The Most Disliked Episode of TOS, 2023 Edition - Season 3...

[Farscape One]

We're at the bad ones now.

I'll save "THE SAVAGE CURTAIN" because we did get to meet two important historic characters in the franchise... Surak and Kahless. (At least, a version of them, anyway.) That helped build parts of the history for the Klingons and Vulcans, and was a nice bit of worldbuilding.

And the Xcalbians were an interesting race... I wish we saw them again. Despite being hot to the touch, they looked... cool.

(Yes, that pun was intentional. Hope it brought some chuckles.)


Damn, BlueStuff beat me to it.

I'll save "TURNABOUT INTRUDER", then.

Shatner, as usual, was excellent. Sandra Smith also did a great mimic of Kirk.

And I never thought her line about women and starships was intended as them not being allowed to command. I always took that as Janice Lester being angry that Kirk's world of starship command didn't allow himself to be in a relationship with a woman.



AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN
ELAAN OF TROYIUS
THE MARK OF GIDEON
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR

 

[CitadelZombies]

Was going to save "The Savage Curtain" but I've been beaten to it.
I'll save "The Mark of Gideon" it's the best of a bad bunch. Even if it's ridiculous to have a replica of the Enterprise on a planet that's extremely overpopulated.

AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
PLATO'S STEPCHILDREN
ELAAN OF TROYIUS
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR

 

[Sakonna]

I was also wanting to save "The Savage Curtain", as fun trash. That crazy shrug of an ending with the aliens concluding it was all pointless (it was!)

I'll save "Plato's Stepchildren." It just fascinates me. It feels like the writer wanted to indulge a humiliation fetish -- and that's basically it in terms of story!

AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
ELAAN OF TROYIUS
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Are you kidding me? Elaan of Troyius and The Lights of Zetar are both fantastic episodes. I'll save Elaan, for the Klingon battle music alone. Not to mention France Nuyen, Scotty's "my equipment" joke, and so many great scenes. I can't believe the choices being made in this thread towards the end!

AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD
THE LIGHTS OF ZETAR

 

[BlueStuff]

We all knew what it was going to be: I’ll save Lights of Zetar (for its creepy visuals and disturbing noises) and make And the Children Shall Lead the loser as always.

 

[CitadelZombies]

We all knew what it was going to be: I’ll save Lights of Zetar (for its creepy visuals and disturbing noises) and make And the Children Shall Lead the loser as always.

As it should be "And the Children Shall Lead" should be shot from a cannon into the Sun. it's just that awful.

 

[Qonundrum]

"The Way to Eden" is, without irony, one of my favorites from this season. The music is groovy, and the episode is great at highlighting the dangers of charismatic cults, while remaining sympathetic to those who fall into them.

Cults had existed, but this episode was ahead of its time as cults would really take off in the 1970s. Jim Jones being one of the more notorious, and even the one tv show in the late-70s that was as mindlessly silly escapist as any sitcom could possibly get - "Three's Company" - had its most "after school special" toned episode about cults as well, which is one of the show's more popular episodes...

I still don't understand the hate people have for it. Yes, the episode is a mess of ideas that don't get a chance to be properly explored on their own, such as but not limited to:

• conformity vs nonconformity
  • and how the nonconformists seem to be conforming just as rigidly in their own way, it's a parallel within a parallel, Herbie there would be proud!
• Technology vs nature
  • Though they missed the mark on how escaping to all-nature might not be practicable, but with 49 minutes to tell the tale and the episode is jam-packed with a slew of concepts all jostling for screen time
• Not all planets with an oxygen/nitrogen atmosphere are conducive for human life, even if it's a tad on the nose that the group went to great lengths to get high on acid and got smoked on the grass... sheesh, the "war on drugs" hadn't even started yet, so this episode is ahead of its time for two reasons now.
• Biblical allegory as gags ("his name was Adam" - Spock)
  • but still more interesting than what transpired in season 2's "The Apple"
• Communicable disease risk (something Trek rarely brings up and each M-class planet is bound to have some exotic new virus/bacteria, or strain of ones we know about that have to be compensated for)
• Some of the crew being tempted by the hippies

But the ideas in of themselves are largely interesting, yes.

It's all not bad for an episode that aired on a Friday night, all while a certain percentage of the potential target audience was too busy going outside to get high and/or spreading communicable diseases in vehicles they may or may not have stolen, of which were thankfully easier to treat back then, but I digress.

I still believe that "Herbert" is not about the chap who helped make the show, but televangelist Herbert Armstrong - who was making rather loud anti-hippie commentary back in the day. Including a book he authored that was released in 1968 and that one's a bit of a doozy to try to get through. But if the script was ragging on Solow because of how he was dealing with writers, there are surely better episodes to have made the reference in. It seems a happy coincidence that "Herbert" was a popular name for adults back then, I suppose.., So which makes more sense, an episode about conformity and using the commentary of the week regarding a group of then-contemporary rebels who hated Christians but were ironically just as rigid as the people they hated, or the show's makers were spending a disproportionate amount of time doing a dig at one of the suits behind the show who - in an equally bizarre twist - always supported it? Either way, maybe it can work both ways. But most people claim "Solow" when "Armstrong" just seems to fit the story's themes more directly.

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Kirk is a bit quick to confirm Eden doesn't exist, since Spock looks it up and finds it does exist. Of course,

Also, it's pointed out how stiff Kirk is. Half the galaxy knew that already...

And then there's this li'l ditty:

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Remix or not, it's not unlovely. Some of the lyrics are dated, but others hold up and remain quite poignant. and some of said lyrics are oversimplified, but that's not much of a surprise...



And now, for something completely different, here's this:

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^^genuine barely-legals and 20-somethings doing the equivalent of nonconformity in 1978, rather than the gaggle of admittedly very-talented 30- and 40-somethings playing hippies ten years earlier. And, yes, eyeliner should make a comeback to be popular, since people who try to be their own person generally get called names. but most people have been in that bucket for sure...

 

[Qonundrum]

I'm saving THAT WHICH SURVIVES. Lee Meriwether was great as the regretful A.I. that was programmed to kill all invaders that goes down the their planetoid outpost. Scotty in the service crawlway to shutdown the antimatter fuel and save the ship was Scotty's best moment in the series. Also, the Enterprise hit warp factor 14.1 without blowing up!

That almost ties into the hippie episode, as our favorite character - the Enterprise - was on speed!

I wish there was a drumset rimshot emoticon, LOL...

Was going to save "The Savage Curtain" but I've been beaten to it.
I'll save "The Mark of Gideon" it's the best of a bad bunch. Even if it's ridiculous to have a replica of the Enterprise on a planet that's extremely overpopulated.

Another half-baked and oversimplified mess of too many ideas, also let down by no budget - hence the use of the ship and very limited sets for the Gideon chamber.

That said, the camera angles used in some of the chamber scenes were quite novel, and good.

 

[Sakonna]

Honestly, I contemplated saving "And The Children Shall Lead" on the basis of memorability. That ending is seared into my brain, the "happy triumph" music playing for... getting children to cry over murdering their parents. Hurray? It's just so nuts! (And bonkers craziness is often what I'm seeking from TOS)

But I legit have fun with "Plato's Stepchildren" - which is obviously no slouch in the bonkers craziness department - so that had to take my last save instead.

 

[Qonundrum]

Honestly, I contemplated saving "And The Children Shall Lead" on the basis of memorability. That ending is seared into my brain, the "happy triumph" music playing for... getting children to cry over murdering their parents. Hurray? It's just so nuts! (And bonkers craziness is often what I'm seeking from TOS)

But I legit have fun with "Plato's Stepchildren" - which is obviously no slouch in the bonkers craziness department - so that had to take my last save instead.

"Plato" at least had better execution of and acting for its ideas, with the Platonians being perfectly malevolent*, and - best of all - Alexander's subplot. "Children", despite also doing the psychological horror routine, has the dumbest and sloppiest production of them all. For latter-end season 3 when everyone was depressed over the show is one thing, but so early on is another.

* Such as the attempted murder of Kirk by controlling Spock's moves to do Riverdance tapping next to his head (there's extremely good choreography on display what with that being Shatner's head and not the same mannequin like what they used for Data in 1987, but I digress), using Spock's emotions to kill him (with McCoy shouting out very effectively), both Kirk and Spock being humiliated and playing horsey (damn good acting to play it that sincerely and perfectly) and even Parmen points out the humiliation of the piece and to the point that even Spock, when not being manipulated, is working overtime to keep his emotions in check over how vile Parmen and Philana are. Plus, Barbara Babcock always does wonders with her TOS roles. She's even the voice of Loskene (if IMDB is accurate). I wish she would have done TNG, like for one of Riva's Chorus in "Loud as a Whisper", but that's not a slight on Marnie Mosieman, who was excellent in that role as well. "Children Shall Lead" has none of the effectiveness, and not even the regulars could elevate that one.

 

[Farscape One]

Unsurprisingly, "AND THE CHILDREN SHALL LEAD" is the season 3 winner.

But would it surprise you all to learn that this won previous season 3 games only once and was the runner up twice? And it didn't manage to do either in the 2021 game?

I'll be starting the TOS Finals shortly. Thank you all for playing.

 

[Qonundrum]

Are you kidding me? Elaan of Troyius and The Lights of Zetar are both fantastic episodes. I'll save Elaan, for the Klingon battle music alone. Not to mention France Nuyen, Scotty's "my equipment" joke, and so many great scenes. I can't believe the choices being made in this thread towards the end!

"Troyius" has some misfires - e.g. a battle with both ships in warp speed misses an important point - but prior to that nails it big-time with rigging the ship's engines to blow up if they go into warp drive. There IS a lot of fun to be had in this, and France Nuyen actually steals the show. It's a retelling of a Shakespeare story but in space, but either which way one looks at it, Elaan is a more complex character than given credit for. The music is great as well. Plus, it's got Dr. Shrinker (Jay Robinson), who's pretty fun as Petri. And, yep, little double entendres such as Scotty, all the time devoted to spanking, and so on, whether or not those were intentional, it does keep the amusing aspects going.

"Zetar" - a rather good high concept scifi/horror piece, does has some nitpicks, but is definitely nowhere near season 3's worst. Mos of the issues involve how quick they fiddle with the pressure chamber and yet Dr Mira Romaine Salad isn't killed due to how rapidly they repressurize, and more importantly why the library planet doesn't have any defenses of any sort. Or perhaps, it's the telling of/overemphasis on the idea that fumbles; libraries right now are free for all as are public parks. The only other quibble is that Jan Shutan and James Doohan, while competent with their own scenes independently, have zero screen chemistry together and the (scant) dialogue suggesting a budding relationship isn't believable in the slightest, though I never noticed until the last few years or so, but before I digress.

 

[Qonundrum]

"THE THOLIAN WEB" was actually going to be my next save. Bravo, Qonundrum.

Saving "WHOM GODS DESTROY" next.

I might be in the minority, but I have always loved this one. Garth is an interesting villain here, and Shatner does a great job imitating Garth as 'Kirk'.

Plus we get Tellerites and Andorians here.

Thanks!

"Day of the Dove" features one of Trek's great Klingon characters, Kang.

I wish his wife's name was Kodos, and not the somewhat lazy "Mara", considering some of the freshness otherwise in the script.

I was coming to save that one! That is my season 3 favorite.

I'll do "All Our Yesterdays" instead. The atmosphere in that library on the dying planet is so fucking cool. It's a clever story and I find the romance quite moving.

It does bug me we're at the penultimate episode for the series (not that they knew that), and most of the core characters do not appear. It's just the big three and Scotty's voice over comms. I'd love this one even more if it had one bridge scene with Uhura & Sulu.

Season 3's budget was stretched, and only recently did I read that TOS had an episode completely scrapped, with "Turnabout Intruder" only finally being aired three months later, just to get it over with. it's a shame...

AOY is an ingenious bit of plotting, and I suspect the Atavachron also adapts a mental mindset to go along with biological adjustments, so that the people who end up in the past don't babble about their future to the locals as they'd be killed (e.g. what Kirk jumped into.) But the processed could still tell other non-processed. makes for a fun secret cub, I'd guess.

Mr Atoz (a quick and dirty pun about a library) is played by Ian Wolfe, if I remember rightly, who was also in "Bread and Circuses". It's nice to see older people in television, especially sci-fi, especially given the time in which they were made. Ian was acting up until the 80s or 90s, even doing a stint in "The Golden Girls" and possibly "Night Court", but I'll look those up later.

Why Spock is devolving but not McCoy (or Kirk) could otherwise explained by the lack of Atavachron processing, but as much as seeing Spock try to get jiggy, it would have been as interesting to see McCoy devolve and Spock retains his wits enough to save them. Then again, despite the plot nitpicks, both make a compelling team when they find their way back to the portal entrance.

Jean Lisette's two stories were definitely fresh and interesting and had there been a season four, I'd bet we'd have gotten a lot more. She and Margaret Armen were definitely unsung heroes to the show...

 

[Sakonna]

Season 3's budget was stretched, and only recently did I read that TOS had an episode completely scrapped, with "Turnabout Intruder" only finally being aired three months later, just to get it over with. it's a shame...

That is interesting about "Turnabout Intruder"! I never knew there was 3 months between that and the original air of "All Our Yesterdays."

I wonder how much (if any) public awareness there was of that at the time. What a bummer that would have been, to wait months for the finale, and then...