As a life long "Trek" fan, I have always agreed with those who said that "Spock's Brain" was the nadir of all the "Star Trek" episodes ever made. Until I saw "Threshold." I can cut the original series some slack: low ratings, under-funded, under the gun to get a new episode out every week, and the original series had its stinkers, and "Spock's Brain" was the best example of the worst episode ever to carry the "Star Trek" brand. Until now.
And there was no excuse. Now the "Star Trek" franchise has everything the original series did not have: money, ratings, multi-generational fan base, computer generated graphics -- you name it, they had it.
And then there is this. It even makes the animated series look good. This is probably the most hated episode of all time for several reasons: 1. It takes upon itself to completely destroy the delightfully vague "warp" rules of physics. For those of us who have been around for a while, and know that warp 13 or higher can happen, the silly idea of warp 10 being "everywhere in the universe at once" is disgusting. 2. Turning to a lizard. I'm too sick to comment further. 3. Being able to conceive and have lizard children in a few hours. Ditto. 4. Everybody being normal again at the end after the doctor figures something out. I know; it happens all the time. But in "Spock's Brain," even McCoy forgot how he fixed things when it was over. The doctor just made up a two-minute fix that got Paris and Janeway back to their original forms again, with no apparent psychological trauma, but maybe a pretty wacky memory for each of them to hold on to for the rest of their lives. To the show's credit (and here is the only really nice thing I can say about it) they did not merely use the old transporter fix and revert them to the patterns in the buffer like all the other series did several times -- that got really old.
I really don't need to write a scathing review here. Someone has beaten me to it, and done an excellent job.
But as someone who sat through "Star Trek: the Motion Picture," and "Star Trek V," as well as "Plato's Step Children" and ALL of seasons 1 and 2 of "The Next Generation," I think I have the right to say that this was the worst of the worst ever.
And I am a big fan of "Voyager." In some ways, it was my favorite series.
But the "Spock's Brain" trophy for worst episode ever must leave the glass show case of the original series archives, and be awarded to this pathetic episode, the worst that ever was. I hear that true trekkers do not consider this episode "canon," and I thank them for that.
This was just a wild dream that Paris had after eating something -- er -- green, that Neelix called "chili."
And there was no excuse. Now the "Star Trek" franchise has everything the original series did not have: money, ratings, multi-generational fan base, computer generated graphics -- you name it, they had it.
And then there is this. It even makes the animated series look good. This is probably the most hated episode of all time for several reasons: 1. It takes upon itself to completely destroy the delightfully vague "warp" rules of physics. For those of us who have been around for a while, and know that warp 13 or higher can happen, the silly idea of warp 10 being "everywhere in the universe at once" is disgusting. 2. Turning to a lizard. I'm too sick to comment further. 3. Being able to conceive and have lizard children in a few hours. Ditto. 4. Everybody being normal again at the end after the doctor figures something out. I know; it happens all the time. But in "Spock's Brain," even McCoy forgot how he fixed things when it was over. The doctor just made up a two-minute fix that got Paris and Janeway back to their original forms again, with no apparent psychological trauma, but maybe a pretty wacky memory for each of them to hold on to for the rest of their lives. To the show's credit (and here is the only really nice thing I can say about it) they did not merely use the old transporter fix and revert them to the patterns in the buffer like all the other series did several times -- that got really old.
I really don't need to write a scathing review here. Someone has beaten me to it, and done an excellent job.
But as someone who sat through "Star Trek: the Motion Picture," and "Star Trek V," as well as "Plato's Step Children" and ALL of seasons 1 and 2 of "The Next Generation," I think I have the right to say that this was the worst of the worst ever.
And I am a big fan of "Voyager." In some ways, it was my favorite series.
But the "Spock's Brain" trophy for worst episode ever must leave the glass show case of the original series archives, and be awarded to this pathetic episode, the worst that ever was. I hear that true trekkers do not consider this episode "canon," and I thank them for that.
This was just a wild dream that Paris had after eating something -- er -- green, that Neelix called "chili."