Dagger of the Mind (Episode)

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Dagger of the Mind

"Dagger of the Mind" (TOS 10)

Series	Star Trek
Season	1
Episode	9
Production Number	11
Release Date	3 Nov 1966
Advertising	Amazon

Stardate 2715.1: A new treatment for the criminally insane has deadly results.

The Enterprise is delivering supplies to Tantalus V, a "progressive" penal colony directed by Dr. Tristan Adams. A Tantalus inmate escapes to the ship and demands asylum. An apparent raving madman, the patient is subdued and taken to sickbay. There, he is identified as Dr. Simon van Gelder, Dr. Adams' assistant.

Captain Kirk and ship's psychiatrist Dr. Helen Noel beam down to Tantalus to ensure that all is well. After they leave, Mr. Spock uses a mind meld on van Gelder and determines that Adams has turned Tantalus into a chamber of horrors, using a neural neutralizer—a device responsible for van Gelder's incoherent state.

Kirk and Noel experience the device firsthand when Adams uses it to convince Kirk that he is hopelessly in love with Dr. Noel. She risks her life to cut the colony's power so that Spock and a landing party can beam down through the planet's defensive forcefield. During the attack, Adams accidentally dies in his own machine, and van Gelder becomes the new director of Tantalus, where his first act is to dismantle the neural neutralizer.

Image Gallery

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  Tantalus V

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  Surface of Tantalus V

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  toasting

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  Dr. Tristan Adams

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  Lieutenant Berkeley

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  Eli

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  Fields

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  Helmsman

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  Lethe

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  Navigator

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  Dr. Helen Noel

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  Redshirt

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  Tantalus Security Guard

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  Technician

• van-gelder simon-tos10.jpg

  Dr. Simon van Gelder

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  mind meld

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  neural neutralizer

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  package

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  PADD

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  U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

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  U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701

Related Data

Astrometrics	Earth; Stockholm; Tantalus V
Chronology	25 December 2266; 2267; Stardate 2715.1-2715.2
Culture	Christmas; dancing; party; toasting
Education	doctor; doctorate; physician; psychiatrist; surgeon
Food	alcohol; champagne
People	Adams, Tristan; Berkeley; Carl; Eli; Fields; Kirk, James T.; Lethe; McCoy, Leonard; Noel, Helen; Spock; Tantalus Security Guard; Uhura, Nyota; van Gelder, Simon
Politics	asylum; penal colony; prison; Starfleet Ranks (Ensign, Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain); yeoman
Science & Technology	air conditioning; audio receiver; biobed; biomonitor; blood; brain; brass; breathing mask; communications; communicator; companel; computer; elevator; feet; forcefield; heart; hypnosis; hypospray; impulse drive; medication; medkit; mind meld; nacelle; neural neutralizer; orbit; PADD; phasers (Type 1, Type 2); psychiatry; psychotherapy; schizophrenia; sedative; sensors; sponge; synapses; telepathy; time (second, minute, hour, century); tranquilizer; transporter; tricorder; turbolift; viewscreen; warp drive
Ships & Vehicles	Constitution class; U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701
Xenology	Humans; hybrids; Vulcans
Miscellaneous	bridge; captain's quarters; Central Bureau of Penology; commanding officer; Devil's Island; first officer; hospital; kitchen; logs; Red Alert; science lab; sickbay; Starfleet Uniforms (2266); vault; Vulcan nerve pinch

Credits

Writer
Shimon Wincelberg (as S. Bar-David)

Director
Vincent McEveety

Cast
Anthony, Larry; Doohan, James; Gregory, James; Hill, Marianna; Kelley, DeForest; Nichols, Nichelle; Nimoy, Leonard; Shatner, William; Takei, George; Wasson, Suzanne; Woodward, Morgan

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