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UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TOS - Turnabout Intruder S3E24 (Patreon)

Published:
2023-04-18 14:00:06
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2026-06
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We have reached the end... Here is our full uncut reaction to the final episode of Star Trek TOS - Turnabout Intruder

This is the first and only episode of the show we watched together in person, and this is how we plan to watch almost everything moving forward. So any feedback on the new format is appreciated. 

Keep in mind that while we have finished the show, there are still over 20 of our Season 1 TOS reactions that still need to be posted FULL UNCUT here on Patreon, so those will still be coming over the next few months as we have time to edit them. 

Thank you for being a Patron & enjoy!

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Patreon UNCUT REACTION - Star Trek TOS - Turnabout Intruder S3E24

Comments

Stardate 1312.4

This episode was the source of the idea that women we not allowed to be ship captains. This became a very popular and controversial notion by many fans over the years. They said that while Trek was all about a positive future and equality for all, this episode claimed the opposite. However, if you pay attention, the only people who said that women were not allowed to be captains were the disturbed Janice Lester herself or those who were referring to her directly and not women in general. It was even stated in the episode that she didn't have the training or temperament needed. OK, now everybody let me have it. Smile.

Rich Cirivilleri
>>106618564

I think Ken that you’re absolutely right. People never listen to that line closely enough and misunderstand its meaning. If Roddenberry’s idea was for women to be excluded in command positions, then why did he create the character of number one back in 1964?

Steven Johnson

So one interesting bit about this episode is that Janice basically says women can't command. Though, we have seen a female commander already, in Number One, and it was left intact even in the two parter "Menagerie" she was the most experienced officer. So people have always chaulked this up to "being crazy." BUT, Star Trek Continues actually makes a subplot out of it. In fact when STC first came about, their first clip was recreating the final moments of this episode to carry on into their own "Season 4." On the subject of the animated series, my GOD is it a product of the 70s, even the music. It's got some disco flavor to it sometimes. Very groovy/funky. I can't say I'm surprised that you guys enjoyed it. I had that feeling, because you guys tend to bunk the trends a little bit. And honestly I found a little more appreciation for it because of you guys. Can't wait for the series wrap up. Also... Just for old times... When's the next Star Trek episode? I want t-shirts, goddamnit.

James H
>>106618564

Actually, in the first scene Kirk agreed with her that it was unfair, so there's that. And he wasn't just "humoring her" because at that point no one knew she was insane.

Rich Cirivilleri

This is anything but the end. I’m so excited for all the wonderful Star Trek that you have a head of you. Especially the next generation. What masterpieces there are to come! Bon voyage!

James H

I think the tribunal consisted of fake-Kirk, McCoy, and Scotty, so that's why Scotty said the vote would be 2 to 1. Story for this episode by Gene Roddenberry, so we return to the source for the ending. It's sort of appropriate that the series ends on the line "If only..." The title is a reference to a 1931 novel and 1940 film called "Turnabout," in which a husband and wife switch bodies for a day.

Steven Johnson
>>106618564

I always took Kirk's nodding in agreement down to being tired of the same old arguement with her and knowing that the real reason she was command material was because she was too emotional. On the flip-side, Star Trek Continues used the backwards thinking of this episode to create an interesting episode of their own. It's shocking that it comes from Gene Roddenberry... Until you really read up on Gene Roddenberry and look at everything he wrote. He was off-kilter in his progressivism sometimes. Sometimes he was very forward thinking, and then in other ways he was very backwards thinking. It's hard to quantify the man, to be sure. And I say that as something of a contradiction myself, I'm a Libertarian but I also have pretty strong traditional values (for myself). I guess it just goes to show that human beings are all complicated creatures.

Stardate 1312.4

Prophetic last lines. If only, if only. What if the show wasn't cancelled? It worked out for the best though. We might not have all the subsequent trek shows if it didn't end there. Great reaction guys, as usual. The new format is thumbs up.

Collin Freeman

Not such a bad episode, in my opinion. You both pointed out a lot of positives, including the continuity from previous episodes, nearly the entire cast being in the last episode minus Nichelle Nichols, and Shatner getting to pull out all the stops in his performance. Just remember: the human adventure is just beginning. Trivia note 1: Barbara Baldavin who played the communications officer in this episode also played a crewmember named Angela in season 1 episodes Balance of Terror and Shore Leave. Trivia note 2: I recall reading an interview with DeForest Kelley in which he talked about purposely making a blooper in the scene where he examines Shatner. Kirk asks McCoy "How am I otherwise?", and Kelley replied "Captain, you're pregnant."

Dion James Pitman

First of all, I want to say congratulations for finishing the Original Series. You guys are probably the first to get through TOS. And looking forward to seeing your reactions to the other shows. 79 down, only 803 to go lol (well 804 after Thursday lol). Re: women starship captains - I like the following possible explanation from Memory Alpha: "Lester's line "Your world of starship captains does not admit women" might not have been intended to mean "Starfleet doesn't allow women starship captains," but rather could have meant that Kirk's world as a starship captain did not (and, by a necessity she refused to appreciate, could not) include her, since they were talking about their relationship, not Starfleet. The callbacks to previous episodes were great. What is really unusual about them is that previous callbacks, such as the re-use of the corbomite maneuver to outwit the Romulans and mentions of the Organian peace treaty, were to episodes from a previous season. This time the two main specific callbacks are to episodes from the same season. I do believe that Josh was correct when he said that "The Tholian Web" and "The Empath" had already aired by the time this was filmed. There are a couple of other minor callbacks. For example, the planet Benecia was mentioned in "The Conscience of the King", though with a slightly different pronunciation. Sulu's reference to violating General 4 being the only thing warranting the death penalty sounds a lot like the ban on going to Talos IV in "The Menagerie", although in that episode it was stated that that was General Order 7, so General Order 4 is either something different or perhaps an error.

James H
>>106623403

Maybe General Orders 1-3 got rescinded and the others moved up!

Firekrys FWO

Yeah, not bad. Being a young girl, it did hit me that it was unfair for women to not be able to be captains, however, it was clear she didn't have what it took, to the point that the obsession twisted her objectives. It is a mediocre episode with some good points. But hey, now I have to sign up for Paramount+ so I can watch the Animated Series. I haven't kept up with that one and haven't seen that since i was a kid, so I'm excited for that

Mark Chrisco

Kudos for finishing your first step into such a huge shared universe. Perhaps, the first of its kind .A final note on producer Fred Freiberger : rStar Trek, Space 1999, Wild Wild West, Beyond Weatworld, The Six Million Dollar Man. These programs run into the ground by Feiberger. Gerry Anderson went on record saying he regretted hiring him to produce the second and last season of Space 1999. But, the greatest indication is when Gene Roddenberry sat down to create what would become the Next Generation, he invited all the production people from the original to come in and contribute ideas and advice. All, except for Fred Freiberger.

Dion James Pitman
>>106623403

haha yeah,,,although I believe General Order 1 is supposed to be the Prime Directive so it'd have to be 2, 3 and the original 4 that moved ;)

Ken R

My favorite bits are when Shatner physically conducts himself in ways Kirk never would: the nail filing, the tsk tsk sound mocking her at the trial, the way he puts his hand on the shoulder of that doctor seducing him to murder, the way very early on how he says he dumped her and is satisfied with himself and happy she is now the one who dumps rather than gets dumped. Even fixing his hair while talking about it, just a lot of stuff all throughout the episode. I never understood the hatred this one gets. I'm going to disagree with just about every Trekkie on earth and say you've now already seen all you really need to see of Trek, although the movies can be very good. All the other shows are Trek in name only. TNG starts out bad, becomes decent but just about the entire cast is forgettable. And it is shot poorly with these 80s FX that somehow look more dated that the retro FX here. The cartoons will show voice acting is a different skill set than acting, and Nimoy is blah.

Joe Concepts

Fun fact… In this final and 79th episode of the series we visit the planet Camus II. When The Next Generation reached its 80th episode, they included a line about being forced to “bypass Camus II,” kind of like they went past it.

Brad Barter

I still have trouble watching this episode all the way through, from the pacing the premise, the outrageous acting always leaves a bad taste in my mouth, in a way I wish All Our Yesterdays was the final episode to go out with a great episode with some character emotion at the end. As the reaction mentioned there were some great scenes amongst the main cast members. A scene that should've been added is Bones contacting Star Fleet Command regarding his medical authority being overridden and having Kirk cut him off, it would've added more to the story and Kirk's belief that the crew were plotting against him. This is the only episode where Nurse Chapel isn't blonde or grey as she was in the first episode as Chapel in The Naked Time. She was wearing a blonde wig and this is her natural hair and colour. One thing you guys should look up is the final remastered shot of the Enterprise at the end of the episode, since they were not only remastering shots as you know they added external shots and views of space and in this version knowing it was the last TOS scene they added a spectacular view of the ship flying off into a beautiful array of stellar phenomena or as a classic western would have riding off into the Sunset.

Brad Barter

There is a 1970s sci-fi show that ran for 2 seasons before being cancelled but has since become a cult classic. In a way the 70s until Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came out in 1977 was pretty much of void with not much other than TOS in reruns. The series is Space: 1999 which ran from 1975 to 1977 with the first season having very cerebral thought provoking episodes then changed to more action oriented and monster of the week type show for season 2 which the 2nd season was produced by Fred Freiberger. It would be great to have a vote to watch the very first episode titled Breakaway and see how you guys feel about the show.

Target Audience
>>106638372

Will definitely be watching the remastered ending to see that thanks! Was curious what you would think of our reaction after seeing how much you disliked the episode haha

Brad Barter
>>106638372

Your reactions were fine. Since TOS was in reruns as I was born in 1971 had been around my entire life and had seen it numerous times throughout the years and although I had seen the movies in the theaters as a kid and teenager it wasn't until the 4th movie in 1986 and TNG that I truly became a fan. It's awesome seeing it from a fresh perspective since you guys are only experiencing it all as adults and have clearly become attached not only to Trek as well as the characters but especially the actors themselves and how excited and upset about concluding the show affects you. When Nichelle Nichols passed away just before your reactions to her outstanding performance in Mirror Mirror immediately after was very heartfelt. So we know this isn't just a watch and toss type show such as Battlestar Galactica and makes us appreciate seeing how you react so much more. The silver lining is unlike those who watched as it was cancelled or grew up afterward with just the reruns is the knowledge that all of them are coming back and more adventures await.

David Felgate

I'm glad the two of you are now able to record these in the same physical space, but I felt there was a noticeable downgrade in the audio quality. I'm hoping that eventually you'll be able to upgrade your microphones. Please let us know if donations will help make that happen.

Dale Gonyea

This is the final episode and thus, I wish it had the splendor of the previous episode. There are a few great moments in this however, most of which have been commented on already. For me, the best is Kirk (Lester's body) telling Spock he knows the Captain better than anyone else on the ship and that he should touch his mind so he can be convinced. The Spock theme starts playing and again the friendship between the two is taken to yet another level. Not a majestic send-off for this series, but no one anticipated the enormous cult following that would result in syndication. I know you are proceeding to the Animated series and then the films, all of which I can't wait to see you watch. But there is a certain sadness now that you have reached this far. In many ways, the best part of Trek is past, But please do not take that as there is not more to come. My childhood was filled with classic Trek. It is me! I am so pleased to have followed along with you both and that this series is enjoyed by you both. :)

Target Audience
>>106643001

Microphone upgrades will be the very next thing we do. We just got this camera so we are still using the iPhone lav mics until we figure out how to do a 2 mic set up with the camera. May take a bit of time but it will be upgraded.

Charles Regazzi Jr

William Shatner’s performance was epic. The scene where he waves his finger in the courtroom I thought was so genius. So many subtle giveaways were thrown in too. When he answers a hail he says ‘Captain Kirk’ here instead of “Kirk here” . Really well done. Great to see you guys together 👏👏

Gary Leyh

Hi guys! First, I know I'm in the minority but I've always loved this episode (except for the sudden unexplained ending) It has great character moments and acting. It made me so happy that you liked it! THANK YOU for such a fun ride through the original series! I haven't watched them in order in a long time, it was such a treat. I'm so looking forward to the rest of the journey!

James H
>>106672467

I'm even satisfied with the explanation for the ending (that the transference can only be temporary unless one of them dies).

AzoriusMage

End of an era sad times. It has been a long time since I watched the animated series and I recall them as more of a kids show so will be interesting to see how it works.

Dominic

The formatting and camera/picture quality look really great! The sound is perfect too.

Rich Cirivilleri

I feel so vindicated. I thought I was the only person who liked this episode. I’ve taken quite a bit of verbal pounding over this one for years. Some people on Facebook Star Trek pages can get very nasty. It hurts when they get personal, which is why I get upset when I see people hackling you guys for not liking exactly what they like. Anyways, a couple of notes. When you came down from Paramount that the show had been canceled, they were shooting Shatner’s big scene on the bridge where he freaks out. O.J. Simpson was on the set, escorted by Gene Roddenberry. When Shatner finished the scene, Roddenberry’s leaned over to Simpson and said “that’s why he gets the big bucks”. It was around that point that the notification arrived that the series has been canceled. Shatner took a very hard. He was looking forward to directing an upcoming episode. Over the next couple of days, he got very ill and by the last day of shooting was working with a temperature of 104° that last day featured the scenes where he hast to pick up Dr. Lester from the bed and carry her. Shatner could hardly do it he was so sick. Another interesting point is that this episode wasn’t aired until several months after the series was off the air. NBC finally got around to airing it as a filler in the late summer, so very few people saw it until it was re-run in the 70s. I’ve always been a big fan of Sandra Smith and she was excellent in this film. she was very kind and down to earth and she liked to hug😊

MntrTodd

One of the biggest misconceptions about this episode is that it establishes that Starfleet won't allow women to be starship captains. This episode says NOTHING of the kind. Look at the context of Janice's line "Your world of starship captains doesn't admit women." In the first place, Janice is someone who had a past history with Kirk and when he became a starship captain, he no longer could be tied down to a relationship she became embittered about it. Also, Janice at some point pursued a captaincy, but was rejected (probably because of her mental instability). She then rationalized this by saying "It's because I'm a WOMAN!" I mean, consider the source. Gene Roddenberry is on record as stating that he never meant that line to mean that women couldn't be captains.

Diane Lynn

Wow, you’ve reached the end… sort of ;) As a female, and one who early on bucked the constraints of the early 60s, this episode really pissed me off LOL. Please please watch the excellent Nichelle Nichols documentary ‘Woman in Motion’. She was a most extraordinary person. I did love the performances in this episode. Especially Shatner and Smith. It wasn’t easy in those days to find out if a show had been renewed for another season. When the next September came around and there was no, Star Trek it was - well I was heartbroken… I thought it was all over. We all did. No more Star Trek. Little did we know:)

James H
>>106729119

Then why does no one in the hearing room even question Fake Kirk when he says that if the body switch were proven, Kirk in a woman’s body “would not be allowed to serve as the captain”? Roddenberry said a lot of stuff that wasn’t true.

Heather Fain
>>106627714

Start watching "Strange New Worlds" while you're there. It's very much like TOS and follows Pike. It's episodic and upbeat like TOS.

Firekrys FWO
>>106627714

Oh yes, once I get Paramount, now I can catch up on that and Picard, and everything I've been missing out on.

Scarpad’s Domain

In the remastered they had the Enterprise flying off into a nebula “sunset” as a cute little reminder that’s it!

Scarpad’s Domain
>>106618564

First and foremost he was a womanizer and part of the whole casting couch of old Hollywood, he wanted uhura badly and got his then mistress a part in his new show

Timothy Nikiforovs

This episode was indeed the last one produced. Even as they were shooting the final scenes the sets were being torn down, so they knew it was over this time. The body swap scene on the planet was the last scene ever filmed for TOS. So, this episode. I still think it's a bad episode. By no means the worst of the series. There have got to be at least 10 or 12 that are worse. It's this regressive attitude regarding women's role in starfleet (and yeah, as Josh said it was the 60s) that was so in contradiction to all the other barriers Trek tried to break down. Now many people will argue up and down that no implication that women can't be captains was intended. Certainly other episodes point to there being no such barriers, but even in The Cage, Number One was treated as something of an anomaly. No I believe the tendency to dismiss that aspect of this episode is an attempt to reconcile it with the rest of Trek rather than accept the inconsistency with the rest of the franchise. There's too much in the dialogue here for me to buy the retcon. Lester claims that even if they proved their consciousness was swapped, starfleet would never allow Kirk to serve while in a woman's body. Now sure, you could say Lester is insane, but none of the officers present challenge the assertion. Also "her life could have been as fulfilling as any *woman's*", not anyone's, any "woman's", which has a pretty clear implication. Plus there's a good bit of other dialogue that's pretty genuinely misogynistic(not in the overused modern sense), and that serves to reinforce the intent of the claim that women can't serve as captains. All the arguments as to how that's not *really* what they meant ring hollow and sound like cope to me. The final proof however is that Roddenberry himself toward the end of his life admitted that was the intent. For that reason, I understand why it's hated, but there are still worse eps. As to the good stuff, it is an entertaining episode. William Shatner really pulls out all the stops on the acting here. Sandra Smith isn't so great IMO. The problem is I don't buy that it's Kirk in her body at all. She basically plays Kirk and Lester the same way, just crazier as Lester. Shatner OTOH really pulls off playing Lester playing Kirk, and slowly unraveling and becoming more and more unhinged as her hold on command slips away. That shot of Kirk's face when the effect first starts to wear off will always be hilarious though🤣. The subtle differences like "Captain Kirk to the Enterprise" instead of "Kirk to Enterprise" and the more formal way of addressing the rest of the crew, it's all good stuff. Shame Uhura didn't have a part to play here, but at least aside from that they spread the screen time around to the rest of the cast enough to do them some justice in the last episode. Nice to see Christine get one final appearance in as well. Had the more sexist elements been removed and this just be a story about a crazy, jealous ex stealing Kirk's body, it would be a perfectly fine episode. I do like the callbacks to previous episodes, but I have an issue with how it's used. Now sure the events of the various episodes may be on record, but I highly doubt those logs are publicly available, and Kirk(in Lester's body) had no opportunity to access those logs aboard ship. Further the logs wouldn't contain every word spoken(though there do seem to be a lot of microphones around in this ep). Why not bring up in the court how the conversation went after Spock found out Kirk was alive at the end of Amok Time? If "Kirk" can't answer and "Janice" can, detailing how Spock had the goofiest grin for a few seconds before he composed himself, then that's something both Spock and McCoy could verify, and maybe Chapel as well, I forget if she was present. There are a hundred other examples of specific conversations Janice would have no way of knowing because the logs aren't that detailed. Also this assertion by Spock that this life entity transfer has never been observed doesn't match with the rest of the series. There have been all sorts of similar examples. The Enemy Within saw Kirk's personality split in two. 2 eps later a complete copy of Kirk's mind was installed in an android, and it was supposedly to transfer instead of copying, an idea revisited in I, Mudd. In Wolf in the Fold a non corporeal entity took over multiple people(same in Lights of Zetar). Spock had his brain removed and placed in an underground mainframe. But of course the best example is Return to Tomorrow, where Spock himself swapped consciousness with Hennoch, the only difference being he went into a receptacle instead of another body. But even there, Spock's consciousness ended up briefly in Chapel, so he's directly experienced something very much like this before. Anyway, while it's not as bad as many claim, it's still a poor choice for finale IMO. Especially given All Our Yesterdays would have been a perfectly good choice for finale, and after that aired fans waited close to 3 months just to get 1 more episode, and it was this. Kind of a let down, but there's only 1 series finale that comes close to being as bad as a finale IMO. Worse in some ways even, it just wasn't sexist. Still, the movies make up for the lacklustre ending. Of note however, Jeffrey Hunter, who played Pike in The Cage, died a week before this episode aired.

Prof Moff

TOS Sex Scoreboard Old Boppin-bots = No scores Kirk 11 Chekov 4 Spock 3 Bones 2 Scottie 1 Uhura 1 Extras: FYI, This is the end of TOS but the board will now move to TAS, then the movies. The plan is to be done with ST V , before ST VI.