57 Years Ago, Star Trek Officially Died for the First Time With One of the Worst Episodes in Franchise History

Star Trek advertised itself as a five-year mission for the Starship Enterprise. However, the series only lasted for three seasons before ending with what many fans and even cast members consider the worst of the show’s run, and possibly the worst in franchise history. Star Trek premiered on NBC on September 8, 1966, and it ran for three seasons, ending on June 3, 1969. However, that finale, which aired 57 years ago, was not supposed to be the end of the series. In the third season, Gene Roddenberry stepped down as the showrunner, and NBC slashed the show’s budget. In February 1969, NBC canceled Star Trek, and the series had to end without a planned series finale.

The Star Trek series finale that aired was the episode “Turnabout Intruder,” which did nothing to give fans closure, and it remains one of the most hated episodes in the franchise’s history.

Star Trek: The Original Series Ended With a Whimper

“Turnabout Intruder” is the 24th and final episode of Season 3 and the 79th and last episode of Star Trek: The Original Series. It first aired on June 3, 1969, on NBC, written by Arthur H. Singer from a story by series creator Gene Roddenberry and directed by Herb Wallerstein. The plot sees Dr. Janice Lester, a former lover of Kirk’s, use an alien machine on planet Camus II to swap bodies with Captain Kirk so she can seize command of the Enterprise. This was a pure body-swapping adventure, with a lot of comedy forced in by the actors (Sandra Smith and William Shatner) portraying each other.

There is one big problem when watching it back today. The episode uses a lot of the overly sexist premises that the 1960s were known for. There was even the suggestion that women had no business as Starfleet captains, and Lester was shown as mad for thinking she had what it takes to command a ship. Years later, Captain Kathryn Janeway turned that idea on its head, but at the time, it seemed the Star Trek creators felt women had no business doing anything but following orders.

The timing was also bad. The crew finished wrapping the episode on January 9, 1969, and a short time later, NBC announced it was canceling the show. The last episode was already finished, and there was no way to give the series a fitting conclusion, ending it without any sort of resolution. Most modern countdowns of Star Trek episodes rank it as the worst overall of the original series, and one of the worst of any episode in the entire franchise. The episode does little to argue against that point.

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“Turnabout Intruder” Remains One of Star Trek’s Worst Episodes, But the Best Was Still to Come

“Turnabout Intruder” was a regular Star Trek episode, and a poorly scripted one at that. It had a lot of problems that are even worse today. Shatner was not at his best, as he had the flu while shooting the episode, and Nichelle Nichols (Uhura) wasn’t even in the episode, with Barbara Baldavin appearing at the communications post in her place. Letter-writing campaigns saved the show in its first and second seasons, but nothing could save it this time around. The third season wasn’t even finished yet, as the next episode was supposed to be “The Joy Machine,” directed by Shatner himself.

While there were a lot of fans writing letters, there weren’t enough people watching Star Trek to make it matter. “Turnabout Intruder” drew a Nielsen rating of just 8.8 for NBC vs. 14.7 for Lancer (CBS) and 15.2 for The Mod Squad (ABC). Ratings had collapsed, and Star Trek wasn’t popular enough at the time to remain on the air. However, things changed in the 1970s. With three seasons and 79 episodes, Star Trek went into syndication and became a cult international hit, earning higher ratings than it ever did when it was airing during its initial run.

Fan conventions started, and the first Star Trek convention in 1972 brought in several thousand fans. This led the original cast to return for Star Trek: The Animated Series (1973). In 1979, the unimaginable happened. Ten years after NBC canceled Star Trek for low ratings and refused to give the show a proper ending, Star Trek: The Motion Picture came out as a theatrical movie. Star Trek: The Next Generation arrived on TV in 1987, and Star Trek is now a multi-billion-dollar franchise. “Turnabout Intruder” remains one of the worst Star Trek episodes in history, and it ended things for a time, but this death was only the start of the Star Trek franchise.

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