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Game Guess the TOS Episode from the cropped screenshot!

Thats right! Wow, guess it was easy after all :D
city-edge-forever-br-599.jpg
Good one!
 
Thanks for bringing back horrible memories of And the Children Shall Lead.
I'm one of those who doesn't detest it. (My least favorite is The Alternative Factor, and I find Plato difficult to watch but not detestable.) In fact, the scene that Planet of the Daves cropped there (or scenes; I think Gorgan appears twice on the bridge, actually) is/are pretty unsettling. Sure, Belli wasn't an actor, and the costume was a strange choice, but the dialogue is intriguing and that vocoder-like effect on Belli's speech, as well as the music, is subtly spooky.
 
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I'm one of those who doesn't detest it. (My least favorite is The Alternative Factor, and I find Plato difficult to watch but not detestable.) In fact, the scene that Planet of the Daves cropped there (or scenes; I think Gorgan appears twice on the bridge, actually) are pretty unsettling. Sure, Belli wasn't an actor, and the costume was a strange choice, but the dialogue is intriguing and that vocoder-like effect on Belli's speech, as well as the music, is subtly spooky.
I'm right with you! I don't think "And the Children Shall Lead" is nearly as unwatchable as "The Alternative Factor". I watched the latter recently and I still can't believe how difficult it is to get through it.

I think these "worst episodes EVER" that every Trek show have seem to become, I don’t know how to say it, sensationalized? To the point of being untrue. For instance, "Spock's Brain" was infamously crowned "worst episode ever" for years but I think it's had a bit of a renaissance with fans and it's NOT the worst episode. Same goes for "Threshold". Sure, the end is a bit whacky but there's no way, in my opinion, that it's the worst of the series. I don't know -- These are "been up all night" ramblings.
 
I'm right with you! I don't think "And the Children Shall Lead" is nearly as unwatchable as "The Alternative Factor". I watched the latter recently and I still can't believe how difficult it is to get through it.

I think these "worst episodes EVER" that every Trek show have seem to become, I don’t know how to say it, sensationalized? To the point of being untrue. For instance, "Spock's Brain" was infamously crowned "worst episode ever" for years but I think it's had a bit of a renaissance with fans and it's NOT the worst episode. Same goes for "Threshold". Sure, the end is a bit whacky but there's no way, in my opinion, that it's the worst of the series. I don't know -- These are "been up all night" ramblings.

Agree 100%. Incidentally, I'm a Voyager fan; it's my second-favorite of all Trek shows. (I don't know TNG or DS9 nearly as well as TOS and VOY.) I wouldn't even put "Threshold" in the bottom half of Voyager's 172 episodes, and that's not because the episodes I'd put behind it were bad.

But those are other threads. Quick, post another screenshot! :)
 
Honestly, I would have never suspected that "And the Children Shall Lead" would be so hated, if I hadn't seen so many polls placing it at the bottom. I found it quite creepy and disturbing, so I guess the episode achieved its goals. While "The Alternative Factor" is just a confusing mess, and "Assignment: Earth" failed both as a TOS episode and as a pilot for a different series. So I consider those two bigger failures than "Children".

As for "Spock's Brain", I think that considering it the worst has become kind of a cliché at this point (same as "City on the Edge of Forever" being the very best). This is not to say that particular persons can't think of them as such. But EVERY SINGLE TIME!? C'mon...
 
That shower curtain and bridge turbolift door are as unmistakable as they are unfortunately unmistakable. Indeed, never having zoomed in before so I appreciate that crop for a multitude of reasons, I'd never noticed until today those darker-hued, partially-opaque, yet lovely shades of heliotrope red, deep sea blue, and mustard yellow in that flowery shower curtain that the Gorgon wore. Must have been anti-hippie with the floral bits as well as anti-Federation with the dank red/blue/gold adornments on that big shoulder pad there because the dank hues always mean "evil" whereas the bright bold ones means "good", which is what "Superman III" taught is in the mid-80s. Which is okay, I don't want my superheroes to blend in with a brick wall that's actually a monster incognito...
 
Honestly, I would have never suspected that "And the Children Shall Lead" would be so hated, if I hadn't seen so many polls placing it at the bottom. I found it quite creepy and disturbing, so I guess the episode achieved its goals. While "The Alternative Factor" is just a confusing mess, and "Assignment: Earth" failed both as a TOS episode and as a pilot for a different series. So I consider those two bigger failures than "Children".

Some scenes hit it out of the park with the mind control and transporting two security dudes into outer space (YIKES!!!). It is not more than the sum of its parts, certainly hokey in others, but it does have strong individual scenes. Compared to "The Alternative Factor", I wonder what the behind-the-scenes struggles were with its scripting and production. TAF definitely has nothing in its favor, though - as with all TOS episodes - kudos to every actor for rising above the dodgy material.

As for "Spock's Brain", I think that considering it the worst has become kind of a cliché at this point (same as "City on the Edge of Forever" being the very best). This is not to say that particular persons can't think of them as such. But EVERY SINGLE TIME!? C'mon...

x2. SB is still bad, but has individual scenes of interest. In the right mood, it's actually just about entertaining - no matter how dumb it gets and let's face it, the inversion of the number of times TOS had a robot telling the crew they could have their minds put into robot bodies would otherwise be good except for all the impracticalities that SB quickly points out, since a computer can do all the HVAC work more efficiently than any biological brain could. Needed a stronger reason for the concept, but it's not necessarily a bad concept in of itself (stealing a brain for purpose elsewhere, which is a high concept bit of psychological horror. But that aside, let's face it - "Plato's Stepchildren" did its high concept psychological horror far better, if not a little overly long as padding.)
 
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