It also refers, obliquely, to "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Also, "I Mudd" is obviously a sequel to "Mudd's Women."
Turnabout Intruder
- Thread starter MikeS
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It also refers, obliquely, to "Where No Man Has Gone Before." Also, "I Mudd" is obviously a sequel to "Mudd's Women."
I totally agree Retrograde. Having this as the last episode felt like a stab in my back and left a bad taste in my mouth for years. I felt the same way years later after reading some of Ray Bradbury's comments about women, after having loved his stuff practically my whole life.
There did seem to be an amazing amount of misogyny in science fiction writers during that era. Many of them seemed to believe women's heads were made of green cheese. Not really having made a study of it, just offhand, it always seemed that the episodes Roddenbury was most closely associated with were in fact the most misogynistic of them all. Mostly his "equality" seemed to boil down to miniskirts and free love like the 60s itself.
Most of ST's attempts at equality were ludicrous like TNG's early miniskirts for men and the original TNG head of engineering who left me holding my head and moaning. I remember her as a middle-aged woman of lower than average IQ and zero aptitude for engineering. As best I recall, a child (Wesley Crusher) had to come to engineering and help her. She was a poster child of 23rd century affirmative action gone bad.
Or consider Counselor Troi (bless her heart as we say in the South). Although she was very beautiful and I loved to listen to her, what a waste of Starfleet credits. She could never answer any question the captain posed to her, so wouldn't it have been more logical to have a full-Betazoid counselor instead who could actually read the aliens completely?
I've wandered very far afield here. I'm saying just about every time ST tried to make a show of equality, it was done in such a self-sabotaging (sorry, I forgot - self-sabotaaaging) way as to actually make a case for the exact opposite point. As stated in the funny You Tube clip provided earlier, it was as if the whole point of Turnabout Intruder was to give us a case study of exactly why women are forbidden to be starship captains.
There are just so few TOS episodes that over the years I've managed to rehabilitate as many of the stinkers as I can in my own mind so I can stand to watch them. I just arbitrarily decided that everything Lester does and says is solely a product of her stark raving insanity. No one contradicts her because really you can't successfully argue with someone who is mentally ill. And I just conveniently forget about the mental tests McCoy gave her where she apparently closely matched Captain Kirk's own test results. One positive side effect of being a TOS fan is that it gives my aging brain lots of exercise as it dodges, weaves and rolls like the good Captain himself.
Not every episode, but a lot. He's been doing them for over a year now and puts one out each Saturday.
There's a great "'Bye Majel!" vocal outtake on the Blue Pear record, "Star Trek Bloopers", in which the cast and crew suddenly realise that, if "Star Trek" didn't get picked up for Season Four, that this may well be Majel Barrett's last appearance on TOS. Note that she had already taken all her Chapel wigs home - they had a mysterious way of disappearing - and she chose to be brunette for her last ep.
However, there were vague plans for a fourth season. Alan Dean Foster had a two-part script sitting in the wings (he later novelized it in "Star Trek Log Seven" (Kirk meeting up with a former Klingon exchange student friend, Kumara). David Gerrold's "More Tribbles, More Troubles", and a few other TAS scripts, were also potential Season Four scripts.
A "turnabout" was a fairly well-known science fiction trope at the time, following a 1931 novel of the same name (ie. two characters experience a "body swap") and there have been many, many remakes of that trope, eg. "Freaky Friday", "Vice Versa", "18 Again", and so on. (Thorne Smith's comedic novel, in which a husband and wife switch bodies, was also a movie - and later inspired a short-lived TV series that starred Sharon Gless and John Schuck.)
No one could have predicted that "Turnabout Intruder" would be pre-empted, either. It didn't end up being shown the week after "All Our Yesterdays", as planned. News coverage of the death of former president Dwight D. Eisenhower replaced it, and it didn't air until the final batch of scheduled Season Three reruns.
There is a detailed account of the filming of this episode in the 1975 book, Star Trek Lives! Chapter by Joan Winston.
I watched this show last night for the first time in ages.
I did notice the scene where Kirk walks off screen where a wall should be. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't read about it here. I don't think the average viewer would pick up on it.
Overall, I don't think Turnabout Intruder is all that bad. Shatner and the actress who plays Janice Lester do a good job of acting. She is very believable as Kirk.
This episode reminds me of The Enemy Within and I don't think it's any less believable. It's better than I remembered.
I did notice the scene where Kirk walks off screen where a wall should be. I wouldn't have noticed it if I hadn't read about it here. I don't think the average viewer would pick up on it.
Overall, I don't think Turnabout Intruder is all that bad. Shatner and the actress who plays Janice Lester do a good job of acting. She is very believable as Kirk.
This episode reminds me of The Enemy Within and I don't think it's any less believable. It's better than I remembered.
Wasn't there also a reference to Where No Man Has Gone Before in By Any Other Name?
I seem to remember Rojan mentioning the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy and Kirk saying, "we've been there before".
I guess my main problem with this episode has always been that our heroes never really DO anything to solve the problem of how to get Kirk back into his own body, it just happens by itself as the transference wears off at the end of the show. This makes the resolution of the episode, to me at least, a bit of a deus ex machina and anticlimactic.
Yep, you remember correctly. I on the other hand, forgot that one.
I finally watched this again and now, more than ever, I do not understand the hate for it. I even read a detailed review explaining why so many apparently find it lazy, sloppy, and sexist, and I still think it's a solid episode.
The one criticism I will agree with that was pointed out in the review was how it's sort of stupid at the end how Lester is bawling into her lover's arms and he says he'll go take care of her and everyone's okay with that. As the reviewer said, she should have had to deal with the repercussions of her actions. Instead of talking about her punishment for trying to murder several people, it's implied that people just feel sorry for her and apparently all is forgiven. This is where the episode is implying that she should be cut miles of slack because she's just a weak, fragile, hysterical woman...like all broads.
Yeah, that implication sucks, but the rest of the episode is damn entertaining.
The other major criticism I read is that Lester does such a pitifully poor job of concealing her real identity when she's in Kirk's body (by acting so obviously crazy and giving orders like insisting that Kirk in Lester's body is completely isolated) that there's no sense of danger in the episode and no doubt that she'll be foiled. Okay, that's true, but I don't think it prevents the episode from being a lot of fun. When Janice runs to Spock and Bones begging not to be locked away and Kirk karate chops her into unconsciousness mid-sentence, how can you not crack up?
Also, have we ever truly feared that main members of the cast would die in an episode of "Star Trek"? It was never established as a show where that was possible. Even on TNG it seemed more likely given Yar's fate, but this episode wasn't the first time that Kirk and others were threatened with death, so I don't see why the fact that we never imagine someone might follow Lester's execution orders should make it any less satisfying. And as I've said before, any time Shatner gets to go super over-the-top as a villain in disguise, it's a real treat to watch.
There are also other serious performances to savour in the episode. Spock standing up to Lester in Kirk's body in the trial gave me the same pleasure as watching him insult Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos" and it was nice to see some intense conversation between Scotty and McCoy and a little rebellion from Chekov and Sulu. Despite being interesting characters, those two are often reduced to glorified extras, so it's cool to see them take a stand and show more personality, as they do when they refuse Lester's navigation orders.
Despite the undercurrent of sexism (which I find is easy enough to ignore for most of the episode), I think this is an episode with a lot to appreciate in it. The body switch plot is something I've enjoyed in many shows and this one is no exception - I like the way it was handled. I also found enjoyable serious and comedic performances here, from Shatner's epic hamminess, to the engagingly dignified straight performances from the other major male crew members. And on a more shallow (but not sexist!
) note, there was a lot of beauty on display too. I still think Janice Lester was the best looking guest woman the series has ever had, and Nurse Chapel has never looked better than she did as a brunette here.
The one criticism I will agree with that was pointed out in the review was how it's sort of stupid at the end how Lester is bawling into her lover's arms and he says he'll go take care of her and everyone's okay with that. As the reviewer said, she should have had to deal with the repercussions of her actions. Instead of talking about her punishment for trying to murder several people, it's implied that people just feel sorry for her and apparently all is forgiven. This is where the episode is implying that she should be cut miles of slack because she's just a weak, fragile, hysterical woman...like all broads.
Yeah, that implication sucks, but the rest of the episode is damn entertaining.The other major criticism I read is that Lester does such a pitifully poor job of concealing her real identity when she's in Kirk's body (by acting so obviously crazy and giving orders like insisting that Kirk in Lester's body is completely isolated) that there's no sense of danger in the episode and no doubt that she'll be foiled. Okay, that's true, but I don't think it prevents the episode from being a lot of fun. When Janice runs to Spock and Bones begging not to be locked away and Kirk karate chops her into unconsciousness mid-sentence, how can you not crack up?
Also, have we ever truly feared that main members of the cast would die in an episode of "Star Trek"? It was never established as a show where that was possible. Even on TNG it seemed more likely given Yar's fate, but this episode wasn't the first time that Kirk and others were threatened with death, so I don't see why the fact that we never imagine someone might follow Lester's execution orders should make it any less satisfying. And as I've said before, any time Shatner gets to go super over-the-top as a villain in disguise, it's a real treat to watch.
There are also other serious performances to savour in the episode. Spock standing up to Lester in Kirk's body in the trial gave me the same pleasure as watching him insult Trelane in "The Squire of Gothos" and it was nice to see some intense conversation between Scotty and McCoy and a little rebellion from Chekov and Sulu. Despite being interesting characters, those two are often reduced to glorified extras, so it's cool to see them take a stand and show more personality, as they do when they refuse Lester's navigation orders.
Despite the undercurrent of sexism (which I find is easy enough to ignore for most of the episode), I think this is an episode with a lot to appreciate in it. The body switch plot is something I've enjoyed in many shows and this one is no exception - I like the way it was handled. I also found enjoyable serious and comedic performances here, from Shatner's epic hamminess, to the engagingly dignified straight performances from the other major male crew members. And on a more shallow (but not sexist!
) note, there was a lot of beauty on display too. I still think Janice Lester was the best looking guest woman the series has ever had, and Nurse Chapel has never looked better than she did as a brunette here.
This actual makes sense if you think about it. Janice isn't pretending to be Kirk, she pretending to be the person she thinks Kirk is. I figure what happen between Kirk and Janice is basically the same as what happen between Riker and Troi. Riker made the decision to put his career ahead of his relationship with Troi.
Janice thinks that Kirk is a brute, not only is she going to act the brute, Janice is going to enjoy it. She is (in her own mind) the woman wronged. Kirk is a swaggering, overbearing, tin-plated dictator with delusions of godhood, Janice is looking forward to acting/being this way herself
Yes there was!
Which is what I was talking about.
Despite its flaws, I've always enjoyed this episode. It has a lot of nice little moments, and Shatner's performance is among his most marvelously campy and over-the-top.
She was nice, but I missed Uhura. She should have been there for the last episode. 
A.V.I.A.F.
Captain
Another great example of later episodes referencing earlier ones is The Trouble With Tribbles. The Organian Peace Treaty between the Federation and the Klingon Empire and its conditions for colonizing Sherman's Planet, which is central to that episode's plot line, recalls Errand of Mercy which ends with the Organians forcing both sides to talk truce. Presumably the Treaty was the result of this.
Shatner had been promised he could direct "the last episode of the season" and then, before he could even think about starting to prep it, the season was shortened - and now the one they were filming was to be the last episode. Shatner also had the flu during the filming of this episode, so he wasn't in a good mood.
Check out the chapter in "Star Trek Lives!"
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