Episode of the Week : Turnabout Intruder

[gottacook]

It's not a finale but a "last episode."

Kirk tries to persuade Spock of his identity, despite appearing to be Janice, by recounting two recent episodes: "Spock, when I was caught in the interspace of the Tholian sector, you risked your life and the Enterprise to get me back. Help me get back now. When the Vians of Minara demanded that we let Bones die, we didn't permit it." (Thanks to Star Trek Transcripts)

I don't recall any other episode making explicit reference to prior episodes (not counting, of course, "The Menagerie"). So even though this isn't a specific acknowledgment that it's the last episode, it is presented as taking place later than at least two episodes.

Also, Chapel loses the blonde hair coloring - another clue that something's up. (Analogous to the apple changing from green to red on the A-side of the Let It Be LP of early 1970, perhaps?)

 

[StarLore]

I thought it was OK, but season three TOS doesn't sit well with me. I do like that in the remastered version some colorful nebula is added in the end.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

There's a (comedy) movie called Turnabout about body-swapping in order to conclude that traditional gender roles are the best, dating from 1940, based on a book from 1931. Same subtext and everything.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnabout_(film)

Turnabout was also done as a TV series in 1979:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnabout_(TV_series)

It starred Sharon Gless and John Schuck (the Klingon ambassador in ST IV). In portraying the opposite sex, both of them went way over the top, exaggerating gender-related mannerisms without restraint or nuance. As I remember it, Gless was super-gruff, boisterously gesticulating with a cigar and so forth. Schuck was mincing, dainty, and fluttery, just ridiculous. Neither performance bore any resemblance to the other's pre-transference persona. It stank.

This same plot happened on the Gilligan's Island "The Friendly Physician" 1966 episode three years before.
https://c1.staticflickr.com/5/4091/5066500222_a42bb06942.jpg

Yes! And it was really good, too.

 

[Ssosmcin]

I don't recall any other episode making explicit reference to prior episodes (not counting, of course, "The Menagerie").

In "By Any Other Name." Kirk references Eminiar 7 and the time Spock planted the suggestion in the guard's mind that they escaped.

 

[CrazyMatt]

I always thought she meant that Kirk's world of being a starship captain didn't give him time for a serious relationship with a women. I never thought it was some proclamation that Starfleet didn't allow woman captains. That notion seems absurd since even in the first pilot the second in command was a woman. The line seems more like clumsy writing. She says "YOUR world" to Kirk meaning him; not starfleet in general.

Hmmm... I'll have to ponder that....

 

[UnknownSample]

I always thought she meant that Kirk's world of being a starship captain didn't give him time for a serious relationship with a women. I never thought it was some proclamation that Starfleet didn't allow woman captains. That notion seems absurd since even in the first pilot the second in command was a woman. The line seems more like clumsy writing. She says "YOUR world" to Kirk meaning him; not starfleet in general.

She then goes on to become Captain Kirk and take his place as captain. So I think not being allowed to be a captain is her issue.

 

[Marsden]

Misogynistic ...

I see that word a lot but I'm not sure how that applies to this episode or Star Trek at all.

When did any of the crew act with hate towards women?

 

[ZapBrannigan]

She then goes on to become Captain Kirk and take his place as captain. So I think not being allowed to be a captain is her issue.

In my view, she didn't need her gender to be allowed in. She just wanted a huge shortcut to the top. And the dialog easily supports that, as stated by Feek61, because "your world of starship captains" could mean Kirk's personal world, with the plural added as a bitter hyperbole.

Behind the scenes, I think the writer's intention was an idea that women didn't get certain jobs, like they didn't in the Navy in 1969. But we aren't bound by that.

 

[MANT!]

The Shat, chewing up the sets --covering 'em with ham..lots and lots of ham..and an extra side order of ham..
can't stand this episode and have only seen it a few times, just to remind myself just how low the series had gotten to by that time..

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

One. This episode is an appalling abomination.

 

[johnnybear]

I gave it an eight as it was fantastic when I saw it as a kid!
Plus it has that feeling of being the last ever episode even if log wise the previous episode is the last!
JB

 

[johnnybear]

In That Which Survives Sulu mentions The Silicon monster (The Horta) from Devil in The Dark too!
JB

 

[RAMA]

*sigh* I really hate this episode, and I don't think you can excuse the sexism in it very easily. What's worse is watching Shatner's performance and the hanger on waiting for Janice to love him.

Some say there is no evil Star Trek, but I SAW it. It's this episode. Some say "These are the Voyages" is the worst finale? Nope...it's this.

RAMA

 

[Drusilla's valet]

If only.... if only....

4. A few good things--Shatner's performance--especially impressive considering his illness (I wonder how many of the company got the flu from him!), a charming guest star, and an interesting premise. But none of that can overcome this:

LESTER: "Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women."

If I were a woman I would hate this episode. It encapsulates the undercurrent of "women as eye candy" that ran through the entire series after the first pilot. This is one of the great failings of TOS, and how apropos that the final episode be wrapped around this mindset.

I love the women/eye candy thing. I don't consider it a failing at all. I also like the fact that the leads in the show aren't emasculated dolts, as television commercials up here in Canada like to "playfully portray".....time and again, year after year. The problem is behind the camera and a lack of vision. Women can be stunning and in charge, or equals. Men can be beside or under them without acting inferior or castrated. Its the flawed "behind the camera" thing that doesn't give us a woman in charge or does so at the cost of men being men.

Perhaps the pendulum swings to extremes. I'd rather have strong eye candy with depth and development mixed in with a dose of reality.

I really liked Areel Shaw; beautiful, confident, intelligent, assertive and professional....even formidable. She didn't have to look like Bee Taylor to get the job done. She had an old thing for Kirk, yet, that aside she was ready to slap him down and essentially ruin him, as per mandate. There was no weakness there. And she was always easy to look at. No sin, no foul....and Kirk got to keep his nutsack throughout.

It would have been nice to see a decorated woman answer one of those transmissions to Starfleet, or maybe nix Commodore Wesley in favor of a woman. She could be his equivalent; assured, experienced, very appealing to the eye to match his handsome appearance....and every bit Kirk's comrade and competition. They could have made Commodore Stone a woman Can you imagine Madge Sinclair in that role, sticking Kirk on the hot seat, going nose to nose with him in those early scenes? There are a lot of subtle little tweeks they could have made that would have been ahead of the time and plausible, but the vision was limited by those behind the camera.

Sure...they missed the boat on the old TOS.....but I don't let it get in the way of fun viewing.

 

[TOSalltheway]

]I always thought she meant that Kirk's world of being a starship captain didn't give him time for a serious relationship with a women. I never thought it was some proclamation that Starfleet didn't allow woman captains. That notion seems absurd since even in the first pilot the second in command was a woman. The line seems more like clumsy writing. She says "YOUR world" to Kirk meaning him; not starfleet in general.[/QUOTE]

I always took it as being a mentally ill persons justification for their failure. Starfleet really did allow woman in command positions, she simply did not make the cut.

 

[Vorpal_Blade]

I gave it a one. This was a really bad episode.

 

[WisTrekFan]

I rated Turnabout Intruder a five. One thing that has always bothered me about the episode was that after "KIrk" sentences all his senior officers to death, there wasn't an immediate mutiny and what it says about the Security Division on the Enterprise that they were going along with the executions. Although towards the end of the episode, Sulu and Chekov appear to have finally stopped following "Kirk's" orders, you would think that before that Sulu or someone else would have tried to send a message to StarFleet Command about what was going on on the Enterprise. It has been a while since I have watched this episode, so I could be wrong in my observations and memories of Star Trek's last episode.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

One thing that has always bothered me about the episode was that after "KIrk" sentences all his senior officers to death, there wasn't an immediate mutiny and what it says about the Security Division on the Enterprise that they were going along with the executions.

Well, that is a good point. It happened that way because no security guard had become an important character in the series. Thus, their department's honor could be sacrificed to give the regulars a bigger problem.

But it would never "really" happen that way, and the writing is to blame. As soon as faux-Kirk announced that executions would be carried out shortly, a guard should have stepped forward and said, "Captain Spock? How can we be of assistance while you assume command?" They don't have to believe Kirk is Lester at that point; they can just see he's gone crazy.

 

[TREK_GOD_1]

I always thought she meant that Kirk's world of being a starship captain didn't give him time for a serious relationship with a women. I never thought it was some proclamation that Starfleet didn't allow woman captains. That notion seems absurd since even in the first pilot the second in command was a woman. The line seems more like clumsy writing. She says "YOUR world" to Kirk meaning him; not starfleet in general.

Exactly. Some reviewers are so prepared to leap over the edge of the "outrage" cliff that they are not listening to the dialogue; Lester was vengeful because Kirk placed his role as a starship captain above being in a relationship with her. The idea of Kirk being "married" to his life as captain (and the ship) is in-series continuity established in "The Naked Time," but leave it to some to create some sort of "outrage" where none exists. They also deliberately forget that Number One was second in command of the Pike 1701, and was--in fact--the captain while Pike was held captive. No male officer (including Spock) jumped rank to take over, so all in-series information considered, the episode is not "sexist," nor is Lester accusing Starfleet of that.

I also like the fact that the leads in the show aren't emasculated dolts

...as seen in innumerable U.S. TV series.

 

[JeffinOakland]

Some food for thought:
http://www.trektoday.com/reviews/tos/turnabout_intruder.shtml...I agree with most of it