72. The Mark of GideonFORMULA: Wink of an Eye x the population of China
WHY WE LIKE IT: Creepy crowd scenes.
WHY WE DON'T: Again, a contrived and unconvincing plot.
REVIEW: The third season continues its steady journey through parable territory with The Mark of Gideon. This time, we're tackling overpopulation, but a little more bravely I thought, pro-choice/pro-life issues and contraception. The episode creates some striking images with both words and pictures. I particularly like the people just outside the council chamber, struggling to get by. Interesting non-descript costumes too.
The romance between Kirk and Odona manages to be kind of sweet, and Hodin's desperation is well-played. I also like Spock's impatience with diplomats, revealing some repressed feelings about his father perhaps? The episode might have been stronger without us seeing the Enterprise side of things, however. The mystery would have been deepened (we know too much) and besides, as the bureaucrats waste Spock's time, they're also wasting ours. The first half of the episode is quite slow, though the second moves at a much better pace.
In the end, while the plight of the Gideons is tangible, their plot (and the episode's) isn't logical. How do they build a replica of the Enterprise that would fool Kirk when they aren't even Federation members? If all they needed was the virus, why not throw Kirk in a cell and save the space? How did they expect Kirk to stick around once Odona was dead, no matter how in love he was with her? Why hasn't the population died from food depletion? It all boils down to magic again, since we must believe a magical people that never die, but keep breeding, on a planet that is basically a mass of living flesh. A nice image for a fairy tale or poem, but The Mark of Gideon never explains how that could really happen.
LESSON: Gideon is a planet ripe for rebellion, what with a handful of Councillors hogging all the extra space and the best clothes.
REWATCHABILITY - Medium: A far-fetched premise sinks an otherwise competent story. There are some things to like here, but it's slow-going at times.
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