The Mark of Gideon (episode)

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This article is written
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This article is written
from the Real World
point of view
"The Mark of Gideon"
TOS, Episode 3x17
Production number: 60043-72
First aired: 17 January 1969
Remastered version aired: 31 May 2008
← 73rd of 80 produced in TOS →
← 71st of 80 released in TOS →
← 71st of 80 released in TOS Remastered →
← 71st of 726 released in all →
Written By
George F. Slavin and Stanley Adams

Directed By
Jud Taylor
5423.4 (2269)
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Kirk is held captive on an empty duplicate of the USS Enterprise.

Contents

[edit] Summary

[edit] Teaser

The Enterprise orbiting secretive Federation candidate Gideon in 2269
The Enterprise orbiting secretive Federation candidate Gideon in 2269

The USS Enterprise is in synchronous orbit over the capital city of Gideon, a candidate for Federation membership. The physio-cultural report the Gideons have submitted describes their planet as a 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 co-ordinates for the landing party’s beam-down—875-020-079—a spot he says is within the Council Chamber. Furthermore, the Enterprise party must comprise only one particular individual : Captain Kirk. Kirk arrives in what seems to be a completely depopulated Enterprise. He presumes the beam-down was unsuccessful, and on the empty bridge satisfies himself that he and the ship are “still orbiting Gideon”.

[edit] Act One

The Gideon High Council’s point man in full prevarication
The Gideon High Council’s point man in full prevarication

Kirk searches every part of the ship, and finds 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. The High Council’s Ambassador Hodin denies responsibility for the loss of the captain, suggesting that the Enterprise's equipment must be faulty. 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 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.

Kirk encounters Odona wandering the empty corridors of the ship in an ecstasy of newfound personal space : 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.

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.

Seeing the chronometer Kirk says that his missing minutes are nine in number. 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. Having no way to control their voyage, the two discuss their survival—the unlikelihood that they can ever use up the air and the provisions meant to feed 430 crewmembers for five years.

[edit] Act Two

Meanwhile back on the USS Enterprise, the ambassador informs Spock that Kirk is not on Gideon after a thorough search of the planet by the natives. However Spock insists on transporting to the planet.

[edit] Act Three

[edit] Act Four

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[edit] Log Entries

  • Captain's Log, Stardate 5423.4. We are orbiting the planet Gideon which is still not a member of the United Federation of Planets. The treaty negotiations have been difficult because Gideon has consistently refused the presence of a delegation from the Federation on its soil, or any surveillance by the ship's sensors. They have finally agreed to a delegation of one. They insisted it be the Captain of the Enterprise. I am, therefore, beaming down at once.
  • Log entry made by Captain James T. Kirk. I am alone on the Enterprise. I have searched every area of the ship and still cannot find a trace of the crew, or an indication of how its disappearance was managed. The one thing that is obvious is that I suffered a memory lapse, during which time I bruised my arm. It is causing me some irritation.
  • Ship's Log, Stardate 5423.8. First Officer Spock reporting. Obviously, the Gideons have transported Captain Kirk onto this replica of the Enterprise to so confuse his mind as to make him susceptible to some extraordinary experiment. It is my intention to locate the Captain and warn him before the experiment reaches its conclusion, which logic indicates means the end of the Captain's life as he knows it.

[edit] Memorable Quotes

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

- Spock


"You're mad!"
"No – we are desperate."

- Kirk and Hodin


"How can you bear to look at me after the way I've deceived you?"
"Well, at least you owe me the privilege of looking at you."
"You are a gentleman, James Kirk."

- Odana and Kirk


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

- Odana, to Kirk


"Your report to the Federation was a tissue of lies! You described conditions that would make Gideon a virtual paradise!"
"And so it was! A long time ago, what we described was true. The atmosphere of Gideon has always been germ-free... Eventually, the life span of the people increased; death became almost unknown to us. It occurred only when the self-renewal processes could no longer sustain themselves – and that happens now only to the very old."

- Kirk and Hodin

[edit] Background Information

  • The story for this episode was co-written by Stanley Adams, who previously played Cyrano Jones in TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles".
  • This episode features some genuinely eerie scenes, especially the phantom faces of the Gideon population spying on Kirk and Odana.
  • There are a number of unique camera shots in this episode: one of Kirk shot through the glass table he is seated at; a shot of Krodak being transported while on the main viewscreen; a shot of the empty bridge from underneath one of the consoles opposite the turbolift; and an out-of-focus chess set in the foreground of an empty recreation room.
  • This is the only episode in which we see 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, we are 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".
  • As Kirk calls the various different rooms from the bridge of the fake Enterprise (Engineering, Sickbay, the corridors), the red alert signal can be seen flashing silently in Sickbay.
  • Both this episode and "Wink of an Eye" demonstrate how censorship of television had loosened up by 1968. Sterility, birth control and other issues of sexuality are openly discussed in both segments.
  • There is a continuity error in this episode's teaser. We see Kirk beamed into the transporter room of the fake Enterprise, and we then see a shot from his point of view, looking out at the transporter console. However, the transporter pad that Kirk should be standing on is vacant. (The reverse angle of the transporter room was taken from a shot of an empty transporter room in "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield".)
  • Richard Derr, who plays Admiral Fitzgerald in this episode, previously appeared as Commodore Barstow in the episode "The Alternative Factor".

[edit] Production Timeline

[edit] Video and DVD releases

[edit] Links and References

[edit] Starring

[edit] Also Starring

and

[edit] Guest Stars

[edit] Uncredited Co-Stars

[edit] References

Excellency; Bureau of Planetary Treaties; Gideon (planet); Gideon; Gideon Council; medical kit; medical practitioner; paradise; red priority; Starfleet Command; Vegan choriomeningitis; USS Enterprise (replica)

[edit] External link


Previous episode produced:
"Whom Gods Destroy" 		Star Trek: The Original Series
Season 3 		Next episode produced:
"The Lights of Zetar"
Previous episode aired:
"Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" 		Next episode aired:
"That Which Survives"
Previous remastered episode aired:
"Whom Gods Destroy" 		TOS Remastered Next remastered episode aired:
"The Lights of Zetar"
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