Turnabout Intruder

ST episode
name = Turnabout Intruder


series = The Original Series
ep_num = 79
prod_num = 079
remas._num = 80
date = June 3, 1969
writer = Arthur H. Singer
story by
Gene Roddenberry
director = Herb Wallerstein
guest = Majel Barrett
Sandra Smith
Harry Landers
Barbara Baldavin
David L. Ross
John Boyer
Roger Holloway
stardate = 5928.5
year = 2269
prev = All Our Yesterdays
next = None-Series Cancelled

"Turnabout Intruder" is a third season, as well as the final first-run episode of "". It is episode #79, production #79, written by Arthur H. Singer, based on a story by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Herb Wallerstein. This was the last original episode of "Star Trek" to air on NBC.

Originally scheduled to air at 10pm on Friday, March 28, 1969, the network pre-empted it at the last minute with a special report on former president Dwight D. Eisenhower, who had died earlier that day. On June 3, 1969, after an absence of 2 months, "Star Trek" was brought back on a new night and time: Tuesdays at 7:30pm EDT. "Turnabout Intruder" was the first episode to be shown in this new time slot.

Overview: Kirk becomes trapped in the body of a woman bent on killing him and taking over his command under his guise.

Plot

On stardate 5928.5, the USS "Enterprise" rushes to answer a distress call from the planet Camus II, the site of an archaeological expedition that is exploring ancient ruins of a long vanished culture. Upon arrival, the landing party finds three survivors; among them are Dr. Janice Lester and Dr. Arthur Coleman. It is revealed that during their academy days, Dr. Lester and Captain Kirk were intimately involved; however, Lester's inability to achieve command of a starship, which she believes had to do with her gender, caused the two to drift apart.

Medical scans reveal that the survivors are suffering from radiation exposure which threatens their lives. Dr. Coleman, Mr. Spock and Dr. McCoy go off to tend to the other survivors leaving Lester and Kirk alone for a moment to talk. Kirk finds Lester has been driven to the point of madness by her personality complex and complains about the agony of being a woman in a male-dominated existence. She traps Kirk in an alien device which can swap the personalities between two individuals. Joining Kirk in the machine, Lester's essence is transferred into Kirk's body while Kirk's mind enters hers. Now as Kirk, Lester-in-Kirk tries to strangle her former body which Kirk is trapped inside.

Spock and McCoy return before Lester-in-Kirk can finish her evil deed and she (as Kirk) orders the landing party and the remaining survivors back to the "Enterprise". Once there, Lester-in-Kirk releases McCoy, the chief medical officer, from Lester's case and gives Dr. Coleman, Lester's partner, full authority for treatment. McCoy protests the decision (later telling Lester-in-Kirk that Coleman is known to have been ruled as incompetent to serve aboard a starship by the Starfleet surgeon general; the "captain" asserts that promotions and demotions can be politically motivated), but Lester-in-Kirk stands her ground with an ornery tone of voice.

Alone, Coleman and Lester-in-Kirk privately converse about their sinister plans. It is revealed that the two are in love with each other and had planned to have their personnel killed in order to lure the "Enterprise" to Camus II. Lester-in-Kirk has now achieved her lifelong goal of commanding a starship. Likewise, Coleman has now been given a chance to become a starship's chief medical officer. Lester-in-Kirk charges Coleman to make sure that Kirk-in-Lester, who is still trapped inside Lester's female body, stays out of the way by sedating him.

Spock becomes suspicious when Lester-in-Kirk orders a course change to the Benecia Colony to drop off Dr. Lester for medical attention, ignoring their previous mission; to rendezvous with the USS "Potemkin" at Beta Aurigae. Spock vainly points out that Benecia's medical facilities are comparatively primitive, and they are on course to adequate facilities, which they can reach at maximum warp in a time comparable to reaching Benecia. McCoy invokes his authority to override his "captain"'s orders and perform a full medical examination, including tests that will check for changes in his basic personality traits and responses, the latter test Lester-in-Kirk being leery of but seems to pass.

Kirk-in-Lester manages to escape and goes to Sick Bay for help, but finds Lester-in-Kirk still there being given a bill of health by McCoy. Lester-in-Kirk uses a series of violent slaps to render her "former" body unconscious, and orders the "hysterical woman" to be taken into custody and put into isolation: "no one is to speak to her without my permission".

Kirk-in-Lester is taken away, and Spock persuades the guard that the captain's orders have never been meant to apply to his senior officers and, in this case, keep Spock from speaking with "Lester". Spock speaks with "Lester", is somewhat skeptical, then Kirk-in-Lester persuades Spock to touch him with the mind meld, whereupon he discovers the truth that Captain Kirk's mind is indeed present.

Spock tries to free Kirk-in-Lester but is stopped by a security team led by the impostor captain. Lester-in-Kirk accuses Spock of mutiny and immediately (and flamboyantly, via ship-wide announcement) orders a court-martial. Once on trial, Spock tries to make a convincing case that Captain Kirk is really in the body of Dr. Lester, and that the physical Kirk is an impostor. However, his evidence was obtained by telepathy, still considered a form of hearsay in the 23rd century, and is inadmissible.

Shocked by the incredible story, McCoy and Montgomery Scott converse secretly in the corridor about their Captain's true identity and having witnessed Kirk's irrational behavior, and hostility toward Dr. Lester, they decide to agree with Spock. Scott says that the "captain" won't accept it, and then they "move against him" to relieve the "captain" of command. Lester-in-Kirk suspects they spoke in the corridor for a reason, and orders the court recorder to call up the conversation from recordings of corridor activity. Lester-in-Kirk then orders McCoy, Scotty, Spock and Kirk-in-Lester (still in her former body) arrested for treason. Their punishment will be death (even though Starfleet expressly forbids such a thing), with interment of the bodies at Benecia.

The remaining crew quickly turn against their "captain" when they realize that he isn't himself and refuse to obey his orders. Freaking out and throwing a fit because Chekov and Sulu are disobeying, Lester-in-Kirk falls into the center seat and she and Kirk-in-Lester have a temporary reversion of minds. Kirk-in-Lester determines to fight for his own body if it happens again. Lester-in-Kirk hurries to Coleman and tells him of the incident; Coleman tells Lester-in-Kirk that to make the transfer permanent, she must kill her former self while Kirk still occupies the body. Lester-in-Kirk shames Coleman to prepare an injection of toxic substance.

The two head to Lester's holding cell, but Lester-in-Kirk freaks out again when she sees Kirk-in-Lester struggling with Coleman as he vainly tries to inject the toxin, and the reversion starts again. This time Lester is too late, and the reversion completes. Captain Kirk is finally himself again. The hysterical Lester makes one last attempt to kill Kirk but fails, and Lester and Coleman are taken into custody. Coleman then pleads with Kirk to allow him to care for his mentally deranged love, and Kirk decides that they will be dropped off at Starbase 2 to face charges. In the meantime the "Enterprise" resumes its current mission with the "Potemkin". The final episode of "Star Trek" fades out on Kirk musing "Her life could have been as rich as any woman's. If only... if only..."

40th Anniversary remastering

This episode was remastered in 2006 and aired August 2, 2008 as part of the remastered "Original Series". It was preceded a week earlier by the remastered "The Empath" and is the final first airing of a remastered episode (paralleling its status as the final first-run episode in the 1960s), other than the unscheduled and unconfirmed airing of "The Cage". Aside from remastered video and audio, and the all-CGI animation of the USS "Enterprise" that is standard among the revisions, specific changes to this episode also include:

* Camus II is depicted as a planet with bright, wide rings.
* In the closing shot, the "Enterprise" is on a course generally toward a colorful, bright nebula, similar to how "The Next Generation" and "Enterprise's" closing shots also ended.
* There is no material change to the effect of transferring minds, other than the sharpening effect of the remastered film images.

Notes

* The title for this episode alludes to the novel "Turnabout", by Thorne Smith, about a husband and wife who swap bodies.

* William Shatner is often said to have had a serious case of Hong Kong flu during the filming of this episode. Joan Winston in her book "Star Trek Lives!" gives a detailed account of her visit to the set during the filming of this episode in January 1969, and describes Shatner as very sick indeed. However he refutes this in his book "Star Trek Memories", saying that his illness was likely the result of stress and worry over the cancellation of the show, which was announced during the filming.

* "", the 80th episode of , had a reference to "passing Camus II" at the beginning of the episode. This was intended to signify that that series had passed the original in the number of episodes produced.

* Lester's statements about women being unable to command starships has been the source of controversy over the years, given that by the 23rd century humanity was supposed to have moved beyond chauvinism. Gene Roddenberry was later reported to have regretted the inclusion of that line in the episodeFact|date=June 2008, though other sources have him placing the blame on teleplay writer Arthur Singer for the line's inclusionFact|date=June 2008. Some fans took Lester's emotional state into consideration when she made the statement. A retcon later revealed that "Columbia" - a 22nd century starship - had a female Captain named Erika Hernandez, played by actress Ada Maris. ("").

*In the novelization of this episode, it is mentioned to Kirk that the builders of the society would transfer the consciousness of a person of greater importance, to the body of a convicted killer, sentenced to death.

*Kirk has been "beside himself" at least five times, but this is certainly one of the unusual cases. Other "beside himself" events were "The Enemy Within", "What Are Little Girls Made Of?", "Whom Gods Destroy" and "Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country".

External links

* [http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/series/TOS/episode/68818.html "Turnabout Intruder"] at StarTrek.com