Mark Watches ‘Star Trek’: S03E14 – Whom Gods Destroy

In the fourteenth episode of the third season of Star Trek, WHAT THE HELL??? Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek. 

Trigger Warning: For discussion of ableism and torture. 

JESUS, WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT. This felt abnormally brutal for Star Trek, and it was an experience to watch. Let me start off by saying that this episode’s treatment of mental illness is… well, it’s clearly meant more as something that’s entertaining more than anything else. It’s a problem, the entire episode is framed terribly because of it, and I don’t know that I can say much about it that doesn’t feel reductive or super obvious. I mean… all mental illness cured with a single drug? Really? That’s not how mental illnesses affect the human body! Plus, this episode heavily suggests that people who are mentally ill do.. well, all of this. It’s a bit much to take in at times because there seems to be little morality in any of these characters, and just because you’ve got a mental illness doesn’t mean that you suddenly abandon all sense of right and wrong.

And holy shit, this is ruthless from beginning to end. Even if you accept that the ending of “Whom Gods Destroy” is “happy,” the journey to that point is horrifying. Garth of Izar is… shit, how do you describe him? He’s delusional, first of all, convinced that he’s the Master of the Universe, and he proceeds to utilize his sadism against Spock, Kirk, and Governor Cory without remorse. To him, this is akin to a game, one where he can simply conquer the universe by force. But the state we see him in is not something that suddenly came about. We learn from Kirk how Garth turned against Federation standards because he was sick of feeling subservient. He wanted to be in control of everything. What’s particularly messed up about this is that he became who he was because of the generosity of the Antos people, who taught him the skills he needed to shapeshift. So, after dealing with an injury due to this rescue mission, what does he do?

He orders his crew to commit genocide and they mutinied in response.

It’s a ridiculous and horrifying, undoubtedly so. There’s no point during this episode that Garth ever feels sympathetic, and I don’t think he should be. He toys with Kirk and Spock, all so he can get aboard the Enterprise and wreak havoc. But there’s no moment that feels quite so upsetting as Marta’s fate. She’s also portrayed as being weird because she’s got some unnamed mental illness. (Which is another problem I have with this episode; the lack of specificity is frustrating.) For a moment, it seemed like she was willing to turn against Garth, but it ends up being a ruse just so she can stab Kirk? Because I don’t know? I guess she really wanted to impress Garth? See, the problem is that she’s not given any characterization beyond being quirky.

That doesn’t mean her death didn’t affect me. Look, this show isn’t afraid of death, but it often feels a lot more sanitized than what I’m used to. So I expected there to be some cutaway or some trick or some plot twist where Marta survived and then NO NOPE WHAT THE FUCK SHE JUST BLEW UP ON THE SCREEN. WHAT THE FUCK. It’s something I genuinely did not expect from this show, and it’s a clear attempt to show us just how serious Garth is. He’ll kill again to get what he wants. But he doesn’t get the chance to do so again, thanks to Spock’s craftiness. HOW GREAT IS THE SCENE WHERE THERE ARE TWO KIRKS. I mean, it kinda doesn’t make sense to me because I’m pretty sure Spock would have been able to figure out which Kirk was real in like 5 seconds. Right???

Regardless, this episode was thrilling at times, baffling at others, and kinda fits perfectly in place with the parade of strange that has been season three. It’s like the writers are just throwing everything at the screen, just because. It’s not terrible all the time or anything, but it’s just a bizarre experience for me. This is sort of what I expected the first season of this show to be, not the last one. Still, I really am having a good time watching this. (And I’m quietly getting more and more excited for The Next Generation. IT’S SO SOON.)

The video for “Whom Gods Destroy” can be downloaded here for $0.99.

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