planet in the coming 30 or 40 years will be in this poor half of the world. Stopping that, even if it were possible, would have only a minimal effect on global emissions, or other global threats.

A lot of the challenges of posed by increasing global population have solutions that are less extreme and imperialist than population controls and stern lectures to poor people. However, those solutions involve sacrifices and compromises made by developing nations.

Operating off the grid.

As with a lot of the complications concerning overpopulation, The Mark of Gideon is completely and utterly uninterested in delving into this uncomfortable subtext. Class and wealth seem to be immaterial on Gideon, at least as far as overpopulation is concerned. In fact, the Council of Gideon seems very willing (and even eager) to accept the sacrifices brought by mortality. The Mark of Gideon makes it clear that the people of Gideon actively want to die. This is not a solution forced upon the masses by an elite, this is a society eagerly yearning for population control.

There is something horrifying in how the people of Gideon seem to yearn for death, even the death of their loved ones and their families. Odona has volunteered for this suicide mission, treating it as an honour to bring disease and death to Gideon. There is no debate, no consideration. There is no reflection on the social hierarchy of Gideon, or the fact that so many resources were dedicated to this crazy plan that undoubtedly involved allocating a considerable amount of space to building an empty replica of the Enterprise in a world where the natives are struggling to breath.

Controlling the debate.

“My daughter freely chose to do what she is doing, as the people of Gideon are free to choose,” Hogin assures Kirk quite late in the episode. However, that promise relies on any number of assertions that The Mark of Gideon could not possibly provide within forty-odd minutes of airtime. Kirk is only able to interact with the ruling elite on Gideon. Given the subterfuge that they employed against him, can Kirk really take them at their word? That statement has the ring of propaganda to it, much like the lies that Gideon told the Federation about its environmental system.

After all, when elites are placed in charge of enforcing measures like population control, you end up with horrific abuses of power like China’s infamous “one child policy.” What happens to Gideon if enough people do not volunteer to be exposed to the disease? Can Kirk really trust Hogin not to make exposure mandatory among social classes or structures? Will the ruling council consider themselves to be eligible for this program? What if members of that powerful group decide that they don’t want to volunteer to die?

Bald-face lies.

To be fair to Slavin and Adams, the original draft of The Mark of Gideon touched on these questions and issues related to who exactly was going to volunteer to die and whether the ruling class would try to find an exception for themselves. As Slavin explained to Starlog :

“We had a scene with the council people  where nobody wanted to be the first to die.  but they took that out. So, Hodin comes up with his daughter, which Stanley and I thought was a little unrealistic. We wanted to go through the decision-making process as it would actually happen, when you say, ‘Who’s going to be first to die?’ Well, nobody wants to be first, let’s face it!  Freiberger got around it cutely by saying, ‘Well, Hodin will have his daughter do it.'”  According to Slavin, the dynamic scene they had written would have addressed the  Gideons’ difficult choice with greater tension and realism. “We were going to have a ‘battle royal’ go on within the council because nobody wanted to be first. Finally, the council members said to Hodin, ‘It’s your idea.’ He was finally pinned in a corner where he came up with the answer. And that’s how the duty fell upon Odona.”

This scene might have toned down some of those problems with the script, but it would still be an episode in which Kirk seemed quite happy to introduce a dangerous virus to an inhabited planet, so long as no named characters were killed in the process.

Pulling back from the larger debate.

In some respects, The Mark of Gideon hints at some of the bigger issues around the franchise’s moral framework. After all, the third season of Star Trek is very much about setting up iconic images and concepts that will become a core part of the franchise as it goes forward. Much is made of Star Trek as a liberal and fair-minded utopia, but the franchise’s moral compass has a number of very obvious blind spots. The Mark of Gideon showcases some of those blind spots, in a way setting up what would become an even bigger moral blind spot down the line.

Star Trek likes to mine angst from moral dilemmas, but it also struggles with the ethical obligations that it imposes upon its characters. Perhaps mindful of the jingoistic imperialist politics of episodes like Friday’s Child and For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky , Star Trek: The Next Generation would have the franchise embrace a philosophy of non-interference. Repeatedly over the seven-year run of that show, in episodes like Pen Pals or Homeward , Picard and his crew would be asked to stand back and watch worlds die rather than interfere.

Father of the year, right here.

Of course, the crew would inevitably break that rule in any given episode, but the morality of the Star Trek universe tended to derive from first principles with little regard for the immediate situation. The Prime Directive was a great idea in theory, but in practice it served as justification for the Federation to stand by and watch entire worlds die. When it came to the Prime Directive, The Next Generation could often feel detached and inhuman, as if Picard were willing to watch millions or billions die to prove an ideological point.

The Mark of Gideon is setting up that faulty moral compass. The death of millions (or billions) of people is horrific, but it is treated as an abstract in order to suit the agenda of the script in question. This is an approach that reduces the morality of the Star Trek universe to a simple mathematical equation, with little acknowledgement of the very real cost. This is the kind of morality that would (in)famously drive Gene Roddenberry to argue that Starfleet was entirely correct to ask Data to submit to a dangerous experiment for the greater good in The Measure of a Man .

Kirk of fate.

Even outside of these rather problematic issues, The Mark of Gideon is simply not a good episode of television. It lacks the energy that elevated similar episodes like Wink of an Eye or Whom Gods Destroy . The guest cast are incredibly forgettable. Sharon Acker does not have a lot of good material to work with, but she also lacks the chemistry that Kathie Browne shared with William Shatner. The role of “stalling bureaucrat” is a Star Trek cliché, but there is nothing memorable about David Hurst as Hogin.

More than that, the script is dull and repetitive. The teaser promises an exciting and weird episode, a tense mystery about what happened to James Tiberius Kirk and where the crew of the Enterprise had gone. Instead, The Mark of the Gideon jettisons the mystery almost immediately by cutting to Mister Spock and the rest of the crew on the real Enterprise. The episode would have been a lot more intriguing had it been willing to keep the focus on Kirk, rather than revealing so early that Kirk was on a duplicate ship.

Ambassador Spock.

Of course, the very existence of the duplicate ship is itself a ridiculous contrivance. Were the Gideons planning to keep Kirk on the fake! Enterprise forever, randomly exposing him to citizens to help kick start an epidemic? Or was the fake! Enterprise just an elaborate introductory element designed to “ease” Kirk into his role as planetary stud and STD transmitter? The real explanation is that the fake! Enterprise helped to preserve the show’s budget. The truth is that it is an unsettling premise, even if the plot justification is ultimately absurd.

Undercutting that tension would be reasonable if the plot involving Spock was in any way interesting. Instead, the sequences involving Spock on the real! Enterprise exist primarily to eat up time and to distract from Kirk on the fake! Enterprise. They serve to make the episode seem more mundane and generic than it might otherwise. The Star Trek universe is full of inefficient bureaucracy, but there are only so many empty replicas of the Enterprise built to scale on the inside of a planet.

The diplomatic subplot is pure padding, but that is no excuse for how lazy it seems. This is particularly apparent during a sequence early in the episode in which the senior staff make a point to insult Hogin… while he is still listening in on the channel . Scotty protests, “No matter what you say, Mister Spock, he’ll twist your meaning.” Uhura offers, “Yes, he’s infuriating, sir. How can you stand it?” Ignoring the issue of whether it would be proper for the staff to voice these concerns on the bridge at all, doing it while Hogin is on the line seems unprofessional.

Of course, this sequence exists purely for a cheap laugh. The joke comes when Hogin pretends not to hear the crew badmouthing him. “There was considerable interference with your transmission,” he states. “A lot of noise drowned out what was said.” The gag doesn’t land the first time, but the show repeats it later on in the episode. When Scotty storms off the bridge muttering to himself, Hogin offers, “I could not quite make that out, Mister Spock. Would you be so good as to repeat what you said?”

Not-quite-mellow yellow.

It is a bad joke of itself, but the failed attempt at broad diplomatic comedy throws off the entire tone of the episode. It is hard to laugh at ridiculous bureaucracy and stuffy officials while the episode tries to build tension around the particulars of Kirk’s situation. It seems like these sequences actively diminish the episode. The sequence in which Kirk encounters Odona dancing through the corridors should be weird and surreal, but the tone is thrown off by all the dialogue-heavy bad-joke-and-exposition scenes around it.

The Mark of Gideon is a terrible episode of Star Trek , and a terrible episode of television in general. Going by the standards of the third season, that is no small accomplishment.

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Filed under: The Original Series | Tagged: kirk , overpopulation , sexuality , star trek , star trek: the original series , the mark of gideon , the original series , virility |

16 Responses

I found this episode so striking as a child – the weird atmosphere of Kirk wandering the deserted Enterprise, the creepy faces looking in on him – I was so transfixed! And yet, I had no memory of the second half – which is where the problems lie.

Season 3 was a great season for kids, though. In a sense it paved the way for the animated series.

The opening is very effective. The empty Enterprise is eerie. The faces looking in are creepy.

But you’re right. It doesn’t go anywhere. I think you’re on to something with the kids remark. I wonder if how much of the impact of the third season (and it arguably has a bigger pop culture footprint than the first two combined) is down to that factor, people watching it as kids and having stuff like the IDIC or the Klingon ship or the half-black/half-white aliens or the Tholians stick with them?

One thing I think would have been interesting if this episode had been followed up on in the episode, Half a Life. In that episode Lwaxana falls in love with someone who has to kill himself at 50, as part of the planetary tradition. The overpopulation of Gideon would serve as the perfect explanation for this culture, and why some would think it is necessary.

I don’t know that including Gideon in Half a Life would improve the episode. Although that may be because I hate Gideon with the passion of a thousand burning suns. I think putting Gideon in that episode would weigh the story too heavily to be anti-euthanasia, because it becomes less about the individual decision and more about the world in which the individual lives. I haven’t seen Half a Life in ages; I remember it being relatively even-handed, all things considered.

This is a really fascinating analysis. I’ve always thought the third season of Star Trek was the most interesting, but it’s almost dangerous to voice that opinion among classic ST fans. The “bad” episodes like this one are in many ways the most interesting and your analysis pins down a lot of thoughts I had myself but which were much too vague to be put down so precisely. I’m really glad that you mentioned the connection between population concerns of the 1960s-1970s and climate change of today. I teach a class on the history of climate change, and that exact issue is quite prominent–and also unresolved. This is possibly the best social analysis of Star Trek that I’ve ever read.

Thanks for the kind words Sean.

I think there’s a lot to recommend the third season, even in terms of theme and visual style. The plotting and characterisation definitely struggles, but it’s telling how how many classic images come from these twenty-four episodes.

Darren, I read your analysis over a week ago, and I have been attempting to figure out exactly how to phrase my reply. While I agree that there are certain problems with “The Mark of Gideon” on the whole I have a more positive appraisal of it.

If this episode seemed timely in 1969, it is even more relevant in 2016, when the world population has surpassed 7 billion. That is absolutely insane. The Earth cannot support that number of people. The epidemics of starvation, disease, war and environmental collapse that are sweeping the globe are stark evidence that population control has become an absolute necessity.

You refer to “horrific abuses of power like China’s infamous one child policy.” Unfortunately, as flawed & deeply unpleasant as these policies are, they have become a necessity. I realize that for centuries the right to have children has been regarded as sacrosanct. But I am of the firm belief that in the 21st century, when our planet is literally on the verge of collapse, it is extremely reckless & irresponsible for people to have multiple children.

What is more cruel, forcing people to have abortions, or allowing them to have as many children as they want, children who will then endure lives stricken by poverty, disease & starvation? And why should a family that is being responsible and having just one kid be forced to suffer when valuable resources are being consumed by the couple down the block who have selfishly decided to have six or seven children?

The ending to this episode is controversial, but at the same time it is realistic. Just as it was wrong for the Gideons to attempt to force Kirk to remain on their world to spread vegan choriomeningitis among the population, so too would it have been wrong for Kirk to have prevented Odona from taking his place and allowing the plan for mass-euthanasia to go forward. It is obvious that the Gideons have vastly different ethics & principles than that of the Federation, but does that mean they are wrong? That is why the Prime Directive was established, to prevent the Federation making such value judgments & from imposing its values on other worlds.

If this story had been done two decades later as an episode of TNG, there probably would have been a great temptation by show to technobabble their way out of the problem. I’m glad that such a thing did not occur here. And that is why the Gideons cannot just emigrate to other planets to eliminate their overpopulation problem. That in itself would be a cheat, because the Gideons are obviously allegories for the human race, and in the present day we do not have the ability to just hop in a spaceship & find an uninhabited planet. We are stuck on Earth, and we have to deal with the reality of the situation here, no matter how pleasant.

I know my position is very unpopular with many people, but that is how I genuinely feel about this issue.

No worries. It’s perfectly fair to have a discussion about it.

I’d disagree wholeheartedly with a lot of what you said, though. I’ll acknowledge that things like sex education and condoms are good things, and that they will naturally help control population growth. And I think that they should be provided as a matter of course to anybody who wants them. And, I believe that, if they were, population growth would decrease substantially. And that would be a good thing.

However, I find myself deeply uncomfortable with mandating population growth cuts. The one-child policy is monstrous, and there’s nothing that can be done to justify it. Similarly, setting aid according to those sorts of targets is also incredibly cynical and borders on imperialism – albeit on the edge of a cheque rather than down the barrel of a gun.

More than that, the big sustainability issues of our time – drought, famine, climate change, urban pollution – are driven by economic and social factors that are (at most) marginally related to population growth. It’s the first world’s wealthy and middle classes who drive the industrialisation that it harming the environment and raising global temperatures, which in turn cause more food/water shortages which in turn fuel wars. And, the way things are going, cutting population only kicks the can down the proverbial road. The first world’s consumerist instincts are driven by a (relatively) small population in the grand scheme of things.

You could solve most (if not all) of these problems by imposing a much lower burden on a much smaller number of people, but those people would be people like you and I. And make up the difference by providing sex education and voluntary contraception to those in developing countries, rather than forcing population controls upon them. More than that, committing to raising living standards in the developing world would also slow population growth; that’s precisely what has happened in the developed world.

All of which makes me sound like a crazy socialist, which isn’t quite fair. I’d argue I’m more of a pragmatist. I also accept that none of this is likely possible given the way that people are and that large groups organise, but that doesn’t make the alternative right or (to me at least) morally justifiable.

I think focusing on population growth as a cause of these problems rather than as a symptom (or at the very worst a tangential contributing factor) is shortsighted.

I very much agree with you about the importance of sex education and distribution of contraception, and I think it is insane that there is so much opposition to these things. But it is almost impossible to have a reasonable discussion about these things with religious fanatics. You’d have more luck banging your head against a brick wall.

I have to say, Darren, you make appearances persuasive case. I had a co-worker who recently argued that population growth is the biggestbpeonlem with the world, but I’m quite swayed by your argument that it’s really about richer people sharing the wealth. I’m actually reminded of Infinity War, and how Thanos’ entire plan hinges upon overpopulation of the entire universe as being the one crucial problem to be solved, only his “solution” is monstrous and his unequivocally the villain. Notably, what little Thanos said about Titan referenced that there was a rich and poor class, and everything about Thanos suggests he was part of the rich ruling class. There were surely better solutions to Titan’s problem, just as there were other solutions to Gideon’s (and Earth’s) problems.

Apologies for my poor spelling in the above comment. I was in a hurry and didn’t double-check it.

Oh trust me, I can throw no stones when it comes to poor spelling and grammar on this blog! 🙂

Maybe more fandom than the show, but it’s genuinely unsettling that you get episodes like this, where consent is… muddled to say the least, but Kirk is still treated like an intergalactic manwhore in popular culture.

This is fair. Star Trek is a product of the sixties, but its fanbase shouldn’t be.

Was it just me, or did Spock not seem very… Vulcan in this episode? Towards the beginning, when he went on his little rant about bureaucrats and diplomats, it sounded very odd coming out of his mouth.

It happens quite a bit in the third season. I suspect the departure of D.C. Fontana was a key factor here.

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