Season 3

[EnriqueH]

So I've started watching Season 3 and just finished "Is There In Truth No Beauty?"

So far, I don't think the 3rd Season is anywhere near as bad as its reputation, though the slashing of the budget is obvious.

The Third Season of Star Trek kinda reminds me a bit of the third season of Kung Fu in that both of these third seasons seem to go for trippy, mindbending stories.

Spectre of the Gun was a good episode IMO. I really liked it. I also enjoyed Elaan of Troyius.

Paradise Syndrome, I loved. Great locations, music, and I enjoyed the story. A couple of over-the-top Shatnerisms not withstanding, such as the infamous "I am Kirok!"

Is There In Truth No Beauty was great. It feels worthy of the best of Star Trek.

Spock's Brain is as bad as its reputation: embarrassing dialogue. It's like The Alternative Factor.

The Empath is next for me, which I haven't seen since the mid-90s, but I remember it being very good. I'll watch it tomorrow and let you guys know what I think.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Paradise Syndrome, I loved. Great locations, music, and I enjoyed the story. A couple of over-the-top Shatnerisms not withstanding, such as the infamous "I am Kirok!"

"Behold the god who bleeds!" has been common parlance in my little circle for years, whenever someone is taken down a peg somehow.

 

[Lance]

It has it's own strengths and weaknesses. The cheapness of the production really hits home as the season progresses and we get more and more episodes being made that feature only the regular Enterprise sets (either as the Enterprise, as a sister ship, or a facsimilie!). But on the whole I find a lot of the scripts servicable..... it's their execution that suffers.

 

[Terran_Empire]

I watched Spock's Brain last night and boy was that a stinker. The only gems were Spock's dialogue and McCoy and Kirk and the very end of the episode.

 

[Marsden]

Brain and brain! What is brain?

 

[Lance]

Now, "Spock's Brain" has got a campy fun factor that I personally find some entertainment in, but I can also *totally* understand why others might find it unpalatable.

 

[Terran_Empire]

Now, "Spock's Brain" has got a campy fun factor that I personally find some entertainment in, but I can also *totally* understand why others might find it unpalatable.

Yeah I can see that but still...coming off of "Assignment: Earth" straight into this? You can imagine my apprehension of starting "The Enterprise Incident".

 

[Warp Zero]

Of course Spock's brain got back into his body and they all left happily while the people on the planet had to clean up after what happened.

 

[Push The Button]

I watched Spock's Brain last night and boy was that a stinker. The only gems were Spock's dialogue and McCoy and Kirk and the very end of the episode.

And yet...the strategy meeting on the bridge with Kirk, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov, with the powerpoint slides on the main viewscreen is great stuff, one of my favorite scenes of the entire series.

 

[EnriqueH]

Now, "Spock's Brain" has got a campy fun factor that I personally find some entertainment in, but I can also *totally* understand why others might find it unpalatable.

Yeah I can see that but still...coming off of "Assignment: Earth" straight into this? You can imagine my apprehension of starting "The Enterprise Incident".

You shoulda' watched them in Production Order.

Spectre of the Gun was a pretty good episode. They were able to use that lack of budget into a cool idea.

 

[erastus25]

Now, "Spock's Brain" has got a campy fun factor that I personally find some entertainment in, but I can also *totally* understand why others might find it unpalatable.

Yeah I can see that but still...coming off of "Assignment: Earth" straight into this? You can imagine my apprehension of starting "The Enterprise Incident".

You shoulda' watched them in Production Order.

Spectre of the Gun was a pretty good episode. They were able to use that lack of budget into a cool idea.

Even that episode is a bit of a mess though. They run out of ideas about half way through so we end up with a padded out 51 minute episode that could have been done in 30.

 

[EnriqueH]

I'm about to start "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" in my chronological viewing spree.

So far, I think most of the episodes have been very good. Aside from the obvious reduction in series budget, I find very little to dislike about Season 3, with some exceptions.

1) I don't think I need to explain Spock's Brain, so I won't get into that. Obvious misfire when you're knee deep watching the series and losing yourself in the mythology though I can appreciate its campy, cult status in a Russ Meyer sort of way.

2) And the Children Shall Lead was not as bad as its IMDB rating would lead me to leave, but it was neither here nor there. Not exactly an episode I would watch over and over. I read that Fred Freiberger meant for this to be a remake of Miri, but better. Obviously that didn't happen. Annoying kids always ruin stories. Miri was better, but I still have to sit through, "Nyah, nyah, nee, nyah, nyah." Ugh!

3) Plato's Stepchildren was good! I remembered being embarrassed at some of the overacting and watching Shatner acting like a donkey. But overall, this was an interesting episode, enhanced especially by Michael Dunn as "Alexander" who gave a great performance. He pretty much makes the epiosde now that I think about it. I also loved Shatner's line, "Alexander, where I come from: race, color or size doesn't matter. And nobody has the power!" Kinda sums up Star Trek right there.

4) LOVE LOVE LOVE...McCoy in The Empath (a great episode IMO), and "For the World Is Hollow..." DeForest Kelley, IMO, gave two of his best performances in these two episodes. Very rewarding for me. I was very moved by the way McCoy pushed The Empath away when she was trying to sacrifice her life for his. Says a lot about Bones. He showed a lot of character in both episodes.

5) Now I come to the inspiration of this particular posting:

That Which Survives.

This to me is the low point. It's actually a pretty decent adventure story, in and of itself, but what makes it a low point isn't that. It's this...up until now, I haven't noticed any serious lapses in characterization, but I finally saw it---LOUD & CLEAR---in this episode.

Kirk and Spock spend the episode acting like they have their period---Kirk acts like a douche towards Sulu, ("If I wanted a Russian history lesson, I'd have brought Mr. Chekov!")

Worse of all was Mr. Spock, explaining that the occidental or whatever part of his head hit the corner of the captain's chair. Awkward attempt at humorous dialogue, but what really annoys me about the writing is the way Spock keeps riding the crew about minute details, "Not 93 seconds, 93.777 seconds, Lt." I'd never really seen Spock act like that much of a smartass. Yeah, he could be a bit of a smartass, but the dial was turned up way high in this episode.

I tried to rationalize Spock's behavior at first because it seemed at first as if he were directing this attitude primarily towards Lt. Radha, and I rationalized that if he were taking Lt. Radha under his wing, it made sense that he was being a bit hard on her specifically.

But as the episode wore on, my theory went out the window as it was obvious Spock was acting like this towards the entire crew. If he really needed the Lt. to say, "93.777 seconds", I wish he would've explained why, but I found his leadership abilities a bit demotivating to his subordinates.

The episode wasn't all bad. It was entertaining, and it featured two crew members which were gone all too quickly.

I loved Lt. D'Amato! Arthur Batanides wasn't in the episode long, but I thought he brought a lot of energy and believability to what would've been a lesser, forgettable role in someone else's hands. I was disappointed D'Amato ended up being a glorified red shirt, but I enjoyed his all-too brief performance. Definitely one of the most effective "red shirt" type roles in the series.

I also thought the Lt. Radha character had potential to grow. Naomi Pollack, like Batanides, seemed to have potential for future guest starring roles.

Overall, it's an entertaining episode, but the characterizations of Kirk and especially Spock kinda ruin it.

 

[Maurice]

Any time anyone says "point #" in reference to seconds is stupid, since you can't speak fast enough for that kind of precision to be possible, let alone meaningful.

 

[LMFAOschwarz]

Annoying kids always ruin stories. Miri was better, but I still have to sit through, "Nyah, nyah, nee, nyah, nyah." Ugh!

I know one guy who never watched Star Trek. Turns out he did one day, when some friends were over his place (I think they were going to go fishing, but it rained, something like that). Well, lo and behold, Miri was on, so the grand total of his Star Trek knowledge now turns out to be "Bonk bonk! Bonk bonk!" There is just no way to un-ring that bell...

Plato's Stepchildren...enhanced especially by Michael Dunn as "Alexander" who gave a great performance. He pretty much makes the epiosde now that I think about it.

Agreed, he was great.

I also loved Shatner's line, "Alexander, where I come from: race, color or size doesn't matter. And nobody has the power!" Kinda sums up Star Trek right there.

Indeed. If only it were so in our world now...

Worse of all was Mr. Spock, explaining that the occidental or whatever part of his head hit the corner of the captain's chair.

Occipital.

I loved Lt. D'Amato! Arthur Batanides wasn't in the episode long, but I thought he brought a lot of energy and believability to what would've been a lesser, forgettable role in someone else's hands.

Wasn't he good? He fit like a glove on that show!
Even Engineer Watkins was good, and he had even less to do.

 

[EnriqueH]

Annoying kids always ruin stories. Miri was better, but I still have to sit through, "Nyah, nyah, nee, nyah, nyah." Ugh!

I know one guy who never watched Star Trek. Turns out he did one day, when some friends were over his place (I think they were going to go fishing, but it rained, something like that). Well, lo and behold, Miri was on, so the grand total of his Star Trek knowledge now turns out to be "Bonk bonk! Bonk bonk!" There is just no way to un-ring that bell...

Horrible.

 

[Melakon]

"Spectre of the Gun" is one of my favorites because it's full of visual style touches in a story dealing with the nature of reality. By the end, back on the ship, it's obvious they never got past the warning buoy at all until the Melkot extend welcome.

Much is made of Billy Claiborne (Chekov) surviving the OK Corral in actual history. But Ike Clanton (Kirk) also survived the original battle, by running away during the fighting.

 

[EnriqueH]

Spectre is good. The more I see it, the more I like it!

Just finished "Whom Gods Destroy".

Overall, I like this episode, but this bugged me: When confronted with two Kirks, couldn't Spock have asked him a million questions to verify his identity? "Captain, what was the name of the genetically engineered superman we found on the SS Botany Bay? What was the name of the woman who was to be my wife?"

Anyway, it was a treat to watch Keye Luke (from Kung Fu). That's one thing about Season 3: lots of cool guest stars, but none of them have much screen time.

Yvonne Craig. Ah, yes. What a hottie.

 

[Commishsleer]

That Which Survives.

This to me is the low point. It's actually a pretty decent adventure story, in and of itself, but what makes it a low point isn't that. It's this...up until now, I haven't noticed any serious lapses in characterization, but I finally saw it---LOUD & CLEAR---in this episode.

Kirk and Spock spend the episode acting like they have their period---Kirk acts like a douche towards Sulu, ("If I wanted a Russian history lesson, I'd have brought Mr. Chekov!")

Worse of all was Mr. Spock, explaining that the occidental or whatever part of his head hit the corner of the captain's chair. Awkward attempt at humorous dialogue, but what really annoys me about the writing is the way Spock keeps riding the crew about minute details, "Not 93 seconds, 93.777 seconds, Lt." I'd never really seen Spock act like that much of a smartass. Yeah, he could be a bit of a smartass, but the dial was turned up way high in this episode.

...
Overall, it's an entertaining episode, but the characterizations of Kirk and especially Spock kinda ruin it.

Exactly. Well put!

And if it wasn't Spock acting like an ass then we switched over to Kirk being an ass. This is why this episode sits in my bottom 10 even though it probably shouldn't because it has good things in it.
A woman on the helm- finally and deliberately. Maybe a sign of things to come. Well no but at least we got to see it in one episode.
The 'mutiny' bit was great characterisation IMO. Let down mainly by Spock being a jerk in the rest of the episode. If I were Scott I would have punched Spock out.

Also why does Kirk beam down to the planet? Surely the planet was so strange it should have been the chief Science Officer and his minions not the Captain, CMO and Helmsman.

Also the Scott thing in the Jefferies like tube doesn't make sense.

 

[Lance]

^ I do, however, give them props for at least trying something other than Kirk & Spock together. At this late stage in the series that was unusual. Though I agree it might've been better to have swapped the roles and had Spock leading the party and Kirk left on the ship ala the situation seen in "Galileo 7" (I suspect that by this stage Shatner would've had something to say about that, mind you).

 

[EnriqueH]

^ I do, however, give them props for at least trying something other than Kirk & Spock together. At this late stage in the series that was unusual. Though I agree it might've been better to have swapped the roles and had Spock leading the party and Kirk left on the ship ala the situation seen in "Galileo 7" (I suspect that by this stage Shatner would've had something to say about that, mind you).

Yeah, that's a good point, Lance.

That was cool. Unfortunately, it was squandered when they wrote the dialogue for both characters, but the episode definitely had some cool stuff going for it.

n fact, ironically enough, they handled the whole episode rather well EXCEPT for the writing of the two leads. Everything else, as I recall, was good.