Star Trek TOS Episode Titles

[sprytel]

I believe there was a third episode planned for Mudd but the actor wasn't available or something

I had heard that for Trouble with Tribbles... not sure if it is true or just fan conjecture based on Mudd and Cyrano Jones being such similar characters.

And actually, I think The Animated Series' More Tribbles, More Troubles was originally intended for the third season but didn't get made for some reason.

[Earth 2 Chris]

^He was definitely a complex fellow. I think he was somewhat of a "walking contradiction", a term used to also describe Johnny Cash. Roddenberry had lofty ideals that he often didn't apply to his everyday life, for one.

Chris

[Werewolf]

From what I have heard over the years was Roddenberry was a weird guy. Definitely had some issues.

[Earth 2 Chris]

Roddenberry pledged to NBC he would more involved in Season 3 if they would renew t it. Gene Coon had left, and John Meridyth Lucas wasn't as strong a creative force to steer the ship, and also, he was leaving. NBC agreed, but then buried Trek in the Friday night 10:00 PM time slot, the graveyard for shows that appealed to young viewers. Roddenberry asked them to move the show, and they wouldn't. So he essentially walked even further away from the day-to-day production. Fred Freiberger took over, and he gets most of the blame, but I'm not sure that's fair. Roddenberry further distanced himself from the cast when he asked them to hawk his Lincoln Enterprises merchandise, and rewrote the IDIC medallion into "Is There In Truth No Beauty". Shatner refused to hawk it, so it was rewritten from some kind of Starfleet medal to a Vulcan thing. Nimoy hated it too, but by that point he had given up trying to defend his character, especially after his protests over "Spock's Brain" (written by Gene Coon!) had fallen on deaf ears.

Oddly enough, not long after Trek was cancelled, networks discovered "demographics" and found Star Trek was a HUGE hit with the audience they really wanted. But it was too late.

I highly recommend the "These Are The Voyages" series of books by Mark Cushman. The most fair and balanced account of Trek's production I have ever read.

Chris

[PNGwynne]

Roger C. Carmel supposedly had some drug abuse problems and had in fact been kicked from The Mothers-in-Law, also a Desilu production.

[Nostalgiabuff]

the show was saved from cancelation by a write in campaign. Rodenberry was not much involved in S3 though

I believe there was a third episode planned for Mudd but the actor wasn't available or something

[TrekStar]

I heard that season 3 was done because of fan mail asking the network not to cancel the series, and Lucille Ball half owner of desilu wanted it to continue for another season as well, it was in fact a 5 year mission.

I think season 3 would have been more successful if they brought back more characters like Klingons, Romulans, Harry Mudd this time with his wife Stella, maybe another episode with tribbles, or a return to some planet they had already visited to see how it progressed but finding things worse, like a continuation of the episode
“ a Piece of the Action”

[PNGwynne]

I love Gem's perfomance in The Empath. Otherwise the episode is sadistic and largely pointless.

Seems we're discussing a lot of season 3 episodes, hmmm...

[sprytel]

Turnabout Intruder is by far the worst episode of the entire run. I can't even sit through that one

Turnabout Intruder is horrible, no doubt. But lest we forget... I remind you of the hot garbage that is The Empath.

[PNGwynne]

I don't disagree with any of that, I just find elements of it interesting--not enjoyable or redeemable. I'm not willing to dismiss it out-of-hand as "The Worst." It's not easy to reconcile the Roddenberry who wanted unisex uniforms and a female Number One with the one who provided the story for Turnabout Intruder and established Chapel as a character.

Next Gen had its blunders, too--Code of Honor or Angel One, anyone? Or the cop-out of The Outcast.

To me the space hippies are not awful, just in that Lost in Space mode.

[Nostalgiabuff]

yeah, I agree about Shatner overacting in TI. I used to hate "And the children shall lead" too but I rewatched the whole series last year and really that episode, although not great, did not bother me too much. I actually love the space hippies. it's campy fun, goofy as hell but still fun

[Werewolf]

Spock's Brain and Space Hippies are absolutely terrible but can still be enjoyed on some level because of the unintentional camp. And the Children Shall Lead is terrible but could have been good. It's a missed opportunity that was just so poorly done. Turnabout Intruder is an ugly mess. One of the times Shatner's overacting actually makes it worse. There's no saving it and nothing enjoyable about it even on a camp level.

[PNGwynne]

Turnabout Intruder is a difficult episode. It has that uneven writing characteristic of Season 3, but Sandra Smith underplays and IMO is good in it. Shat is in over his head in something that needed subtlety. I think the episode was trying to say something about mental illness and self-hatred but it got conflated into a general condemnation of feminism that curdles the whole episode. The script is just not sophisticated enough to avoid seeming dismissive and terribly sexist. I've watched it closely several times and feel differently about it each time. I don't consider it the worst, though. Dr. Coleman is interesting to me, he disappears midway but reappears at the end and the episode touches on some sexual themes not considered again until Next Gen. I think it's interesting to compare this episode with the awful Nora Clavicle Batman episode. One reviewer considered Clavicle a sharp satire (of what? Feminism or men's reaction to it? IDK, I don't get it) but to me it's a mess featuring a slumming Barbara rush from ABC's Peyton Place.

Spock's Brain is bad but only terrible in the way that almost every episode of Lost in Space is terrible. It's schlocky and just not very good Trek.

I'm with Chris in disliking The Lazarus Affair and And the Children Shall Lead. Messy, meandering episodes. ATCSL is full of missed opportunities, some stuff was cut and some dropped for budgetary reasons. Belli is a bore. Could have been really creepy and engaging.

[Werewolf]

Turnabout Intruder is by far the worst episode of the entire run. I can't even sit through that one

Agreed on Turnabout Intruder. Worst episode of the entire series.

[palitoy]

Worse than 'Spock's Brain'.

That episode is at least entertaining.