Worst Season 1 episode....
- Thread starter Warped9
- Start date
This.
If I had to pick a runner-up, I suppose it would be "Mudd's Women." And if I had to select a third pick, it would be "Operation: Annihilate!" But neither of those are nearly as bad as "The Alternative Factor."
There are a lot of better episodes, but I never disliked "Mudd's Women." The Venus Drug is just magic potion nonsense, of course, and the moral of the story is undercut by the ridiculousness of the placebo effect reveal. But it feels like a hybrid of '50s written SF and Westerns, which I guess makes it seem familiar to me, and I always had a soft spot for the earlier S1 episodes with an emphasis on the far-flung, lonely, eccentric and sometime dangerous humans scattered around space. I wished that frontiersy aspect of the Federation had continued to be explored as the series went on.
"Alternative Factor" is the one I find the least (if at all) worthwhile.
The forum voting in 2014 also had "Alternative Factor" as worst and "Mudd's Women" second, third worst was "Miri" and then "The Man Trap."
"Alternative Factor" is the one I find the least (if at all) worthwhile.
The forum voting in 2014 also had "Alternative Factor" as worst and "Mudd's Women" second, third worst was "Miri" and then "The Man Trap."
A
Amaris
Guest
I seem to be the only one, so far, but I voted "Charlie X." I just can't stand that guy. 
Not understanding the hate for Mudd's Women.
Not understanding the hate for Operation:Annihilate! That episode was plain scary to me as a kid! And I still enjoy it and feel for Spock every time!
JB
JB
Ooh, I've not heard about that. Could you fill me in or at least point me in the right direction to read up on it?
Also, I'd forgotten about 'Miri'. That one was hard work.
Although Court Martial can bring on the snoozes it has to be liked for the beautiful Asian Yeoman in the witnesses scene and the fact that the BBC cut huge chunks out of it but now there are restored with my lovely DVD set!
JB
Miri was one of the four banned episodes here in the UK and the only one of the four that was damn pretty good I thought! Okay so Roddenberry reworked it for the second season with The Omega Glory but I liked that one as well!
JB
I don't think so. "The Omega Glory" was one of the ideas pitched for the second pilot.
Agree it was scary, literally gave me a tingle in my spine. I did feel it had the air of the last episode of season 1 though with the money running out. A serious thing like the death of Kirk's Brother and Sister in Law seemed not to generate as much drama as it could have been capable of. In the opening they do just look like they are running round an university campus during the holiday. The experiment on Spock would not have passed an ethics board perhaps ?
Think there is some harsh 21st century opinions on Mudd shows , he was an entertaining rogue who gets his come uppance . Though the placebo idea makes no sense.
Think Conscience of the King could have been better, does anyone recall Theatre of Blood a 1973 film with Diana Rigg and Vincent Price which is a little bit similar.
Miri is unduly mocked it has a great moment establishing that Spock has respect for Mc Coy and has Rand's biggest TOS role.
After all this criticism I am quite interested now in giving ALternative Factor a look. 'What of Lazarus?'
I thought that "The Omega Glory" was pitched at the same time as "The Cage".
Prerty sure it was one of three stories considered for the second pilot, along with "Mudd's Women" and "Where No Man Has Gone Before".It's possible. But, regardless, the idea was there very early in the process.
I'm pretty sure thats what it was.
"Worst" really doesn't apply, since this is the best season ever of anything, as far as I'm concerned. They kept the level of quality amazingly high. I picked Mudd's Women just because it's relatively dull, no aliens... not even anything unworldly.
I've often wondered if it was written so early that they didn't know women would be serving along with men on the Enterprise. I know that in the end, all the swooning from the male crew was shown to be from the drug ... But early on, no one says "We work alongside beautiful women in very short mini-dresses every day. Why are we acting like we haven't seen a woman in years?"
I liked that isolated feel, the fact that an episode ended up being about a man and woman in a room getting to know each other. Wait, wasn't that what I didn't like? I wanted "other-worldly". Anyway, I liked the idea about the sand blasting the pots and pans clean. People somewhere must do that.
I've often wondered if it was written so early that they didn't know women would be serving along with men on the Enterprise. I know that in the end, all the swooning from the male crew was shown to be from the drug ... But early on, no one says "We work alongside beautiful women in very short mini-dresses every day. Why are we acting like we haven't seen a woman in years?"
I liked that isolated feel, the fact that an episode ended up being about a man and woman in a room getting to know each other. Wait, wasn't that what I didn't like? I wanted "other-worldly". Anyway, I liked the idea about the sand blasting the pots and pans clean. People somewhere must do that.
Similar threads
