# Worst Star Trek (TOS) episode? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 16, 2014, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942 "2014-01-16T04:06:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![the\_diego](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7bcc69/32.png) [@the\_diego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_diego)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/101 "2014-01-17T05:29:27Z")
Kirk and Spock had to duel for something and Kirk died. Bones characteristically said to Spock, “Strange as it may seem, you are now the Commander.” ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/102 "2014-01-17T05:57:23Z")
> [@the\_diego](#): > > Kirk and Spock had to duel for something and Kirk died. Bones characteristically said to Spock, “Strange as it may seem, you are now the Commander.” That was no something, that was his wife! ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/103 "2014-01-17T06:06:54Z")
I could also choose “And the Children Shall Lead.” I read Melvin Belli’s book _Ready for the Plaintiff!_ Somehow he doesn’t come off well as a space villain. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/104 "2014-01-17T06:07:22Z")
> [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](#): > > I saw the episode when it first aired. I was a die-hard fan, but I found the ease with which Kirk made gunpowder, built a cannon, and fired diamonds out of it just a bit too unlikely. > > I’d been messing with my chemistry set around the same time, and knew just how hard it was to make anything explode decently. That’s the point. The advance aliens planted the stuff there as kind of a puzzle. The ST episode is actually a lot better than the Frederic Brown short story with the same name. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/105 "2014-01-17T06:09:17Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Not to mention the incredibly minimalist sets. > What, did they run out of money that week? Probably. If you read the behind the scenes books, NBC cut the budget and the heavy special effects were expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/106 "2014-01-17T06:13:57Z")
I vote for Alternative Factor. I watched Spock’s Brain a while ago, and while dumb it had babes and a plot. The Alternative Factor had neither. ST 365 says that Drew Barrymore’s father was supposed to play Lazarus, but he acted like a true Barrymore and didn’t show up the first day. That screwed things up. Then Lazarus was supposed to get the dilithium crystals through an affair of a woman in engineering, but they decided that this was too much like Space Seed, and the woman was African American anyway and the didn’t want to freak out Dixie. So they had a gigantic hole in the script, which is why Lazarus fell down cliffs a lot. Bonus points for it being First Season when they should have done better. Turnabout Intruder gets honorable mention. BTW, the plot of Omega Glory was one of the ones proposed for the second pilot, so lucky for us they didn’t go with it. ---
**Author:** ![Trinopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/2bfe46/32.png) [@Trinopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trinopus)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/107 "2014-01-17T06:48:36Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > . . . The ST episode is actually a lot better than the Frederic Brown short story with the same name. Was that the one where the human and alien were in a force-field dome, separated by a force-field wall, in an arena with red sand (and blue lizards?) I love that story…but the ending actually belies the premise, since the human finally wins by brute strength, not by his wits. (His wits put him into a position where he can use his strength, but, ultimately, it was Terran biceps, not the cerebrum, that won the day.) (If that wasn’t the right story…never mind…) ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/108 "2014-01-17T08:09:49Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > Was that the one where the human and alien were in a force-field dome, separated by a force-field wall, in an arena with red sand (and blue lizards?) > > I love that story…but the ending actually belies the premise, since the human finally wins by brute strength, not by his wits. (His wits put him into a position where he can use his strength, but, ultimately, it was Terran biceps, not the cerebrum, that won the day.) > > (If that wasn’t the right story…never mind…) That’s the one. Gene Coon did not base the ST story on it (at least consciously) but gave Brown credit because the plots were so close. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/109 "2014-01-17T09:37:56Z")
> [@Ranger\_Jeff](#): > > Yeah, it’s got to be **Spock’s Brain**. Eden has enough MST3K going for it to make it laughable. SB is just torturous. I feel the exact opposite. At least “Spock’s Brain” doesn’t drag on. There’s something interestingly stupid around every corner. Eden doesn’t have enough to joke about to sustain the entire 50 minutes or so. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/110 "2014-01-17T09:52:55Z")
> [@beowulff](#): > > Not to mention the incredibly minimalist sets. > What, did they run out of money that week? Basically, yes. _ **TOS** _’s budget was cut drastically after Paramount acquired Desilu. By the third season, Roddenberry didn’t have the heart left to fight it, and both Coon and Solow had departed long before. Everything was affected, from set design to the caliber of the writers. The same thing happened in the final half-season of _ **Batman** _. Watch one of those late episodes and you’ll be shocked at just how much the production values in that series had declined. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 9:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/111 "2014-01-17T09:59:07Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Probably. If you read the behind the scenes books, NBC cut the budget and the heavy special effects were expensive. The amount of money they got from NBC never did cover their expenses. _ **TOS** _ was basically deficit financed by Desilu. On the other hand, _ **Mission: Impossible** _, which was filmed right next door to _ **TOS** _, never wanted for money, even when they went way over budget. They were (a) more successful in the ratings and (b) on CBS, Lucille Ball’s parent network. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/112 "2014-01-17T10:02:19Z")
I think I’ll add “The Deadly Years” to my list. Again, a cool idea and a hot blonde with big tits, but a very lame and derivative resolution of the crisis in the fourth act. :mad: ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/113 "2014-01-17T10:04:16Z")
**NB:** \*\*\* Batman \*\*\*was filmed at Fox, not Desilu, but the problem was the same. ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/114 "2014-01-17T10:07:48Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > That’s the point. The advance aliens planted the stuff there as kind of a puzzle. **NB:** There was an episode of _ **Mythbusters** _ where they tried to duplicate Kirk’s primitive cannon and homemade gunpowder. They failed miserably. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/115 "2014-01-17T10:48:54Z")
I would nominate _For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky_, because at least the bad episodes were bad, this one was just nothing. Insubstantial. Not worth the first commercial. (_Catspaw_, for instance, is like a crazy-ass train-wreck in its over-the-topitude). ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/116 "2014-01-17T11:38:11Z")
> [@For You](#): > > _Catspaw_, for instance, is like a crazy-ass train-wreck in its over-the-topitude. Wasn’t that the one where Kirk first\* said “You’re a very … beautiful woman!” :dubious: \*In the order the episodes were filmed , not aired. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/117 "2014-01-17T13:58:27Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Lucsly and Dulmur, but they were talking to Sisko, in Trials and Tribbleations. My thanks to you and Galen. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/118 "2014-01-17T15:05:01Z")
My vote is for “The Empath”. Boring and slow. (Too much exposition.) To be fair, I don’t recall much about “Turnabout Intruder”, as it doesn’t seem to get aired as much as some of the others. * * * In “Cat’s Paw”, Kirk tries to seduce the female, and it almost works until she used her telepathy on him, discovering his ruse. But up until that moment, she _appeared_ to be enjoying his attentions. She shapeshifts a few times, trying to find the female form most pleasing to him. They even make out for a little bit, groping each other. Later on, it’s revealed that the captors were wee little cthulu-looking plant aliens. So… how did the make-out session actually work? Did the female alien transmute her body, actually becoming human sized? Or was it all “in the mind”? ---
**Author:** ![terentii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terentii/32/212_2.png) [@terentii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/terentii)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/119 "2014-01-17T15:18:03Z")
> [@mlees](#): > > So… how did the make-out session actually work? Did the female alien transmute her body, actually becoming human sized? Or was it all “in the mind”? She used The Transmuter to take human form, of course. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2014, 4:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942/120 "2014-01-17T16:00:08Z")
> [@For You](#): > > I would nominate _For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky_, because at least the bad episodes were bad, this one was just nothing. Insubstantial. Not worth the first commercial. (_Catspaw_, for instance, is like a crazy-ass train-wreck in its over-the-topitude). IIRC that ep. was a victim of a bunch of rewrites-the plot originally was supposed to focus on McCoy’s daughter. At least the gal in The Empath was cute as hell. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/worst-star-trek-tos-episode/678942.md?page=7)