Do you wish more two-parters had been made for TOS?

[Christopher]

That's why I always recommend not starting a TOS watch-through with "The Cage"...it was never an actual broadcast episode, it was a home video extra that got released in the 80s...and you get the bulk of its story soon enough in "The Menagerie", which is better appreciated if you didn't just watch "The Cage" half a season back.

Right. The release of "The Cage" was an event for the 20th anniversary. So for the first 40% of Trek history, now, the only way anyone saw the events of "The Cage" was as part of "The Menagerie" (or when Roddenberry showed the pilot film at conventions).

And of course there's also the fact that "The Cage" is meant to come something like 11 years prior to "Where No Man Has Gone Before," so watching them consecutively kind of obscures that. Maybe watch "The Cage," then binge-watch 11 seasons of other shows, then start watching season 1.

 

[ihno]

I have never missed two parters with TOS. To me most Trek 2 parters are mediocre at best. Best of both worlds was so good that none of those, that followed could ever reach it. DS9 is an exception since this series had an arc anyway.

So I'm fine with TOS as it is.

 

[telerites]

I dislike two-parters and for that matter multi-episode storylines. I would much rather have done-in-one episodes (self-contained, so to speak). The ones I really dislike are the cliffhangers from season to season. Seems like a trend anymore with series and TNG did it and most likely DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise (just don't recall those as well).

TOS was just fine with the one-ups.

 

[Christopher]

One other thing about 2-parters in the '60s: If you look at TOS's sister show Mission: Impossible, the second parts of their 2-parters (and the latter two parts of their one 3-parter) had incredibly long recaps, often 5-6 minutes. I don't think "The Menagerie"'s recap of part 1 was nearly that long, but there's no telling how long the recaps might've been if they'd done other 2-parters. If they had, we would've had a lot of fans complaining about the frustratingly long recaps.

 

[The Old Mixer]

And of course there's also the fact that "The Cage" is meant to come something like 11 years prior to "Where No Man Has Gone Before," so watching them consecutively kind of obscures that. Maybe watch "The Cage," then binge-watch 11 seasons of other shows, then start watching season 1.

That viewing scheme really falls apart if you plan to move on from TOS to the movies and TNG....

 

[Nebusj]

That viewing scheme really falls apart if you plan to move on from TOS to the movies and TNG....

Have you seen the first season of Next Generation? Nothing wrong giving that an extra century to settle ...

 

[The Old Mixer]

But what a monumental disappointment after waiting that long....

 

[Drone]

There's also the odd bit where the Telosian's stop the transmission for no reason other than to provide an add break cliffhanger as well

Well, with that long of a backstory, you have to keep in mind that theTelosians had a hell of lot of commercial time to sell, so.....

 

[CrazyMatt]

Not a single episode strikes me as having required a two-parter. In fact, the Menagerie didn't really require it either. It was made as a two-parter to get some practical use of the very expensive first pilot, and to give some desperately needed breathing space in the broadcast calendar. The story itself doesn't really require two hours to tell, IMHO.

 

[Maurice]

You can't even run "The Cage" in an hour. It was 10 minutes too long to run in a standard network slot as was. The only ways to have shown it at all would be to cut it by 15%, make it a 90 minute special, or write an "envelope" to make it a 2-parter.

 

[tomalak301]

I was just saying in my rewatch thread, I think Journey to Babel could have benefited from being a two parter. There was a lot of story there where they could have enhanced and it did feel like they switched the plot of the episodes midway through.

 

[RandyS]

I dislike two-parters and for that matter multi-episode storylines. I would much rather have done-in-one episodes (self-contained, so to speak). The ones I really dislike are the cliffhangers from season to season. Seems like a trend anymore with series and TNG did it and most likely DS9, Voyager, and Enterprise (just don't recall those as well).

They did.

And while I share your dislike for multi-episode storylines (I too prefer episodic TV), I think the occasional two-parter, or even the occasional three-parter is fine. At least as long as it stays an occasional thing.

 

[CrazyMatt]

I think the occasional two-parter, or even the occasional three-parter is fine. At least as long as it stays an occasional thing.

I agree. Most of the two-parters for TNG and DS9 were very well done. And the three-part start to season 2 on DS9 was superb.

 

[JimZipCode]

The two-parter that I wanted to see, first came up in conversation in the comments on the old AV Club retrospective reviews, that Zack Handlen wrote. I think it was a collaboration of me & some other commenters who generated the idea to take "Turnabout Intruder" and turn it into a two-parter, in this way:

• Roughly the first half of Turnabout is the first half of episode one: maybe up to around the point where Kirk-in-Janice's-body has used a broken glass to get free and then Janice-in-Kirk's-body beats her up. "Janice" is imprisoned, Spock & McCoy have questions about "Kirk's" handling of the situation, and the Enterprise is on its way to the Benecia Colony(sp?).
  
• But then the Enterprise runs into trouble! Right here we insert a whole 'nother episode, a new story where the Enterprise is confronted with some grave threat. The second half of episode one is roughly the first half of this new story.
• At cliffhanger, the Enterprise is on the brink of catastrophe, with an imposter in command and her true captain trapped in another body, imprisoned in the brig. A double cliffhanger.
  
• The first half of episode two resolves the new story. Janice-in-Kirk's-body beats the threat and saves the ship, in some half-brilliant and quite flawed way that Kirk would never have done. Like, she sacrifices some crewmen to blow up the menace without bothering to try to rescue them, or something. She's overly pleased with the cleverness of her solution, without noticeably reflecting on the loss, as Kirk would have – Kirk would have tried to save the bad guys too, tried to forge an alliance, where Janice-in-Kirk's-body just kills them.
  
• So now Spock's eyebrow is raised. He goes to interview "Janice" to determine what happened on the surface, and the familiar "Turnabout Intruder" story resumes here.

The important point is that we're not stretching out "Turnabout" to make it last for the running time of two episodes: instead we're interpolating another episode into it, taking two episodes worth of stories and telling them across two episodes of runtime, but breaking them up in an interesting way.

I think this would give "Turnabout" some extra depth, because it would give Janice-in-Kirk's-body a chance to stretch her legs and show that she had some real tactical and command ability – and also show that she is a real psychopath. In the actual episode, she murders her whole team to lure the Enterprise, but that happens offscreen, before the episode starts. Here she would show yet more callous disregard for the lives of teammates. So we really hate her by the time Spock starts to depose her; but we also respect her abilities a little. And the new, interpolated story – well, we don't know anything about a story no one has written, but its suspense would get some extra oomph from the situation of Kirk-in-Janice's-body, helpless while the ship was in danger.

That's my vote, for the two-parter I wish had been made. :-)

 

[Christopher]

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that anyone would want more of "Turnabout Intruder." I'd rather subtract an hour from its running length than add one.

 

[STEPhon IT]

I thought "The Menagerie" was the best two part episodes ever made in Star Trek. The two part episodes "The Best of Both Worlds" were decent, but the rest (From TNG, DS9, VOY, & ENT.) were not as good as the 1st part. I think limiting a story to 1 episode makes it stronger and it can stand alone.

 

[JimZipCode]

I'm sorry, I'm having trouble wrapping my head around the idea that anyone would want more of "Turnabout Intruder."

:-)

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/a-thought-about-turnabout-intruder.176284/page-2#post-6359632

 

[telerites]

:-)

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/a-thought-about-turnabout-intruder.176284/page-2#post-6359632

Turnabout Intruder ranks as my worst TOS episode behind even Spock's Brain.

 

[Maurice]

:-)

http://www.trekbbs.com/threads/a-thought-about-turnabout-intruder.176284/page-2#post-6359632

Yeah... no.

 

[maneth]

Turnabout Intruder is abominable, and it's just a shame that such a stinker was the last episode of TOS to air. (In Spock's Brain it's at least possible to admire Nimoy's acting skills. His eyes look totally dead when he's without most of his brain.)

But back to the original point of the thread, while I like two parters and story arcs, TOS wasn't that kind of show. So no, I don't miss having more two parters on the show, much as I like The Menagerie.