7.2/10. Some very interesting stuff in this one. The first half of the episode was the better half for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I like the subtext about the nature of prisons, the debates about rehabilitation vs. “a cage is a cage,” and the concept of putting your best foot forward to the outside world with a different story on the inside. There’s ways in which this feels like a simplified and sci-fi’d up version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
It also features the strongest acting and the best teasing of the mystery in the episode. Marianna Hell was mostly serviceable, but I actually liked the back and forth between Kirk and Dr. Adams a lot. Both did a great job of seeming outwardly genial and even casual, while each was hiding their true motives and intentions. It’s Star Trek, so you pretty much know from the minute they make contact with the prison that all is not what it seems, but the pair playing coy with one another about it worked surprisingly well at playing out what exactly the dark secret was.
At the same time, Morgan Woodward as Dr. Van Gelder did get a little hammy at times (at some points, I mistook him for a wide-eyed Ric Flair) but there was something legitimately unnerving at his struggles to overcome his conditioning and communicate the horror of what had happened to him. The scenes with him, Spock, and Bones in sick bay were some of the most tense in the episode, and added a real sense of urgency and danger to the proceedings.
The problem is that the plot sort of changes gear in the second half, and not necessarily for the better after the reveal. [spoiler]The idea of a device that can control a person’s mind, change their memories, and alter how they think is a really interesting concept, but again, feels like a little too much combined with what else is going on in the episode. I don’t like to play “what if” but something closer to a lobotomy, that just made people docile and obedient, rather than let you implant memories and other psychic suggestions might have allowed the episode’s reach to match its grasp here.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Instead, we get a kind of tired meditation on implanting feelings of love and the torture of having your mind emptied that had me flashing back (er…forward?) to Harry Potter. I have to say, we’re not even ten episodes in, and I’m already tired of Kirk having sexual tension with every woman he meets, and the whole “Christmas Party” bit with Dr. Noel was a weak setup to boot. They were going for a certain “slap-slap-kiss” vibe between her and Kirk, but it never really clicked the way it needed to. Still, we get to see the first Vulcan mind meld on the show, which is pretty cool! Nimoy and Kelley are a pair of the better actors on the show, and both are able to sell the gravitas and importance of that moment.[/spoiler]
it ends with a spate of not very compelling action and the villain being hoisted by his own petard in a fairly cliché fashion. The sound design for the brain way was pretty cool, but otherwise once the episode started to focus on its use, things took a turn.[/spoiler]
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting episode that, as has become the norm, dips a toe into some really interesting ideas even if the execution isn’t quite there, and features some quality performances and worldbuilding to boot.
Review by Andrew BloomVIP 9BlockedParent2017-01-06T18:57:31Z
7.2/10. Some very interesting stuff in this one. The first half of the episode was the better half for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, I like the subtext about the nature of prisons, the debates about rehabilitation vs. “a cage is a cage,” and the concept of putting your best foot forward to the outside world with a different story on the inside. There’s ways in which this feels like a simplified and sci-fi’d up version of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
It also features the strongest acting and the best teasing of the mystery in the episode. Marianna Hell was mostly serviceable, but I actually liked the back and forth between Kirk and Dr. Adams a lot. Both did a great job of seeming outwardly genial and even casual, while each was hiding their true motives and intentions. It’s Star Trek, so you pretty much know from the minute they make contact with the prison that all is not what it seems, but the pair playing coy with one another about it worked surprisingly well at playing out what exactly the dark secret was.
At the same time, Morgan Woodward as Dr. Van Gelder did get a little hammy at times (at some points, I mistook him for a wide-eyed Ric Flair) but there was something legitimately unnerving at his struggles to overcome his conditioning and communicate the horror of what had happened to him. The scenes with him, Spock, and Bones in sick bay were some of the most tense in the episode, and added a real sense of urgency and danger to the proceedings.
The problem is that the plot sort of changes gear in the second half, and not necessarily for the better after the reveal. [spoiler]The idea of a device that can control a person’s mind, change their memories, and alter how they think is a really interesting concept, but again, feels like a little too much combined with what else is going on in the episode. I don’t like to play “what if” but something closer to a lobotomy, that just made people docile and obedient, rather than let you implant memories and other psychic suggestions might have allowed the episode’s reach to match its grasp here.[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Instead, we get a kind of tired meditation on implanting feelings of love and the torture of having your mind emptied that had me flashing back (er…forward?) to Harry Potter. I have to say, we’re not even ten episodes in, and I’m already tired of Kirk having sexual tension with every woman he meets, and the whole “Christmas Party” bit with Dr. Noel was a weak setup to boot. They were going for a certain “slap-slap-kiss” vibe between her and Kirk, but it never really clicked the way it needed to.
Still, we get to see the first Vulcan mind meld on the show, which is pretty cool! Nimoy and Kelley are a pair of the better actors on the show, and both are able to sell the gravitas and importance of that moment.[/spoiler]
it ends with a spate of not very compelling action and the villain being hoisted by his own petard in a fairly cliché fashion. The sound design for the brain way was pretty cool, but otherwise once the episode started to focus on its use, things took a turn.[/spoiler]
Nevertheless, it’s an interesting episode that, as has become the norm, dips a toe into some really interesting ideas even if the execution isn’t quite there, and features some quality performances and worldbuilding to boot.