# Which ST:TOS episodes have aged most poorly? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** tv-shows-scripted, star-trek-paramount\ **Created:** [December 29, 2022, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282 "2022-12-29T15:00:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/101 "2023-01-05T22:01:31Z")
Sure, they also list redshirts as an ‘unbuilt trope’ [Live-Action TV / Unbuilt Trope - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/UnbuiltTrope/LiveActionTV) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/102 "2023-01-05T22:07:04Z")
Then add all the episodes (and movies) where he runs into a former lover. We only see snippets of his life after he became a Starship Captain and married to the ship. Imagine how much of a horn-Horta he was in high school, or at the Academy. Or as a junior officer. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/103 "2023-01-05T22:19:23Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Then add all the episodes (and movies) where he runs into a former lover. Memory Alpha lists four different women with whom Kirk had relationships when he was younger, prior to them appearing in an episode or movie, plus all of the ones which he kissed or flirted with _in_ an episode: - Ruth (Shore Leave) - Janice Lester (Turnabout Intruder) - Carol Marcus (The Wrath of Khan) - Janet Wallace (The Deadly Years) Plus, Helen Noel (Dagger of the Mind), with whom he’d had a flirtation at a Christmas party on board the _Enterprise_, prior to that episode. > **[James T. Kirk](https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/James_T._Kirk#Romances)** > > James Tiberius "Jim" Kirk was a male Human Starfleet officer who lived during the 23rd century. His time in Starfleet made Kirk arguably one of the most famous and sometimes infamous starship captains in Starfleet history. The highly decorated Kirk... ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/104 "2023-01-05T22:25:33Z")
That we know of. 😛 And you **know** that Kirk banged the boots off the Ruth simulacrum off-screen in “Shore Leave.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/105 "2023-01-05T22:38:47Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > It happened frequently enough that it is, IMO, justifiably seen as a trope of the series. I’d be curious to see if some of the other tropes (Bones and Spock sniping at each other, dying redshirts, etc.) happened as often. You now have me wondering which episode from the original run is the most, uh, typical? Or clichéd? Or possibly: _trope-tastic?_ (Top of my head, maybe it’s BY ANY OTHER NAME: Kirk makes out with an alien lady, _and_ punches out an alien dude; and Spock does the Vulcan mind-probe, _and_ talks about what’s logical while playing 3-D chess; and Scotty pulls off an on-the-fly engineering feat, _and_ in his Scottish-themed quarters drinks the foe du jour under the table; and that’s all after the redshirts drop like flies to show us how serious this all is, plus we get to see McCoy do some doctorin’ in sick bay…) ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/106 "2023-01-05T22:41:52Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > Memory Alpha lists four different women with whom Kirk had relationships when he was younger, prior to them appearing in an episode or movie, plus all of the ones which he kissed or flirted with _in_ an episode: The list is off by at least one: Ariel Shaw in _Court Martial_ > Kirk: It’s been… How long has it been? > Shaw: Four years, seven months and an odd number of days. Not that I’m counting. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/107 "2023-01-05T22:42:41Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > The list is off by at least one: Ariel Shaw in _Court Martial_ Yup, you’re right, I accidentally skipped Areel, while reading through the (very long) list of Kirk’s romances. So, _five_ (known) former lovers. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/108 "2023-01-05T22:49:07Z")
Then they breach the energy barrier at the edge of the galaxy. Again. They avert the “Black Guy Dies First” trope. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/109 "2023-01-05T23:06:32Z")
> [@kenobi\_65](#): > > - Ruth (Shore Leave) > - Janice Lester (Turnabout Intruder) > - Carol Marcus (The Wrath of Khan) > - Janet Wallace (The Deadly Years) They forget “that little blonde lab technician” Mitchell ribs Kirk about. “I almost married her!” Though I have fankwanked that this unnamed woman is none other than Carol Marcus. but I’ve never seen anyone else say that. And honestly, I don’t get this “Ruth” infatuation. She acts as exciting as a potted plant. They don’t even give her any lines! I imagine Kirk likes exciting women, like Dr Marcus, not vapid eye candy like Ruth. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/110 "2023-01-05T23:17:16Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > And honestly, I don’t get this “Ruth” infatuation. He was young. She was easy. 'nuff said. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/111 "2023-01-05T23:40:20Z")
> [@outlierrn](#): > > …he kisses another character in only 19 of them, and of those, _thirteen_ are while he’s under duress or doing it specifically to manipulate them. I thought that was the trope, that he’d make out with Space Babe of the Week in order to get something he wanted (_something else_ that he wanted) then cast them aside and beam back up to the ship. I wonder how Kirk’s tally of 19 compares stacks up against the other men on the series, both regulars and guest stars. Spock, Bones, Scotty, Chekov, Captain Pike, Gary Mitchell, Zefram Cochrane; how many others had some degree of romance, or at least flirtation, over the course of the series? ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2023, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/112 "2023-01-05T23:55:22Z")
Total sidebar: Joan “Areel Shaw” Marshall was the original Lily (as “Phoebe”) in the original pilot of _The Munsters_. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/hP8GCi3MXF0/hqdefault.jpg "The Munsters - Intro (unaired pilot).mpg") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hP8GCi3MXF0) ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/113 "2023-01-06T01:01:13Z")
IIRC Spock, Scotty, McCoy, & Chekov all had 1 romance episode over the course of TOS. Not counting Chekov’s drill thrall. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/114 "2023-01-06T01:12:00Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Given the reaction of the network to a female Number One in the first pilot, I suspect there was a restriction on female captains, but you can’t blame Gene for it. I thought part of the problem was that the networks didn’t want Star Trek to be a vehicle for one of Gene’s mistresses. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/115 "2023-01-06T01:22:58Z")
It was really convenient for the crew that every single planet they visited was so ideally earth-like that they could beam down without even a windbreaker. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/116 "2023-01-06T01:27:19Z")
Except for the one that tried to kill Sulu (“The Enemy Within”). And the one where the crewman got the water virus (“Amok Time”), and the one where… Of course most of the places they stopped were Earth-like. What the heck are they going to do on the analog of Neptune? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/117 "2023-01-06T01:28:57Z")
> [@silenus](#): > > Except for the one that tried to kill Sulu (“The Enemy Within”). That’s the one where they forgot how to beam down blankets. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/118 "2023-01-06T01:30:19Z")
They could, but they might end up being _evil_ blankets, all itchy and stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/119 "2023-01-06T01:30:52Z")
But the other blankets would be soft and cuddly. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2023, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282/120 "2023-01-06T01:32:00Z")
Can’t take that chance. The landing party will just have to chill until the transporter is fixed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/which-st-tos-episodes-have-aged-most-poorly/977282.md?page=7)