How is that any different than any of the other anomaly of the week plots that made the crew behave oddly?
Spoilers Strange New Worlds General Discussion Thread
- Thread starter NewHeavensNewEarth
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I've been watching "The Alternative Factor(TOS)" since I was a kid and I still don't know what the hell is going on, and I'm fine with that. 
My knowledge of science has gaps big enough to fit all kinds of weird anomalies that affect biology, but even I know that music needs to come from somewhere.
I dunno if Alternative Factor was a big swing, but I think most people who've seen it would like to take a big swing at it. With something heavy.I've been watching "The Alternative Factor(TOS)" since I was a kid and I still don't know what the hell is going on, and I'm fine with that.
Nothing else except having the Finale when Kirk takes command makes sense, and Pike's accident happens after that. We might get a revisit if/when they remake The Menagerie, in Paul Wesley's show.
It came from the anomaly.
They explained that in the episode. It came from the anomaly after Uhura transmitted music into it.
I just rewatched that the other week, and I always marvel at Lazarus' facial hair thinning and thickening throughout the episode - sometimes in the very same scene.I've been watching "The Alternative Factor(TOS)" since I was a kid and I still don't know what the hell is going on, and I'm fine with that.
I know I literally just said that I would accept that as an answer to any Star Trek weirdness in my latest review on my own site... but I don't accept that answer.
The only way that music's coming out of anomaly is if someone intelligent was screwing with the crew or they left their mind control music system running, and honestly I would've accepted either option. "A wizard did it" or "a computer did it" explain half of TOS episodes. But they said they were under the influence of a musical reality created by an improbability field and that's a bit too Hitchhiker's Guide for this universe.
Quantum.
As opposed to thought as the basis of reality in TNG?
I have never much liked that explanation, but I have to admit that it was built into the universe right at the beginning of TOS, when Gary Mitchell developed godlike abilities because something affected his mind. He was able to use his intelligence alone to screw with the crew like a powerful wizard.
So like I said, I would've accepted 'something intelligent is behind it' and 'a wizard (godlike being) did it' as answers.
After Spock Amok and Charades, I'm pretty sure something suitably weird is going to happen to him. It's tradition.More crazy stuff? Will Spock switch heads with a dog?
Ah, so "I don't like the episode and you can't convince me to like it." Got it.
Is it though? As you mentioned we have Gary getting god like powers. Q might as well be a wizard. Pills that give psychic powers. Liquids that give you super speed. Yet somehow being affected by reality that causes you sing is a step too far?
Has anyone ever convinced anyone to like anything?
Also I was just saying that when I said "subspace can explain everything" I was joking. There are some things even subspace can't explain.
Lots of things have been a step too far for me. The consciousness jumping in Voyager's Cathexis, the probability warping in DS9's Rivals, the cavernous turbolift chamber in Discovery, literally everything in TAS's The Counter-Clock Incident etc. Some of the stuff with the Pah-wraiths in DS9's finale too to be honest.
Whenever I watch, read or play something, I start to subconsciously pick up on the rules that define the fictional universe and what is possible there. Wile E. Coyote can float in mid air for a second before falling, but he can't kill and eat a bird. Captain Kirk can meet an alien recreation of Abraham Lincoln floating in space, but he can't meet the ghost of Abraham Lincoln who has been trapped inside a magic hat. When an episode breaks the rules of its setting too much I stop buying into what's happening, the story collapses and my brain starts doing an autopsy on what I'm watching instead of enjoying it.
I think what really made me figuratively throw my hands up and go 'whatever!' was the characters accepting the explanation they got. The moment they stopped wondering who was creating the music and compelling them to sing, that was when I checked out.
Star trek may not be for you.
