Star Trek at 50: The Alternative Factor

Season 1

Episode 20: The Alternative Factor

Filmed: November 1966 

First Air Date: March 30, 1967

Karen: What a convoluted backstory this episode has. "The Alternative Factor" is widely panned by fans, and it definitely has problems. But beneath the muddled plot, uneven performance by Robert Brown, and continuity errors, there feels like a good story struggling to get out. Unfortunately it never does.

Karen: Just so you know I care, I watched this again...twice in the span of two months...and it still makes no damn sense. The Enterprise is in orbit around a planet when everything -the whole universe -seems to "wink" out of existence for a moment. A quick trip down to the planet reveals a terrible, Disneyland-teacup of a spaceship and a ranting weirdo with scraggly facial hair. He turns out to be Lazarus (although there are never any formal introductions). Lazarus is chasing after a being whom he says is responsible for these disruptions of reality. He's clearly nuts. But also somehow involved with the reality winks. But Kirk never puts any security on the guy; he just freely roams the ship! We're introduced to a Lt. Masters, who is in charge of the ship's dilithium crystals, an integral part of engineering. But other than getting knocked out by Lazarus, she has little to do (I'll discuss why later). Kirk and the Starfleet admiral in charge think the reality blinks have something to do with an invasion -why? It's not explained. Eventually, in what is probably the best scene in the show, Kirk and Spock work out what is going on: there is a gateway opening to a parallel universe -an anti-matter universe -and it could cause the destruction of both universes. There are two Lazaruses, one from each universe. Kirk goes after our universe's Lazarus, who has fled to the planet with the dilithium crystals, and confronts him. Kirk gets shunted to the anti-matter universe and meets the anti-Lazarus, who is actually sane and good. They work out a plan to trap the other Lazarus into a "negative magnetic corridor" with anti-Lazarus, where the two of them will be stuck for all time. And that's just what happens. And we close with the famous, "But what of Lazarus" uttered by Kirk.

Karen: This episode plods and repeats certain points, all going nowhere. The Anti-Lazarus even tells Kirk that he and the other Lazarus are time travelers -what? Where is that coming from? What does that have to do with the parallel universes? And Robert Brown's performance -OK, Lazarus is supposed to be insane, but good lord, he really milks it. He's not helped by a bizarre beard that is sometimes very thick, and sometimes just a wisp of hair. 

Karen: The effects really let the episode down too. When the "reality blink" occurs, we get a rather lame superimposition of a nebula over the screen along with thunder sound effects and a spinning plate. When the two Lazaruses (Lazari?) are in the corridor, it looks like a room with smoke on the floor, filmed in negative -because that's what it is. It just seems unimaginative even for 1967. (Please excuse Lazarus yelling "Kill!" again in this clip, it was the best I could find to demonstrate the effects).

Karen: What went wrong? Let's start with the story. We get an excellent peek behind the scenes via Marc Cushman's These Are The Voyages, Volume One. The original story was brought to Trek by a friend of Gene Roddenberry's, also an ex-cop, named Don Ingalls. He had written for shows like Have Gun -Will Travel, The Virginian, Whiplash, and others. The story outline presented Lazarus as a sort of tormented hunter, who the younger Enterprise crewmen admire, and Lt. Masters falls for. But even in the initial story outline, it was difficult to keep the two Lazaruses distinct. And the way Lazarus seduces Masters to help him was very similar to how Khan would seduce Marla McGivers into betraying her duty in "Space Seed," which was already in development. It was felt that the betrayal element was more necessary to "Space Seed," so "The Alternative Factor" was the one to change. The romance was removed from the script; it may have avoided creating two similar episodes but it probably made Lazarus a less interesting character.

Karen: Another problem occurred in casting. The original choice to play Lazarus was John Drew Barrymore, son of John Barrymore, future father of Drew Barrymore, and at the time, a prominent young actor (albeit somewhat troubled). It was a coup that Trek had signed him for a guest role. He came in for a wardrobe fitting on the first day of filming (he didn't have scenes that day). That afternoon, the Trek crew was notified that he wouldn't be coming in for work the next day -he was backing out of the role! There is mixed information as to why -some say he didn't like the script; other sources say he was incapacitated. Whatever the case, another actor had to be found quickly. Hurried calls were made, and at 11 pm that night, Robert Brown was signed, coming in cold the next morning to perform. So perhaps he should be cut some slack if he seems a little off. Unfortunately make-up was no help to him either, with that inconsistent beard. You can see it change from scene to scene. That's just sloppy.

Karen: As for Lieutenant Charlene Masters, they had decided to hire Janet MacLachlan, a young Black actress on the rise. According to Cushman, NBC was uncomfortable with the idea of an interracial romance -or even the suggestion of such -and pressure was on Gene Coon to either replace MacLachlan with a white actress or change the script. Ultimately, the combination of the similarities to the upcoming "Space Seed" and the network discomfort resulted in the romance angle being removed entirely -making Masters seem almost pointless.While I applaud the decision to keep MacLachlan, it is a shame they didn't do more with her. But despite Trek's seemingly progressive ways, women were still seen as primarily playing roles that supported men - as objects of romance, typically. We're lucky that Uhura was never paired up with anyone on the show. In that respect, the new Trek movies are regressive, with Uhura now seen mainly through the lens of being Spock's girlfriend. But I digress.   Indeed, one wonders why Masters is overseeing the dilithium crystals instead of Scotty. But Scotty is not in this episode (neither is Sulu). And why are they in a tiny room labeled "Engineering"? We know the engineering section is much larger than one room! Masters also wears a blue, sciences uniform -this was a holdover from an early version of the script when she was a chemist, not an engineer. And of course, she has no rank braid on her sleeve. I could go on, but what's the point? The flaws are plentiful.

Karen: The concept behind this episode -of alternate universes -was handled much more adeptly (although without the matter and anti-matter angle) in the second season episode, "Mirror, Mirror." As for "The Alternative Factor," pretty much everyone involved knew it had been a mess. John Barrymore certainly threw a monkey wrench into the production, and he would take heat for it. Desilu decided to file a complaint against Barrymore with the Screen Actors Guild. SAG sided with Trek, and Barrymore was given a $1,500 fine and his SAG card was suspended for six months, which effectively put him out of work for that time. But blame for the failings of this one can go all around. As it was, although filmed as the 20th episode, it was pushed back and aired as the 27th original episode. So much for Lazarus!