Worst Season 1 episode....

[Zaminhon]

I was going to pick Court Martial - I thought the guy that Kirk supposedly jettisoned was so out of character thatI don't know how he even wound up on a Star Ship. But I do like the idea that you can jettison someone out of a tube.. (photon torpedoes away!). I also liked the detail of the Captain's chair consoles, the lawyers , and the resolution, so I'm glad I didn't choose that one.

I hated the rubber suit in Arena, but there was enough action to keep it interesting. The perfectly placed piles of sulphur and charcoal was laughable, but I ultimately chose Alternative Factor.. but not sure why. I liked that the effect was on a galactic scale. That was a dumb looking George Jetson space vehicle, but it was a little more believable when I was a kid.

 

[johnnybear]

I don't think so. "The Omega Glory" was one of the ideas pitched for the second pilot.

Of course it was! Silly me! But both stories are very similar and both are written by Roddenberry!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

As a kid I and probably a lot of others didn't see Arena's Gorn as a guy in a rubber suit but more like a hideous man-sized Tyrannosaur out to kill The Captain! And even now with the folds in his arms noticible I still think it's one of the best Trek episodes!
JB

 

[Warped9]

"Mudd's Women" is very much of its time. If written today we would get the perspective of the women of the ship's crew. Someone might also pick up on something unusual in effect to distract all the men so drastically. And, indeed, Kirk and McCoy sense something is off as evidenced by their discussion on the bridge.

From my own perspective there are things that keep it from being too dated. It's easy to call it sexist, but such attitudes still exist today. Also men in general are primarily visually oriented and many are (relatively) easily distracted by feminine beauty. And although in a different form "mail order bride" type services--international introduction websites--are quite prevalent today where women are commonly portrayed as unusually beautiful compared to what they are more genuinely like. They tap into a fantasy of women who are more rare than what most men usually encounter while also being more attainable.

Unless you work in an office or some other environment that allows women the opportunity to "dress up" (in a manner of speaking) many women in a workplace can go largely unnoticed to most men, particularly if everyone--men and women alike--are dressed mostly the same. It can sometimes be surprising to see a female coworker in her street clothes and away from the workplace. Then she no longer looks like just a familiar coworker where you're accustomed to viewing and treating her as just another coworker.

Some might think we are far removed from perspectives and attitudes of fifty years ago, but sometimes I don't think we are that far removed.

 

[Botany Bay]

Botany Bay: why OPERATION ANNIHILATE?

They ran out of money and couldn't film the originally planned hunting down of the "brain" that controlled the creatures to a planet where Kirk ordered Sulu to destroy the brain to free Spock and the Denevans. No inner eyelids, or Kirk's family's horrors...these bits were added to fill time.

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?

The Alternative Factor featured a romance between Masters and Lazarus, and was set to star John Drew Barrymore. Then, at the very last moment someone decides to drop the romance subplot, eviscerating the episode. It's still murky whether this was done due to nervousness about an interracial romance or whether it was someone realising Space Seed had a similar plot. Equally as murky is why Barrymore quit the night before filming. He's always been blamed for being unreliable, but maybe he just decided the script was awful after the last minute change and wanted out? Plenty of questions still to be answered about this one even fifty years later!

For great TOS resources try googling Memory Alpha, Unseen elements of the Original Series, and Star Trek fact check.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

"Mudd's Woman" is pretty hokey and not a very good story. That's why it works better in this drag parody:

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[Harvey]

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".

This is correct.

 

[The Toddler]

I'm the only one who voted for "The Enemy Within." I don't disagree that "The Alternative Factor" is the worst episode in terms of execution, but I really like the concept. And I hate the "evil twin aboard but nobody knows it" trope of "The Enemy Within." How can I take an episode seriously with this in it?

 

[Indysolo]

I love The Enemy Within. It does what Star Trek does best, explore the human condition.

It also has great music.

Neil

 

[scotpens]

3rd place would be "Miri." Beside the throwaway line of an exact duplicate of Earth that didn't really contribute to the plot in any way, just having all the children yelling and screaming "Nyah, nyah" and "bonk, bonk" throughout slowed whatever dramatic momentum this episode had.

I liked the "Nyah, nyah" chanting and the ritualistic "Bonk, bonk on the head!" It was creepy and unsettling in a Lord of the Flies kind of way.

But yeah, the duplicate Earth was dumb. It was just a cheap hook to get viewers' curiosity piqued, and was never mentioned or referenced after the pre-credit teaser.

 

[Nebusj]

"Mudd's Women" is very much of its time. If written today we would get the perspective of the women of the ship's crew.

Big problem is it's a Space Western in the bad ways: a plot about lonely gold^H Space Gold miners and their telegraph^H Space Radio-ordered brides scamming the ranger^H Space Sheriff by a guy scamming them too? The story was creaky in 1940 and a quarter-century added to that didn't freshen it up any. And a half-century after that ...

``The Man Trap'' is also obviously a Space Western, but it gets at more of the good stuff: the frontier as a vast, desperately lonely place that we can kind of bring order to, but not very well. That's when Space Western Trek worked best.

 

[scotpens]

Big problem is it's a Space Western in the bad ways . . .

Not as bad as Moon Zero Two.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

I love The Enemy Within. It does what Star Trek does best, explore the human condition.

It also has great music.

Neil

This.

 

[Push The Button]

Waiting for some hipster to pick The City on the Edge of Forever or Balance of Terror..you know, just to be hip and edgy..

 

[ST-321]

Miri: Bonk, bonk on the head of this terrible episode.

 

[Admiral Shran]

Waiting for some hipster to pick The City on the Edge of Forever or Balance of Terror..you know, just to be hip and edgy..

Would it be edgy enough if I said that I would rate "The City on the Edge of Forever" as an 8 out of 10 and "Balance of Terror" as a 9 out of 10?

 

[Push The Button]

Would it be edgy enough if I said that I would rate "The City on the Edge of Forever" as an 8 out of 10 and "Balance of Terror" as a 9 out of 10?

No, I was thinking more of someone that would rate them 0s or 1s, their "least-liked".

 

[Maurice]

"Mudd's Woman" is pretty hokey and not a very good story. That's why it works better in this drag parody:

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I just realized that was shot by Mr. Wa, who ran the stage for us on Gigi.

 

[3D ChessMaster]

Miri: Bonk, bonk on the head of this terrible episode.

Anyone who's had any experience of teaching will know that Miri is an excellent documentary .

 

[OtherGene]

Anyone whose had any experience of teaching will know that Miri is an excellent documentary .

Or of hosting a childrens birthday party.