“The Mark of Gideon” starts off strongly enough to keep the audience interested at least through its midway point. But as the episode approaches its specific messages and ideas, it stumbles mightily, ending with a whimper, rather than finishing with a bang (puns somewhat intentional). In truth, the episode’s primary commentary, on overpopulation and, of all things, birth control, are just too awkwardly presented. The result is an episode which ends up being slightly less than average.

The episode begins with the Enterprise arriving at Gideon, a highly xenophobic planet which demands that only Captain Kirk be allowed to beam down. Following his transport, Kirk finds himself inexplicably back on the Enterprise. The only problem? It’s empty. Completely empty. Save for a mysterious (and obligatory) beautiful woman who revels in the emptiness of the ship and tells stories about the overpopulation on her own planet.

Right away, it’s easy to figure out that Kirk is an unwitting participant in some kind of test – much like what we saw in “Specter of the Gun” – but this time, the test is a form of psychological coercion in which Kirk will be pushed into remaining on the planet so that the disease he carries in his blood stream can start to kill the inhabitants of Gideon, so that they may return to a normal lifespan.

And if the concept sounds silly – that’s because it is. But before the concept is revealed, the episode quite skillfully portrays Kirk’s predicament with the proper amounts of suspense and outright creepiness (especially when some ghostly faces can be seen in the viewscreen and observation ports). This, alongside the enjoyable “diplomatic” interchanges between Spock and the leader of Gideon allow the episode to be fairly entertaining. Factor in the subtle commentary about bureaucrats and the value of solitude, and there’s quite a bit to enjoy about the episode before it approaches its more dubious theme of birth control.

As it turns out, the Gideons are against birth control to a fault. In the episode, their “culture of life” is directly responsible for the disastrous overcrowding of their planet. (Incidentally, implicit in all of this, is a message in favor of abortion.) But the fact that the Gideons are willing to sacrifice the leader’s daughter, and kill off otherwise healthy people is so baffling that the plausibility of the episode suffers. Perhaps it was meant to be hypocritical. But if so, the episode never drove the point home.

“The Mark of Gideon” was a fairly decent episode until it reached the main thrust of its commentary. From there, the plausibility, characterizations, and overall plot simply fell apart. The result is a substandard installment.

Filed under: Original Series