Rascals.
It isn’t even the worst ep of season 2.
But it is close…
This episode is so much worse than Spock’s Brain - it makes Spock’s Brain seem like an Emmy Award nominee.
Wasn’t that the one where they actually showed him getting dressed after sex?* :dubious:
*“Wink of an Eye.”
My favorite moment:
:eek:Yep. The pun still fits any number of eps, tho. Including movies. 
That was originally from the rejected first pilot The Cage, and one of the things the network specifically rejected was the idea of a female first officer (it was the early 60s).
The cast felt the same way. Jolene Blalock was specifically quoted as calling that finale, “Appalling…”
According to Justman and Solow, the network was also not pleased with Roddenberry casting his mistress in the role (or writing it specifically for her). :eek:
It was their version of the Jekyll-and-Hyde story, just like “Doomsday Machine” (one of my favorite episodes) was their retelling of Moby Dick.
:smack:
But those scenes still got aired in The Menagerie, is what I figure was relevant.
The original story was that the character (and not the actress) fared poorly with test audiences. This may well have been true, but it would only have added to the network’s objections over Majel Barrett.
From what I’ve read, NBC had no particular problem with either females or racial minorities in leading roles; in fact, the programmers were encouraging such things to give their mid-60s shows more diversity.
Since “The Cage” (as it was originally known) formed the envelope for “The Menagerie,” and since Number One could hardly have been cut from it, it would seem they had little choice.
The two-parter was desperately needed to fill a hole in the production schedule, which had fallen terribly behind.
But how is that relevant? Regardless of why they aired it, air it they did. I’m not sure why they cast a black actor as the Commodore who outranks Kirk in “Court Martial”; I doubt it was because he worked cheap and happened to be free that week, but it could’ve been. All I know is, they helpfully established for the viewers at home that a black guy could be a Starfleet flag officer; and they established that a woman could serve as a first officer, commanding the ship in the captain’s absence.
Folks watching the episode wouldn’t know about the budget woes. They wouldn’t know whether Roddenberry had been told “yeah, okay, but lose the second-in-command chick or the demonic-looking alien.” They wouldn’t know whether Roddenberry had been told “actually, a female XO who orders the men around is fine by us, so long as you hire a better actress; how about Lee Meriwether? I hear Lee Meriwether is available.”
They’d only know what they saw: that, when Christopher Pike got himself captured, a brainy woman started calling the shots on the Enterprise, and everyone else in uniform acted like it was the most natural thing in the world.
Uhhhh … okay.
I’m going from a 40-year-old memory of an article I read in *Starlog *magazine. It may have even been from the very first issue which featured an episode guide to TOS (the first episode guide of *any *TV show I’d ever seen). I think it was with Majel Barret herself, but they definitely said the network didn’t think audiences would accept a female first office. They also didn’t like the Spock character, they were afraid religious groups would find him too ‘satanic’ looking(!) Roddenberry fought to keep him though.
Ok, I looked it up, it was indeed from Starlog #1 and it is pretty much as I remember it.
Again quoting Justman and Solow (as best I can remember): “The network wouldn’t have minded a female first officer. They just didn’t want Majel.”
Whether it’s true or not, it’s easy to understand why “the network didn’t think anyone would believe a female first officer” is the version that’s most often quoted. It places the blame squarely on NBC.
As for Spock, I didn’t particularly care for him in the first pilot either. Blasphemy, I know. Shame on me! 
This book:
Can’t cite the page number for the above quote, since I don’t have my copy with me at the moment.
This. With the writers on strike, I guess they handed the pen to someone who totally didn’t give a shit, and we got a Riker Clip Show.
I wish they’d just steered into the skid and done a Very Special Episode, or perhaps a Jetsons crossover.
ETA: Not counting no-added-value clip shows, TNG’s Sub Rosa (the “ghost sex” episode), is probably tied with most of the Laxwanna Troi episodes for second worst.
Its been a while since I watched ST but I remember that when it was on, one of my most hated episodes was one that a lot of people liked. I hated Darmok because I was a kid and didn’t get the whole metaphor thing, it was boring and uninteresting to me. Plus we had a monster but it was fucking invisible, so I don’t even get that visual as a payoff. And I hated the alien captain because he had huge vertical nostrils and I couldn’t help but think how much boogers would be in there.
Leonard Nimoy was still figuring the character out so Spock acts very oddly in those early episodes. He smiles broadly (nearly laughing) and shouts commands a lot. Again, fans have come up with more retcon explanations like he was still trying to fit in with humans and ‘experimenting’ with mild emotions etc. Get a life, will you people! 