“Turnabout Intruder” is written by: Arthur H. Singer,
from a story by: Gene Roddenberry, and is directed by: Herb Wallerstein. It was filmed under production code 79, was
the 24th episode of Star Trek Season 3, the 79th episode
of Star Trek, and was broadcast on June 3, 1969.
Here we are, the end of broadcast Star Trek,
the final episode airing in a new time slot after cancellation had already been
carried down. There’s a genuine sense of
tiredness throughout the third season of the show, the slashed budget and
departure of Gene L. Coon and D.C. Fontana clearly weighed heavily on the cast
and crew, and the final episode is one that embodies that. “Turnabout Intruder” is an episode from the
mind of Gene Roddenberry, although scripting duties were handed to script
editor Arthur Singer, and once again this one is about a social issue that
Roddenberry just doesn’t understand. The
female characters on Star Trek have always been a bit of a sore subject
for me, while Nichelle Nichols broke barriers with her portrayal of Uhura, and Majel
Barrett as Nurse Chapel getting a single episode’s focus, their
characterization was incredibly limited to being pretty faces and often were
they reduced to sex objects (though not as often as pop culture would have you
believe). “Turnabout Intruder” is one of
the few episodes where gender plays a significant role in the plot and honestly
I have a theory. John Meredyth Lucas’ “Whom
Gods Destroy” was reportedly rewritten so 40% of the televised script was
written by Singer, and since Singer is writing the teleplay for “Turnabout
Intruder” it is reasonable to assume that all the dialogue is his
responsibility. It is not a stretch to
assume that Roddenberry’s outline was more explicit in having commentary on the
role of women in the workplace, something that is vaguely underpinning the
actual episode but the script feels as if any actual commentary was surgically
removed in favor of an over the top body swap story where a madwoman takes the body
of Captain Kirk so she can be a Starship Captain, something for some reason
women aren’t allowed to be. Sure, they’re
allowed to be on the bridge which would put them in the line of succession for
command, but they cannot be captains.
“Turnabout Intruder” has a plot which opens with Dr.
Janice Lester, played by Sandra Smith, swapping bodies with her ex-lover
Captain James Kirk, is unable to kill him in her body, and brings him back to
the Enterprise. The rest of the
plot is Kirk in Lester’s body attempting to convince the crew that he is Kirk
while both Smith and William Shatner overact.
Shatner in particular is at his most Shatner in this episode, playing up
the queer coded elements of a woman swapping her brain into a man’s body and
giving into the stereotypes of women as emotional and unable to think rationally. This episode has some of the most sexist
moments in the show thus far, a particular note of the final episode of the
series. This is also where the theory
that any progressive or even positive commentary about repressive gender roles
feels surgically removed: to accomplish a plot like this where a woman oppressed
rises up against her oppressors and falls by going too far would at the very
least have to make the woman competent and sympathetic. Janice Lester is presented from the start as
an awful person, an ex-lover of Kirk’s whom he doesn’t even really care for
(nor she him), being exclusively characterized as mentioned above as an
emotional woman. This is an episode
where while she is in Kirk’s body, she openly records Captain’s Logs explaining
exactly what she had done and how to stop her.
Also somehow Kirk in Lester’s body is recording logs of his own. Creating Janice as so unsympathetic,
partially because of Shatner’s performance, means that the actual messaging on
screen is all about how women are unreasonable and should be kept down, up
there with the most regressive messages the show has ever actually put out. It’s also very telling for an episode where
there are only three female characters that barely interact, Nurse Chapel
acting as a nurse to Janice but not believing her, and a day player communications
officer barely getting her own dialogue.
For an episode about gender roles, the men are the ones who are centered.
Herb Wallerstein directs and his direction is
something that is particularly tired, often shooting things head on. There’s a particular moment where Spock just
walks into frame and the actual framing of the shot is ever so slightly off center
that it looks like an amateur mistake.
This is also a plot that relies on the rest of the crew not realizing
that Kirk isn’t acting like Kirk until the concluding act of the episode which
can be done but the script relies on nobody actually thinking about what Kirk is
doing until it is convenient for the plot.
There are a few decent supporting performances. Leonard Nimoy as Spock is doing his best with
the material. James Doohan and DeForest
Kelley get one scene together that is particularly good as they contemplate
mutiny because they’ve realized Kirk isn’t Kirk, same with George Takei and
Walter Koenig almost immediately after with the actual mutiny being
communicated well in a single shot. It’s
one of the few aspects of the direction that is genuinely interesting and able
to generate atmosphere, right at the end of the episode.
Overall, “Turnabout Intruder” is an episode with a
reputation, and that reputation is one that is clearly deserved. While I was not expecting anything special
for the series finale of Star Trek since shows didn’t really do series
finales in the modern sense until at least 20 years later, I wasn’t quite
expecting it to end on such a whimper coming immediately after a thematically
interesting episode that could have served as the finale. The episode is sexist drivel that at least
William Shatner had fun being William Shatner with. 3/10.
And since we are at the end of the show we have one
final time to rank the worst and best episodes of the season and the series
overall:
Top 5 Worst Episodes of Season 3:
5. Turnabout Intruder
4. Elaan of Troyius
3. And the Children Shall Lead
2. The Way to Eden
1. The Savage Curtain
Top 10 Worst Episodes of Star Trek:
10. Spock’s Brain
9. The Alternative Factor
8. Charlie X
7. Turnabout Intruder
6. Elaan of Troyius
5. And the Children Shall Lead
4. The Gamesters of Triskelion
3. The Way to Eden
2. The Savage Curtain
1. The Omega Glory
Top 5 Best Episodes of Season 3:
5. Is There in Truth No Beauty?
4. All Our Yesterdays
3. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield
2. The Enterprise Incident
1. The Tholian Web
Top 10 Best Episodes of Star Trek:
10. The Tholian Web
9. Journey to Babel
8. A Taste of Armageddon
7. The Trouble with Tribbles
6. The Corbomite Maneuver
5. Space Seed
4. Amok Time
3. Mirror, Mirror
2. The City on the Edge of Forever
1. Balance of Terror
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