Kirk Your Enthusiasm (19)

By: Annie Nocenti
August 23, 2012

Nineteenth in a series of posts, each one analyzing a single Captain Kirk scene from the Star Trek canon.

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Captain Smirk | “Dagger of the Mind” | Star Trek: The Original Series | Season 1, Episode 9 | November 1966

He: Elevator, and going down quite a ways.
She: I wouldn’t recommend it for weak hearts.

And so the dance begins. With Captain Kirk and potential conquest Dr. Helen Noel, a ship psychiatrist, in “Dagger of the Mind.” No matter what alien world, time/space paradox, monsters within or without, Kirk never missed a chance for a good double entendre. These terse, witty moments in Star Trek, effortless asides that flit and skate and flirt about, encapsulate a power struggle within the innuendo.

Dr. Noel pushes, the Captain pushes back.

He: Shall we leave it up to the doctor?
She: Since you brought me down here for advice, Captain…
He: One of the advantages of being a Captain, Doctor, is being able to ask for advice without necessarily having to take it.

Kirk is on the lurk: a combination of amusement, leer, sportsman on the hunt, from sly to hammy. A wry delight in all its manifestations. No matter what hand-wringing conundrum at the center of each episode, you knew Kirk was destined for another notch on his ladykiller belt.

Dr. Noel and Captain Kirk have history, maybe. It is never clear beyond the time Kirk “dropped in” on a science lab Christmas party aboard the Enterprise. She tries to push the memory a bit.

She: Perhaps it would be simpler if you called me Helen, Captain, since…
He: This is another time, another place, another situation.
She: Of course, Captain.

Dr. Noel also asks Dr. Adams, the whirligig-eyed villain of the episode, to call her “Helen.” In the nascent feminist times when the show aired, she seems to be trying to remove the distinguished title from her name — and is largely ignored. Or perhaps she just wants to be “one of the boys” — Scotty, Bones, Spock, Sulu, and of course, Jim.

Dr. Adams is explaining his work with the criminally insane in his floating space prison: “Part of the cure, if you will, Captain, is to bury the past. Why should a person go on living with unbearable memories if there’s no necessity. Oh, I feel quite sure that you’d concur with me in that, Doctor. Helen.”

Apparently she does not concur. When faced with an opportunity to slip a suggestion into Kirk’s mind (via the hypnotizing machine at the center of the plot), Dr. Noel first tries Hunger, then playfully moves on to: What Happened That Night When You “Dropped In.” Kirk falls into a reverie of that night. Is the moment real or fictive? He remembers — or imagines — a moment when he carried Noel back to his cabin and embraced her. In the reverie, Noel pulls back — wanting, girl that she is, to know what it means.

She: Of course, it would be different if you cared for me.
He: You want me to manufacture a lie, wrap it up as a Christmas present for you?

Noel gets it, and gives in.

Chivalry with a smirk.

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2012: KIRK YOUR ENTHUSIASM (Captain Kirk scenes): Dafna Pleban: Justice or vengeance? | Mark Kingwell : Kirk teaches his drill thrall to kiss | Nick Abadzis: “KHAAAAAN!” | Stephen Burt: “No kill I” | Greg Rowland: Kirk browbeats NOMAD | Zack Handlen: Kirk’s eulogy for Spock| Peggy Nelson: The joke is on Kirk | Kevin Church: Kirk vs. Decker | Enrique Ramirez: Good Kirk vs. Evil Kirk | Adam McGovern: Captain Camelot | Flourish Klink: Koon-ut-kal-if-fee | David Smay: Federation exceptionalism | Amanda LaPergola: Wizard fight | Steve Schneider: A million things you can’t have | Joshua Glenn: Debating in a vacuum | Kelly Jean Fitzsimmons: Klingon diplomacy | Trav S.D.: “We… the PEOPLE” | Matthew Battles: Brinksmanship on the brink | Annie Nocenti: Captain Smirk | Ian W. Hill: Sisko meets Kirk | Gabby Nicasio: Noninterference policy | Peter Bebergal: Kirk’s countdown | Matt Glaser: Kirk’s ghost | Joe Alterio: Watching Kirk vs. Gorn | Annalee Newitz: How Spock wins

ALSO ON HILOBROW Peggy Nelson on William Shatner as HiLo Hero | Greg Rowland on Leonard Nimoy as HiLo Hero | Peggy Nelson on William Shatner in Incubus | Matthew Battles on enlarging the Trek fanfic canon | Radium Age Supermen | Radium Age Robots | Radium Age Apocalypses | Radium Age Telepaths | Radium Age Eco-Catastrophes | Radium Age Cover Art (1) | SF’s Best Year Ever: 1912

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2014: KERN YOUR ENTHUSIASM (typefaces): Matthew Battles on ALDINE ITALIC | Adam McGovern on DATA 70 | Sherri Wasserman on TORONTO SUBWAY | Sarah Werner on JOHNSTON’S “HAMLET” | Douglas Wolk on TODD KLONE | Mark Kingwell on GILL SANS | Joe Alterio on AKZIDENZ-GROTESK | Suzanne Fischer on CALIFORNIA BRAILLE | Gary Panter on SHE’S NOT THERE | Deb Chachra on FAUX DEVANAGARI | Peggy Nelson on FUTURA | Tom Nealon on JENSON’S ROMAN | Rob Walker on SAVANNAH SIGN | Tony Leone on TRADE GOTHIC BOLD CONDENSED NO. 20 | Chika Azuma on KUMON WORKSHEET | Chris Spurgeon on ELECTRONIC DISPLAY | Amanda French on DIPLOMA REGULAR | Steve Price on SCREAM QUEEN | Alissa Walker on CHICAGO | Helene Silverman on CHINESE SHIPPING BOX | Tim Spencer on SHATTER | Jessamyn West on COMIC SANS | Whitney Trettien on WILKINS’S REAL CHARACTER | Cintra Wilson on HERMÈS vs. HOTDOG | Jacob Covey on GOTHAM.

2013: HERC YOUR ENTHUSIASM (old-school hip hop tracks): Luc Sante on “Spoonin’ Rap” | Dallas Penn on “Rapper’s Delight” | Werner Von Wallenrod on “Rappin’ Blow” | DJ Frane on “The Incredible Fulk” | Paul Devlin on “The Adventures of Super Rhyme” | Phil Dyess-Nugent on “That’s the Joint” | Adam McGovern on “Freedom” | David Abrams on “Rapture” | Andrew Hultkrans on “The New Rap Language” | Tim Carmody on “Jazzy Sensation (Bronx Version)” | Drew Huge on “Can I Get a Soul Clap” | Oliver Wang on “The Adventures of Grandmaster Flash on the Wheels of Steel” | Douglas Wolk on “Making Cash Money” | Adrienne Crew on “The Message” | Dart Adams on “Pak Jam” | Alex Belth on “Buffalo Gals” | Joshua Glenn on “Ya Mama” | Phil Freeman on “No Sell Out” | Nate Patrin on “Death Mix Live, Pt. 2” | Brian Berger on “White Lines (Don’t Do It)” | Cosmo Baker on “Here We Go (Live at the Funhouse)” | Colleen Werthmann on “Rockit” | Roy Christopher on “The Coldest Rap” | Dan Reines on “The Dream Team is in the House” | Franklin Bruno on The Lockers.

2011: KIRB YOUR ENTHUSIASM (Jack Kirby panels): Douglas Rushkoff on THE ETERNALS | John Hilgart on BLACK MAGIC | Gary Panter on DEMON | Dan Nadel on OMAC | Deb Chachra on CAPTAIN AMERICA | Mark Frauenfelder on KAMANDI | Jason Grote on MACHINE MAN | Ben Greenman on SANDMAN | Annie Nocenti on THE X-MEN | Greg Rowland on THE FANTASTIC FOUR | Joshua Glenn on TALES TO ASTONISH | Lynn Peril on YOUNG LOVE | Jim Shepard on STRANGE TALES | David Smay on MISTER MIRACLE | Joe Alterio on BLACK PANTHER | Sean Howe on THOR | Mark Newgarden on JIMMY OLSEN | Dean Haspiel on DEVIL DINOSAUR | Matthew Specktor on THE AVENGERS | Terese Svoboda on TALES OF SUSPENSE | Matthew Wells on THE NEW GODS | Toni Schlesinger on REAL CLUE | Josh Kramer on THE FOREVER PEOPLE | Glen David Gold on JOURNEY INTO MYSTERY | Douglas Wolk on 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY | MORE EXEGETICAL COMMENTARIES: Joshua Glenn on Kirby’s Radium Age Sci-Fi Influences | Chris Lanier on Kirby vs. Kubrick | Scott Edelman recalls when the FF walked among us | Adam McGovern is haunted by a panel from THE NEW GODS | Matt Seneca studies the sensuality of Kirby’s women | Btoom! Rob Steibel settles the Jack Kirby vs. Stan Lee question | Galactus Lives! Rob Steibel analyzes a single Kirby panel in six posts | Danny Fingeroth figgers out The Thing | Adam McGovern on four decades (so far) of Kirby’s “Fourth World” mythos | Jack Kirby: Anti-Fascist Pipe Smoker