I first saw this episode many years ago, when I was quite young, and thought it was very impressive. Now that I'm older, though, it just doesn't hold up that well.
The episode does have some positive elements: lots of action; some dynamic performances, especially by Shatner; a welcome guest appearance by a young Sally Kellerman; and a premise that, at least on the surface, seemed interesting-- the moral dilemma involved if a close personal friend becomes a mortal threat.
However, the flaws are also great. One thing I didn't like is that the Gary Mitchell character, played by Gary Lockwood, got corrupted far too quickly and easily. I mean, this guy was supposed to have been a top level Starfleet officer, and a close personal friend of Kirk, yet he goes mad with power right away. Almost from the outset, he even boasts about crushing them like insects and says that the smart thing to do would be to kill him. I thought people in the future, especially Starfleet officers, were supposed to have better characters than that. The story would have been much more interesting and compelling if Mitchell had been portrayed as fighting against the urge to turn evil, which would at least have made him sympathetic, but he doesn't, not even for a second.
This behavior is implausible to me for several reasons. While I could see absolute power corrupting eventually, why does it happen so fast? It's almost like Mitchell was driven kind of loony tunes by whatever changed him (yet, that didn't happen to Dehner, so that argument is weakened). More importantly, all he really had to do was to conceal or minimize his powers until they were so great that no one could stop him; why act like a grandiose monster and warn everyone right away that he was a mortal threat? Kirk was kind of an idiot for not heeding Spock's warnings after Mitchell himself declared that Spock was right. He was supposed to be hyper-intelligent (called Spinoza "childish"; absorbed the ship's library in hours), yet his behavior is pretty stupid and self-destructive.
Also, Dr. Dehner (Kellerman) did not turn into evil incarnate right away like he did. This suggests that Mitchell really was, fundamentally, a corrupt and evil person at the core. I disliked the fact that Kirk gives both Mitchell and Dehner the same commendation at the end; she richly deserved it, but Mitchell didn't deserve it at all. She was the real hero of the piece.
Some great dialogue, though, that still impresses me. Kirk in desperation, trying to sway Dehner- "What's your prognosis, doctor?!" Spock-- "All I know is logic. In my opinion, we'll be lucky to repair the ship and get away in time." Of course, he was right. Indeed, the way Mitchell's power was continuously increasing, he could probably soon fly through space on his own power and destroy whole worlds.
I also have a quibble about the corny sci fi here. Not even a feeble attempt was made to explain the incredibly ridiculous physics here-- what the heck was Mitchell's power source?? Why did he have no limits at all? No one ever had a fighting chance against this guy, ever, unless they killed him early enough.
The two characters who come across best here are Dehner and Spock. This was an early episode, so I haven't rated it too harshly, and it does have some enjoyable elements; but it is very difficult to see the Mitchell character as anything other than pure evil.
The episode does have some positive elements: lots of action; some dynamic performances, especially by Shatner; a welcome guest appearance by a young Sally Kellerman; and a premise that, at least on the surface, seemed interesting-- the moral dilemma involved if a close personal friend becomes a mortal threat.
However, the flaws are also great. One thing I didn't like is that the Gary Mitchell character, played by Gary Lockwood, got corrupted far too quickly and easily. I mean, this guy was supposed to have been a top level Starfleet officer, and a close personal friend of Kirk, yet he goes mad with power right away. Almost from the outset, he even boasts about crushing them like insects and says that the smart thing to do would be to kill him. I thought people in the future, especially Starfleet officers, were supposed to have better characters than that. The story would have been much more interesting and compelling if Mitchell had been portrayed as fighting against the urge to turn evil, which would at least have made him sympathetic, but he doesn't, not even for a second.
This behavior is implausible to me for several reasons. While I could see absolute power corrupting eventually, why does it happen so fast? It's almost like Mitchell was driven kind of loony tunes by whatever changed him (yet, that didn't happen to Dehner, so that argument is weakened). More importantly, all he really had to do was to conceal or minimize his powers until they were so great that no one could stop him; why act like a grandiose monster and warn everyone right away that he was a mortal threat? Kirk was kind of an idiot for not heeding Spock's warnings after Mitchell himself declared that Spock was right. He was supposed to be hyper-intelligent (called Spinoza "childish"; absorbed the ship's library in hours), yet his behavior is pretty stupid and self-destructive.
Also, Dr. Dehner (Kellerman) did not turn into evil incarnate right away like he did. This suggests that Mitchell really was, fundamentally, a corrupt and evil person at the core. I disliked the fact that Kirk gives both Mitchell and Dehner the same commendation at the end; she richly deserved it, but Mitchell didn't deserve it at all. She was the real hero of the piece.
Some great dialogue, though, that still impresses me. Kirk in desperation, trying to sway Dehner- "What's your prognosis, doctor?!" Spock-- "All I know is logic. In my opinion, we'll be lucky to repair the ship and get away in time." Of course, he was right. Indeed, the way Mitchell's power was continuously increasing, he could probably soon fly through space on his own power and destroy whole worlds.
I also have a quibble about the corny sci fi here. Not even a feeble attempt was made to explain the incredibly ridiculous physics here-- what the heck was Mitchell's power source?? Why did he have no limits at all? No one ever had a fighting chance against this guy, ever, unless they killed him early enough.
The two characters who come across best here are Dehner and Spock. This was an early episode, so I haven't rated it too harshly, and it does have some enjoyable elements; but it is very difficult to see the Mitchell character as anything other than pure evil.