If this is "true Star Trek" then Star Trek is nothing but a bunch of fanciful fantasy buffoonery. Abraham Lincoln shows up on screen, saying he's the real deal, but can't explain why, and Kirk has absolutely no guard up. Huh?! Then they all beam down to a volcanic planet and go through another arena experience as heroes versus famous evil folks duke it out with sticks and stones, a fight hosted by .. eh, I don't remember .. oh that's right, a ROCK MONSTER, one that dances a little when fighting commences. The ending had NO MORAL, of course Kirk and his closest cronies survive because the series must go on so this is no spoiler, but really I didn't pick up that anything really happened. The aliens responsible for this didn't learn anything about human philosophy, and Kirk and the crew didn't grow from the experience either. Just a total waste of time.
I'm utterly shocked and confused that "Spock's Brain" is so frequently referenced as the worst TOS episode yet this one isn't. I'm going through the whole series and this one takes the cake. There's no sci-fi, no interesting dialog, no lessons, it's like a stupid bad dream, as if the writers sat down cobbled together the most formulaic Star Trek ideas (hallucinations, arena fighting) and slapped it into a script without any intention to produce anything interesting except only to ogle the history of Abraham Lincoln's presumed personality. This is beyond meaninglessly stupid and a waste of time.
I'm utterly shocked and confused that "Spock's Brain" is so frequently referenced as the worst TOS episode yet this one isn't. I'm going through the whole series and this one takes the cake. There's no sci-fi, no interesting dialog, no lessons, it's like a stupid bad dream, as if the writers sat down cobbled together the most formulaic Star Trek ideas (hallucinations, arena fighting) and slapped it into a script without any intention to produce anything interesting except only to ogle the history of Abraham Lincoln's presumed personality. This is beyond meaninglessly stupid and a waste of time.