Dagger of the Mind

'Dagger of the Mind' another episode just full of slashy goodness.

A penal colony requires a shipment of drugs and as part of the transfer a crate of research materials is beamed to the Enterprise, hidden inside of which is one of the former directors of the colony, Van Gelder who demands, at gunpoint that he be given asylum. McCoy examines Van Gelder and believes him to be quite insane, but his intuition tells him something is not quite right about the situation.

We are treated to one of the best three way arguments between Kirk, Spock and Bones about whether there is something strange going on down on the planet. Kirk wants to put his faith in Dr Adams, the other Director, who has a reputation and record of revolutionizing the treatment of insane prisoners. Kirk decides to beam down to the planet to investigate and asks for an expert in psychology and penology to accompany him. McCoy assigns the very beautiful (but very stupid) Dr. Helen Noel. As she and Kirk prepare to transport to the colony we are given one of the strangest and slashiest scenes in all of TOS. This scene is just as much a slash 'Rosetta Stone' as is the 'Back Rub Scene' from 'Shore Leave'.

Okay let's look at it in detail: Kirk and Spock (why is he there again? Oh that's right to say goodbye to Jim...huh?) enter the transporter room. Waiting for Jim on the transporter pad is the very lovely (and pushy) Dr. Helen Noel. Jim is clearly NOT happy to see her, and Spock gives him a look like 'well, well, well...another of your dalliances?' Jim reluctantly stands next to her on the pad and she starts reminding him of when they had meet before. Jim is like a cat on a hot tin roof, effectively shushing her, and nervously watching Spock's reaction. "Problem Captain?" asks Spock rather facetiously. Spock seems to be annoyed and amused at the same time. Jim dismounts the transporter pad and goes back to Spock (why is he doing that again?) and in a roundabout way assures Spock that this woman means nothing to him. Spock gives him a long suffering look as he goes back to the pad...curiouser and curiouser! What is this scene all about? I know what it looks like to me. It looks like Jim has been keeping his hand in at the old seduction game and has been caught out. He realises he needs to reassure Spock immediately that nothing is going on. I figure that Kirk and Spock have become lovers by this stage of the game and Spock is beginning to be alittle possessive of his Captain.

Anyway the rest of the episode is not all that good, alot of silliness involving a mind altering machine and Dr. Adams evil experiments on inmates. Kirk for some unknown reason decides to use the machine on himself and is re-programed to believe that he is in love with Helen Noel (huh?). Why this should be the case only comes into play towards then end of the episode when Spock beams down to the colony to save Jim's bacon. Jim is caught in a tight clinch with Helen and we are treated to another of Spock's dismayed looks at his Captain's indisgression.

This is not one of my favourite episodes, as the character of Dr. Helen Noel is just awful, she seems to have no idea how to advise her Captain with anything even approaching valid information and she spends most of her time trying to convince Jim that there should be something between them, against all evidence to the contrary. A badly written character and a weak story, but you gotta love the slash.