Television Review: Whom Gods Destroy (Star Trek, S3X16, 1969)

Whom Gods Destroy (S03E16)

Airdate: January 3rd 1969

Written by: Lee Erwin
Directed by: Herb Wallerstein

Running Time: 50 minutes

Among the myriad ailments that afflicted the oft-criticised third season of Star Trek: The Original Series (TOS), a pervasive lack of originality stands out as particularly damning. By 1969, the show’s creative wellspring had been sapped by drastic budget cuts and the departure of key writers and producers, leaving behind a production team increasingly reliant on retreads of older ideas. This creative stagnation manifested in episodes that felt eerily familiar to longtime viewers, their plots echoing earlier, superior instalments with diminished vigour. Whom Gods Destroy, the season’s penultimate episode, epitomises this trend. While not an outright failure, its narrative and aesthetic choices repeatedly invoke the spectres of classics like The Enemy Within and Dagger of the Mind, offering little beyond a watered-down remix of themes already explored with greater nuance. What might have been a serviceable story is instead rendered inert by its inability to transcend its influences or compensate for the series’ mounting production woes.

The episode opens with the USS Enterprise on a routine mission to deliver a revolutionary regenerative drug to Elba II, a Federation asylum for the criminally insane. Accompanied by Spock, Captain Kirk beams down to meet Governor Donald Cory (Keye Luke), a weary administrator whose unsettlingly cordial welcome soon unravels. The twist arrives swiftly: Cory, bloodied and imprisoned in a patient’s cell, reveals his identity was usurped by Garth of Izar (Steve Ihnat), a once-legendary Starfleet commander driven mad by a near-fatal accident on Antos IV. The Antosians, known for their advanced regenerative biology, had granted Garth the ability to reshape his cellular structure—a power he exploits to impersonate Kirk and attempt to seize control of the Enterprise. A force field preventing reinforcements from orbit traps the duo on the planet, forcing them into a battle of wits against Garth’s theatrical tyranny.

Written by television veteran Lee Erwin, the plot is serviceable in its simplicity, though its debt to earlier episodes is undeniable. Like Dagger of the Mind, it situates the action in a psychiatric institution, a setting that allows for claustrophobic tension but feels curiously underutilised here. Erwin’s script nods to continuity in small but notable ways: the reused sets and props for Elba II’s asylum bear a passing resemblance to those of its fictional predecessor, a rare concession to consistency in a series often hamstrung by haste. Yet the narrative’s predictability undermines its potential. Garth’s descent into megalomania follows a well-worn arc, and his plan—a melodramatic bid for galactic domination—lacks the philosophical heft of, say, The Menagerie’s exploration of disability and autonomy.

The episode’s technical constraints are impossible to ignore. Season 3’s skeletal budget forced the production to economise ruthlessly: the cast is pared down to a skeleton crew, with only Kirk and Spock assigned to the away mission—a curious choice, given Dr. McCoy’s medical expertise would have been more logically suited to the task. The absence of supporting characters amplifies the sense of isolation but also exposes the story’s skeletal structure. Recurring alien races like the Tellarites and Andorians are shoehorned in as background extras, their presence justified by the flimsiest of plot devices. This recycling of costumes and prosthetics, while pragmatic, underscores the show’s creative exhaustion.

Steve Ihnat’s portrayal of Garth oscillates between magnetic and mannered. A promising actor whose career was tragically cut short by his death at 39, Ihnat leans into the role’s histrionics with gusto, delivering monologues that veer from chilling to comically overwrought. His Garth is less a tragic fallen hero than a pantomime villain, relishing his own grandeur in a manner that occasionally undermines the episode’s tension. Yet this larger-than-life performance is not without merit; Ihnat’s energy injects a degree of unpredictability into scenes that might otherwise have faltered.

The script’s most intriguing moments arise from its central gimmick: Garth’s shape-shifting. This device allows William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy to showcase their versatility as they navigate the doppelgänger trope. Shatner’s Garth/Kirk is a masterclass in mimicry, his uncanny replication of Garth’s mannerisms bordering on the uncanny—a sly wink to the audience at the actor’s own performative duality. Nimoy, meanwhile, subtly recalibrates Spock’s demeanor when portraying Garth’s imitation, his faintly exaggerated stoicism highlighting the artifice. These sequences, though brief, inject a playful wit into an otherwise sombre affair.

Yet the episode’s most indelible—if controversial—element is Yvonne Craig’s Marta, an Orion slave whose green-skinned exoticism and skimpy attire cater unapologetically to the male gaze. Marta’s sultry dance sequence, while technically proficient, feels jarringly out of step with Trek’s nominal utopianism, her character reduced to a visual spectacle rather than a narrative agent. Her brutal punishment at Garth’s hands—a violent act framed as both tragedy and titillation—further muddies the episode’s ethical stance. Craig, best known as Batgirl in the Batman series, brings a palpable charisma to the role, yet her talents are squandered on a character devoid of agency.

Marta’s inclusion also highlights the production’s technical disarray. As Craig later recounted, the makeup team had forgotten the formula for Orion green pigment by Season 3, leading to on-set improvisation that exacerbated delays. Such behind-the-scenes chaos mirrored the broader struggles of a show nearing its cancellation, its staff battling dwindling resources and morale. That Whom Gods Destroy retains any charm at all is a testament to its performers’ resilience; the episode’s campy excesses, particularly Marta’s theatrics, inadvertently lend it a kitsch appeal that elevates it above the season’s more listless entries.

RATING: 6/10 (++)

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