A thought-shield was a type of force field capable of blocking mental abilities, such as psychokinesis. It also had the unintended side effects of inducing strong emotions and hallucinations. Prolonged exposure would eventually result in death.
History and specifications[]
In the year 2269, the Klingons developed thought-shield technology and erected one around Organia, preventing the Organians from leaving it or learning what was happening outside of it. This allowed the Klingon Empire to declare war against the Federation without Organian interference. The Starfleet starship USS Enterprise attempted to transport a copy of Spock made of tachyons to Organia, but the thought-shield reflected the tachyons back to the ship, creating a mirrored duplicate. After reaching Organia months later, James T. Kirk, Spock and Montgomery Scott beamed down to the planet, where, despite the shield's effects, they disabled the thought-shield and freed the Organians. (TOS novel: Spock Must Die!)
Appendices[]
Background[]
With the deus ex machina ending where the Organians declared they were going to sanction the Klingons by curtailing their ability to travel in space, it almost certainly included a provision that the Organians would remove any capability to rediscover this device. Although Spock Must Die! might be considered an alternate continuity due to contradictions with later canon, the Klingons later experimented with other thought-based weapons and countermeasures, such as the thought-enhancer in the Marvel TOS comics "The Haunting of Thallus!" and "The Haunting of the Enterprise!" and the soma emitter, synapse bomb and dilithium delta-6 telepathic amplification from TOS video game: The Rebel Universe. The devices from the latter source became useless after the destruction of the only known source of dilithium delta-6 in the optimal solution to the game narrative (see video game logic). Klingon experimentation with mind devices is in keeping with their original appearance in TOS episode: "Errand of Mercy" where they employed the mind-sifter, but later canon showed no further advancement with such technology.