Comments on: Review – “Plato’s Stepchildren” Remastered

By: Peter Berczik

Peter Berczik — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 01:10:39 +0000

Has anyone else noticed the incredible similarities between this story line, and the science fiction novella “Telek” by Jack Vance? I would bet anything that this was Dolinsky’s source for the screenplay. BTW, Vance’s novella is far superior.

By: Tim the Trekker

Tim the Trekker — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 09:09:01 +0000

Ah how useful a telekinesis drug would be. Consider that the power can not only force actions, but also speech from a poor victim. Can you imagine the fun some teenage kid, overflowing with hormones, would have forcing some chick to behave as if she has the hots for him?

In fact, I’d bet Kirk would use the drug for exactly that purpose if there were a season 4.

By: Darkenedfury

Darkenedfury — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:11:20 +0000

lol – this is by far the most memorable episode for me – My no nonsense – non sci-fi mother happened to walk down in the basement Just as Alexander mounted Kirk and him braying like a horse. I am laughing now looking back but what an earful I took that day. I dont care how bad it is, it makes me laugh everytime i see it

By: planettom

planettom — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 15:13:36 +0000

Since the Remastered “Plato’s Stepchildren” had the “bitter dregs” lyrics edited out of the “bitter dregs” song (!!!), I’ve made a little tribute to Bitter Dregs.

http://tinyurl.com/ywld25

Note that if you hover your mouse above the montage of The Many Loves of James T. Kirk, it gives episode info, so you can test your Trek-savvy.

By: Martin Lukashenko

Martin Lukashenko — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 23:50:42 +0000

The scenes with the Trek women, especially the Spock-Christine kiss, are SO hot. ‘Now THAT’S a kiss’ indeed.

By: The Realist

The Realist — Mon, 25 Jun 2007 03:52:21 +0000

I must admit I liked Bermans Trek, he did a great job keeping TNG true to it’s name, and Rodemberry’s dream, DS9 was different, and I realy enjoyed it, and I think highly of Enterprise, VOY was ok. I fully agree the Nemesis was a horror, but after nearly 20 years, even the best would burn out. He deserves more credit than he gets. Why am I saying this, well I hate been negative but, this episode of TOS is damn crap! It and Spocks Brian, Plot? Plot, What is plot, argh, they make Rick Bermans and Branaon Braga’s worst episode seem like a work of ART!

By: Robb

Robb — Sat, 23 Jun 2007 17:21:05 +0000

Regarding ‘Plato’s Stepchildren’- one great thing about the Trek Universe is, if you see a bad episode just wait and, hopefully, you’ll see a good(or great) one. Alexander’s character was inspiring…the fact he *didn’t* want to be like Parmen and all the other ‘walking dead’(or whatever similiar line he used)…..and then the fact that Kirk & Co. can take him away to a better place where he’d just be one more welcome member of society(hey, Enterprise, where r ya??? lol)….Not a great episode, but *not* ‘Spock’s Brain’….and, like I said, if it bothers you, plug in ‘City on the Edge…’ or ‘Journey to Babel’ and you’ll be just fine……;)

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:16:57 +0000

#33 Redshirt

Yea, the 3rd season gets a bad rap and it is the weakest to be sure, but there were still some good episodes in there, and even some great ones.

My ranking off the top of my head:

Great: “The Paradise Syndrome,” “Day of the Dove,” “The Enterprise Incident”

Very good: “Elaan of Troyius,” “Spectre of the Gun,” “All Our Yesterdays,” “Is There in Truth No Beauty?,” “The Tholian Web”

Decent: “Let that be Your Last Battlefield,” “The Savage Curtain,” “The Empath,” “Requiem for Methusalah”

Sure the science in some of the episodes I list as “decent” was a bit wonky, but the stories were at least interesting. The errieness of the music in “The Empath” alone make it noteworthy. I also love the moment in “Requiem” when Flint reveals who he really is and why he is doing what he is doing with regards to Rayna (granted that Kirk’s willingness to give up his whole life and career for Rayna after having known her for all of a couple of hours is pretty out-of-character)….

By: Jon

Jon — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 18:04:55 +0000

Hey, I just thought of another nice moment in this episode (I have too much free time it would seem :) ):

It’s when Alexander is being forced to choke himself during Parmen’s delerium at the beginning of the episode. Shatner does a great job with his acting here…his passionate attempts to save Alexander are actually quite stirring. It’s a great moment really as you see the true hero that is the character of James T. Kirk wherein he will do anything and everything he can to save a life, no matter the size, shape, or color of the person (or alien) :) …

It’s the little touches like the above that make even the mediocre and/or bad episodes of TOS still quite watchable, even on repeart viewings.

Jon

By: Ron

Ron — Fri, 22 Jun 2007 13:49:16 +0000

If “Bermanized” Trek, as you put it, isn’t fun, why have we all been watching it for the past twenty years? I think what we’ve been describing here as “fun” might be better identified as that quality of watching Our Heroes encounter truly absurd story premises and keep straight faces as they come out on top. Nazi Planet, Roman Planet, American Indian Planet, Gangster Planet, Telekinetic Greek Planet, space hippies, Kirk switches bodies with a woman, Abe Lincoln in space, feeble-minded space amazons steal Spock’s brain, space demon uses children to take over a starship, more god-like computers than Chekov could shake a stick at, and so on. Modern Trek has, by and large, tended to abandon those more “absurd” premises (with some exceptions – anybody remember that Old West planet NX-01 ran into during the Xindi affair? Or the TNG episode with the planet terraformed to look like Scotland?). Which doesn’t necessarily make Modern Trek less fun, just that they don’t necessarily embody that same quality.