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#4 "Spectre of the Gun"

(originally titled "The Last Gunfight") is an episode from the third season of the original science fiction television series, Star Trek, that was first broadcast on October 25, 1968, and repeated on April 4, 1969. This show was the last episode to air on NBC at 10p.m. on Fridays. It is episode #61, production #56, and was written by former producer Gene L. Coon (under the pseudonym of Lee Cronin) and directed by Vincent McEveety.

In this episode, having been found trespassing into Melkotian space, Captain Kirk and members of his crew are sent to die in a re-enactment of the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral..

Loved the early 1950ish TV... minimalist set decoration--

But the Melkotian bad guy... and plot was way less than abstract artsy!

I'll take it from here, Bendy... and Gene Coon's nom de plume gets his just reward--

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#3 "And the Children Shall Lead"

is a third season episode of the original science fiction television series, Star Trek, and was broadcast October 11, 1968. It is episode #59, production #60, written by Edward J. Lakso and directed by Marvin Chomsky.

In this episode, on a distant planet, Kirk, Spock and McCoy find a scientific team dead, and their children who, unknown to the crew, have great powers at their disposal.

When the guest star is a lawyer, the results cannot be good and here they prove this to the nth degree.

No, you cannot do this-- I'm... a lawyer!

Logically, if they were my offspring... I'd whip their hind ends until they couldn't hold shucks!

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#2 "Spock's Brain"

is the first episode of the third season of the original science fiction television series, Star Trek, first broadcast September 20, 1968. It was the first episode to air after NBC moved the show from 8:30 P.M. to 10 P.M. on Friday nights. It was repeated July 8, 1969. It is episode #56, production #61, written by Gene L. Coon (under the pseudonym Lee Cronin) and directed by Marc Daniels.

In this episode, an alien female beams aboard the ship and, after incapacitating the rest of the crew, surgically removes Spock's brain. Kirk and the crew have just hours to locate and restore it before Spock's body dies.

Yes, the episode had some nice... eye candy for Kirk to charm--

But this abomination is almost a tie with #1 below, so, close, but no #1 cigar for Void-Head Spock--

Logically I deserved a bad review... but 2 years and a fine!

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Drum Roll...

Please!

Maestro, the Fairfare...

if you will.

#1 "The Way to Eden"

is the twentieth episode of the third season of the original science fiction television series, Star Trek was broadcast February 21, 1969. It was written by Arthur Heinemann, based on a story by Heinemann and D. C. Fontana (using the pen name "Michael Richards"), and directed by David Alexander.

In this episode, the Enterprise is hijacked by a madman-scientist and his fanatical, hippie-like followers who are blindly obsessed in finding a mythical planet of perpetual paradise. is the nineteenth episode of the second season of the original science-fiction television series, Star Trek, first broadcast February 2, 1968, and repeated on August 23, 1968. The screenplay was written by Gene Roddenberry, based on a story by Don Ingalls under the pseudonym Jud Crucis, and directed by Marc Daniels. It was intended as an allegory about America's involvement in the Vietnam War.

First, it is not the good Doc Sevrin using a hand sign... that make me throw up a little in my mouth--

But this attempt to pay tribute the 1960s 'Hippie... Movement' smells worse than the hippies ever did!

Did I really... look like that?

Did you... ever!

All these stinkers come from the final Third Season and the only one I've even seen in probably 30 years is "Spectre of the Gun" that I pulled up from Netflix to show a friend just exactly what early 1950ish TV minimalist set decoration was--

A 50 year old low budget SciFi show
that has this kind of popularity
Is Proof of it’s Genius!

Hey...
Post a link to Your other List.

Set decoration is of low relevance compared to the story, the writing,the imagination.

I like your choices. All are terrible, though it is difficult to not include almost all of season 3. I don’t think I could narrow it down to 4 episodes only. Add “Let That be your Last Battlefield” and “The Alternative Factor” for an even half dozen. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen every minute of “Alternative”. It’s so boring I usually zone out before it’s over. I have the Blu-ray set and seldom watch these terrible episodes.

I absolutely hate the episode where Kirk fights the gronk, some guy in a lizard suit, in extreme slow motion, then nearly kills it with some gunpowder and a bamboo tube he happened to find laying around in the middle of a desert.

50 years later and the stench of it still lingers.

No list of bad Star Trek is complete without “The Savage Curtain”.

You know, Fred Freiberger, a ‘nice guy’, if you listen to the interviews from the time, ruined Star Trek. He also ruined SPACE:1999.

How can Squire of Gothos not be on this list?

IIRC, “The Way to Eden” was an honest, if poor, homage to Christianity. The “hippies” were pursuing Christ across worlds. The last lines are Kirk asking who they’re seeking, and Uhura says “the Son of God.”

LOL! “Brain and brain! What is brain?!”

Hey, I loved “The Way to Eden”, on many levels. Skip Homeier’s lettuce-leaf ears were a trip and I thoroughly enjoyed Charles Napier’s over-the-top hippie. Great little ditty when he passed Doc’s exam:
“Gotta crack my knuckles and jump for joy
Got a clean bill ‘o health from Doc McCoy”
Wife went with me to the VA twice a year and used to wait for me in the lobby (goes in with me now). Every time I came out, I’d rattle off that first line. The others looked at me kind of funny.

Back in the ‘80s we moved into a California condo and one week they had a pot luck dinner “to introduce each other”. These things are the social equivalent of a root canal to me but to keep peace, I went along. As I entered the garage where the buffet was , these two 20-something guys were sitting there humming “Headin’ on to Eden”. I chimed in “Yea, brother” and the two lit up like lightbulbs, looked at each other, and said “HE REACHES!”.

We played ST trivia the rest of the evening but, being just a mild fan, got my clock cleaned by these two fanatics. Best damn time I ever had at one of these events.

I concur that “Spectre of the Gun” was a dog. As soon as I saw it was a western motif, I thought it so preposterous I turned the TV off.

In reality, as we view them now, they were all wonderfully bad.

Huh. Where’s “The Omega Glory”?

Well I saw all the STOS First run on NBC.

Th space hippies was the worst episode...

but the second worst episode was the last episode they ever had. When Kirk and a women swaped minds... very Gay episode

These mostly weren’t that bad.

I kind of liked “Spectre of the Gun.”

But “Spock’s Brain” was the absolute worse and “Turnabout Intruder” was only slightly behind it. I have watched the whole series multiple times but I have yet to make it through the entire show in one sitting with either of those two. I just can’t stomach them. I don’t have that problem with any of the other episodes.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=i3vl2hEv6KM

And the children shall lead is a kind of remake of Miri.

“No blah, blah, blah”

Are you kidding?

The Way to Eden was a GREAT episode!
I saw it in it’s NBC first-run when I was about 4.
Those weirdos stuck in my head even at that age.

It introduced me to the whole concept of dirty,
smelly hippies.

Agree with all .. Don’t forget last episode...Intruder something