Garth of Izar

Garth of Izar was a villain from the Star Trek: The Original Series episode "Whom Gods Destroy".

Garth was a Starfleet officer who rose to the rank of fleet captain, and whose exploits in exploring uncharted worlds became required reading at the Starfleet academy. He was a personal hero of Captain Kirk. However, an accident that left him badly maimed caused him to go insane. After being nursed back to health by the peaceful beings of Antos IV, and gifted a technique of cellular metamorphosis to heal his mangled body, he offered them the galaxy as repayment. When they refused, his diseased mind saw it as a great insult, and he attempted to commit genocide against their whole species. His men naturally refused, and he was sent to an asylum for the criminally insane on Elba II.

On Elba II, he expanded the technique that the beings on Antos IV had given him to the point that he could make himself appear to be someone else. He used this to trick a guard into letting him out of his cell, and soon took over the asylum, dubbing himself "Lord" Garth. While in control, he manufactured chemical explosives, and turned a rehabilitation chair into a torture device that could be used indefinitely, and tortured the former governor of the asylum, Donald Cory, with it.

When the USS Enterprise came to Elba II for delivery of new medicines, Garth took it as an opportunity to escape. He took the guise of Governor Cory at first, and trapped Kirk and Spock in a cell with the real Cory. He declared his ambitions for galactic conquest, but was unable to beam aboard the Enterprise because he didn't know the code, a chess move, to gain access. Over dinner, Garth attempted to get the code out of Kirk and Spock, and when that didn't work, he demonstrated his explosives on his own consort. Garth finally attempted to fool Spock by taking Kirk's form and attempting to escape with him, but Spock eventually was able to identify his true captain.

Garth was subdued and his followers returned to confinement. After being given some of the new drug, Garth appeared to finally be brought back to his old self, and even shakes Kirk's hand.