Star Trek: The Original Series - Season Three (DVD, 2004, 7-Disc Set, Collector's Edition)

By the third season of the original Star Trek series, the budget had been slashed by $20,000 per episode and the show's best producers and writers (including Gene Roddenberry) had departed. The results are apparant as the quality of the episodes is, on average, very very low (almost as bad as some early season one episodes).

The second half of the season is an almost uninterrupted parade of nearly unwatchable episodes. "Plato's Stepchildren", an episode which features Captain Kirk acting like a horse, appropriately herelds this decline. The only decent episodes after this point are "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield", dealing with racism, and "The Cloud Minders", dealing with terrorism. The rest is made up of truly awful episodes like "Wink of an Eye", "The Lights of Zetar", and "The Way to Eden". Throughout, Spock is forced to act completely out of character to accomidate the absurd plots. Overall, the second half of the third season is such a huge disappointment because it comes from the same show which produced such innovative and exciting episdoes in previous seasons.

On the other hand, the first half of the season is generally pretty good, with the exception of episodes like "The Empath" and "The Paradise Syndrome". In fact, episodes like "The Enterprise Incident" and especially "The Tholian Web" are far better than anything from the show's second season. "The Enterprise Incident" does a fantastic job developing the Romulans (better than "Balance of Terror") and Spock, while both it and "The Tholain Web" contain great suprises involving Captain Kirk. In addition, the special effects from season three are far, far better than any in previous seasons (a situation which is especially evident in "The Tholian Web").

The problem is that such high quality episodes are so, so rare and that the averge episode is so, so bad. Season three contains about four excellent epsidoes that are on par with or better than the best episodes of season two. But the typical episode is of so much lower quality than an average season one or season two episode that season three on the whole becomes nearly without value.

Star Trek Season III: After being rescued from cancellation following the second season, NBC reluctantly agreed to give the Star Trek another shot. Stuck in a bad time slot and with a dwindling budget, the cast and crew did what they could to keep the show alive. Unfortunately, this season pays the price, and there are more than a couple stinkers in this bunch. However, there are still plenty of solid episodes to be found in this third and final season of our beloved Star Trek. "Spectre of the Gun", "The Enterprise Incident", "The Tholian Web" (one of my personal favorites) and "The Savage Curtain" (with Abe Lincoln and Gengis Khan no less!) are all top notch episodes. But then there are bombs like "Plato's Stepchildren" (annoying kids) and "The Way to Eden" (annoying hippies) that really make your stomach turn. Still, lackluster Trek is better than no Trek at all, and there is plenty of good entertainment here to go around. No collection is complete without the final season of voyages of the Starship Enterprise.

I wasn't crazy about the 3rd season of ST:TOS growing up; it isn't as full of great episodes as the previous 2 seasons. But it does have some good ones. I had to buy the original collector's edition, because the only one available now is the re-mastered editions with new special effects. I have nothing against the special effects versions. They're fine, tastefully done, and I enjoy seeing them on TV. But if I'm going to BUY any, I have to have the full versions the way they've always been. The effects on the old show tell me something about TV production of the 1960s. It's a document of time. I recommend the 3rd season. There are a couple of stupid episodes, but there are a number of episodes in the 3rd season that are priceless. "Day of the Dove" and "All our Yesterdays" come to mind among others.

In the long annuls of TV series there have been shows that should never have been made; Star Trek is NOT one of these.Since the inseption of the original series there have been 4 Trek (I think) series made after the first and all Trekkers love thier own favorite best.It's over 40 yrs since the show first hit the air waves and still none of them paint a doom and gloom portrait of the future. The title "What's Left" refers to what's left to say. I submit that after watching some truly worthless shows like "the 7 signs of armagaggon" (I couldnt stand more than 15m.) I need some senceless fun like Trek. Oh sure some things are silly to the extreme but it's FUN. Thank God for DVD and the fans for keeping this stuff available. Gene R. smiles down upon us all and we smile back. LONG LIVE STAR TREK!!!!!!

Classic Star Trek - the third season is considered the worst of the Three for TOS but in my opinion it produced some of the best sci-fi ideas and sarcastic comments on society. While a lot of the episodes could be considered campy - the ideas are fantastic - "Paradise Syndrome' is something we all dream about who like history- returning to simpler times and helping native americans keep their heritage. Cloud Minders - a floating city. And the women get to wear the greates outfits. And while we can see some really big emoting from Shatner he does put in good performances like in the last episode to air 'Turnabout Intruder' acting as a women in his body. Great performances by Nimoy, Deforest and the others. So this is worth the watch and with the interviews at the end worth the collectible. After all how much longer will the actors be with us.