I've read many people put down Turnabout Intruder. I didn't recall it that well. But watching it now, it's not terrible. What are the big complaints about this episode. It's certainly better than the TNG's S2 finale.
Turnabout Intruder
- Thread starter ConRefit79
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It's an okay episode. In it's own peculiar way it remnds me of TMP...slow pace and not much action.
I like seeing Shatner acting like Janice acting like Kirk.
Plus this episode definitively proves beyond any doubt that there were no female Captains in Kirk's era.
But at the end, he never said women weren't allowed. He said she was passed over because of her insufficient skills and temperament. She claimed it was because she was a woman.
Yes, Janice said at the beginning "Your world of starships doesn't admit women". I thought she meant that Kirk was so involved with the Enterprise that other relationships were subserviant to the ship. I don't know.....
I must admit I still see it as evidence that women are not allowed to command Starships in the TOS era! (I don't count ENT) but we have seen women captain ships in the later TNG, DS9 and VOY series and the films so maybe I'm wrong! 
JB
JB
I fail to see the resentment towards the episode myself! I thought it was quite good, name checking previous episodes and it doesn't really have to be the final episode really does it! Watch it earlier and then pick your own finale! 
JB
JB
One error was Spock said it's the first mite they've encountered mind transference. But that's not true. It happened in the S2 episode, Return to Tomorrow
A big problem with it is its sexism. Dr Lester is a shrill, unstable cartoon villain who lusts after a man's powerful job -- like the producers were having a go at 60s feminists. And Lester is so incompetent when she mind swaps with Kirk and actually takes control that she is never a true threat. The whole episode just made me cringe. Still not as bad in my estimation as "Assignment: Earth," because Turnabout is still actually an episode of Star Trek, but it's a very close second for my Worst of TOS.
I didn't take it that way. But I'm a man and maybe don't understand. But she actually reminds me of Cmdr Finney from the episode Court Martial. Just someone who didn't cut it and blamed someone else for being passed over.
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JB
That's the critical line and its interpretation is unclear as you say. I do not recall a big deal in the show being made of the Romulans having a female captain and I believe Uhura could have been in command in some circumstances unfortunately this does not happen in TOS but does occur in The Lorelei Signal in TAS so my feeling is that Lester could have been a Starship captain but did not qualify for other reasons as well or instead of gender.
Given the amount of TOS adventures that hinge on Kirk's ability to punch his way out of situations there may be a male only captain policy though.
I just remember that Majel Barret's Number One is acting Captain in The Cage so I now feel sure that Female star fleet starship captains are possible
Certainly in the 1950s and 60s there were careers barred to women (or particularly married women) or for example in Medicine with limits on the number of women allowed in that career so TI may be meant as a comment on that.
I like that in TI Spock realises what is happening and uses a mind meld to check.
Is a mind meld acceptable evidence in a court martial? Spock is the accused though so I guess not. Also Scotty shows his good sense ( Recently I watched Galileo 7 and Scotty was the only member of the shuttle craft crew who was a good support to Spock and did not panic in that episode)
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Just my opinion, but I don't think Shatner wanted anyone else to sit in "his" Captain's chair.
Not so much a comment on late 60s feminists probably since that was sort of underground at this point. Even the radical Left was complained about as being sexist. It was probably more of a comment on strident women who "don't know their place", an image that has been around forever.
It also seems inconceivable that Roddenberry would get behind that idea. I've heard the idea that GR was trying to "tell it like it is", and was actually criticizing the remaining sexism in Star Fleet, as a typical Trek comment on society... except all that was supposed to be over.
It also seems inconceivable that Roddenberry would get behind that idea. I've heard the idea that GR was trying to "tell it like it is", and was actually criticizing the remaining sexism in Star Fleet, as a typical Trek comment on society... except all that was supposed to be over.
Number One commanded the Enterprise in Pike's absence in "The Cage"/"The Menagerie" (TOS) and Uhura took command in "The Lorelei Signal" (TAS). It could very well be true that none of the twelve or thirteen (possibly fewer at the time Kirk was given command, and also at the time of "Turnabout Intruder," if the ones lost during the course of the series had not all been replaced by then) ships of the Enterprise's type—which are what the writers of TOS specifically meant when they said "starships"—had female captains, thus lending support to Lester's perception of that small circle as a boys-only club, but there was clearly no actual regulation that categorically precluded women from command.I must admit I still see it as evidence that women are not allowed to command Starships in the TOS era! (I don't count ENT) but we have seen women captain ships in the later TNG, DS9 and VOY series and the films so maybe I'm wrong!
JB
Roddenberry had stepped down as line producer for the third season, and took a far less active role during that time.
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