Episode of the Week : The Lights of Zetar

If you've only seen it remastered, you've never seen it. They inserted a mundane, random effect for the jarring original. No punch to the possessions, at all, no weird otherworldliness.

 

4.

 

Sixish. Definitely one I like to watch. Scotty is a little over the top with the sappy romance. Kirk constantly referring to one of his lieutenants as "the girl" was obnoxious even in the 60s. But the psychedelic Zetarian special effect was creepy-cool, and the story was okay.

 

Boring Mary Sue

1

Neil

 

For some reason I always liked this one. Memory Alpha, cool effects, bottle show (which I love); I rated it as a 7

 

Eight. Solid story, makes excellent use of Year 3's lower budget, and brings in an appealing guest star in Jan Shutan. Also a well-placed re-use of Courage's indelible music score from WNMHGB.

I like a good bottle show, too. The ship gets featured more.

 

No...just no. 5.

 

Scotty in love always makes me cringe.

 

I gave it a 5. The only thing I like about it is the very weird and creepy vibe, scared me quite a bit as a kid, esp. the woman gurgling and changing colors, so more of a nostalgia vote really.

 

I watch and just cant help thinking " this was written by Lambchop". For those under 50, look it up.

 

(Good name, Forbin, a favorite film of mine.) My WW2 era mother always to criticize and poke fun at all the "The girl" remarks on TV!

On ST, it seems every time anyone's in love, it's criticized as sappy. I think they handled it better than on other shows. Scotty cares, and shows it. Good for him.

 

3. Nice showcase for the cute Jan Shutan and not much else to recommend it. I never understood why they used the music from WNMHGB, it seems oddly out of place in this episode. I also think Scotty acts like a dork when in love... but then don't we all?

 

Eight because it's quite scary as well! Annoying how Federation technology on the whole is redundant against the Zetarian life forms too!
JB

 

3.

There's nothing really wrong with the episode's idea, but it's just so utterly dull, last time I watched it I had trouble even focusing on its conclusion.

 

Memorable for me as the last episode I hadn't seen and for how long I tried to catch the re-run. I also knew Jan Shutan from an Andy Griffith Show episode and liked her. I read an interview with her somewhere a long time ago that she thought her legs were too chubby for the costume.

I like the viewscreen graphic and some of the Memory Alpha stuff, and the ghost story/possession parts are pretty effective. So with all that, and even though it's not bad for the season, overall it's only average, a 5.

 

Shutan was also in the unsold 1967 Dick Tracy pilot:

 

I say it deserves an 8. The visual and sound effects for the episode are incredibly creepy, and the bodies scattered about Memory Alpha really highlighted the horror and danger .
But the thing that sold me on the episode was the melancholy score with Kirk's voiceover at the beginning of the episode:

 

The original special effect sold it.

 

I'd have to disagree with her. Even when I was a kid (before I was a leg man) I thought she had nice gams.
I gave the episode a 6.