This season should not have been aired. It's even worse than season one. The show was cancelled after this season. For a reason. Based on this last season, it's absolutely beyond me how the whole franchise escaped the downward slope into oblivion and was able to secure a reboot with Star Trek: The Motion Picture years later. Kudos to the producer and investors for seeing potential in the Star Trek brand. I'm a big Star Trek fan but I probably would have given up on Roddenberry after this disastrous season three of the original series. In comparison, the movies were much better. Back then, TV was the ugly child of the movie biz indeed. But the difference in quality between the series and the movies is striking. I always expected it to be like the step from the Police squad! TV series to The Naked Gun movies, but the difference from TOS to the movies is extreme in comparison. Budget issues in later episodes are obvious: some stages are recycled, from other movie sets or literally black empty rooms.
There are many bad episodes, it's hard to select my least favorite episode: perhaps Spock's Brain. This is hardly a unique choice. This episode was always infamous and derided by fans (according to me, only Voyager's Threshold and TNG's Sub Rosa play in the same ball park). Plato's Stepchildren is also exceptionally bad. I also disapproved The savage Curtain. Other problems continue: misogyny, sexism, racism, horrible stage design, Earth-like alien planets, a strange focus on Kirk's gut-feelings, his physical attributes and his wrestling skills, repetitive stories, slow pacing etc. There are some good episodes though. I like for example The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web and Day of the Dove. I can't explain it myself but my guilty pleasure is: Spectre of the Gun. Objectively bad - strangely entertaining.
Review by Alexander von LimbergBlockedParent2022-09-19T10:36:08Z— updated 2022-12-30T21:13:17Z
This season should not have been aired. It's even worse than season one. The show was cancelled after this season. For a reason. Based on this last season, it's absolutely beyond me how the whole franchise escaped the downward slope into oblivion and was able to secure a reboot with Star Trek: The Motion Picture years later. Kudos to the producer and investors for seeing potential in the Star Trek brand. I'm a big Star Trek fan but I probably would have given up on Roddenberry after this disastrous season three of the original series. In comparison, the movies were much better. Back then, TV was the ugly child of the movie biz indeed. But the difference in quality between the series and the movies is striking. I always expected it to be like the step from the Police squad! TV series to The Naked Gun movies, but the difference from TOS to the movies is extreme in comparison. Budget issues in later episodes are obvious: some stages are recycled, from other movie sets or literally black empty rooms.
There are many bad episodes, it's hard to select my least favorite episode: perhaps Spock's Brain. This is hardly a unique choice. This episode was always infamous and derided by fans (according to me, only Voyager's Threshold and TNG's Sub Rosa play in the same ball park). Plato's Stepchildren is also exceptionally bad. I also disapproved The savage Curtain. Other problems continue: misogyny, sexism, racism, horrible stage design, Earth-like alien planets, a strange focus on Kirk's gut-feelings, his physical attributes and his wrestling skills, repetitive stories, slow pacing etc. There are some good episodes though. I like for example The Enterprise Incident, The Tholian Web and Day of the Dove. I can't explain it myself but my guilty pleasure is: Spectre of the Gun. Objectively bad - strangely entertaining.