Episode 09: Dagger of the Mind

It’s funny how things can connect in life.

When I was in high school my city had a program called Mayor Youth Day where teens from local schools got to follow around city officials for a day on the job. I knew people who got to sit in the city treasurer’s office, who rode around on the back of a fire truck, one girl even got to fire a police officer’s gun. But being generally unfortunate, none of my friends got to do anything even close to as exciting as sitting in a city treasurer’s office. My friend Michael received probably the worst position of the day; for that day, he acted as the assistant to the city’s planetarium director.

Michael being Michael, the boy actually felt somewhat excited by this so he donned his best bow-tie and took his 17 year old self to city hall, happily telling people that he would be tending to the school children coming to see him for the day. But I think that it had mostly to do with the fact that a then fairly recent episode of “South Park” covered what fun could be had on a trip to the planetarium.

In the episode, the boys visit the Tantalus V Observatory and meet Dr. Adams—a scientist with a rather bizarre bone disease that cripples his ability to pronounce the “T” in the word planetarium (Plane-arium). Once inside, the boys meet Dr. Adams’ peculiar assistants whose empty expression and robotic claims of “I love my work” immediately throw them off. When Dr. Adams turns on the machine, he shows the boys various constellations like The Big Dipper, Roger Ebert, and the two stars that depict the Crusades lulling the children into a bored stupor. Then Dr. Adams activates his machines and begins implanting thoughts into their minds insisting that they love the planetarium and thinking otherwise will cause them enormous pain.

Where am I going with this? Well, I basically just described “Dagger of the Mind” and this season 2 episode of South Park riffs on it down to Mr. Mackay performing a guidance counselor mind meld on one of the planetarium’s escaped assistants. Even the logo on Dr. Adams’ jacket matches the one in South Park. Bunch of nerds run that show I tell you.

Aside from being the influence for a South Park episode, “Dagger of the Mind” also manages to milk a more bombastic performance out of Dr. (NAME) than Shatner ever could. It would seem that NAME comes from the prestigious Clammy Skinned, Goofy Face Shouty School of Acting:

But watching this series just goes to show you how everything can just connect sometimes. Had it not been for Star Trek, then my friend Michael would have never enjoyed Mayor’s Youth Day that day. Then again, he may have anyway—the Chesapeake City Planetarium does have a life sized R2D2 in the lobby.

This is Star Trek.

That can't be regulation attire. It just can't. If she showed up to my high school wearing that she would be sent home for improper attire.

The Captain's Log is apparently a vintage 60s tape recorder.

One bit of technology they managed to predict: Text messaging!


He's Dead Jim:
1 Fried Security Guard
Dr. Adams' brain blanked out by his own machine

Total Star Trek Death Toll: 60
... and 5 Androids. I still am not sure if they count or not.

On the Next Episode...

The crew of the Enterprise can't get rid of their Windows screen saver.