The Original Series Ending Explained

In 1968, when “Star Trek” was wrapping its second season, ratings were low. “Star Trek” may be culturally ubiquitous now, but it was not a hit during its initial run, when it was watched largely by science nerds and fans of pulp sci-fi magazines. While that crowd is passionate, it wasn’t enough to keep the show on the air, and CBS was pondering canceling “Star Trek” after the airing of “Assignment: Earth,” the final episode of the second season. 

Two of the show’s biggest fans, however — John and Bjo Trimble — caught wind that “Star Trek” was on the chopping block, and they immediately went to work. The Trimbles were already distributing their own rudimentary “Star Trek” fanzines, and had access to a mimeograph machine. This allowed them to write a “Save Star Trek” fan letter, and hastily print out 150 copies, each one distributed to the 150 most influential Trekkies in their circle. Those 150 people, in turn, made ten copies of the letter, and mailed them out to additional Trekkies. The fans then all wrote in to CBS, asking to save “Star Trek.” The Trimbles launched an honest-to-goodness fan-prompted letter-writing campaign … and it worked. CBS read the letters and renewed “Star Trek” for a third season. 

The third season of “Star Trek,” though, was given a much smaller budget than the previous season, and it showed. Some episodes were filmed on empty soundstages, and the writing became increasingly bizarre. Season 3 produced “Spock’s Brain,” one of the most notoriously bad episodes of the show, as well as the amazingly campy “The Savage Curtain,” the one where Kirk (William Shatner) takes Abe Lincoln (Lee Bergere) into battle. 

And then there was the final episode of the series, “Turnabout Intruder” (June 3, 1969), not just one of the worst episodes of the original “Star Trek,” but ultimately one of the worst in the whole franchise. Trekkies were relieved to get that third season, but golly “Star Trek” tripped spectacularly over its own feet while going out the door. 

“Turnabout Intruder” involved the wicked machinations of one Dr. Janice Lester (Sandra Smith), an archeologist living on the planet Camus II. Dr. Lester has activated a distress signal and lured the U.S.S. Enterprise to Camus II under false pretenses. She has discovered an alien machine that can swap consciousnesses between two people’s brains. She briefly talks to Captain Kirk, and it’s revealed that she and the Captain had an affair many years before. Lester wanted to be a starship captain, but she says — and this is one of the cringiest lines in all of “Star Trek” — that she wasn’t permitted to be a captain because Starfleet doesn’t permit women to serve as captains. We’ll get to this conceit below. 

Dr. Lester uses the alien machine to take over Captain Kirk’s body, and, by extention, take command of the Enterprise. As the Captain, however, Dr. Lester gives herself away pretty quickly. She is impulsive and cruel to Kirk (in Dr. Lester’s body), and orders the Enterprise to a crappy medical facility, well away from their assigned route, to drop him/her off. Dr. Lester, perhaps embarrassingly, behaves in a stereotypically “hysterical” fashion. Kirk’s erratic, “womanly” behavior is clear to Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and a mind-meld proves that Dr. Lester is indeed Kirk. 

Credit where it is due: both William Shatner and Sandra Smith give excellent performances, eseentially playing each other. Shatner plays an irrational villain well, and Smith projects every ounce of Kirk’s authority.

When Spock aims to help Kirk wrest control of the ship, he is apprehended by Dr. Lester, and hastily put on a trial for his perceived mutiny. The trial is broadcast throughout the Enterprise, and Spock proves that Kirk is possessed by Dr. Lester.

At the end of the episode, the alien brain-reversal begins to wear off, and Kirk and Lester revert back into their original bodies. At the last minute, Lester tries to have herself injected with poison to kill Kirk upon the swap-back, but it doesn’t work. Dr. Lester, once back in her own body, screams in agony. She hated her own powerlessness as a woman, and was so, so foolish for wanting more authority. She is, as stated, hysterical (a very, very weighted word). She sought to unsex herself and live like a man, but was punished for wanting to step outside her womanly bounds. 

Perhaps confoundingly, the story for “Turnabout Intruder” was conceived by “Star Trek” creator Gene Roddenberry. Roddenberry once tried to sell the original “Star Trek” pilot with a female First Officer on the Enterprise, but the studio rejected the character because of sexism. “Turnabout Intruder” is odd in how sexist it is, possessing themes of wicked femininity, and how women should “know their place.” It is anathema to “Star Trek” to have an in-universe rule that forbids women from commanding starships. Luckily, as any Trekkie will tell you, this episode is the only time such a sexist rule is mentioned in the entire franchise. Many women have been seen commanding starships since “Turnabout Intruder” aired. 

Are we saying that, by the 23rd century, women will still be viewed as second-class citizens?

And, sadly, that was it for “Star Trek.” There was no hint that this was the final episode, no hugely dramatic plot turn or climax. There were no deaths, no retirements, no weepy toasts to a job well done. It was just a limp, low-budget, weekly episode about sexism. It was the worst way the show could have ended. It’s the worst according to /Film’s ranking of the weakest episodes, even. 

“Star Trek” is very progressive in many ways. It takes place in a post-capitalist utopia, and Earth is wholly united, free of war and interpersonal conflict. When it came to sex and gender, however, show creator Gene Roddenberry wasn’t always as forward-thinking as he could have been. Trekkies will be able to tell you how women on the show were typically scantily dressed, some of them presented to Captain Kirk as sexual conquests. The female Starfleet officers wore minidresses and stockings, while the men got to wear more practical tunics and trousers. 

Some of the costumes and male-dominated attitudes of “Star Trek” could be attributed to the general attitudes of a male-dominated TV industry in the mid-1960s, but “Turnabout Intruder” went one step over the line when it didn’t have to. The episode doesn’t just say that women can’t be in positions of authority, but also that being emotional, neurotic, petty, and devious are naturally feminine qualities. Women cannot be trusted, the episode argues, and Dr. Janice Lester becomes the avatar of untrustworthy women everywhere. 

Had “Turnabout Intruder” ended with an interrogation of its own sexism, it may have worked. If Kirk said that women should be considered for captaincies, or if he realized that he possessed sexism in his own heart, then maybe some of the edge would have been taken off. Heck, even if Kirk had stopped to apologize for his bad breakup with Lester many years before, it would have been something. But “Turnabout Intruder” ends with Kirk and Co. lamenting that women, darn it, still have to be kept in line. They take control of the Enterprise and get back on track. 

It’s near unwatchable today. 

Quite luckily, that wasn’t the end for “Star Trek.” The show got an unofficial fourth and fifth season in the form of “Star Trek: The Animated Series” in 1973. That show featured all the same writers and most of the original cast (Walter Koenig was unjustly absent). That show featured an episode wherein Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) had to take command of the Enterprise, and there weren’t any episodes devoted to the weakness of womankind. It’s a shabby show, but definitely worth a look. 

Also, because of reruns, “Star Trek” eventually became a phenomenon. “Star Trek” conventions began to pop up all over the nation, and the fandom made sure they were heard. As such, Paramount started making “Star Trek” feature films, starting with “Star Trek: The Motion Picture” in 1979. That film led to five sequels, ending with “Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country” in 1991. Thanks to the animated show and the films, “Turnabout Intruder” was pushed out of Trekkies’ memories, relegated to the realm of “embarrassing oddity.”

Indeed, the end of “Undiscovered Country” is a far more satisfying farewell than “Turnabout Intruder.” The Enterprise is able to stop some baddies from prolonging the Federation/Klingon war, and are ready to get back to business … when they receive an order to return to base. The Enterprise, it seems, is scheduled to be decommissioned. Spock, feeling jaunty, advises that Kirk respond with “Go to Hell.” Kirk looks out at the cosmos, and quotes Peter Pan: “Second star to the right, and straight on ’til morning.” They sail on. 

Sure, Kirk would have to return to Earth eventually, but it was a fun, rebellious final word from a crew Trekkies loved. 

The credits then began with on-screen autographs of the show’s seven main cast members. It was emotional and grand. It made “Turnabout Intruder” look like the embarrassment it is. 

Fun trivia: according to the oral history book  “The Fifty-Year Mission: The Complete, Uncensored, Unauthorized Oral History of Star Trek: The First 25 Years,” edited by Mark Altman and Edward Gross, “Turnabout Intruder” was scheduled to air on March 28, but it was pre-empted by the televised funeral of President Dwight Eisenhower. The episode aired on June 3 instead, which pushed it out of the eligibility window for the 1969 Emmys. The delay, some have mused, might have cost Shatner an acting Emmy nomination. By the following year, after “Star Trek” was canceled, no one cared to look at Shatner’s performance. 

No one involved in the making of “Turnabout Intruder” seems to have made any on-the-record comments, but Trekkies the world over hate the episode quite roundly, largely because of its sexism. It’s the worst-rated episode of the series on IMDb, and fans still boo the episode when it is mentioned at “Star Trek” conventions. Even we here at /Film called it the worst, ranking it even below notorious stinker’s like “Spock’s Brain” and “The Alternative Factor.” Only Devid Greven’s 2009 book “Gender and Sexuality in Star Trek: Allegories of Desire in the Television Series and Films” bothered to re-litigate “Turnabout Intruder” in a positive way. He sees Dr. Lester not as a caricature, but a rightfully outraged person railing against a system that oppressed her. She was a villain, but was motivated at least partly by fighting bigotry against her gender. 

But really, you would do better to watch “Star Trek VI” before “Turnabout Intruder.” You’ll get more out of it. And you’ll be more entertained.