Star Trek-RM: The Alternative Factor… Grading/Discussion

[Mallory]

^ They probably couldn't watch long enough to do anything with it.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

Ah, you're all spoiled by this new fangled Trek RM.

I'm going to watch this episode at the weekend. On VHS. Un-remastered. Just as it was meant to be

 

[cooleddie74]

Mallory said:
^ They probably couldn't watch long enough to do anything with it.

I could see Mike Okuda...after the first fifteen minutes...pouring Vicodins into his mouth like they were Junior Mints.

 

[Maurice]

What a terrible episode...the script is idiotic, right down to the solution that isn't a solution at all. If good Lazarus is so worried about nutjob Lazarus finding him, why not ask Kirk to zap him out of existence then and there? Beats an eternity with a madman at your throat. The moment Kirk realized vaporizing either Lazarus would solve the problem, for the sake of everything he'd have zapped him. And don't me started on the musical Lazurii inexplicably swapping places.

 

[T'Bonz]

I'm one of the ones who doesn't mind the episode. Except I could NEVER keep straight which Lazarus was which.

 

[Mallory]

Jingle Bonz said:
I'm one of the ones who doesn't mind the episode.

You also run the board. Coincidence? I think not.

Except I could NEVER keep straight which Lazarus was which.

Good Lazurus parts his beard on the right.

 

[The Squire of Gothos]

What was up with the swapping Lazaruses, Lazarii, Lazi?? Shouldn't good Lazarus not just stand up and say "Hey, this is what's going down, you dig?"

Also, shouldn't the alternative Lazarus not just pop in a massive anti-matter explosion on entry to our universe?

 

[cooleddie74]

^
Stop trying to explain and rationalize this one. It's fruitless. It was a mess back in 1967. And even with a handful of new CGI space effects it still stinks of clumsiness and poor forethought.

 

[Cyrus]

I just saw this one. The remastering makes Lazarus' amazing ability to change the thickness of his beard even more clear than before.

In one scene Kirk and Spock talk about the good (rational) Lazarus though they hadn't him yet (at least not in the syndicated version). Every time Kirk and Spock saw Lazarus prior to that scene it was the bad Lazarus (with the band-aid on this head).

 

[Timo]

Me, I'm still wondering how Kirk learns Lazarus' name...

Why should he? Probably the annoying git clamshelled on Kirk for so long that our captain decided to do some naming of his own. The guy who "has the recuperative powers of a dinosaur" (no doubt needed because he has the cliff-falling powers of Sergeant Snorkel) would rightfully be called Lazarus.

Similarly, Kirk takes it to himself to name Gorgon in "And the Children Shall Lead", again a fitting designation for a monstrous entity.

In one scene Kirk and Spock talk about the good (rational) Lazarus though they hadn't seen him yet (at least not in the syndicated version).

Yeah, syndication probably screws that up. At least in the full-length episode, there's no such screw-up. But we can't expect the syndicators to actually have followed the plot to correctly judge what to take and what to leave, now can we?

Timo Saloniemi

 

[cooleddie74]

This is one of a select few TOS episodes where syndication edits and trims actually make the episode marginally less annoying since even more of the Lazarii's confusing dimensioanl ranting and gobledygook is cut out for the sake of extra commercial time. Few episodes make me glad some of the lamer dialogue was trimmed or completely deleted, but this is one of 'em.

 

[Nebusj]

Timo said:
Yeah, syndication probably screws that up. At least in the full-length episode, there's no such screw-up. But we can't expect the syndicators to actually have followed the plot to correctly judge what to take and what to leave, now can we?

No, but then nobody has figured out this plot yet. But what of Lazarus? He's falling off a cliff and raving about killing.

 

[Captain Robert April]

Hell, they hadn't figured it out at the time they filmed the thing, what makes you think anybody else has it figured out?

 

[Plum]

Bah!

I love this ep. The crazy Lazarus, the galaxy winking out, two universes colliding! Did it make sense... who cares! And anyway, the nice Lazarus guy at the end explained everything.

I missed this show but I hear they didn't do anything new with the "corridor" scenes... which needed something. Oh well. KILL! KILL! KILL!

 

[Kegek]

Plum said:
Bah!

I love this ep. The crazy Lazarus, the galaxy winking out, two universes colliding! Did it make sense... who cares! And anyway, the nice Lazarus guy at the end explained everything.

Kegek concurs with this statement.

"The Alternative Factor" = most underrated episode of all time.

I missed this show but I hear they didn't do anything new with the "corridor" scenes... which needed something. Oh well. KILL! KILL! KILL!

You mean the corridor between universes? That's a trippy classic, but I would have liked to see the cosmic exchange in glorious CGI.

 

[cooleddie74]

Syndication's only going to get worse. With more and more people avoiding broadcast TV for cable, satellite and the Internet the local stations are going to end up taking in more and more commercial time to keep money flowing in to the stations. Which means more and more bits trimmed out of longer 60s-era shows like TREK.