Women On Fire

SPOCK’S BRAIN
By “Lee Cronin” (Gene L. Coon)

Brain and brain! What is brain?
It is not exactly what you might be expecting.

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Up next: "The Enterprise Incident."

Before we move on to "Spock's Brain," I wanted to do a statistical study to answer the question: Which was better, Season One, or Season Two? (Cause we know Three is not winning any awards.)

Results and analysis behind the cut tag.

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All in all then, I would have to say that Season 2 wins--not necessarily because it's better, but because it's stronger. If it's good, it's very good, and if it's bad, it's REALLY bad in a very Star Trekly way.

ASSIGNMENT: EARTH
By Art Wallace and Gene Roddenberry

In which Gene Roddenberry conclusively proves that he can create a TV show that even at its best would be far worse than Star Trek at its worst.

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Anyway. Praise be to the network execs and Bjo Trimble, we got a third season of Star Trek instead of season one of Assignment: Earth. And EVEN THOUGH Season 3 leads off with “Spock’s Brain,” I will welcome it with joy after having seen this vision of the alternative future we could have had.

Up next: BRAAAAAAAAAINS!!!!

BREAD AND CIRCUSES
Written by Gene Roddenberry and Gene L. Coon

This must have been the one that broke up the Gene Team.

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Up next: "Assignment: Earth." Bleagh. It’s only gonna go downhill from here.

THE ULTIMATE COMPUTER
By D. C. Fontana from a story by Laurence N. Wolfe

I was wrong; I do remember this one. I just didn’t associate it with this title. So goddamn many computer episodes. But this one was stronger than I had expected.

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So, all in all, some pleasant surprises from an unlikely source. Next up: Bread and Circuses!

THE OMEGA GLORY
Written by Gene Roddenberry

You know, in a way, I’ve been looking forward to this one. As I’ve been going through this rewatch the question has often arisen: “Was ‘The Omega Glory’ really the worst Star Trek episode ever? Or is it just that ‘The Omega Glory’ is bad in a more memorable way than some of the other really bad episodes?”

And now I know.

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Next up:…“The Ultimate Computer,” an episode about which I remember nothing.

BY ANY OTHER NAME
By D. C. Fontana and Jerome Bixby, from a story by Jerome Bixby

This one is…well…it is green.

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Speaking of going back to the well...next up is “The Omega Glory.”

PATTERNS OF FORCE
By John Meredyth Lucas

In which our heroes fight Nazis. For real.

Sort of.

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So, there we have it. Up next: “By Any Other Name.”

RETURN TO TOMORROW
By John Kingsbridge (John T. Dugan)

One of the scariest things about getting old is realizing how much you’ve forgotten. I had no clear memory of this episode. And yet, not only must I have seen it, it must have made a significant impression on me.

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Nevertheless, I am going to restore this one to what was obviously once a privileged place in my memory. I’ll need some fond memories to get me through the next few episodes. Up next we have “By Any Other Name”…but I’m only three workouts away from “The Omega Glory.”

A PRIVATE LITTLE WAR
By Gene Roddenberry from a story by Jud Crucis

At the end of an episode like this, you ask yourself, “Who WROTE this?” And then you look back at the opening credits. And you think, OK, well Gene Roddenberry wrote the teleplay, that explains a few things. Wonder who this Jud Crucis guy is. And then you look up Jud Crucis on IMDB, and you find out it’s a pseudonym for Don Ingalls. And then you think Don Ingalls, hm, that name is familiar…didn’t he write…didn’t he write…noooOOOOooOOOoooo!!!!!

That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. The “story” for this episode came from the same guy who wrote “The Alternative Factor.” And here’s the killer: of the two episodes for which Don Ingalls was responsible, this is the one he didn’t want associated with his real name.

I’m just telling you this cause, you know, you might not want to sail the ship of your consciousness into a televisual anomaly the like of which modern science has never seen.

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Maybe; maybe not. “The Alternative Factor” was pretty bad. Either way, between the two of them these guys produced what has to be one of the worst episodes ever…at least so far.

Next up: “Return to Tomorrow.” I don’t want to go there.