When considering season one there weren't to many clunkers. Even the early episodes where the show was still experiencing growing pains were decent. Today's episode is the one exception. It is generally considered one of the worst Trek episodes, of them all.
Plot: 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.
Guest Stars:Robert Brown as Lazarus
Nitpick:This episode is so stupid and makes no sense. There's your nitpick. While not as lame as a "phaser room" for this one episode dilithium crystals have their own special room and officers trained to just worry about them all day. And of course Scotty doesn't appear in the episode.
Summary:
Teaser-The Enterprise is surveying a planet when a strange disturbance rocks the ship. Spock reports that the universe was on the verge of blinking out. Starfleet then sends an alert while Spock reports a human is being registered on the planet.
Act 1-A landing party beams down and finds a strange vessel. Suddenly there's man raving about a hideous monster. The man falls of a rock, and Kirk decides to bring him up the ship. On the ship Starfleet reveals that the affect was felt in every quadrant of the galaxy and far beyond (in the old days the galaxy wasn't divided into quadrants the way it would be later in TNG) and the Enterprise needs to find out why. Spock takes a closer look at the planet while Kirk talks to the guest, named Lazarus. Lazarus claims he is being chased by murderous monster. Kirk and Lazarus beam down to join Spock, who found nothing. Spock says there is no creature on the planet, and Lazarus lied. Suddenly the affect happens again and Lazarus runs off into a strange room where he fights, somebody. Spoilers it's another Lazarus. God is this episode hard to summarize. The two fight for awhile, before returning to reality. Lazarus falls on a rock again and raves.
Act 2-Spock is still unable to explain the affect. In Sick-Bay McCoy reports that Lazarus's abrasion keeps appearing and disappearing. Lazarus is in a lounge when he overhears officers discussing dilithium crystals. He sets out after them when there is another affect, and Lazarus switches again. When Kirk sees Lazarus, the wound is still very much there. Kirk and Lazarus go to the Bridge where they have found a source of radiation which is not really there. Lazarus realizes that the dilithium crystals would capture the creature but of course Kirk refuses to turn them over. Lazarus switches, again, and the other continues his quest to steal the crystals. Lazarus then attacks and steals two crystals.
Act 3-Lazarus is questions but he has switched again (off screen) and is unable to give any help. On the planet they are unable to find the crystals or find the source of radiation. They search, and search, when the affect hits again and we get another long scene of Lazarus fighting in that stupid room. Oh good I love these. Lazarus switches again, and of course falls on a rock to mix it up a little. On the ship, Kirk accuses Lazarus of lying. Lazarus his space ship is a time chamber and he is a time traveler. Don't worry this goes nowhere. In the briefing room Kirk and Spock discuss a theory. That the radiation came from outside their universe, a parallel universe possibly existing in the same space at the same time. Kirk asks what would happen if a matte universe came into contact with anti mater universe, and Spock says a warp would happen. He comments that Lazarus seems to switch mental states as if he were two men. The spaceship is the doorway Lazarus uses to switch between universes. If the matter Lazarus meets the anti matter Lazarus outside the corridor, then the universes would annihilate each other. Lazarus is wandering around again when he manages to sabotage a system and steal two more crystals. Kirk chases down Lazarus back to the planet, where Kirk is pushed into doorway by mistakes.
Act 4-Kirk runs around the strange room for a minute until he finally emerges in the other universe and finds Lazarus at his ship. The sane, docile one. Lazarus explains were are they are, that he tried to stop the evil Lazarus. It's important they stop him from coming through whenever he wants. It was evil Lazarus crossing the corridor that caused the affect the universe felt. The evil Lazarus is mad and can't handle the idea that there is another Lazarus and set out to destroy him. Yep that's what this all about. They have to send the evil Lazarus back into the corridor and while the two struggle, the Enterprise needs to destroy the spaceship. That will keep the universe safe, while the two struggle for eternity.
Final Thoughts:Fair is fair and there are worst TOS episodes out there. That being said, this thing is so draggy and full of endless padding. Not to blame Robert Brown, I'm sure he did his best, but he did a horrible job making the two Lazarus's separate until the end. The production was rushed and their intended guest star didn't show, that certainly didn't help. The episode had potential but it failed.
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