Tristan Adams

Doctor Tristan Adams was a Human male who served as a psychologist and director of the Tantalus Penal Colony in the mid-23rd century.

In the mid-2240s, Adams set out to revolutionize the Federation's prison system and the way the prisoners were treated inside penal institutions. By the 2260s, his theories had transformed prisons from mere cages into clean, decent hospitals which helped to rehabilitate criminals, instead of merely locking them up.

By 2266, Adams had risen to become director of the penal colony on Tantalus V, at which time, Dr. Simon Van Gelder, joined him as an associate. Merely six months later, Van Gelder had become severely ill and had trouble remembering his own name. Van Gelder managed to escape the colony by hiding in a supply crate which was beamed up to the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701). After subduing Van Gelder, Captain James T. Kirk contacted Dr. Adams and informed him of Van Gelder's escape, Adams gave Kirk a false diagnosis of Van Gelder's illness which didn't convince Enterprise CMO, Dr. Leonard McCoy.

With McCoy's suspicions and regulations stipulating that Kirk investigate, he transported to the surface with Dr. Helen Noel, to meet Adams and learn about what had happened to Van Gelder. On the Enterprise, Lieutenant Commander Spock and Dr. McCoy were able to determine that Adams had inflicted the condition on Van Gelder through the use of unauthorized and unethical experiments on all partients which turned them into mindless Zombies, with Van Gelder being the only exception. By the time they had learned this, Adams had already imprisoned Kirk and Noel and had subjected the captain to his neural neutralizer.

However, Noel was able to briefly shut down the colony's power systems during an escape attempt. During the attempt, Kirk was able to overpower Adams and escape the neural neutralizer room, just as Spock restored the power. Because he was lying stunned on the floor of the neutralizer room, Adams was subjected to unsupervised exposure to the beam which emptied his mind and killed him.