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Star Trek: The Original Series Season 3 Review

The third season of Star Trek: The Original Series is the weakest season of this show, though it has its very strong episodes.

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“The glory of creation is in its infinite diversity.

And the way our differences combine

to create meaning and beauty“

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Spock’s Brain is entirely ludicrous in its premise, and thus a preposterous, dumb episode. The Enterprise Incident is one of the best episodes of this season where the crew attempts to steal a Romulan cloaking device. I found the execution suitably suspenseful and a lot of fun as the pacing is great and the storytelling is stupendous this time around.

The Paradise Syndrome is such a dated episode centering on Native Americans that portrays them in a frustratingly stereotypical manner. For the life of me, I cannot understand how this show managed to be both ahead of its time in its representation and incredibly offensive in sometimes apparent sexism and racism.

And the Children Shall Lead is a pretty imaginative, but weakly executed storyline whereas Is There Truth in No Beauty? is one of the better episodes here with a particularly potent mystery at its center. Spectre of the Gun is another annoying, dated episode that centers on westerns this time around, and the results are of course dumb and not fitting for this genre.

Day of the Dove is a superb episode centering on emotions and negative energy while also emphasizing on the Klingon conflict remarkably well. For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky has an intriguing premise, but it’s done in a very straightforward, far from sophisticated manner.

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The Tholian Web is such an imaginative episode centering on interdimensional travel, and I wish more episodes of this show had as much fun or imagination. Plato’s Stepchildren says it all in the title – it’s another bad idea that portrays history in science fiction frustratingly so.

Wink of an Eye is such a suspenseful alien threat episode that is thrilling to behold throughout, and very entertaining and satisfactory as a whole. The Empath is one of the most brutal episodes of The Original Series as it concerns torture of the main crew in very memorable sequences.

Elaan of Troyius concerns a spoiled princess, an arranged marriage and ultimately ending in another subplot altogether. It’s a giant mess. Whom Gods Destroy has an over-the-top, theatrical villain and isn’t particularly original. Let That Be Your Last Battlefield isn’t the best executed episode, but the premise is admittedly very interesting.

The Mark of Gideon is a forgettable story, That Which Survives is another computer storyline that lacks authenticity to it and The Lights of Zeltar is messy, but at least intriguing in its energy-based alien race. Requiem for Methuselah doesn’t deal with immortality in a thought-provoking manner at all, The Way to Eden is such a stupid, terribly dated hippie-centered episode and The Cloud Miners is a solid Kirk-based episode that finds him in great role.

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The Savage Curtain is been there, done that in its plot. However, All Our Yesterdays is a terrific trapped in the past storyline which is visually arresting for its time, quite engaging and a whole lot of fun. And the last episode, Turnabout Intruder was an absolutely horrendous way to end the entire show with such a sexist, maddening storyline.

Overall, I liked this season to a degree as it has its strong parts, but overall I did not find it to be on part with its predecessors as it has way too many dated and/or weak episodes. Overall, this entire show is solid for what it is, but not my cup of tea and far from the best that the Star Trek franchise as a whole has to offer.

Worst Episodes: Spock’s Brain, The Way to Eden and Turnabout Intruder.

Best Episodes: The Enterprise Incident, Is There in Truth No Beauty?, The Tholian Web and All Our Yesterdays.