Star Trek: Season 3, Episode Twenty-Four “Turnabout Intruder”

Stardate: 5928.5 (2269)
Original Air Date: June 3, 1969
Writer: Gene Roddenberry and Arthur H. Singer
Director: Herb Wallerstein

“Now you will know the indignity of being a woman…”

Sadly, all good things must come to an end. After a terrific romp through the original series of Star Trek, I have now arrived at the final episode (though technically by stardate, the previous episode “All Our Yesterdays” was the final chronological voyage). The end of this wonderful journey through 1960s science fiction hope and optimism is somewhat bittersweet. Now an iconic television show, Star Trek aired during that turbulent period of the Vietnam War, the rise of the civil rights movement, the assassinations of President Kennedy, his brother Bobby Kennedy, and civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. The sudden countercultural explosion of the ’60s turned many American myths on their heads. Black and white television gave way to color, McCarthyism gave way to free speech, and crooning singers gave way to rock ‘n’ roll. This transformation is perhaps best demonstrated in the shift of The Beatles from being a hugely successful pop group wearing fitted suits and singing songs like “I Want To Hold Your Hand” and “She Loves You Yeah, Yeah, Yeah” into a sophisticated four-part band of artists embracing experimental studio recording techniques, publicly acknowledging their use of hallucinogens like LSD, and hailing the emerging avant garde artistic ethos of the era. It was a time of great change and extraordinary possibilities. Suddenly, Gene Roddenberry’s Star Trek came along with its Cold War Kennedian hope for a better future, filled with reasonable, tolerant people, fused with nods to the burgeoning sexual revolution, and a backdrop of the new midcentury modern architecture –this small but mighty project managed to revolutionize science fiction storytelling for the better. Today, we sometimes forget that Star Trek ended its original series run only a month before mankind first set foot on the moon, but this context is crucial in helping us understand the state of modernity as examined in shows like Star Trek or The Twilight Zone.

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In “Turnabout Intruder” The Enterprise receives a distress call from a group of scientists exploring the ruins of a dead civilization on Camus II, pronounced like “Camis” rather than “Camoo” (ironically the premise of this episode is reminiscent of the first episode “The Man Trap”). Their situation is desperate as there is a high-risk of celebium poisoning on Camus II. Two survivors of the expedition are surgeon Dr. Arthur Coleman (Harry Landers) and expedition leader Dr. Janice Lester (Sandra Smith). Apparently, Dr. Lester is suffering from radiation poisoning. But as it turns out, Dr. Lester is Kirk’s former lover and she is somewhat embittered by the fact that Kirk chose a career in Starfleet over her (she remembers their time together at Starfleet when she first “came alive” and she laments the fact that Starfleet doesn’t make room for women to serve as captains). While Kirk checks on her health, Dr. Lester suddenly exposes Kirk to a strange device which freezes Kirk’s body and she manages to switch bodies with him –using an ancient “life entity transfer” left behind by the ancient race on Camus II. Why does she do this? Because Dr. Lester wants Kirk to finally know the true “indignity” of being a woman. She is filled with self-loathing: “Believe me, it is better to be dead than to live alone in the body of a woman.” They are both beamed aboard the Enterprise, with Dr. Lester in Kirk’s body. Despite having minimal experience as a Starfleet captain, she starts issuing commands (though she has spent years studying every single detail of the ship’s operation). Meanwhile the real Kirk inside Dr. Lester’s body is sedated in sickbay and Dr. McCoy is removed from overseeing the situation. “Kirk” replaces him with Dr. Coleman who then instructs Nurse Chapel to follow his medical directives. She issues a sedative, much to Dr. McCoy’s chagrin. Dr. Coleman insists she is suffering from radiation poisoning, while Dr. McCoy isn’t so sure. We later learn that Dr. Coleman was previously forcibly removed from his role as a doctor aboard a starship due to extreme medical incompetence.

The new Kirk orders Chekov and Sulu to plot a course (“373 mark 8″) for the Benecia Colony (pronounced slightly differently than the colony of the same name in “The Conscience of the King,” in this case it is “Beh-nee-see-ya”), even though Spock makes a more compelling case for heading to Starbase II instead which is located directly in their path so that Dr. Lester might recover from her “radiation poisoning.” The Enterprise was scheduled to head for Beta Aurigae to conduct gravitational studies of the binary system, and on the way they were scheduled to meet up with the Starship Potemkin (Maybe a reference to the infamous Soviet incident and subsequent silent film? Or perhaps a reference to the Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin under Catherine the Great?)

At any rate, while Dr. Lester (embodied by Kirk) is kept under lock and key, Kirk (embodied by a vengeful Dr. Lester) quickly starts behaving erratically with wild emotional swings. Spock and Bones grow suspicious. Bones conducts a medical screening of Kirk, including his dermal-optic reactions to color wavelengths (using the “Robbiani dermal-optic” test, which reveals a person’s basic emotional structure). Meanwhile, Spock sneaks into Dr. Lester’s cell where she/he explains to Spock what has happened. Kirk in Dr. Lester’s body tries to prove his identity to Spock by recalling the Tholian incident (S3, E9 “The Tholian Web”) and the Vians of Minara (S3, E12 “The Empath”), but both incidents were documented, and Dr. Lester could simply be lying, so Spock employs his telepathic abilities on Dr. Lester as a test and he starts to believe Dr. Lester. However, an alert and arrest warrant is soon issued against Spock, and Kirk (embodied by Dr. Lester) orders a trial of Spock whom he/she accuses of “mutiny.” However, at the trial, Dr. Lester begins appearing unhinged, shrieking at the crew, ordering the execution of Spock, and the crew begins to mutiny. In a fairly amusing laughter-inducing conclusion, the life entity transfer begins to wear off until finally, Kirk and Dr. Lester miraculously switch back bodies. Dr. Lester has a mental breakdown while trying to kill Kirk and Dr. Coleman begs Kirk to allow him to care for Dr. Lester (presumably Dr. Lester and Dr. Coleman were romantically involved, or at least Dr. Coleman professes his love for Dr. Lester). As they are led away to sickbay, Kirk offers some closing remarks:

“Her life could have been as rich as any woman’s, if only… if only…”

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My Thoughts on “Turnabout Intruder”

“Turnabout Intruder” is a fairly silly, hammy, downright sexist, episode –a strange and somewhat anticlimactic end to TOS. In this episode, we meet an “erratic” and “emotional” woman who decides to steal the body of a man so she can gain his power (this episode offers a rather nasty critique of 1960s feminism). Dr. Lester’s self-hatred and resentment toward Starfleet’s male captains seems starkly out of place in Trek –“it’s better to be dead than live alone in the body of a woman…” And what are we to make of Dr. Lester’s claim that women are not allowed to serve as Starfleet captains? Thankfully this rule has since been retconned in later iterations of Star Trek, but it’s still a bit jarring.

“Turnabout Intruder” is essentially the story of Kirk’s crazy vindictive ex-girlfriend returning to haunt him –a silly farce in many respects. Though Shatner’s overly dramatic acting is delightfully campy, particularly toward the end of this one. While I am intrigued by the science fiction idea of “life entity transferring,” and I do love a good trial scene (as in “The Menagerie” or “Court Martial”), “Turnabout Intruder” is not the triumphant conclusion to TOS many of us had been hoping for. Like “The Way To Eden” before it, “Turnabout Intruder” is one of the more blatant examples of Star Trek running out of steam and losing its vision in the third season.

The high note of this episode is William Shatner’s performance and the chucklingly good time he seems to be having pretending someone else has co-opted his body (despite the fact that Shatner was sick with the flu while filming this episode). And there are some unique moments of Dr. Lester’s internal monologue playing while inside the body of Kirk, a rarity in TOS. At least if taken out of context, “Turnabout Intruder” ends on a hopeful and speculative note as Kirk’s wistful final words echo: “if only… if only…”

Thus concludes my wonderful voyage through the original series of Star Trek.

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Credits

• Director: Herb Wallerstein
  • Herb Wallerstein (1925-1985) began his career as an assistant director for The Adventures of Rin Tin Tin. He was a director/producer for several television shows like I Dream of Jeannie and he oversaw production on films like Alien (1979). He directed four episodes of TOS: “Whom Gods Destroy,” “That Which Survives,” the second half of “The Tholian Web,” and “Turnabout Intruder.” After star Trek, he directed Leonard Nimoy in an episode of Mission: Impossible and William Shatner in several episodes of Barbary Coast. He died in 1985 at the age of 59 under somewhat shadowy circumstances in which he had a violent dispute with his housekeeper in which she cracked him on the head with a bat, killing him. She and her boyfriend then dragged his body out of his house, drove several blocks away, and set the car on fire with his corpse inside. She was later found not guilty by a jury due to the fact that the prosecution presented insufficient evidence showing that she had acted with premeditation and malice.
• Producer: Fred Freiberger
• Story by: Gene Roddenberry
  • Gene Roddenberry’s story idea came from Thorne Smith’s Turnabout which was made into a 1940 film directed by Hal Roach. His story concerned a revenge-driven, scorned lover named Janice Lisette (changed to Janice Lester because Robert Justman felt the name was too similar a new series writer Jean Lisette Aroeste). She captures Kirk and swaps bodies with Kirk, leading to a search on the planet for him.
• Teleplay by: Arthur H. Singer
  • Gene Roddenberry submitted this story outline which was revised three separate times and rewritten into a teleplay by Arthur H. Singer (Fred Frieberger also assisted in the writing, though he was uncredited). Although Singer was a story consultant for Season 3, this is the sole episode where he is given writer’s credit. In the original script Dr. Arthur Coleman’s character was named “Howard” (this is also the name that appears in James Blish’s novelization of the episode). Also, in Blish’s novelization, Spock actually finishes Kirk’s final remarks “Her life could have been as rich as any woman’s, If only… if only…” to which Spock responds: “If only she had been able to take pride in being a woman.”
• Theme Music by: Alexander Courage
• Additional Music by: Fred Steiner
• Art Director: Walter M. Jefferies
• Director of Photography: Al Francis
• Film Editor: Donald R. Rode
• Unit Production Manager: Gregg Peters
• Assistant Director: Gene De Ruelle (listed as “Gene DeRuelle”)
• Set Decorator: John M. Dwyer
• Costumes Created by: William Ware Theiss
• Photographic Effects: Westheimer Company
• Sound Effects Editor: Doug Grindstaff (listed as “Douglas H. Grindstaff”)
• Music Editor: Richard Lapham
• Re-Recording Mixer: Gordon L. Day
• Production Sound Mixer: Carl Daniels (listed as “Carl W. Daniels”)
• Script Supervisor: George Rutter (listed as “George A. Rutter”)
• Recorded by: Glen Glenn Sound Co.
• Casting: Joseph D’Agosta
  • Joseph D’Agosta was married to actress Barbara Baldavin who played Communications Officer Lt. Lisa in this episode.
• Cast:
  • William Shatner…..Captain James T. Kirk
  • Leonard Nimoy…..Mr. Spock
  • DeForest Kelley…..Dr. Leonard McCoy
  • James Doohan…..Montgomery Scott ‘Scotty’
  • George Takei…..Hikaru Sulu
  • Walter Koenig…..Pavel Chekov
  • Majel Barrett…..Nurse Christine Chapel
  • Barbara Baldavin…..Communications Officer “Lt. Lisa”
    • Barbara Baldavin (1938-2024) also appeared in episodes of Rawhide, The Fugitive, Adam-12, Columbo, Charlie’s Angels, Fantasy Island, Medical Center, and other shows. She went on to become a casting assistant and then a casting director for a variety of television shows. Since Nichelle Nichols was committed elsewhere with a singing engagement for the filming of “Turnabout Intruder,” Barbara Baldavin was invited to replace her as Lt. Lisa (though Baldavin was simply listed in the credits as “Communications Officer”). Baldavin had previously played phaser control officer Lt. Angela Martine in the episodes “Balance of Terror” and “Shore Leave” (thus she appeared in a total of three TOS episodes as a total of two different characters). She also appeared in “Space Seed” as Angela Martine but her scenes were cut from the final episode. She was married to Joseph D’Agosta, casting director for Star Trek. They had met on the set of Star Trek. Baldavin died in her Manhattan Beach home at the age of 85 from congestive heart failure. She was survived by her two sons: Marc and Joseph.
  • David L. Ross…..Lt. Galloway, the crewman who follows Spock into Lester’s prison cell
    • David L. Ross (1939-present) appeared in a total of nine TOS episodes, often appearing as Lt. Galloway (“Miri,” “The Galileo Seven,” “The Return of the Archons,” “A Taste of Armageddon,” “The City on the Edge of Forever,” “The Trouble with Tribbles,” “The Omega Glory,” “Day of the Dove,” and “Turnabout Intruder”). Notably, in “Day of the Dove,” he plays a redshirt named Johnson who is stabbed to death. He also reappeared as a guard in the classic DS9 episode “Trials and Tribble-ations.” Lt. Galloway somewhat infamously reappears in “Turnabout Intruder” even though he had died in “The Omega Glory.”
  • John Boyer…..Guard
    • John Boyer (1945-2012) appeared in episodes of Rawhide and Gunsmoke. “Turnabout Intruder” was his only Star Trek appearance.
  • Tom Anfinsen…..Medical Technician (uncredited)
    • Tom Anfinsen (1937-present) was a prolific background actor in the 1960s and 1970s. He made five uncredited appearances in TOS (“The Man Trap,” “The Naked Time,” “Miri,” “The Conscience of the King,” “The Devil in the Dark,” and “Turnabout Intruder“).
  • Bill Blackburn…..Lieutenant Hadley (uncredited)
    • William “Bill” Blackburn (1929-present) played a wide variety of TOS roles all believed to be known as the character “Hadley.” In total, he appeared in 61 episodes of the series. He was originally hired through his connection with assistant director Leonard “Tiger” Shapiro, whom he had worked with on the television series My Favorite Martian wherein he served as a stand-in for actor Ray Walston. Blackburn reportedly saved Shapiro’s job on My Favorite Martian so, to return the favor, Shapiro arranged for his role on Star Trek. As Blackburn later recalled, he was told to sit at the conn and to not speak. He was originally hired to be DeForest Kelley’s stand-in but went on to play many background roles and voice-overs in the show. During his time on the show, he shot over an hour’s worth of Super 8 homemade video footage which he has since kept in a safe deposit box, preferring not to capitalize on his connection to the show. However, in more recent years, he was contracted to release several minutes of the footage in conjunction with the Star Trek home DVD release.
  • James Drake…..Security Guard (uncredited)
    • James Harvey “Jim” Drake (1932-1976) appeared in background roles in three TOS episodes (“And the Children Shall Lead,” “The Way to Eden,” and “Turnabout Intruder”). He had recurring roles on the television shows The Texan and Gunsmoke, and he appeared in episodes of Leave it to Beaver, Mission: Impossible, and The Six Million Dollar Man.
  • Steve Hershon…..Security Officer (uncredited)
    • Steve Hershon (1943-present) was a background actor who appeared in a variety of television shows, from Happy Days to The Mary Tyler Moore. He appeared in nine episodes of TOS (“Friday’s Child,” “Amok Time,” “Wolf in the Fold,” “The Deadly Years,” “The Trouble with Tribbles,” “Journey to Babel,” “Obsession,” “The Immunity Syndrome,” and “Turnabout Intruder”).
  • Roger Holloway…..Lt. Lemli (uncredited)
    • Regular show extra, Roger Holloway (1929-2000), finally got the chance to speak on camera in this episode after two years on the series. His character’s name is listed as Lemli, a nod to William Shatner’s license plate at the time which was a combination of his daughter’s names: Leslie, Melanie, Lisabeth. He portrayed the recurring character of “Roger Lemli” in almost three dozen episodes of the second and third season of TOS. In total, Holloway appeared in thirty-two episodes of the show. He was James Doohan’s stand-in (as well as a stand-in for male guest stars on the show) and he took over as Shatner’s stand-in when Eddie Paskey left the show. A World War II veteran, his only known appearances are apparently on Star Trek.
• Guest Stars:
  • Sandra Smith…..Janice Lester
    • Sandra Smith (1938-present) is a retired American television actress. In addition to this episode of Star Trek, she also appeared in television shows like The Virginian, The Wild Wild West, Bonanza, Columbo, Hawaii Five-O, Gunsmoke, The Guiding Light, The Interns, and others. She was twenty-eight-year old while filming this episode. Her father, Kenneth Smith, worked a variety of jobs for Paramount Studios during the 1930s and 1950s. Sandra Smith was very briefly married to bodybuilder-turned-actor Steve Reeves before she was later remarried and had two children.
  • Harry Landers…..Dr. Coleman
    • Born Harry Sorokin, “Landers” was his maiden name, Harry Landers (1921-2017) served as a Merchant Marine for the United States during World War II. After the war, he worked in Hollywood and eventually turned to acting. He had a small role in Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window (1954), Elvis Presley’s film Charro! (1969), and he played multiple roles in Cecil B. DeMille’s epic The Ten Commandments (1956), among many notable appearances in films and television shows, one of which was an episode of Have Gun – Will Travel entitled “The Yuma Treasure” which was written by Gene Roddenberry. Just prior to his appearance in “Turnabout Intruder,” Landers had his upper right lung removed due to a cancerous growth, a painful procedure that required extensive recovery. The Ben Casey show producer insisted that Landers still go through with the Star Trek job. Landers took this job as a favor to Fred Freiberger. He later recalled it being a “dreadful” experience, feeling disappointed in his performance. After appearing in this episode, Landers stopped acting for a period of about ten years wherein he focused primarily on collecting art. He was later remembered by viewers as the spokesman for Taster’s Choice coffee. He died in 2017 at the age of 96.

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Star Trek Trivia:

• Star Trek was abruptly canceled during the filming of “Turnabout Intruder,” making this the unofficial finale to the show.
• Uhura is the only main character who does not appear in this episode (Nichelle Nichols had a singing engagement at the time and thus Barbara Baldavin replaced her as “Lisa” in this episode).
• William Shatner had a bad case of the flu while filming this episode (he apparently picked it up after appearing in the recent Rose Bowl Parade). A cot was placed on set so he could nap when he was not onscreen.
• On the fourth day of filming this episode, Gene Roddenberry informed William Shatner that NBC had canceled Star Trek. At the time, Shatner was scheduled to direct the 25^th episode of the third season entitled “The Joy Machine” written by Theodore Sturgeon and rewritten by Meyer Dolinksy. A formal announcement of the cancelation was issued and the episode was never made.
• Apparently, O.J. Simpson’s acting career was just beginning at the time this episode was filmed and he visited the set to witness William Shatner acting on the bridge (or rather, over-acting). Simpson was escorted around the set by Gene Roddenberry. 
• The Starship Potemkin is mentioned in this episode, perhaps a nod to the Soviet Battleship Potemkin which inspired the classic silent film by Sergei Eisenstein. Or perhaps a direct reference to the Russian military leader Grigory Potemkin under Catherine the Great.
• The “Robbiani dermal-optic” test is the color test Bones gives to Captain Kirk.
• At one point, Kirk somewhat condescendingly refers to Dr. Lester’s research on Camus II as “space work.”
• This episode strongly implies that Dr. Lester and Dr. Coleman killed all their colleagues on Camus II, with Dr. Coleman withholding treatment for “celebium poisoning,” in order to lure the Enterprise.
• The upside-down pedal device in the exam room of sickbay makes another appearance in this episode. Complete with a shirtless Kirk, this scene is reminiscent of “The Corbomite Maneuver“).
• In this episode it is established that Starfleet does not allow female starship captains (“Your world of starship captains doesn’t admit women”). This was later changed in subsequent Star Trek iterations, beginning with Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1991) as Madge Sinclair plays the unnamed captain of the USS Saratoga.
• This episode was set to air earlier on March 28th, however it was postponed due to news of President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s death.
• Production on this episode ran much longer than expected and it went $6,000 over budget.
• Apparently, Shatner had some sort of dispute with director Herb Wallerstein during filming of this episode over an exit Kirk makes into what was already established to be a wall. He knew the fans wouldn’t believe it since the door was located elsewhere, however Wallerstein responded: “What difference does it make?” And in the end, with the show being cancelled, the director got his way.
• In both this episode and “Operation: Annihilate!” Nurse Christine Chapel’s hair color is auburn rather than bright blonde.
• Sulu and Chekov remind Kirk that the death penalty is forbidden. The only exception is “General Order Four.”
• The show’s crew apparently started to refer to this episode as “Captain Kirk Space Queen” as a result of Shatner’s exaggerated effeminate acting in some scenes.
• Lt. Galloway reappears in this episode despite having been killed in “The Omega Glory.”
• Jeffrey Hunt, who played Christopher Pike in the unaired pilot “The Cage,” died a week before “Turnabout Intruder” aired. Leonard Nimoy and Majel Barrett were the only two actors to appear in both “The Cage” as well as the finale episode “Turnabout Intruder.”
• The idea of characters swapping bodies has its roots in science fiction like H.G. Wells’s short story “The Story of the Late Mr. Elvesham.” The device was used in many other television shows like Gilligan’s Island and Lost In Space.
• Leonard Nimoy was critical of this episode, calling it “chauvinistic” for essentially setting out to prove that a woman would be simply incapable of helming a starship.
• Fanzine author Joan Winston (1931-2008) was on the set during the final days of filming this episode and she recalled how the sets were being taken apart in real-time, starting with the bridge and then onto the transporter room.
• William Shatner’s doberman pinscher often stood guard over his dressing room while these episodes were being shot.
• Fred Freiberger identified “Turnabout Intruder” as one of the four best episodes from Season Three.
• After being cancelled, there was a brief wrap party on the final day of production for “Turnabout Intruder” featuring some of the cast, crew, and a few past directors and writers. Neither Fred Freiberger nor Leonard Nimoy attended, however William Shatner, George Takei, Jimmy Doohan, and Judy Burns were there (Judy was the co-author of “The Tholian Web“).
• Many fans have often blamed the decline of Star Trek in its third season on young producer Fred Freiberger, even Gene Roddenberry seemed to throw him under the bus, but several cast and crew members have tried to correct this record, noting falling budgets and prior talent departur. But Freiberger, with his trademark sense of humor, seemed to take it all in stride over the years joking in 1991: “I thought the worst experience of my life was when I was shot down over Nazi Germany. A Jewish boy from the Bronx parachuted in to the middle of 80 million Nazis. Then I joined Star Trek. I was only in a prison camp for two years, but my travail with Star Trek has last 25 years… and still counting.”
• In 2025, Greg Cox’s TOS novel Identity Theft is based on the same Camusian technology introduced in this episode.