I absolutely hated what are little girls made of it just made no sense whatsoever and was just another episode of someone falling for kirk and then dying
Worst tos episode
- Thread starter picards bald cap fitter
- Start date
Plato's Stepchildren. Painful to watch skilled actors demean their talent.
Sir Rhosis
Sir Rhosis
I’m gonna be honest I don’t actually mind Plato’s step stepchildren
Some come close for other reasons, but they have more of a plot and point than the vapid and intellectually hollow thanks in part to nonsensical excesses than the pointless attempt at grandioseness "The Alternative Factor". Technobabble so inconsistent and out of place and that old cliché of "the uniiiiiiiverse is in daaanger" trope that has nothing giving it any depth. Make it a sweeps week episode where they hand out bibs and teething rings and it would barely be any better.
Never mind that "dilithium", which was used prior to this, magically becomes "lithium" for this one-time spectacle of what amounts to "sheep dip in spaaaaace". Now there's a final frontier, eww... or ewe...
Even "And The Children Shall Lead", another close contender for "worst episode ever", came across with more sincerity with its plot ideas and that one's fairly basic: "Kids lured by the evil guy with a galactic minivan try to take over the universe - without realizing it". Yet that one's played out more convincingly!!
Maybe it's because there's a more tangible anchor in cult behavior and control than some wizzywozzle -- naah, TOS and TNG onward have done goofy wizzywozzles all the time and people still bought into the threat!
Which makes it a more difficult choice, since "Alternative Factor" has Masters, a character who was in a novel in later years, and originally, she and Masters would have pursued a relationship that would fail because his struggle with his own antimatter meanie doppelganger the sole crux to saving the ENTIRE MULTIZULTIVERZEEEEEEEEEZ BEING ZAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDD*. Letting Lazarus and Masters develop a relationship alone could have saved it if that subplot were to give more depth than the main plot (which wouldn't take much at all to do). Then again, "Alternative" is so inconsistent that now Engineering rank staff are wearing Science blue and not red and by the time this was made, the continuity had been established and then some. But color TV was was new so why not let Kirk wear blue the following week and then red and then purple and then orange so he can be a marshmallow mascot too...
Okay, I just looked it up - the reason for Lazarus/Masters not hooking up is because "Space Seed" was apparently going to do the same shtick: Enterprise crewmember goes googoo for baddie-of-the-week: https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-the-alternative-factor/ . But I agree, the other reason mentioned (the multiracial relationship and how affiliates might not air it or send letters) was probably the real reason, though it could be both as using the same plot tropes and plot beats a few stories within one another will have viewers complaining "they just did that two episodes ago, do something different please!".
* Ugh. Really, this episode's basic premise and technobabble trying to explain it are beyond asinine, even by 1966 standards and more so when multiple previous stories set up whatdilithium was for rather conclusively, it feels as if the story had to change the name of dilithium for the sake of not having to fix the story surrounding it instead. Must've been some time constraints and no alternative scripts available.
Never mind that "dilithium", which was used prior to this, magically becomes "lithium" for this one-time spectacle of what amounts to "sheep dip in spaaaaace". Now there's a final frontier, eww... or ewe...
Even "And The Children Shall Lead", another close contender for "worst episode ever", came across with more sincerity with its plot ideas and that one's fairly basic: "Kids lured by the evil guy with a galactic minivan try to take over the universe - without realizing it". Yet that one's played out more convincingly!!
Maybe it's because there's a more tangible anchor in cult behavior and control than some wizzywozzle -- naah, TOS and TNG onward have done goofy wizzywozzles all the time and people still bought into the threat!Which makes it a more difficult choice, since "Alternative Factor" has Masters, a character who was in a novel in later years, and originally, she and Masters would have pursued a relationship that would fail because his struggle with his own antimatter meanie doppelganger the sole crux to saving the ENTIRE MULTIZULTIVERZEEEEEEEEEZ BEING ZAAAAAAAAAVVVVVVVVEEEEEEEEEEDDDDDDDDD*. Letting Lazarus and Masters develop a relationship alone could have saved it if that subplot were to give more depth than the main plot (which wouldn't take much at all to do). Then again, "Alternative" is so inconsistent that now Engineering rank staff are wearing Science blue and not red and by the time this was made, the continuity had been established and then some. But color TV was was new so why not let Kirk wear blue the following week and then red and then purple and then orange so he can be a marshmallow mascot too...
Okay, I just looked it up - the reason for Lazarus/Masters not hooking up is because "Space Seed" was apparently going to do the same shtick: Enterprise crewmember goes googoo for baddie-of-the-week: https://reactormag.com/star-trek-the-original-series-rewatch-the-alternative-factor/ . But I agree, the other reason mentioned (the multiracial relationship and how affiliates might not air it or send letters) was probably the real reason, though it could be both as using the same plot tropes and plot beats a few stories within one another will have viewers complaining "they just did that two episodes ago, do something different please!".
* Ugh. Really, this episode's basic premise and technobabble trying to explain it are beyond asinine, even by 1966 standards and more so when multiple previous stories set up what
It's not terrible, but it is high-concept and the re-use of telekenisis and related psi tropes that the show has done before and better. But is it really bad? Not really, it manages to still sell the concept - even despite plot holes and conveniences (e.g. with the story's pat ending and how the keranide effect is promptly forgotten - maybe Dr McCoy destroyed all the notes. I can live with "it's too dangerous as well as so obscure" and Kirk, Alexander, and the rest didn't talk about it. Plus, they didn't have Data leaving Clues all over the place!
Or needed to, rather... )IMHO, it's on the contrary, the testament of their talents is to see them play this utterly straight with sincerity to try to make the story actually work. That takes a TON. There's no tongue-in-cheek, no 4th wall, you name it. I could believe what Parmen and co were doing to our crew and relate to Alexander's empathizing of Spock and Kirk's plight. The story had no room for humorous moments, never mind outright comedy - which "Plato's" was not meant to do, trope-wise.
Chappel's love interest of Dr Korby (also an android, surprise surprise) was a bit lame as well as Andrea's short-circuiting over Kirk, never mind the infamous stalactite double entendre. The underlying trope of putting human consciousness into an android body made by species that's long extinct is novel at this point as well, but I've seen other sci-fi build on that idea a lot better than putting delicious Kirk on a giant turntable* to make a duplicate out of an android body that looked like it was made out of mashed potatoes or snow that I'm presuming was given yellow food dye because, when it comes to anything yellow, I try not to think of certain causes... thankfully snow would have melted in the hot studio, so that rules that one out...
* which could have been repurposed for an episode of Batman if the dynamic duo got caught by an evil singing group who just happened to have an oversized record player because, why not - this is Batman 66 and as campy as anything can deliberately get.
Last edited:
I’m really undecided on this episode. Given the choice of watching Spock walk around as a lobotomized Vulcan or seeing Kirk talk ‘gangsta’ in Piece of the Action, I’m sticking with Morg and Eymorg.
I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says it is but the scene with dr McCoy were he contradicts him self over and over again really annoyed me
I believe you have it backwards. In the second pilot "Where No Man Has Gone Before" and in "Mudd's Women," the ship used "lithium crystals." "The Alternative Factor" was the first episode to introduce the fictional element "dilithium," which is mentioned all of seven times in the dialogue.
Great catch, thanks!
Also, I'm embarrassed - I try not to get things so up-mixed and sdrawkcab...
But I still say it's the worst episode despite my snafu
The kids dug Spock in the 60s. He was cool.
Want to say I agree with everyone's comments above - those are some forgettable episodes for sure. Even though I confess to laughing my butt off to the two Mudd episodes, yeah, they were pretty bad.
Weird flex here: Balance of Terror. It's one of my favourite episodes in the entire franchise, and the Shatner/Lenard duo is brilliant. BUT..."humans and Romulans have never seen the other" sets up a canon problem that TNG and ENT both tried and failed to resolve. Even with the 1960s factor, it's pretty wild that both sides could be that ignorant. I know it sets up the Spock/Stiles test of wills, but seriously...
So just for that, I'll toss BoT out for consideration. It's a great episode, but it hamstrung writers and caused a lot of storyline problems for the following shows. (e.g. T'Pol: "Romulan. It's pronounced Romulan." ...OH COME ON, that is just some getting caught in bed with not-your-spouse kind of cringe. Nobody is buying the excuse.
)
Weird flex here: Balance of Terror. It's one of my favourite episodes in the entire franchise, and the Shatner/Lenard duo is brilliant. BUT..."humans and Romulans have never seen the other" sets up a canon problem that TNG and ENT both tried and failed to resolve. Even with the 1960s factor, it's pretty wild that both sides could be that ignorant. I know it sets up the Spock/Stiles test of wills, but seriously...
So just for that, I'll toss BoT out for consideration. It's a great episode, but it hamstrung writers and caused a lot of storyline problems for the following shows. (e.g. T'Pol: "Romulan. It's pronounced Romulan." ...OH COME ON, that is just some getting caught in bed with not-your-spouse kind of cringe. Nobody is buying the excuse.
)
Just finished the episode, Andrea was in love Korby. Kirk did his confuse a computer bit on her. Might be the first time.
Zooming in on the womens’ butts was the directors’ questionable and unusual choice for artistic flare…
…as was having crewmen leer at those same butts.
I watched it for the first time in 1971, not long past the time of the hippies and it was cliche and dated even then. Now? Ugh.
Even worse than that is the ending of The Enemy Within where Spock implies Rand enjoyed being sexually assaulted by Evil Kirk... with a goddamn smirk on his face. The whole way the episode handles Rand is embarrassing, regardless of the historical context of the 60's.Just rewatched "Mudd's Women" and "What Are Little Girls Made Of?" MW's old fashion sexism ( even for the 60s) it pretty bad. WALGMO is slightly better. I don't think Korby ever answered the question of why he made Andrea a sexy half naked woman.
Similar threads
