"Whom Gods Destroy" (season three, episode fourteen; production code: 071; 3 January 1969): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: "Whom Gods Destroy" is a solid, though unspectacular episode, which makes it a treat amidst the slog of the third season. The madness of former Fleet Captain Garth, who now styles himself, "Lord Garth, Master of the Universe," mkes him erratic, but not irrational: Garth does not murder Captain Kirk because he needs Kirk alive to tell him the countersign necessary to order Scotty to active the transporter. The only element I found unconvincing was the powerful explosive Garth has devised, which he uses to murder his paramour, Marta, an Orion female (played by Yvonne Craig, Batgirl on Batman); Garth's escape from his cell using his shapeshifting powers makes sense, but where inside a maximum security asylum for the criminally insane would be get the materials to make a high explosive?
The setting inside an asylum for the criminally insane draws comparisons to the other Original Series episode set inside an asylum for the criminally insane, "Dagger of the Mind" (season one, episode nine). It's unfortunate "Whom Gods Destroy" is set on the planet Elba II, instead of "Dagger of the Mind's" planet Tantalus V; it would have been a neat bit of continuity to return to Tantalus V two years after the Enterprise crew exposed the corruption of the director, Dr. Tristan Adams.
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