Turnabout Intruder by: Arthur Singer from a story by: Gene Roddenberry and directed by: Herb Wallerstein

 

“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 24^th episode of Star Trek Season 3, the 79^th 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