Its in between Doctor's Orders and Homeward with Tuvix being a close third according to Trek fan consensus
Trek's lowest moment
- Thread starter F. King Daniel
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The worst of TOS Season 3 really is the worst of all Star Trek, as much as I hate to say it. There's a couple Voyager episodes (Threshold, Tuvix) that rival it, but it doesn't get much worse than Spock's Brain/The Savage Curtain/And the Children Shall Lead/The Way to Eden exc. I'm generally successful at blocking those episodes out so they don't sully my overall opinion of TOS.
Yes, it's in Wink of an Eye. Kirk is sitting on his bed putting his boots back on.
Yes, it's in Wink of an Eye. Kirk is sitting on his bed putting his boots back on.
Several such scenes, which is my point. Post coital scenes strongly imply sex which occurred off screen. The sex itself rarely actually gets portrayed as such.
There are a few examples but by and large the audience is led to understand sex has taken place rather than witnessing the act per se
By which you mean the adult audience is led to understand, with kids being none the wiser? I'm really interestd to see if/how Discovery aims for a more adult than family audience.
"Turnabout Intruder," for two big reasons. It was the cancellation of TOS, and the episode itself was a pile of poodoo. The first would be redeemed, but the second not.
^ You get a like for using the word poodoo in a sentence.
Wasn't that used in The Phantom Menace as a swear word?
Wasn't that used in The Phantom Menace as a swear word?
Kid friendly equivalent of, yes. That's Jar Jar for you....
I suppose, although likely as not many kids will also get the gist I'd guess. Depends on the kid
. My point is trek has always had some level of sexual content, the line though has typically been drawn well shy of having the actual act portrayed. Anyone arguing that somehow Discovery would be breaking new ground by sexualising the show at all would simply be unrealistic and it would seem pretty unnatural and jarring if they started avoiding it now.
On the other hand the tone of that sexualisation has mostly been fairly mild thus far and the actual action (so to speak) has largely happened off screen, which is something I'm personally quite happy with for a number of reasons.
I suppose, although likely as not many kids will also get the gist I'd guess. Depends on the kid
In the modern age of page 3, lad's mags, online porn, etc readily available, I'd guess today's kids are alot more 'aware' than those in the 60s were? I don't know where the line would be today. Both in terms of what's shown on screen, or kids ages.
Firefly had a great Zoe/Wash post-coital scene with the two of them in bed together, naked (other than a duvet) and obviously covered in sweat. Personally I'd have no problem with something like that in Star Trek, but that was 15(ish) years ago and I'm wondering if people would expect that to be the tamer end of the spectrum these days?
Possibly, but I'm not really sure why a steady trend towards increasingly explicit portrayals would be perceived as progress or all that positive a thing. Why something produced in 2017 need be more explicitly sexual than something produced in 1997, which in turn should be more explicit than something produced in 1977.
Adult doesn't have to mean explicitly sexual, nor does explicit content constitute meaningful substance else we would be praising how maturely intellectual American Pie was and having film critics analyse the symbolism in redtube videos. Being adult means having some level of meaning and content which leads adult human beings to think about their world, quality being about how inventive and effective that process of provoking thought is.
Sexuality has always been a part of trek and it would be awkward and false to remove it, but whether we are somehow moving society forward by increasing the saturation of body parts in the media seems doubtful to me. Nor does that saturation sit well with me in an industry which on an institutional level increasingly removes performer's choices regarding their own bodies.
Adult doesn't have to mean explicitly sexual, nor does explicit content constitute meaningful substance else we would be praising how maturely intellectual American Pie was and having film critics analyse the symbolism in redtube videos. Being adult means having some level of meaning and content which leads adult human beings to think about their world, quality being about how inventive and effective that process of provoking thought is.
Sexuality has always been a part of trek and it would be awkward and false to remove it, but whether we are somehow moving society forward by increasing the saturation of body parts in the media seems doubtful to me. Nor does that saturation sit well with me in an industry which on an institutional level increasingly removes performer's choices regarding their own bodies.
Kids as you say are a hell of a lot more aware then you think, and this is from experience growing up in the 70s and 80s I can tell you for a fact some of the shit girls that I knew growing up got up to. Oh they are aware alright. The boys were worse.
Until Jean-Luc barged in in his underwear. That scene was perhaps sexual in multiple ways, for some so-inclined viewers.
Wait, Savage Curtain? What makes that on the same level as those others?
People go way overboard in their reactions against TOS s3. When a show is incredibly good for awhile, then drops significantly, the contrast is jarring. S3, with at least several agreed-upon classics, is worse than any other season of any other Trek? Come on.
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Season 3 of TOS is my third favorite Trek season. It has problems, but Next Gen, Enterprise, and Voyager have many seasons with lots of filler, and little that's challenging at all. Some with not one you could think of as classic. I'll take a few cringeworthy moments to get classic moments along with them.
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Season 3 of TOS is my third favorite Trek season. It has problems, but Next Gen, Enterprise, and Voyager have many seasons with lots of filler, and little that's challenging at all. Some with not one you could think of as classic. I'll take a few cringeworthy moments to get classic moments along with them.
I love TOS S3. It was a nice departure from all the parallel Earth stories of S2. I also liked the somewhat different visual atmosphere, new musical score, and new uniforms. To me, it's no different in entertainment value than the other two seasons.
I get your point that there's no filler, but some of them are soooo similar that unique is starting to become rarer. There's only so many stories you can tell, that eventually they will overlap.
Voyager's One and Enterprise's Doctor's Orders spring to mind.
If the script is pulled out of the "not very good" drawer as a last-ditch effort to meet scheduling requirements, then it's filler.
"Shades of Gray" is filler.
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