Article Ranks Every Episode, Preposterously

[ZapBrannigan]

I can't believe how this guy ranks the 79 episodes:

http://www.hollywood.com/news/tv/55...original-series-79-episodes-best-worst?page=1

I vehemently disagree with him, especially as to what constitute the worst shows. He trashes some of my favorite episodes, and later praises some of my absolute dogs. What is he smoking?

Yes, he managed to get some good ones near the top, but he also put some fair ones there. Any such list is bound to be somewhat subjective, but this list is weird.

I might make a list myself. I think the easiest way to do it would be to write all the titles on 79 small pieces of paper, and then just shift them around the dining room table until every last face-off has duked it out. Which of any two do you like better? Move the scraps to the left or right, accordingly. Doing it all in your head would be a lot harder.

 

[Kobayshi Maru]

I can't believe how this guy ranks the 79 episodes:

http://www.hollywood.com/news/tv/55...original-series-79-episodes-best-worst?page=1

I vehemently disagree with him, especially as to what constitute the worst shows. He trashes some of my favorite episodes, and later praises some of my absolute dogs. What is he smoking?

Yes, he managed to get some good ones near the top, but he also put some fair ones there. Any such list is bound to be somewhat subjective, but this list is weird.

I might make a list myself. I think the easiest way to do it would be to write all the titles on 79 small pieces of paper, and then just shift them around the dining room table until every last face-off has duked it out. Which of any two do you like better? Move the scraps to the left or right, accordingly. Doing it all in your head would be a lot harder.

Of course, it would be impossible for two people to agree on everything, especially for such a long list/text, unless one of them is a clone of the other or some kind of robot, but I find myself agreeing with much of what they say. I'd be curious to know your objections.

 

[CrazyMatt]

How could he not have identified "Spock's Brain" as the all-time best episode when it's so obviously the right choice????????

 

[Lance]

The trouble with opinion is that it's all so terribly subjective.

I respect this guy's opinion, even if I can not share it in places.

 

[Commander Balok]

I got to the bottom of the first page and spotted enough errors to know this guy never bothered to research his subject, which makes his opinions dubious: 1) at the time Turnabout Intruder aired we'd never seen a female starship captain, so possible Janice Lester was correct... 2) Roddenberry wasn't marginalized by NBC. He saw the handwriting on the wall when they gave him the Friday timeslot and distanced *himself* so he could work on new pilot ideas & Lincoln Enterprises (this was revealed in "The Making of Star Trek" published back in the 70s!)... 3) there was only ever one salt vampire and that was revealed in dialog... 4) the drug wasn't a hallucinogen and the miners weren't taking it, also revealed in dialog. Not to be all David Carradine & Curtis Armstrong about it, but geez, at least watch the episodes!

 

[Commishsleer]

And he said shuttlepod in the Galileo 7 revue.
I'm surprised he didn't mention 'Away Team' somewhere.

Obviously hes a Berman spy!

But to rank "And The Children Shall Lead" so highly makes me suspect the guy has just read a synopsis of the episode rather than seen it. I think the implementation of that episode and say "Spock's Brain" made them rather poorer examples of TOS.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

But to rank "And The Children Shall Lead" so highly makes me suspect the guy has just read a synopsis of the episode rather than seen it.

Exactly! He's not familiar with TOS, and he hasn't even seen the episodes he's praising or trashing. His "Mudd Women" mistake is something you simply can't get wrong if you've seen the show.

When naming bad episodes, "Spock's Brain" is the instant, cliche answer. But sit down and watch it, and it's pretty good. The original music score, female guest stars, and dramatic situation hold up just fine for me. It's just not as bad as people say.

He trashes "The Paradise Syndrome" and "Elaan of Troyius" -- Elaan on the title alone, which is virtually all he knows. Those are good episodes.

He thinks "The Galileo Seven" is better than "The Doomsday Machine."

He thinks "The Apple" is better than "The Menagerie."

He thinks "The Savage Curtain" is "really thought-provoking," better than "Shore Leave" and "This Side of Paradise."

Can I repeat that? He thinks "The Savage Curtain" is better than "This Side of Paradise." I could go on and on. His rankings are insane.

 

[BillJ]

Exactly! He's not familiar with TOS, and he hasn't even seen the episodes he's praising or trashing. His "Mudd Women" mistake is something you simply can't get wrong if you've seen the show.

Or he doesn't eat, breathe and sleep the show the way we do. Across seventy-nine episodes, I'm sure some things became fuzzy.

Can I repeat that? He thinks "The Savage Curtain" is better than "This Side of Paradise." I could go on and on. His rankings are insane.

I have "The Omega Glory" in my top-10 and I can assure you I've seen every episode twenty times at least.

 

[Ssosmcin]

When naming bad episodes, "Spock's Brain" is the instant, cliche answer. But sit down and watch it, and it's pretty good. The original music score, female guest stars, and dramatic situation hold up just fine for me. It's just not as bad as people say.

I agree, it is the instant cliche answer, much like "The Great Vegetable Rebellion" is always named as the worst episode of Lost in Space (plenty of second season episodes that are more dire than that). But, honestly, "Spock's Brain" isn't "pretty good." It's still a rather bad episode of the series, but it is FUN. It's also not an episode I would have chosen to open the season with, as NBC did (I would have gone with "The Enterprise Incident"). I feel its rep comes from the crushing disappointment felt after all the back breaking effort of the letter campaign and that this was their reward. However, as much as "And the Children Shall Lead" and "Markof Gideon" may be worse, considering the previous two years, "Spock's Brain" is still petty bad. Great music and lovely ladies don't make for a good episode.

Of course, that's just my opinion...

But shit, you're right about "The Doomsday Machine." Of course, it's also my favorite episode of the 79....

 

[Commander Balok]

I have "The Omega Glory" in my top-10 and I can assure you I've seen every episode twenty times at least.

I usually rank "The Omega Glory" in the bottom quarter of episodes. The story isn't a bad one, but IMO it's badly damaged by establishing that the planet was an *exact copy* of Earth without elaborating on that. If they had found the strength to avoid the twist this would probably stand as one of the better episodes, an excellent example of the value of the prime directive. ~OR~ if they'd ever followed up on why the culture was a copy of Earth (admittedly unlikely, as 1960s television producers did not create arc-driven series for the most part).

 

[Lance]

I see 'The Omega Glory' get shit-canned a lot, but I agree with BillJ that I'd probably rate it somewhere nearer the top of my list too. Sure, the premise was flawed, but what *really* makes that episode is Morgan Woodward's performance as Captain Tracey. The idea of a Starfleet Captain who has become completely corrupted, not just in the sense of "absolute power" but more broadly, through Woodward's performance, Tracey seems to have become genuinely evil, and Kirk's stunned reaction to that, is what elevates the episode.

That's an incredibly powerful idea, especially in context of the utopian ideals usually espoused about Star Trek's society. Humanity in the 23rd century is still flawed, and Captain Tracey is a poster boy of that.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Great music and lovely ladies don't make for a good episode.

It worked in "Requiem for Methuselah," with recycled music and one fembot. Love it. So yeah, I like "Spock's Brain."

For me to enjoy a Star Trek episode, it doesn't have to get a Hugo Award for best writing. TOS has so much going for it to begin with, an episode just has to avoid being atrocious or highly annoying and we're in business.

I have some less-favored ones such as

The Man Trap
Errand of Mercy
The Apple
I, Mudd
The Changeling
Wolf in the Fold
Catspaw
Friday's Child
The Mark of Gideon
Wink of an Eye
Assignment: Earth
For the World is Hollow
Let That be Your Last Battlefield
The Way to Eden
The Turnabout Intruder

These are all highly debatable and all have redeeming aspects, but I put them toward the bottom. Still, I watch them and don't consider them bad.

Below them, on my list:

- "Plato's Stepchildren" should have been a decent episode, but it took a terrible turn with the idea that Parmen would severely humiliate Kirk and Spock. Humiliation is not what we watch Star Trek for. With this one loathsome idea, the writer took his episode by the hair, dragged it into the Boys Room, and gave it a swirly. Shatner and Nimoy, being troupers, jumped in with both feet. I suspect Nimoy thought he was doing himself proud with his self-written "Maiden Wine," but I find it right on target with the humiliation theme.

Redeeming factors: touching moments with Michael Dunn, a good Alexander Courage score, and Barbara Babcock.

- "The Savage Curtain" does nothing for me. I find it hokey and forced. The Excalbians have created an artificial situation with artificial characters, and that's exactly what the episode delivers. [The fraudulent (episodes unseen) Christian Blauvelt article I linked to claims that Hitler was one of the Excalbians' three villains. Yep. So thought-provoking.]

- "The Alternative Factor." The writer must have been rushed or exhausted, and then to make matters worse the guest star had to be replaced without notice. So the script was stiff, filming fell behind schedule, and to top it off they had an unprepared actor. The finished product came out wooden and awkward.

- Worst: "And the Children Shall Lead," an outing that unforgivably set out to be atrocious and achieved all its goals. If "The Alternative Factor" was a fender bender, then "Children" was vehicular assault with intent to kill. Just putrid; the very worst one.

 

[mos6507]

I will always have a soft spot for Savage Curtain. Lee Bergere played a very charismatic and sympathetic Lincoln. There is kind of a Purple Rose of Cairo aspect to it, but dealing with historical figures rather than film characters. The same could be said of Spectre of the Gun, although it relied more on mood than interesting guest actors.

Also, the whole theme of Plato's Stepchildren is bullying. And that's exactly what the humiliation scene was about. You can argue that it was over-the-top but it suit the underlying story theme.

There really are very few TOS episodes that don't in some way have some redeeming value in them. Even The Way to Eden is entertaining, if nothing else, as a hippie time-capsule and Spock's Brain has brought us the famous pop-culture quotable "Brain, Brain, what is brain?". In contrast, some of the other Trek shows have a lot of episodes that you could excise from canon without leaving any perceivable hole. Even when TOS was bad, it usually had a feature that was in some way memorable or fun (even in a campy way). The worst sin you can commit is to be boring, which so many of the TNG-era shows were.

 

[Commishsleer]

I have more problem with the bottom of the list (and what's not there) than I have with the top. Sure they're not all in my top 10 but they'd probably be in my top 20.
I'd put "Plato's Stepchildren" up high too. I know a lot of people don't like it but its one of my favourites.

 

[Mudd]

He gets #1 right, and there aren't many of his rankings I'd argue with. I'm beyond tired of "The Trouble With Tribbles." I'd put "Mudd's Women" higher on the list than he does; OTOH, he ranks "Charlie X" pretty highly, and that's one of my personal faves that usually gets trashed. So overall I got no problems with this guy's taste.

 

[EnriqueH]

I'm a firm believer that many of these so called "best lists" are nothing more than attention-seekers trying to stir the pot.

For example, Best Martial Arts Actors of All Time:

10) Steven Seagal
9) Jean Claude Van Damme
8) Chuck Norris
7) Jackie Chan
6) Jet Li
5) Angela Mao
4) Sho Kosugi
3) Donnie Yen
2) Bruce Lee
1) Tony Jaa

Here's another example:

Best sequels ever:

5) Superman II
4) X2
3) Empire Strikes Back
2) Godfather II
1) The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug

That kind of shit.

And then readers go: "Tony Jaa over Bruce Lee? WTF???" "Hobbit over Godfather...???" And then everyone just scrolls to the comments to observe the nerd rage, hatred, carnage, and vile spewing out of keyboards all over the world.

 

[BillJ]

I'm a firm believer that many of these so called "best lists" are nothing more than attention-seekers trying to stir the pot.

Welcome to the internet.

 

[Marsden]

Savage Curtain is one of my favorites. There's a lot of world building going on, there's some action, and a new race. And I like the theme of it very much. What is good and what is evil?
They do seem the same at times, or it depends on who is making the judgement. It certainly could be a difficult concept for an alien species. So many people complain about the aliens not being alien enough but when some really alien aliens show up people complain about them being too alien. That's in general, not just for Star Trek, but still, no one is satisfied with everything.

I think the Gorgon is the lowest point in Star Trek, anyone that ranks that episode above 79th does need to have a good reason.

EnriqueH, I think they get paid for those. Maybe not much but I can dribble on my keyboard for a few minutes to get a paycheck, where do I sign?

 

[EnriqueH]

I'm a firm believer that many of these so called "best lists" are nothing more than attention-seekers trying to stir the pot.

Welcome to the internet.

Tell me about it.

Here's another such list:

Ranking the Bonds:

6) Roger Moore ("Charismatic, funny, and totally so far from Fleming...yaddayadda")

5) Pierce Brosnan (A Connery-Moore hybrid who never got off the ground. yaddayadda bash the previous guy thing)

4) Sean Connery ("The one that started it out..." followed by gushing compliments to appease the hate already brewing.)

3) Timothy Dalton ("Fleming incarnate, before Daniel Craig there was Dalton..blah, blah, blah"

2) George Lazenby (At first, Lazenby was deemed a pretender...but viewing it now...he was sensitive and a phenomenal fighter on screen, the prototype for the Craig films that came much later.

1) Daniel Craig....

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Regarding "The Savage Curtain", "Plato's Stepchildren" and so forth, the ones I put near the bottom, I totally respect dissenting views when they come from genuine Original Series fans. It's not like I don't watch these eps myself for their good points.

What gets my goat is the non-TOS fan who doesn't even know the show and announces his judgments as if they mean something.

I'm a firm believer that many of these so called "best lists" are nothing more than attention-seekers trying to stir the pot.

Good point. I'm starting to think that's what underlies the Blauvelt article. Muckraking.