Spocks Brain would have been a passable episode if they had changed two things

[WildManWizard]

Could have been worse: could have had fewer or no women in the episode (which is the one reason the teenage version of me even watched it twice back in the day.)

Indeed! but my teenage self wanted to be stranded on the android planet that mudd was on with all of the Alice's!

 

[johnnybear]

What would Star Trek have been without Leonard Nimoy! I shudder at the thought.

Star Trek:Phase II rings a bell!
JB

 

[Delta Vega]

When I said that "Spock's Brain" was "as bad as bad Trek gets", I also appreciate that there are many other episodes in the same category, like eg "The Alternative Factor" etc.
My own personal "favourite" turkey being "A Piece Of The Action"

 

[johnnybear]

Piece of The Action is like a breath of fresh air compared to Plato's Stepchildren!
JB

 

[Lance]

I think the episode was doomed right around the time of "Brain and brain! What is brain?"

In my opinion, it was doomed much earlier, during the first exchange in sickbay where McCoy reveals that Spock's brain is gone, and William Shatner wears an expression on his face which veritably screams, 'Man, if this is the level of script we've stooped to, I hope they don't renew us for a fourth season!"

 

[Qonundrum]

1. Nobody thinking of putting on the helmet to finish McCoy's work after the knowledge wore off

2. Having Spock assist in his own surgery should have been scrubbed.

I could have sworn it was said that to put the helmet back on McCoy would have killed him? Or I'm imagining it.

Spock talking McCoy through the surgery was just a new level of stupid. It would have been worse if the actors camped it up but they played it with sincerity, which would be extremely difficult to do.

1) Depict the women as having average intelligence, and possessing knowledge consistent with living in a technological society. The "teacher" would give more still.

2) Have only part of Spock's brain taken, this would explain how he was still alive and later able to move around with the assistance of the device on the outside of his head. When putting Spock's brain back in McCoy was working on the top of Spock's head and not the where the brain joins the spine.

The episode was trying to do the ye olde "battle o' t' sexes" gimmick, but also being late-1960s was also misogynist thanks to needing the magic machine. Thankfully the (cave)men were presented as being pretty much dumb too.

While gross, that idea of only a big chunk of his brain having been taken almost works.

Still, the episode - on top of everything else - also both compounds and upends the "computers are evil" shtick because now we have a human running the computers, albeit a brain lumped into a big box with Sargon's globe on top and with plastic beams and three buttons poorly spaced on the pedestal below because fog and lasers weren't cost efficient yet and how nobody cared about season 3's props looking as if anyone cared.

But for basic HVAC functionality, any old Sinclair ZX81 would suffice. Plopping Spock's noodle out of his noggin is just extravagance beyond tacky. Just like phraseology such as "noodle out of his noggin" is.

Then again, it's still the same TOS theme of "computer running the joint and all the humans waddling around are too dumb." And since Spock is involved, Kirk wasn't going to nag the computer into blowing up.

Never mind all sorts of questions on how the complex is powered, or when the blobby brain inside the globe dies how come the system is still operational until the go-go-gadget dancers find a new brain to plop in? No backup systems? No because episode dialogue overtly states that without Spock's brain the system will fail and they will have to go out of their caves and get busy with the cavemen again.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Have only part of Spock's brain taken, this would explain how he was still alive and later able to move around with the assistance of the device on the outside of his head.

The part responsible for what in Humans our reptilian brain is - autonomic functions. Although I suppose having the "emotional" part of Spock as a relatable interface makes sense, too. Spock's personality as Sigma Draconis's Siri.

The actual brain removal and installation part - including the previously mentioned lack of damage to Spock’s haircut, post-operation - has to be the biggest problem for me. Had the entirety of Spock instead been inside a tank and wired up to the planet’s systems, the episode would have been moderately more plausible.

If you can beam babies out of the womb in a pinch, why couldn't the teacher show McCoy how to beam Spock's brain back into his head, with the nerve connections being encouraged to re-join via external cranial stimulation? If that was the case, we could have had a Teacherized Scotty assist with the delicate beam-back.

 

[Vger23]

I never hated this one nearly as much as everyone else. It was annoyingly silly at times, and tended to be tonally confused...but I didn't find it vile by any stretch of the imagination.

Then again, I'm very biased.

 

[cgervasi]

I liked the beginning with the crew discussing the diagram of the solar system where the intruder fled to. Kirk kept walking in front of the screen, partly to show off the visual effects, but it really gave me the feeling of a complicated problem. I wish the payoff had been complicated, possibly involving more than one planet. Instead the seriousness of studying the map only served to underscore how silly the rest of the episode was.

 

[Spectre Of The Fun]

Best thing this one has going for it is the music and production values. Even though the show had done comedy before for the first time it seems to not take itself seriously enough. The core idea of a civilization forgetting it's origin and giving itself over to a technological overlord is good but not at all carried off in a Trek way.

There may be no evidence to support this but it almost feels like writer Coon was taking a swipe at the network for not getting Star Trek and trying to cancel it. Taking the brain away from the show's smart, inquisitive and well spoken Science Officer almost feels like "okay here's Trek without a brain and no attempt to think through a good idea just like *Lost In Space. Is that what you network suits want?"

*I like LIS but I never felt like it tried to give some serious examination of the human condition consistently like Trek did up to Spock's Brain (except Tribbles which is just meant to be light entertainment and a fun change of pace with the crew).

 

[Therin of Andor]

The major one that bugged me, is that Nimoy never wore a baldcap, or even the gold cap he wore at the beginning, to be worn throughout. Spock's hair should, and would have been shaven off for the surgery.

In the Blish novelization, Spock stays in Sickbay, not walking around, zombified. IIRC, the original script did the same - and Nimoy complained he had nothing to do.

 

[johnnybear]

Depict the women as having average intelligence, and possessing knowledge consistent with living in a technological society. The "teacher" would give more still.

In fact the men who lived on the surface were even more primitive than the women below!!!
JB

 

[Steven P Bastien]

When I was a boy, I hated this episode. Then one day I watched it when I was older, after a heartbreak.

There is one way to salvage this episode. Don't take it seriously and realize that it is a metaphor to prepare post-adolescent boys for their first serious heartbreak. It portrays the fact that a beautiful woman can make you lose your mind, and you will need your friends to help you get it back again.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In the Blish novelization, Spock stays in Sickbay, not walking around, zombified. IIRC, the original script did the same - and Nimoy complained he had nothing to do.

It's usually a bad thing when scripts serve actors, rather than actors serving the script. But in this case, Nimoy's eerie, robotic performance actually added something to the episode, and teed up the music score for some wonderfully dramatic stingers.

 

[Grant]

You forgot a zero

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

What does anyone think about my beam out his brain idea upthread?

 

[Maurice]

And then Walter, George and Nichelle rolled their eyes.

And as day players they should have expected nothing more. Nimoy was an above-the-line lead. Different animal entirely,

 

[Marsden]

What does anyone think about my beam out his brain idea upthread?

I like it but I don't think the transporters were that precise in this time period.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

If you can beam babies out of the womb in a pinch, why couldn't the teacher show McCoy how to beam Spock's brain back into his head, with the nerve connections being encouraged to re-join via external cranial stimulation? If that was the case, we could have had a Teacherized Scotty assist with the delicate beam-back.

That's a cool idea, but it's too much for the TOS-era -- both the writers, and in-universe level of technology.

If they had late-TNG/VOY era sophistication, and if they still had Spock's pre-injury transporter pattern saved away (unlikely in the episode as plotted), then maybe they could take a shot at it. It would have the advantage explaining how the spinal cord could be re-connected so perfectly.

 

[Herbert]

I think the episode was doomed right around the time of "Brain and brain! What is brain?"

And yet, that's the most awesome part.