The Alternative Factor by: Don Ingalls and directed by: Gerd Oswald

 

“The Alternative Factor” is written by Don Ingalls and is directed by Gerd Oswald.  It was filmed under production code 20, was the 27^th episode of Star Trek Season 1, and was broadcast on March 30, 1967.

 

With these weekly reviews going through Star Trek for the first time, I have been genuinely surprised with the high quality the show has had to offer after some early episodes that while occasionally rocky, only really had a couple of dud episodes, but after the first ten episodes or so a standard of quality had been met and established.  “The Alternative Factor” is the episode to break the genuinely great streak of episodes, though not for lack of trying to tell an interesting story.  First and foremost the issues with the episode are apparent from the off, the performances are immediately stiff and stilted, Leonard Nimoy especially giving this very oddly clipped performance as Spock and the script deciding that Kirk and Spock need to have this unspoken tension as if they do not trust each other.  This dynamic of mistrust is something that fuels the actions of every character for this episode, and while that perhaps could have made for a story where some influence has infiltrated the Enterprise and sowed discord, this isn’t that type of episode.  The setup of the episode should work, Ingalls sets up some sort of break in the space time continuum of the galaxy as the Enterprise is orbiting a planet that’s at its center.  This causes a human life form to appear, Lazarus played by Robert Brown.

 

When Kirk, Spock, and a team of redshirts transport down, they find a ship designed to look almost like a classic UFO and Lazarus just falls off a cliff.  Lazarus falling down will become a major recurrence of the episode, not really a running gag or anything, just something as the audience is privy to a recurring effects sequence indicating Lazarus and his double transporting into and out of the prime universe.  Doing a story about a parallel universe sounds right up Star Trek’s alley, but this is an episode that only reveals this particular concept in the last five minutes of the episode when Kirk is accidentally transported there so the alternate Lazarus, also played by Brown, can explain what has happened and the episode can almost immediately be wrapped up.  The other 45 minutes are full of characters going from the bridge, to engineering, down to the planet, and back to the Enterprise, Lazarus ranting about his enemy and attempting to steal dilithium crystals to power the portal back to his universe.  While there are moments where this runaround cycle works, especially when Kirk is actually able to confront Lazarus and the danger sequences in engineering which Gerd Oswald directs incredibly well, much of this runaround plot just does not work.  There isn’t enough information revealed in nearly any of the scenes to make for an intriguing mystery or really a plot that would really make “The Alternative Factor” work as a concept.  The issues with characterization are really only compounding, though Robert Brown’s over the top performance is perhaps due to the fact that he was not the original intended actor for the role.  Gerd Oswald’s direction is also just less interesting than his other episode, “The Conscience of the King”, barely feeling any of the suspense that made that episode work so well.

 

Overall, “The Alternative Factor” is an episode that on many levels should work.  Parallel universes are a staple of science fiction storytelling, and even doing one without showing alternative versions of the established characters can work, but this is an episode that just uses it for a climax.  Our three main characters of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy are also just not really recognizable as even parodies of themselves, Kirk being the closest to the character we know and McCoy barely having a presence.  There is something very standoffish about the episode as well while the direction from Gerd Oswald attempts to have some interesting visuals but ultimately feels uninspired.  Don Ingalls’ script can be compressed into people going from one room to another without progressing any sense of the plot until a few bits of pretty good action leading “The Alternative Factor” to be quite weak.  3/10.