Airdate: March 29, 1968
56 of 80 produced
55 of 80 released
Click here to watch at CBS.com
Introduction
There have been 30 season finales in all of Star Trek, counting The Animated Series, and some are great. Some are terrible. Only one could be classified as bizarre. That is this episode. The Enterprise has gone back in time to the 1960s for historical research. It encounters a mysterious man who claims he is from the distant future and has come back to stop the United States from launching a missile that will imperil the Earth and the future we all know. Unsure of his true motives, Kirk and Spock attempt to discover more. This episode was originally conceived as the potential pilot for a new series set in the 1960s. The result is...complicated...to say the least.
Launch Gantry Cat is watching you, Gary!
Matthew and Kevin both gave this a 3 each for a total of 6. This episode suffered from an inescapable schizophrenia. It was a good and interesting story, but not really a Star Trek one. Had the writers found a way to weave this story more cleanly into the Star Trek narrative, then this would probably have a better than average shot at the five. We go into more detail in the podcast, so we'll let that do the talking. Fire up your DVDs and enjoy!
Ah! This episode was so bad! Onion Av Club clued me into the fact that it was an hour-long commercial/pilot for a show that never got picked up, but I like to think that the episode was ham-handed enough that I could've figured it out on my own. The secretary-girl was annoying (finding out she just so happens to be a genius made her more annoying), the lead agent guy is creepy and incompetent, and the cat that is also sometimes a sexy lady DID NOT help.
ReplyDeleteI don't think Roberta was a genius. Above average intelligence.
ReplyDeleteAlso, above average pantyhose.
Seven's 'not-a-tricorder' said highly intelligent, which I took for genius, but I maintain it doesn't really matter if she doesn't come off as intelligent *at all*.
ReplyDeletePlus her dress gave me motion sickness.