Was Lazarus immortal?

[Green]

I wonder what other script was sitting on a desk the week before they filmed "Alternative" -- could it have been worse?
There must have been a script from season 1 that never ended up being produced. What was it like? What was it like? To never be filmed? Never be filmed?

 

[USS Triumphant]

I wonder what other script was sitting on a desk the week before they filmed "Alternative" -- could it have been worse?
There must have been a script from season 1 that never ended up being produced. What was it like? What was it like? To never be filmed? Never be filmed?

If it was good, it probably ended up in TAS or a novel at some point, I'd imagine. Or modified and used with some other non-Trek IP altogether.

 

[Spock's Barber]

I wonder what other script was sitting on a desk the week before they filmed "Alternative" -- could it have been worse?
There must have been a script from season 1 that never ended up being produced. What was it like? What was it like? To never be filmed? Never be filmed?

Maybe it was a parallel planet episode where the inhabitants all copy Howie Mandel.

 

[Green]

What I find interesting is that the first, say, 40 episodes/scripts were of much better quality than the last 40....

So, I wonder if episodes deemed not worthy of the first season were lost in the shuffle or ended up being made as late season 2 or season 3 shows.

 

[Maurice]

Most submitted stories don't go to script. And if a script is not working they kill it ASAP so they don't have to spend money and time on it. So, they pretty much didn't have anything better on hand that didn't need a lot of development work. If a script is bad enough to kill it's almost never brought back.

 

[Vger23]

I guess that's possible. But it doesn't help me much, since I think the magical Nexus is pretty dumb, too.

No worries! I didn't say it made sense...I just meant this was always my assumption given the dialogue from Kirk. The Nexus, like the "corridor" are interesting concepts about domains where time does not exist. Not sure if that's feasible or not (and agreed, the Nexus is kinda dumb!), but it is "interesting. "

 

[Herbert]

Why would Kirk assume that the two Lazaruses would be at each others' throats more than a couple of months, at most?

Let that be their last battlefield. All they have left is their hate.

 

[Timo]

Time obviously passed, but the Lazaruses glowed azure blue and everything got topsy-turvy and cosmic. Whatever it was like in there, it wasn't normal existence.

Significantly, we only saw it happening until the point where Kirk finally managed to blow up the time machine at his end. At that very moment, the two Lazari were at each others' throats, very literally and graphically. If that's the moment when time froze on them, then what Kirk said would be literally true: they'd remain at each others' throats forever.

No need for the fight to actually go on to meet the specs of Kirk's phrasing!

In any case, since the story offers no other explanation as to why a time machine was involved in this inter-universe travel, we'd do well to apply that bit of information to the corridor itself and declare it timey-wimey.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Vger23]

May absolute favorite part of the episode:

Kirk: "Where's Lazarus?"

McCoy: (chuckles whimsicaly) "Oh I dunno Jim. It's a big ship. I'm just an olde country doctor."

SAY WHAAAA?

 

[Harvey]

I wonder what other script was sitting on a desk the week before they filmed "Alternative" -- could it have been worse?

What @Maurice said. Stories that weren't working rarely went to script. Going to script would cost the cash-strapped production extra money, and they weren't about to throw good money after bad.

This is what they had in script stage when "The Alternative Factor" was assigned a production number and slated for filming. It's clear that nothing else was ready.

• "The Omega Glory" (this hadn't been revised in months and everyone seemed to feel it needed a major rewrite to be filmable -- it would go through several before it was filmed more than a year later)
• "The City on the Edge of Forever" (Ellison was working on yet another script draft at this point; it was not ready)
• "Power Play" (later filmed as "This Side of Paradise," this was in need of a major rewrite, which it would get from D.C. Fontana several weeks later)
• "A Portrait in Black and White" (this script was a mess, and NBC was not on board with it being made as written; this is the only script on this list that didn't end up being filmed)
• "Space Seed" (only a first draft had been delivered; this was not ready)
• "A Taste of Armageddon" (revisions were in work; this was not ready)
• "Tomorrow is Yesterday" (this needed a rewrite and wasn't ready)

Most submitted stories don't go to script. And if a script is not working they kill it ASAP so they don't have to spend money and time on it. So, they pretty much didn't have anything better on hand that didn't need a lot of development work. If a script is bad enough to kill it's almost never brought back.

 

[Spock's Barber]

Most submitted stories don't go to script. And if a script is not working they kill it ASAP so they don't have to spend money and time on it. So, they pretty much didn't have anything better on hand that didn't need a lot of development work. If a script is bad enough to kill it's almost never brought back.

Does that rule apply to some of the 3rd season bummer episodes?

 

[Harvey]

Does that rule apply to some of the 3rd season bummer episodes?

Just imagine the stories developed for season three that weren't good enough to go to script.

 

[Green]

Okay, so what was Portrait in Black and White???

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Okay, so what was Portrait in Black and White???

That's what I wanted to know. It sounds like an early title for "Last Battlefield," but evidently it's not. It would also work as a better title for the ST Continues episode "What Ships are For."

 

[Maurice]

Okay, so what was Portrait in Black and White???

What "Portrait In Black and White" was was a mess, Kirk and company beam down to the planet "Pendamus" a racially inverted United States during a civil war, Kirk gets captured as a runaway slave and doesn't do very much at all. A black President Lincoln shows up at the end, but Kirk doesn't warn him of his impending assassination because "Man may change the date of history but not its course."

 

[Nebusj]

What "Portrait In Black and White" was was a mess, Kirk and company beam down to the planet "Pendamus" a racially inverted United States during a civil war, Kirk gets captured as a runaway slave and doesn't do very much at all. A black President Lincoln shows up at the end, but Kirk doesn't warn him of his impending assassination because "Man may change the date of history but not its course."

Good heavens, this wasn't even made and it's still the worst episode of the whole franchise.

 

[Kor]

Sounds like Kinsey's Star Trek spec script on Mad Men.

Kor

 

[CorporalCaptain]

Sounds like Kinsey's Star Trek spec script on Mad Men.

Kor

It does indeed! That was "The Negron Complex."

 

[KirkusOveractus]

What "Portrait In Black and White" was was a mess, Kirk and company beam down to the planet "Pendamus" a racially inverted United States during a civil war, Kirk gets captured as a runaway slave and doesn't do very much at all. A black President Lincoln shows up at the end, but Kirk doesn't warn him of his impending assassination because "Man may change the date of history but not its course."

I thought it was "Last Battlefield", at least that's what most sources say. Oliver Crawford fleshed out Gene Coon's idea.

 

[Harvey]

I thought it was "Last Battlefield", at least that's what most sources say. Oliver Crawford fleshed out Gene Coon's idea.

Gene Coon's outline that was scripted as Let That Be Your Last Battlefield had nothing to do with A Portrait In Black And White. I think that misconception originates from Inside Star Trek, but I would have to check.