After reality blinks out for a moment, a life form suddenly appears on a planet below. The blink is felt throughout the galaxy, and Starfleet, fearing invasion from an alternate dimension, assigns Kirk to figure it out. The life form, Lazarus, says that he is trying to stop an evil man that destroyed his whole civilization. After each blink, you never know which Lazarus you will get, as the evil man keeps switching places with him. When Kirk slips into the other universe, it appears that the good Lazarus is actually bad and vice versa. Kirk and the good Lazarus plan to trap the bad one, leaving both Lazaruses forever locked in combat outside time and space. It works, of course.
This was one of the first episodes I ever saw, and I never liked this episode much. I now think perhaps it was because it was badly edited to fit a contemporary television hour. Yes, Lazarus's starship looks like the old, saucer UFO, which is a bit silly. The special effects of the blinks are also a bit weird, and that may also have contributed to my negative reaction. But the drama is real, and the acting, as usual, is superior, which is why this show has sustained an unparalleled following over forty years after its original airing. Even Brown, cast in a hurry after the originally cast actor, John Barrymore Jr., didn't show, did a decent job. It was unprofessional of McCoy to refer to a perfectly nice security guard as 'that muscle man' in front of his face. I thought McCoy was nicer than that.
RECURRING CHARACTERS:
DeForrest Kelley as McCoy
Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
Eddie Paskey as Leslie
NOTABLE GUEST STARS:
Robert Brown as Lazarus
Janet MacLachlan as Lt. Masters
Richard Derr as Commodore Barstow
Quote:
"Bones, if I had time I'd... laugh." ~ Kirk, at McCoy's apparent joke, which he did not find funny
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