The Alternative
Factor was a troubled
production. Contracted guest star John Drew Barrymore failed to turn
up for the first day of filming causing delays while Robert Brown was
cast in his place. Before that the script had an entire sub-plot
removed, a romance between Lazarus and Lieutenant Charlene Masters.
It's been speculated the sub-plot was cut at a late stage because
Janet MacLachlan, the actress cast, was African American and John
Drew Barrymore was Caucasian, and there was concern television
stations in the American south would simply refuse to air the episode.
Frankly, it's more likely the sub-plot was cut because it contains
risible dialogue.
LAZARUS:
I have moved through eternity to find you. You know that, don't you?
When we first saw each other... you must have felt it.
CHARLENE:
I...I...you were like a wounded eagle...
LAZARUS:
An eagle looks a long time for his mate... and once he finds her, he
never leaves her. I have looked a long time...
It's
a cheap shot but given the dialogue above it's no surprise John Drew
Barrymore was a no show. Using less eagle references Space Seed would cover the same
territory more effectively with the relationship between Khan and
Lieutenant McGivers.
How much does this background detail matter? Should we
excuse an episode's faults by pointing to production chaos? When Star
Trek started running out of usable scripts Gene L. Coon wrote the
first draft script of Arena
in a weekend. William Shatner's father died during filming of The Devil In The Dark and production
eventually had to close down for a day. Jill Ireland was ill during
filming of This Side Of Paradise
and all her location scenes had to be filmed elsewhere. Chaos doesn't automatically produce a bad episode. The strange
thing about The Alternative Factor
is that everybody concerned seems to have given up simultaneously. As
if all the accumulated stress of making the whole
Star Trek
series was dumped on this one episode.
As
always a bad episode starts with a poor script. The setup of The
Alternative Factor is reasonably straightforward. There are two
universes. The Star Trek universe,
let's call it universe A, and a second, opposite universe, which we'll call
universe 1 in a tribute to Futurama.
Connecting the two is a corridor which acts as a safety valve. The
people of universe 1 discovered the corridor and popped into universe
A (by now it should be clear these names are being used in an attempt
to generate the same confusion as the episode). The
knowledge that an identical version of himself existed was too much,
Lazarus A went mad and vowed to destroy Lazarus 1. If the two should
ever meet outside of the safety valve corridor then both universes will be
destroyed. This much is clear. The rest of The
Alternative Factor
is lost under terrible scripting, poor characterisation, and a
general contempt for narrative.
Take
the protagonist(s) Lazarus. In a process which seems to be random and
beyond the control of either version of the character they swap
between universes. No reason is given for this extraordinary ability.
It just happens. What's missing is not Star Trek: Voyager
style made-up science, “friction between elecromagnetic waves and
luminiferous Ether led to a build-up of Vril on the sector gears of
the higher-order columns,” but a simple explanation. Is the
transfer related to the expedition the people from universe 1 took to
universe A? Did Lazarus 1 cause it? Was it an accident? Is it what
drove Lazarus A mad? It's as if The Enemy Within
started with Kirk already split in two and no reason given for how
this occurred. The audience is simply expected to accept Lazarus has
this ability, and that the timing, and effects caused by the switch
are dependant on the scripts requirements at that moment.
The
first time the episode shows the effect of the switch is in the
teaser. The Enterprise shakes, there is the sound of an explosion,
and on screen a photograph of a starfield and nebula is overlaid to
convey the galactic effect of the event we are being shown. Spock
describes what the Enterprise sensors recorded. “For a split second
each time, everything within range of our instruments seemed on the
verge of winking out.... the entire magnetic field in this solar
system simply blinked. The planet below, the mass of which we're
measuring, attained zero gravity.... non-existence.” The second
time is, if anything, even more dramatic. This time as well as the
overlaid photograph and sound effects there is dialogue with added
echo. “No! You've come back in, is it? Well, don't stop. Here I am.
Come at me again. We'll finish it!” Plus the picture flares to
white, like lightning, there's a blurring effect as if vaseline has been
smeared on the camera lens, and it looks as if a wind machine was
taken on location to blow foliage around. The third time. Nothing.
When the third transfer takes place the
writer has a series of script problems to resolve. Kirk and Spock have
another 20 minutes of script before they realise the link between the
transfer process and the cosmic winking out. However, the writer also
needs to get Lazarus 1 onto the Enterprise so he can learn about
dilithium crystals. Kirk and Spock also need to think Lazarus A and
Lazarus 1 are the same person, but the writer would like to generate
some tension by cuing the audience in on this so they can know
something the characters do not. The writer's solution to these
multiple problems is the laziest one possible, while Lazarus A is
treated in sickbay by Doctor McCoy he swaps places with Lazarus 1,
and the effect previously described by Starfleet as reported,
“in every quadrant of the galaxy and far beyond,” suddenly become
unnoticeable to Doctor McCoy who has stepped into a different room.
This
scene also contains the first of many examples of truly terrible
characterisation. Lazarus A's treatment by McCoy, and switch with
Lazarus 1, is not shown, it is reported to us when Kirk and McCoy
have a scene in sickbay. The scene ends with this exchange.
KIRK:
Where is he?
MCCOY:
I don't know, Jim. This is a big ship. I'm just a country doctor.
McCoy
let Lazarus wander off. His patient instantly went from injured to
healthy and McCoy just let him leave sickbay. This is the writers
solution to the problem of keeping Kirk and Spock ignorant of
Lazarus' true nature, while also getting Lazarus 1 to where he can
learn about dilithium crystals. First the cosmic effects of the
transfer process are dialled back, then McCoy shows no professional
interest or intellectual curiosity in a patient who heals in seconds,
and finally McCoy allows Lazarus to walk out of sickbay. Show, don't
tell is the adage of scripting but it is clear the reason this scene
is reported to the audience is because any attempt to show it
directly would look laughable.
Kirk also has to act stupid for the plot to work. Kirk allows Lazarus to roam the Enterprise corridors even though he
believes Lazarus to be a ranting madman. Then, after two dilithium crystals
have been stolen Kirk, Spock, Lazarus, and three security guards beam
down to the planet to look for them. Lazarus walks away from the
group by himself, and no one does anything to stop him. Later when
Lazarus is back in sickbay (he fell off a cliff, the second time he
does this in one episode) under guard and being interrogated by Kirk
we get this immortal dialogue.
MCCOY:
He's got to get some rest, Jim. And would you get that muscleman out
of my Sickbay. [gestures at the security guard]
KIRK:
Dismissed. [The guard leaves]
Unbelievably McCoy
requests Lazarus be left unguarded. Despite Lazarus being a proved
lair who, rants madly about nothing getting in the way of his
vengeance, who is also prime suspect in the theft of two dilithium
crystals and an attack on two of the Enterprise crew, and who has
also already walked out of sickbay once in this episode. Naturally
Kirk agrees. Lazarus promptly walks out of sickbay, rewires the
energising circuit to start a diversionary fire, and steals two more dilithium crystals.
So far this review has
only discussed the awful script. For the sake of balance the
bizarre
directing and editing decisions should also be mentioned. When
Lazarus A and Lazarus 1 exchange places they meet in the corridor
between universes. While there they fight, or at least slowly
wrestle. To show this corridor is outside the normal universe the
footage is shown in negative (the closing titles to The Squire Of
Gothos show a still of Kirk in the corridor before it has been
processed to look like an inverted image) and the camera is tilted
from side to side. By any standards this is a dull fight. It's slow,
and filmed with a single camera so the usual tricks to make fights
more exciting, fast edits and closeups and different angles, are not
available here. The first time the fight is shown it takes up almost
a minute of screen time, subsequent repeats of the footage are
shorter but as it is shown for the fourth time it's hard not to
believe the audience is expected to find this interesting not because
the images are fascinating in their own right, but just because it's
a different colour to normal.
It's
also worth keeping an eye on the two security guards in the
background of the final fight between Kirk and Lazarus A. For some
reason the director wants them in the back of shot but has apparently
instructed the pair not to move at all. “Stand back,” Kirk orders
them, as the pair make no move to get involved. As Shatner manfully
struggles with Robert Brown the one on the right keeps smirking, as
if he is trying not to blow the take by laughing out loud.
Lastly, Kirk's reaction shot at the end of McCoy's, “this is a
big ship. I'm just a country doctor,” line is held just a fraction
too long. As a result it looks as if Kirk is about to give McCoy a
mouthful of abuse for his lax attitude towards patient care and
sickbay security.
What it comes down to
is this, This Side Of Paradise
is an episode where a good script fires the enthusiasm of the
production team, and the cast respond to that enthusiasm and put in
good work, which enthuses the production team even more, which makes
the cast work better, and so on. The whole episode is lifted by a
feedback loop of enthusiasm. The Alternative Factor is
the opposite. A stupid and drab script, and a production team
apparently depressed by additional problems, results in the cast putting in
workmanlike performances. No one really seems to care and the end
result is the worst episode of Star Trek's
first season.
But
having said that, there's the ending. Not Kirk's feeble attempt at
profundity. “But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?” Just the
concept itself. Spending eternity locked in a corridor between
universes being attacked by a lunatic. It has an odd way of gripping
the imagination. Certainly on the few
occasions I've watched this episode it's been something I've thought
about afterwards. What would it be like to be in that situation? Can
either of the pair die? Can they be hurt or injured? The simple fact
I've tried to imagine what it would be like shows I've engaged with
the ending. Even the worst episode of Star Trek, so far, works on at
least one level.
Enterprise
crew deaths: None.
Running
total: 26
