How bad is season 3?

[AxelFoley]

Thanks for all the replies, I'm pretty confident I will enjoy this season very much as well since I'm not THAT picky. Hell, the worst TOS episode I've ever seen so far is The Alternative Factor and I gave that a 4/10. I'm pretty generous

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

You haven't seen SPOCK'S BRAIN. Oh no, you haven't....

 

[gottacook]

The first time I ever saw Star Trek was season 3, first-run, at age 12. I remember thinking how great it was, only learning later on (in reruns) how good the earlier seasons' scripts were by comparison. But the third season did have some of the best music and, of course, had the best ship photography and other effects.

Avoid "The Mark of Gideon," "And the Children Shall Lead," and "The Lights of Zetar" and you'll find a lot to appreciate.

 

[EnsignJulka]

I think Turnabout Intruder wasn't so bad, the acting was quite convincing.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Really, all TOS episodes are passable. In contrast with TNG, TOS, when it wasn't great, it was still enjoyable. And so is the case with season 3.

But "Spock's Brain" and "Way To Eden" are absolutely, positively, the worst episodes of TOS. Everything else is quite tolerable.

 

[Therin of Andor]

Great episodes: 5
The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
The Empath
All Our Yesterdays

I'd agree with these choices.

Good episodes: 10
Spectre of the Gun
Spock's Brain
The Paradise Syndrome
For the World is Hollow
Platos Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
Requiem for Metusalah

I loathe most of "Plato's Stepchildren", esp. the horsey scene.

Bad episodes: 8
And the Children Shall Lead
Is there in truth no beauty
Whom Gods Destroy
Let that be your last battlefield
Lights of Zetar
Way to Eden
Savage Curtain
Turnabout Intruder

"And the Children Shall Lead" is tedious - ick! - but I don't mind the others - and I think "Whom Gods Destroy" is fun!

 

[Brutal Strudel]

I list the greats differently and I list only four:

Spectre of the Gun
Day of the Dove
The Enterprise Incident
The Tholian Web

Don't have much use for the rest of season 3, which was weak-to-awful. Kitsch stand-outs like "Spock's Brain" and "The Way to Eden" get a lot of attention but it's snooze fests like "The Empath" (I'll never understand why that episode gets so much love) and "The Lights of Zetar" that best characterize the lot. I do like "Whom Gods Destroy." That and "The Gamesters of Triskelion" are Trek at its unrepentantly cheesy best.

 

[egonbeeblebrox]

"The Empath" (I'll never understand why that episode gets so much love)

Neither do I. When I watched the season three set for the first time, I thought it was one of the most boring episodes of the entire series. Not bad, but incessantly tedious.

 

[Trekwatcher]

Great episodes: 5
The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
The Empath
All Our Yesterdays

Good episodes: 10
Spectre of the Gun
Spock's Brain
The Paradise Syndrome
For the World is Hollow
Platos Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
Requiem for Metusalah

Bad episodes: 8
And the Children Shall Lead
Is there in truth no beauty
Whom Gods Destroy
Let that be your last battlefield
Lights of Zetar
Way to Eden
Savage Curtain
Turnabout Intruder


I think it has more mediocre episodes than actual bad ones. I think the reason it gets a bad rap is the fact that it didnt have as many GREAT episodes.

While S3 definitely has more than it's share of Clunkers, there are plenty of standouts. I would move some of the "Good" episodes in the above list into the "Great" column ("I LOVE Spectre of The Gun"), and 8 clunkers is not so bad when you think that GR was, essentially, absent for this season.

 

[Maurice]

My issue is that the stories mostly fall into mere puzzle-box adventures and the characters become badly written shadows of their former selves. There's no subtext to most of the episodes, and poor Spock becomes an annoying ass all too often.

 

[Keith1701]

Season 3, by far was the worst for TOS!!!!!

 

[Harvey]

Season one is the best year. I think about 85% of the episodes are excellent.

Season two was a bit uneven, but about 50% of the episodes are as excellent as season one. Another 25-30% of the lot are at least good.

Season three is 50% unwatchable, IMHO. Although, it also has Spectre of the Gun, which is probably my favorite episode of TOS. There are a few gems (The Enterprise Incident, Let that Be Your Last Battlefield) but TOS was never worse that The Way to Eden and Spock's Brain.

 

[ZERO_of_ZERO]

I dont really think its so much worse than the other seasons, It has a lot of bad episodes, but includes some of my favourites mainly;

The Mark of Gideon
Wink of an Eye
For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky
Plato´s Stepchildren
All Our Yesterdays

 

[A beaker full of death]

Season 3, by far was the worst for TOS!!!!!

So how do you really feel?

 

[Outpost4]

Saying season three is the worst one from Star Trek is like saying strawberry is the worst flavor in a neapolitan ice cream sandwich.

 

[simmsbc]

There are two words that say why season 3 sucked, Fred Freiberger. I mean he did the final seasons of two other science fiction series, Space 1999 and the Six Million Dollar Man and those seasons sucked as well. I saw and interview with him once and he came off as a complete goof and it sounded like everything he said was made up. I know he had reduced budgets and the like but he was still the one who had to approve the scripts and the like, and in the end it was the scripts that killed the season they were far too similar. I mean it sounded like almost every show had them running up against some ridiculously short time limit or ignoring some basic thing that was always taken for granted in the regular series before hand.

This was the real reason that last season sucked.

 

[Outpost4]

I thought it was the blue credits.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

For the most part, it was a waste of time. Everyone working on the show knew that it was doomed and for a great part of the time simply went through the motions while looking for other work - several key people left during the season when they found other jobs (Desilu's purchase by Paramount and the reorganization didn't help any). All of that shows.

 

[scorpius1701]

Great episodes: 5
The Enterprise Incident
Day of the Dove
The Tholian Web
The Empath
All Our Yesterdays

I'd agree with these choices.

Good episodes: 10
Spectre of the Gun
Spock's Brain
The Paradise Syndrome
For the World is Hollow
Platos Stepchildren
Wink of an Eye
Elaan of Troyius
The Mark of Gideon
That Which Survives
Requiem for Metusalah

I loathe most of "Plato's Stepchildren", esp. the horsey scene.

Bad episodes: 8
And the Children Shall Lead
Is there in truth no beauty
Whom Gods Destroy
Let that be your last battlefield
Lights of Zetar
Way to Eden
Savage Curtain
Turnabout Intruder

"And the Children Shall Lead" is tedious - ick! - but I don't mind the others - and I think "Whom Gods Destroy" is fun!

I was tempted to put Spectre of the Gun in my list of greats but while i have nothing bad to say about it, it didnt quite attain greatness. Im not able to gush about it like i can about the other episodes. Maybe i should have included another rating but i didnt. Id put it at the very top of the good list though. I cant STAND Whom Gods Destroy! Everyones so annoying in it.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth: Give me the code.
Kirk: no.
Garth........How bout now?
Kirk: no.
Garth: NYAGGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHGHARGHGAGAHRAGAHGAHRGAH!

 

[A beaker full of death]

All of that shows.

Couldn't disagree more.