Wait a minute...I don't think I remember that one. And I know I've seen every episode at least 5 times. Maybe it's so bad I've just wiped it out of my memory.

If nothing else, that's the most annoying beard in screen history

As many times as I watched this one, I could never keep track during the episode of when it was the good Lazarus or the bad Lazarus.

I stopped caring when they played the bombastic music for the 5th time.

Beard is the best part of the episode ainec

I agree, and I hate it.

There a lot of great Trek episodes that explore parallel universes. This is not one of them. Still, after 20+ episodes into a groundbreaking, experimental, and very low-budget show, it's impressive that we've only had one or two legitimately bad episodes.


Also, I think decent and very good should be merged into one "good" category.

From Takei's facebook. Took me a while to get this one:

I don't get it

Wreath of Kahn?

Meh

The City on the Edge of Forever SEASON 1, EPISODE 28



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cit...dge_of_Forever

There's a reason this is most consistently voted the best Star Trek episode of the original series. Because it's brilliant. The script, pacing, drama, story, all wonderfully tight and fitting together beautifully. This really is the greatest episode of this season, and possibly all of them. Harlan Ellison, a great writer most of the time, delivered something beautiful here.

My only gripe is I think Joan Collins wasn't great, but then again, she was good enough to keep this beautiful episode on the rails.


I think this might be a top 10 TV episode of all time.


Redshirt Count: 4

Classics -
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)

Very Good
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)

Decent -
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Court Martial (S1E20)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)


Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)[/QUOTE]

I never gave it that much thought, but in the back of my mind I always assumed this was one of the last episodes made. The result of a mature series. Kind of disappointing that the rest won't live up to this.

But maybe I'm forgetting something and will be surprised.

You are perhaps forgetting that a lot of season 3 is total crap.

Since I only saw these in syndication and they were shown in a random order, I have no basis for knowing that.

There's at least good one in season 3, maybe more. I'll get to it again eventually. But mostly, Kurnisright. They really slashed the budget, put them in a terrible timeslot, and the main producers weren't interested in sticking around.

I post as a spoiler, just in case jumping ahead is frowned upon in ITT

lol...I always liked Spectre of the Gun.

I even like some of the the bad ones, like Spock's Brain, but the bad ones just bother me conceptually.

The City on the Edge of Forever is regarded by many as the best TOS episode of all time, and I can't argue much with that. But it could easily have become a case of too many chefs spoiling the soup, and is one of the most controversial ST episodes. Harlan Ellison wrote the original screenplay, but it was heavily rewritten by D. C. Fontana and later by Roddenberry. As would often happen, D. C. got no credit for her work.

In the original version, for example, it was not McCoy who got trapped in time, it was a crewman on the Enterprise who was selling drugs on the sly. Roddenberry of course would not hear of having substance abuse and drug dealers in his utopian vision of the future.

Harlan Ellison was furious at the changes, and considered having himself credited under a pseudonym. The bad blood between these two titans of sci-fi went on for decades.


Misc: The set used for the streets of New York was none other than the streets of Mayberry, USA. In one shot, Floyd's barber shop can be clearly seen. This set was also used for the ST episode Miri.

Possibly one of my top five episodes. Outstanding conceptual sci-fi.

ST:TOS really hit the ground running, with many mature, top-tier episodes coming right out of the gate in season one.

I remember having my mind blown when Chekov dies...and the implication that that entailed for the timeline/plot. It may have been my first exposure to time travel paradoxes.

Operation Annihilate SEASON 1, EPISODE 29



Wiki Entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation:_Annihilate!

Pretty solid episode, but with some flaws. On the plus side, we get a reasonable story and some really great acting from Nimoy, and on the minus we get alien parasites that look a little like joke vomit. This one suffered from trying to suggest stakes that were way too high and being overly dramatic about that, though not to the toxic levels it got to in "The Alternative Factor". The drama felt fragmented by that imbalance. Also, the final drama about Spock's blindness felt inorganic and cheap.

Redshirt Count: 4

Classics -
The City on the Edge of Forever (S1E28)
The Naked Time (S1E04)
The Corbomite Maneuver (S1E10)
Balance of Terror (S1E14)
The Enemy Within (S1E05)
The Squire of Gothos (S1E17)
Devil in the Dark (S1E25)
Arena (S1E18)
Miri (S1E08)
A Taste of Armageddon (S1E23)
Charlie X (S1E02)
Space Seed (S1E22)

Very Good
This Side of Paradise (S1E24)

Decent -
Return of the Archons (S1E21)
Mudd's Women (S1E06)
Operation Annihilate (S1E29)
The Menagerie (S1E11+12)
Shore Leave (S1E15)
Court Martial (S1E20)
The Conscience of the King (S1E13)
Where No Man Has Gone Before (S1E03)
The Man Trap (S1E01)
What Are Little Girls Made Of (S1E07)
Dagger of the Mind (S1E09)
Galileo Seven (S1E16)
Errand of Mercy (S1E26)
Tomorrow Is Yesterday (S1E19)


Terrible -
The Alternative Factor (S1E27)

So that concludes season 1, and what a great season of TV that was. Only one real stinker in 29 episodes, and 12 I'd consider classic Star Trek.


I'll probably start season 2, 2 a week, in the new year.

Is this the one where all the on-planet scenes look like a fake, deserted office park?