It was a joke. Everyone knows Steinbeck's script was Steinbeck II: The Wrath of Grapes.John Steinbeck?
Tracy Morgan wasn't even born when the episode was filmed, so Morgan Woodward stepped in to play captain Tracy.
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Beloved episodes you hate/Reviled episodes you love
- Thread starter Jim Of Seattle
- Start date
I had to look him up as I've never heard of him! 
JB
JB
I also love "Omega Glory"...flag-wavyness and all. In fact, that never bothered me. It's not on my list of things that would detract from a story. Silly and over-the-top? Perhaps... Enough to change my opinion on an episode, though? Nah.
Ronald Tracy was one of TOS's best villains. Guy was just a total evil douchebag.
I agree! The conspiracy between Scotty and McCoy was awesome! They knew something was wrong but they didn't have any proof. Nowadays, this would have been a whole 10 episode season arc but they got this done in one.
I have 2 things I want to say, besides I agree with you, but I feel like, no offense to Louise Sorrel, that Rayna was just so incredible that it didn't take any time at all for him to fall for her. It was instant, and then she's all super interested in him which magnified it even more. Flint and Kirk shared a lot of personality traits and Flint designed her to like him but she saw him as a father where Kirk was a new and exciting so they really had a strong mutual attraction that didn't need any time to blow up in to flaming passion. (wow, I should write one of those dreadful trashy novels!) The other think is Kirk was sick and dying and not totally in his right mind. So inhibitions were lowered even more, like when Janice was falling into despair in Miri, but that's secondary to my first point.
I agree, any episode has something in it that I like, sometimes that makes it worse, though, because that goodness is in that other stuff.
Spock's Brain is really pretty good until the very end where he's helping him reconnect his brain, then it really blows it for me. In a way it seems logical, (do you feel that?) but it just comes off bad. Having a little game boy driving Spock around wasn't too good, either, but I think it's foolish for anyone to think that Leonard Nimoy wasn't going to be in the whole episode, that was him you know, he does such a good job acting as a mindless body you sometimes have to remind yourself, well I do. And stars don't like being told, "hey sit this one out your character is central to the plot but we don't need you except for some voice overs.", from what I understand.
"Catspaw" was a personal favorite. I mentioned this once before but when I was a nubie fan back in 1986 my local supermarket had several episodes of the original series for rent and that was really my first exposure to the TV series after I saw the movie. They had "Catspaw" as a selection but for some reason it wasn't in stock for weeks and weeks, I guess someone forgot they had it. One day I saw the box out for rent and I was thrilled, but sad to find out someone accidently put the box back out, it still wasn't returned.....then one day it was back. I was so thrilled because I had already rented the other 10 or so episodes they had at least twice and "Catspaw" was the only one of the bunch I hadn't seen yet. Finally I got to see it----so I always have a certain fondness for that one.
Catspaw is one of my favorites, the ship dealing with problems while almost all of the main officers are gone, the aliens trying to understand different lifeforms and not entirely coping with it. I like the way the aliens look at the end! I had no problem with it at all, I much rather "alien" aliens then people with a strange haircut.
Is Changeling popular? That one comes as close as hating as I can get to an episode. It's just too all over the place, showing really serious and even dreadful things one moment and joking the next, and the writer must have been in the "more is not enough" school, I'm going to wipe out billions of people just in the teaser, I'm going to kill of a major star! I'm going to make Nimoy dance with a floating box!
And the Children Shall Lead could have been really good if they kept the spooky and scary elements but didn't include the cutsey crap again. Most of those kids were too annoying to serve the story. Gorgon needed a bit of help, lawyer in a shower curtain mumu wasn't quite that threatening. Sulu's fear of changing course was really poorly done, did he really think he was steering the ship through swords? Any kind of astronomical phenomena could have been substituted for a much better effect.
One of the things Miri did really well was telling the story over the span of several days on the surface of the planet. I think Trek should have gone for this more often (and Requiem for Methuselah would have been a perfect spot to do it). Trek stories always seem more realistic when they are allowed that time to have passed, to build character connections, desperation, whatever the story needs more of.
I just posted on this episode, earlier this month.
Here's a re-post of my comments:"Requiem" has some real bright spots. The fembot-as-companion is an intriguing Twilight Zone concept ("The Lonely"), then there's Kirk inspecting the 3-footer as if it's the real Enterprise, which was mind-blowing for a model-building boy like myself at the time, and when Kirk confronts Rayna in the lab, there's a gorgeous medley of love themes from "Elaan of Troyius" and "The Empath." The music alone would make the episode for me.
I also enjoy McCoy's soliloquy to Spock about "the things love will drive a man to." I think it stands alongside his "Balance of Terror" speech ("In this galaxy...") as one of the best things ever written for McCoy. Honestly, the "forget" business is nice, but far from my favorite thing in the episode.
I remember some years ago, some decades actually, watching on syndication, not knowing anything about production or air date orders and just watching the episode that was on seeing Requiem and thinking it was the last episode, I knew the blue letters were the last season and that ending seemed very final to me.
I too never realised the order of the episodes until i bought the Star Trek quiz book in 1978!!! I always thought Arena was a much later episode than it was! 
JB
JB
I understand why fans like "Journey to Babel": it's an essential Spock story, Mark Lenard and Jane Wyatt are both terrific as Mr. & Mrs. Sarek, it gives us a rare (original series) glimpse of other truly alien species in the Federation, etc. There's a lot going on here, however, the drama is very soapy and the B-story about a superpowered alien vessel and the Orion spies is pretty typical stuff. I don't hate this episode at all, but it's far from my favorite.
What's the general consensus on "Spectre of the Gun"? I don't know if that's reviled but I don't think it's a fan favorite, even though I've always enjoyed it. It's creative and visually unique despite the obvious limitations of the third season.
What's the general consensus on "Spectre of the Gun"? I don't know if that's reviled but I don't think it's a fan favorite, even though I've always enjoyed it. It's creative and visually unique despite the obvious limitations of the third season.
It's one of my favorites as well. The acting is so good and as an viewer you are just dying to see Shatner-as-Janice get her just desserts.
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I too never realised the order of the episodes until i bought the Star Trek quiz book in 1978!!! I always thought Arena was a much later episode than it was!
JB
OMG the Star Trek Quiz Book! Thank you!! I forgot all about it. I loved that little book.
Now I have to figure out where I put my copy.
I've seen that ep trashed for its minimalist staging, but I think that aspect is one of my favorite things about it. The framework-and-gaps sets and the music combine to lend a somewhat surreal atmosphere to the whole.
OMG the Star Trek Quiz Book! Thank you!! I forgot all about it. I loved that little book.
In my head I still quote The Man Trap as #22, Arena as #39, The Doomsday Machine as #56, Day of The Dove as #83 and Turnabout Intruder as #100! Odd that it couldn't have been #1-#79!!!
JB
I personally get a strong feeling from watching “Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”. The episode shows so well the folly of prejudiced hatred. This is my favorite and the most moving episode for me. Some people have already learned their lesson on this matter, and it is obvious to others. Where I live, you can still hear old men making prejudiced statements about their neighbors. It greatly upsets me, and I say my peace and expect people to change. How stupid are we to carry on racial prejudice for so long?
I gather that "The Empath" isn't reviled, exactly, as much as it is divisive: people either love it or hate it. Well, I love it. I love the minimalist staging that reduces the focus to the characters, I love the simplicity and clarity of the choices, I love the way the Big Three intercede for and care about one another. And as a longtime McCoy fan, I love the way he valiantly refuses to let Gem sacrifice herself on his behalf.
The Empath was one of the three banned episodes of Trek on the BBC and although I'm not that much of a fan of it, it's a lot better than the other two episodes, Whom gods Destroy and Plato's Stepchildren!
JB
JB
Really? Why was that?
The torture scenes, Brenny!
JB
JB