Sunday, March 18, 2012

Star Trek TOS: Episode 71 - THE MARK OF GIDEON

Such an odd topic for a 60's show. It's completely about the birth control debate. Most notably the religious stance on birth control. For one, the planet is named Gideon. The issue is that they do not believe in birth control so now the planet is grossly overpopulated. Michael Gross-ly overpopulated. They kidnap Kirk and transport him to a replica of the Enterprise were he is alone with a sexy woman ... for some reason. The point is that they want Kirks germs. He needs to infect the populations to start killing people off. Evidently they also do not have disease. So they do not believe in birth control because they "hold life sacred" but they want to kill people??

ST TOS COUNTDOWN: 72 down 8 to go

3 comments:

Donald said...

I just watched this one the other day too. Brilliant, mysterious opening, that really went nowhere. Some nice ideas and some good performances from the cast, but ultimately a forgettable episode.

Mugato said...

That is the overall theme of Season Three. Many good ideas that just fall apart.

Justin Garrett Blum said...

Yeah, that sounds pretty contradictory, but at the same time, so are most people who subscribe to a theology. Not to get all political up in here...