Season 3 Unfair "Bad Reputation?"

[scotpens]

"Spectre of the Gun" has always been one of my favorites (just watched it yet again), and the final act may be some of the best continuous 10 minutes in the series. The mind-meld sequence, intercut with the Earps' funeral march to the OK Corral, is mysterious and suspenseful. There's an interesting suggestion of unreality with the Earps, dull-eyed automatons walking that last mile amid wind, thunder, and lightning, and the mind-meld scenes with the coming storm almost minimal in weather effects.

Agreed. Let's face it, "Spectre of the Gun" is a weak story. I mean, really -- Kirk & Co. forced to re-live the gunfight at the OK Corral? Sounds more appropriate to Lost in Space. But the surreal atmosphere, sets and photography make the episode a triumph of style over substance.

 

[johnnybear]

Doctor Who did it first in 1966 with The Gunfighters and it isn't one of that shows greatest moments with singing in the background of virtually every scene and a shootout at the end that makes you feel embarassed to see and makes you wonder if your own kids could have done better! Be thankful that Spectre isn't as bad!
JB

 

[Marsden]

"Spectre of the Gun" has always been one of my favorites (just watched it yet again), and the final act may be some of the best continuous 10 minutes in the series. The mind-meld sequence, intercut with the Earps' funeral march to the OK Corral, is mysterious and suspenseful. There's an interesting suggestion of unreality with the Earps, dull-eyed automatons walking that last mile amid wind, thunder, and lightning, and the mind-meld scenes with the coming storm almost minimal in weather effects.

YMMV.

+1

I just wish we got to know the Melkotians a bit more in a later episode or even production, but no one mentioned them again. I thought they were worth a second look.

 

[BillJ]

Agreed. Let's face it, "Spectre of the Gun" is a weak story. I mean, really -- Kirk & Co. forced to re-live the gunfight at the OK Corral? Sounds more appropriate to Lost in Space. But the surreal atmosphere, sets and photography make the episode a triumph of style over substance.

I guess it's one of the reasons we still talk about Star Trek. It was able to pull off so many things that sound silly on the surface in a dramatic fashion.

 

[erastus25]

"Spectre of the Gun" has always been one of my favorites (just watched it yet again), and the final act may be some of the best continuous 10 minutes in the series. The mind-meld sequence, intercut with the Earps' funeral march to the OK Corral, is mysterious and suspenseful. There's an interesting suggestion of unreality with the Earps, dull-eyed automatons walking that last mile amid wind, thunder, and lightning, and the mind-meld scenes with the coming storm almost minimal in weather effects.

Agreed. Let's face it, "Spectre of the Gun" is a weak story. I mean, really -- Kirk & Co. forced to re-live the gunfight at the OK Corral? Sounds more appropriate to Lost in Space. But the surreal atmosphere, sets and photography make the episode a triumph of style over substance.

I think it suffers b/c it's a 30 minute story expanded to a 60 minute episode. Cut the length down considerably and tighten up the story and you start to have something. As it is, though, it meanders.

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I don't know if anyone mentioned it, but there are a couple new 'incidental music' bits that appear in Season 3 that haven't appeared before. One I like, in particular, is the 'McCoy Love Theme' that shows up in "The Empath" and "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky"....

 

[Indysolo]

I'm not sure of the exact piece of music to which you are referring, but "The Empath" had an original score composed for it while "For The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" was entirely tracked form pre-existing scores.

Neil

 

[Neopeius]

Season 3 had MANY embarrassing moments, Spock's Brain, Kirk on all fours imitating a horse in Plato's Stepchildren, And the Children Shall Lead with the pseudo masturbating kids and the guy in the shower curtain outfit, Lights of Zetar, Mark of Gideon, on and on. Crap episode after crap episode.

I've always found Plato's Stepchildren to be one of the better 3rd season outings. I'm not sure why... It's painful to watch the psychological torture, for sure, but it's still a fascinating episode.

 

[Warped9]

I've always found Plato's Stepchildren to be one of the better 3rd season outings. I'm not sure why... It's painful to watch the psychological torture, for sure, but it's still a fascinating episode.

Agreed.

 

[Maurice]

"Plato's Stepchildren" is a basic puzzle-box episode. We're trapped. We can't go. We figure out how to thwart the antagonist, and we leave. There's no subtext other than the tired "absolute power tends to corrupt."

 

[Indysolo]

I can't hate an episode with the line, "Alexander, where I come from, size, shape, or color makes no difference..."

But that's one of the reasons I dislike "Is There In Truth No Beauty", where our enlightened crew can't understand Miranda's desire to be with the "ugly" Medusan.

Neil

 

[Joel_Kirk]

I'm not sure of the exact piece of music to which you are referring, but "The Empath" had an original score composed for it while "For The World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky" was entirely tracked form pre-existing scores.

Neil

If you watch the scenes with Natira and McCoy, the same music is used for some scenes with Gem and McCoy....especially the scene when Gem heals McCoy after his torture by the aliens.

 

[Indysolo]

Then it's music composed for "The Empath" by George Duning.

Neil

 

[Joel_Kirk]

Then it's music composed for "The Empath" by George Duning.

Neil

Ah....

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

Season three's stories all felt like they could've used another pass or several. While a few gems, the writing overall as well as the acting is rather superficial. However, the camerawork could be dynamic, just look at the gunfight at the OK Corral in "Spectre of the Gun" or the destruct sequence in "Let This Be the Last Battlefield" or Spock's wig out in "Is There No Truth in Beauty?".

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't see the big quality dip others do in season 3. Maybe it's a little whackier, but the weirder aspects of Trek are so entrenched in my view of it as a whole that I'm unable to see it's absence in S1 and 2.

 

[bolak]

I've been watching a few Season 3 episodes in no particular order, concentrating on those that are considered 'embarrassing'.

Today was 'The Way to Eden' and I have to say I really enjoyed it. A rare glimpse into the problems of maintaining discipline in such a closed, isolated environment. Some of the points that I found interesting:

1. Kirk's inability to handle this threat to the ship with his normal diplomacy, tactics or weapons. And it didn't seem an overly contrived scenario, compared to the nonsense in 'Day of the Dove'.

2. The struggle to keep the crew on-side and focused once their minds had been knocked out of the regimented Starfleet routine.

3. A great character moment for McCoy, delivering his findings after examining Severin. He actually sounded like a competent medical professional with a concern for the crew, rather than some gumpy, rambling old guy who hangs around the bridge.

4. Chekov's back-story gave him depth. And Spock had something of real interest to his character. Mr Nimoy seems to have enjoyed acting in this episode, he seemed much more at ease than in others.

5. The episode flowed really well, it seems to have been well directed and there were some good shots such as the music drifting over the knocked-out bridge.

6. Skip Homeier plays an excellent, manipulative Dr Severin.

I didn't even mind the singing! It made me smile - which was exactly what Severin wanted to happen to me whilst he plotted my death. The scheming brute!

Next up is 'Plato's Stepchildren'... wish me luck.

 

[Marsden]

Good luck!

I've noticed some of those things myself.

And for Plato's Stepchildren, I found similar points.



I have a personal theory, which is probably wrong, is the while the 3rd season would have been at least ok if not outright good as viewed by itself, it was a decline from seasons 1 and 2. Not just because of budgeting, but key personnel like Gene Coon and D C Fontana really didn't keep on top of things like they had previously. Fred Freiberger gets blamed too much because how was he to replace either of them, much less both? Then there were other problems, of course. And I wonder if some of it started from Rodenberry himself, he was done with it and as much as stated outright he wasn't going to be making any money off of Star Trek, that seems to me that it was no longer of value in his opinion, if he couldn't make money from it or have sex with it.

 

[plynch]

Bolak, I agree about WtE. I've always maintained it has many nice points. Better in that regard than many normal, unhated eps. Many nice character moments as noted above. Some backstory to a secondary character, making him seem like a person and not Russian-accented Davy Jones.

Those damn space hippies put everybody off. Not me.

 

[EnriqueH]

What I took away from Plato's Stepchildren, (aside from Kirk's glorious "Where I come from size, shape, color" line) is Michael Dunn's performance as Alexander. I think it just might rank with my top 10 favorite guest star performances in the series.