Fix an episode---Turnabout Intruder

[Grant]

Fix an episode----Turnabout Intruder

I recently re-watched this one and I didn’t hate it!

Despite the whole woman can’t be captains argument that is irresolvable---the worst thing is Shatner’s acting. I carn tolerate Shatner attempting to act feminine (I guess), but the whole transference parts just are awful. So bothered by the whole throwing himself against wall and flailing and mugging facial expressions…

For god’s sake Mr Director--just tell Shatner to act like he is dizzy or faint when Kirk”s mind is attempting to re-enter his body. Like when anybody briefly feels faint and then attempts to fight off the feeling.

Also Kirk/Lester drops a phaser set to kill and Coleman drops a hypo with a “doubly lethal” dose of poison--it’s pretty clear neither of those items is picked up. Have someone do so.

My other fix….

Make it damn clear that Security HAD NO INTENTION of allowing an extra-legal summary execution.

Just have Kirk/Lester tell the now revived Johnson/Galloway/Galoway to follow him to the hanger deck for the execution and have Johnson flatly say, “No one is being executed on this ship.” Then have Kirk/Lester run to Dr Coleman and play it out as they did.

I know it would be a bold move to have a fairly minor character make that statement to the “captain” but it would have been great.

Even when I was 11 years old I was hugely bothered by Chekov’s line, “What can we do if security backs him (Kirk/Lester) up?”

WTF, the final TOS episode implies Enterprise security are a bunch of THUGS or automatons who, unlike everything we have learned about the crew in 78 episodes, are willing to phaser a “mentally ill” woman, Spock, McCoy and Scotty into oblivion on the orders of an eratic acting captain????

I tell you the very thought of that makes me sick. To this day. And as I type this. ARRRGGGHHH!!

Warning!!! I will now beat a dead horse into the ground until it is dust.

To even imply that only the main characters (Sulu and Chekov) would revolt against the clearly deranged “Kirk” and that “security” knows nothing---cares nothing about Federation/Starfleet law and would whip out their phasers and kill their shipmates is a devastating indictment of how much disdain and ambivalence the writers had for the rest of the ship’s crew at that point.

Picture my little 10-11 year self watching the episode and thinking to my self---”What, the ship’s security guards would go along with “crazy Kirk” and kill Spock etc.--when they don’t even have a death penalty (for all intents and purposes) in Star trek’s era?!?”

“Why would they do that?” “Aren’t they the same honorable people as the rest?” “Even now (1971) in America, nobody gets executed without a fair trial!” “Or a trial at all in the case of Scott and McCoy and even if you believe Lester is just a crazy lady (and not Kirk) --how can you kill her!”
LOL, I just didn’t get it was just a not well thought out throwaway line by the episode’s writer that really hadn’t given it a tenth the thought I had.

WAIT, I figured it out----a group of security guards from the “mirror universal” Enterprise came to our universe and killed their counterparts and were willing to go along with a maniacal captain--heck he’s crazier than THEIR Kirk!!

 

[JJohnson]

I haven't seen this episode in a long time, but I'd have changed Janice Lester's actress to Kim Novak, Raquel Welch, Cleo Moore, Diana Dors, or Mamie Van Doren in addition to your changes.

 

[Grant]

I haven't seen this episode in a long time, but I'd have changed Janice Lester's actress to Kim Novak, Raquel Welch, Cleo Moore, Diana Dors, or Mamie Van Doren in addition to your changes.

But then there is no way any security guard would have blasted her with a phaser.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

It doesn't need fixing.

 

[Grant]

It doesn't need fixing.

Oh lord a fan of Shatner's emoting in Turnabout Intruder!!!

 

[plynch]

Transfer a personality to another body with a weeoooeeeoooo noise really gets into Lost in Space territory.

Personality is due to specific neurons and glands. Are those being altered in the new body? This is just too fantastic in the literal sense. Irredeemable. ymmv

 

[Grant]

Transfer a personality to another body with a weeoooeeeoooo noise really gets into Lost in Space territory.

Personality is due to specific neurons and glands. Are those being altered in the new body? This is just too fantastic in the literal sense. Irredeemable. ymmv

I sure can't see how to make this episode "Great"--just a little better.

Irredeemable? I don't know.

 

[Marsden]

I know why some of the other posters have said about replacing her, but I thought Sandra Smith was very good in the episode and I really liked how she played Kirk.


It's too bad some of this episode is so... the way it is because there are some really good things in it. The courtroom, the mutiny, they are really well done. Too bad the circumstances couldn't have been a little better to propel the action.

And what the hell was that test that Bones gave him that he passed? Emotional responses the same??? WTF!


But I love that conversation between Scotty and Bones.

And how Chekov is so nervous he quotes the wrong number of the general order.

And Sulu is ready to move against him.

I think the lack of resistance to "Kirk" by security is purely a budget reason about hiring an actor that could deliver the lines in such a way that they can sound concerned and supportive but also questioning. It's not an Eddie Paskey level job, IMO.

 

[FormerLurker]

I don't think these episodes need gelded.

Oh, you mean make them better. Nah, they're fine the way they are.

 

[Warped9]

Janice Lester is an embittered nutbar. It isn't that women can't be starship Captains--that's just Lester's bent delusion because it's that Lester can't be a starship Captain because she's psychologically unstable.

 

[BillJ]

Janice Lester is an embittered nutbar. It isn't that women can't be starship Captains--that's just Lester's bent delusion because it's that Lester can't be a starship Captain because she's psychologically unstable.

I would think the "women can't be captains" is a direct contradiction to having a woman first officer in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie".

So I always figured, like many, that Lester was just nucking futs.

 

[Richard Baker]

Janice Lester is an embittered nutbar. It isn't that women can't be starship Captains--that's just Lester's bent delusion because it's that Lester can't be a starship Captain because she's psychologically unstable.

It is far easier to accept that 'the system is against women captains' instead of accepting that there was something about her as an individual which prevented her.

 

[Warped9]

Janice Lester is an embittered nutbar. It isn't that women can't be starship Captains--that's just Lester's bent delusion because it's that Lester can't be a starship Captain because she's psychologically unstable.

It is far easier to accept that 'the system is against women captains' instead of accepting that there was something about her as an individual which prevented her.

Oh, except throughout the entire episode she shows exactly why she can't be a starship Captain.

And like was said upthread we have already seen Number One in command and just one step in rank from being a actual starship Captain.

 

[BillJ]

It is far easier to accept that 'the system is against women captains' instead of accepting that there was something about her as an individual which prevented her.

Oh, except throughout the entire episode she shows exactly why she can't be a starship Captain.

And like was said upthread we have already seen Number One in command and just one step in rank from being a actual starship Captain.

Which is almost the same thing.

With the Enterprise likely far from home most of the time, the death of Pike could leave Number One in command for weeks or even months depending where they are at. Seems odd to put a woman in such a position if they aren't allowed to command starships.

 

[Warped9]

This issue always comes up again and again and we're led right back to the same points again and again.

People see what they choose to see.

But consider that there is nothing throughout out all of TOS that explicitly establishes a woman cannot command while there is evidence to support she can.

Also we had already seen at least one example of a man who was tested as unsuitable for starship command: Merrick in "Bread And Circuses." And in "Turnabout Intruder" Kirk (in Lester's body) states Lester couldn't command due to her lacking in training and temperament. He didn't say because say was a woman.

Throughout the entire episode she proves the lack in temperament part. And it's ridiculous to accept that she was able to train herself in an abbreviated span of time to be a starship Captain. It takes years of training and experience to get there in addition to being physchologically sound.

Number One had all those things. Janice Lester had none.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

So, yeah, obviously, the biggest fix is to expunge the sexism, especially the codes for a glass ceiling and that women should know their place.

Make it damn clear that Security HAD NO INTENTION of allowing an extra-legal summary execution.

Also, yup.

 

[Warped9]

All you need to fix this episode is to include a line of dialogue that clearly refutes Lester's delusion.

And remember Lester said, "Your world of starship Captains excludes women." She referred to Kirk rather than Starfleet. She was enraged and embittered because Kirk chose his career rather than be tied to her.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

This issue always comes up again and again and we're led right back to the same points again and again.

People see what they choose to see.

No kidding. Some go on the "what was wrong with 60's TV" to the point of exaggeration, instead of--in Star Trek's case--looking at the pilot for clarification on women holding command positions. Moreover, in "The Menagerie", Roddenberry did not make an effort to edit the pilot footage to suggest Number One was anything other than a command grade officer. It was there for all to see, so the attack on Lester's one line (and by extent, the episode) does not have much weight.

Also we had already seen at least one example of a man who was tested as unsuitable for starship command: Merrick in "Bread And Circuses." And in "Turnabout Intruder" Kirk (in Lester's body) states Lester couldn't command due to her lacking in training and temperament. He didn't say because say was a woman.

Throughout the entire episode she proves the lack in temperament part. And it's ridiculous to accept that she was able to train herself in an abbreviated span of time to be a starship Captain. It takes years of training and experience to get there in addition to being physchologically sound.

Number One had all those things. Janice Lester had none.

Great points.

And remember Lester said, "Your world of starship Captains excludes women." She referred to Kirk rather than Starfleet. She was enraged and embittered because Kirk chose his career rather than be tied to her.

Another great point.

 

[Nightowl1701]

My other fix….

Make it damn clear that Security HAD NO INTENTION of allowing an extra-legal summary execution.

Just have Kirk/Lester tell the now revived Johnson/Galloway/Galoway to follow him to the hanger deck for the execution and have Johnson flatly say, “No one is being executed on this ship.” Then have Kirk/Lester run to Dr Coleman and play it out as they did.

I know it would be a bold move to have a fairly minor character make that statement to the “captain” but it would have been great.

Even when I was 11 years old I was hugely bothered by Chekov’s line, “What can we do if security backs him (Kirk/Lester) up?”

WTF, the final TOS episode implies Enterprise security are a bunch of THUGS or automatons who, unlike everything we have learned about the crew in 78 episodes, are willing to phaser a “mentally ill” woman, Spock, McCoy and Scotty into oblivion on the orders of an eratic acting captain????

I tell you the very thought of that makes me sick. To this day. And as I type this. ARRRGGGHHH!!

There's a fanfic out there that addresses that very issue. I won't repost it here, but I'll briefly recount what security in that story said after the event:

"The Security Chief calls the shots, and the Chief answers to the Captain."
"When the Captain is dealing with a perceived enemy, I don't question his orders. Not healthy."
(and finally, from Security Chief Giotto himself): "My department regularly sends men to die for you. We keep hungry Klingons out of that chair you seem to worship. We let the color of our tunics become a running joke because the joke is, it’s no joke to us. We snap to like straight bedsheets when the Captain tells us so. That is our job. So help me, you are not laying this fiasco on us. She wasn’t my psycho bitch ex-girlfriend."

 

[CorporalCaptain]

All you need to fix this episode is to include a line of dialogue that clearly refutes Lester's delusion.

And remember Lester said, "Your world of starship Captains excludes women." She referred to Kirk rather than Starfleet. She was enraged and embittered because Kirk chose his career rather than be tied to her.

'Fraid not. Pretty much every line that references women in particular is involved in sexism, as I said already, and now I'm just repeating myself, as code either for a glass ceiling or, in the case of the last line of the series, for women accepting their place. That code, the source of the objections, needs to be actually expunged, to fix the episode.