I personally loved this epi as far as character..to think through STTOS, STTNG, STDS9, ST VOYAGER..This heroic lone man sacrificed everything to maintain two universes. It's mind blowing..you could argue he is the greatest character in all of star trek lore.

We know later Captains read Kirk's after action reports. I imagine when Janeway read through them she must have been pulling her hair out at the number of times the Enterprise traveled further than Voyager and was back in known space in no time at all. Also if there's any episode where Kirk and Spock do wild speculation without reason for thinking something and just happen to be right, Wolf in the Fold comes to mind immediately. Also also, not only did Vasquez Rock appear in Picard, but it wasn't even doubling as alien planet or something. The characters traveled to the actual Vasquez Rock. That's a first.

Lazarus, the man with the best facial hair in the universe.

The only episode of Star Trek, EVER, that made me fall asleep... twice.

Actually a favorite eps. Mind bending for its time, with a haunting ending. "Madness has no reason, Jim, but it may have a goal"

"You know Jim, I'm just a country doctor, I'd say Lazarus has been sipping on the old moon shine."

I had never seen this episode before, honestly. It is now one of my favourite "worst" episode of TOS so far. I genuinely love it for how ridiculous it is. The lamentation was very entertaining, thank you.

I always thought I was a weirdo for DESPISING this episode and so many people I know ADORE IT. Thank you for making me feel sane

The only thing that held in my memory of this show was that last lament that he was locked in combat with a lunatic for all time. Yeah, I felt that the whole show was filler until they could write it up to THAT point. By the way, thanks for doing this whole series. I just found you and I'm catching up with all of them.

I think I was 7 years-old when I first saw this episode in syndication. And even then, I thought Huh? So when two identical particles of matter and antimatter meet, they annihilate each other. OK. So, why does that destroy both universes? Granted, a lot of energy is created during the process (like in E=mc(squared), right?) but isn't that the whole basis of the matter/antimatter reactor that powers a starship? When identical particles of matter and antimatter meet and annihilate each other there, it powers the ship, not destroys all matter and antimatter everywhere in both universes. Even a 7 year-old me could pick up on that inconsistency.

Obviously not a watchable episode but Robert Brown was a fine actor. He starred in a series called "Here comes the Brides" (With Mark Lenard, as well as Bobby Sherman, and David Soul} and Primus.( An underwater adventure). Also notable was Janet McLachan as Charlene Masters the engineer.

Wasn't MASH (the TV series) 4077 camp filmed at Vazquez? Btw love your expression at approx. 11:38-11:51 followed by the deep exhale of contempt, despair and disbelief at the sheer stupidity absolutely priceless! Also pretty amazing that the guy playing Lazarus actually manages to out-ham and out-act Bill Shatner during the "Kill, kill, kill etc." scene. That takes a lot of chutzpah.

The Alternative Factor is the most convoluting episode ever made.

I never got the hate for Spock's Brain because it's just dumb campy 60s fun. And The Children Shall Lead, on the other hand, actively insults the audience's intelligence. "I'm losing...my ability....to command!"

There are some TOS stories that I can really have a new appreciation for if I re-watch them after a while (such as Plato's Stepchildren). This episode isn't one of them.

And here we come to the single most boring episode of TOS. With the crappiest beard that has ever existed and I've watched it a bunch of times and STILL can't remember the plot. I tend to remember crap beard. Edit: John Drew Barrymore was um.... Unfortunately very deep into drug abuse at this point. So.... Chances were he was probably tripping balls somewhere in Hollywood. Don't have verification of this, but the Barrymore family is notorious for that sort of thing. Not a fun topic.

Bruce Banner mentally fighting the Hulk in his mind makes more sense than Lazarus VS.Lazarus.

Haha I knew this would be your first TOS lamentation. Season 1 is pretty strong overall but I think this one is even worse than “Spock’s Brain” or “The Way to Eden.”

Yes, one of the worst episodes of TOS, but Brown starred in a 2 season late 60s show called 'Here Comes the Brides," which co-starred Mark Leonard and David Soul (one of the Feeders of Vaal in 'The Apple'). This led a writer (Barbara Hambly) to write an early TOS novel called 'Ishmael' which sends Spock into a fun cross-over with 'Here Come the Brides.' Looking up the writer's name to spell it right, I see that Jane Wyatt and Majel Barrett guest-starred in the show as well, while the woman who stood in for the Metron in 'Arena' was a semi-regular on the show.

I only identified it when you did the realities merging impression. Yeah I remember that there was a guy and Kirk and Spock interact with him and that is it.

Friday's Child also used the Vasques Rocks location as well.

BTW: Yes Vazquez Rocks apears in Picard. And Spoiler Alert: the Show is disapointing IE. Starfleet Security is consistently incompetent

Starfleet, the most trusting organization of all time. You know when they were pitching this episode, someone suggested they should have security in engineering guarding the dillithium crystals. Especially considering you can't replicate them and can't basically power anything on the ship without them. The producers just stare blankly back at said writer and said "You're fired!"

All I remembered was "Weird alternate universe thing, I think for some reason thought was dumb."

Lorerunner: you must have liked dis episode. there was no babble padding.

"Haven't seen Picard." Lucky fellow!

Before watching the review of this Episode I can tell you several things about it: 1. The Enterprise is in orbit of a planet when suddenly there is a strange Effect that happens. This Effect is Called The winking out effect through out the Episode. 2. Star fleet Declarers in the sector and Evacuates the area. 3. We see an engineering lab on the Enterprise That is Reopenable For Doing something With the Dilithium Crystals. 4. We see two Engineers in that room One is an unnamed man and A Lieutenant Named Carolyn Masters who is warring a Blue Uniform. That Uniform also Has no Rank Insignia on it. 5. Jon Drew Barrymore was supposed to play Lazarus Butt he never showed son Robert Brown played him instead. When this Happened Star the Star trek staff Reported him to The actors Guild and He would Have his Gild card Pulled from him for a time.

I remember this episode as the first one I ever saw of TOS, that I remember at least. I was pretty young at the time. I already had seen plenty of TNG which was probably at around season 5 at the time. Literally the only thing I remember was his ship and how dumb it looked. I have seen it again since a few times but it's still really the only thing I remember other than the fact that there's two version of Lazarus and one of them is evil.

From what I understand there was also extensive rewriting done on the fly because a love story plot involving Lt. Masters was hastily written out. I’m not sure if it was involving Lazarus or the dude she’s seen working with. I suspect it had to do with them casting a black actress and this being a full two years before the Kirk/Uhura kiss. If true, it’s a shame because a love story might’ve pulled some of this mess of a story together, much like Space Seed and Where No Man Has Gone Before. Then again, maybe it would’ve made it one more tired trope.

6:22 _"By the way, this is Drew Barrymore's father..."_ That explains a lot.

I think the biggest condemnation of this episode is I've never heard of it. Most bad episodes are legendary.

" Engineering fire !!!!, emergency."

I took this episode to be a major inspiration, even if subconsciously, for David Lynch and Mark Frost's absurdist style throughout Twin Peaks. The high concept told with complete incoherence and off-beat comedic absurdity, make it very easy for the audience to read their own profundity into it. The officers are all strangely incompetent with zero script. The casual, perhaps inexperienced, acting of the Enterprise underlings made it all the more compelling. It's almost the most we ever see of the TOS lower decks, and they are all just casually bored people pulled right off the streets of LA, bumming around in space. Moreover, upon rewatching this fecal masterpiece, I noticed one iteration of Laxarus, I mean Lazarus (legit typo that), had no beard. Was there a secret third man? Three Lazarae?? I think so. Or Lazarus B (or A or C?) was also time traveling whilst transdimensional quantum leaping? And is there anything more absurdly amusing than that last fight? It's genius. The fact that it wasn't choreographed made it so much more real. Real life is mostly physically incompetent guys who would just feebly roll around in a scuffle. It was so amazingly funny to just watch the great Captain Kirk wrestle with absolutely no martial prowess whatsoever. Just a nerd trying (and largely failing) to subdue an alien, with no objectively discernable goal, while security just looks on. And, of course, the quick surprising tonal shift at the very end was actually quite moving. Yes, the entire thing is ridiculous, but what if there were two personalities locked in opposition for eternity? What if somebody chose to make that sacrifice, albeit for vague almost supernatural reasons, to save two universes? That's kind of epic or mythically heroic and tragic. How can that quasi-religious notion cap off such a preposterous series of events? Again, there's no way 21 year old David Lynch didn't catch this episode late one night, and think, "Hmm.... Mood and implication can be just as moving as plot. You don't even need one. Or coherence. What a Discovery!" Anyway, taken as such, this is now one of my all-time favorite episodes.

I wonder if AltLore is busy Lamenting all of Babylon 5...

Live short and suffer financially.

My friend and I hated the part where the two Lazarus versions would fight in the corridor. Like they were fighting in a huge paper bag.

Sooo, Lazarus-A is matter, while Lazarus-B is antimatter. When both meet and go after each other, matter and antimatter could cancel each other out unless they fight inside "the corridor", the only way to keep two universes safe. Poor Robert Brown! Things got much better for him thanks to, "Here Come the Brides", on ABC in 1968.

I have the alternate universes/Timelines box set. This is on it. Its not horrible. Could be quite good if they had time to explain more things.

I remember this from being a kid. I thought they can use this as part of the parallel universe, that the barrier was weaken, which allows "whatever explanation" that matter from universe can transfer to another through some energy transfer. However, agree never liked this episode because I was never clear why they would vaporize one of them or whatever. Do not watch discovery, because all the dilithium crystals will dry up, because of a kids imagination with especially strong hologram machine. 🤮🤪🤯

This episode was done only for the Hell of it.

Summary: Investigating the cause of a massive, galaxy-wide disruption in space, the Enterprise finds a mad scientist who claims he is being pursued by a hideous being. This man, lazarus, has a doppelganger which behaves entirely different. (strange episode with a problem that is never addressed again.)

7:40 _Alice's Restaurant_ by Arlo Guthrie.

I personally like this episode. I'm not saying that I think that it is above-average for TOS, because it isn't. However, it would definitely not make a most hated list for me. I like this one far more than, say, the Apple. Yes, it could be better written. It feels like a rough draft. However, I love the concept. I have fun watching it.

I can see the problems with this episode, that said I love the craziness to it. A scene that was left out which brought up there are two Lazarus is early on, which blink and you'll miss it. Where the engineers talk about the dilithium in the recroom and Lazarus spins around in his chair and decides to follow them. A bit of scene that was cut here showed Spock talking to Lazarus B and Spock ginds him to be mild compared to Lazurs A who is nuts. I think why McCoy and Spock go stupid is it takes everything for them to go somehow there are two copies of this person. The rest of the issues I think are from the fact that the creative team was a little burned out so the script they asked for was to over the top for them and they didn't have the energy to fix it. Especially if the original choice for a guest star didn't show and they needed to scramble for a replacement. But my biggest issue is how the episode engineering looks nothing like any other episode before or after but because it is the only location given for the dilithium crystal chamber it makes it cannon.

When I first saw this episode. it was live tv when I was pretty young like back in the 90s. I was watching it with my dad. When it got to the part of Bones losing the guy I looked to my dad and went.. "Does space destroy your brains or something?"

Why would SAG fire Mr Barrymore? SAG is the Actors' Union and Unions generally don't fire their members. Desilu or Paramount were the ones who might (and presumably did) fire him for not showing up.

I wonder if Mr. Barrymore was aware of the show (possibly even a fan), and just accepted the part when it was offered to him. Then he read the script...

Even as a kid I thought this one didn’t make any sense. I’m skeptical if the mismatched beards were a way to tell them apart or just bad continuity

I bought the Season One set, and was having a blast. And then around Episode 27, this one came on. Man, it's a rough ride. Easily my least favorite of the first season

As a kid, I loved this weird episode (hey it was the 1970s). That's all I remember about this episode. LOL!

Hmm sounds like the plot to DC's "Crisis of the Infinite earths" shares a common inspiration with this. Think Monitor and Anti Monitor.

Enterprise security is so ridiculously incompetent in this that a single, unarmed, injured guy with no special powers can render the flagship of the Federation (tm) completely dead in space, except not because the writer just kinda forgot what happens when all the dilithium is gone. And McCoy should be getting severe reprimands for how much of an idiot he is in this, repeatedly.

If it weren't for the fact that they shot some of this episode on location and actually had a guest star, I would swear this was a budget episode.

Vasquez Rocks does turn up in TOS again, I think? Was it in Friday's Child?

One of my go to episodes. Yeah there is a lot of it that is completely useless and the whole thing about anti matter when we have antimatter in our own bodies but hey at the time this was made, most people were unaware and it served the plot lines. Why kirk hesitated, I would have sulu blast it as soon as they beamed up,. And what the hell si with star fleet, can't send a single ship? Oh well, its just the entire universe. And if can happen here why hasn't the whole universe been wiped out by someone else doing the same thing in some far off galaxy?

Just remember the flashes and how stupid it was, 2 universes and an anti matter man who wants to destroy everything

I've tried to watch this episode multiple times, and never have wrapped my head around what the plot is trying to do. Assuming I even stay awake through it. So not shocked this one's a lamentation! ...and looking at the episode list, you might get through season 2 without a lamentation. Possibly; there's a few potential ones but none seem slam dunk.

funny that it sort of is... originally one bestows blessing, the other a curse the hand...

I liked the beginning. After Lazarus began falling off the cliff, I began to lose interest. When Kirk is wandering in the carnival funhouse/corrider, I started snoring.

Cosmic Wink Out alert! Maybe it was the cosmic wink out that caused Kirk, Spock and McCoy to be so stupid.

Maybe I'm not smart enough to understand these things, but seeing how the problem was solved, didn't Lazarus B always have the option to destroy his own ship, which would have destroyed Lazarus A's ship at the same time, putting an end to any possibility of the two ever meeting outside the corridor? 🤔

KILL! Okay, you're still at 100% at me not liking anything that you deemed to be a full-on Lamentation. You did a good job as always, though. It's probably not very nice of me, but I love the demeanor you have when you consider something to be stupid. This was also worth it just for the image of Kirk, Spock, and McCoy playing speed volleyball with The Idiot Ball. Do you suppose the Idiot Ball looks like a Pokeball? We need keychains.

And so we get our second Lamentation from TOS ("Mudd's Women" is the other one for me). Pseudo-scientific garbage starring a raving lunatic usually doesn't make for good TV, just saying. Here's just a few things I'll point out.... 1.) The universe blinks out of existence for a second and Kirk, rationally, assumes it's the prelude to an invasion. Umm, what?! That's like experiencing an earthquake and deciding it's the beginning of an invasion by mole people. 2.) Kirk, made of matter, gets transported into an anti-matter universe and doesn't immediately explode. Yeah, moving on. 3.) Crazy Lazarus is crazy simply because he can't stand that there's a duplicate of himself in a parallel universe. Will Riker must have taken lessons from this guy in TNG: "Up the Long Ladder". 4.) McCOY: "Well, don't worry, (Lazarus)'s not going anywhere. Not this time." This is quite literally and immediately followed by Lazarus simply leaving the room. 5.) The solution to this nonsense is for the two Lazarii to fight in a tunnel for all time (or, at least, until they starve to death). I have a better idea. How about you just put the lunatic in the brig, have someone actually guard him, and let Sane Lazarus go his merry way? 6.) The original actor for the Lazarii chose to take a mark on his career and be black-listed for several months instead of appearing in this crap. Can't say I blame him. 0/10

Omg a Lamentation, gonna grab sobe tea and enjoy :3

In all fairness, I haven't heard of Idiot ball. I've heard of idiot plot trope though.

Before I even watch this let me say: I am so glad that you also think this is a Lamentation! In my opinion this is the worst episode of Star Trek. At least the other garbage like Treshold or Move Along Home can be enjoyed in a "so bad it's good" kind of way, or other episodes are just plain bad but not offensive. But this combines both the boredom of bad below average episodes, and the immense stupidity of the episodes mentioned above to create a truly unwatchable mess. I guess the only other contender for worst episode (in my opinion) is that clipshow on TNG, but I barely recognize that one as an episode.

Woah woah woah Lore, I love your stuff and I put up with a lot of crazy talk but I will not allow anyone to besmirch the cinematic masterpeice known Captain America (1979). Reb Brown is just misunderstood in the role and we needed a more grounded take on the character. I mean who really believes in super serums and nazis? I want all my superheroes to drive a panel van down the coast and want basically nothing to do with the plot. Story and character progression are overrated. Got a good mind to nominate this for the next rumination block so you can learn to appreciate a true classic.

I remember feeling very confused about this episode when watching it during my youth and did not realize that the confusion was due to the horrible writing.

After I finished this episode I was convinced that just watching this mess actually made me dumber. I feel a bit better knowing that I am not alone. The only positive is the planting of the seed that will become the mirror universe. Edit: watching you invent the mirror Vulcanian salute at the end there reminded that we apparently have an emoji for that?! When did this happen 🖖🏻?

If you think how they treat dilithium crystals in this episode is dumb, wait until you get to "The Burn" plot in Discovery. Spoiler: All dilithium becomes inert because someone got super sad when his mommy died.

All the dilithium in the universe is drained when Lazarus has a headache. This sounds kinda familiar. I think I would have preferred a follow up to this instead of the real reason behind The Burn in DIS. I liked the concept in DIS, I liked what they did with it, did not like the reason behind it. I was bored with this episode. The passageway scenes went on too long, all the 'headaches' went too long (and started to give me one), casual Laz pulling a Dumbledore, 1950's style spinning newsreel transitions... I get they had to scramble when their guest star no showed, but it still kinda feels like the episode ran short.

This episode is bad because it is a tell don't show, combined with idiot ball, combined with the writer's self insert fan fic, combined with words exist only for emotional impact, combined with the protagonists are the writer's audience. All kinds of bad writing here. Ah, it's that writer. That makes sense as A Private Little War has many of the same problems and people claim that it is the anti Vietnam War episode, which has become meme truth. In reality A Taste of Armageddon is the anti-Vietnam War episode, and still relevant, but no one ever gets that episode. As dumb as parts of Spock's Brain is I like it much more than this episode. Still, I stand by my assertion that nothing is worse than And The Children Shall Lead.

Confusing episode but there are probably 6-10 episodes I consider worse. Last time I saw Spock's Brain I think I was 12 but I would give it an average to slightly above average rating.

I just threw up my hands we the doc went we'll make sure he won't leave and proceeds to exit scene left. This. This episode was horrible.

Could ChatGPT make a better script for this one? 😂😂😂

Alternative Factor - Dark Blue (It sucks.)

I came here to see which episode it was.

Woot-woot! TOS Lamentation, alright! That was literally my reaction when I saw what episode this is. While it's not absolutely completely worthless, it is definitely the worst-filmed episode of TOS IMO, and the second-worst-written. So much try-too-hard crappiness in this one....so ponderous in the effort to make the "other" sound scary while hiding the blatantly obvious fact that it's him.

It'd be a neat Twilight-Zone style twist of events if it turned out that in real life, Mr Barrymore somehow subconsciously realized that this episode was going to be crap, and then refused to be in it, thereby causing a worse actor to be hired and *making* the episode as crap as it was, when otherwise it might have been salvaged by his presence in spite of the weak script.

worst episode ever even worse then spocks brain. i never remember ever seeing this episode until i saw it recently on netflix, my netflix page says i saw this one but i remember nothing of this episode ever

Not just my least favourite TOS - and that includes probably all of season 3 *and* Star Trek 5 - but maybe up there among my least favourite Trek episodes of all time. Every time I've seen it I've been struck by how stilted the dialogue is and how the actors seem barely present delivering it. I truly think Nimoy looks bored by it, and even Shatner checked out of this one, and I don't think I can actually say that about any of his other performances as Kirk.

I thought this one would be lamentation! Easily the worst of the first season. My prediction for next lamentation: The Omega Glory.

I’ve always hated this episode. A boring episode with a completely uninteresting madman taking up way too much screentime and tedious bad looking special effect slow-mo fight sequences that dragged on way too long. Boring is just the worst for me so this may be my worst TOS episode. The Space Hippie one may be a little worse but I can enjoy Spock’s Brain more than this. Similarly I hate Second Sight in DS9 (Sisko falls in love with a married woman’s astral projected split personality) more than any of the lamentations episodes from that series because of how boring it is.

Very glad you had fun with the inverse vulcan sign lol Cool Lore .. a very crappy episode ... Star Trek Discovery is likely gonna give you seizure .. but please keep a sense of humor with that show lol ...

First! Unfortunately first Lamentation.

Early Trek has the worst faux science shenanigans ever

This is by far my least favorite episode of TOS. They must have been really desperate for scripts at this point in the production schedule.

This is really the worst episode of Trek. Not only is it stupid and nonsensual, it also manages to be boring somehow

There are 4 types of bad: insulting (Code of Honor, Outcast), cruel (Memorial), stupid (Threshold, Move along home), and boring. To be lamentable, you need at least 2. This is stupid and boring with extra points for pretentious dialogue. This episode felt not like a network show but a fan flick done by a high school AV club. The effects but especially the beard. Ironically I disliked it less this time because I knew that there were 2 “Lazari.” The more one overacts the more one is likely to save the universe. Of course the science is crap. But then I’m a fan of Space: 1999, so I shouldn’t throw stones about bad science and pretentiously profound dialogue.

Yeeeeeaaaaaaahhhh I didn't like this one. I actually thought Return of the Archons was worse, but the things you point out here make it seem so much stupider than I remember when I first watched it. It was forgetable, it had like the stupidest, most poorly explained alternate dimension story ever, Kirk and crew didn't really get to shine at all and even the idea wasn't good, which is where I usually find myself giving these episodes the benefit of the doubt. Kinda just a meandering, half assed idea which doesn't even explain itself properly.

I honestly can't tell this is a bad episode. I find all of TOS of the same quality. I'm watching them for the first time now and they are all equally badly acted, written, and visually unappealing. So seems on par to me.

whenever i'm rewatching tos i usually skip because of how boring it is also does anybody know why john barrymore didn't just show on set? i've heard actors showing upp late, but never so late that they had to grab some guy off the street so they could finish