Which season of TOS had the best aliens?

[Harvey]

People keep saying this but those people don't remember how many women characters got shot and killed in westerns and cop shows in that era. Heck, The High Chaparral killed off the lead character's wife in its premier episode five months before the abstract death of Yeoman-Cubed-N-Crushed.

This is part of why Star Trek gets ever more mythologized: it's become increasingly distanced from context of the media landcape that bore it. Right, @Harvey?

1,000 times, yes!

 

[JonnyQuest037]

This is part of why Star Trek gets ever more mythologized: it's become increasingly distanced from context of the media landcape that bore it. Right, @Harvey?

1,000 times, yes!

You guuuuuys. Star Trek did everything first. Nobody anywhere had any women on their television shows in any capacity before Gene Roddenberry thought of it but the mean ol' network made him stop. Same with featuring minority characters and giving them lines and character development and stuff. GR thought of all of that first because really, who even remembers I Spy and Julia anymore? And Star Trek was the very first show to have a second pilot episode. In your FACE, Gilligan's Island and The Dick Van Dyke Show! And Star Trek invented rocketships and traveling to other worlds and narration and miniskirts and Scottish engineers and Russian navigators and interracial kissing and having a lead actor named "William" and the color yellow and joy and happiness and you're a liar and a Communist and a hater if you ever say otherwise.

 

[Spock's Barber]

You guuuuuys. Star Trek did everything first. Nobody anywhere had any women on their television shows in any capacity before Gene Roddenberry thought of it but the mean 'ol network made him stop. Same with featuring minority characters and giving them lines and character development and stuff. GR thought of all of that first because really, who even remembers I Spy and Julia anymore? And Star Trek was the very first show to have a second pilot episode. In your FACE, Gilligan's Island and The Dick Van Dyke Show! And Star Trek invented rocketships and traveling to other worlds and narration and miniskirts and Scottish engineers and Russian navigators and interracial kissing and having a lead actor named "William" and the color yellow and joy and happiness and you're a liar and a Communist and a hater if you ever say otherwise.

...and it also gave us witches in black turtleneck sweaters.

 

[Henoch]

witches in black turtleneck sweaters

Witches in Black Turtleneck Sweaters: Sounds like an all female heavy metal rock band.

 

[MAGolding]

....

Season 2 threw in a few new goodies (the Kelvins being Octopodiformes using human bodies to stuff themselves inside yet look thinner than Twiggy, don't ask how they got the bodies or how long they can keep reanimating human shells for >5x their average lifespan, it takes more than Osteo Bi-Flex and Metamucil to do that... (and sarky disposition aside, "By Any Other Name" won me over as a kid and various set pieces still hold up shockingly well now. How they turn humans into those styrofoam cubes is fairly creepy and well-described and TOS was even bold in letting the female be crushed to death, which must have been a huge shock in 1967.)

People keep saying this but those people don't remember how many women characters got shot and killed in westerns and cop shows in that era. Heck, The High Chaparral killed off the lead character's wife in its premier episode five months before the abstract death of Yeoman-Cubed-N-Crushed.

This is part of why Star Trek gets ever more mythologized: it's become increasingly distanced from context of the media landcape that bore it. Right,

Right? She wasn't even Star Trek's first female death or even female crew death. Lt. Galway beat her to the tomb.

Before Lt. Galway there was a civilian, Aurelan Kirk, in "Operation, Annihilate!", and mention of women and children on Cestus III in "Arena".

In other shows, Laura Collins died in an 1967 episode of Dark Shadows, although she believed that she had been reborn many times and would be again. She was foiled in her attempt to kill her son David Collins (born 1956) - not the first nor the last time he would be in mortal danger.

In 1967 David also met Sarah Collins (1784-1795), a little girl who was a ghost. Sarah was alive, and then died on her 11th birthday, in episodes set in 1795.

https://darkshadows.fandom.com/wiki/Sarah_Collins

According to this post:

https://moviechat.org/tt0050073/Wag...ow-many-children-died-on-Wagon-Train-Spoilers

A number of child characters died on Wagon Train (1957-1965). According to their actors' birth dates and episode dates from IMDB:

Jenny Hecht (July 30, 1943-March 25, 1974) as Sally Mayhew was 15 years, 4 months, and 24 days old when "The Mary Ellen Thomas Story" was broadcast on 24 December 1958, and younger when it was filmed.

Diane Mountford (born September 30, 1948) as Milly Dawson was 15 years, 1 month, and 12 days old when "The Eli Bancroft Story" was broadcast on 11 November 1963, and younger when it was filmed.

Terry Burnham (August 8, 1949-October 7, 2013) as Marie Lefton was 13 years, 2 months, and 2 days old when "The Martin Gatsby Story" was broadcast on 10 October 1962, and younger when it was filmed.

Betsy Hale (born August 10, 1952) as Abigail was 12 years, 1 month, and 24 days old when "The John Gilman Story" was broadcast on 4 October 1964, and younger when it was filmed.

Johnny Crawford (born March 26, 1946) as Jimmy Bennett was 12 years and 14 days old when "The Sally Potter Story" was broadcast on 9 April 1958, and younger when it was filmed.

Eileen Baral (born May 7, 1955) as Robin was 9 years, 7 months, and 6 days old when "Little Girl Lost" was broadcast on 13 December 1964, and younger when it was filmed.