star trek lazarus beard

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

"the alternative factor" — what the hell happened (part 3).

Principal photography commenced on Stage 9 for the bridge scenes that did not involve Lazarus. Janet MacLachlan was present, and given a blue uniform to wear. This was the first of many mistakes -- although a relatively minor one. Lt. Masters was originally written as a chemist; as a member of the medical or science departments, so she would have worn blue. But with the change in the script that had her assigned to engineering, red should have been her new color. Someone forgot to clue-in the wardrobe department.

As Kirk enters, LIEUTENANT CHARLENE MASTERS, an attractive chemoscientist, moves to his side with a report. 1

KEVIN KOSTER: OF COURSE, NOT EVERY PERSON IN ENGINEERING NECESSARILY WORE A RED OUTFIT. RICHARD COMPTON'S SUPPORTING ROLE AS LT. WASHBURN IN "THE DOOMSDAY MACHINE" WAS DONE IN A BLUE UNIFORM, EVEN THOUGH HE WAS PART OF THE DAMAGE CONTROL TEAM AND HE WAS THE ONE WHO DELIVERS THE REPORT TO SCOTTY AND KIRK. (INDEED, SCOTTY'S TEAM HAD WASHBURN IN A BLUE UNIFORM AND TWO OTHERS IN GOLD UNIFORMS.) BY THE SAME THINKING, LT. MARLA MCGIVERS IN "SPACE SEED" WORE RED EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS A HISTORIAN AND TECHNICALLY SHOULD HAVE BEEN WEARING BLUE. 

KEVIN KOSTER:  THESE DECISIONS TELL US THAT THE PRODUCERS WOULD SOMETIMES SWITCH UP THE UNIFORM COLORS FOR OTHER REASONS. PUTTING WASHBURN IN BLUE AND THE OTHER CREWMEN IN GOLD MEANT THAT THEY COULD HAVE A SPRAY OF COLOR BETWEEN THE RED, GREEN AND BLUE UNIFORMS OF SCOTTY, KIRK, AND McCOY IN THE SHOT WHEN THEY ARRIVE ON THE CONSTELLATION, AND A VARIATION IN VARIOUS SHOTS IN AUXILIARY CONTROL. SIMILARLY, PUTTING MCGIVERS IN RED IN "SPACE SEED" HELPED HER PROVIDE A DIFFERENT LOOK — AND THEN WIND UP IN A RED UNIFORM NEXT TO KHAN’S RED COSTUME AT THE EPISODE'S CLOSE. (IT DIDN’T HURT THAT MADLYN RHUE WAS A REDHEAD; THE RED UNIFORM WAS A NICE WAY TO ACCENTUATE HER HAIR COLOR.)

Oswald covered 23 scenes and more than 10 pages of script, wrapping at 6:50 p.m., 30 minutes into overtime but otherwise on schedule.  

All seemed well ... at least, on set. It was a different story in the producer's office.   

Earlier in the day, a memo from Stan Robertson arrived. It said nothing about the casting [of a black actress in the role of Lt. Masters] but, instead, focused on a plot device used in the script. Robertson wrote:   

This will confirm our telephone conversation of yesterday, in which I again voiced objections to this script which has as its premise another "duplicate character."... We have gone over this point many times in the past, Gene, and it appears as though we are only continuing to perpetuate the "sameness" which has been one of the continuing criticisms of our series. (SR20-2)

Within hours, director Gerd Oswald, finishing work on the set, received new script pages for the next day.

Since there is a situation in this story, however, wherein we have two people, in this case, Lazarus and his alter-ego, I was wondering if we had gotten an approval from NBC on this show. Have they raised any objections to having this sort of situation?

This will confirm our telephone conversation of yesterday, in which I again voiced objections to this script which has as its premise another "duplicate character". 

We have gone over this point many times in the past, Gene, and it appears as though we are only continuing to perpetuate the "sameness" which has been one of the continuing criticisms of our series. With our production problems being what they are, which necessitates our having to shoot and release programs in the order in which the scripts are received, I must advise you that we will not accept any other stories so constructed for the remainder of the season. 5

John Drew Barrymore was visiting wardrobe on this day for final costume fittings. Before leaving, he was given the revised script. And then he quit the production.

In a memo from the next day to Herb Solow, Joe D'Agosta wrote: Between 4 and 5 p.m., [Barrymore] sent word that he did not want to do the role and refused to accept a work call for filming the following morning, November 17. With the cooperation of his agent and lawyer, I told him that he was committed and had to report to work. Mr. Barrymore then became unavailable and out of reach. His reasons were that the script changes had altered his character.

KEVIN KOSTER: D'AGOSTA'S MEMO STRIKES ME AS HAVING BEEN WRITTEN AFTER THE FACT. HE HAD NO REASON TO WRITE SUCH A MEMO AT THE TIME WHILE THEY WERE IN SCRAMBLE MODE TO RECAST THE ROLE. BUT HE HAD A LARGE REASON TO DRAFT A MEMO AND BACKDATE IT WHEN HERB SOLOW MADE IT CLEAR HE INTENDED TO PRESS CHARGES AGAINST BARRYMORE FOR HAVING FLAKED OUT ON THE SHOW.

Robert Brown was 38 when he was tossed a live hand grenade called "The Alternative Factor."

Prior to this, he worked often on the stage, including shows on Broadway. In 1958, he snagged a prominent role in the sci-fi movie The Flame Barrier. 

Arthur Franz and Robert Brown were set for the male leads in "The Flame Barrier" which will be made under the Gramercy Films banner for United Artists release. 13

In television, Brown found notable guest spots on series such as Perry Mason, Wagon Train, and Bonanza. In 1962, he starred with William Shatner in the unsold TV pilot called “Colossus.”

[Robert Brown] said, "I got a call on my birthday [November 17] and it was from Roddenberry. Shatner and I had gotten along really well while making 'Colossus,' and Roddenberry said, 'Shatner gave me your number; I hope you don’t mind me calling.' I didn’t know who Roddenberry was. I didn’t know what Star Trek was."

"I drove in and Roddenberry greeted me and said, 'You just follow me back to makeup and don't worry, we'll find a place for you to live near the studio.' I said, 'What are you talking about?' He said, 'Well, you got the part. Shatner says you can handle it. So, after I called you, my office called your agent to talk about the script.' I said, 'What script? I haven’t heard anything about it. I'm not familiar with this show or the genre, so I don't think so. Thanks, but no.' He said, 'Listen, you're an actor, you're from the theater, you can do this. Look, I'll tell you what we’ll do -- I've got a contract with Shatner that says nobody can get more money than he does, but I'll arrange something. We'll pay you what he makes and I'll put in a little extra myself.But you can't tell him or else I'll sue you.' And then he reached in his pocket and gave me five dollars. He said, 'Here.'"

Day 2, Thursday...For this day, in his scenes on the bridge followed by sickbay and the transporter room, Brown's beard was thin, although not yet completely sparse. This would soon change.

KEVIN KOSTER: DAY TWO OF THE EPISODE WAS FRANTICALLY REBUILT TO CAST A REPLACEMENT FOR LAZARUS, TO FIT HIM FOR HIS COSTUME, AND TO FIND SCENES TO SHOOT WHILE THE FIRST TWO IDEAS WERE HAPPENING. THIS HELPED THE NEW ACTOR LEARN HIS LINES, BUT IT WAS MAINLY ABOUT BUYING TIME TO GET HIM TO THE LOT AND GET HIM READY.

KEVIN KOSTER:  THIS WAS AN EASY WAY TO GET THEIR FIRST SHOT OFF QUICKLY. THEY THEN MOVED TO THE BRIEFING ROOM FOR SCENE 105A, A NEARLY THREE PAGE TECHNOBABBLE SCENE WITH KIRK AND SPOCK, FORCING SHATNER AND NIMOY TO LEARN THIS STUFF WITH NO PREPARATION. THEY RUSHED IN RICHARD DERR (WHO HAD NOT BEEN SCHEDULED TO WORK UNTIL THE FOLLOWING WEDNESDAY) AND QUICKLY FILMED HIS VIEWSCREEN COVERAGE AS THE COMMODORE FOR SCENE 26A AGAINST A WALL IN SICKBAY.

With all the confusion, care normally shown in the making of Star Trek was now nowhere in sight. For a scene in the transporter room, Lazarus knocks out the transporter technician and beams himself to the planet. One must wonder where he learned to operate the transporter. 

KEVIN KOSTER: ONE AREA WHERE SLOPPINESS DID APPEAR WAS THAT THE ORIGINAL CALL SHEET FOR THE 17TH TRIED TO BE VERY SPECIFIC ABOUT WHICH LAZARUS WAS TO BE SEEN IN EACH SCENE — BETWEEN THE INSANE LAZARUS OF OUR UNIVERSE AND THE CALMER, SANER VERSION FROM THE OTHER UNIVERSE. THAT SPECIFICITY WAS TOTALLY DROPPED THE MOMENT THAT BARRYMORE'S FLAKEOUT DESTROYED THE SCHEDULE. FROM THAT TIME FORWARD, THE SECOND A.D. WRITING THE CALL SHEET WAS JUST TRYING TO GET THE RIGHT SCENES ON THE PAGE AS THE PLAN KEPT CHANGING.

When Oswald wrapped at 7 p.m., he was one-half day behind.

KEVIN KOSTER:  OSWALD AND THE TREK UNIT DID AN INCREDIBLE JOB ON THE 17TH IN GETTING OVER 8 PAGES IN THE CAN. HE WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT A HALF DAY BEHIND.

Day 3. On Friday, the company finished the scenes intended for the previous day - sequences on the bridge and in the ship’s corridors...The scenes in the alternate engineering set were planned to come next but Oswald barely got started on this before calling for a wrap at 7:15 p.m., a full hour into overtime. 

KEVIN KOSTER: THE PRODUCTION REPORT FOR THE 18TH SHOWS THAT SHATNER STAYED UNTIL 7:15PM, TOO. THE COMPANY WRAP TIME WAS 7:15PM. NICHELLE NICHOLS WAS RELEASED AT 6:00PM AND "LEONARD NIMO" [SIC] WAS RELEASED AT 5:00PM. THE PRODUCTION REPORT ALSO INDICATES THE COMPANY GOING OVER TO STAGE 10 AT THE END OF THE DAY. I BELIEVE THE PRODUCTION REPORT IS SHOWING THAT THEY MOVED OVER TO THE NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR AND STARTED TO WORK OUT WHAT THEY WOULD DO WHEN THEY SHOT IT. THEY WANTED TO SEE IF THERE WAS A CHANCE THEY COULD FILM ANYTHING THERE ON THE 18TH. WHEN IT BECAME CLEAR THAT THEY COULDN'T, THEY WRAPPED THE COMPANY, BUT AT LEAST HAD A STRONGER IDEA OF WHAT MATERIALS THEY WOULD NEED WHEN THEY RETURNED TO THE SET THE FOLLOWING FRIDAY.  

THIS ADDS TO MY THINKING THAT THEY DID NOT BELIEVE THIS SET WOULD TAKE THEM TOO LONG, WHICH MEANT THAT THE NEXT EPISODE’S DIRECTOR, MICHAEL O'HERLIHY, WOULD HAVE MOST OF THAT DAY TO FILM SCENES FOR "TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY". AND SINCE O'HERLIHY WAS FAMOUSLY ONE OF THE FASTEST TELEVISION DIRECTORS IN HOLLYWOOD HISTORY, IT FOLLOWS THAT BOB JUSTMAN WAS NOW THINKING THEY’D STILL BE ON SCHEDULE FOR THE SEASON BY THE END OF THE FOLLOWING WEEK.

Fortunately, on this day, Brown's beard matched from the day before. Again, that would soon change. 

Day 4. Come Monday, filming took place in an area of engineering identified in the script as "Lithium Crystal Recharging Section." This information was supposed to go on the door outside. The sloppiness continued and the sign by the door merely read "Engineering," adding to the confusion.

As the day progressed, the company moved to the recreation room, followed by a move to sickbay...Oswald wrapped at 6:50 p.m.

KEVIN KOSTER:  IT IS STANDARD PROCEDURE TO SHOOT EXTERIOR DAY WORK AS EARLY IN THE WEEK AS YOU CAN, TO TAKE THE EARLIEST CALL TIME POSSIBLE. THIS IS PARTICULARLY IMPORTANT FROM NOVEMBER THROUGH THE WINTER, WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN MUCH EARLIER. THERE'S ALSO THE WEATHER FACTOR — IT'S ALWAYS BETTER TO SHOOT YOUR EXTERIORS EARLY AND AVOID THE POSSIBILITY OF BAD WEATHER SHUTTING THE COMPANY DOWN. ACCORDINGLY, THE SHOOTING SCHEDULE FOR "THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR" NOTES THAT THEY WERE PLANNING TO GO TO VASQUEZ ROCKS ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21 AND TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22. FOLLOWING THIS PLAN, EXCEPT FOR THE NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR, THEY WOULD HAVE FINISHED THE EPISODE ON STAGE ON WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 23. 34

KEVIN KOSTER: THERE WAS ALSO A SIT-DOWN BREAKFAST THAT I’M SURE BOB JUSTMAN HAD SERVED TO MAKE SURE NOBODY WENT INTO MEAL PENALTY, AND TO HELP ACCOMMODATE ALL THE CONFUSION OF NOT GOING TO LOCATION THAT MORNING. THE DAY'S CALLTIME WAS 6:00AM, WHICH WOULD HAVE MEANT A MANDATORY UNION MEAL BREAK AT 12:00PM (AS YOU MUST BREAK FOR A MEAL EVERY SIX HOURS). SINCE THEY'D ALREADY PAID FOR THE CATERER AND THE BREAKFAST, BOB JUSTMAN CLEARLY MADE THE CALL TO SERVE A BREAKFAST (FROM 7:00-7:30AM) ONCE THE GEAR WAS OFF THE TRUCKS AND EVERYBODY KNEW WHAT THEY WOULD BE DOING. NOW THE COMPANY WAS GOOD TO GO FOR ANOTHER SIX HOURS. THE DAILY PRODUCTION REPORT SHOWS THAT THEY BROKE FOR LUNCH FROM 1:00-2:00PM, WITH THE EXCEPTION OF A COUPLE OF PROP AND EFFECTS CREW, WHO TOOK A SHORTER BREAK SO THEY COULD COME BACK EARLY TO RIG THE SPARKS/SMOKE GAG IN THE ENGINEERING AREA. 39  I BELIEVE JUSTMAN KEPT THE CATERER TO A MINIMUM DAY AND THEN DISMISSED HIM TO STAND BY FOR FOR THE TUESDAY CALL. (THE HOUR LONG BREAK INDICATES THAT EVERYONE WENT TO THE COMMISSARY AND BOUGHT THEIR OWN LUNCH.)

KEVIN KOSTER: BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. ON THE PRODUCTION REPORT FOR MONDAY 11/21, THERE ARE TWO MORE NAMES IN THE CAST, ONE OF WHICH HAS A REALLY ODD TIME ON IT. CAREY FOSTER AND TOM STEELE ARE LISTED AS ACTING IN A SCENE IN THE MORNING, WHICH WOULD PUT THEM IN THE RECREATION ROOM WORK. NO MAKEUP TIME IS SHOWN FOR THEM. FOSTER HAS AN ON-SET TIME AT 10:30AM, AND STEELE HAS A TYPO FOR HIS ON-SET TIME AT 2:00 - BOTH ARE SHOWN AS HAVING BEEN DISMISSED AT 11:45AM. I BELIEVE THAT BOTH WERE WORKING AS BACKGROUND ARTISTS AND WERE UPGRADED TO CAST. (THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN HIRED AS SCREEN EXTRAS GUILD B.G. AND THEN CONVERTED TO SCREEN ACTORS GUILD CONTRACTS ON THE SET.) 

LOOKING AT THE BACKGROUND ARTISTS AREA OF THE PRODUCTION REPORT, WE CAN SEE ONE INDICATION OF THIS - AN EXTRA WHO WAS CONVERTED TO SAG AS OF 10:30AM. (THE PRODUCTION REPORT ALSO SHOWS ANOTHER 4 B.G. WHO CAME IN AT 7:30AM OR 8:00AM AND WERE DISMISSED AROUND NOON - THOSE SHOULD BE THE OTHER PEOPLE IN THE REC ROOM.) LOOKING AT THE SCENE IN THE EPISODE, IT APPEARS THAT STEELE MAY BE THE LAUGHING CREWMAN WE SEE IN THE SURVIVING FOOTAGE AND FOSTER MAY BE THE YOUNG WOMAN MAKING GOO GOO EYES AT LAZARUS FROM THE NEXT TABLE. I BELIEVE THAT WHATEVER THEY DID TO EARN THESE UPGRADES IS IN THE LAZARUS/SPOCK SCENE THAT WAS FILMED ON THIS DAY, BUT CUT FROM THE EPISODE. WHATEVER THEY DID, IT WOULD NEED TO HAVE INVOLVED A LINE OF DIALOGUE - JUST HAVING A "SILENT BIT" WOULD NOT BE ENOUGH TO JUSTIFY HAVING THEM ADDED TO THE CAST. (THE PRODUCTION REPORT ALSO SHOWS 3 B.G. WHO CAME IN AT 6:30AM WITH A DISMISSAL TIME OF 6:45AM - I BELIEVE THOSE THREE TO BE THE B.G. SECURITY GUARDS WE WOULD SEE ON LOCATION, AND THAT THEY WERE SENT HOME RIGHT AFTER THEY ARRIVED AT DESILU.)

THERE’S ONE MORE WRINKLE HERE. THE RAIN-OUT GENERATED YET ANOTHER DAY FOR THE STUNTMEN. GARY COMBS AND AL WYATT WERE HIRED TO DO THE CORRIDOR SEQUENCE AND THE PLANET SCENES AT VASQUEZ ROCKS. THIS SHOULD HAVE MEANT THAT THEY WOULD WORK FRIDAY, MONDAY, AND TUESDAY. INSTEAD, THEY WOUND UP BEING PAID FOR FRIDAY AND MONDAY WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING AND THEN WORKING TUESDAY, WEDNESDAY, AND FRIDAY. BILL CATCHING WOUND UP BEING PAID FOR BOTH FRIDAYS.

UPDATE (9/2/2018): SHARP-EYED OBSERVERS HAVE NOTED THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THE BACKGROUND ARTISTS ( VINCE CALENTI ) WHO PLAYED A SECURITY GUARD ON LOCATION MAY HAVE WORKED ON STAGE IN THE REC ROOM SCENEWORK ON THE 21ST. THE LAUGHING CREWMAN, WHO WE SPECULATED WAS TOM STEELE, HAS BEEN IDENTIFIED AS FRANK DA VINCI . 

THERE HAS ALSO BEEN A NOTE THAT THERE WAS AN OLDER STUNTMAN NAMED TOM STEELE (BORN 1909) WHO APPEARED IN STAR TREK EPISODES AROUND THIS TIME WHO LOOKS NOTHING LIKE ANYONE IN THE FOOTAGE WE HAVE IN THE COMPLETED EPISODE. IF THE SAME TOM STEELE WAS THE ONE GETTING A CONTRACT ON THIS DAY, THEN HE WAS EITHER FEATURED IN THE DELETED MATERIAL FROM THIS EPISODE OR WAS BEING GIVEN A CONTRACT FOR ANOTHER REASON. IF I WAS ABLE TO SEARCH THE DESILU ACCOUNTING RECORDS FOR THE ORIGINAL STAR TREK SERIES, I COULD CONFIRM IF THE TOM STEELE HERE IS THE SAME ONE AS THE TOM STEELE WHO WORKED IN "BREAD AND CIRCUSES," BUT THOSE RECORDS ARE SIMPLY NOT AVAILABLE TODAY, AND I DON'T BELIEVE THERE IS ANYONE LEFT FROM THE PRODUCTION TEAM WHO WOULD HAVE THAT KIND OF MEMORY ABOUT A SINGLE DAY ON THE SHOW 52 YEARS AGO. EVEN JOE D'AGOSTA, THE CASTING DIRECTOR WHO IS STILL WITH US TODAY, WOULD NOT LIKELY REMEMBER TWO UPGRADED BACKGROUND PLAYERS OR EVEN AN UNCREDITED STUNT PLAYER FROM ONE EPISODE THAT LONG AGO. 

THE BEST I CAN OFFER HERE IS THAT THE TIMES LISTED ON THE PRODUCTION REPORT TELL US THESE WERE TWO UPGRADED BACKGROUND PLAYERS, AND WHATEVER WORK THEY DID WAS DELETED FROM THE EPISODE AND IS NOW LOST TO HISTORY.  AND I CAN NOTE THAT THERE IS A CAREY FOSTER LISTED AT IMDB WHO HAD MULTIPLE SMALL ROLES IN MOVIES AND TELEVISION SERIES AROUND THIS TIME IN THE 1960s. SHE HAS THREE LISTED EPISODES FROM "THE LIEUTENANT" AND A SMATTERING OF FEATURE FILMS BEFORE THE LISTING ENDS - BUT NEARLY ALL OF THE ROLES ARE THINGS LIKE "COLLEGE GIRL", "FIRST GIRL", "WINTER-A-GO-GO GIRL" AND "PAJAMA GIRL," WHICH SUGGEST AN UPGRADED BACKGROUND ARTIST OR DANCER. THE LISTING FOR FOSTER ALSO INCLUDES A FINAL CREDIT AS AN ASSISTANT CHOREOGRAPHER FOR A 1969 JACK BENNY SPECIAL, WHICH WOULD MAKE SENSE IN THIS CONTEXT.

KEVIN KOSTER: THIS WOULD NOT HAVE HAPPENED IF BOB JUSTMAN THOUGHT THEY WOULD SPEND THE WHOLE DAY ON FRIDAY SHOOTING "THE ALTERNATIVE FACTOR." AND WHILE A NEARLY TWELVE PAGE DAY SOUNDS IMPOSSIBLE, WE MUST AGAIN KEEP IN MIND THAT MICHAEL O'HERLIHY WAS GOING TO BE DIRECTING IT. THE STORIES ABOUT HIM ARE LEGENDARY. HE WAS KNOWN FOR WRAPPING MID-AFTERNOON ON FRIDAYS. 

THERE’S ONE ACCOUNT I'VE HEARD MULTIPLE TIMES ON DIFFERENT PRODUCTIONS OF O'HERLIHY BEING READY TO DO HIS LAST SHOT ON ON A FRIDAY AFTERNOON AFTER HAVING ALREADY DONE NEARLY TEN PAGES OF SCENES. THE STORY IS THAT HE WAS HANDED SIX FRESH PAGES FROM THE WRITERS AND TOLD TO FILM THOSE, TOO. O'HERLIHY IS SAID TO HAVE STUDIED THE PAGES AND THEN ASKED FOR THE CAMERA CREW TO LAY OUT SIX FEET OF DOLLY TRACK AND TO PUT A 50mm LENS ON THE CAMERA. AFTER THEY DID SO, HE IS SAID TO HAVE PUT THE SIX PAGES ON THE STAGE FLOOR, POINTED THE CAMERA DOWN, AND ROLLED A SHOT TRACKING PAST THE PAGES. AND THEN HE WRAPPED THE COMPANY, HAVING DONE AS HE WAS TOLD AND FILMED THE SIX NEW PAGES. THIS IS NOTHING I CAN PERSONALLY CONFIRM - BUT IT TELLS YOU ABOUT MICHAEL O'HERLIHY'S REPUTATION FOR SPEED AND EFFICIENCY - AND WIT.

Day 5 took the company to Vasquez Rocks for the third time. All of the scenes featuring Lazarus shaking a fist at the sky, bellowing about wanting to kill the beast, and tumbling off rock formations injuring himself repeatedly, were filmed...Oswald...was only able to cover four pages of script this day and, plunged into darkness at 5:20 p.m., ended three-quarters of a day behind.

KEVIN KOSTER: I THINK ANOTHER BIG DELAY THEY FACED AT VASQUEZ ROCKS WAS THEIR "WINK OUT" LIGHTNING EFFECT FOR THE MOMENTS WHEN LAZARUS SHIFTS INTO THE OTHER UNIVERSE. IT LOOKS LIKE THEY WERE USING SOMETHING LIKE A "LIGHTNING STRIKES" ELECTRICAL EFFECT ON THE LOCATION IN CONJUNCTION WITH RITTER FANS FROM THEIR EFFECTS CREW, SOMETHING THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN CHALLENGING ON A REGULAR DAY AND PROBABLY EVEN MORE SO UNDER DAMP CONDITIONS. THEY WERE ALSO USING BIG WIND EFFECTS TO BOOT. ALSO, ON TUESDAY, THEY DID THE BIGGEST LAZARUS FALL, INCLUDING KICKING A FAKE ROCK PAST GARY COMBS.

Day 6. The company returned to Vasquez Rocks for a second day of location production, this time at and around the "time ship."... Again, Oswald wrapped at 5:20, having taken his last shots on close up, where artificial day light [sic] could be shined in the direction of the actors from the giant arc lights. The last scene intended to be filmed on location -- the Alternate Universe -- was never even started. 

KEVIN KOSTER: IT'S PRETTY CLEAR WHICH VASQUEZ ROCKS SCENES WERE FILMED ON EACH DAY, BASED ON THE WEATHER ALONE. THE TUESDAY SCENES ARE CLOUDY AND MANY TIMES COMPLETELY OVERCAST. THE WEDNESDAY SCENES FEATURE BLUE SKIES. SUNNY SCENES AROUND THE TIMESHIP FILMED ON WEDNESDAY ARE FOLLOWED BY CHASING/TRACKING SCENES FROM TUESDAY WITH GRAY SKIES.

Day 7 -- an extra, unplanned day of production, back at the studio. Kirk’s journey into the alternate universe was filmed where he meets the "good Lazarus," working on his time ship...Also filmed this day, also on Stage 10, were the sequences in the "negative/magnetic corridor." For these effects-driven scenes, Brown wore a fluorescent colored outfit in a blackened room with, as he described it, "black lights on a tilting stage that [they] jostled while the camera rotated around."

...What we got was a negative image of Robert Brown and a stunt man wrestling. 

Oswald took his last mediocre shot at 5:30 p.m., and, finally, the production from hell was over -- at least, the writing and filming of it. 

KEVIN KOSTER:  THE SHOOTING SCHEDULE DOESN'T EVEN SHOW LAZARUS HIMSELF IN THE NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR - ONLY HIS STUNT DOUBLES. BUT THIS COULD BE ANOTHER TYPO. BILL SHATNER WAS SUPPOSED TO BE READY ON SET BY 9:30AM AND BROWN WAS SUPPOSED TO BE READY ON SET BY 10:00AM, WHICH INDICATES THAT THE REAL FOCUS OF THEIR DAY WAS THE BIG SCENE AT THE TIME SHIP.  GIVEN THAT THEY DID NOT COMPLETE THE CORRIDOR WORK UNTIL HE'D ALREADY BEEN THERE FOR THREE HOURS, IT MAKES SENSE THAT BROWN WAS ABLE TO VISIT THE SET AND SEE HOW THEY WERE SHOOTING HIS DOUBLES.

THE STUNT TEAM OF COMBS, WYATT, AND CATCHING ALL CAME IN AT 7:00AM TO BE READY TO FILM BY THE SHOOTING CALL OF 8:00AM, AND THINGS CLEARLY TOOK LONGER TO WORK OUT, AS THEY DIDN'T GET A SHOT OFF FOR NEARLY 90 MINUTES AFTER THE GENERAL CALL TIME FOR THE CREW (THE FIRST SHOT WAS AT 8:50AM). WYATT AND CATCHING DID MULTIPLE SHOTS FIGHTING WITH EACH OTHER ON THE SET. SHATNER DID THE ONE MOMENT WHERE KIRK IS IN THE CORRIDOR, AND CAN CLEARLY BE SEEN IN THE SHOT THAT WAS USED IN THE EPISODE. THE TECHNICAL WORK IN THIS SET IS A BIT COMPLICATED, WITH A ROTATING CAMERA AND ALL THE ON-SET EFFECTS, WHICH EXPLAINS WHY IT TOOK A WHILE TO FILM WHAT FEEL LIKE VERY SIMPLE SHOTS ON THE PAGE.  

ONE OTHER NOTE: THE CALL SHEET FOR THE FINAL DAY SHOWS THAT THE COMPANY WAS UNCERTAIN ON WEDNESDAY WHETHER BILL CATCHING WAS GOING TO COME IN AGAIN ON FRIDAY. INSTEAD OF HIS NAME IN THE POSITION OF THE SECOND LAZARUS DOUBLE, THERE IS A "?". OF COURSE, HE TURNED OUT TO BE AVAILABLE, AND THUS CAME IN TO FINALLY PLAY HIS PART. 53  

KEVIN KOSTER: THIS SUGGESTS THEY REHEARSED THE NEARLY FIVE PAGE DIALOGUE SCENE AND THEN BROKE FOR AN HOUR AT THE NEAREST INTERVAL OF SIX MINUTES (CREW TIME ON SET IS MEASURED IN TENTHS OF HOURS, OR EVERY SIX MINUTES).

KEVIN KOSTER:  CUSHMAN'S CONCLUSION THAT THE COMPANY WRAPPED AT 5:30PM APPEARS TO BE BASED ON A QUICK GLANCE AT WILLIAM SHATNER'S DISMISSAL TIME ON THE PRODUCTION REPORT, RATHER THAN AN EXAMINATION OF THE ACTUAL COMPANY WRAP TIME OR THE BIG NOTE BELOW THE CAST AREA ABOUT THE WORK DONE WITH KELLEY. IT'S THE SAME SLOPPINESS THAT LED TO CUSHMAN'S ASSUMPTION THAT ROBERT BROWN WAS GRAPPLING ON CAMERA IN THE CORRIDOR, AND TO CUSHMAN'S CONFUSION OVER THE SHOOTING ORDER OF THE DAY. CALL SHEETS AND PRODUCTION REPORTS ARE FRANKLY VERY SIMPLE DOCUMENTS FOR ANYONE EXPERIENCED IN TELEVISION AND MOTION PICTURE PRODUCTION. CUSHMAN'S INABILITY TO UNDERSTAND THEM HAS RESULTED AT TIMES IN HIM PRESENTING A FUN HOUSE MIRROR IMAGE OF WHAT WAS ACTUALLY HAPPENING ON THE STAGES. 

THE WILL-NOTIFY ALERT FOR NICHOLS AND TAKEI WAS SPECIFIED BECAUSE THEY WERE WORKING ON AN EPISODE-BY-EPISODE BASIS. 56  LEONARD NIMOY, WHO WAS ALSO INDICATED FOR THE NEXT EPISODE’S SCENES, WAS A SERIES REGULAR AND THEREFORE DID NOT NEED TO BE CONTACTED BY CASTING EACH TIME - THE ASSISTANT DIRECTORS COULD JUST LET HIM KNOW DIRECTLY. 

[Post Production Dates]: November 28, 1966 to January 24, 1967.

With too short a script, due to the removal of the love story, many redundant beats were played up [during editing], involving the maddening Lazarus on the planet, with all his running, shouting, shaking his fists, and falling from rocks.

• Scene 20 (INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM):  McCoy and two medics arrive with a stretcher, Kirk and Lazarus (#2) beams aboard, and McCoy examines Lazarus and decides to take him to sickbay (7/8 of a page).
• Scene 28 (INT. SICKBAY): Lazarus #1 demonstrates he is uninjured. For stills from this scene, see page 149 of  Star Trek: Lost Scenes  by David Tilotta and Curt McAloney (3/8 page).
• Scene 52 (INT. RECREATION ROOM): Spock questions Lazarus (#2) about his civilization, notes his "remarkable recuperative powers," and then leaves when called away by Uhura (2 2/8 pages).
• Scene 68 (INT. BRIDGE): After Lazarus leaves the bridge, Kirk tells security that it is their job to monitor Lazarus "24 hours a day" (2/8 page).
• Scenes 130-131 (EXT. TIME SHIP): Spock and several security guards approach Lazarus #1, but stand down after he shouts at them, "Back! Back! If you ever want to see your Captain alive again!" (2/8 page).

KEVIN KOSTER: MY TAKE ON ALL THIS IS THAT EVEN WITH THE ACTUAL PRODUCTION DOCUMENTS IN HAND, CUSHMAN PRESENTS AN UPSIDE-DOWN AND BACKWARDS IMAGE OF THE SHOOT. HE FAILS TO READ SIMPLE DOCUMENTS THAT ARE IN FRONT OF HIM, AND HE MISUNDERSTANDS THE WAY EPISODIC TELEVISION PRODUCTION WORKS. HE IS UNABLE TO FIGURE OUT HOW A "WEATHER PERMITTING" CALL WOULD WORK, AND IS UNABLE TO SEE THAT THE PRODUCTION WAS IN A FULL SCRAMBLE ON DAY 2 TO FIND NON-LAZARUS SCENES TO SHOOT. HE EVEN GETS THE ORDER OF THE FINAL DAY BACKWARDS WHEN THERE WERE ONLY TWO SEQUENCES TO SHOOT. 

IF ANYTHING, THE CHRONICLE OF THIS EPISODE SHOULD GO A LONG WAY TOWARD ILLUSTRATING WHY CUSHMAN'S BOOKS ARE NOT A RELIABLE SOURCE OF INFORMATION ABOUT THE PRODUCTION OF THE ORIGINAL STAR TREK SERIES.

"The Alternative Factor" cost $210,879 to make, $25,879 over the per-episode allowance provided for by the Studio.

The First Season deficit was now up to $46,266.

Desilu filed a complaint [against John Drew Barrymore] with the Screen Actors Guild. A hearing took place on January 4, 1967. Joe D’Agosta, Robert Justman, and Herb Solow attended. Karl Malden headed the Hearing Board, consisting of Charlton Heston, Ricardo Montalban, Jeanette Nolan, and Donald Randolph.

The headline on the front page of the January 16, 1967, issue of Daily Variety proclaimed, "John Drew Barrymore Reprimanded by SAG for Balking at Star Role." Barrymore was found "guilty of conduct unbecoming a member" of the Screen Actors Guild. He was fined $1,500 (think $10,500 in 2013) and his SAG card was suspended for six months, preventing him from working. Quoted in the trade paper, Roddenberry said, "We didn't understand his reasons. He didn't like script changes, but there weren't any which affected his part."  

John Drew Barrymore has been found "guilty of conduct unbecoming a member" of Screen Actors Guild by SAG for refusing to perform a role in Desilu's "Star Trek" series on NBC-TV, guild discloses. Actor was reprimanded and fined $1,500, but the fine was suspended on condition he refrain for at least one year from conduct violating the guild's bylaws. 

According to SAG, testimony showed the actor had accepted a role in "The Alternative Factor" seg of the series. Original start date of Nov. 17 was postponed for his convenience. Three days earlier he was given certain script changes and Nov. 15-16 he was fitted for costumes. He subsequently notified producer Gene Roddenberry he did not want to perform the role, refused to accept a work call for the following ayem. 

Roddenberry said, "we didn’t understand his reasons. He didn't like script changes, but there weren't any which affected his part." 70  

The Trial Board suspended John Drew Barrymore’s [SAG] membership for a period of six months, thus preventing him from working as an actor during that period of time. 72

Barrymore gave a very unconvincing explanation of forgetfulness; we made a very convincing presentation of our hiring practices and what creative and monetary damages Barrymore’s actions had caused. 73

Actor John Barrymore Jr. had a genuine black eye last week after a fight scene which was too convincing. He accidentally knocked heads with Mark Allyson during a fight scene for a segment of "Dundee and the Culhane" being filmed near Scottsdale, Ariz. 74

KEVIN KOSTER: THE PUNISHMENT BEING SUSPENDED MAKES SENSE. IN DISCIPLINARY ACTIONS LIKE THIS WHERE A GUILD MEMBER HAS VIOLATED A CONTRACT AS A FIRST OFFENDER, A POLITE APPROACH IS TO SUSPEND A LOT OF THE FINE OR RESTRICTION — BUT WITH THE PROVISO THAT IF THE MEMBER REPEATS THE INFRACTION, THEY'LL BE SUBJECT TO THE FULL AMOUNT. 

CUSHMAN TRIES TO MAKE IT SOUND LIKE DESILU WAS BEING VINDICTIVE AGAINST BARRYMORE, SUGGESTING THAT HERB SOLOW WAS MAKING AN EXAMPLE OF BARRYMORE JUST BECAUSE HE WAS PERSONALLY UPSET WITH HIM.  CUSHMAN DOESN'T UNDERSTAND THE PROFESSIONAL REASON WHY SOLOW HAD THE CHARGES BROUGHT.  HE MIGHT HAVE TAKEN THE TIME TO ASK SOLOW, OR TO JUST READ THE EXPLANATION PROVIDED IN SOLOW'S BOOK WITH JUSTMAN.  SOLOW TOOK ACTION BECAUSE HE DIDN'T WANT OTHER ACTORS OR PERSONNEL FIGURING THAT DESILU WAS A SMALL-TIME OPERATION WHERE THEY DIDN'T REALLY NEED TO SHOW UP. THAT KIND OF THING COULD HAVE REALLY HURT DESILU. ANY STUDIO EXECUTIVE WOULD HAVE TAKEN THIS ACTION, AND IT WAS APPROPRIATE FOR IT TO BE DONE.

WE'VE HAD MANY EXAMPLES OF THIS KIND OF THING IN MORE RECENT YEARS, WITH CELEBRITIES REFUSING TO APPEAR IN MOVIES OR REFUSING TO HONOR THEIR CONTRACTS. (FOR EXAMPLE, MIKE MYERS WAS SUED BY UNIVERSAL STUDIOS IN THE EARLY 2000s FOR BACKING OUT OF HIS COMMITMENT TO MAKE A "DIETER" MOVIE, AND KIM BASINGER WAS SUED FOR BACKING OUT OF "BOXING HELENA" IN THE EARLY 1990s.) SOMETIMES THE MATTER IS HANDLED BY GOING TO THE GUILD IN QUESTION. AND SOMETIMES THEY JUST GO TO COURT. BUT WHEN WE ARE DISCUSSING TELEVISION AND THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS, IT'S A SERIOUS AND EXPENSIVE MATTER TO WALK AWAY FROM YOUR CONTRACT - AND WHETHER CUSHMAN LIKES IT OR NOT, IT WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE TO IGNORE THAT KIND OF THING.

KEVIN KOSTER: IF CUSHMAN'S NARRATIVE ABOUT THE INTERRACIAL PLOT WAS CORRECT, THIS WOULD HAVE BEEN A HOLLYWOOD HEADLINE IN 1967. BARRYMORE AND RODDENBERRY COULD HAVE MADE A FAIRLY LARGE CASE ABOUT NBC AND RACISM IF THIS WERE SO. AND RODDENBERRY WASN'T SHY ABOUT TALKING ABOUT THESE ISSUES. HE'D PREVIOUSLY DONE SO ON "THE LIEUTENANT" AND WAS QUITE FORWARD ABOUT MAKING SURE THE U.S.S. ENTERPRISE REFLECTED ALL ETHNICITIES FROM EARTH. NBC WAS MAKING A POINT OF THE SAME THING. IF ANY OF THE CUSHMAN NARRATIVE WAS TRUE, WE'D HAVE HEARD ABOUT IT FROM MULTIPLE PARTIES.

...Over the next decade, the handsome actor with the famous name continued his downward spiral into failing mental and physical health.

Once the episode cleared post and Robert Justman and the NBC programmers got a chance to take a look at it, all were in agreement that it should be pushed back to the end of the season. "Court Martial," another episode that disappointed the producers and had been planned for a delayed airing, was pulled forward to fill the slot on February 2. "Alternative," the 20th episode filmed, was rescheduled to be the last to air in the first season. The late delivery of the final two episodes produced, however, resulted in another schedule re-adjustment. "Alternative" may not have been ready for prime time, but it aired nonetheless, as Broadcast Episode No. 27.

• June 13, 1966 - "The Favor" - first draft script for Gunsmoke .
• June 20, 1966 - "An Echo of Thunder" - revised draft script for The Virginian .
• August 29, 1966 - "The Alternative Factor" - story outline for Star Trek
• September 1966 (date missing) - "The Velvet Trap" - teleplay for The Big Valley
• September 12, 1966 - "The Alternative Factor" - revised story outline for Star Trek
• September 19, 1966 - "Forbidden Target" - work copy draft for Twelve O’Clock High (script unproduced) 
• September 23, 1966 - "Fandango!" - revised final draft script for Gunsmoke
• October 14, 1966 - "The Alternative Factor" - first draft teleplay for Star Trek
• November 7, 1966 - "The Alternative Factor" - second draft teleplay for Star Trek
• November 8, 1966 - "The Favor" - final draft script for Gunsmoke
• January 5, 1967 - "Eleven Miles to Eden" - final draft script for The Road West
• INT. BRIDGE - 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9
• INT. BRIDGE - 22, 23, 24, 26, 27,
• INT. BRIDGE - 49, 50,111
• INT. BRIDGE - 138, 139, 141, 142, 143, 146, 147 
• INT. BRIDGE - 61 (TIE DOWN shot of Main Viewing Screen)
• INT. BRIDGE - 25 (TIE DOWN shot of Main Viewing Screen)
• INT. BRIEFING ROOM - 105A
• INT. OFFICE - 26A (This scene is not listed on the daily production report, but it is clear they shot it on this day, since day two is when Richard Derr started and finished work)
• INT. SICKBAY - 51
• INT. BRIEFING ROOM - 79, 80, 81 (These 1 6/8 pages were left off the shooting schedule by mistake)
• INT. TRANSPORTER ROOM - 20, 115, 118 (Scene 20 deleted from final episode) 
• INT. CORRIDOR - 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59
• INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ENGINEERING SECTION - 69, 70, 71, 106
• INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ENGINEERING SECTION – 110
• INT. CORRIDOR OUTSIDE ENGINEERING SECTION - 112, 113, 114, 116
• INT. CORRIDOR BY ENGINEERING SECTION – 107
• INT. BRIDGE - 60, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67, 68 
• INT. RECREATION ROOM - 52, 53
• INT. ENGINEERING SECTION - 72, 73
• INT. ENGINEERING SECTION - 73A, 73B, 73C, 73D, 76A (shooting schedule does not have these scene numbers on it, but these are from INT. ENGINEERING SECTION, per the script)
• INT. ENGINEERING SECTION - 108, 109
• INT. KIRK’S QUARTERS - 29 (This scene had been scripted in INT. SICKBAY; moved during shooting for unknown reasons)
• INT. SICKBAY - 21
• INT. SICKBAY - 28
• INT. SICKBAY - 48
• INT. SICKBAY - 101, 102, 103, 104, 105 
• EXT. TERRAIN AREA - 36, 37, 38, 38A, 42A, 43, 44, 45, 46
• EXT. TERRAIN AREA - 86, 87, 88, 89, 90, 90A, 94, 95, 96, 97 (and likely 98-100, though these scenes are not listed on the Daily Production Report)
• EXT. PLANET-TIME SHIP - 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 82, 83, 84, 85
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 117, 119, 120, 121A (Shooting Schedule says 121, Daily Production Report says 121A)
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 123, 124, 125
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 130, 131, 133, 134, 135, 136, 143A, 145 
• INT. NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR - 39, 40, 41, 42
• INT. NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR - 91, 92, 93 (99 rather than 92 is indicated on the daily production report, but this appears to be a typo; scene 99 as scripted was a stunt of Lazarus to be done on location; scenes 98-100 do not appear on the daily production report, but based on the episode as broadcast, appear to have been completed on location as scheduled)
• INT. NEGATIVE MAGNETIC CORRIDOR - 122, 140, 144
• EXT. TIME SHIP - 126, 127, 128, 129, 132 (had originally been scheduled for Vasquez Rocks location)

13 comments:

Amazing work, Michael and Kevin. Thanks so much.

What a debt to you both! Sorry I only just now came across this incredible piece-together.

Thank you! It took a lot of time to piece all of this together, and I'm STILL learning new things about the making of this episode.

Thanks for this exhaustive look into the making of one of my favorite Star Trek episodes (and yes, I'm aware that unless I have a twin in an antimatter universe, then I may be alone in this opinion of the episode).

Totally plausible production explanations for uniform color mismatches. But an in-universe corollary to the real world could be an explanation. In the contemporary naval services (my examples are based on being a Coast Guardsman 1985-1998), the enlisted rates (similar to ST's officer "specialties") have colors associated. Most "deck force" ratings have white badges, engineering red badges. When a new sailor is enlisted as a "non-rate" (no speciality rating), they can choose "deck force" or "engineering." This determined if they were a Seaman/Seaman Apprentice or Fireman/Fireman Apprentice. A few years before I joined, someone on a career path to Aviation could opt for Airman. The Seaman badge is three white stripes, Fireman three red stripes, Airman three green stripes. (When I became an Aviation Electronics Tech, my "deck force" badge was white.) Now on shipboard, just because you're a Fireman and assigned to Engineering, doesn't mean you can't stand a bridge watch (quite routine, actually), or help the deck force at any time. Seamen might not be quite as able to do a Fireman's specialty work "down below," but they could assist on damage control, "other duties as assigned." It's plausible that a crewman or officer in Star Fleet could be on a Science, Engineering, Command, even Medical track (wearing blue, red, lemongrass/gold), but be serving in a different department "as assigned." In fact IRL junior officers get switched around various assignments on ship or shore station to get a wide base of experience and knowledge; it's part of how you "raise a generation" of officers to take command later. A junior officer would probably have a great deal of hands-on experience in various shipboard departments and activities not related to their specialty after a few years. (Remember Stiles in "Balance of Terror," saying his first assignment on the ship was Phaser Control. Bailey in "Corbomite Maneuver" was apparently promoted quickly to a bridge position, perhaps too soon for his comfort level.) These are some things I'd expect the WWII vets on the production to have known intimately. So it doesn't phase me at all when a smart LT in blue is serving in an engineering position, or an engineering officer in red is serving on the bridge (say doing Weapons or Life Support duties). :)

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Still one of the best and best-sourced works on an episode of Star Trek to be found! Enjoy this article so much.

Thank you! Kevin and I put a lot of work into this last part, and I'm really proud of it. Just...don't make me watch "The Alternative Factor" again this decade.

As you deftly point out, this episode was not meant to challenge racial norms, the love story was dropped because it was poorly written, and not a fight worth fighting in Roddenberry’s efforts to change 60’s television. But, did Barrymore quit the show because of changes to the script? That question is not answered in this article. If Barrymore felt the script lost its’ appeal when the romance was dropped, that is the most logical reason he quit the show at the start of production. If he read the script ahead of time, and liked it, that doesn't mean he read every revision that came his way a day or two ahead of time, etc. Rather than using his rap sheet against him as the source of why he quit this particular show, it makes more sense that he quit the show because he disliked the script changes. In that respect, your article is very unfair to Barrymore, and is disappointing given this blog is meant to fact check not speculate. This is not a defense of TOS, their interpretation regarding NBC, etc., is wrong writ large, but the Barrymore question remains unanswered.

I, too, would like to know Barrymore's reasons for dropping out, but unless further materials emerge (like Barrymore's private correspondence, or SAG documentation about his hearing) I think we're unlikely to learn more than what I presented in the three parts of this piece. However -- unless Barrymore wanted to blow up his Hollywood career or was simply unable to avoid self-destructing, dramatically dropping out after signing a contract AND agreeing to a start date because he "felt the script lost its' appeal when the romance was dropped" was simply a bad career move. Regarding Barrymore, I knew very little about the man before I wrote this piece. While looking for contemporary press coverage of the actor, what emerged was the pattern of behavior that I describe in this piece. I will admit, however, that I've seen very little of his on screen work and couldn't, at this time, present an informed opinion of his acting. On the matter of speculation, after spending two years writing and researching this topic, I felt it was necessary to present my theory about what happened based on the facts. I've made a concerted effort here to clearly frame any speculation as distinct from the facts I have based it on (something which Cushman and his enablers rarely do) -- and have been working even harder to do that with my current co-venture (www.facttrek.com). Thanks for reading.

Thank you for responding to my comments, I wouldn't have the opportunity to explore this topic in depth if it weren't for your work and Cushman's work. Don't take that as an endorsement of TOS, more an acknowledgement of the work done pre and post to further understand a short lived TV show in such detail. In the article, you excerpt the memo from Joe D’Agosta dated November 18, 1966. Could you provide the complete memo, to clarify if it does say “Barrymore’s reasons were that the script changes had altered his character”. It's not clear if that portion was added by Cushman. There is this from Daily Variety: Roddenberry said, "we didn’t understand his reasons. He didn't like the script changes, but there weren't any which affected his part." That would lead me to think Barrymore did say he didn't like the script changes, Roddenberry and Barrymore differing on the value of the changes.

You can see a scan of page 1 of the D'Agosta memo dated 11/18/1966 on the Roddenberry Entertainment Facebook page. It's document 042/366 from their Roddenberry 366 series (posted on 2/11/2016). The third paragraph of the memo says: "His reasons were that the script changes had altered his character." It also says he accepted the role "six days ago" (in other words, on 8/12/66). Here's the text from page 2 (which they did not post): Mr. Barrymore is in breach of contract and committment [sic]. His attitude and action is considered by all here as totally unprofessional and childish. Messrs. Roddenberry and Coon both agree that charges should be brought against Mr. John Drew Barrymore. Joe D'Agosta /jbb cc: Mr. Gene Roddenberry Gene Coon Bob Justman Bernie Weitzman Ed Perlstein Howard Rayfiel

Jason, I'd like to jump in also for a moment. I’ve personally dealt with actors and background artists refusing to appear on various shows. It's a serious matter when it happens. As to John Drew Barrymore's reasons for quitting, Michael correctly points out that we really can't know them. Barrymore did not, to my knowledge, write an account or discuss this matter with anyone writing one. And SAG-AFTRA will keep any documentation of his disciplinary hearing private. The only material we have is what we presented - the correspondence in the UCLA Roddenberry Archive and the account from Solow and Justman's book. We honestly were not trying to besmirch Barrymore. I realize that it could come across that way, but our approach was to try to address factual issues with both Cushman's and Solow's accounts. Cushman presents Barrymore's departure as some kind of a protest over what Cushman feels was a botched rewrite that presumably removed the great love story that had interested Barrymore in doing the show. I don't believe the documentary record indicates exactly that. It does indicate that Barrymore or his agent said something about not liking the script changes to Joe D'Agosta (or his casting assistant) and that Roddenberry would have read the same D'Agosta memo we have in the file. Solow says that Barrymore was prevented by SAG from working for 6 months, which is also not factual. I believe Solow misunderstood the notion of the "suspended punishment". Based on my own experiences dealing with internal discipline at the DGA, and my membership in SAG-AFTRA, I know that it's common for a first offense punishment to be suspended and not actually applied. If the member commits the infraction again, THEN the full punishment comes due. As Michael documented, Barrymore was working again within the time that Solow says he was barred. And Solow presents the idea that Barrymore's defense at his hearing was the old Steve Martin "I forgot". It is possible that Solow's memory of this is incorrect. After we published this article, I spoke with Michael Glick, the 1st Assistant Director on this episode. (He alternated with Gregg Peters throughout the first season) Glick remembered the fact that Barrymore had quit the show and that they'd scrambled the schedule. But he didn't remember why - just that it happened and they were scrambling. As a 1st AD myself, I can say that Glick would have been aware of the drama going on around why Barrymore quit, but it wouldn't have been a priority for him. The other material about Barrymore was honestly intended to give some context, not to make a blanket statement about his career. I agreed with including this to clarify the larger picture. Factually, there are many troubling aspects to Barrymore's career, and this specific event was only one. From what I've seen, he was a gifted actor, in the middle of a distinguished family of actors. But we all have our issues and clearly Barrymore had his. In the final analysis, it doesn't matter to me why Barrymore chose to quit. What matters is that he made a commitment and signed a contract. He was bound to appear, to begin playing his role and he walked away after the last second and threw a production into chaos. If his issue was a concern about the character and the script, he could have addressed them with Roddenberry or Justman or Coon. Shatner and Nimoy did this on a regular basis. Barrymore was being courted as a major guest star. Roddenberry and the others would have at least heard him out. But he never gave them that courtesy. He just walked away, costing the production dearly. One could argue that the episode may have gone overschedule anyway. But we'll never know. And had he stayed on the show, we might have seen a memorable performance from him that could have made the final episode a little more bearable.

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Star Trek: The Original Series

“The Alternative Factor”

Air date: 3/30/1967 Written by Don Ingalls Directed by Gerd Oswald

Review by Jamahl Epsicokhan

Review Text

Investigating what is apparently a "rip in space," a landing party beams down to a planet to find Lazarus (Robert Brown), an unstable man involved in a mysteriously bizarre problem: He's in a battle with his counterpart self from a parallel universe.

Among a stretch of shows that exemplifies many of Trek 's most visible qualities is the arrival of this episode, which unfortunately exemplifies science fiction excess. First of all is the ridiculously extreme notion that the meeting of the two Lazaruses (or is that Lazari?) would mean the destruction of the "entire universe." Such overlarge devices are rarely effective. Also, this episode seems to be in love with its own use of sci-fi buzzwords. In addition to matter and antimatter, we've got the concepts of a "parallel universe," a "rip in space," a "time ship," an "inter-universal gateway," etc. Little of this makes much sense, no matter how hard Shatner and Nimoy try in bouncing incredulous dialog off each other.

The episode becomes an untenable collection of disjointed story items with no overriding cohesion. (And, by the way, why would the Enterprise destroying one time ship cause the parallel universe time ship to be destroyed?) Saving some face is the somewhat interesting implication of Lazarus fighting his duplicate counterpart "for all eternity."

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74 comments on this post.

The most obvious stupidity in The Alternative Factor is that Kirk kept allowing Lazarus to wander around without security - even dismissing security at McCoy's objection to his presence. Not the brightest behaviour for a starship captain trying to figure out if the universe was being invaded and knowing that Lazarus had something to do with it. Of course, keeping him under surveillance would have shortened the episode, but it would have been less ridiculous.

This is one TOS episode I always skip. The contact of two MEN, leads to the destruction of the universe? I don't care what technobabble you use, that's ridiculous. If the choice is to watch this or "Mudd's Women", give me the latter any day...

I'll echo Keith's sentiment, and I'll add that the special effects were particularly hokey and tedious in this episode. It almost made me wonder if the episode was filmed at the beginning of the season and then held back until later.

Actually, when I look at this episode, I see a potentially good story somebody was trying to make that obviously didn't quite manage to emerge on the screen. If I understand the technobabble correctly, one Lazarus was from the regular universe and the other from an anti-matter universe. If you put matter and anti-matter together, they'll explode, so obviously mixing one universe with the other would cause both to explode, and one Lazarus was determined to stop this at any cost while the other hated him and was determined to kill him at any cost, including the destruction of all the universe. The story that this could have been? Had the technobabble been done better, maybe this whole situation would have made more sense. Also, instead of suggesting the whole universe was at stake, simply suggest you'll get a supernova-sized explosion if a planet from the other universe gets through, and worse if more than that does. Suggest also that tragic and disastrous stuff like this has happened before because there wasn't any Enterprise around to intervene (which might even make it a little more justifiable that the Enterprise keeps running across all these world-threatening cosmic events week after week; hey, here's what happened when it was Cyrano Jones who encountered the world-threatening anomaly instead--the whole sector got fried). But what would have made it the best of all would be if anyone had been looking forward to the revelations of a slightly later episode. Imagine this ending: as the U.S.S. Enterprise goes its merry way after resolving the situation with Lazarus, the scene suddenly flips over--literally--to the anti-matter universe, where a certain other Enterprise is just arriving... Kirk: "What was that? Spock, what the hell just happened down there?" Spock: [Strokes his beard.] "I am unable to make any determinations at this time, Captain..."

This episode was a 6 min Clip shown over and over again. Lazarus lurching around as a madman, newspaper spinning, video negative of 2 stuntmen rasslin in a room, kirk asking spock whats up and spock saying it all makes no scientific sense. Repeat 6 or 7x, enterprise blows up george jetsons sspacecraft, run credits. I would not give this 1 star.

To me, this is without a doubt the worst episode of Star Trek: TOS, because it is the only truly boring episode. Even the way to Eden, the children shall lead, and Spock's Brain, as bad as they were (actually I think Spock's Brain is better than most people give it credit for, but still not great) weren't boring.

Yes, definitely not a hit. How many times is he able to just walk out of the sick bay and strolle around on Enterprise? Sci fi is a little bit like an alternative universe to me. You buy the concept of warp, parallel universe, time travel, beaming etc but expect some sort of clever behaviour of the human beings being a couple of hundred years ahead of us. Sometimes there is in TOS, this time not. The only positive with this episode was that it gave me a remaining memory that must be more than 45 Years. Yes, this episode created a strong impression on me in my childhood. At least a credit for that.

What the heck did I just watch? OK, for one, I've completely ignored TOS' lack of special effects so far, as I know they were doing the best they could with a limited budget and limited technology. My problems with Arena stemmed from the story, not with the absurdity of the Gorn captain. But here? The effects were just downright hokey. Stars randomly appearing? A spinning universe? Two people awkwardly struggling against a washed out monochromatic screen? Sure, special effects in other episodes can be bad, but you know what they're trying to convey. Here, well, I have no idea. This is supposed to be a high concept story, but they simply didn't have the tools to properly show it. It'd be like trying to play Beethoven with a kazoo. Actually, not really, because Beethoven's music is brilliant, and this plot is stupid. I'm in agreement with Jammer and others that the bizarre technobabble explanations just didn't make sense and seemed like a bunch of hooplah just to get to the ending they wanted. I mean, admittedly my attention was wandering by the end, what with the ridiculousness of the plot and all, but why didn't they just stun crazy Lazarus? Then drop him off at some loony bin, and drop his timeship off at the warehouse where they're storing the Ark of the Covenant. Voila, problem solved without the pathos of sacrificing sane Lazarus. It also didn't help that, even with the scar and all, I wasn't quite sure which one was which at times. Again, I admit this may be my fault, because I stopped caring about this episode about halfway through. It's too bad, really, because I was interested at first in the mystery of what was going on. But the hokey effects, the poor pacing, and the utterly ridiculous way the mystery unraveled killed any interest I had.

eastwest101

Lame repetitive boring sequences of SFX tied together by random generic thoughtless technobabble topped off with such obvious incredulous leaps of logic? This is categorically the worst ep of Trek ever put together, an unredeemably sloppy lazy hot mess that must have been "phoned in" and then half heartedly put together in a week that the the technical department were all on annual leave and left it to the work experience kids Commits the two worst sins of simultaneously boring and confusing it's audience without any unintentionally comedic moments. Negative 5 stars

This one is okay and I think Jammer's 2-star review is pretty fair. And it's definitely NOT the worst Trek episode ever -- there are huge swaths of Seasons 1-2 "Enterprise" (let's not even start on Seasons 1-2 "Voyager") that are completely absent from my memory, as they fell into a cookie cutter of phaser shootouts without any substantial story or ideas. By contrast, "The Alternative Factor" has some neat ideas and iconic imagery, even if the high-concept SF story does tend toward tedium and incomprehensibility. Despite the boredom in long stretches of this episode, I will give it this much: I have never forgotten it. The image of Lazarus fighting himself, the reverse-negative photography of their battles and Kirk's journey into the antimatter universe, and the nifty-looking "time ship" are all memorable concepts. It's the kind of "hard sci-fi high concept show" that TOS rarely did -- and in some ways, I suspect it set the stage for many later Trek stories, especially those written by Brannan Braga and Joe Menosky. Not a bad thing. Being memorable for its imagery and ideas, despite the average execution, is a solid point in this episode's favor. By contrast, there are many (many, many, many) other Star Trek episodes from each series from which I can recall nothing at all. And there are many Trek episodes which are downright offensive and dumb. While this one is a bit of a drag, it's sincerely executed and strives for some big ideas. So I do think an "okay for effort" is in order. And let me be daring: Maybe it even deserves 2 1/2 stars for the cool female assistant engineer with the short haircut.

Not one of the episodes that will resonate with a lot of folks -- went too far on the sci-fi scale with plenty of technobabble resulting in a confusing story. Some interesting ideas - as is almost always the case with Trek TOS - but one major flaw it how Lazarus is just allowed to wander around the ship without restraint. He even threatens Kirk "Captain, I'll have my vengeance" and then is just free to go. Bizarre given the threat the Federation believes it faces (prelude to invasion). As for the special effects of the parallel universe and the transition between the 2 - I won't complain about 60s special effects but this episode made it hard not to cringe. It just seemed particularly low-budget / amateurish to me. I'm also not a fan of how the Enterprise is in a situation where the whole universe could be destroyed if the 2 Lazaruses meet. Seems excessive. Anyhow, this is a very disappointing episode. 1.5/4 stars for me and peculiar that it is sandwiched by 2 excellent episodes "The Devil..." and "The City on the Edge..."

Add to all that the fact that they make Shatner's character so unnecessarily cranky - He's pissed off the whole episode!

The resolution to the episode is a textbook case of something rigged up for dramatic effect without a sliver of logic. 1. If all that was necessary was to destroy a ship on one side, why didn't "sane" Lazarus do that years ago? 2. Why was it necessary for them to be trapped between universes? Simply destroying the ships was all that was necessary. The insane Lazarus could have been imprisoned and treated. "Sane" Lazarus would be free (albeit possibly stranded). 3. Why did Kirk tell Spock and two security guards to "stay back" as he struggled to throw insane Lazarus into the portal? Wouldn't it have been easier to just stun him and throw him in or at least make it 4 on 1. Stunning would have given "sane" Lazarus a little time without having to hold his counterpart and given Kirk and company time to get to cover. 4. Why did Kirk and company beam back to the ship and then go from the transporter room to the bridge BEFORE ordering the ship destroyed? They could have sought cover on the planet surface or if was quicker, beam up and order the strike to occur as soon as their arrival was confirmed. 5. Like with most such technologies in Trek, what's to prevent some race somewhere else from discovering the same technology when a ship without Starfleet's best and brightest in the vicinity? What if they let the Lazarus twins out? That's why just destroying the ship and keeping on Lazarus imprisoned makes more sense.

Just plain awful. No reason to wonder why this was held back and put in the stinker slot as next-to-last episode of the season, huh? There might have been a good story here, but multiple circumstances doomed this poor episode. First, they removed a huge sub-plot where Charlene Masters was supposed to be in love with stable Lazarus and taken advantage of (not that way!) by the unstable one. Roddenberry and company didn't want two scripts (this and the up and coming "Space Seed") have crew women who forgot their duty by going gaga over a handsome face. So Lt. Masters just became the engineer (in blue) who was in charge of the Lithium Crystal Recharging Section. (Recharging the crystals? Hm, that would have been a nice thing to be able to do in future...) And when it came time to shoot this gutted script, the guest star (John Drew Barrymore) decides to up and not show up on the first day of filming. And to not answer his phone when they called. They shot around him and hired Robert Brown ASAP, altered the costume, glued some random beard on him, and shoved him in front of the cameras. Not a good situation even if the script had been top notch.

RandomThoughts

Hello Everyone! @Bill I never knew those things about this episode and I always thought his beard looked funky. I suppose they thought he/they needed a beard, because where was he going to shave? :) I wonder what they added into the episode? It always seemed a decent(ish) premise to me, but felt like it was half an episode stretched out. Perhaps it was... Thanks for the insight... RT

Daniel Bolger

It's funny that many episodes have alien species that happen to look virtually identical to human beings. Highly unlikely.

This episode is the anti-Tylenol: guaranteed to induce headache upon viewing. Events do not follow logically from one event to another. We have no rooting interest in Lazarus, or hissing interest, for that matter. He's a plot device. The episode is also unceasingly boring. Characters make obvious or inane observations. The pacing is way off. I John Drew Barrymore, who was contracted to play Lazarus, probably made the smartest career choice ever when he refused to show up for work when filming began. The Memory Alpha wikia for this episode states that he grievance filed against him by the Star Trek production team led to him being unable to obtain acting work for six months in 1967. Better a mere six months than an eternity of humiliation, sneers, and snickers whenever the mention of who played Lazarus would have come up.

Where was Scotty? Why was Engineering relocated to some broom closet sized room off some random corridor? And yes, it was indeed ludicrous that Lazarus was allowed to simply roam around the Enterprise as he saw fit. Lol, strange episode.

Steve McCullagh

Two stars is exceedingly generous for this one; it's so bad that before I did a full TOS rewatch last year I actually misremembered it being a season three episode 😁 Just awful. One of the all time worst episodes to me.

These comments are so funny!! I think this episode was unintentionally funny and terribly overacted by Robert Brown. Yes this episode is boring and ridiculous and the special effects are amateurish.

So tedious. Half the episode was spent on these lame special effects. Meanwhile the concept is ridiculous. A man has a mass of what, 90 kg? That much matter meeting an equal quantity of antimatter would be insanely destructive but it would hardly blow up the universe.

The second time (or third... I lost count) Lazarus screamed and fell off the rocks I just said to myself "Oh I remember now, he does that a lot". Nothing else to add. I'm pretty tolerant of the weaker episodes and the poor special effects of the time, but this one was just a terrible. Oh, also pleased to see these forums still so active after all these years.

Absolute mess of an episode.

Boring and nonsensical, not a good combination. Awful. But plusses: Robert Brown is good looking. Props for the Lt Masters character, a black woman with a short fro even, and in Engineering! She's taken seriously and given important responsibility. Really daring for its time.

Come on didn't anyone else think this was an imaginative, original, and memorable unconventional sci fi outing..other than Lazarus looking human? Original premise, if repetitive..

Bobbington Mc Bob

Agree with all the criticisms above. The scenery chewing acting from Lazarus was as headache-inducing as the constant ear splitting sound effects and music. The long-lived sci-fi plot device of intelligent characters doing stupid things to make plot happen seems to have been invented here. He's the most dangerous man in the universe and 1701 is the only ship within hundreds of light years specifically tasked with stopping him. But Bones is just "IDGAF where he is captain, I'm from Texas" and dudes in the bar grin at him inanely like its a rough pub in Ireland where you expect injured people with torn clothes to just wander about whilst in the most severe alert condition Starfleet ships have. Then there's the "fight" scenes, which are a huge step back from previous episodes. When Lazarus made his plummet off the cliff, I prayed he was dead so we didn't have to see any more of what has to be the worst acting by a supporting cast member in Trek. Then, still wandering about the ship rather than being in the brig where by now he absolutely should be, we have a fire in not-engineering affecting two characters we give zero shits about. Presumably Scotty was attending a warp drive symposium during the gravest threat the universe has ever known. Everyone just abandons any semblance of intelligence from this point on to make the ending happen. KIRK: (fighting mad Lazarus) "Stand back!" Redshirts: * nowhere near Kirk, do not move at all *

This episode was utterly awful. Even the mediocre episodes usually make you feel something when it ends, but this one dragged so much that the only thing I felt at the end was relief. Worse than Threshold. Zero stars

Love how this whole episode could have been prevented if they had used their security forces, brig and fire suppression systems

This feels more like a bad episode of The Outer Limits rather than a bad episode of Star Trek. The montage-style effects have an Ed Wood quality, or rather lack of quality. It works for me on one level only... it's creepy. The Lazarus(es) are creepy. The music is creepy. Anything involving "for all eternity" just gets to me no matter how stupid it is. Also: I saw this as a child. Total nightmare fuel, logic be damned. TOS to me is like a beloved, battered old teddy bear. I can forgive practically all its missteps while not being blind to them, sometimes out of sheer kindertraumatic nostalgia and remembered wonders.

Regarding matter/antimatter annihilation, there seems to be an old SF trope (if not an actual theory) that all particles may have very specific (unique) counterparts that are apocalypse-level destructive when they meet, rather than the generic kind of antiparticles meeting in the engine room. I know I've seen it used somewhere besides this (?!) but I really can't remember (or care?) when. And how does the Mirror Mirror universe fit in to all this?

Ok, I didn't notice this when I was a child, but, just rewatched, THANK YOU NeTFLIX, and....... Lazarus's Beard kept changing, in the corridor, full as at first, still, looked like a lost whisk broom, then, sitting at table, almost clean shaven, then, beamed down to time ship, back again....... why am i so bothered by this ???? I can overlook everything else, but, please tell me I am not hallucinating ???? Nope, rolled it back..... uGHHHHHH, the HORROR, the HORROR ! ! !

Every time I get the chance, I make sure to fall of a cliff.

What of Lazarus

I rewatched this to decide which was the worst TOS episode. Yes, this was the winner. Nothing made sense. The Galaxy winking out where everything had zero gravity? Why did Star Fleet think there was an invasion? The constant switching of good vs bad Lazarus. How did this happen? What started it and what ended it? Sometimes they switched, sometimes they didn't. What's up with the safe corridor? How did they even get into it? How did good Lazarus end up in this universe in the first place if dilithium crystals are needed? Why should a parallel universe be anti-matter? How can whole existence be wiped out? How could Lazarus be a time traveler? What was the relevance? Where was Scotty and Sulu? Why did Kirk risk the universe by wrestling Lazarus into his ship rather than just using his phaser?

lol, like others, I quite distinctly remember this episode from my childhood, literally 40 years ago! I didn’t like it whatsoever, but it sure stuck in my head. Ok, I actually did quite like the Lazaruses spaceship/time machine. Nice little prop. It’s really not clear that one Lazarus is sane and one crazy. I could scarcely tell the difference. Bones couldn’t seem to tell either. What really always bothered me was the place they get trapped to fight for all eternity... so, they are immortal? Is there food there? Also, considering the two Lazaruses NEVER meet outside the over-exposed room, it seems a reasonable explanation is that they CAN’T, so there was actually no danger. How would they *know* that meeting would destroy the universe? Its not exactly something you can test. Lol, horrible episode, but a good conversation starter.

Neo the Beagle

At some point, someone should have read this script and screamed: KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL! KILL!

Didnt anyone elae think rbis had aome neat, original sci fi concepts and a decent character core?

Zero stars. Zero fucking stars. Absolutely worst episode of the season. Reminds me of that abomination What the Bl**p do we Know. Nothing. The answer is nothing. We know nothing. Because after watching "The Alternative Factor" we blew our fucking brains out. Zero stars is frankly too high. Now, at 27 episodes * 50 minutes an episode = 22 hours of Star Trek by this point. That means TOS had more Trek in its first season than all of Discovery or Picard have had so far. There was bound to be a clunker. What is amazing is that there was only one. The only saving grace is that TPTB understood what a piece of luh-suh ( https://youtu.be/QpWehvc3H6k ) this hour was, and stuffed it full of red-SKIRTS of the week. The first red-skirt wore gold https://i.imgur.com/wcXEM7V.png Blink and you'll miss her. The second red-skirt was a dusky brunette who I imagine might have had a sultry voice, if she had any lines. https://i.imgur.com/lDKRj0j.png But her smile spoke a million words, and she wore blue. And of course also in blue, was the third red-skirt of the week, the lovely Ms. Masters. https://www.google.com/search?q=Charlene+Masters&source=lnms&tbm=isch @Bill tells us that Ms. Masters was supposed to get down and dirty with Lazarus. As much as that might have improved the episode, I have to think that the actress took one look at the script and said no fucking chance! Burn it with fire. She's dead Jim.

You know I won't even say I disagree with zero starts, Mal. Even though on some level I want to give it four stars. This is one of the most out there episodes of Trek. So out there we are not even in the same universe, same cosmos, or with the same stakes. I *love* some of the weirdo an inexplicable textures in this episode. I love that the states seem to be about some kind of balance between two universe, both defended (or threatened) by two sides of the same lunatic; or perhaps two lunatics of the same side. That the universes would annihilate if some relatively small even happened is chilling. That these men are fighting for something so insane and beyond comprehension that all we know is they are both dangerous, is also chilling. That the universes have such a weak spot in their fabric is maybe most chilling of all. I would say this episode is more like Doctor Who than Trek, but in its view of the world it's almost Lovecraftian. Things are at stake, we can barely comprehend them, a state of insanity accompanies those who know even a little, and killing might just fix - or possibly ruin - the balance. What even goes on in that pod? What is it? This is really 'beyond us' kind of stuff, like giving us a glimpse of either far-future tech or else ancient advanced tech. It's a passageway...maybe? Or is the single nexus between worlds? If so that is nexus artificially generated? Or is it a natural phenomenon and Lazarus just knows how to get through it? The entire affair is mystifying. Add all of this up to the shots, the spinning, the hysteria, the dizzying and often confusing sense of reality, and what we have here is an episode leading Kirk right into the Mouth of Madness. The episode is the equal and opposite of Mirror, Mirror, where we can know and understand out equal from another universe. Here, the 'other' is something unknowable, dangerous, delirious, and dangerous without us being able to understand why. I always got a totally epic sense of potential doom from this one. Incidentally I also like the Lazarus character. I won't analyze this one right now, but suffice to say it's never been a go-to for rewatch, but when I do it's a trip, man. Zero stars, four stars, two stars, eh - what's the diff? The episode is too insane to be able to be brought down to a logical rating. It's like trying to rate a wild dream you once had where you have a distinct idea it was important but can only remember vague images and a nervous tension.

@Peter G., actually, I completely agree with you, and killer point regarding Mirror, Mirror - that's exactly how I think of it too. If we could grade on the Complex Plane, I'd happily give this one 4i stars ;) https://youtu.be/fvhV245SLgs

For the first time ever, I used the Netflix “skip forward” button repeatedly to see if anything worthwhile was developing. No. A ludicrous, poorly written and executed episode. Definitely the worst I’ve seen of Season 1. There was a wasted story here: the touching of parallel universes and what might happen as a result. Ironically, the next episode “City on the edge of Forever” is not only one of the best, it provides the Alternative Factor story in a completely different way.

One thing that this episode gave us was the über glamorous Lt. Masters. — does she appear in any other episode? A great shame if not, as she is both very good looking and also bright, intelligent and capable. A permanent crew member wasted.

Bill Badford

An almost completely worthless episode - definitely the worst of the first season. Bad editing, bad script, bad direction, bad everything. A 10-minute story padded out to fill an hour, it is laughably bad. How many times does this Lazarus guy fall off a cliff anyway? My only suspicion is that the production team was so heavily involved with the subsequent episode (City on the Edge of Forever) that they flung this one out without any thought. Even the original actor, John Blythe Barrymore, didn't show up to play the part so Robert Brown was hastily cast as the annoying "Lazarus."

MidshipmanNorris

Gee-HEEZ I probably did watch *some* of this episode as a kid. If I know my young MidshipmanNorris, though, I probably wandered off to play Nintendo at some point. I do like it that there seems to be a solid sci-fi concept underpinning the whole deal, but the "whole deal" as it were, turns out to be lots of talky, boring exposition with very little forward momentum, and lots of extremely ridiculous out-of-character decisions. James Doohan and George Takei do not seem to have been available for filming, as they don't appear in this one, and neither does Grace Lee Whitney. They saved themselves the trouble, it seems. What a bunch of crapola. So, they're mapping a planet and then the universe disappears, for a split-second, twice. This episode has already had the universe disappear (twice) before the teaser is over. Yikes #1. Then they find a weirdly unshaven guy in sparkly space pajamas babbling like a cretin, and get a message about a possible invasion force from Starfleet... and Kirk, being the supreme starship commanding Errol Flynn man-of-action... does next to nothing. Must've been an off day, huh? Wonderful stuff, that Romulan Ale... I mean, even when he and Spock (after a long, boring talky expositiony scene together in the conference room) realize that both universes could be annihilated, Kirk just sort of meanders through the rest of the episode without even trying to take some kind of action. Yikes #2. After the 3rd time Lazarus had one of his little freak-outs, I started zoning out. I have a hard time believing that these overlay effects were very novel, even when this episode originally aired. "Oh wow, you made a TV show that makes me naseuous. Whoopty doo." Yikes #3. This episode is trying to stop you from finishing watching it, as hard as it can. It's like it's remodulating the boring frequencies faster than you can adapt to them. I give it 0.5 stars for having a cool sci-fi idea under it. It's what's on top of that idea that's literally all space garbage. A certifiable Harve Bennett "Ugh" episode if I ever saw one. More like The Alternative F***tor.

It's interesting to see the actor cast to play the Lazaruses (Lazarusi?) just didn't show up and they had to hurriedly cast a replacement. That probably ruined whatever chances this episode had. After all, many posters are saying they couldn't tell the two Lazaruses apart, and that's probably because the guest star Robert Brown had no time to prepare and was just winging it. There's plenty of stories where an actor can wing it without betting all that impactful, but not a situation like this. I also agree there was a nugget of a good sci-fi premise here, but it's just all but lost. There's enough idea here that it could make a decent episode. The stakes need to be dialed way back, for starters. It seems obvious they knew it was a turd and just said "screw it, ship it".

Personally, I give it half a star at best, and that's because the George Jetson ships looked cool. Give me Voyager's Threshold any day over this.

The trailer makes it sound pretty good: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0sig0ZIJ-SU

I don't agree with you people at all. This is literally my favorite Trek episode of all time, because I love the Lazarus character so much. I enjoy seeing him fighting himself in the cube too. So mileage varies when it comes to personal opinions : )

A lot of people are harsh about this one. It's a challenging episode. After years of watching it I still get slightly confused. Basically the great monster is the Lazarus we can agree is the rational one. Robert Brown plays him as all wise, and very effectively too. I liked the sky turning dark in this one, and the surface of the ground in upheaval. A decent visual experience.

OmicronThetaDeltaPhi

As a piece of entertainment, it's not a bad episode. It just has the 'slight' problem of not making any kind of logical sense.

@OmicronThetaDeltaPhi "It just has the 'slight' problem of not making any kind of logical sense." I know...it has a terrible reputation as making absolutely no sense, or as being a huge bore that was abyssmally executed. People's comments really get me chuckling, and they are certainly correct on so many levels (including the fact that Lazarus' beard pretty much disappears in the middle of the episode due to a lack of spirit gum), but the show still attracts as much as it repulses. It's clear the creators were experimenting with concepts, but kind'uv got confused themselves. I think that may have been because people were away for summer vacation. Sulu's gone, Scotty's gone. It's like a bottle show where they even were forced to film during terrible weather out at Vasquez Rocks, but the ominous skies they captured are actually fascinating (the show becomes atmospheric like Blow Up, or Zabriskie Point). The music is pulled from several of the other season 1 episodes: lots of typani from Arena; that weird riff from the Man Trap, and a few strains from Where No Man Has Gone Before. It all combines into a kind of psychedelic headtrip. One of the reasons for the episode's perplexing quality is the fact that the Rational (anti-matter) Lazarus (the one without the bandage on his forehead) behaves too much like Nutty Lazarus in the middle of the episode while securing the first pair of dilithium crystals (assaulting the Lieutenant Masters and the engineering assistant dude). Rational and Nutty are basically indistinguishable. So later, when Kirk again meets Rational Lazarus in the other universe, he is so composed and Christ-like, it's as if there's a third Lazarus! Peter G. (Nov. 23rd 2020) used the words "almost Lovecraftian" in connection with the episode. That's an interesting viewpoint which is worth pondering while watching.

@ Sigh2000, Yeah, Alternative Factor is really a monumental undertaking...of something. There's a problem in physics where we won't understand why our universe has mostly matter, rather than antimatter: why the asymmetry? This episode suggests that there is in fact symmetry, and that the equal and opposite will indeed annihilate with ours if they come into contact. What's more, this is a hair's breadth away from happening at all times, except for the fact that the two Lazarus's are so evenly matched. It's like the Cuban Missile Crisis, where anyone not involved would have had no idea the world almost ended.

@Peter G. Thanks. It seems like knowledge of the theoretical asymmetry was relatively new (only around 10 years old) in those days...maybe the writers were using some dog-eared copy of a Manhattan Project cast-off when thinking up the episode. The 1964 revelation about the "violation" was likely still completely unknown to them.

If both Lazarus' were willing to sacrifice themselves (and in the case of the crazy one sacrifice both universes) in order to kill the other, why wouldn't they just commit suicide? That way both of them die, the universe is saved, and there would be no need to be trapped for all eternity strangling each other. I wouldn't call it a terrible episode though, not great either but I always found it entertaining. The spinning newspaper effect was really lame though. The thing I remembered most about it from watching it as a kid was that crazy beard.

John Drew Barrymore was cast as Lazarus. He saw the script and never showed up, indicating good sense on his part. If only the rest of the cast, and crew had not shown up, we would all be better off. I don't mind calling a spade a stinker and this was a spade full of stink. Special effects were on the scale of 8mm home movie, music/sound was crashing, or screaming, or shouting, or startling - none of it good. Vasquez rocks are always good for sets, but they didn't really get good use of the lighting there either. None of the continuity fit, notwithstanding the obvious plot breaks and disjoint logic. Lazarus space ship was surely Sat morning cartoon sourced. Just - awful, across the board. 48 minutes of torture that everyone involved wish they never heard of.

Leif: "Didnt anyone elae think rbis had aome neat, original sci fi concepts and a decent character core?" You are in the vast minority. I do agree that the image of the two men fighting was memorable, but that has almost nothing to do with the script. One thing I did like in the script was the implication that "the enemy" was actually the sane one. If I understood correctly. I think giving a single star to this would be a stretch. But if you enjoyed it, then great.

As much as Robert Brown's performance is actually pretty good, it's a shame John Drew Barrymore didn't show up for work. I'd be so funny to have a no-foolin' Barrymore -- son of John, father of Drew -- in this mess.

Proud Capitalist Pig

Couldn’t Lazarus have simply been shot and killed? That was the solution that occurred to me about halfway through. And why only Lazarus? The “antimatter” Lazarus and “his people” successfully found an “alternative warp corridor” into our universe, but apparently “our” Lazarus is the only one in existence who faces this purgatory of trying to destroy his double every few minutes in that psychedelic miasma of bad lighting, negative filming and newsreel affections left over from the 1930’s. For all I know they adequately explained it and I just forgot, but I don’t care. If someone would like to fill me in, please do. It would save me from having to watch the episode again for clarification. A passable notion is that Matter-Lazarus’ ultimate motivation of wanting to destroy his antimatter counterpart was simply because of his ego--he didn’t want to tolerate the existence of another man who was pretty much just like him. And isn’t that true of all of us? Who would want to discover that they have a clone? Also, I suppose it was a wicked twist that the “other” Lazarus was the one who was measured, sane and reasonable by comparison. And sure, at least we got another cheesy cockfight at the end. This one between Kirk and Matter-Lazarus was so goofy that my son and his friend immediately proceeded to reenact it themselves, complete with my son (as Kirk) being picked up and thrown down onto the couch at full speed. His buddy did a fair impression of Lazarus’ “I’M NOT READY! I’M NOT READY!” At least they got some amusement from “The Alternative Factor,” unlike me. Best Line: Spock -- “Madness has no purpose, but it may have a goal.” My Grade: F

I am going through a rewatch of TOS. I don't remember having ever seen this episode before, although I can't think why I would have missed it. I can't add much to what has already been said. There are certainly better episodes of Original Trek, and probably worse. An already mentioned highlight was Lt. Masters. I kept getting Tom Baker era Dr Who vibes from Lazarus, but that might of been because of a vague resemblance between the two actors.

@LtCmdrjo maybe it was because Tom Baker played Rasputin in the film of Nicholas and Alexandra? Yes this one is confusing and not well written. Having seen it again last night, Sane Lazarus does come across as pretty self sacrificing/noble but it's a good job that the matter-antimatter explosion problem only happens with identical particles as otherwise I thought Kirk going through to the other universe would pretty much guarantee the planet at least blowing up!

Projekt Kobra

I always hated this one as a kid...cuz of all the reasons mentioned above... But it's our Trek....You just cant hate it...even though it's goofy as. I just realized....Lazarus' crazy UFO-looking 1960's ship...It's pretty much Rick Sanchez's

Also...he says, "What of Lazarus" like twice in 2 minutes. Did they run out of English or something?

@Peter G.: ))I *love* some of the weirdo an inexplicable textures in this episode.(( You're like some guy in the 60s, experimenting for the first time with LSD, who is suddenly fascinated by his *hand* Yes, on *that* level, "The Alternative Factor" is interesting! If a succession of bizarre "what-ifs" and fantastic suppositions and weird imagery without rhyme or reason is all it takes to "float your boat..." With all due respect.

This is good story that makes sense somewhere, but clearly that place is not our universe. At first it seems there's a lunatic Lazarus, and a calm one, and they swap places when the universe winks out. OK. Then it seems the writers add a bandage to one of the Lazaruses to help us keep track. Things are looking up! Except then the universes wink out and the Lazaruses don't swap, while other times there is no wink out and they do swap. To pile on more confusion, then their personalities don't swap when the bandage does. I'd like to think that difference is intentional and means something profound, but more likely it means the production crew themselves got confused. Despite the confusion, the main problem is the viewer has no reason to feel compassion for either Lazarus. Kirk's "But what of Lazarus?" comment is meant to evoke a sense of tragedy about the two Lazarus versions being locked in the "alternative warp" corridor at each other's throat for the rest of eternity, but instead we're just glad we can stop trying to figure out what the heck is going on. This episode belongs in Season 3. If our universe would wink out and swap this ep with, say, All Our Yesterdays, now, that would make sense. Me? I'm going to steal some Federation dilithium crystals because my car already has a place they will fit perfectly.

I remember this as the episode where I learned as a kid the scientific principle that if a particle of antimatter encountered a particle of matter, the entire universe will explode.

This is a good episode, much to the chagrin of the written diatribe writers above.

Going through a TOS rewatch I was dreading this one. And my fears were justified. This is definitely the worst episode of season 1, and on a technical level the worst episode of the whole of TOS. It’s not as offensive as say, Turnabout Intruder, or as jaw-droppingly “say what??” inducing as, say, Spock’s Brain, but it does something just as bad by being straight up boring. After about the 10th or 11th time Lazarus fell off a cliff and into his psychedelic fugue state I was ready to blow up the universe myself. However, I actually appreciate The Alternative Factor for precisely that reason, it is so very terrible. If the entire episode line-up of season 1 had been home run after home run, it might have started to feel conspicuous, like maybe I was lauding praise and getting good vibes where none were really deserved and it was all reputation and nostalgia talking. But then along comes AF and fully reassures me that I am fully capable of seeing TOS episodes for what they truly are, whether that’s good or bad. And in this case it’s bad. So bad. So thank you Alternative Factor for taking one for the team, the contrast you provide against good episodes is not a sacrifice that will be forgotten. Even if I wanted to.

@Idh2023, The one thing I'd say about this episode is that it starts out quite promisingly and poses an interesting sci-fi premise. The problem is when we meet Lazarus things go south pretty quickly and AF is truly one of the worst TOS episodes. You're right that on a technical level this is the worst TOS episode - the "special effects" are a product of their era but are truly woeful, as an example. But when I re-watched parts of AF not long ago, I felt the dialog between Kirk & Spock when they were assessing what had happened and what it could imply was pretty intriguing. It's hard to go wrong when these 2 have one of their discussions. So there was potential for some good sci-fi here and we get it in the abstract from Kirk & Spock's discussions. I would contrast that with 4 other TOS episodes which I think are slightly worse to significantly worse: "Shore Leave", "The Way to Eden", "And the Children Shall Lead" and "Spock's Brain". In all 4 of those episodes the opening acts are weak and sure enough it goes downhill from there. Whereas with AF, it builds up your hope and then dashes it.

@rahul It’s super difficult to judge what makes one episode worse than another. The four you mentioned all deserve some serious roasting, but for differing reasons. Some are offensive, some are stupid, some are lazy. I think for the Alternative Factor it’s incompetence. However, I agree that there is a hint of ambition somewhere in there, and for that it deserves at least a little pat on the back.

Oh well, you can't win 'em all. If you could, what would Jammerfans (c) do?

For some strange reason I really like this episode. The concepts brought out. Good and bad, right and wrong, life and death all come into play here. Also the Jekyll and Hyde element too. This does have a feel of the classic Outer Limits, mostly due to Director Gerd Oswald known for doing many of the best Outer Limits episodes. That must have impressed Gene Roddenberry at the time back then and for good reason. I met actor Robert Brown and he only did it as a favor to help Mr. Oswald out of a jam. Plus to be paid more than star William Shatner for the last minute task of pulling this episode together. This might explain why William Shatner was a little more subdued in his role of Captain Kirk here, being upstaged.

I watched this episode (again, of course) last night. I watch them as they're presented on the public feed tv, even though I could watch any episode at any time through other modern means. Anyway, I was surprised by the comments dissing this episode as one of the worst, even though I like the episode and can agree with much of the critique. Any episode could be critiqued on the basis of the implausibility of the scenes and events portrayed, but of course the entire series is based on an accumulation of premises distilled into "canon" by fans, which is the basis for much argument apparently. I could add a few. For instance, if the two Lazarus characters have independent will, how can their space ship always be at the same location at the same time, and how can they be dressed similarly all the time? The audience, and eventually the crew, eventually come to realize there are two Lazarus differentiated by their attitudes and the superficial injury to one that doesn't appear on the other. As the plot distills, both learn that the "monster" Lazarus is actually the sane logical one. That is the "lesson" of the episode that can be applied to life, through this art. "It all depends on your point of view!" (Lazarus quote) The Jekyl and Hyde plot device was repeated on other episodes like Mirror Mirror and the other one with Kirk split into two Kirks with strong and weak personalities of human nature. And the andoid Kirk who jousted with the real Kirk over their superior attributes. I'm sure everyone will agree that these plot devices, while implausible, at least were sci fi that could be produced on a measely budget. And is better than most season 3 episodes that relied on Kirk's womanizing for drama. I used gifs and images of Lazarus to lampoon the former head of Twitter who closely resembles Lazarus, although not many got the joke, probably because the source material is so much older than most people. I enjoy this episode, but take comfort that near the end, when Kirk crosses over into the matter universe for the last time, the portal blue screen room sequence is abbreviated, for that gimmick may have been overused. Give them a break, it was 1967, on a 19" black and white.

Jamahls review is spot on. Concept could have been good with the matter/anti matter idea. But it was a half hour concept stretched to an hour, and became very tedious. O well. One of my least favorite but its still OG Trek.... i got a kick out of it regardless...

"John Drew Barrymore was cast as Lazarus. He saw the script and never showed up, indicating good sense on his part" I'm afraid not. He was grossly unprofessional and got suspended from SAG for six months for blowing this off. And he barely worked again after this. Probably they should have scrapped the episode due to that. The replacement actor, Robert Brown, had way less than 24 hours to prepare for a rather complex role that is really two roles. This likely contributed to the confusion viewers have over which Lazarus is which. And I agree with Sigh2000, the final "sane" Lazarus is so different, it feels like a third Lazarus.

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Flashback | Recap | Star Trek: The Original Series S1E27: The Alternative Factor

Season 1, episode 27 of Star Trek: The Original Series , The Alternative Factor   is not only pretty darned bad, it’s nearly incomprehensible at times. Written by Don Ingalls and airing on March 30, 1967, it stars William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy , with guest star Robert Brown .

Welcome to what is likely the worst episode of Star Trek –  The Alternative Factor . It makes no sense, whatsoever. It begins with the entire universe blinking out of existence a couple of times. You know, as it does. And then everything gets weird.

After the universe blinks out, a dude named Lazarus appears on a planet the Enterprise is orbiting. Then that guy spouts a whole bunch of nonsense about hunting something across the universe. Then they find no answers at all, and the Enterprise ’s power starts draining away. The camera goes blurry with an overlay of stars, then the picture spins and goes negative, with a Lazarus fighting himself, all while the picture rotates. You don’t believe me? Watch this:

Star Trek has its hokey moments from time to time. If we survive this rewatch through The Next Generation , you’ll see some of those moments. However, none are so utterly, unwatchably bad as this. And it just gets worse from there.

What’s frustrating here is that this is intriguing, to begin with. Lazarus rants on and on about “pursuing the devil’s own spawn, a thing I’ve chased across the universe. He’s humanoid outside, but inside, he’s a hideous, murdering monster. I’ll get him, Captain. I swear it.” This is really interesting! Man, what they could’ve done with that premise! A man on a quest across the universe hunting pure evil? That’s the stuff of greatness! ‘

But there are no answers given. No sense is made of it. He just slinks around the ship, screaming a lot, falling off cliffs, sabotaging things, and stealing the dilithium crystals for some unknowable reason. And then they add in these strange episodes of madness where he fights himself and looks really constipated with an ever-worsening beard. It’s stupid.

When what is clearly a deranged, dangerous man with multiple personalities who was wounded in a fight with himself escapes from his sickbay, Kirk asks Dr. McCoy  ( DeForest Kelley ) the reasonable question: “Where is he?” McCoy blithely replies, “I don’t know, Jim. This is a big ship. I’m just a country doctor.” Are you joking? There wasn’t any security with him? Kirk’s reply: “If I had time, I’d laugh.” Nope. For everyone ranting about Star Trek: Discovery being “not my Star Trek ,” please. There has been one poor episode of the bunch, but not one reaches the depths of awfulness that this does. “The Alternative Factor” isn’t my Star Trek . It’s pure garbage.

The Alternative Factor’s only saving grace (or as close as anything can come to making this watchable) is Lt. Charlene Masters ( Janet MacLachlan ). In a show that tends to be dominated by mostly white men, she’s a welcome departure. She’s an African-American woman in charge of engineering, because for some reason Scotty isn’t there, saves a fellow crewman’s life, and has a significant speaking role. She’s one of the few people in this episode actually  doing something! Once again, the frustrating thing is that this is the last time we’ll see her. She could be a great addition to the cast, but then she’s just gone.

Random Thoughts

Apparently, John Barrymore (father of Drew Barrymore) was so disgusted by this episode that he quit before showing up. There were extensive rewrites that made it the incoherent mess that we see here.

Seriously, throughout The Alternative Factor, Lazarus’ beard gets bushy, then scraggly, then nearly nonexistent. Someone gave up during the entire process of this episode.

Memorable Quotes

Spock: “captain, the universe is safe.” kirk: “for you and me. but what of lazarus what of lazarus”.

– I don’t care. Even a little.

Coming up next…

Oh, you’ll be pleased! Next week is “The City on the Edge of Forever,” which is widely considered to be the best episode of Star Trek , bar none. And it’s been a long, long time since I’ve seen it. I’m looking forward to it! Join me!

Article by Tyler Howat

Tyler Howat joined Ready Steady Cut in November 2017, publishing over 100 articles for the website. Based out of Wenatchee City, Washington, Tyler has used his education and experience to become a highly skilled writer, critic, librarian, and teacher. He has a passion for Film, TV, and Books and a huge soft spot for Star Trek.

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Star Trek: Who Was Lazarus?

Star Trek introduced Lazarus in The Alternative Factor as a man who literally turned his internal conflict into the Enterprise crew's problem.

Lazarus (Robert Brown) was a troubled Star Trek character whose desperate need to save the galaxy unwittingly turned him into an enemy that only his alternative counterpart could defeat. Yet, none of this was apparent when the Enterprise crew first encountered Lazarus in Star Trek: The Original Series . He initially just seemed like a disturbed man with a weird little beard. However, he also stood out by being uniquely named after a major figure in the Christian Bible.

The crew had no idea that he was locked in a battle of epic proportions — with himself. They were completing a scientific survey of an uncharted planet in season 1, episode 27, “The Alternative Factor” when something very powerful rocked the ship two times. It left Captain Kirk (William Shatner) in an uncharacteristic state of panic as he demanded answers from his First Officer. Spock (Leonard Nimoy) explained that each time it was like the galaxy itself was on the verge of “winking out.” Even more odd? The previously uninhabited planet they’d been studying suddenly had a human on its surface.

RELATED: Underrated Star Trek: The Original Series Episodes

Starfleet Versus the Unknown

Captain Kirk did what all good Starfleet officers in Star Trek do, and took an away team down for further investigation. First, they found a ship. Then they found its owner yelling from a hilltop about how it wasn’t “too late” and they still had time “to stop him,” before passing out. While it was unclear who he was or what he was talking about, the captain quickly realized that the Enterprise was still in the danger zone.

The ship was getting dangerously close to not having enough Dilithium to power its engines. In fact, Captain Kirk learned through a video conference with Commodore Barstow (Richard Derr) that all of Starfleet had been rocked by the same bizarre phenomenon. The commodore left the Enterprise in charge of figuring out what was happening and how to stop it. It was time to sit down for a face-to-face with the strange man himself.

Lazarus Versus Anti-Lazarus

“The Alternative Factor” isn’t exactly one of the saddest episodes of Star Trek , but the implications of its ending were kind of depressing. Lazarus turned out to be a scientist fighting an alternative version of himself he met while using an alternative warp to explore an alternative universe. The Original Series never explored this concept further. Even in the episode itself, the reasoning behind the strange phenomenon was little more than sci-fi mumbo jumbo. It did, however, shed light on why Lazarus seemed to shift wildly between emotions while talking to everyone from Captain Kirk to Dr. McCoy (DeForest Kelley).

He was constantly shifting between his level-headed self and the hothead anti-Lazarus unknowingly sharing his body. They were locked in a battle of cosmic proportions, and it was literally tearing the galaxy apart. Fortunately, Lazarus eventually understood that stopping anti-Lazarus meant trapping them both in the alternative timeline . They would be forever stuck in conflict, or as Captain Kirk puts it:

“[...] at each other’s throats throughout time.”

Lazarus replies:

“Is it such a large price to pay [for] the safety of two universes?”

Not The Mirror Universe

It would be easy to assume that the ‘Lazarus vs Anti-Lazarus’ situation was a precursor to the mirror verse. After all, it had a character discover a different version of themselves while exploring a world both the same as their own, but drastically different at the same time. Yet, apparently, the alternate universe and the mirror verse are two totally different concepts. The biggest difference seems to be that the mirror verse can exist without disrupting the original timeline.

Meanwhile, merely knowing about the alternate universe drove Lazarus to paranoid delusions that anti-Lazarus would bring about the destruction of his entire world. It left him stubbornly making increasingly dumb choices and taking unnecessarily drastic actions, like attacking Lt. Charlene Masters (Janet MacLachlan) while trying to steal dilithium crystals. The Original Series later introduced the mirror verse in season 2, episode 4, “Mirror, Mirror.” It was full of drama and backstabbing, but at no point did the act of entering it drive anyone toward hysteria. It just left them a little traumatized and a lot more grateful for their original universe.

An Unpopular Episode

Star Trek has a long history of boldly going where no other show has gone before. From series to series, the franchise takes chances on off-the-cuff episodes that either stick the landing or fumble the plot entirely. “The Alternative Factor” will probably never appear on any mainstream list discussing the best episodes of The Original Series . In fact, it’s more likely to pop up when the focus is on the worst episodes the series had to offer. Many fans felt that the episode didn't make sense, lacked substance, and was just boring.

It’s not the first to receive harsh criticism, but it’s one of the few that has never enjoyed a renaissance of changed hearts (like, for example, season 2, episode 7, “Cat’s Paw”). That being said, many individual Star Trek fans enjoy it on their own. They know that being a Trekkie sometimes means taking the drab with the exciting and the convoluted with the complex. Like Lazarus, they've learned to embrace the duality of their favorite franchise, even if it means locking themselves in endless combat with the parts of it they didn’t enjoy as much as others.

Lazarus was too consumed in destroying the alternate version of himself — until he wasn’t. Then he realized that only he could stop anti-Lazarus by sacrificing himself for a higher cause. It’s ironic that “The Alternative Factor” is strongly disliked by so many Star Trek fans, because the ending is a lofty representation of the series itself. Instead of a concrete enemy and an easily solvable problem, it delved into the existential. It brought up complex questions about identity and how it takes moral strength to put the needs of the many over the needs of the one (or the few).

One might even argue that Star Trek should bring the character back , at least for an update on his containment with anti-Lazarus. Lazarus was a troubled man fighting to prevent galaxy-wide disaster – or so he thought. Even the worst version of himself was trying to achieve something good, although his methods left much to desire. Lazarus was many things in his brief Star Trek appearance. Most of all, though, he was just a guy having a really terrible day.

MORE: Star Trek: This Episode Of The Original Series Had A Traumatic Twist

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Alternative Factor: What did I just watch?

Discussion in ' Star Trek - The Original & Animated Series ' started by thew40 , Dec 27, 2009 .

thew40 Commander Red Shirt

This episode melted my brain. First there's Lazarus, who is lying and telling everyone he's chasing some super-evil anti-life guy. And then he goes in and out of being sane and insane. His beard is constantly changing. His ship looks like something from the Jetsons. There's time travel, holes through space, an anti-matter universe, head wounds that disappear then reappear, crazy negative brawls, and stolen dilithium crystals. Not to the mentioned the universe blinked out of existence like five times!  

Yeoman Randi Vice Admiral Admiral

Yeah, i hate this one. By the end of it i want to stick knitting needles in my ears and scoop out my eyeballs with a melonballer. It's like, an hour or so out of my life that i'll never get back! Trust me, you are NOT alone in the hate for this one. This is the ONLY TOS ep i can say i hate!  

Plomeek Broth Commander Red Shirt

On a more bizarre note, it is on one of the Fan Collective DVDs.  

The Castellan Commodore Commodore

theJollyW said: ↑ This episode melted my brain. First there's Lazarus, who is lying and telling everyone he's chasing some super-evil anti-life guy. And then he goes in and out of being sane and insane. His beard is constantly changing. His ship looks like something from the Jetsons. There's time travel, holes through space, an anti-matter universe, head wounds that disappear then reappear, crazy negative brawls, and stolen dilithium crystals. Not to the mentioned the universe blinked out of existence like five times! Click to expand...

Michael Good Bad Influence Moderator

Agenda Fleet Captain Fleet Captain

Yes, but there are a few things I really like. Such as...the end when he's talking to the sane Lazarus, there's a kind of pathos about it. And then when he says... "But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?" That was kinda sad too.  

NickInABox Captain Captain

A beaker full of death Vice Admiral Admiral

High concept sci fi, but the execution was a disaster. It's possible a good editor could turn this into a coherent story. Just possible. How many ledges did the guy fall off, anyway?  

Duane Captain Captain

This episode, although poor, has another redeeming factor. As someone else mentioned on this board, this episode has Season 1 production values, and that's a good thing for a lot of fans. Interesting comment about how revised editing might improve this episode. I never considered that. Just another project on my project list which will probably never get done, but I hope I can make time for it. As for the for the comment "you've just watched Stanley Kubrick's wet dream" is very likely going to be the funniest thing I will read today.  

The thing about it is that I did kinda like the episode. As someone said already, it was high concept sci-fi . . . but executed poorly. I did like Kirk's talk with the "other" Lazarus. I liked Charlene Masters. And yes, I even liked the ship, but it still looks like something from the Jetsons. But it was all very insane. Beyond Antares said: ↑ And then when he says... "But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?" That was kinda sad too. Click to expand...

Forbin Admiral Admiral

Not from The Jetsons, but from Space Mouse comics: http://www.toonopedia.com/spmouse.htm The first time that episode aired, I yelled "It's the Lunar Schooner!!"  

startrekrcks Fleet Captain

yes weird rubbish episode from TOS  

EnsignHarper Captain Captain

If it helps, it is not fondly remembered by all involved, either.... Blame John Drew Barrymore I am sure the whole screw up with JDB not showing up, killed whatever enthusiasm the cast, the production staff...even the studio had for this show. The best thing that can be said is that it KILLED JBD'S acting career. Forever. And he then had time to sire Drew.  

Jonas Grumby Vice Admiral Admiral

It frustrates me that this episode seems to have been put together in such a slapdash manner. I think it could have been a truly top-notch episode.  

Neutral Zone Captain Captain

It can't have that exciting as I don't even remember the story (must be an age thing), I'll punish myself later and watch it!  

Kegg Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

M'Sharak Definitely Herbert. Maybe. Moderator

EnsignHarper said: ↑ If it helps, it is not fondly remembered by all involved, either.... Blame John Drew Barrymore I am sure the whole screw up with JDB not showing up, killed whatever enthusiasm the cast, the production staff...even the studio had for this show. The best thing that can be said is that it KILLED JBD'S acting career. Forever. And he then had time to sire Drew. Click to expand...

RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

I'll tell you what you watched. You watched one of TOS' finest hours. Seriously, why does everybody hate this one and like that shitfest City on the Edge of Forever so much? I don't get it.  

PhasersOnStun Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

RandyS said: ↑ Seriously, why does everybody hate this one Click to expand...

docrice Lieutenant Red Shirt

A somewhat interesting concept of a story, but it's also an episode I hardly ever reach for either (and if I do, it's so I have background noise while I cut my hair or something). As a kid, I never understood this episode. I just remember seeing the photography negative (black-white inverse) as Kirk crossed between dimensions.  

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“The Alternative Factor” Remastered Screenshots [UPDATED + Video]

| December 1, 2007 | By: Anthony Pascale 104 comments so far

Summary: Good effort, but not a lot to work with

Not a lot of new effects for this weekend’s episode. Then again some might say that no amount of new coats of paint can do much for this less than stellar outing. You have your usual orbital shots, but all nicely done. They mixed them up with some new angles, including one dramatic flyby from under the saucer. The parallel universe shots seemed to be the same (or if they were enhanced it was subtle). The phasering of the ship appeared to have some minor tweaking.

NOTE: Remastered video and images below taken from the Standard Definition DVD side of the new Star Trek Season One box set.

VFX Screenshots

Remastered & Original

Order TOS-R Season One Box from Amazon – now $132.95

….Oh god, now I’ve done it.

Talk about trying to “fancy up” one turd of an episode!!

Oh rats, they didn’t do something funky with the “alternative warp” corridor? That needed FX more than anything.

And who was that sexy engineer gal in blue?

I suppose it had to be done, but it would have been a lot more fun to have a better episode that is more effects driven, such as the “Enterprise Incident”. This one was bad even when I was a kid.

You can’t polish a turd.

I didn’t see the episode, and I usually like the TOS-R shots, but I think I prefer the original shot of the E firing on the planet surface. It’s a straight-ahead shot (meaning that the beam is parallel to the main axis of the ship), and unusual angle. I also like how the original shot has the beam narrow with distance, while that isn’t as obvious with the new shot. The original is just more aesthetically satisfying for me.

It’s all in the lighting.

Take a look at pic #1 vs. pic #2.

For the New movie, just keep the high contrast look (lights and shadows) and the ship will look a good as it possible can.

Overall, it’s nice to see the ship’s hull, but #1 looks great with the shadow areas almost going to black. Someone has done a better job balancing the color in these new screenshots than has been the case in the recent past.

As someone said in one of these “Remastered” posts…I know it’s more “realistic”, but all the dull brown planets are getting kind of old. The bright red and orange planet orbits was one of the cool things about the old series.

^7. They look better because they’re from the remastered DVD. Past screenshots taken from TV broadcasts looked worse because the FCC only requires that TV stations broadcast digitally. Stations that don’t feel like replacing “perfectly good” analog equipment can record digital shows off satellite with their old analog tape deck and feed that through their old analog control room all the way to their new digital transmitter where it gets redigitized, and they can keep doing it for years until competition threatens their ratings enough to open their pocketbook.

^6. I agree it looks better to have the ship firing straight ahead. They should have thought about the drama of the whole ship pointing like a gun. The original show went out of its way to film a new angle of the Enterprise for this scene so it’s not just another bit of stock footage to replace.

This is (arguably) the worst episode made, in the whole Trek series. Every time it comes on I watch it just to see if I’ve missed something so that it will finally make some sense. I doubt if adding any new FX will make it any better.

It *is* the worst episode ever, no argument necessary. Its a real shame they didn’t take or have time to tart up the dimensional corridor shots with something really snazzy, just to distract you from the pointless storyline with something shiny and pretty to look at. If there was ever a place for the CG artists to really do something visually impressive, that was it.

#8: “The bright red and orange planet orbits was one of the cool things about the old series.”

But those usually didn’t match the surface of the planet. Did they? I thought that’s how they came up with the new look of the planets for the remastered episodes.

They most likely didnt redo the corridor shots because of the footage they had. I’d assume it was already negatived or whatever and they couldnt do much for it.

Startrek.com has a new video with remastered special effects, including a few shots from episodes that haven’t aired yet:

http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/TOS/article/28095.html

It looks like they cleaned up the Phaser effect a little. I noticed they added a central core to the beam and there are some neat shimmering effects on Lazarus’s ship.

What could they have done to the corridor shots? Anything that would make it less crap-tastic would also be a violation of the spirit of the original. There’s no implied shot that wasn’t see for budgetary reasons. There’s no fuzzy at the edges chromakey or matte shots. It’s JUST PLAIN BAD. They could CGI a new kind of corridor, but that’s not the plan here. So, live with the fact that some turds float in the Trekiverse.

maybe it’s better with plastic:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0OLM9mfB_k

11. – NOT the worst episode of trek… not even close. I agree its not a favorite of mine but its not the worst episode made. I could name at least 6 episodes of that are far worse than “The Alternative Factor”

1. And the Children Shall Lead 2. Plato’s Stepchildren 3. Requiem for Methuselah 4. Who Mourns for Adonais? 5. The Way to Eden 6. Spock’s Brain

Well looking at Lazarus I see where the makeup department got the idea for Klingon goatees.

Oddly this episode aired after the Klingon debut in “Errand Of Mercy” even though it was made 7 episodes before it.

#17- All terrible episodes, I agree- all signiicantly worse than “The Alternative Factor.” Except “Who Mourns for Adonais?” That was IMHO, a very good episode, detailing the humanistic, Enlightenment-based thinking of Star Trek, that humanity has progressed and “grown up” and can depend on itself, not “gods.”

Interesting departure shot for this episode.

I really think that fixing the corridor shots, and the “translucent nebula” could have made the episode at least LOOK less cheesy.

I still think that phasers should have a bit more of that particle look to them.

In other news, the college BCS is full of chaos…

#17 At least those other epidodes had a followable plot. BTW Requiem For Methusuleh is a major character developing episode. It’s just as poiniant every time Spock says “Forget.” – Even more so when contrasted w/ TWOK, & TSFS.

#18 I think the Lazarus beard kinda looked like the main Klingon from The Trouble With Tribbles. ….”It should be HAULED AWAY AS GARBAGE!!!”

I like “Who Mourns for Adonais?” One of my favorite Star Trek quotes comes from that episode: “Mankind has no need for gods. We find the one quite adequate.” – James T. Kirk

Although to each his own….I’ve always liked Plato’s Stepchildren. Those two guys are more fun than the two old men in the balcony from the Muppet Show. “Careful Mr. Spock, Cupid’s arrow kills Vulcans….bwa ha ha ha”

Requiem for Methuselah….I’ll go with you on that. A weak episode.

And And the Children Shall Lead. Sheesh. Melvin Belli…the man who represented Jack Ruby, for free….Good Lord I hate this episode. What were they thinking?

Who Mourns for Adonais? Now, I’ve always like the way they touch ancient Earth history and explain the mythology of the gods.

Spock’s Brain, well that’s a no brainer (ha). We all hate that one.

But The Way to Eden………..I take issue every time someone says it’s trash. I believe Doohan said it was “nothing”. But to a boy who grew up in a house where pop music was not allowed, this was my earliest introduction, along with The Monkees, to something other than classical music. Plus dig that groovy dialogue. Just transcribe the conversation between Spock and Adam in his quarters and you’ve got the basis for a whole new colloquial vernacular and culture. “Can?” “Can” Spock is practically ONE now.”

“I reach that brother, I really do.”

Yes, and furthermore, it expresses not only the thought of how those gods might have been the basis for the entire Greek civilisation but it also shows that Kirk was able to think beyond his 23rd century rationalism.

“They gave us so much. The Greek civilization, much of our culture and philosophy came from a worship of those beings. In a way, they began the Golden Age. Would it have hurt us, I wonder… just to have gathered a few laurel leaves?”

In addition to that, this episode once more gave us a classic literary reference by using a line from “Adonais: An Elegy on the Death of John Keats“ by Shelley for the episode‘s title. And by applying the ambiguity of the word „Adonai“ (a Hebrew name for God, literally meaning master or lord) the episode‘s concluding statement is emphasized.

As regards “The Alternative Factor” – surely not one of my all-time favs, although I’ve always liked the Jekyll & Hyde perspective of the story which sort of made it possible to see the plot holes, the matter/antimatter inconsistencies, from a more metaphorical angle.

Ahhhh, bitter dregs…. …ahhh, in cold morning light.

Did anyone notice that the broadcast version of this episode used the original first season theme music over the opening credits and not the re-recorded first season opening theme muisc?

Does the DVD set also use the original version opening theme as well on this episode??

This has happened on at least one other episode from the second season.

WHile this episode isn’t the best, it surely isn’t the worst. I still enjoy watching Kirk get on edge and get all snappy with the crew. The consequence at hand couldn’t be more dire…the pending non-existence of everything. It was photgraphed well, had some location shooting and the guest star was capable enough. I can watch it, and enjoy the individual scenes and performances. It’s just that, when it’s all over, I’m like….what???

And what about some of the other candidates mentioned for worse episode..like Spock’s Brain or Way to Eden?. Well…at least they entertain me. So they aren’t up to par with much of first season Trek, but even in their badness they are damn entertaining. Leave it to TOS to pull off a feat like that. Even most of the bad ones are still fun to watch!

For a real stinker tune into the third season entry, Is there in Truth No Beauty. Lord, everybody tripping over their feet to pine for the attention of the wonderous Miranda Jones. The music is painfully sappy and the characters are out of character. This particular episode, despite the very capable Dina Mulduar amd despite the coolness of Spock freaking out, could fit right in with TNG, right alongside Sub Rosa……nuff said.

#26-Nope, on the dvd it is fixed and so is “The Conscience of the King”. Did I think the price was too high on the dvd set? Yup, as always. Am I glad I bought it anyway…ABSOLUELY!

Re: #6 Cranston:

I agree with you. Aesthetically, the original shot is better-composed. In fact, I find a lot of the new shots, while technically pretty (others can quibble about that), often rather artlessly composed.

And I’ll agree with anyone who puts “Alternative” in their bottom 5 list. To my mind it’s the ONLY true stinker in the First Season. But boy, what a stinker!

Scott B. out.

DREW – I like 2 & 3 on your list. It just shows there’s some wiggle room here. Although, I think most Trekkies strongly dislike And the Children… and Way to Eden. (Ya, brother.) I don’t even HATE this episode, although it veers into duh land. Trek is best when it’s character driven, with bold themes. This has a HUGE risk-factor (2 universes!) but really, so what? It’s not something anyone at home can relate to. Lazarus isn’t sympathetic. How is he like us? He’s not. Kirk and Spock dutifully save the universe, but again, so what? Are we saying that had the E not been in the neighborhood, two whole freakin universes woulda winked out?? Dang! I would hope that eps like this (not to mention STV) would have convinced JJ to keep the story in XI relatively small and intimate. Let’s get to know these characters all over again, before they find God or save universes.

I recently watched the first half of this episode for like the second time ever. and let me say this…. I am like a third generation trekie meaning that I was there for TNG when it was on, but was most tuned into DS9 and VOYAGER. I am now going back and watching the original series. All that is new to me, so it’s like “hey, 75 new episodes of Trek to watch, yipee.”. And although TNG is still my favorite incarnation of this universe, TOS fantastice, especially for it’s time. And as for “The Alternative Factor” unless they really screwed it bad in the end, then this is a rather interesting episode. I liked the part that I rewatched recently at any rate. I will have to see the rest soon and write back.

#15: “It looks like they cleaned up the Phaser effect a little. I noticed they added a central core to the beam and there are some neat shimmering effects on Lazarus’s ship.”

I did notice that shimmering effect on the ship. It’s a nice, but subtle, touch. The Enterprise shooting from orbit looked a whole lot better too.

Point well taken on Who Mourns for Adonais?. I just didnt like it but it seems like the other episodes we are all in agreement – pretty terrible stuff.

It hasn’t aired yet here, but I am happy that I can watch it at my leisure on the new HD-DVD’s and not at 1:00am tonight!

Though agreed, it’s a weak entry only note worthy for the unique phaser shot. I wonder if John Drew Barrymore could have saved it. Doubt it! Perhaps his absence altered the script(?)

Oh yeah, Requiem is one of my third season favorites and I wonder if Adonais would have been stronger if they left the original ending in with Carolyn pregnant. It has some merit, Chekov’s first show, Scotty going nuts of Carolyn and a fun idea fictional idea for the origins of the Greek gods.

We have twice all your telekinetic ablilities. “NOT TWICE MINE!”

LOL!!!! For my money, that’s one of the funniest parts of that episode, #36. I rather enjoy Plato’s Stepchildren as it’s one of the greatest unintentional Trek comedies ever!

Good point. I didn’t think of the fact that the color portrayed in the “orbit shot” rarely matched the color of the surface.

#33 Hey Drew, I think “Plato’s Stepchildren” is a great episode. It uses a quite unusual, but nevertheless or perhaps for exactly that reason, very impressive and poignant approach to reveal that absolute power corrupts absolutely. It‘s a story about misguided philosophies, domination, humiliation and how we can overcome them. Convincing acting by everyone involved made for the impact this episode’s topical statement has.

#37 Sorry to contradict, but I don’t see this episode as a comedy – neither an unintentional one nor an intentional one. IMO, the moments one might regard as funny, in fact are the most severe ones.

But what is most important – TOS keeps us talking!

Boy, I agree with the comments about that ship phasering the mini ship shot. The original angle was better, being closer to the ship from our viewpoint. That’s one shot they should have just copied verbatim.

Worst episode? Not this one, for my money, “And The Children Shall Lead”. Pure garbage.

Besides being brown, the planets continue to lack any atmosphere (barely any trace of clouds). The planets look like Mars rather than a breathable place like Earth.

#39 I hear what you are saying – To me its still one of the worst episode

#17, I don’t know, “Turnabout Intruder” was pretty bad in my opinoin. I actually felt bad for William Shatner having to act those scenes.

#43 – Turnabout Intruder was pretty bad. But Sandra Smith as Kirk in Janice Lester’s body did a great job! >;>}

#34: Actually John Drew Barrymore’s absence did alter things according to the various Trek books I have here in my library. There was also a romantic subplot between Lazarus and Lt. Masters that was filmed but later excised due to the fact that interracial romances were not welcome on network TV in the 60s. As to the episode itself: I watched the remastered version last night after I got off from work. Yes it is one of the subpar Trek adventures.The scenes are still very confusing, even after multiple viewings. Questions- Which one is the good Lazarus? The bad one? And why does his beard disappear? Or reappear? Why is Lazarus wandering around the ship not under guard? Why is engineering away from it’s usual location? Where is Scotty? He would have raised hell if Lazarus got within 10 feet of his engines, not to mention the dilithium crystals !! I’m disappointed that CBS-D did not get rid of that old-timey twisting rectangle shape used while traveling through the dimensions. Also, why was the nebula kept in for the “winking out” sequences? C’mon, if we are talking about nonexistence make it look similar to how John Huston depicted the “before creation” state in the film “The Bible: In the Beginnning”. That’s NOTHING, no star field, no nebula, nothing. Couldn’t the CBS-D team have digitally added something like that? Just a little more effort from CBS-D would have made this study in chaos more bearable.

Why is engineering away from it’s usual location? Should have been Why is engineering away from its usual location? Sorry for the typo!

I’m not sure that The Alternative Factor is deserving of worst episode.

Apparently, most of you have not recently endured The Gamesters of Triskelion. How can anyone watch that episode without having some other activity to fall back on–like sleep!

The episodes that fail to capture full attention–even after multiple viewings–should be candidates for BAD, IMHO.

“And The Children…” is THE WORST. EVER! C’mon. You gotta admit.

Right, a comparatively quite bad episode, but Shatner as Lester was TERRIFIC! I’ll eternally treasure the picture of him filing his nails while talking to Bones…

You forgot about the image from the end of the episode, when the Enterprise is leaving orbit, you get to see the planet shrink from the rear of the ship.

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Star Trek TOS - Season 1 - Episode 27

Star Trek TOS - 1x27 - The Alternative Factor

Originally Aired : 1967-3-30

Synopsis : An alien being fights himself between two realities. [Blu-ray] [DVD]

My Rating - 0

Fan Rating Average - 3.09

Rate episode? 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Vote

Filler Quotient: 3, bad filler, totally skippable. - If you skip only one episode of all of Star Trek, let it be this one.

Problems - The entire episode's premise is an unworkable problem. See my review below for more details. - Spock says the entire magnetic field of this "solar system" simply blinked. This is a common error. The term they were looking for is planetary system. The planetary system we live in is called the Solar System because our star is named Sol. As such, the term "Solar System" is a proper noun, not a generic term. - Why wasn't the clearly unstable Lazarus under more heavy guard throughout the episode? The guards seemed to come and go whenever they wanted. - Lazarus' fake beard seems to change in thickness throughout various scenes. The most obvious (and unintentionally humorous) example occurs around 24 minutes and 20 seconds into the episode.

Factoids - This episode establishes that there are at least 431 people aboard the Enterprise at this time. - This episode is the winner of my "Worst Episode of TOS Award" and is also the winner of my "Worst Episode Ever Award."

Remarkable Scenes - Just when you think the technobabble and bad science can't get any worse, it gets worse. All through the episode.

My Review The Alternative Factor is an overwrought story in which the fate of two entire universes hangs in the balance over what amounts to little more than an incoherent stream of technical nonsense vomited at the screen by nearly every character. Vague, half-assed references to parallel universes, time travel, dilithium crystals, and antimatter get strewn about the dialog as if they somehow constitute a satisfactory explanation for the incessant glowing, psychedelic flashing, screeching, and noisy interludes which mightily assault your visual and auditory senses every few minutes. Production quality on Star Trek was never something to write home about, but this episode's is unforgivable. But even with better production quality, there would be no saving the science in this story. The most incoherent scene is when after a lengthy discussion filled with pseudoscientific reasoning, Kirk and Spock deduce that the two Lazari must be matter/antimatter opposites from parallel universes. They further reason that their cosmic battling is what's causing the universe to occasionally "wink out" because an antimatter Lazarus coming into contact with a matter Lazarus would, they surmise, destroy both universes. Except for the pesky fact that that makes no sense at all and it isn't even consistent with what appears on screen. Assuming for the moment that it's possible for a parallel universe made up entirely of antimatter to exist and that a man from an antimatter universe and a man from a matter universe could ever come in contact with each other via some means similar to what's depicted in this episode, then the two men in question would most certainly not enter into some sort of cosmic psychedelic wrestling match as this episode depicts. Instead they would instantly annihilate each other. Moreover, their mutual annihilation would not destroy any universes, let alone two. Their mutual annihilation would not likely even destroy a single planet, seeing as how planets like Earth have withstood repeated asteroid impacts which released considerably more energy than the ~90kg matter/antimatter explosion the two Lazari would yield. A related problem is introduced when Kirk accidentally travels to the antimatter universe. Since Kirk is made up of matter, the very moment he came into contact with anything from the antimatter universe, he and it should have instantly annihilated one another. And while we're on the subject of the episode's bad science, Spock mentioned that he used the ship's dilithium crystals to localize a source of radiation on the planet. Setting aside the fact that that line makes no coherent sense at all, Spock later contradicts it entirely by saying that the ship's instruments cannot see the radiation at all; a statement which by itself doesn't make a lot of sense because the radiation source is visible to the naked eye. Do none of their sensors measure visible light? As if the bad science in this episode weren't enough, the actual storytelling is abysmal. Once again we revisit Star Trek's tried and true cliche in which the mystery guest of the week fails to adequately explain what's going on despite repeated direct, pointed questioning. We don't want to let the plot move too quickly now, do we! There is some legitimate dramatic appeal in the idea behind a story about two identical men seeking to destroy one another, but whatever potential there is in the idea drowns under the weight of bad writing, bad science, bad production quality, and bad acting. The climax of absurdity is Kirk's final line, "What of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?" Uttered in a fashion intended to be thoughtful and reflective, the line is in fact overwrought and laced with false profundity, much like the rest of the story. I didn't think it was possible for an episode of Star Trek to be worse than Miri, but here it is folks. Do yourself a favor and skip this one.

The following are comments submitted by my readers.

• From Tim on 2006-05-07 at 3:50pm: I SO Agree with this review! Spot on. I HATE this Episode.
• From Orion Pimpdaddy on 2007-12-13 at 10:05am: I just watched this episode with my wife and I have to say we were not entertained. I think the whole universe blinking out thing was too over the top. Neither of the two Lazaruses were interesting, especially compared to other guest stars you normally see on the show. Also, you can kind of tell when the actors think that the episode is bad; everyone seemed subdued here. I would have also liked a little more background about Lazarus and his people. There are so many unaswered questions. I gave this stinker a 1, not a zero, because it was original. That is the only good thing to say about it. Warning: do not watch this episode late at night, you'll fall asleep!
• From TashaFan on 2008-09-11 at 2:00am: I agree with every point made so far. Where is the parallel Enterprise? The other universe seems to be empty. How does "our" Enterprise limp away without retrieving the 2 dilithium crystals left in the parallel universe? Two particles, identical but one "anti" and one not, destroy EACH OTHER totally, not the ENTIRE UNIVERSE. And, the biggest problem, where the heck is the DOOR to Lazarus's ship? The front of it is just a big empty HOLE! He must get a lot of bugs in the face flying through the atmosphere.
• From b goldstein on 2012-01-08 at 10:56am: It's nitpicky, I know, but Solar system is generic. It is a set of planets rotating around a star. Ours might be the "Sol system"
• From Kethinov on 2012-01-08 at 1:25pm: Sorry Goldstein, that isn't correct. Sol is the Latin term for our star. Thus the term "solar system" only refers to our system because the term "solar" is an adjective derived from Sol. A lot of people mistakenly believe "solar system" is a generic term precisely because Star Trek and other media like it made this error over and over again. But just because it's a common error doesn't make it any less an error. If you pay close attention, you'll notice that later Star Trek eventually corrected themselves and began using more correct terms over time, although the occasional error will still creep in.
• From Mark on 2012-05-01 at 11:23pm: Wow! I'm watching all of the original series episodes on Netflix. I've loved them so far. Then I came to this one. I thought to myself that this one MUST be the worst episode ever. On a whim, I Googled "worst Star Trek episode," and this page came up. I LOVE that I'm not alone in disliking this episode. However, Uhura's legs are awesome.
• From Cameron on 2012-08-22 at 4:27pm: I agree in so many ways -- there's nothing resembling a story arc, just a bunch of disjointed incidents. As for the "science," I'm willing to suspend disbelief for something dramatically compelling. But my next point: I frankly envy you who are so dismissive that the harshly disturbing resolution didn't "implant" in your brain like with many of us. I was on a forum with a woman saying she saw this years ago and it still bothers her. Me, too - for all this episode's sins I give it a perverse credit. The idea of the ultimate sacrifice being not death, but having to eternally endure combat in that nauseatingly spinning chamber. It still bugs me when I'm reminded of it. Maybe a quality episode could be made with a similar ending - but I'm not sure I'd enjoy it.
• From warpfactor 10.1 on 2012-09-10 at 9:24am: I want 50 minutes of my life back. This was so tedious. I wish I had read your review first and avoided it. I did fall asleep for part of the time and I can only be thankful for that. Don't watch it; you'll hate yourself.
• From Tom Gettins on 2012-09-16 at 4:48pm: I watched this episode as a kid - and I found the payoff (Lazarus fighting a loony for eternity to save the Universe) quite haunting. Bad science? What bad science? It happened people! There IS a small corridor between parallel universes to act as a safety cut out for bad AM confinement. We owe thanks to the original research carried out by Star Trek writers. Otherwise we wouldn't know that Anti Matter only affects people that it is related to.
• From Glenn239 on 2012-10-20 at 8:13am: '1'. My favorite bit is where Star Fleet determines that a threat to the entire galaxy exists in Enterprise's sector, so it runs away and tells Kirk to handle it alone. I save '0' scores for episodes so bad that I would not watch them again, being wretched enough that I don't even consider them part of the series. This one is horrendous, up there with waterboarding if inflicted repeatedly upon prisoners against their will, but not quite so traumatic that I can't rule out another peek in 10 or 20 years.
• From Oz on 2012-12-15 at 11:42pm: The use of uncapitalzed (or spoken) "solar system" to refer to another sun with its associated planets is fine. This is much the same as the Church largely refers to the Catholic church, where "church" is any church. I don't think we would call our solar cells something else just because we were on Vulcan. "Sol" refers to the Roman sun god. Great website by the way.
• From Kethinov on 2012-12-16 at 2:09am: Thanks Oz. The use of "solar system" is definitely not correct. It's not a generic term, it's a proper noun. People get this wrong a lot and most science fiction frequently misuses the term.
• From Sloop on 2013-08-30 at 10:05am: This is the first TOS episode I had to watch a second time just to take it all in. With regards sloppy science, pacing, repetitive effects etc, almost all of the TOS episodes have plotholes so I think we should cut 'Alternative' some slack. Its ambition alone makes it a worthy episode. For me, Mudd's Women is the poorest season 1 episode.
• From Tooms on 2013-09-06 at 11:17pm: I think it would be more correct to say there is no standard term for a star and planetary system outside of the solar system. If there is no official term, I don't think it's necessarily an error to use solar system. It's possible that will eventually be the standard term. It's just not something that we've needed a term for until recently. The study of geology on another planet would probably still be called geology even though geo means "earth". As for this episode, definitely a 0!
• From Kethinov on 2013-09-08 at 3:00am: There is a standard term. The term is "planetary system" which is well documented by the scientific community. Geology on other planets is still geology. The Latin root comparison is wrong because "geo" is the Latin word for earth, not Earth. The term "earth" can be generic to refer to the ground or soil, whereas "Earth" is a proper noun referring to our specific planet. Such is not the case with Sol. There is no accepted generic form like with earth and Earth.
• From John on 2013-09-09 at 7:22pm: I have just watched the episode and, of course, I immediately hit the internet with a search for a review...I found the episode irritating at best, and I needed to see I am not alone in being totally dumbfounded by the 'science', the plot and the uninspired acting. With regard to the science, I understand that writers were under no obligation to provide scientifically accurate details to their stories. Even if it was a not-so-secret agenda of the show to promote interest in science, kindling interest in something is not the same thing as explaining it or teaching it. You learn science from books on science, not from a tv fantasy show. However, kindling interest is one of the things what they dismally failed to do here. The confusion caused by Kirk touching antimatter to go into the parallel universe (as antimatter?) then coming back to send...whatever, its irritatingly confounded!! As for the ending, it is haunting, true. But it comes after such a bungle of ideas and underdeveloped themes that it loses much of its force. It is a pity as the theme of personal sacrifice (with its references to abortion, public health and social policies) is an important and recurring theme throughout the star trek shows. It would have made an excellent contribution to the franchise but not this terribly scripted stinker. Excellent site, by the way!!
• From Tooms on 2013-09-11 at 3:20am: The term planetary system does not include the star. Sol and it's planetary system make up the Solar System. Much as you compare earth to Earth, you could also compare the Solar System to a solar system. You could use extrasolar system to be more descriptive, but there is no standard term for a star and its planetary system other than our own.
• From Kethinov on 2013-09-11 at 12:03pm: Tooms, your post is full of misinformation. "The term planetary system does not include the star." Yes it does. A planetary system cannot exist without something for the planets to orbit. The term necessarily implies a central star. "Sol and it's planetary system make up the Solar System. Much as you compare earth to Earth, you could also compare the Solar System to a solar system." There is no "solar system" generic term. The term literally doesn't exist. Lots of people think it does, but it doesn't. It's not recognized by the scientific community. There is only "Solar System" the proper noun. "You could use extrasolar system to be more descriptive, but there is no standard term for a star and its planetary system other than our own." That's not true. There is a standard term. The term you're looking for (and what Star Trek is looking for) is "planetary system." That's the term the scientific community uses when referring to a system of planets orbiting an arbitrary star. There's tons of information out there confirming what I've been saying. Look it up!
• From jeffenator98 on 2013-09-26 at 2:08pm: My favorite part is when Lazarus opens the panel in the hallway and switches a couple of Radio Shack type fuzes to start a fire.Uhuras legs are awesome.
• From Deggsy on 2013-10-04 at 8:30pm: Part (but not all) of the incoherence in the story is due to extensive rewrites caused because originally, there was a romantic subplot between Lazarus and Lt Masters, but the actress hired was black and the network didn't want to upset the Southern markets, so it was hastily rewritten to put in more planetside scenes of Lazarus falling and other crap.
• From Tony Cole on 2013-11-15 at 8:32pm: I really think you people need to get over the solar vs. planetary argument. Who cares? The last comment I read was the most compelling. The one about the deleted romance. It explained a lot of the disjointed scenes, the repetitive, boring hikes on the planets surface, the lack of scenes with anti-matter Lazarus. Even as a young kid I remember the controversy over Kirk's kiss with Uhura. But I agree this one's a stinker!
• From SheriDH on 2014-02-02 at 7:50pm: As I watched this episode, I kept wondering where Scotty (James Doohan) was? Lt. Masters had a blue uniform (usually implying science or medicine although that's not consistent in the series), what was she doing in engineering with no sign of Mr. Scott? Interesting comment about the scenes that implied a romance between Lazarus and Masters being deleted - what's the source for that?
• From Scott Hearon on 2014-03-31 at 5:33pm: Wow. Atrocious episode, on nearly every level. I would give a blow-by-blow of what bothered me, but Kethinov and all of the other commenters have done it for me. On top of the serious logical errors with the plot, the episode was just plain boring. Raving psychos are usually boring, and Lazarus was another example (and what are the chances that some dude from a far-off planetary system is named "Lazarus," anyway?). The acid-trip wrestling matches were equally tedious. I had read that this episode was bad, but I'm forcing myself to watch the entire first season (I've never seen any of them before), the good, the bad, and the ugly. The one was one of the absolute worst, along with "Miri."
• From Mike Chambers on 2016-10-02 at 2:35am: Horrible science aside, this episode actually would have been decent if you were to cut out about 30 minutes of completely useless scenes.
• From Chris on 2018-01-20 at 10:16pm: I'm late to the Solar system debate and I understand Kethinov's complaint, however, I hear astronomers refer to OUR solar system all the time which would imply that there are others. While it may be technically incorrect, everyone understands what is meant. Just sayin'... How come no one mentions the goofy Jetsons spaceship?!? What a ridiculous craft!!!

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Published Sep 2, 2023

Celebrating the Beards of Star Trek for World Beard Day

Looking back at the glorious beards in the Star Trek universe.

StarTrek.com

Today is World Beard Day .

We're not sure who exactly determined this, but everyone on Facebook is going bananas with pictures. But why limit yourself? Why not Out-of-This-World Beard Day?

When it came to facial topography, Star Trek was certainly better known for pointy ears and ridged foreheads, but over the five decades, there was some finagling of the follicles. So in celebration of this hair-raising celebration, we've decided to scratch our chins and list the Four Best Beards on Star Trek .

4. Picard's Possible Future Beard

"All Good Things..."

If you are going to rant and rave about something as nutty as “anti-time,” while annoying all of your old colleagues, best to have a scraggly white beard to do it in.

Star Trek: The Next Generation 's “ All Good Things... ” (truly the greatest finale episode in any major show ever, let's be honest) skips around the timeline, but you always want to be in the (possible) future to see Sir Patrick Stewart sporting a beard. He had facial hair in a few other scenarios, but this one is certainly the best.

3. Bones' Retirement Beard

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

Despite its, shall we say, patient pacing, there is a lot going on at the beginning of Star Trek: The Motion Picture . So much so that it may take a while before you realize that we're missing a key player.

After the transporter accident that kills Sonak, we hear some commotion about someone who doesn't want to beam aboard. (Who can blame him?) It's our beloved country doctor Leonard McCoy with his shirt half open exposing a shiny medallion and sporting a full lumberjack beard. He's grousing about Admiral Nogura's seldom-used reverse activation clause.

“In simpler language, Captain, they drafted me!” He soon cleans up and is back at his post, but the image never fades away.

2. Mirror Universe Spock

"Mirror, Mirror"

I've written before about the shock that accompanied the first glimpse of Mirror Universe Spock . Even before we knew what “ Mirror Mirror ” was going to be about, we could tell, from one close-up, that our beloved logical half-Vulcan was now, somehow EVIL. It's amazing what a few follicles and some spirit gum can do!

The “dark goatee to denote evil twin” was such a winner that it became easily recognized pop culture shorthand, and was directly parodied on Futurama and South Park . (And Enterprise 's own Mirror Universe episodes kept it going with Ambassador Soval.)

1. William T. Riker

"Second Chances"

Of course, it is Will Riker at number one. (I mean, c'mon, he's Number One!)

Spock's Mirror Universe beard may have had a greater impact on culture at large, but within the world of Star Trek , we know Riker's beard is where it's at. In Season 1 of The Next Generation , the Enterpris e-D's First Officer still seemed like he was on some unsure footing. But when he came back in Season 2 with his more rugged, masculine look , it was “Shields Up!” All the ladies loved him, all the men envied him, and our crew really clicked into place. Mirror Spock's Beard is the facial hair of evil, but Riker's is grooming for good.

Now's the time to get out the razors and tell me what other ones would make your top list. I'd like to see someone make a case specifically for Thomas Riker!

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This article was originally published on September 3, 2015.

Jordan Hoffman is a writer, critic and lapsed filmmaker living in New York City. His work can also be seen on Film.com, ScreenCrush and Badass Digest. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727. On his BLOG, Jordan has reviewed all 727 Trek episodes and films, most of the comics and some of the novels.

Robert Brown

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Robert Brown ( 17 November 1926 – 19 September 2022 ; age 95) was an actor who made an appearance as Lazarus (and his counterpart ) in the Star Trek: The Original Series first season episode " The Alternative Factor ". He was hired as a last-minute replacement for actor John Drew Barrymore , who had been cast in the role but didn't show up on the first day of shooting. Coincidentally, his first filming day on the episode was his 40th birthday.

Brown filmed his scenes for the episode between Thursday 17 November 1966 and Friday 25 November 1966 at Desilu Stage 9 , Stage 10 , and on location at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park .

Before Star Trek , Brown shot a pilot with William Shatner about a Swede and an Irishman who emigrate to America. Brown played the Irishman. It aired in 1963 as an episode of The Dick Powell Theatre entitled "Colossus". That episode also featured Frank Overton . An uncredited Celia Lovsky has one line. It was Shatner who recommended Brown to replace Barrymore. He was literally dragged to the set without any rehearsal.

He went on to star in Here Come the Brides from 1968 through 1970. This series also starred Original Series guest actors Mark Lenard and David Soul . That series featured a large number of Trek actors in guest-starring roles. The episode "A Kiss Just For You", for example, featured Michael Forest , Kathryn Hays , Gary Pillar and Ralph Maurer . Ishmael , a popular 1985 Star Trek novel by Barbara Hambly , featured a crossover with Here Come the Brides .

Brown previously appeared in episodes of Wagon Train , Perry Mason , and Bonanza . Brown's only notable feature film credit is Tower of London (1962, with Richard Hale ).

Robert Brown's last known acting role was as a guest star in a 1994 episode of In the Heat of Night directed by Reza Badiyi .

Robert Lansing , whose real name was Robert Brown, was forbidden from using that name by the Screen Actors Guild because Brown was already using it.

Brown passed away at the age of 95 on September 19, 2022. [1]

Star Trek appearances [ ]

External links [ ]

• Robert Brown at the Internet Movie Database
• Robert Brown at Wikipedia
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Star Trek (TV Series)

The alternative factor (1967).

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His beard is constantly changing, but don’t get confused, that doesn’t have to do with the character changing (that is only represented by the wounds). It’s just bad wardrobe continuity

Star Trek: The Alternative Factor

5 comments:

A very troubled episode in production; this is the one in which actor John Drew Barrymore, who was supposed to play Lazarus, failed to show up for filming, later claiming that he'd "forgotten". He wound up being suspended by the Screen Actors Guild for a year. The episode feels padded, and for a ridiculous reason - in the original script, Lazarus and Charlene Masters were supposed to get romantically involved with each other. Unfortunately, since "Plato's Stepchildren" was still two years away, when they cast Janet MacLaughlin in the role, the romance was taken out of the script - and with nothing else to fill time, they had endless scenes of Lazarus falling off cliffs, etc.

It's one of those episodes where Kirk looks like an idiot, because several better, more merciful solution are quite obvious: 1. Just destroy the ship. Why force these guys to spend an eternity fighting (no aging between dimensions?), when without the ship there's no way to cross? 2. Just lock one of them up somewhere secure. The insane one would be preferable, but either would do. If he's willing to "spend all eternity with a madman at his throat", I'm sure hed agree to a life in some secure facility. The Federation could make him quite comforatable. 3. As stated above, just kill one or both of them. Again, the crazy one is crazy and it would be less stressful than fighting forever. The advantage to all of these is that it actually takes into account someone else developing the technology and letting these guys out. Now to the one really "What the..?" moment. Kirk returns from the powwow with anti-Laz and goes to throw matter-Laz into the corridor. Now there's Spock and a couple of security guards who have managed to maintain a pulse. These guys have phasers with a stun setting (and kill, but that was covered above). Kirk, who really needs to get over his need to prove how tough he is, tells them to "Stay Back!" Admittedly, Kirk should be the better fighter, but wouldn't it have been a lot easier to have the others help, including Spock who's the strongest guy there? Better yet, stun the guy or have Spock nerve pinch him. At least you're giving anti-Laz an easier time of it. Next, what does Kirk do. Do they run for cover and call for the phaser strike on the communicator? No. He beams up to the ship, exit the transporter room, get in a turbo lift, get to the bridge, and then order the strike. Did he need to see it in HD from the comfort of his chair? Isn't this whole idiotic operation hinging on the amount of time anti-Laz can hold regular-Laz in the corridor?

The visuals made me feel nauseated in this one. I couldn't wait for it to end.

Wouldn't both Lazaruses have died from starvation?

I don't recall this one much at all, which is weird as I watched it and repeated so for many years. It sounds like an interesting idea that they failed to develop properly and the execution ruins the otherwise intriguing idea. One thing I do hate about some shows is when vastly different writers screw characters up like making Kirk rather insipid here. It also applies to Leela in 'The Invisible Enemy' where they made her superstitious and somewhat dim; the exact opposite of her actual character! That is my least favorite 4th Doctor story for other reasons as well, there's a LOT wrong with that story, but Leela is smart and inquisitive, and that was awful. It also applies to a slightly lesser degree to the Brigadier in 'The Three Doctors' where they made him insanely thick-headed and far too doubtful of the Doctors, when he knows there's crazy stuff out there and he may be a bit literal-minded but he's no dummy! At least the three doctors was fun at times though, unlike invisible enemy, wobbly space jellies and all!

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YMMV / Star Trek S1 E27 "The Alternative Factor"

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• When the Enterprise destroys Lazarus' ship, the ship's shadow is still visible.
• Lazarus's wispy beard would look fake even if it didn't keep changing from one shot to the next.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot / Character : The idea of a man going insane when he learns he has a double from another universe and wants to kill said double at all costs is one of the more interesting concepts in the series. Unfortunately, the episode does little to effectively build upon it, primarily due to the fact that the audience doesn't even find out any of this until the last five minutes or so.

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Star trek (tos) lt. riley and lazarus.

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The Alternative Factor

"What's going on?" asks Kirk at about the halfway point in this episode. He speaks for everyone watching. Though a late cast change might explain Robert Brown's abysmal performance, nothing can explain the incoherence in this script. It's a sci-fi hotdish, with a little of everything thrown together in the hopes that someone out there sees a story. No one does.

Breaking one of their own cardinal rules, the creative team has allowed a script with virtually no character development, either in the regulars or in the guest. The guest -- or guests, if you prefer -- serves merely as a catalyst for a series of events which seem to make sense to him, but not to anyone else. Frankly, I think Kirk is bluffing when he says he's starting to understand. I think that, even at the end, he remains as baffled as anyone and just does what he is told. His "What of Lazarus?" might just as well have been "What of story? What of characters?"

There is a nugget of a good idea here in the notion of alternate universes, and it will be explored to much greater effect in the second season ("Mirror, Mirror"). But the details simply haven't been thought through. It's as if the writers couldn't figure out for themselves who Lazarus was, how and why he got there, and how this whole alternate universe interface works. Dilithium crystals suddenly have many more magical properties than they've ever had (or ever would again). There is even an elaborate mention of time travel which goes exactly nowhere and is never mentioned again.

Technically, the quality of the production has also begun to break down. For one thing, though it's been a slippery slope, finally any pretense of interesting lighting onboard the ship is completely gone. Compare the briefing room shots in this episode to those in "Mudd's Women" and you will see that all the drama is gone. The same is true in sickbay and the corridors. The photography is pedestrian, and everything looks completely flat.

The location photography, only one week removed from some very fine work on "Arena," is no better. The terrain suddenly looks anonymous, and the rock formations are intentionally downplayed (perhaps because they had been photographed so distinctively the previous week). The Lazarus ship is straight out of a comic book. Similarly, the make-up crew hasn't even attempted to keep Lazarus' beard consistent. It looks like there were half a dozen versions, with the briefing room version reaching laugh-out-loud proportions of thinness.

Again this week some scenes had to be shot on the planet soundstage and intercut with the location photography. These are the scenes in which the "sane" Lazarus explains it all to Kirk. One has to believe that these could not be shot on location because they hadn't been written yet, or were substantially rewritten and had to be reshot later. Unfortunately, it emphasizes how unrealistic those planet sets have begun to look. Going from real rocks to fakes is quite noticeable.

A few small things are worth noting. Doohan apparently had the week off (lucky him) and is replaced by a Lieutenant-of-the-week who simply inherits all of his lines unchanged. The music recycles Courage's weakest score, from "The Man Trap," and we are forced to endure the creepy organ sounds again. The optical effects are comparable to other episodes, and manage to give some sense of the movement between universes. The special filters work well for the netherworld between, and there is one very nice new shot of the Enterprise engaging phasers as viewed from behind.

But clearly the cast and crew knew they had a dog on their hands. Shatner and Nimoy go through their paces, having established their characters very thoroughly during better times. Here they need do nothing but read the garbage they are given. Thankfully, neither tries to make anything out of it (which would have just pushed this from bad to worse).

Perhaps guest star Brown also knew how bad this would turn out. He seems to give extra emphasis to his three -- count 'em, three -- dramatic falls off rocky ledges. Would that this script had been dropped from a similar ledge.

Rating: Very Bottom (7)

I think this is my least favorite of all. This is the only episode of the original series that I simply cannot endure on repeated viewings.

Posted January 10, 2010 6:41 PM by Huckle

I found this episode very disconcerting when first viewing it in my tweens. Even at that age, I found the concept that matter and antimatter could somehow be in close physical proximity without some kind of huge explosion to be nonsensical. As you point out, Brown's beard, just plain bizarre-looking anyway, changes thickness so much (and so randomly) that it's disturbing. There were numerous other choices Kirk could have made (destroy the ship WITHOUT Lazarus in the corridor, so they can't switch places any more, for instance) which would have probably been more humane or at least made more sense. Lazarus' sanity seems the same for whichever version we're dealing with, despite what Kirk and Spock say. And what about all the "episodes" Lazarus has where he's switching universes - how come no one else on the ship sees or feels these things happening? Not to mention not keeping the guy under restraint and security watch since dilithium crystals just start disappearing with him around. I mean, seriously, guys - was anyone thinking on this episode at all?

But in watching it now, maybe the most disturbing thing is a completely different Engineering set (why?). Add in some seriously high-voltage stuff available to ANYONE in the corridor outside it that can seriously mess the ship up if someone fools with it, and it seems like this is a completely different ship from anything I'm familiar with. And Charlene Masters - she's wearing a science uniform and insignia (and no braid - that's "Ensign", not "Lieutenant"). Good actress, but where's Scotty? (Jimmy Doohan was likely thankful to be left out of this one.) So many holes and inconsistencies, so much bad dialog, and so many unexplained set and cast differences. This is a royal stinker that I keep returning to either because of masochism or because it's so different and unreal feeling that I'm still trying to get my bearings.

Posted November 18, 2013 10:07 AM by Robert Tukey