Alternative Factor: What did I just watch?

[Expo67]

Actually, I enjoyed this episode. Robert Brown's performance as both Lazarus A(the insane version)and Lazarus B(the sane version)were convincing. The storyline was definately an interesting one. Especially since it explored the theme about 'The Duality Of Man'. Even Lazarus' time ship and its design looked very interesting.

Like someone posted earlier, blame the troubled history of the episode on John Drew Barrymore. He was the huge cause of that episode's problem.

 

[Rojixus]

This episode melted my brain. First there's Lazarus, who is lying and telling everyone he's chasing some super-evil anti-life guy. And then he goes in and out of being sane and insane. His beard is constantly changing. His ship looks like something from the Jetsons. There's time travel, holes through space, an anti-matter universe, head wounds that disappear then reappear, crazy negative brawls, and stolen dilithium crystals. Not to the mentioned the universe blinked out of existence like five times!

THANK YOU! That episode made no damn sense!

 

[lurok]

Bonkers as it is, dislike less than Charlie X, Miri, Conscience..., The Apple, Omega Factor.

 

[marksound]

I don't think that anyone back in 1967 ever dreamed that these episodes would be seen over and over, much less picked to death, all these years later. Face it, to most of the people involved, Trek was just a tv show. If it got canceled, they'd go to work somewhere else.

It's my personal opinion that at first even Roddenberry thought of it as just another show. I don't think he had any idea how he did it, either. As much as he tried, he couldn't duplicate whatever it is that makes Trek special.

So, I just take things as they are. Alternative Factor is just a story, no better or worse than any other, and I enjoy it just as much.

 

[A beaker full of death]

I just got tired of Lazarus falling off of a cliff 12 times.

 

[Gary7]

I don't think that anyone back in 1967 ever dreamed that these episodes would be seen over and over, much less picked to death, all these years later. Face it, to most of the people involved, Trek was just a tv show. If it got canceled, they'd go to work somewhere else.

It's my personal opinion that at first even Roddenberry thought of it as just another show. I don't think he had any idea how he did it, either. As much as he tried, he couldn't duplicate whatever it is that makes Trek special.

So, I just take things as they are. Alternative Factor is just a story, no better or worse than any other, and I enjoy it just as much.

You make a really excellent point. Although the concept of syndication existed and there was the expectation of making money from that, I'll bet you anything they anticipated this to be a certain limited stretch of time after which interest would be lost--the whole series would be mothballed and that would be it.

So many people critical of TOS forget this, as well as the fact that this was the ground breaking experiment, with very tight budgets and short shooting schedules. They had no idea that this would be the seed that germinates 4 more series, a number of movies, and an extremely profitable entertainment franchise.

Also, when you consider how much detail was hidden with the lower resolution of television in those days, the series held up extraordinary well under HD. For instance, those "crapazoid" dummy phasers are still discreet enough in appearance not to look like blatant imitations of the hero model.