TOS: The Alternative Factor

[Makeshift Python]

“STG”?

But honestly, why should you be upset that Chuck isn’t tearing DISCOVERY apart?

[Yukaphile]

Enterprise is better than STD. Enterprise. Yet he's harsher on that.

[Makeshift Python]

I would agree that the third and fourth seasons of ENTERPRISE are better than DISCOVERY's first season. But the first two seasons?... No way. Episodes like "Strange New World" annoyed me more than anything in DISCOVERY.

Anyway, back to the dumpster fire that is "The Alternative Factor"... though I understand wanting to talk about something else than that.

[Linkara]

This is an episode with POTENTIAL. There's a lot of ideas in it that would have been good, but clearly this episode needed another couple drafts to flesh things out. It was speculated that that one woman science officer who makes a few appearances in the episode was supposed to have a larger part in an earlier draft given she has so much more screen time than a regular extra, maybe a love interest for Lazarus, but that got pared down.

The premise of two versions of the same person from alternate universes battling each other has possibility- especially with the idea of it being a matter and anti-matter universe thing. It's a DC comic thing in particular... but it's muddled in a bunch of half-truths, half-explanations, and then Lazarus calling his vessel some kind of time travel ship? What? I originally laid out in this post how I would do the episode and it MOSTLY stays similar, but cut out the extraneous bullcrap, maybe have the ruins of a dead civilization that Lazarus and his counterpart accidentally destroyed while doing experiments with other dimensions that drove positive-matter universe Lazarus mad, that sort of thing.

[Enterprising]

Also, just to add to the crap, the entire soundtrack for this episode seems have been ripped from other Star Trek episodes. Not that TOS was that varied in its music, but it hit me like a hammer here.

The budget for TOS was so tight they could only afford to get unique musical scores done every 5th or 6th episode.

[Makeshift Python]

This is an episode with POTENTIAL. There's a lot of ideas in it that would have been good, but clearly this episode needed another couple drafts to flesh things out. It was speculated that that one woman science officer who makes a few appearances in the episode was supposed to have a larger part in an earlier draft given she has so much more screen time than a regular extra, maybe a love interest for Lazarus, but that got pared down.

From what I understand it was the fact that they had cast an African-American actress in the role that her role got re-written at the last minute so there'd be no romance subplot between her and a white actor. Which would make you think they'd recast immediately instead, or hire a black actor for Lazarus, but it seems not a whole lot of thought went into this episode. Everyone was just flailing around trying to get the show in the can.

Also, just to add to the crap, the entire soundtrack for this episode seems have been ripped from other Star Trek episodes. Not that TOS was that varied in its music, but it hit me like a hammer here.

The budget for TOS was so tight they could only afford to get unique musical scores done every 5th or 6th episode.

It's actually pretty common for TV shows to reuse scores from previous episodes. So while a composer would score a specific episode, the music was made in a way that it could fit into any situation that calls for it in later episodes. It was with TNG that it was decided that each new episode would get a brand new score. Rick Berman felt reusing previous music cues "cheapened" a show. But given how he was against composers using familiar themes, makes me wonder why he insisted a new score would be recorded when the latter seasons of TNG all sounded too generic to sound different from each other. He could have just reused the same recordings and no one would notice.

[Yukaphile]

Come ON. This is at least an episode with the familiar, lovable cast. While STD is filled with a collection of the most loathsome assholes possible. Give me this over the best of STD any day.

[MerelyAFan]

One of the most blatant flaws of Alternative Factor for me is how the main cast feels completely swallowed up by the insane Lazarus plot. Spock's Brain is awful, but there's at least a few fun little character moments here that mingle with the so bad its good story to make some of it watchable.

In TAF Kirk and company just feel as if they're there to react to Lazarus's rantings, deliver exposition, and then look like idiots when he escapes. It ranks up there with And The Children Shall Lead in making the crew come across as either eye roll worthy or boring. And the novelty of the guest star doing the farcical overacting rather than Shatner doesn't really make much difference.

[AllanO]

SF Debris claiming the Spore Drive is somehow better than this parallel universe stuff in "The Alternative Factor" is just plain wrong, though. Yes, it's not "scientifically accurate," but he's a comic book fan. What does it matter as long as the episode is fun? Which this is.

Your missing his point neither the spore drive nor the Alternative universe in Alternative Factor are "scientifically accurate". The spore drive is as far as I can tell from your use of the terms, very much what you call high-concept, comic book-esque sci-fi, but arguably it works in a predictable consistent way.

The claim Chuck made is that the stuff in the Alternative Factor goes beyond being scientifically inaccurate or even divorced from how the world works at all (like magic, Chuck has no problem with magic in stories) he is saying the Alternative Factor is incoherent, inconsistent and gives one no reasonable way to figure out what to expect from it (including knowing what is at stake): that it proposes contradictory statements, premises and so on. x is x except it is also not x (you can only travel to the alternative universe via the saucer on the planet and you end up in the alternative saucer except no Lazarus does it from anywhere to anywhere), x implies y except no it does not (so Sane!Lazarous is helpful and thus on expects him to explains things when he and Kirk meet in the alternative universe except when he was on the Enterprise earlier and he failed to explain to McCoy or whoever what was going on even though it would be very helpful).

You may thread a set of explanations/expectations/whatever through to make this hold together enough to be fun, but most people are left scratching their heads not knowing what to expect/feel about developments. If one person in a crowd laughs at a joke and no one else does, even if they can then explain "why it was funny" via some long convoluted explanation, it still sounds like it was a not a good joke because it needed this long convoluted explanation was required.

Note this whole thing is just one element, Chuck (and others) seemed to think the Alternative Factor failed on many other levels. He is not just saying well the MacGuffin of the plot made no sense to me, therefore episode bad, he brought up many other issues...

[bronnt]

I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a distractingly bad fake beard like that anywhere else. You’d think the producers would have had the sense to NOT use it. Wouldn’t have helped the guest actor, it would have just had us even more focused on his disjointed performance.

I doubt anyone envisioned 4K resolution back in the 60s. The horrible beard probably wasn't that big a deal on a 60's era tube television.