The Alternative Factor
The Alternative Factor (Memory Alpha; SD Video) is really bad. Above an uninhabited world, the Enterprise suddenly sees the entire universe vanish for a split second, and then reappear. Perhaps the just-materialized man on the planet below knows what’s going on?
Begin Spoilers
Lazarus knows, but he’s not telling. He is, in fact, lying about it. And everyone knows it. But they don’t know what’s going on, and they can’t get him to tell them. So they wander around doing a lot of nothing for a very long time, until Lazarus makes his move and steals their dilithium crystals.
He needs them, you see, to jump across the barrier between this universe and the anti-matter universe, where his opposite awaits. Lazarus means to kill his opposite, knowing full well that it would be the end of everything.
No, that doesn’t make any sense. Neither does how they avoid it.
End Spoilers
It’s episodes like this that make Star Trek look bad. The plot is junk, and there really isn’t anything that happens in the middle half-hour of the show. Lazarus has a ridiculous fake beard. No one has anything to act with but surprise and frustration, and so the performances are terrible. The premise could be interesting, but they do nothing interesting with it. This episode is just really bad.
Which, since Conscience of the King was Ron Moore’s favorite and Devil in the Dark was Shatner’s favorite, probably means that this is some other luminary’s favorite episode of all time.
Grade
F
