‘Star Trek’ Retro Recap: ‘The Mark of Gideon’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Pride is a word that is often regarded in a negative light and understandably so. After all, so many abuse what pride stands for and use it instead to pad their ego in an obnoxious fashion. But what’s truly fascinating about the negative connotation that comes with this particular word, is that its sour essence extends far beyond that annoying guy you meet at conventions that claims to be God’s nerdy gift to whatever they’re ranting about, for it is a concept that can outright harm people when they’re unwilling to drop it and ask for help. And it just so happens that the next episode of Star Trek takes the time to explore the dangers that come with pride, by introducing us to a world where its abundance is indeed harming its people.
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Yet as this series is wont to do in season three, it masks that fact by taking us on a uniquely different ride early on, and at first glance it seemed as though ‘The Mark of Gideon’ was going to be a story about how other cultures and their people are sometimes slow to letting others in out of fear. Something evidenced by how the planet Gideon was adverse to allowing strangers to beam down to their world, making it quite the miracle that Captain Kirk was going to be allowed to speak to the leaders of this world face to face, in order to facilitate their application for admission into the Federation. And that’s when this subtle exploration into pride got underway, in the most unique and fascinating manner imaginable.

For Captain Kirk never left the Enterprise. He instead rematerialized on an empty version of his ship, and while he tried to figure out what the heck happened to his crew, it was revealed to the audience that someone built a replica of the ship. Why exactly, was unknown at this point in the story. But seeing as to how Spock and the crew were stonewalled at every turn by Ambassador Hodin to execute a rescue plan, it seemed as though the Gideons were either keeping Kirk for nefarious purposes or there was a rival faction present on the planet below, one that wanted to sow discord and chaos with this peace plan. But the arrival of a beautiful woman named Odana, aboard Kirk’s alternate NCC-1701, helped to reveal the subtext surrounding the dangers of pride. 

Because she was the daughter of the Ambassador and her job was to get close to Kirk so she could contract a rare disease he had ages ago. All in the hopes of killing her and others because Gideon’s big secret was that the planet was grossly overpopulated, since death did not come easy to these people. And since the Federation would likely never help them in a plan to control their populace, and because they were too prideful to ask for any kind of help or solutions, they decided upon a shadier way to execute their plan. Which is, a supremely grandiose and over the top way to hammer home the fact that we need to put our pride aside when there is a crisis hanging over our heads, but it is an effective way to get the message across. 

If anything, it’s obvious that this is another episode that quite frankly, needed a little more time in the creative oven. Because this is a good story, one that definitely offers up some fine ideas and concepts. But the rushed nature of the script does the story a grand disservice, and it leaves a lot on the table since everything the Gideons did here, should spark some intergalactic fallout. After all, replicating a Starfleet vessel is a big intelligence problem, not to mention the issues surrounding the fact Odana plans to infect and kill her people. But alas, those topics are left to the imagination for resolution and we are left with a decent but inconsistent tale. But on the plus side, this was a compelling story, one that rewarded you for sticking with the mystery and that’s not a bad thing by any means. Because you can’t go wrong with a story that gives you its best effort. Until next time.  

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