Just watched Alternative Factor for the first time in about 20 years. While it seems like many point to Spock's Brain as the worst episode in the series I think Alternative Factor has it beat - at least I can understand the plot of Spock's Brain (as absurd as it may be). I couldn't explain the plot of Alternative Factor if I had a gun to my head...
Alternative Factor - Worst Episode Ever?
- Thread starter Komack
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As long as And the Children Shall Lead... exists, it is no contest.
Word.
Given that The Empath has never once failed to put me literally to sleep, I must say that for me The Alternative Factor is not the most boring. Nor have I ever had trouble understanding its pathetic shoestring of a plot.
My candidate for worst, though, would be Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, Frank Gorshin's mythical award notwithstanding. That Which Survives, a close second.
My candidate for worst, though, would be Let That Be Your Last Battlefield, Frank Gorshin's mythical award notwithstanding. That Which Survives, a close second.
This.As long as And the Children Shall Lead... exists, it is no contest.
I don't mind "The Alternative Factor." I'll watch it before a lot of other things.
Yes.
There is no bad Star Trek. There is only Star Trek.
If you were to remove every episode that people think is bad, just because it doesn't fit the template of "perfect" Trek, there would be about 14-1/2 hours of watchable Trek left.
Me? I accept all of it for what it is.
If you were to remove every episode that people think is bad, just because it doesn't fit the template of "perfect" Trek, there would be about 14-1/2 hours of watchable Trek left.
Me? I accept all of it for what it is.
Nah, it has the Angel chant. Like "brain and brain" from Spock's Brain or the Eden song from Way to Eden, that puts it above the Alternative Factor.As long as And the Children Shall Lead... exists, it is no contest.
I really enjoy "Spock's Brain" and "Requiem for Methuselah" for their music scores and beautiful women.
I kind of enjoy "Whom Gods Destroy" and "The Way to Eden" along those lines as well.
"Assignment: Earth", "The Mark of Gideon", and "The Cloud Minders" are almost good.
But everyone has a different list of clunkers. The lower-tier episodes I'm less fond of, from least bad to most awful, are:
"Friday's Child" - Love-it-or-hate-it music score for the planet-side scenes is too heavy for me; men wearing carpets.
"The Alternative Factor" - Confusing and dumb.
"Plato's Stepchildren" - Embarrassing.
"The Savage Curtain" - Give me a break.
"And the Children Shall Lead" - The worst.
I kind of enjoy "Whom Gods Destroy" and "The Way to Eden" along those lines as well.
"Assignment: Earth", "The Mark of Gideon", and "The Cloud Minders" are almost good.
But everyone has a different list of clunkers. The lower-tier episodes I'm less fond of, from least bad to most awful, are:
"Friday's Child" - Love-it-or-hate-it music score for the planet-side scenes is too heavy for me; men wearing carpets.
"The Alternative Factor" - Confusing and dumb.
"Plato's Stepchildren" - Embarrassing.
"The Savage Curtain" - Give me a break.
"And the Children Shall Lead" - The worst.
"The Alternative Factor" suffered a lot of backstage problems. The actor originally hired as Lazarus failed to appear on the first day, saying he forgot, resulting in the studio and/or production filing a grievance against him with the Guild. Robert Brown had to be hired at the last minute and the already built costume refitted. Then there's a questionable change in the script where a love story subplot between Lazarus and Lt. Masters was cut entirely because they'd hired a black actress for the role and were worried about offending parts of the United States.
I don't know about it being the worst, but it was certainly poorly written, poorly executed, and confusing as hell. As with all of TOS, there are elements of it that are good. For example, I loved Lazarus's little ship, a nice retro-throwback to the golden age of sci-fi. It also had a unique from-behind f/x shot of the Enterprise firing its phasers at the ship on the planet surface below.
It was still better than most of the Voyager episodes that I've seen.
It was still better than most of the Voyager episodes that I've seen.
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We need a Like button for posts like this.As long as And the Children Shall Lead... exists, it is no contest.
Speaking of the Lazarus ship, has anyone figured out what it was? I mean, Star Trek recycled everything, and while I know the dome from the ship appeared as set dressing for other episodes, the ship only being used once makes me think it was something rented or borrowed, since otherwise I'd have expected to see it reused.
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