Most Star Wars character names were known to the public via the action figures’ packaging.
And I deserved to be nitted. I should have checked!
I love that episode just for the look. I forgive the OK Corral historical inaccuracies, because the Melkot are using Kirk’s own memories, and he got it wrong. Probably every copy of Tombstone and Wyatt Earp got lost in WWIII, so no one knows any more.
I watch (or am forced to) the Riffed version of the SWHS every year for the New Year holiday. It’s a traditional for my wife and friend.
It’s terrible in ways that only fuck-tons of eggnog allow me to deal with. I will say that if I look at it by the standards of it’s day it’s horrible, but not UNIQUELY horrible, in comparison to the variety shows it takes it’s DNA from.
As a STAR WARS vehicle though, yeah, it’s uniquely horrible. The two genres clash horribly and interact in ways that should not be.
By comparison, while there are many Star Trek properties that just don’t work for me (Dr Who and other crossovers), none of them are quite that horrible a mismatch, and thus don’t rise to the standard of the SWHS.
Maybe one day in the future, they did a Hollywood squares Star Trek version, or something equally horrific, then we’d have a comparison.
For now, try Star Trek: Discovery and Picard.
There was a prime time 30th anniversary of Star Trek special that was very corny (or “cringe” as the kids say). If you have ever seen clips or photos of the Frasier cast in star fleet uniforms, it was a skit from this special. It was supposed to be the entire cast but Kelsey Grammer entered rehab at the last minute so they had Kate Mulgrew step in as Janeway. I also remember Joan Collins asking William Shatner if he pushed her character down the stairs (they were together in the famous episode City on the Edge of Forever) and when he laughed she asked again…and again.
To paraphrase P.J. O’Rouke, Bad Star Trek things are bad within normal parameters The STHS reaches a different universe of bad.
Let me compare it to something else in the same medium. The Brady Bunch was a bad sitcom within normal parameters. The Brady Bunch Variety Hour breaks the boundaries of bad for sitcoms, variety shows, and adolescent performances of song and dance numbers.
No surprise that they shared a writer.
So 100% true. It’s the one episode I cannot bear to watch,
Personally; I don’t think “The Way to Eden” is as bad as its reputation.
Even “Spock’s Brain” can be entertaining, if you are in an MST3K mood.
“The Empath”, however, is just plain boring.