The Most Disliked Episode of TOS, 2023 Edition - Season 2...

[Farscape One]

Saving "A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR" next.

Solid episode with a good moral dilemma. The ending is a real downer, which I have used as an example of showcasing TOS as being hopeful but realistic and pragmatic about problem solving. Also shows that TOS can get very dark just as easily as it can be very fun. Good balancing... DS9, more than any other spinoff (with the possible exception of SNW), truly encompassed the spirit of TOS.

And this episode exemplifies that.


THE CHANGELING
THE DEADLY YEARS
WOLF IN THE FOLD
PATTERNS OF FORCE
BY ANY OTHER NAME
THE OMEGA GLORY

 

[BlueStuff]

I’ll rescue The Changeling. Nomad was a memorable little fellow, and the story had potential (even if not fully realised). Such potential that TMP took another swing at it (arguably not to any greater success).

THE DEADLY YEARS
WOLF IN THE FOLD
PATTERNS OF FORCE
BY ANY OTHER NAME
THE OMEGA GLORY

 

[ZapBrannigan]

I like The Omega Glory. It's got Morgan Woodward at his best. It's a two-fisted Western with great fight scenes and an outdoor shoot to make it real. It got the GAF View-Master gig! It's got the Exeter and its crew of dust, and that indelible shot of the doctor recording his own death, and the camera panning down to show his condensed remains where he fell.

It also shines a light on Star Trek's uncertain origins, a time at the typewriter when Kirk's era was at least a thousand years in the future, and planetary colonists from Earth could fight a nuclear war and forget where they came from, yet still hold onto their precious American artifacts. Star Trek wasn't fully cooked when they wrote it, and they filmed it anyway. It's still showing The Twilight Zone's influence. That's wild.

What's Left:
THE DEADLY YEARS
WOLF IN THE FOLD
PATTERNS OF FORCE
BY ANY OTHER NAME

 

[Seven of Five]

Patterns of Force, alongside A Piece of the Action, is a good example of the Parallel Earth that TOS liked to visit. The theme was definitely a bit repetitive in S2, even though it was a necessary evil to save costs for sets.

THE DEADLY YEARS
WOLF IN THE FOLD
BY ANY OTHER NAME

 

[BlueStuff]

I suppose I'll save By Any Other Name, which featured some nifty alien technology at least.

THE DEADLY YEARS
WOLF IN THE FOLD

 

[Farscape One]

Both remaining episodes are not that great.

I'll save "THE DEADLY YEARS" because at least it doesn't paint Scotty in such a bad light. He's too damned good of an officer and person.

"WOLF IN THE FOLD" wins this season.


I am unsure if I will be able to start season 3 before tomorrow night (if certain real life things happen the way I am expecting).

However, I will do my best to bring the final TOS season tomorrow afternoon. Thank you all for playing.

 

[Qonundrum]

Saving "THE APPLE".

I like it when Kirk stops a computer from continually subjugating a society.

And somebody has to save all these redshirts. (Between this and my previous save, no less than TEN redshirts died. Damn, Captain Kirk... even Captain Sisko in the middle of a war lost fewer crewmembers than you did.)

Kirk did that about 20 times in the show's run, LOL. Eminiar-7, Landru, Nomad, M5, the delicious Norman, etc, etc...

"The Apple" has a standout scene between Spock and McCoy, which is sadly just as brief, but I'd save the episode for that alone. The actor portraying the leader does a great job, especially when telling the other Vaalians how to casually split skills open.

On the minus side, Kirk faffing on and on about making babies is cringeworthy, and the metaphor about the metaphorical story of "Adam and Eve and the poisoned apple that the evil snake provides" isn't just a dig at Kirk when he throws a hissyfit over Vaal deciding to use his ship to recharge itself from. Oh, wait, it was Vaal that had taken the form of a snake - albeit in papier mâché...

I forgot if the story told of Vaal's origins or not, or why it installed little antennae into its subjects... or at least the leader. Assuming it matters. It could have been any old Timex Sinclair ZX-80 that the inhabitants found, then made a papier-mâché visage and set up the tall tale of Vaal, then fast forward a bunch of centuries to where everyone forgot about the origins and then Kirk and co arrive.

Seeing as most of my favourites are already saved, I'll save "I, Mudd".
Definitely a lot better than the previous Mudd episode, and rather quite amusing. Roger C. Carmel is great.

Carmel excels in this. As does Kay Elliot as Mrs Mudd, taking what is otherwise a handful of 50s comedy tropes and somehow making it work. The fact she's rightly berating Harry doesn't hurt matters at all.

Scheming androids are always more fun than just your typical programmed robots, and it's fun that the episode takes a nod to Huxley rather than Orkin* as to how to deal with the infestation of them biological fritters skulking around the galaxy in giant tin cans. But they're nice androids, keeping their word - that's cool. And looking at how well they craft those cybernetic bodies, how come more of the crew don't want to have their brains scooped out and placed into something as enticingly exotic as well?

* no relation to Mork, nanunanu!​

I wish the androids had a better budget. The female ones get altered half-opaque plastic shower curtains, which look good. But that cost the budget, so all the bloke droids are stuck with generic sweatpants. By the time they had to fit Norman, they were so out of budget that they had to buy the next size down as -- oh my goodness -- they are so tight... amazed the actor (Richard Tatro) didn't speak two octaves higher because of those, but I'm not quite complaining... Looks like this was Richard's final acting role, in TV or film... According to IMDB, he died in 1991 at age 52. Seems a bit young...

 

[Qonundrum]

The Roman Empire was an age that I have long been interested in. So I'll save Bread and Circuses.

They play the themes so sincerely that it's impossible not to roll with it, and it's one of TOS's more grittier episodes. The camp elements are sufficiently subdued as well.

The ending's verbiage is a little sexist, even by 1968, for the use of "brotherhood" as a singular term to encompass all of humankind, but the core message underneath is still poignant. Even more so as Uhura and McCoy both tell the details. Plus, if they're discussing the verbiage as told to them by the locals - this is getting a little headcanony...

I have to save Who Mourns for Adonais, it was the first Star Trek episode I ever saw (1968 rerun). Plus Michael Forest and Leslie Parrish were great guest stars (along with costume designer William Ware Theiss's pink gown).

Theiss was a genius, who probably had a couple of degrees in applied physics, what with the small amount of tape used to keep the goofy garments attached in perfect balance...

And speaking of tape, who did the tape-up and make-up to conceal Apollo's nipple? Can't show those, but thank you LCD and blu-ray for that level of detail that no CRT TV from 1968 could begin to show...

Also,

 

[Poltargyst]

Something else about the Apple is that David Soul guest stars. Hutch himself. Are Starsky and Huggy Bear lurking in the bushes somewhere?

But I protest Wolf In The Fold "winning". Wolf In The Fold is not the worst episode of Season 2.

 

[Sakonna]

Wolf In The Fold is not the worst episode of Season 2.

No one said it was. That's why it's a "Most Disliked Episode" instead of "Worst Episode."

I love the beginning of "Wolf In The Fold", but woof, does it collapse around the mid-point. The TOS eps that turn into dull trials along the way I find it impossible to get excited for.

 

[Oddish]

Wolf might not have been as bad as some... it's just the episode no one wanted to save.

 

[Qonundrum]

I would have saved it, except I was snoozing at 12am, LOL!

"Wolf in the Fold" does descend into dumbdiddlery thanks to "the psychotricorder", a gizmo that would have been useful plenty of times before and plenty of more times since. Modern shows would throw in these gizmos and then keep using them, and the gizmo is there as a cheap and audience-insulting "get around plot corner free" trick.

Not to mention the sexism as an excuse:

MCCOY: My work, Jim. This is prescription stuff. Don't forget, the explosion that threw Scotty against a bulkhead was caused by a woman.
KIRK: Physically he's all right. Am I right in assuming that?
MCCOY: Oh, yes, yes. As a matter of fact, considerable psychological damage could have been caused. For example, his total resentment toward women.
KIRK: He seems he's overcoming his resentment.
MCCOY: Of course, in my professional opinion, when he gets back to the ship, he's going to hate you for making him leave Argelius. But then he will have lost total resentment toward women.

McCoy sets up the claim, and then immediately puts in what amounts to "this won't be an issue next week" in his last sentence, which is no less freshly-laid cow ploppies...

Not to mention how Redjak was Jack the Ripper because he was deemed terrifying to only women, thank Spock for this:

SPOCK: And I suspect preys on women because women are more easily and more deeply terrified, generating more sheer horror than the male of the species.

Really... plenty of men do get scared in real life and plenty of women don't. It's not a cookie cutter stamp; among other tests, the MBTI (circa 1944, revised in 1956 and later, though research began decades earlier) shows all people being capable of all combinations...

Again, this is another example of how many more cow pies in this episode than in someone's horrible idea for a confectionery bakery's April Fool's stunt - complete without the high-fiber hay sticking out of them.

What saves the episode for me is John Fielder's subdued and magnificent performance as Hengist and later as Redjak. That's _significant_.

A couple quick examples, but he more or less steals the show throughout:

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And there's even an outtake for that scene, and here it is!

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