Season 3 review by the Target Audience…

[Warped9]

I’ve been following these guys—who had never seen any TOS before—as they reviewed the entirety of TOS episode-by-episode.

And they liked Season 3 overall far more than a lot of long time fans. Good on them!

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Spoiler: Overall favourite episode

”Is There In Truth No Beauty?”

It’s been fun and I look forward to their review of TAS.

 

[drt]

I’ve been following these guys—who had never seen any TOS before—as they reviewed the entirety of TOS episode-by-episode.

And they liked Season 3 overall far more than a lot of long time fans. Good on them!

Heh, on that note, I didn’t even know I was supposed to dislike Season 3 until the internet.

 

[Warped9]

Heh, on that note, I didn’t even know I was supposed to dislike Season 3 until the internet.

I did hear of people dissing on Season 3 long before I was on the internet, but it wasn’t as emphatic.

I think, like these reviewers observe, Season 3 as a whole mightn’t be quite as strong as the previous seasons, but that doesn’t make it bad. My last rewatch some years ago found three quarters of the season fair to good to excellent. Only a quarter of it—six episodes—I found bad to poor. And even those had redeeming elements. It was certainly never boring. Thats not a bad batting average. And it’s a better batting average than any season of any successive Trek series I ever watched.

Furthermore, as the reviewers also observe, some people also have opinions influenced by behind-the-scenes stories of what some of the cast and crew felt while making the third season episodes. But that really is largely irrelevant because what is finally on the screen is what matters.

One thing I appreciate about Season 3 is it feels more like Season 1 in overall tone and it avoided the overly comedic efforts of Season 2 which I don’t much care for anyway.

Lastly I think time has been kind to Season 3 episodes particularly in light of what been happening in Trek more recently. Give me Season 3 TOS over anything VOY, ENT, JJ, DSC, SNW or PIC. Hell, I’ll take TOS Season 3 over most of the TOS films.

 

[Ssosmcin]

The idea that season 3 was awful reached me two ways: David Gerrold and his writings, and the first edition of The Star Trek Compendium. And even that wasn't too damning. When I was watching the series in early syndication, I was pre-teen. I wasn't paying attention to "seaons." Just noticing which episodes I liked more than others.

The original fan response may have been influenced by "Spock's Brain" being the reward for working so hard to get a renewal. "This is our reward?!" That could have trickled down also.

Regardless, I also remember how well some of the third season was embraced by fandom. Certain episodes were considered excellent (The Thoilian Web & Day of the Dove). Certain concepts were highly lauded (IDIC and that not quite accurate "first interracial kiss"). And a few guest characters were very popular (Gem, Zarabeth, Kang, etc.).

Do with that what you will, but as a kid, I didn't care.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

I like season 3's blue opening and closing credits.

 

[Warped9]

I think the interracial kiss went from being the one remembered to being remembered as the first one.

TOS featured two green Orion slave women, Vina and Marta, somehow became “Kirk sleeps with all the green alien chicks.” Shatner using dramatic pauses on only a few occasions somehow became the usual way Kirk speaks.

And Lucille Ball vetoed Desilu execs who initially wanted to ditch Star Trek becoming “Lucy battled the network to save Star Trek.” Yes, there is a grain of truth in that after Lucy finally understood what Star Trek was she thought producing high concept shows like Star Trek, and Mission: Impossible, could showcase what Desilu could do. In that narrow vein did Lucy save Star Trek.

 

[Bea Jonas]

There are a lot of Season Three episodes I really like:

The Enterprise Incident
Is There in Truth No Beauty
The Tholian Web
Elaan of Troyius
All Our Yesterdays

But there are some outright stinkers:

Spock's Brain
And the Children Shall Lead
Plato's Stepchildren
The Way to Eden
The Cloud Minders

And episodes with good premises but clunky execution:

Day of the Dove
The Empath
Let that Be Your Last Battlefield
The Savage Curtain

Overall, I think the primary reason for Season Three's lackluster reputation is because it followed a superior Second Season. (Amok Time, The Changeling, Mirror Mirror, The Doomsday Machine, Journey to Babel, The Trouble With Tribbles, etc.)

 

[Warped9]

***** Excellent = 4 episodes = 16.6%
“Elaan Of Troyius”
“The Enterprise Incident”
“Is There In Truth No Beauty?”
“The Tholian Web”

**** Good = 8 episodes = 33.3%
“Spectre Of The Gun”
“The Empath”
“Day Of The Dove”
“Plato’s Stepchildren”
“That Which Survives”
“The Cloud Minders”
“The Way To Eden”
“Requiem For Methuselah”

*** Fair = 6 episodes = 25%
“The Paradise Syndrome”
“For The World Is Hollow And I Have Touched The Sky”
“Let That Be Your Last Battlefield”
“The Lights Of Zetar”
“The Savage Curtain”
“All Our Yesterdays”

** Poor = 3 episodes = 12.5%
“Spock’s Brain”
“The Mark Of Gideon”
“Turnabout Intruder”

* Bad = 3 episodes = 12.5%
“And The Children Shall Lead”
“Wink Of An Eye”
“Whom Gods Destroy”


It boils down to half of Season 3 is at least good in my opinion. And that flies in the face of the "accepted wisdom" or perception that most of the season is shit.

 

[Warped9]

But the first two season's episodes were intentionally comedic..

I certainly understand that, but the level of absurdity they went for, particularly in "I, Mudd" and "A Piece Of The Action," hasn't worked for me in decades.

It's why I agreed with Roddenberry declaring, "Star Trek is not a comedy."

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

TOS featured two green Orion slave women, Vina and Marta, somehow became “Kirk sleeps with all the green alien chicks.”

Kirk was not involved at all with Vina; she was Pike's girl.

 

[Warped9]

Kirk was not involved at all with Vina; she was Pike's girl.

Yeah, which makes conflating Kirk’s unwilling interaction with Marta into making it with all the green chicks even more absurd.

 

[Joanna McCoy-Kirk]

The 2009 film also had Kirk sleeping with an Orion (a Starfleet Academy cadet, I think--I don't watch the Kelvin films that often).

 

[Ssosmcin]

The Bad Robot movies hyped up all of the characters cliches honestly, but in particular they showed Kirk as a horn dog who hadda sleep with every women he met, disregarded the prime directive and had an overconfident swagger.

Well, at least until ST Beyond finally got him right.

Problem is, William Shatner's own natural confidence began to take over the character gradually. Everybody forgets that Kirk was an intellectual student who was zero fun when he was younger, was full of self-doubt, and often made unauthorized decisions to safeguard his people or the societies he was involved in. He may have bent the prime directive or justified not following it to the letter, but he never casually disregarded it.

I also blame some of this on the earlier movies. Kirks actions in Star Trek III were totally justified in order to save Spock, but people used that as a template for the character going forward.

 

[Nilz Baris]

A minor item of possible historical interest - a TV columnist named Larry Williams, writing in The Commercial Appeal (TN) on February 20, 1969, announced seven cancellations made by NBC, among them STAR TREK, "which dropped way off in quality this year."

 

[Warped9]

The Bad Robot movies hyped up all of the characters cliches honestly, but in particular they showed Kirk as a horn dog who hadda sleep with every women he met, disregarded the prime directive and had an overconfident swagger.

…

I also blame some of this on the earlier movies. Kirks actions in Star Trek III were totally justified in order to save Spock, but people used that as a template for the character going forward.

Truth. The movies painted Kirk as a rogue cowboy and that became entrenched as a defining characteristic. Anyone who actually watches TOS is going to wonder where that character is.

 

[Pauln6]

The thing about season 3 for me was more that there was too much Kirk, Spock, and McCoy off on a jolly. I preferred episodes where more people got to beam down. There are some massive plot holes in season 3 but if you go looking, there are many in seasons 1 & 2 as well.

 

[Ssosmcin]

Also remember the first two seasons had more people offering creative feedback on the scripts. Roddenberry, Fontana, Justman and Coon for most of the glory days. By the time they got to the latter half of season 3, it was Freiberger and Singer just trying to get shows in a place where they can go before cameras. I think, under the circumstances, the show turned out decent product. But yeah that still led to some odd episodes towards the end.

 

[Warped9]

Watching these guys reactions has moved me to considering a new complete rewatch of my own.

I’m not sure yet which order I would do it in, but I know it won’t be the TOS-R version given I cannot stand so many of the cartoony fx.

The Target Audience guys watched Seasons 1 and 2 with the TOS-R versions yet watched Season 3 with the original fx, yet they often seemed to think the original fx were fine.

 

[ZapBrannigan]

Also remember the first two seasons had more people offering creative fresfback on the scripts.

Yeah. The first episodes in particular were getting fresfback from all over the place, include a consultant at NASA, and unsolicited letters from Isaac Asimov.

 

[Warped9]

Watching these guys reactions has moved me to considering a new complete rewatch of my own.

I’m not sure yet which order I would do it in, but I know it won’t be the TOS-R version given I cannot stand so many of the cartoony fx.

Giving this further thought. I had initially planned to do something different by doing a rewatch by stardate. I’m thinking of revising that to doing the episodes by stardate, but within their respective seasons.