/r/tos

Photograph via snooOG

/r/TOS is for all topics relating to Star Trek: The Original Series (plus TAS and the original films).

About The Original Series

/r/TOS is for all topics relating to Star Trek: The Original Series, Star Trek: The Animated Series, and films starring the original cast.


Episode/Film List

For a list of all TOS and TAS episodes and films, plus links to their discussion threads, click here.


Related subreddits


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/r/tos

7,439 Subscribers

5

McCoy Mr Rogers level wisdom

1 Comment
2025/02/04
14:34 UTC

77

Kirk, the romantic...๐Ÿ˜‚

7 Comments
2025/02/04
11:45 UTC

11

In Defense of "Turnabout Intruder"

My wife and I almost done with our full watchthrough of TOS -- she'd never seen it before except for a few scattered episodes, and I've watched my favorites a hundred times over but failed to retread dozens of others over the years.

One of the episodes I haven't rewatched is "Turnabout Intruder." I don't remember what I thought about it the first time I saw it in the 1980s, but in the ensuing years all I heard and read about it was that it was terribly sexist and bad. I assumed it would be SO BAD that I didn't want to finish our lengthy journey on it, and decided to save "All Our Yesterdays" -- a "good" episode -- for our last, and to watch "Turnabout Intruder" tonight.

Well, heck, people. Turnabout Intruder was a GOOD EPISODE. Certainly in terms of investment and entertainment; it kept my interest the whole hour long, which is better than some of my less favorite Trek episodes. My biggest complaint is actually that it whiffed the ending -- too abrupt. I would have loved it if

  1. Spock had had to meld with Kirk and Lester at the same time to help replace their identities in their bodies, or they'd had to return to Camus II and use the machine that had caused the transfer in the first place. "The transfer is weakening!" felt like a pretty soft mechanism of action for the big denoument.

  2. The episode had ended on the bridge, as so many have, with Kirk thanking Spock, Bones, and Scotty for having his back at the risk of their careers. They're about to do so repeatedly in ST III and ST IV, but this was a big and early instance of it and it would've been a more satisfying ending.

That being said, the stinging critique of "terrible sexism" didn't ring true for me watching this. I won't say there was NO sexism (I'll acknowledge those moments next) but the biggest one I'd heard was that the episode implied that the reason Janice Lester failed to retain command of the Enterprise was that she was a woman, and women are too irrational to run starships. That did not come off to me at all. The reason Janice Lester couldn't retain control of the Enterprise wasn't because she was a woman so much as because she was absolutely batshit fucking crazy. She did not seem of sound mind; she did not come off as a competent, intelligent woman who just couldn't hold it together because of her ovaries or something. She couldn't hold it together beause Janice Lester WAS NOT OKAY. For that reason, I reject the overall interpretation of this episode as sexist.

The most egregious instance of sexism for me was when Mr. Scott claimed he'd seen Captain Kirk

"feverish, sick, drunk, delirious, terrified, overjoyed, boiling mad, but... never... red-faced with hysteria."

Hysteria, of course, being something only an overemotional woman experiences. It was indeed a terrible choice of word. I think "never this irrational!" "never this unpredictable!" would have worked better. Both indicate a disordered mind, but are not necessarily gendered.

Also, I was terribly disappointed to learn that society's tendency to prefer giving power to anything or anyone besides a woman (evident as recently as the 2016 and 2024 elections) seems to have persisted to the 2260s. Though it explains why even in a place a egalitarian as Rodenberry's vision of the future, women still got treated differently and people preferred aliens to women as first officers. /s

Other than that, it was frankly quite an enjoyable episode! Shatner's microexpressions and gait changes playing a woman were actually pretty superb, and even Sandra Smith (Janice Lester) pulled out some pretty good squinty-eyed Kirk expressions from her role (great trivia question, BTW: who besides William Shatner has portrayed Captain Kirk? You'll get "Chris Pine" and maybe "Paul Westley" but only a real fan will remember to say "Sandra Smith!").

It was hard for me watching the final shot of the Enterprise knowing it was in fact the final shot of the show... but tomorrow we have "All Our Yesterdays" to finish off with. And then: six movies.

6 Comments
2025/02/04
08:01 UTC

190

Two of the girls in 'Miri' were played by William Shatner's two older daughters, Leslie and Lisabeth. Lt. Leslie was actually named after Shatner's daughter. His youngest daughter, Melanie player an unnamed jogger in ST4 & a yeoman in ST5, while his 2nd wife Marcy Lafferty played DiFalco in TMP.

8 Comments
2025/02/03
22:48 UTC

124

There will be no refit mr Scott.

Morrow: I'm sorry Mr Scott there will be no refit

25 Comments
2025/02/03
19:28 UTC

314

The U.S.S Constellation took a right beating.

The Doomsday Machine is similar to the Borg in its destructive power or could it take out a cube?

20 Comments
2025/02/03
19:01 UTC

491

Still the most iconic shot of the films for me

34 Comments
2025/02/03
17:27 UTC

175

It never will!...๐Ÿ˜Š

3 Comments
2025/02/03
11:27 UTC

452

James T. Kirkโ€™s Starfleet Academy photo, 2254

11 Comments
2025/02/03
05:49 UTC

461

Shatner not directing the worst trek movie anymore

93 Comments
2025/02/03
02:03 UTC

52

Ranking every TOS episode as a first time viewer. Season 1 was by far my favourite one! Not ranked within the tiers.

18 Comments
2025/02/02
11:59 UTC

354

"Bones" lays down the line...

9 Comments
2025/02/02
10:50 UTC

107

Did we ever talk about this fact from Journey To Babel?

6 Comments
2025/02/02
03:15 UTC

98

TWOK Reliant weapons console

29 Comments
2025/02/01
17:41 UTC

421

Wrath of Khan poster

5 Comments
2025/02/01
14:37 UTC

5

Rewatch: "Operation -- Annihilate!" - TOS, 129

Episode: "Operation -- Annihilate!" - TOS, 129

Airdate: April 13, 1967

Written by Steven W. Carabatsos; Directed by Herschel Daugherty

Brief summary: "The Deneva colony is attacked by flying parasites that cause mass insanity while the crew of Enterprise search for a way to stop them."

Memory Alpha link: https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Operation_--_Annihilate!_(episode)

0 Comments
2025/02/01
13:01 UTC

655

Well said, Spock...๐Ÿ––

5 Comments
2025/02/01
10:52 UTC

1,061

If the shuttle craft Galileo were scaled correctly

If the outside were scaled to the inside

28 Comments
2025/01/31
21:22 UTC

332

Fantastic self Portraits done by Deforest Kelley himself

2 Comments
2025/01/31
20:59 UTC

331

Dr. Miranda Jones from 'Is There in Truth No Beauty?' was one of the most interesting, complex characters of TOS. The episode and her character was written by Jean Lisette Aroeste, a Star Trek fan librarian, who sent her story to the producers of the show. They loved it and she sold her first script

36 Comments
2025/01/31
20:14 UTC

343

Get out, Jim!...๐Ÿ˜‚

2 Comments
2025/01/31
10:49 UTC

749

Deforest and shatner on smoke break

40 Comments
2025/01/30
14:35 UTC

1,992

I was one!...

39 Comments
2025/01/30
10:49 UTC

127

Portrait of the captain!

4 Comments
2025/01/30
01:59 UTC

320

Barbara Baldavin

12 Comments
2025/01/29
23:15 UTC

6,644

Gotta love "Bones!"...

21 Comments
2025/01/29
10:20 UTC

428

Always remember that Sulu got his name because Gene Roddenberry looked at a map and was like โ€œyeah, thatโ€™ll doโ€

5 Comments
2025/01/28
21:27 UTC

329

Amok time behind the scenes

17 Comments
2025/01/28
19:19 UTC

210

25 minute portrait of George Takei!

8 Comments
2025/01/28
18:12 UTC

35

I made a TOS Bridge Display that shows power & weather information for my home

This hangs in the hallway to the office in our house and displays, from left to right: time, temperature, and three day weather forecast overtop a personal calendar. Four status bars which show the current power being used in the house, the current temperature outside, the current humidity outside, and the amount of power we've used for the day. The Enterprise is animated and speeds up or slows down based on how much power is being used.

img

In the middle: the temperature inside the house and what the thermostat is set to, the travel times to work from the house and vice versa, a list of all the devices registered in the house with the ones currently on blinking and the others dimmed out. It's flanked with visual abstractions from the show - with an indicator of outdoor air quality in the bottom right under "TRANSPORTER CONDITIONS".

You can see it in action here, I hope you like it! https://youtu.be/AoOkJNP34kc?si=LoCmmQUI5RBcQ3Mm

9 Comments
2025/01/28
17:07 UTC

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