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Improving 'The Alternative Factor'

Therin of Andor

Therin of Andor

Admiral
Moderator
I've been an avid TOS fan since December 1979, and spent most of the early 80s catching up with episodes I'd never seen (or read, via Blish). I know the dreadful "The Alternative Factor", with Lazarus A and Lazarus B, was one of my first disappointments.

I saw it again, with friends, on the weekend and realized I've probably only seen that ep twice before. Give me the maligned "Spock's Brain" or "And the Children Shall Lead" any day!

When Okuda's team CGIs "The Alternative Factor" for CBS, I hope they take every opportunity to try to improve it. Surely there are some interesting ways to show the Lazari in battle in their little blue cube of light? Surely they can fix the guest star's lousy crepe beard? Surely there are ways to intercut the looooong Kirk/Spock speech with Lazarus sneaking around the ship?

What a shame they abandoned the Charlene Masters subplot. And, as for John Drew Barrymore not reporting to the set to play Lazarus, as organised, I think I now know the answer: he'd just read the script!
 
^^Actually, I'd think that Barrymore's intoxicated state at the time would've been the only thing that would've made the script palatable...
 
Christopher said:
^^Actually, I'd think that Barrymore's intoxicated state at the time would've been the only thing that would've made the script palatable...
Click to expand...

A popular opinion during our weekend analysis! (Hic!)
 
I officially give Okuda & Co. complete latitude to do whatever they want to do to improve this turkey. Add Norman's stomach. Make it take place on Pike's Enterprise. Tribbles...tons of tribbles... They can even add a kewl Bird of Prey. CBS Digital can do whatever they want to do to make this POS better, short of fading the screen to black for 51 minutes after the Enterprise flys by a few seconds into the teaser.

Come to think about it, even that would be an improvement.
 
Has anybody ever read a script which has the Charlene Master/Lazarus romance subplot? The script I own is a final, and though there are differences between it and what was shot, there is no subplot featuring a romance. In fact, Masters has less of a role (no scenes in the break room) in it than she does in the aired ep.

Has anybody ever seen an earlier draft or an episode outline for this one?

Sir Rhosis
 
I've watched this one a number of times and eventually it gets less confusing. The big thing for me is that sometimes when Lazarus goes into his netherworld battle, he doesn't always switch with the other one. My instinct is that the phasing out should always be an indicatoin of a switch, but that doesn't seem to be the case, which leads to a lot of confusion for me.

Secondly, his beard...fix his damn beard...it's different in every scene.
 
It's one of those 'high-concept' episodes that sounds quite interesting on paper, but just doesn't work in practise. I'm not sure there is much CBS can do to improve it, unless they develop a time machine and give Roddenberry a new script. Maybe do something to make it more obvious that Kirk and Lazarus are actually crossing into a different dimension. Is there a way to make his spaceship look less like Supercar?
 
Although it is probably the worst episode of the 1st season, rushed, full of continuity goofs, and overstuffed, I always had a sneaking admiration for the final lines, wondering about what it would be like to be imprisoned through eternity with a madman at your throat.

"...but what of Lazurus?"

Hokey, shtick, trite--but I liked it.
 
Perhaps they could just extend the Enterprise flyby at the beginning of TMP to 51 minutes long and make that the entire episode. That would improve it immensely.
 
wait dont forget the ultra rare shot behind the enterprise firing at the planet...then we can go back to the flyby
 
paustin said:
wait dont forget the ultra rare shot behind the enterprise firing at the planet...then we can go back to the flyby
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Indeed. It was the only time that effect ever appeared in the entire series!
 
Sir Rhosis said:
Has anybody ever read a script which has the Charlene Master/Lazarus romance subplot? The script I own is a final, and though there are differences between it and what was shot, there is no subplot featuring a romance. In fact, Masters has less of a role (no scenes in the break room) in it than she does in the aired ep.

Has anybody ever seen an earlier draft or an episode outline for this one?

Sir Rhosis
Click to expand...

If you say that, then I officially have my doubts it ever was there.

It's something that I read here and took for granted as a fact - now I just gotta know :lol:

Blaming this turkey on the network's last minute demand to cut an interracial romance could have been a Roddenberry/fan thing...who knows?

Would certainly fly in the face of NBC's desire to promote a multi-racial cast, which we know was one of their policies from printed memos in Solow and Justman's "Inside Star Trek".

Anyone know any more?
 
aussie said:
Sir Rhosis said:
Has anybody ever read a script which has the Charlene Master/Lazarus romance subplot? The script I own is a final, and though there are differences between it and what was shot, there is no subplot featuring a romance. In fact, Masters has less of a role (no scenes in the break room) in it than she does in the aired ep.

Has anybody ever seen an earlier draft or an episode outline for this one?

Sir Rhosis
Click to expand...

If you say that, then I officially have my doubts it ever was there.

It's something that I read here and took for granted as a fact - now I just gotta know :lol:

Blaming this turkey on the network's last minute demand to cut an interracial romance could have been a Roddenberry/fan thing...who knows?

Would certainly fly in the face of NBC's desire to promote a multi-racial cast, which we know was one of their policies from printed memos in Solow and Justman's "Inside Star Trek".

Anyone know any more?
Click to expand...


There's a BIG difference in 1966/7 between having a more diverse cast, and having a black woman and white man having a romance....
 
I've had the sneaking suspicion that "Alternative" will be one of THE last episodes Mike Okuda changes and improves, because it is going to need so much extensive CGI work and tweaking that they're probably want to get almost all the rest of the series done and out of the way before they have to hunker down and put all their efforts into the Lazarus episode. There are so many cheesy(even for 1967)visual effects and corny moments in this one that it's gonna take a Herculean effort to make this one look more presentable and cool. :p
 
It meant well. It had an interesting antimatter-universe/duplicate story idea. It just wasn't executed well, and the effects were BEYOND cheesy.
 
You know, I dropped a pic of Kirk in that doorway "null zone" whatever into photoshop and just couldn't make it look good.

Whatever the CGI team comes up with, I'm gonna be very interested to see what they try.
 
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