Star Trek: Original Series Season One - 11/20/07 MSRP $217.99 (1 Viewer)

[Douglas Monce]

Very good point. But that was the nature of episodic television. Even big story points from one episode seemed to be forgotten in the next. Most TV shows were like this.

Doug

 

[Dave Scarpa]

Don't forget "Where Silence has Lease"

 

[Douglas Monce]

It was in the 3rd season of the show. I don't know if it was made in late 1968 or early 1969.

Doug

 

[Rachael B]

It's hard to argue that the special effects on the The Alternative Factor are not the worst of the worst of the worst for that show. The last episode Turnabout Intruder is about as pathetic I'd amit. Atleast, it's alot funnier.

Funny, somebody else hates TNG The Royale and I love it. I think it's a show where Data's character begins to expand. I've watched it many times...

 

[Lou Sytsma]

Funny indeed - I find Turnabout Intruder quite enjoyable - but it really dates the show not allowing women to captain a ship.

 

[Rachael B]

Despite the awful effects it is amusing. The Enterprise's script complete with a female Captain, has turned over the NBC Board's decissicon there on la femmes.....what if Miss Barret had been allowed to be #2...? ....for more than one pilot. Bu-uuu-t no-oooo, she was demoted to nurse and computer voice. Enterprise rewrote some Trek-his-tory.

 

[Douglas Monce]

It's interesting because according to Herb Solo and Robert Justman, NBC's objection to Miss Barret had less to do with her being a woman and more do with with her rather limited acting ability. Also women in test audiences for the first pilot HATED her. The idea that NBC objected to a female second in command is a bit of Gene Roddenberry revisionism for the sake of his girlfriend.

I actually think she was just so so on Star Trek because they didn't know how to use her. As she proved on TNG she is really quite a good comedian.

Doug

 

[RobertR]

I assume Herb Solo was the "Herbert" referred to in the episode The Way to Eden, "a minor official known for his rigid and narrow pattern of thought".

 

[Nelson Au]

Well, I have not seen The Royale since it first aired. I skipped it when I got the DVD's. Maybe I'll give it a fair look with fresh eyes and open mind.

The idea that Majel Barrett was objected to by NBC because of her acting is a new one to me. If that was in Justman and Solo's book, I don't remember that. I'll look it up. I've always heard the version that women in the test audiences objected to a women in a non-traditional role. It does sound like a valid reaction from the test audience in the early 60's with late 50's values.

I have yet to see The Alternative Factor on the HD-DVD, but I want to see it again. As far as Turnabout Intruder is concerned, I had read that Shatner had a high fever during some scenes and he was a trooper to get the work done. I saw this as a showcase to his acting professionalism as the nuances applied, either from suggestions or his own ideas to make himself act more like Janice then Kirk. So I like this episode on that basis. You also have to wonder, from watching that episode, they all knew this was it, the last Star Trek. But they were all doing their jobs.

 

[Douglas Monce]

Yes it is in their book, and Solo and Justman confirmed that indeed women in the test audience didn't like Barrett, but NBC objected to her even before the test screenings. Roddenberry kept putting her back in because he was having an affair with her.

Solo and Justman tend to balk at the idea that NBC was apposed to the idea that a women might be in charge or that they didn't like the idea of minorities being on the ship. In fact NBC was a big promoter of hiring minorities in their own company and very much approved of the mixed cast.

The NBC program manager in charge of Star Trek was an African American named Stanley Robertson who had worked his way up from being a page at the NBC studios to being one of the most powerful men in television. This was the man who they had to goto to get stories and casting approved.

Doug

 

[Jim_K]

It's pretty bad, but the worst? My god!! have you seen Spock's Brain?!
"What did you do with Spock's brain?"
"Brain and brain what is brain."

I'm not so sure it's even the worst of season 1. I have this episode and the one where they turn Spock into a space hippie, both on my horizon. Ugh. :frowning:

 

[Douglas Monce]

Well at least Spock's Brain is amusing, which The Alternative Factor is not. The Alternative Factor doesn't even have any humor in it.

Doug

 

[Dave Scarpa]

I Don't Know Lazarus Screaming and Plummeting of a Cliff every Commercial Break is Kinda funny...

 

[Douglas Monce]

Yeah but I feel guilty about laughing at that. It's kinda like laughing at one of Jerry's Kids.

Doug