The Alternative Factor (episode)
Investigating the cause of a massive, galaxy-wide disruption in space, the Enterprise finds a mad scientist who claims he is being pursued by a hideous being.

Summary

Teaser
In standard orbit around an iron-silica-type uncharted planet, the  prepares to complete its survey, when the starship is violently rocked twice and everything within sensor range suddenly "blinks", almost as if the universe is on the verge of ceasing to exist. And, in the wake of this, a man appears on the surface of the planet, where moments earlier there was no life.

Act One
Beaming down, Captain Kirk, Spock, and the landing party encounter a man. "You came! Thank the heavens, it's not too late!", he exclaims. Dirty and disheveled, he falls from a rock. The landing party returns to the Enterprise with him, where Kirk learns more news – the strange phenomenon drained the dilithium crystals almost completely. Still worse, Starfleet Command issues a Code Factor 1 message – invasion status. The effect experienced by the Enterprise was also experienced everywhere in the galaxy, and far beyond. Starfleet withdraws all nearby ships – Commodore Barstow informs Kirk that the Enterprise is the bait.

In his quarters, Kirk talks to his "guest" – a man named Lazarus, who is pursuing a "thing," a monster who destroyed his entire civilization. He informs Kirk that he will stop at nothing to destroy it. Beaming back down to the planet, Kirk learns from Spock that there is no other creature here. Spock, accusing Lazarus of lying, states "I fail to comprehend your indignation, sir. I have simply made the logical deduction that you are a liar." Kirk demands the truth – and the universe turns inside out once again. The same "winking" phenomenon occurs again. And Lazarus – first he has a bandaged forehead, and then he doesn't, and then he does again.

Act Two

Meanwhile, Spock has discovered a source of radiation that is not there – a "rip" in the universe, where regular physical laws do not apply. The key to locating this source seems to be the dilithium crystals – a revelation which excites Lazarus, who demands the impossible: that Kirk give him the crystals.

The captain refuses, but Lazarus overpowers Lieutenant Charlene Masters as well as an engineering officer and steals two dilithium crystals, nevertheless.

Act Three
In the briefing room, Kirk confronts Lazarus, but he denies it, blaming his monster. And the evidence suggests he isn't the thief, for the crystals are not aboard his ship. In Sick Bay, Kirk confronts Lazarus with his lies, which Lazarus explains away by claiming that he is a time traveler. The dead world the Enterprise orbits is the distant future of his destroyed homeworld; the place and time he has traveled to in pursuit of the monster.  At Dr. McCoy's urging, the crew departs Sick Bay to allow Lazarus to rest and recover from his fall.
[[
Having relocated to the briefing room to consider all of the known evidence, Kirk and Spock conclude that the strange energy must come from a source outside the universe. A source in another, parallel universe. There are two copies of Lazarus, and they are periodically exchanging places through a kind of door – and if they ever exist in the same universe at the same time, everything, everywhere, will be annihilated in a cataclysmic matter/antimatter explosion.

Meanwhile, the alternative Lazarus creates a diversion by starting a fire in main engineering, steals the ship's energy crystals, then beams down. Kirk pursues. As he attempts to enter Lazarus' spaceship, he vanishes, hurled through the corridor into the other universe.

Act Four

Once there, Kirk meets the other but sane Lazarus-B, and learns the truth. Lazarus-B's people discovered how to pass through the negative magnetic corridor that both connects and protects the two universes. When this happened, Lazarus-A couldn't bear the knowledge that he had a duplicate, and resolved to destroy his opposite. He is mad and doesn't care if this causes the destruction of two universes. Lazarus-B and Kirk realize he must be stopped: if Kirk can force Lazarus-A into the corridor, Lazarus-B can hold him there, and Kirk can destroy his spaceship – which will also destroy Lazarus-B's spaceship. Access to the corridor will be sealed forever and both universes will be safe, but the men named Lazarus will be at each others' throats for the remainder of eternity. Kirk goes back through the corridor and fights in hand-to-hand combat forcibly throwing Lazarus-A into the "dimensional door." Kirk then has the crystals removed from the timeship and heads back to the Enterprise, ordering Lieutenant Leslie to bring the ship's phasers to target the inter-dimensional ship. The two Lazaruses meet once more and fight as phaser beams vaporize the ship, sealing the two for all of eternity, caught together, between universes. Kirk ruminates on the fact that the two Lazarus are going to be at each other's throats for all time and wonders how it would be. Spock reminds Kirk that the universe[s] are now safe. "For you and me. But, what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?"

Log entries
 Captain's log, USS Enterprise (NCC-1701), 2267

Memorable quotes
"I want facts, not poetry."
 - Kirk, after Spock describes the cosmic disturbances as "winking out"

"He's death! Anti-life! He lives to destroy!"
 - Lazarus, on his antimatter counterpart

"I told you, it was the thing! All white, black and empty. A terrible emptiness."
"Let's get back to the ship."
"He'll kill us all if we don't kill him first! Kill! Kill! Kill!! Kill!! Kill!!!"
 - Lazarus and James T. Kirk

"Are you deaf as well as blind?!"
 - Lazarus, to Kirk and company

"I fail to comprehend your indignation, sir. I've simply made the logical deduction that you are a liar."
 - Spock, to Lazarus

"Sometimes pain can drive a man harder than pleasure."
 - Kirk to McCoy, on an injured Lazarus

"Jim, madness has no purpose or reason. But it may have a goal." 
 - Spock

"If they meet."
"Annihilation, Jim. Total, complete, absolute annihilation."
 - Kirk and Spock, on the two Lazarus counterparts existing in the same universe

"So you're the terrible thing? The murdering monster? The creature?"
"Yes, captain. Or he is. It depends on your point of view, doesn't it?"
 - Kirk and the antimatter Lazarus

"You'll be trapped inside that corridor with him forever. At each other's throats throughout time."
"Is it such a large price to pay for the safety of two universes?"
 - Kirk and the antimatter Lazarus, on sealing the magnetic corridor

"Captain, the universe is safe."
"For you and me. But what of Lazarus? What of Lazarus?"
 - Spock and Kirk

Background information

Production timeline
 Story outline by Don Ingalls: 
 Revised story outline: 
 Second revised story outline: 
 First draft teleplay by Ingalls: 
 Second draft teleplay: 
 Final draft teleplay by Gene L. Coon or Steven W. Carabatsos: 
 Revised final draft teleplay by Coon: 
 Additional revisions: , , 
 Filmed:  – 
 Day 1 – , Wednesday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge
 Day 2 – , Thursday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge,Sickbay, Transporter room
 Day 3 – , Friday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Bridge, Corridors
 Day 4 – , Monday – Desilu Stage 9: Int. Dilithium recharging section, Recreation room (redress of Briefing room), Sickbay 
 Day 5 – , Tuesday – Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park: Ext. Planet surface
 Day 6 – , Wednesday – Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park: Ext. Planet surface
 Day 7 – , Friday – Desilu Stage 10: Ext. Planet surface, "Transdimensional limbo"
 Original broadcast date: , postponed from 
 First UK airdate:

Story 
 The original script called for a romantic entanglement between Charlene Masters and Lazarus that was eventually cut due to Roddenberry considering it too similar to the romance between Khan and McGivers in . As stated by Roddenberry in a Season One memo: "In both 'Space Seed' and this story, we have a crew woman madly in love with a brawny guest star and flipping our whole gang into a real mess because she is in love… do they have to do [this] in two of our scripts?" 
 There is no officer played by Larry Riddle as noted among the cast for this episode in the Star Trek Concordance . Lieutenant Larry Riddle was Charlene Masters' jealous boyfriend in the first draft of the script.

Cast and characters 

 James Doohan (Scott) and George Takei (Sulu) do not appear in this episode.  The absence of Scotty has been remarked in several commentaries as being highly unusual, given the extensive exposure in the episode of engineering matters, such as the theft of Dilithium crystals, as well as Lazarus sneaking about engineering and attacking various engineering crew members. (Cushman, Marc, "These are the Voyages", Jacob Brown Press, 2013)
 Curiously, in spite of a higher ranking officer serving as the navigator, this was the second episode that Leslie was seen in the command chair, and the first episode in which Eddie Paskey is credited in the ending credits, albeit misspelled as "Lesley". 
 Richard Derr, who plays Commodore Barstow in this episode, later played Admiral  in the episode .
 Actor John Drew Barrymore (father of actress ) was originally contracted to play Lazarus, but didn't show up to work when filming began on . The grievance filed against him on this account by the Star Trek production team led to him being unable to obtain acting work for six months in 1967. Robert Brown was a last-minute replacement. (Inside Star Trek: The Real Story, pp. 201-202; These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One 1st ed., pp. 415-416, 420)
 After Barrymore failed to show up on the set, director Gerd Oswald decided to shoot scenes which didn't involve his character. On the second day, it was decided to either shut down production and scrap the episode overall or find a replacement. Robert Brown was literally dragged in to the set, right after he agreed to play the role. He recounted the filming to be very tight and tense.

Sets and props
 Along with , this is one of the only two episodes where outdoor planet scenes were filmed both on Desilu Stage 10 and on location (both times at Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park). Originally, all planet-side scenes were scheduled to be filmed on location, but due to the turmoil during production, director Gerd Oswald couldn't finish shooting at Vasquez. Matt Jefferies and the art department prepared a spot on Stage 10 which could accommodate the missing "alternate universe" sequence. (These Are the Voyages: TOS Season One, 1st ed., p. 418)

 This episode introduces a new set, a small subsection of engineering, described in the final draft of the script, dated , as the "Lithium [sic] Crystal Recharging Section", which was described as "A portion of Engineering where there are bins into which dilithium crystals are placed for recharging." Part of the dilithium energizer panel in the set used the same controls as the neural neutralizer from .
 Although Lazarus's spacecraft resembles a flying saucer, James Blish describes it as "cone-shaped" in his novelization of the episode in Star Trek 10. 
 The dome of Lazarus' time ship was later reused to encase the Providers in .

Costumes and make-up
 Periodically throughout the episode, the two versions of Lazarus exchange places. One of them has a wound or bandage on his head which McCoy treated: this is the "insane" Lazarus from our universe; the other is his rational counterpart from the antimatter universe.
 Although Masters is referred to as a lieutenant and works in engineering, she wears a blue uniform of the sciences section, and it has no rank stripes, which normally denotes the rank of Ensign.
 Lazarus' costume was later worn by an extra playing a Babel Conference delegate in .

Effects

 The visual of the iron-silica planet from orbit is reused footage previously representing Alfa 177 in  and M-113 in . This planet effect was reused again as Argus X in  and Ardana in .
 The footage of the two Lazaruses fighting was created by filming two stuntmen fighting in a smoke-filled room with orange and purple walls, then double-exposing its color negative footage over an astronomical photograph of the Trifid Nebula. By actual count Lazarus changes between the universes about eight times.
 A still image in the closing credits of  shows the corridor between universes set unaltered by the effects and double exposure. Titled at a 45 degree angle, Shatner stands ankle deep in smoke in a near pose of the crucifixion, falling back into a purple corridor, where an orange line draws the horizon to a vanishing point.
 Unique to the original series are the angle of the Enterprise as it fires its phasers to destroy Lazarus's ship, as well as the use of a single phaser beam and the lack of a sound effect when the beam is viewed from space.

Continuity 
 In the opening scene Spock describes the planet as having an "oxygen-hydrogen atmosphere". Such an atmosphere is practically impossible since a single spark would ignite it, perhaps even explosively.
 This is the first time that live two-way communication with Starfleet Command is depicted. In previous episodes, communication with Starfleet Command was through delayed radio messages.
 Depending on which version of this episode you watch, the closing stills change. The original syndicated version and the VHS version show the still as the Enterprise leaving the Earth-like planet from , however, the Sci-fi Channel and DVD version show the still as just a blue planet, possibly Rigel 12 from  or Starbase 11 from .

Reception 
 The  included this episode among "The Worst of Trek". In their recap, they write that in the episode, "very little actually happens, and what little that does comes about only because Kirk and Company are written to act in such a way that can only be described as severely brain damaged." The reviewer continues, "I never thought I'd say this, but this episode is making  look pretty goddamn good right about now!" He concludes, "this is one of the most poorly constructed fifty minutes I've ever seen. An almost impossibly incoherent script, a damp squib of a finale, and some horrible editing make this one of the true stinkers in the Trek universe." Also, he mentions that "[John Drew] Barrymore didn't show up for filming. Given the script, I can't say I blame the fellow. The rest of the cast should have done the same thing, to be perfectly frank."

Remastered information 
"The Alternative Factor" was the forty-ninth episode of the remastered version of The Original Series to air. It premiered in syndication on the weekend of  and aside from the standard CGI replacement footage of the Enterprise and the planet-of-the-week, this episode also featured several new, modest effects shots of the alternative warp effect, as well as phaser and transporter effects.

The next remastered episode to air was .

Video and DVD releases
 Original US Betamax release: 
 UK VHS release (two-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 11, catalog number VHR 2295, release date unknown
 US VHS release: 
 UK re-release (three-episode tapes, CIC Video): Volume 1.7, 
 Original US DVD release (single-disc): Volume 10, 
 As part of the TOS Season 1 DVD collection
 As part of the TOS Season 1 HD DVD collection
 As part of the Star Trek: Fan Collective - Alternate Realities collection
 As part of the TOS Season 1 Blu-ray collection

Apocrypha 
 A cat version of "The Alternative Factor" was featured in Jenny Parks' 2017 book Star Trek Cats.

Links and references

Starring
 William Shatner as Capt. Kirk

Also starring 
 Leonard Nimoy as Mr. Spock

Guest star
 Robert Brown as Lazarus/

Featuring
 DeForest Kelley as Dr. McCoy
 Janet MacLachlan as Charlene Masters

With
 Nichelle Nichols as Uhura
 Richard Derr as Barstow
 Arch Whiting as Assistant Engineer
 Christian Patrick as Transporter Chief
 Eddie Paskey as Lesley [sic]

Uncredited co-stars
 William Blackburn as Hadley 
 Vince Cadiente as security lieutenant/technician
 Frank da Vinci as Brent
 Carey Foster as sciences crew woman
 Tom Lupo as security guard
 Ron Veto as Harrison 
 Unknown performers as
 Command crewman
 Command crew woman
 Crew woman 1
 Crew woman 2
 Helmsman lieutenant
 Lieutenant 1
 Lieutenant 2
 Navigator lieutenant commander
 Sciences lieutenant

Stunt doubles
 Bill Catching as Brown's stunt double #2
 Gary Combs as Shatner's stunt double
 Al Wyatt as Brown's stunt double #1

References 
abrasion; accusation; all hands; "all right"; alternative; alternative warp; analysis; annihilation; answer; antimatter; antimatter universe (aka minus universe; negative universe) assistant; "at a loss for words"; "a thing"; atmosphere; bait; bandage; battle stations; being; black; blindness; body temperature; "Bones"; bruise; bull; captivity; cartographic section; censure; civilization; Code Factor 1; coffee; commodore; computer bank; computer report; ; container; contact; country doctor; course; creature; danger; deaf; death; devil; dilithium (aka dilithium crystal); dimension; dinosaur; dizziness; door; double-talk; drill; Earth; effect; electrical impulses; emptiness; enemy; energizer/energizing circuits; energy; eternity; evidence; existence; experimentation chamber; explosives; face; fact; Fahrenheit; fire; footprint; forehead; formula; freedom; general alert; "get to the point"; gravimetric field; gravity; guest; head; heart; heaven; Hell; hole; hour; Human (Human being); humor; hydrogen; idea; inch; indignation; information; invasion; iron; joke; justice; key; Lazarus' planet; Lazarus' planet system; Lazarus' spaceship; liar; lie; life object; life survey; living being; living creature; location; logic; "lost his mind"; madman; madness; magnetic communication satellite; magnetic effect; magnetic field; main screen; ; matter; matter universe (aka positive universe) medic; mental state; Milky Way Galaxy; mind; minute; miracle worker; mission; monster (aka beast); movement; muscleman; negative magnetic corridor; "not hold water"; object; "of course";  orbit; ounce; "out of the question"; oxygen; pain; parallel universe; paranoia; parsec; patient; phaser bank; phenomenon; photographic section; physical law; physical makeup; physical warp; pleasure; poetry; powder keg; ; priority one; prison; pulsation phenomenon; quadrant; question; radiation; range; rationality; recuperative powers; red 2 message; report; riddle; rip in the universe; rock; safety valve; screening; search; search party; second; ; security red; security team (aka security detail); self-preservation; sense of humor; sensor; ship's physician; silica; space; spaceship; speculation; "stand by"; Starbase 200; Starfleet Command; "strong as a bull"; surface; terrain; thing; threat; throat; time chamber; time ship; time traveler; trick; truth; understatement; ; universe; ; visual section 988-TG; water; weapon; white; word; wound; year; zero gravity

Unreferenced materials 
biological lab; ; rose

External links
 
 
 
 

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TOS episodes