Usually the bad episodes at least have a decent intro, but this stinker gets stupid right from the get-go. A crewman takes his glove off, like a total buffoon, and predictably infects the entire crew. It's one of those episodes where we have to wonder from which Discount Bin For Useless Astronauts the Federation picks its personnel. I wouldn't hire this clown to water plants, much less visit dodgy planets. The nitwit doesn't even bother reporting the strange sensation in his hand. Bad plot-devices abound. Pulp sci-fi of the dumbest kind.
The infection causes some silly "madness disease" that's just a cheesy excuse to have the crew break out of character and do stupid things. Which is pretty dumb timing, since this was aired as the 4th episode i.e. The audiences still hadn't been acquainted enough with the crew by that point. Nevertheless, this generic premise could have worked, yet it didn't because it was handled so badly by a run-of-the-mill writer who did mostly crime and action scripts for daft TV shows.
Kirk actually asks: "Can what caused the madness on the planet occur here too?" What a dumb question. Then again, it's not Kirk's fault the writer is no good.
So it's little wonder that Kirk takes no preventive measures to quarantine any of the crew that were in close contact with the foolish crewmember, once he goes nuts. The 23rd century has no quarantines? So we regress? Instead, Sulu and the irritating "Irish" character who'd been involved in the scuffle with patient zero go back to the bridge, as if nothing happened. A ship run worse than a hillbilly kindergarten.
But Spock's dumb too. Incredibly dumb. When the "Irish" crewman goes nuts, Spock orders him to report himself to sickbay! That's kinda like asking a shark to place itself in a cage so it may stop being a threat. Utter idiocy. This is just one of numerous examples in the series (not just the 3rd season) of Spock being completely illogical. In his defense though, he does at least inform the red shirts (security) to pick him up from the elevator and escort him to sickbay, yet they never show up, for some reason. As a result, he infects Nurse Chapel, who also fails to report the weird sensation in her hands - despite being aware of the contagion. Or at least I assume she'd been informed... because the Enterprise has competent leadership, right? Wrong. The way McSpoKirk handle the contagion is laughable. Along with the utterly unfunny situations, this is the main reason the episode completely fails.
And then Spock starts crying, and everything goes to hell. From that point, the fast-forward button is a friend. Which is ironic, because somehow the Enterprise ends up going back in time, not forward.
Most of the episode is very annoying, like bad comedians improvising in some cheesy low-tier theater. A garbage script, garbage over-acting, and utterly unfunny. Naturally, a popular episode.
The infection causes some silly "madness disease" that's just a cheesy excuse to have the crew break out of character and do stupid things. Which is pretty dumb timing, since this was aired as the 4th episode i.e. The audiences still hadn't been acquainted enough with the crew by that point. Nevertheless, this generic premise could have worked, yet it didn't because it was handled so badly by a run-of-the-mill writer who did mostly crime and action scripts for daft TV shows.
Kirk actually asks: "Can what caused the madness on the planet occur here too?" What a dumb question. Then again, it's not Kirk's fault the writer is no good.
So it's little wonder that Kirk takes no preventive measures to quarantine any of the crew that were in close contact with the foolish crewmember, once he goes nuts. The 23rd century has no quarantines? So we regress? Instead, Sulu and the irritating "Irish" character who'd been involved in the scuffle with patient zero go back to the bridge, as if nothing happened. A ship run worse than a hillbilly kindergarten.
But Spock's dumb too. Incredibly dumb. When the "Irish" crewman goes nuts, Spock orders him to report himself to sickbay! That's kinda like asking a shark to place itself in a cage so it may stop being a threat. Utter idiocy. This is just one of numerous examples in the series (not just the 3rd season) of Spock being completely illogical. In his defense though, he does at least inform the red shirts (security) to pick him up from the elevator and escort him to sickbay, yet they never show up, for some reason. As a result, he infects Nurse Chapel, who also fails to report the weird sensation in her hands - despite being aware of the contagion. Or at least I assume she'd been informed... because the Enterprise has competent leadership, right? Wrong. The way McSpoKirk handle the contagion is laughable. Along with the utterly unfunny situations, this is the main reason the episode completely fails.
And then Spock starts crying, and everything goes to hell. From that point, the fast-forward button is a friend. Which is ironic, because somehow the Enterprise ends up going back in time, not forward.
Most of the episode is very annoying, like bad comedians improvising in some cheesy low-tier theater. A garbage script, garbage over-acting, and utterly unfunny. Naturally, a popular episode.