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Episode
079
Turnabout Intruder
It’s Star Trek meets Victor, Victoria (kind of). Captain Kirk is a man trapped in a woman’s body in a man’s world. Or galaxy. Or Federation. Boldly go into the last episode of the original series as we put Turnabout Intruder in the Mission Log.
Home Video trivia: The year – 1988 . Turnabout is released on Laserdisc and is the only disc since “The Cage” to only contain just one episode – which not only meant that it had double front and back cover images – it also meant that Side 2 was left totally blank – even though the disc cost the same as any of the rest of the series. Crazy ? Yes !
Lost/ found and restored image : some of the last scenes to be filmed for the series .
“This is The End “
Check this out. I love Star Trek Continues …
https://youtu.be/kATcuut_tqM?list=PLdazttmHDXbtJuv982iQyKymu9fV7kqsb
Yes! Love how they did that. Perfect.
Check this out. Yes, it’s pertinent to this entry. I love Star Trek Continues …
https://youtu.be/kATcuut_tqM?list=PLdazttmHDXbtJuv982iQyKymu9fV7kqsb
Ken’s summary was excellently accurate but was quite entertaining as well.
Let me try to add a couple cents:
Kirk, as Lester, determines that she, as him, has every right to assume the captain’s chair, as lounger, and to display her, as his, immaturity, as command, when she, as him, orders, “Silence! You [as threat to me, as not him, but as Kirk…] will be silent!!” Hee. Gee, I’m glad the hosts, as you, didn’t listen to Kirk’s body’s voice, as Lester’s mind, but gave us, as we, such an in-depth commentary about one of my, as me, favorite episodes of TOS.
If official canon is whatever Desilu and Paramount put on screen, then Starfleet Command already has a history of allowing women to be in the center seat.
ENT’s episode “Twilight” proves this because T’Pol says she was promoted to full captain when Archer developed memory problems. However, their catastrophic alternate future could have prompted them to permit women because they had a shortage of personnel.
also Capt. Erica Hernandez of the NX-02.
All true – but those are all plot points that occurred in production more than 30 years after the episode we were discussing. There’s a good bit of retcon we can do to make all the pieces fit, but for our purposes, we were trying to stick as closely as possible to what’s on screen in the order they were presented.
John & Ken – I thought Kirk as Janice was played excellently but not mentioned either way. Also Janice Lester is a strong woman, despite a misguided person. I thought one of the better episodes.
I actually agree that this episode really wasn’t that bad. Yes it did have some sexist flaws, and it did seem like they were doing a lot, but I didn’t feel like it was rushed. On top of that, I think that Janice Lester was a great villain and she seemed like a legitimate threat. It seemed like she was able to turn things in her favor at every turn. I still can’t believe it when Scotty and McCoy come back in from the p-way after their mutiny discussion only to find that she had recorded everything they said and was able to use it against them. Honestly things didn’t start falling apart until she went too far and threatened them with execution. Had she just thrown all of them in the brig (in separate cells) she might have gotten away with it much longer. In the end she was only undone by her own insanity, but before that she was a fairly brilliant enemy.
This is who Janice Lester reminds me of….
.
Funny that you said not to watch this episode last because of the taste it might leave in your mouth, as I purposefully listened to this before All Our Yesterdays so I would end your podcasts of TOS on a good episode rather than… this.
Lucky you! If only we had known – could have changed the release date for the shows.
*gigglesnort* Re your discussion about Lester in Kirk’s body and what was Coleman gonna do…Clearly, you don’t read enough slash fan fiction. There’s ALWAYS a (legit?) reason for two blokes to fancy each other…
*cough*not that I have any experience with that*cough*
You’re not suggesting another podcast spinoff, are you?
HAHAHA! No, I think there’s plenty of stuff out there on the internet about this subject already… Some of it’s almost good, too.
and now: re-runs ……til the end of time !
woohoo! Finally made it to the end of TOS! Up next the cartoons!! Thanx guys, I’m catching up slowly but surely!
I’m only two years behind you! 😉
I always felt that Janice’s line about ” your world of starship Captains doesn’t allow women ” was meant in the same context as Eve’s line in Mudd’s Women. It’s the career Kirk is married to. He has no time for personal relationships. This is a theme that runs the three years of the series.
Like all of season 3, this episode suffers from the budget issues of that season.
This episode was quite good not only for Shatner’s acting a woman in a man’s body, but also the actress playing Janice Lester. She was a “strong” woman when she was playing “Kirk”; calm, and purposeful. It was her Janice Lester -as-Janice Lester that was weak and, of course crazy.
The episode is about a crazy woman, not about WOMEN. Just because Janice Lester is contemptuous of her sex does not mean that she is indicative of women generally; in short her being a woman is — as far as feminist critique is concerned…incidental.
That’s how I feel as well. It’s still painful, especially as no one seems eager to correct her interpretation.
Well, I’ve reached the end of the podcasts for the Original Series. I don’t have much to say about this particular episode that hasn’t already been said more elooquently, but I will say I’m really glad to have found these, and look forward to many more hours of listening pleasure!
Really appreciate it since we have so much fun putting the show together, and I especially appreciate you dropping in to leave comments on these pages. Thank you again!
Of all the Episodes you mentioned in this Podcast – I couldn’t believe that you guys never mentioned this little computer when referencing copying the neural pathways ….
What more do you want in a Star Trek episode? One Kirk good, two Kirks better.
My best, most generous, optimistic and pollyanna interpretation of that one infamous line is that it was Lester’s perception that women could not become captains, because she could not be a captain. If that denial had coincided enough with her breakup with Kirk, she could have conflated the two and twisted the meaning. After all, by the time we meet her she is certifiably insane (and homicidal). This has been my read on it for the last 40 years or so!
Yea, what an unfortunate final episode of a brilliant series. You guys covered most of my thoughts so I’ll just outline my predominant feeling after finishing this episode.
The imaginations behind Star Trek TOS, the ones that imagined cities in the sky, silicone life forms, beings with the power of Gods, and an earth that has supposedly made war, racism, and most diseases obsolete, couldn’t imagine a galaxy with female star ship captains.
Bummer.