influence In articles in the magazines Starlog and Entertainment Weekly, actor Morgan Woodward called the role of Dr. Simon Van Gelder the most physically and emotionally exhausting acting job of his career. Desperate to get out of Westerns and expand his range, he was cast against type for this episode and was so well regarded that he came on board next season to play the tragic Capt. Ronald Tracey in "The Omega Glory". Playing Van Gelder did take its toll on his personal life, as he confesses that for three weeks afterwards he was anti-social towards friends and family. He was grateful that this episode opened up whole new opportunities for him. The second-season South Park episode "Roger Ebert Should Lay Off the Fatty Foods" is a parody of this episode. References External links "Dagger of the Mind" Side-by-side comparisons before and after remastering at TrekMovie.com "Dagger of the Mind" Full Episode for viewing at CBS.com Star Trek: The Original Series (season 1) episodes 1966 American television episodes Fiction about memory erasure and alteration Television episodes directed by Vincent McEveety Things named after Shakespearean works