Well, it's about damn time somebody agreed with me on this.
For all you Altenative Factor haters out there I have this to say: Go watch Miri, or And the Children Shall Lead, and THEN tell me how bad this one is.
The Alternative Factor
- Thread starter Nerdius Maximus
- Start date
Well, it's about damn time somebody agreed with me on this.
For all you Altenative Factor haters out there I have this to say: Go watch Miri, or And the Children Shall Lead, and THEN tell me how bad this one is.
I hope they each got good insurance, what with all the constant falling off cliffs and such.
Does Bajor have Aflac?
Joe, premiumed
It took you 40 years to lose patience with Trek fandom for thinking this one was a turd sandwich on burnt toast?
You are a patient man, man.
Joe, man
Yes. They're just as stupid. Just not as bad in the plot loophole and makeup departments.
I'll have to re-view it! But that will take away my one personal redeeming factor for this episode! (FWIW, he also speaks on an episode of Cawley's Star Trek New Voyages, as an Admiral or somesuch)
Well, so did I, on the first page. I wouldn't go so far as to call it one of the greatest, but I don't think it's that bad and it's darn entertaining weirdness.
Agreed.
As I said above...those two or three episodes blow chunks and stink, too. But they're not WORSE in most respects than "Alternative."
Well, I didn't have a computer 'till 2002, I just didn't know... to be fair, not everyone thinks it's a turd sandwich. Some think it's a giant douche.
And Miri, that's great too. People get so irritated at a moment like Kirk with the kids, going No Blah Blah Blah, that that overwhelms their impressions of the episode. Otherwise it's a great, solid, dark, gloomy, serious SF story. It's actually the only parallel Earth story that I can buy, because it wasn't used as a gimmick to have Kirk and Spock meet Nazis or Romans or gangsters, just because thinking up new alien cultures to encounter every week is hard....
I doubt that centuries-old children would stay children mentally. I think they'd mature in outlook from hardship and scavenging for food, and from passed time. Kids think like kids because they're "new" beings, not because they're little.
That doesn't ruin the episode. We all differ with how they handle SF concepts sometimes, but that was their choice, and it's an interesting one.
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I so wanted to bone Ensign (?) McMasters. Damn, she was fine. 
Actually, she was a lieutenant in the dialogue and script. But the wardrobe people put her in a blue tunic without any rank braids. Yet one more reason why this episode blows.
I first read rank braids as rack braids...
I must be horny...
I must be horny...
Welcome to my world.
Oddly enough, Robert Brown (aka: Jason Bolt, aka: Sarek's post-Trek nemesis) was at the convention in Vegas this week... his first read of the script was while getting makeup applied. No matter what you think of the episode, he should get some kind of kudos for saving the production after Barrymore didn't show up to film it.
Brown did some good turns in '70s and '80s shows like COLUMBO. I always liked him as an actor after seeing him in TREK as a kid. I just wish his one shot at the Trek Universe would have been marginally better than cholera.
PlainPatrick
Lieutenant
This is not in direct reply. I cannot read EVERY post. You gentemen are more gifted. Many episodes featured duality. "Enemy Within" for example. The linchpin of "The Alternative Factor is the ujltimate line (I believe) "And what of Lazurus? And What of Lazarus." Biblical references aside, Kirk is contemplating both the demise of evil incarnate, and the sacrifice that Lazarus offered. Now this being said, this episode was horribly edited and the acting was out of Our Gang, but one more thing. This episode showed a beautiful African American woman with short kinky hair. For the time, this was very useful and worthy of a mention.
She made this young cracker's pickle tickle, I can assure you.
Joe, old cracker now
PlainPatrick
Lieutenant
You have different taste, Joe. I was commenting on how it might make young women feel, who thought they were ugly because tv said they were Uhura and Diahann Carroll were beautiful, but ghetto whores were ugly. Here was a woman in a position of trust, an officer i believe and gorgeous, but not with bouiffant hair. Bless Gene Roddenberry and his ashes in space. Bless him for this love. And Andrea in suspender bottoms. Patrick
Lt. Masters(sp?)was quite cute. Even now. I don't think a blue Starfleet miniskirt did her much justice but I've always liked her and she's one of the few positive standouts in this turkey.
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