Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad, and whom Kirk wishes to cure he must first understand. When the Enterprise crew visits the asylum planet Elba II, which houses individuals deemed dangerously insane, Captain Kirk encounters Garth of Izar, a former Starfleet captain who has descended into madness. Kirk and crew were delivering medicine to cure the violent inmates of their mental illness, but the asylum had fallen under Garth’s control before the Enterprise had arrived.
Garth was a promising Starfleet officer prior to his brain injury, which left him with delusions of grandeur. He set his sights on taking control of the Enterprise and using it to conquer the galaxy. With the power to change his form, using a cellular regeneration method he learned to heal his injuries, Garth impersonates Kirk and plots his escape. By carefully playing his body switching strategy, he was able to imprison Kirk and Spock before either knew what was going on. Fortunately, he is blocked by Starfleet’s next move. Kirk had instructed Scotty to only beam him up upon Kirk giving the correct answer to a chess problem. Garth is unable to answer, and tries everything in his power to get Kirk to tell him the code.
Locked in an insane asylum with an unhinged Captain Garth, we explore the complexities of mental health and identity. Garth, consumed by his delusions, associates with great historical figures, perceiving himself as an embodiment of their achievements. His crisis of identity is deeply linked with his interpretation of reality. In one sense, the brain injury may have impacted the old captain’s sense of self to such a degree that he did not know who he was anymore. Combined with his ability to change his body at will, this tenuous grasp on his own identity may have exacerbated his condition further.
To understand why, consider the concept of having a body. Being a single human is limiting, but it may be the only state our brain has evolved to endure. The body we are given becomes a map of how we exist in this space, and how others interact with us. Every human being has never been anyone but themselves, and they have developed coping strategies and psychological mechanisms to work within the limitations they have. The person which emerges within this set of abilities and limitations is the individual. If one’s identity is contingent on physical appearance, can someone impersonating that appearance truly embody the original person?
By constantly switching forms, Garth commandeered new identities, with which he wasn’t able to cope due to his tenuous grasp of who he originally was. Just as his mind imagined achievements that were inconsistent with reality, his physical form also had no limits. It makes sense that his ambitions of conquering the galaxy would be equally limitless.
The issue of unfettered limits will eventually devastate the individual, as they fail to remain an individual at all. To constantly morph into something you are not whenever it is convenient will erase your original personhood and prevent any development into the uniquely bound individual you could have been. By breaking these invisible bonds, Garth wanted everything from power to the whole galaxy, but once he has these things, then what? The soul which seeks respite in obtaining more and more will never be satisfied. Instead, he tries to switch places with Kirk again, and Spock, wiser to his cunning, stuns the Kirk impersonator. Garth was a promising captain, and he could have been a perfectly satisfied individual within his limitations, a state which enables growth. Instead of idolizing powerful men, who are often distorted by history’s partisan lens, he could have been a captain, a friend, a husband, or a father. We can be many things, but we can’t be everything.
Hopeless Trekkie 