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Scratch One Writer, Please

Spock's Barber

Spock's Barber

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The first 2 seasons of TOS had several episodes penned by the same script writers (Theodore Sturgeon, Robert Bloch, Paul Schneider, D.C. Fontana, Gene Coon, John Meredyth Lucas, GR, etc.).

The 3rd season seemed to attract some writers whose comprehension of the original Star Trek principles/guidelines were not quite up to GR’s ideals. Quite a few one shot wonders.

Which script writer from any season are you thrilled only contributed one, solitary script to TOS?

I’ll start off : 3rd Season. There is a story element in Plato’s Stepchildren that is interesting (telekinesis), but in general I found the episode mediocre and boring. Spock reciting poetry? Kirk riding a dwarf?

Plato’s Stepchildren writer Meyer Dolinsky. You disappointed me. One and done, please.

William-Shatner-Slapping-Himself.gif
 
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I would like to take this opportunity to signal my virtue by publicly shaming you for inappropriately using the word dwarf. There are some who may be offended by such irresponsible use of infranet communication.

Besides, the dwarf was actually riding Kirk. ;)
 
Spock's Barber said:
I’ll start off : 3rd Season. There is a story element in Plato’s Stepchildren that is interesting (telekinesis), but in general I found the episode mediocre and boring. Spock reciting poetry? Kirk riding a dwarf?
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If you think the story is about telekinesis, you've missed the point. Kirk as a horse and Spock reciting poetry are part of the point.
 
Plato's Stepchildren: the way I heard it, Star Trek was in trouble, and NBC wanted a highly promotable episode whose trailer would grab people by the lapels. Something that would make people almost have to tune in. "Made you look!"

I don't know if NBC demanded that this be accomplished with salacious, kinky S&M scenes, but that's what Star Trek went with. And unless there are memos to the contrary, I'd say Meyer Dolinsky came on as a hired gun to fill that order.

And sadly, I doubt that Plato's Stepchildren would turn first-time viewers into regulars. It was a whiff when they needed a line drive.
 
Gert Oswald ("The Alternative Factor").

"Conscience of the King" was a decent murder mystery, but "Alternative" is just a disjointed pile of overdone-yet-half-baked "epic" claims/events, with treknobabble so bad that even most of VOY's somehow doesn't compare... All topped with the sheer lack of story cohesiveness that would make even the most minuscule story feel genuinely "epic" when done right. Chucking in the threat of the destruction of the universe alone isn't snazzy just because. All the talk of "fighting him in the other universe for all eternity" and "destruction of the entire universe" was just hollow buzzwords.
 
Nerys Myk said:
If you think the story is about telekinesis, you've missed the point. Kirk as a horse and Spock reciting poetry are part of the point.
Click to expand...

Bingo.

Telekinesis was a means to the goal (control via duress...)

Okay, the plot resolution of just eating the locals' fruit with a souped-up supply of Vitamin Plotarmor got Kirk the same ability in a matter of minutes what took the Platonians only a handful of centuries and stuff, but still... there is some high concept Hitchcockian-worthy mind horror going on, if you can swallow the idea of being a living puppet because someone else has the brainodope and can think you into doing things at face value. Plus, the line to Alexander from Kirk alone more than makes up for anything iffy, and that line is integral to the story and its themes. So even the iffy parts of the story were means to another goal...
 
Well, let's be fair to the outside writers. The first two seasons had plenty of treatments, even by some greats, that would be considered unsuitable. The writing staff shaped them into the acceptable standards and format of the series. It's not like Jerome Bixby strolled in with Mirror, Mirror ready to roll. The rewrites are ongoing until the staff (Fontana, Coon, Roddenberry, Lucas, Black, whomever) took over. A lot of these writers were fantastic at TV dramas like Combat, The Big Valley and The Fugitive, but didn't grasp Star Trek.

Of the staff, Fontana, Coon and Roddenberry had the more advanced first passes because they were staffers.

Things got shaky at the end of the second season when Coon left, Lucas had a different viewpoint and Roddenberry went back to doing more of the rewriting. Luckily Fontana was still there (and Justman who didn't write but had tremendous feedback) and episodes like The Ultimate Computer still happened so late.

The third season was behind the 8 ball because only Justman and kinda Roddenberry were left and Freddie and Arthur Singer were the main story editors. Strangers to the series with their own ideas of what worked.

So...with that in mind...

Shimon Wincelberg (S. Bar-David): "Dagger of the Mind." Middling episode from a man who penned some of the best Lost in Space early episodes. Damning with faint praise? Nah, it takes talent to make that series good. (I don't count "The Galileo Seven" because he co-wrote that one)

Max Ehrlich: "The Apple." Another successful writer who couldn't deliver a good Trek.
 
Ssosmcin said:
Well, let's be fair to the outside writers. The first two seasons had plenty of treatments, even by some greats, that would be considered unsuitable. The writing staff shaped them into the acceptable standards and format of the series. It's not like Jerome Bixby strolled in with Mirror, Mirror ready to roll. The rewrites are ongoing until the staff (Fontana, Coon, Roddenberry, Lucas, Black, whomever) took over. A lot of these writers were fantastic at TV dramas like Combat, The Big Valley and The Fugitive, but didn't grasp Star Trek.

Of the staff, Fontana, Coon and Roddenberry had the more advanced first passes because they were staffers.

Things got shaky at the end of the second season when Coon left, Lucas had a different viewpoint and Roddenberry went back to doing more of the rewriting. Luckily Fontana was still there (and Justman who didn't write but had tremendous feedback) and episodes like The Ultimate Computer still happened so late.

The third season was behind the 8 ball because only Justman and kinda Roddenberry were left and Freddie and Arthur Singer were the main story editors. Strangers to the series with their own ideas of what worked.

So...with that in mind...

Shimon Wincelberg (S. Bar-David): "Dagger of the Mind." Middling episode from a man who penned some of the best Lost in Space early episodes. Damning with faint praise? Nah, it takes talent to make that series good. (I don't count "The Galileo Seven" because he co-wrote that one)

Max Ehrlich: "The Apple." Another successful writer who couldn't deliver a good Trek.
Click to expand...
Also John D.F. Black for the earliest episodes, and briefly Steven Carabatsos.
 
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